“If you like to sled – you have to like to drag the sledge.”

Russian Proverb

Namir was less than enthused when it was time to set out on the sledge. I had carefully packed it, tied the rope to it, and now sitting expectantly on top of it, waiting to go. Nyx had already taken the place of pride on the tip. I felt that she would soon be retreating into our clothes once the whistling wind whipped the heat out of the air, but for now, I let her sit there happily. She'd see soon enough.

“You expect me to pull this?” he asked unimpressed.

“Yes, it’s hardly heavier than me and the stuff; it will be a lot easier on the downhill,” I explained my thoughts and realised we had not exactly discussed how I envisioned the next part of our trip.

“It's not the weight that I object to.” He stated.

“But you already carried me once. I don’t quite see the issue.” I argued, confused as to what the sticking point was.

“You were unconscious and are no older than a cub.” He said as if that explained everything.

“What’s the difference?” I asked.

“You were not conscious and needed help.” He explained as if that rationalised why he did not want to pull the sledge now.

“And?” I asked cocking my head in confusion. This was supposed to be a success. I had worked hard to create a method with which to carry our belongings.

“It is not you specifically, but our history.” He tried to explain.

“Our history? What you and me?” I asked for clarification but had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going now.

“The history of humanity and beastkin.” He added.

“Ah. So Nyx would be fine.” I would have to leave it up to him to explain the stumbling block we had just tripped over.

"Nyx will be fine, but she will retreat soon enough in the cold. Look, Beastkin from Ostro are often enslaved by others, particularly humans who emphasise their beast-like traits. Now I know you do not see me that way, but asking me to pull the sledge would be no better than treating me like a dog.” He objected to my beautiful solution with a cultural clash I had not seen coming.

“Ah . . . and if I wasn’t sat on it?” I tried to work my way around the problem. "You are happy to pull our supplies."

“Yes, that is fine.” He answered succinctly, realising the awkwardness of his position.

“What if I was unconscious?” I searched for the difference between carrying me unconscious across the endless ice and pulling me on a sledge.

“That, too, would be fine.” He said after a moment’s thought.

I tried to drill down to his specific problem with my beautiful hand-grown sledge I had spent so many hours labouring over.

“What if you pushed it instead?” I asked, trying to flip the propulsion around to the other side.

“That would be fine.” He answered, leaving me confused.

I felt like we were going round in circles. I thought it would be easier to pull the sledge than push it, and we had worked hard to make a sufficiently long enough and strong enough tendon rope and harness.

But if pushing it worked, pushing it would have to be.

The harness!

“What if it was just a rope without a harness?” I asked. I had created the harness to allow him to keep his arms and hands-free, but maybe that was the problem. Maybe it was too much like a leash for him to allow.

“Hmmm,” he seemed more willing to consider this but still not keen.

“Fine, fine,” I answered, frustrated that we were already stumbling at the first step.

Never mind, I removed a pair of branches I had worked on shaping while making the sledge before strapping them to my feet.

“Daylight is a wasting,” I said as I headed off on my homegrown skis. They were not perfect, but they would help me to keep up a little better to the beast kin who would just power through the layers of snow.

I didn’t need to look behind to sense that he had picked up the rope and was pulling all our worldly belongings behind us as I glided forward at speed in my cross-country skiing. Nyx screeched in delight as she began to be pulled along.

Her screeches soon turned to shrieks of complaint as the cold kicked in, flying ahead to latch onto Namir and insist on being hidden away within his clothing. Obviously, he was warmer than I was or simply closer to her than the distance she would have had to travel to reach me.

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We continued moving east toward the Compass Kingdom continent for a while. Namir, now running to keep up with the sledge, pulled behind him. Eventually, he began to run alongside me. The sledge still pulled behind him as he easily kept up with me. “It's nothing personal.” He assured me as he drew alongside.

“I get it, I get it.” Even though I did not exactly. The closest I had ever got to slavery was my brief experience on the slaver’s boat. Any that had landed on our isle had promptly been freed. I had not had to see it day in and day out in any community.

We continued to run, ski and sledge our way across the ice. Even Namir enjoyed the sledge for the downhill sections, and those, too, I could race ahead on my skis, coasting far further than the sledge did with my lighter weight.

“Look,” He said, noticing my flagging speed as we climbed once more to another ridgeline. We tried to follow the valleys rather than crossing them as long as we were moving west, but on occasion, there would be no other way west than to traverse them.

“When you run out of steam and need to rest or sleep, I will happily place you among our supplies and pull you alongside them. I feel incredibly uncomfortable pulling you while you are awake, directing the sledge like some sort of slave master.” He finally explained.

“Okay,” I answered, breathing heavily as we climbed. The skis might help me move quicker over the snow, but they felt heavy to me and had only grown heavier. “How about now?” I asked, keen to go back to the original plan.

“Fine, if you let me put you to sleep.” He said awkwardly.

“Put me to sleep?” I asked, astounded.

“It will only take a second.” He answered unabashedly.

“Fine, fine,” I answered, disgruntled. It had been an exhausting day, and I was more than ready to take a nap. Before suddenly, without warning, the whole world was turned black.

. . .

I awoke to find myself well-rested and staring at a stone ceiling atop the sledge I had created. Nyx was curled up on my chest, happily absorbing any excess mana from my body, while Namir looked to be making a small fire out of extra wood I had grown in expectation of precisely this need.

It looked like Namir had been too conflicted to awaken me when we arrived.

“Thank you,” I said as I sat up.

“You are welcome.” He replied stiffly, nodding.

I silently set about sealing the cave entrance with stone and building us a pair of berths on either wall. Once sealed, I set up light and warmth spells with my mana. Removing the need for the fire. However, the smoke would add some small flavour to the meat we had brought with us.

“Mages make the best travelling companions if they can keep up.” He commented with forced cheerfulness on the improvements I had made to our temporary dwelling. Attempting to move past the awkwardness and back to the more comfortable conversation and silence we had grown to enjoy after surviving our crash.

“Do we know where we are yet?” I asked, referring to the endless ice that did not seem to have changed at all on our arrival in our new temporary home.

“Not really.” He answered, “But we should get there sooner or later as long as we keep running east and following the coastline.”

“And then?”

“We turn south. I’m not going to lie. It will be a long journey. But eventually, I will get you back home to Wester Ponente. We are in a lot better position than we were a couple of days ago.”

. . .

It took a couple of days of running at my slower pace for Namir to relent and pull me permanently on the sleigh. Cultural baggage was overridden by necessity and possibly boredom at our slow speed.

He taught as he ran, pointing out the best paths, discussing our past hunts, and a plethora of vegetation that was edible elsewhere, but the problem with the endless ice was that there was little to no vegetation to point out.

Constantly moving meant that we couldn’t spar till the evening, but then we would generally be busy dressing recent kills or preparing our temporary shelters.

Still, this was doing wonders for some of my neglected craftsman skills. I was even gaining a few new ones. The lower levels came easily from the constant use and the importance of the tasks now sustaining our lives.

Tier 1

Hunting (Lv1 - 5)

Skinning (Lv1 - 5)

Skiing (Lv1 - 5)

I had even gained a new tolerance to accompany my Pain and Poison tolerance.

Tier 2

Cold Tolerance (Lv1 - 3)

Our pace increased; we were making good time across the endless ice, only pausing to hunt when we literally ran across burrows, dens or nests. We avoided the larger bears and wolves simply due to the time it would take to process them rather than a fear of facing them. We were self-sufficient enough to keep going by now. Still, when challenged, we defended ourselves, so we were staying a little longer at our current ice cave.

An Arctic bear had found us only to take offence at our presence. They were terribly territorial and had fought to the death rather than flee at the first injury. It was going to take a while to process the fur, meat and bones. Still, another bear fur blanket would be nice to cover up the sledge as we ran. I might even be able to stop powering the amulet for heat.

As we were working on turning tendons into string and rope for repairs and further supplies I noticed something new.

“We have company.” I cautioned Namir.

“Who and how many?” He questioned bluntly and to the point.

I paused, trying to focus in on what my constant scans had shown me and make sense of it. There was a group moving west and would pass within easy sight of us. There appeared to be four ridiculously large humans, each pulling their own sledges.

“Four . . .” I hesitated, “ . . . giants.” I knew they existed theoretically but had never seen them with my own senses.

“Giants? Ice or Human?” He asked, and I realised that there were more than the nine noble races.

“Um.” I couldn’t tell, at least not from this distance and by the time I could, they would be able to see us.

“Right.” He made up his mind. “Cover the camp in ice and hide here. I will face them on their path. If they are hostile, I will lead them away. If they are friendly, we will say hello. Follow my lead.”

I hastily covered the camp in ice, covering up the grisly remains of our work on the bear that had attacked us and the blood-stained snow. It was not perfectly camouflaged against the endless ice, not quite following the wind-carved ice around us, but it was the best I could do on such short notice. At least it matched our surroundings in colour now.

Namir was already loping away from our temporary dwelling to the nearest ridgeline. A ridgeline the four giants would be crossing any second now.

With a last look with my naked eyes, I closed the ice above myself, sealing myself within the ice cave we had created.

Now with my senses, I watched as they crossed the ridgeline and stopped on spotting Namir.

It was up to him now.