> “KEEP CALM

> and

> CARRY ON”

>  

> Unpublished Ministry of Information UK

“All aboard, all aboard.” I gestured to the seating placements for Eryk, Varvara and Namir, saving the steering and sailing seat for myself.

“Here we go again,” Namir muttered as the ship slid onto the ice. “At least we are sailing on land this time.”

“Why? What happened last time?” Eryk asked, concerned.

“Nothing that could have been predicted,” I answered.

While Namir opined, “You don’t want to know.”

“Was it that bad?” Eryk asked anxiously.

“Well, we ended up here.” Namir pointed out.

“It was not all that bad,” I lied through my teeth.

“We went from the one horizon of the Compass Kingdoms to another.” He argued back.

“It will be different this time.” I refused to give up my love of sailing. “We have clear skies and a fair wind.” I gestured around us to the scenic setting we found ourselves in. It would be fun to sail again, even if it were on the ice. It didn’t matter that Namir looked less than pleased even though we were doing it on land. But for me, the absence of a storm would make it a sheer joy. Despite their head start, I knew it would not take us long to overtake the straggling line south.

“How do you have such a large spatial vault? Bjorn thought that you had traded for one, but that is neither one of ours nor an example of stone magic.” Varvara commented on as my spatial vault closed.

“I’ve learned a lot of magic from many teachers,” I hedged. “It’s an adaption of what I’ve witnessed here in the Thorpe and my own magic,” I explained before changing the subject.

“But what do you think of our transport south?” I asked, excited to hear her opinion.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Varvara commented on my ice boat. Her metal runners had been affixed over the wooden runners to help remove the amount of mana it would have cost me to maintain them with wood alone. We had worked on them together, but I had never shown her the entire vessel. Their runes were designed to make them frictionless, alongside runes for durability and strength which would hopefully help this vessel to last longer than my last.

“You like it?” I asked Fishing for a compliment.

“I look forward to seeing how she sails.” She answered. “It is always a pleasure to see my runes working in practice.”

“How?” Asked Eryk, distracted and impressed by the size of the vessel. It wasn’t large in comparison to the size of giants, but I had made it large enough to accommodate one or two of them in case we ended up with companions on our trip south.

“I used the remains of our sledge and grew some more.” I patted the side of my ship. It was another beauty, in my humble opinion. My skills allowed me to incorporate the old wood into the new vessel shaping it anew. Truthfully, creating the sails for the ship had been the hardest part of the process. In the end, it had been easier to acquire them through trade with the northern giants.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“It’s like your skis?” He asked, trying to compare the two in his mind.

“More or less,” I answered. “But this time, the wind will power it, not me.” If there was one thing the endless ice had in abundance, it was ice and wind. Often driving southward from the north, it would be perfect for our departure from the Thorpe. The ice was not perfectly flat but smooth enough for sailing.

By now, the majority of giants had left the Thorpe. The remaining hunters, warriors and wizards were preparing to hunt or defend against the Ice Giant. Enormous pikes and caltrops were being pulled up from ice until the Thorpe looked like a gigantic flower with vicious stone petals protruding outward to protect the spiky central star that the shard of the Lodestar hid within.

It looked more than intimidating; it looked impenetrable. But still, they continued to prepare.

“Is the exodus really necessary?” I asked, considering their preparations.

“You can never be too careful,” Varvara replied for the pair. “It all depends on its level. Ice Giants are forces of nature except targeting themselves on your home. A storm will blow over and pass by. An Ice Giant will focus and pound on the Thorpe until only one of them is left standing, the Thorpe or the Ice Giant.” She said sadly. “Hopefully, this won’t be needed, but it is the best thing we can do until we have sighted and confirmed its level. If we waited any longer, it might be too late for those who need to, to flee to safety.”

“Very well, off we go then.” I got down to the sailing business, even if it was on the ground. Our sails unfurled, and we made quick progress along the line and would be soon at the head of the exodus. Rich in the wealth of their spatial vaults the giants were equally covering an impressive distance heading south unencumbered, but we were still making better time. Indeed, we were halfway along the line, the Thorpe falling far behind us when we saw a gyrfalcon diving toward us out of the sky.

“Run.” It screamed as it soared along the line. The exodus of giants lurched into a lope as they tried to put more distance between them and their Thorpe. But we continued to sail past them despite the increase in their speed.

“Gyrfalcon’s can talk?” I asked, shocked and confused.

“No, it’s carrying a runed stone,” Varvara explained. “I made them for the falcons to carry for the Vievisier to communicate with patrols when needed.” She continued as she pulled her own out of a pocket. “I can make them function yet still small enough for a gyrfalcon to carry.” She held it up in the light before powering it up and addressing it directly.

“Volur, what is going on?” She demanded. It made sense that the creator of the runed stones would have one of their own and a direct line to Volur.

“Stamfar found the Ice Giant. It’s spiralling.” He answered shortly as if that explained everything.

“What does he mean spiralling?” I asked Eryk in a whisper. I had let the sails grow slack while we concentrated on working out what was happening.

“Spiralling means it has consciously or subconsciously locked into the Thorpe and its Lodestar. It will spiral ever closer into the centre until it finds the Lodestar, regardless of what awaits. But that doesn’t mean it won’t stop for snacks or bouts of destruction on its way.” He whispered as his mother demanded more of an update and where her beloved Bjorn was.

Listening to their conversation, Volur demanded, “You all need to run, or it might catch you. It is already heading east, south of the Thorpe. It’s only a matter of time before it sights the exodus and pursues it either south and snaps you all up before returning or north and faces us.”

“And Bjorn?” she asked.

“He has yet to catch up to it at all. At this rate, you are more likely to see it than he is. You have to run and make everyone else run faster, too.” He continued, and I realised that he relied on the gyrfalcon to carry his voice but could not actually see us.

“Namir, Kai, Eryk and I should be able to escape easily enough. The boy not only knows his runes, glyphs, Spellsong and spellcraft but is a dab hand at crafting itself. He has created a land ship that is sailing us swiftly past the long exodus line.” She explained. Volur must have missed our departure, focused on preparing the Thorpe.

“Then tell them to turn southwest and walk out of its sight before it catches you all.” He implored. “It is coming.”

His booming voice echoed out of the Gyrfalcon’s runed stone in turn, “Head South West. The Ice Giant is now walking westward south of the Thorpe and is spiralling ever inward. Run in the Light of the Lodestar with all speed.”

The line of giants on their exodus shifted so that they were now moving as far west as they were south. But I did not see how that would make much of a difference with the line as long as it was and listening to the worry in Volur’s voice.

He was still preparing the Thorpe defensively for the arrival of the Ice Giant, and with the Gyrfalcons locating the beast, the hunting parties had not been sent out in anticipation of a soon arrival.

“What level?” asked Namir, focusing as always on the pertinent information.

“Level 99.” Volur’s voice answered Namir’s sharp question.

“That doesn’t sound too impossible to defeat.” I optimistically suggested.

“The base races do not have classes,” cautioned Namir. “That is 99 levels of pure power, not system sophistry, and that is not taking into account the ice giant’s racial traits, the size of his vessel or any other skills and magical abilities they might have acquired.” He critiqued my optimism and naivety. “If the northern giants have reason to flee, so do we.” He pointed out.

After that inspiring thought, we set sail once more. This time, westward as the line shifted to flee from the encroaching Ice Giant.

“Hopefully it will turn north before it notices us.” Commented Varvara as we sped along the line of loping giants.

“And if it doesn’t?” I asked, worried. I might not know them well, but I had come to like the northern giants and did not want to leave them behind to die should we be spotted too soon or at all.

“Then we pray to Njal that his strength will see us through.” She answered calmly but could not hide her anxiety from my other senses. She was worried not just about her husband Bjorn, who was tracking the beast down, but about her son’s life and her own.

Sometimes too much information was too much information no matter that knowledge was power. I did not always want to know.

The first sign that things were going to go wrong was the increasing number of Gyrfalcons in the sky.

Then it’s head crested the horizon.

Moving West Ward.

It was going to cross the line of giants heading south on their exodus.

What it would do then was anyone’s guess, but it did not sound like it would be good.