After a few days I pulled Chien to the side one evening.

“You know I care for you right Chien?”

“Yeah boss, what's up.”

“Please don't ever do a repeat of your actions in Icehome again. I'd rather have a bit of peace with Isha.”

“Yeah me too. Did you notice how she's making only the foods she knows I hate?” he asked. Isha, with her ability to conjure certain foods into existance generally took care of most of the cooking.

“Yeah, yeah I did.” It wasn't lost on me that those were also some of my least favorite foods.

“So we're letting her win?”

“It's not about winning or losing, she's right to be unhappy with you. You never win against someone you care about, because then they have to lose, you merely fix things, so please try to fix things, because I care about both of you and this is foolishness.”

We traveled in near silence for day after day, the pale ice and bleak landscape not much to inspire conversation. Added to that that my two companions were fighting and it made things boring indeed. Rocks and gulleys passed, small points of black in the white background, sometimes with pale blue or light green sprigs of growth dotting them.

Over our travels I did manage to hunt a bit, taking out small hares periodically. Those at least added a bit of fresh meat to our diet, beating the smoked rations we had. Unfortunately there weren't really any nuts of trees to speak of, nor the roots I had grown fond of over the course of my life. Even fish and seafood, something I'd not always loved but had come to appreciate while living in seaside Atal was missing.

As we walked I mused, because I didn't know how people did it, living in a place like this. It was just so pale, and always the same, no seasons, no migrations, I had a hard time imagining myself living here long term. Maybe that was why the elves of Icehome had been so loath to do more than live in their hive, at least there they could entertain each other with games and stories, better than wandering the wastes. It was also clear that Neera had chosen the best part of the wastes for her home, because they were getting somehow more bleak.

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We came upon a crevice in the ice, a shattered and jagged line crossing the landscape about a week after I'd spoken to Chien.

“Looks deep,” he said, chucking a small orb of light into the black canyon.

Chien's light sent a sparkling cascade bouncing between the walls, glittering like diamonds as it fell lower and lower.

“Decidedly deep,” I agreed. “And I don't see an easy way around.”

“Over?” he asked, the break being about fifty feet.

“Might be able to manage that spell, but I'm hesitant to try something new over something like this.”

“What do you think then?” Isha asked, looking between us.

“I'll go north a bit,” I said pointing. “See if there's a way around, if not, we go south, it'll take us off course a bit, but better that than trying something dangerous.”

“Should we all go?” Chien asked.

“Nah, no point dragging the sled and all along, just be needless work. I'll be back in a bit.”

I hurried along the edge, looking about as I did. Could there be a monster here? I didn't know, but they did seem to like odd places, and this certainly was one, so it was possible. It was also possible for this thing to be unstable, not somewhere I wanted to spend too much time, but there was no choice.

Twenty minutes was enough for me to see quite a bit of this thing, and no end in sight. Just as I was preparing to turn around though I saw some movement opposite myself on the other edge. I squinted into the snowy landscape, and there it was, right on the precipice.

The creature in question was a bird, white on top with dark blue feathers underneath. If it had been black I would have called it a crow with the beak and rough size. The little bird, the only bird I'd seen on this plateau looked at me curiously, blending in almost perfectly with the icy background.

“Caw!”

“No worries there friend, I'm not here to hurt you,” I said calmly to it, nodding a bit.

After cawing at me a few more times and seeming to realize that I didn't care to mess with it the little avian turned back to the cliffside and began to peck, eventually dislodging, and promptly eating, a shard of ice.

“Magic animals are weird,” I declared to the universe at large, at least it didn't seem aggressive.

I made to return to my companions, sure, I could keep going out of the way, but eventually we'd find the end of this gash in the ice and it wasn't like we were in a huge rush. As I got nearer I slowed, seeing them sitting there, apparently deep in conversation. My run came down to a slow stroll, after all they'd been arguing and if they were now chatting that could only be good, probably.

Even though I all but stopped I was eventually noticed by my companions, who waved me over. They were sitting back to back on the sled, and as I came near they looked at me expectantly.

“Anything good?” Isha asked.

“Sadly no, looks like we'll just have to go around.”

Chien just shrugged like it made no difference to him and we continued. Their attitude had changed though, and where there'd been silence now they started up a game, looking for familiar scenes in the sparkling ice or the waves of the snow. Was everything always going to be alright between them? Well, probably not, everyone argued sometimes, but they were trying, and trying was the important thing.

Through the day we saw a few more of the strange little birds. Those close to us flew off, hopping away either to the other side of the crevice or down into it. It was weird, but once more since they weren't hurting anything we were happy enough to leave them. These things were clearly at least a bit magical and I didn't want to risk that they were as smart as actual crows and might hold a grudge.

That night our little shelter was brighter than it had been since leaving Icehome, rather than the quiet sleeping we chatted well into the evening. Isha and Chien didn't tell me what had transpired between them, but it didn't much matter.

However as we finally put away our lights and went to go to bed there was a tapping on the roof of our ice hut. First it started in once place, than another, and another, soon it sounded like all around us little hammers were slamming into our shelter.