It was cold. But you never really complained about that much anymore.

Avengus Crue stood at the edge of a crater, ranging about thirty feet in width. Manmade, as everything they had to do was. He stood at the edge, spiked boots essentially stapled to the endless ice sheet that ran all around them. All around everyone on this planet. At least he thought. The Elders of Norivue, his home, weren’t fond of the occasional rumor that would spread through the traders. Stories of lands beyond the cold, where clear water and sunny skies ruled everything. Where you could simply walk naked whenever you wanted without one breach to your house resulting in a quick and painful death.

What he’d give for a chance to see that. 

Avengus turned backwards towards the hole, looking down its depths. His partner, Hellie Lorview, was chipping away at a slightly darker piece of ice, chipping away with the metal rods attached to his fist. It was slow work, but the cold had killed all chances of automation a long time ago. Except for...

He stopped himself from even entering that line of thought. No one liked to consider it. Even if they were told that the odds of being spotted were low at best...you always had the fear of one of them charging out of the blizzard, crushing and consuming you in their burning prisons. The last bit of warmth you’d feel. They’d only ever been given one name: The Brazens. Said to be named after an ancient torture device which slowly cooked you alive. He shuddered again, but not from the cold.

“You almost done down there? We gotta get a move on, you know! Not got all the time in the world!” Avengus yelled down to Hellie, who stopped his work with a groan.

“Last I checked, you’ve got nothin’ on your place, Aven! You can wait for me to get this stuff outta here! He slammed his tool against the ice again, a decent chunk coming off. “Besides, I know that tone of voice. You’re thinking about the Brazens again, aren’t you?” He chuckled. “For god sake, that old crack pipe Eagle-Eye’d see one of those things coming from a mile away. And you’ve got the pod, ain’t ye?” 

Avengus looked over to their large sled, where two large metal cylinders were bound to the back. Supposedly, hiding under one of those would trick a Brazen, their sensors being confused by the metal plating. They called them Lockdowns officially, but mostly everyone just named it the Pod.

“You tested if they were working, right? You know how their joints can sometimes get all bent out of shape from the cold and all.”

Hellie tossed up one of the dark pieces.

“They’d not have sent us out unless they were in peak condition, you know. Now come down here and help me with this one, would ya? Think there’s something in this chunk. More than the Licks, I mean.” 

Licks were what they had used for currency as long as he was born. A certain type of odd stones which fused into the ice. They’d gotten their name from the first person discovering them having licked it out of desperation. Imagine their surprise finding it began to glow like gemstones. Nowadays they simply could put them in a pot of water, as long as that took.

The two men hoisted the chunk upwards, and quickly left the hole. Hellie put a note into the small pad he had secured to his arm. 

“I’m seeing less and less dark spots around here. Might need to send someone to scout for a new hole.” Hellie began tying the ice chunk to the sled.

“D’ya think the Chief would finally let me go on one of those? I keep putting my name in the pot, and it always seems like I get rejected for it.”

“I’m pretty sure my dad intentionally keeps ignoring your entries, Aven. I don’t entirely blame him. I mean, you’ve got a good heart and you’re a hard worker, but...I mean, you hear the ice crack and you immediately think it’s a Brazen ready to jump out of the ice at you.”

“How is it that I’m the only one that seems to be afraid of something we should rightfully be afraid of? Those things are out there and they could kill us at any time, and only I seem to care!” 

Hellie slammed his gloved hand onto the block. 

“All of us are worried about them, Aven! All of us think they’re terrifying, and unless you’re suddenly swinging around the bend, I doubt anyone ever wants to have to see one or deal with one. But you don’t ever show that kinda’ fear, you know? Especially when you want to be leadin’ people on a scouting party past the known Rope Trails. Just get on already, I need to eat somethin’ quick or I’m gonna pass out.” 

Aven quietly sat down in the seat next to Hellie, and he pulled a small lever. The lever itself did nothing put give a significant tug to the Towers back at the camp, who in turn began to pull their wheels and start dragging them back to safety. The sound of the sled’s legs scraping along the ice echoed only a few feet, the sound being lost to the wind. Avengus had to raise his voice to speak over the dragging sounds

“I could still be a good scout leader! I’d just need to get stronger, you know! You hear Elloquis’s story last night? Said there was a man who could kill the Brazens’ with a single stab of a harpoon!”

“He’s a storyteller, Aven! He’s meant to stretch the truth to get the kiddies happy! They’re more worried about the beasts then you are! They know that being hopeful is the only way to keep alive out here.”

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“Still, it could be something...maybe we’ll be the ones to...” 

The sled suddenly buckled unexpectedly. It skidded sideways as the Rope Trail attempted to catch up to the pull. Hellie checked the front of the sled. 

“Gah! We must have gone over a lump in the ice! Get out the manual steering before we start going even more off pace! Hurry! Before-”

The sled buckled again, even harder than before. The sled not only skidded, it bounced, knocking both riders off of it. The sudden shift in weight knocked the large chunk of ice to the ground, directly into Hellie’s knee. He screamed as the sound of bone shattering was apparent, even managing to cut through the increasingly heavy blizzard. Avengus managed to get away without harm, though the sled suddenly disappeared into the mists ahead of them. Avengus rose slowly, before turning to run towards Hellie. 

The man’s leg was clearly gone. The rock had managed to not only chip into the knee bone, but also manage to cut through his clothing. Already, his leg was becoming covered in snow and the beginnings of frost. Avengus pulled out the patch kit from its slot on his leg, and sewed it to the other part of his pants. Hellie let out a whimper. The cold had already taken what it needed. 

“Come on, Hellie,” Aven groaned, pulling his arm over his shoulder, “we’ll get you back to the camp, and get you all patched up. We’re only a short jaunt away.” 

“Thank you...Aven...you’re a good friend...just...”

The two men slowly moved through the snow. Aven knew it was a bad idea to be taking this long to get back to camp. The snow would just keep on coming no matter what, and even the heavy sled tracks would soon disappear as their earlier tracks had. Aven continued regardless, his boots cracking the ice below his feet. He tried to keep the tone lively. 

“Hey...you ever think that someone will find a warm place again? Like the stories always talked about?”

“Heh...children’s...tales...all of em...traders just trying to...get a free drink or two...out of some desperate enough people. God knows...we don’t need any more desperate...people...”

Aven chuckled, continuing to drag the man along the snow. He smiled despite his legs feeling like rocks. These were just...things one had to deal with.

And that’s when he heard the grinding

Aven immediately froze. It was always the first instinct, they had said. Whenever you heard a gear grind, you knew something was wrong. No one has working gears. They were lost to the frost a long time ago. The only ones...the only things which had gears to grind...

Were the Brazen.

“Hellie, you need to stay low. The gr-grinding seems far away enough. I can run back and get the Pods. Maybe...maybe it hasn’t heard us yet.” 

“Aven, no, no! You can’t run...it feels...it feels the tremors. It...”

“Hellie, how else can we make it without the Pods? I can’t get both without hurrying...”

Hellie looked back at Aven, his eyes focused and clear. He bore a patient smile on his face, though it was hard for him to hide his overwhelming fear.

“You don’t. You get under the Pod. I’ll...I’ll distract it.”

Aven stopped, completely and utterly flabbergasted. 

“Distract the-- Hellie, you realize what that means for you, right? Even in your condition, we can’t...it will just kill you! Those things won’t just give up because you’re hurt!” 

“I’m well aware...Aven. You know that...but it’s not your call to make...”

“But...Hellie...you can’t...”

Hellie propped himself up on his arms, turning once again towards Avengus, his eyes now full of a sudden anger. It was an expression which Aven had hardly seen, at least when talking about him.

“This is how it works, Aven! This is...how it works! Sometimes, tough calls....need to be made...sometimes you’ll hate yourself for...having to make them...but you know it did something good...right? If you...should you....make it to Scout Leader...maybe you’ll learn that skill yourself...now get ready....to run...”

Aven opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. Listening to the distant scraping suddenly grow closer, he gave a nod to Hellie. Hellie began to slam his fist into the ice with his digging tool, chipping away bits of the frozen ground with each punch. The grinding froze for a moment before suddenly picking up in speed. Aven ran back the way they had come, only turning back once as the grinding suddenly reached its loudest point. A mechanical scream of pure bloodshed suddenly echoed out from the mist, mixed with the screaming of Hellie being...being torn apart and consumed. The sound of tearing muscles and blood spilling, the grinding of metal and bone broke through the blizzard as he finally reached the crash site. Diving towards one of the closest pods, he pulled it out of its container, as he suddenly covered himself in it. He tucked into a ball as he turned the handle, screwing the metal screws into the thick ice. The grinding suddenly grew louder in his direction, as the Brazen suddenly held itself over him. He felt the pieces of snow drop onto the metal of the Pod, as well as a fresh spray of liquid that he couldn’t quite recognize. The beast held over him, its groaning and creaking body mixing with a far too natural animal sound that crept from its mouth. He waited, and waited. He waited for it to finally realize how flimsy these pods were, and tear it off the ice. For him to he filled with heat and warmth as he was torn to shreds, as Hellie likely had just done. 

Finally, after what felt like a century, the beast began to walk off, its grinding body growing more and more distant from Aven. Until he could no longer hear the sound, he refused to move. He refused to do anything. When that moment game, he unscrewed the pod and pulled himself to his feet. Without even thinking, he tore off in the direction of the camp. He didn’t know what he think would have happened, of course. He heard the screams, the spilling of blood (which, incidentally, had covered his pod). He knew what was in his way. 

As he approached where he left Hellie, he spotted it again. Several drops of blood marked the snow, still yet to be covered up. Another few feet, more blood. This time it was thicker, there was more of it than before. Finally, as he arrived at the exact spot, he only saw what the beast couldn’t digest. Pieces of metal and fragments of bone. Tatters of his coat and clothes. His digging tool, bent and beat in from being used as a makeshift weapon. Resting perfectly on the side of the tool was his necklace, seemingly unhurt from the attack. It was something he had given him during his birthday several years ago, when they were young. 

Hellie had told him he would never take it off. At this moment, as a tear began to fall down Aven’s cheek, he was that he was telling the truth. Aven fell to his knees, surrounded by the blood of his friend. In only two minutes, he had gone from being a living being to nothing but tattered clothes and old memories. 

It was 8 AM.