Chapter 4 Treading on Thin Ice (and Other Clichés)
Autumnus smiled at Fisher. "Thank you for the Wulf-B-Gon. I’m sure it will prove useful. Now, we should get moving to Svlandir.” The Aamonwelp crouched in an attempt to speak face-to-face with their diminutive host. “You..two should join us, after all, there is safety in numbers,” he added, nodding to Kilgore as he extended the invitation.
Fisher nodded but did not reply.
Meanwhile, Hafoc washed the pelt in the strait water by the ice’s edge and fleshed the hide with the handle of his blade. Laid out, he stretched it, then coated it in wolf brains before smoking the pelts by the fire. Zawn, who was especially cold in light armor and chainmail, was the first to use one as a wrap. Tine, already having fur, demurred. I'm the last one who needs a pelt, she thought. Plus, it felt a little weird to wear someone else's fur. Wrong, even. Even if we were their prey...
Fisher had a pot, so they were able to make a stew using wolf flesh and melted ice.
Hafoc paused his work to offer another ingredient. “Who’s up for wolf brain soup?”
Everyone scowled at him, except Fisher and Nemophily. She looked somewhat interested in that idea. “It’s probably better than the meat,” she offered. “But that’s not saying much.” Indeed, the stew was gamey and, despite using meat from a fresh kill, had a faint, rotten taste.
Rhalie clunked her metal mug down and wiped her mouth with her arm. “Ugh. What I wouldn’t give for a beer with this. Or mead. Yeah, mead.”
Hafoc joined them. “Yer, that fixes most cooking alright.”
After finishing the stew in her mug, Kylia slid next to Fisher and half-whispered to him. “So, are you going to come with us to land?”
Autumnus jumped in and sat on Fisher’s other side. “Yes, please, come with us.”
Fisher patted his bag of fish, obviously hesitant.
“Ahem, yes, well…” Autumnus continued. “I can see it would be a lot to give up,” he glanced around at the icy wasteland, “but we would love your company.”
Fisher conferred with this little trout friend and listened intently to Kilgore’s reply. Then, he nodded to Kilgore and removed his pack to take out one of the other fish tied to it. He also grabbed a twig from his bundle of sticks and tied the second small trout to it with a string. Fisher brought the two fish face to fishy face, seemingly so they could talk. He bumped them together. It was almost like they shared a little kiss.
He then offered the new fish to Autumnus to take, saying, "Kilgore says he can'ts go, but his sister trout cans." He waved the outstretched fish stick in earnest. "This is Kilgette. She wills go.”
Kilgette’s appearance caught the rest of the group’s attention, and they waited to hear what he might say for himself. Fisher seemed undecided. He looked down at the ice. Perhaps he's lived alone with the fish too long? Tine considered.
After a long pause, Fisher added, "We'll walks with you along the ice for awhile.”
Autumnus looked at Fisher and at the new ‘fish on a stick’ friend he now held. Smiling, he said, "Thank you for traveling with us! We will make sure Kilgette here is well taken care of." With that, he stuffed the fish loosely into the inside breast pocket of his long jacket. (Thankfully, the twig she was tied to was short enough to fit.)
Autumnus started to pat his chest where the pocket was for good measure but thought better of it. Tine noticed he moved a bit more carefully after that, perhaps to protect his newly adopted piscine friend. Is this guy for real? How can he be so...nice?
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Nemophily apparently came to the end of her chapter, stopped reading, and looked up. “Maybe we should head out soon. I’d hate to go through another night like the last one.”
[https://i.imgur.com/U3nbJh5.jpg] [https://i.imgur.com/U3nbJh5.jpg] [https://i.imgur.com/U3nbJh5.jpg]
Warmer, fed, and rested, the group continued along the ice as they headed northward. The sky was clear, and the sun brought out colors in the ice Tine hadn't noticed before; there were greens, blues, and even some yellow. (She avoided the yellow.) The edge of the ice nearest the water cracked a little near their feet and Tine noted the large ice floes as they walked. No wonder the animals stay to the west where the ice is thick. She took care to walk as far away from the water as she could and still manage to stay with the group.
Hafoc noticed. “Be brave, kitty. We’ll get to land soon enough.”
She was sure that the others could see her ears turn red if they weren’t orange to begin with.
After half a day's journey, Svlandir's port was nearer — only a mile or so across the water...but how to get there?
“We could swim, but we'd likely turn blue in there,” Rhalie said, as she peered over the ice’s edge. “Gotta be a way in. Fisher, do you know the way?”
Fisher shook his head vehemently. "We's don't goes by peoples much. We stays on the ice.”
Tine looked over the water and could barely make out what she thought were docks. She saw what looked like some small, round boats tied to a pier. It was hard to tell from their distance, but many of the boats looked just like large baskets, really.
Before she could contemplate further, she heard what sounded like a cannon, and there was rumbling under their feet. Tine swore. It’s cracking! I knew we couldn’t trust this damn ice. Should she…Tine started to throw off her pack. No, it’s not worth it—just run!
Skittish already, Tine was the first to dash for safety as the ice under them began to drift away from Northfell's glacier. Autumnus was close behind, but had to jump off of the cracking ice. Hafoc followed suit and made a surprisingly agile jump to land next to the Aamonwelp. Tine noticed Fisher somehow made it, too.
Nemophily deftly put her bookmark in place and ran, with Zawn charging close behind. They also managed to make it to safety. They all looked back to see that Rhalie and Kylia, who had walked nearest the water's edge, were still on the ice floe as it drifted away.
Tine resisted the urge to clamber on top of Autumnus for safety. She backed behind him and peeked around his arm as she gave the ice flow a menacing glare.
Autumnus yelled across to the others as they floated farther out, ”Try and jump over here! We’ll try and catch you!”
Hafoc weighed the lantern in his hand. He opened one of its doors and shoved objects from his pack into it. Next, he tied some of Fisher’s rope around the handle and tossed it to Rhalie and Kylia. "If you don't think you can jump it, use this!”
Kylia was already running toward the glacier when the lantern sailed past her and crashed into the floating chunk of ice. Hafoc tugged on the rope. The lantern held.
As she jumped, Kylia skidded on the ice. Tine cringed at the thought of falling into the water. Will she make it? Blight, that water’s cold!
The water spray on the floe's edge made Kylia lose her footing and she splashed headfirst into the strait. Unfortunately, the current kept her from swimming close to Hafoc's rope, and the others, shocked, took a moment to react. Fisher, however, didn't hesitate. He grabbed his strongest pole and cast its string Kylia's way.
Fisher’s cast is on target and he hooked Kylia's shirt successfully, but he was far too small to bring a catch like her in. He held out his pole and looked at the bigger members of the group.
“Yes, of course —“ Autumnus jumped to Fisher’s side and grabbed the pole. He tried his best to pull his friend out of the water, but the pole cracked with the strain and broke. Fisher shrugged as Kylia continued to swim in place against the current with a broken stick trailing behind her.
Rhalie had been busy tying rope to her crossbow and didn’t notice the lantern that sailed her way. She shot across the widening gap to the main ice, but the cold made her shiver and threw off her aim. She missed. The ice floe began to drift farther away from the glacier's edge. Rhalie sighed and jumped into the water to swim back to the others.
Sullen, Hafoc yanked the ignored lantern with its lifeline back and wound up the rope. Tine heard him mutter something about hating water, hating cold, hating everyone in the goddam universe, and that it’s time to go back to being fecking alone, already.
The group was so focused on the struggling swimmers, that they failed to notice a couple of sailors approach in a small boat. The bedraggled sailors leaned over the port side to get a better look at the two women in the water. One of the sailors, a gnome, shouted, “Knees up!" and plunged into the water. He bobbed up near Rhalie and leered at her with a sparsely toothed grin. “Hey there…what a sweet, short thing you are."