The Little Ice Age
CHARMIAN TURNED NORTHWARD, her eyes alight.
She blinked. Then her smile quickly faded away.
There was no mountain in sight before them. Instead, there was a seemingly endless expanse of frigid, rippling water.
She stared at it, confused; her eyes shifted from left to right, but that was all there was, water, as far as the eye could see--which wasn't remarkably far, considering that a foggy haze rested over it, but it was still only water. She turned her head now, left and right...they appeared to be standing not too far from the shore, which was rocky and slickened with ice, though the water itself wasn't frozen. It rippled softly in a cold breeze, and Charmian's brow furrowed.
"Where..." The others began coming up behind and around her, also staring ahead. "Where's the mountain?" she asked stupidly, and lifted her head to peer into the haze again. She squinted, then shielded her eyes, even though what weak sunlight there was was heavily obscured by the clouds and fog. "Where's the mountain?" she said again, her voice growing more strident; several of the others peered at her. "There's supposed to be a MOUNTAIN here...what's all this WATER?"
Baptiste stepped up on her right and pursed his lips at the water for a moment, blinked, then turned to her, rubbing his head and giving a winning yet oddly fearful smile. "Eh...if I didn't know any better, Mademoiselle, I'd say it's Hudson's Bay!"
Charmian's mouth fell open. "Hudson's BAY?!" she yelled, and her voice echoed sharply off the water; everybody winced. She glared at the water as if accusing it of something, then threw up her arms. "How did we end up on Hudson's Bay? WHERE IS THE FRIGGING MOUNTAIN?!" She fell to her knees--the coldness of the rocky soil promptly froze her skin--but she ignored it, digging her fingers into the pebbles and clenching them as if to crush them into dust. "We dug the tunnel! We followed the damn tunnel! So WHERE IS THE MOUNTAIN?!"
Winter Born took a step forward and pointed. "Is that a mountain...?" she asked, tentatively.
Charmian glanced up at her, then out at the water again. She stood up and squinted, shielding her eyes. The fog was shifting, drifting somewhat northward and revealing more of the water. In the distance, she could see the beginning of something white...it appeared to rise from the water itself, and went on, and on, even further into the distance, rising slightly upward as it went. Her eyes followed its progress, growing wider the more that she saw. Her mouth slowly fell open.
"That's...that's not a mountain," she murmured. Her brow furrowed in disbelief at what she was seeing--it couldn't be what she thought it was--but a semester of Earth Science couldn't be wrong. "It's a glacier."
Winter Born gave her a puzzled look. "What's a glay-shur?"
Charmian stepped slowly toward the shore, the others following. "Basically...a big blanket of ice," she said absently, and continued staring at the mass of white which lay ahead. She shook her head a little, perplexed. "But...there shouldn't be a glacier here. Not like this. Not--this big!" For she looked again from left to right, yet couldn't see any end to the thing. It was immense.
"Why not?" Winter Born asked.
Charmian lowered her hand from her eyes. "Because that glacier melted...THOUSANDS of years ago!" She blinked, then turned around, giving the others a wide-eyed stare. "Years! The tunnel!" She glanced down at a trace of web still clinging to her fingers. "Time works weird on the Island! We found Hopewell mounds in Shawondassee's land--" She whirled back to the water. "Are we in the past again--? Thousands of years in the past--?" Her face suddenly went gray and Thomas hurried forward to grasp her arm.
"Take it easy!" he urged. "We still have the tunnel, remember!"
"If that manitou hasn't wrecked it yet," Manabozho added, but then thankfully fell silent.
Charmian couldn't stop rubbing at her head. "Did Wabun mean that Kabebonikka lives on a glacier? Because...I guess it makes sense..." She looked down at the water. "Because he's the Wintermaker and all...and you can't get more wintry than the ICE AGE!" She clasped her arms and started shivering and chattering. "I just wish he would've WARNED me!!"
"There's bound to be all sorts of game around, ma chère," Francois said reassuringly. "It shouldn't take too long to build a shelter and ready proper clothing. Perhaps we'll even find a camp somewhere nearby, if we look."
Charmian gave a miserable sigh but let Thomas drape his jacket over her shoulders. "Next time I'm seriously going to have to bring a change of clothes!" she groused. She finally took the chance to look at their surroundings a bit more; despite the chill in the air, and the sheet of ice looming ahead, there was nothing but frost on the ground around them, and to the left and right, somewhat behind them, stood stands of dark pine trees. Everything was gray and white and blue; she'd never longed more for a touch of red or green in her life. She felt her nose running and hastened to rub it, feeling rather pathetic surrounded by the others. Even Moon Wolf and Stick-In-The-Dirt and the others, in their spare Islander clothing, didn't seem as affected by the cold as she was.
She blinked when she realized that someone was missing, then glanced at the tunnel. Black Elk Horn's head appeared, and he peered from side to side, then crawled out. He still held the gun, clasped tightly in one hand as if he intended to use it as a club, though he didn't even bother seeking out Lieutenant Barrington, instead spotting the water. His eyes grew wider, and he began walking hesitantly toward it, stopping a bit from the shore. He stared out across it with what Charmian could have described only as shock. She remembered seeing much the same look on Stick-In-The-Dirt's face upon their arrival at Lake Superior, and she could easily guess what he must be thinking. She decided to leave him alone, and turned to Thomas and the others as they gathered in a huddle, their breath forming plumes of vapor.
"So Kabebonikka lives on that glayshur?" Winter Born asked, curious.
Charmian shrugged. "I guess! I mean, it makes sense! And I guess that Wabun couldn't be expected to know what a glacier is..."
"How do we reach it?" Thomas whispered; for some reason they kept their voices low, as if afraid of being overheard. "It seems awfully far away from here."
"Well--canoes," Charmian said; then saw Francois shaking his head, and frowned. "Right...?"
"Take a peek, ma chère," Francois replied, and gestured at the pine forest. "No birch," he said, when she just looked perplexed, and she sighed.
"Well..." She rubbed her arms. "I can't stand the thought of trying to SWIM across that thing! Maybe Thomas would make it, but the rest of us would turn into ice cubes!"
"We could wait for Mishu to come through and then have him take us across," Kenu suggested.
Charmian sighed. "But that'd take forever, and we'd have to keep splitting up...he's still not in top shape and I hate stressing the poor guy. We don't even know if he and X'aaru will make it through." She lifted her head to peer eastward, as if to spot their tunnel further along the shore; so far the other two hadn't arrived, nor had the loons, whom she'd sent off after them. She hoped that they were at least all right.
"I won't worry about them," Winter Born said suddenly, and Charmian turned back to her. The girl's face lit up and she smiled. "Everybody keeps coming back together again!" she said; when Charmian furrowed her brow, she pointed first at Lieutenant Barrington, then at Black Elk Horn. "See what I mean? They were way behind us, and way off somewhere else, but they BOTH made it here, too! Just like they were meant to!"
Like that's such a GOOD thing...? Charmian thought, when she heard Black Elk Horn let out a small gasp, and looked up in time to see him take an abrupt step back from the water. She turned around and lifted her hand, expecting to see an Underwater Lynx; but then she saw that he was still staring up and out, not down. She followed his stare.
The fog was vanishing by now. More of the glacial sheet was fading into view...and along with it, something tall and looming which it flowed around... Charmian took in a soft breath, hearing several of the others doing likewise, when the dim outlines of distant craggy peaks appeared, a tall middle one, and several smaller ones off to its sides. They were still shrouded in mist, but she could see the way that the glacier had wound itself around them like a river of milk, flowing down into the valleys between them and onward over the water itself. Everyone stared at the hazy mountains in silence, too awed to speak.
After a moment or two, Charmian's own eyes lit up a bit. "That must be it," she whispered, and knew that it must be so. A cold wind breezed down from the mountain, and she was sure that the Wintermaker must live there.
"Wow," Winter Born said, awe in her own voice.
Peepaukawiss tiptoed down to the water, stuck in the tip of his foot, then shuddered and hurried back as if he'd just been set on fire. "Brrrbbbrrrrbbrrr!!" he shivered, shaking his feathers wildly. "Excuse me, but what good is it finding Uncle Kabebonikka's mountain if we can't REACH it?"
"I suppose we could start traveling west," Francois suggested, sounding doubtful, "and try to reach it from the side...but it would take a very long time, and would probably be just as dangerous as swimming from here!"
Charmian's spirits started deflating again; then she gasped when Thomas grasped her wrist. She looked up at him and he met her eyes; she frowned to see that he appeared excited. "Hold on!" he exclaimed, earning their attention. "Maybe I can finally make some use of this thing after all!"
"What thing--?" Charmian asked, before he let go of her and went down to the water. He stooped and placed his hand in it--she shuddered and rubbed her arms, seeing Winter Born and Kenu and several of the others follow suit, as if Thomas's hand were their own. Then she found herself staring when she saw the water changing color. It shifted from deep blue-black into muted gray-blue and then into milky white.
"Huh...?" Charmian murmured, stepping down to the shore to take a closer look. Her eyes widened when she saw the water forming into ice. "An ice bridge--?" she blurted out, half excited by the idea, half doubtful.
"I'm not quite sure if I can make an entire bridge of it," Thomas said as he concentrated, "but it's worth a shot, isn't it...?"
Charmian stood up and glanced back at the others, then waved at Pakwa. The GeeBee came ambling forward and stuck his hand in the water as well; the ice that was already forming grew thicker and wider, and started hardening at least twice as fast. She waved next at Augwak, who came forward grumbling and muttering but grudgingly placed his hand in the water.
"You already know full well that I don't have much medicine left, fleshling!" he groused. "If I fall over and DIE then it's YOUR fault!"
"We can only hope," Charmian said, stepping back and watching them do their work. "I'm going to go see if I can find that other tunnel," she announced, then blinked when she found Winter Born already at her side. "Wha--? Where did you come from--?"
"I'll help look!" Winter Born offered. She went jogging off along the shore before Charmian could argue; Charmian tried to keep herself from grumbling. Moon Wolf detached himself from the group and followed, so she guessed that she didn't have much choice. A glance cast at Thomas showed her that he didn't like to see her go, but she waved at him, and he sighed and waved his free hand with a look that clearly said, "I know you would kill me if I tried to stop you anyway, so..." She rolled her eyes and kept walking.
"Not so fast," she called out to Winter Born as the girl skipped ahead, and she slowed down a little. "You really don't trust me on my own?" she said to Moon Wolf, just because she was bored.
"Not so much this, as that I don't trust others," Moon Wolf said. He peered toward the pine forest. "That manitou knows where we were headed. Mishosha should be not too far behind."
"Oh." Charmian started chewing slightly on her lip. "I forgot." She picked up her pace a bit. "He said he was interested in meeting you," she said, still perplexed by the odd comment.
Moon Wolf frowned. "You mentioned this earlier. But how would he even know..."
She shrugged. "He knows all sorts of things from the sound of it! Maybe it's that manitou that tells him? It's supposed to be from the Island itself! But Mishosha never said anything about visiting the Island, so that's why that confuses me. In any case, he seemed more interested in YOU than in ME! Care to fill me in--?"
"I'm not certain you would understand," Moon Wolf replied; when she stared at him for a full minute he sighed. "Do your people hold contests of a sort--? Competitions?"
Charmian frowned but nodded. "Well...yeah, I guess. Sports...beauty pageants...talent shows..."
"When rival medicine men meet, particularly wabanos or Makwamosa, it is customary for them to compete with each other. Attempt to surpass the other in skills."
"Oh." Charmian tilted her head. "You mean like some kind of medicine fight?" She stared skyward thoughtfully. "Do they offer prizes or anything?"
"It's not what one would call a friendly competition," Moon Wolf said.
"Oh." Charmian slowed her step. "More like a pissing match, you mean."
He got a very odd look, but nodded anyway. "I suppose...if by that you mean always attempting to be the best, no matter what the cost. There have been medicine men who have given their lives simply to show off. Others have ended up killing each other in the process."
Charmian made a face. "Nullification? Seems to kind of defeat the purpose! So you think Mishosha wants to have some kind of pissing match with you--?" A pause. "Do you think it'll be an even match, then...?"
Moon Wolf's look grew dark. "You already saw that barrier he put up on his island. Neither I nor that manitou of yours could make it through, and believe me, while you were gone we tried everything. Do you believe this sounds equal?"
"Well--I don't know," Charmian exclaimed. "Sure he can make a wall, but can he dig a trench--?" When he gave her another odd look she shrugged. "What I mean is, sure, maybe he can do that ONE thing pretty good, but what if you can do something he can't?"
He gave a halfhearted snort and faced ahead again. "Hopefully, it will not get this far before we find the North Wind."
They walked in silence for a moment. "You know," Charmian said after another pause, "I keep meaning to ask you why you even went into medicine in the first place since you seem to dislike it so much."
"I already told you that I never thought about the why very much at the time."
"I know, but there must've been some reason. You said maybe you'd wanted power or something?"
"Power, fame, and service are the three main reasons why one becomes a medicine man," Moon Wolf said.
"Well...seeing as you live in a cave out in the middle of nowhere..." he gave her yet another odd look "...I take it that fame was never high on your list." Charmian made a face and rubbed her arms. "Why is this whole power thing so big then? I don't quite picture you ever trying to take over Manitou Island, or fight Ocryx, or whatever. And this was way before Shadow Water." She saw something flicker across his face. "So what's the big appeal in being powerful--?"
Moon Wolf's eyes grew shaded and he made an effort to stare directly at the invisible path that Winter Born had left. Charmian frowned a bit and tried peering into his face. "Moon Wolf?" she asked, puzzled. "What or who did you want to be powerful against--?"
Moon Wolf's head whirled to glare at her. "You ask too many questions!" he barked, and then started practically storming along, fists clenched. Charmian blinked, feeling her throat stick; even when she'd been prying him for information on his vision, he hadn't sounded so upset. He'd been about as upset when she'd first learned about Shadow Water, but that was already out in the open. As usual she was dying to know what it was all about, but the tone of his voice had actually scared her a little, and she didn't want to push it, at least not if they were going to be in each other's company for long. She swallowed and jogged to catch up; by now Winter Born had slowed down and was peering back at them herself. Charmian fell into step beside the medicine man and began fiddling her fingers. She bit her lip and peered at him meekly.
"Sorry," she said.
He didn't say anything in response. She nearly paused again on seeing how his eyes had grown slightly glassy, even as he still scowled. She opened her mouth, only to feel a throbbing in the side of her head; she winced and doubled over, grasping at her skull as if it were ready to fall apart. Moon Wolf halted to look at her, seeming irritated at first, then he blinked when he saw that she was really in pain. Winter Born halted and came jogging their way as well.
"Charmian!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay--?"
Charmian nodded, wincing. "Yeah...just a headache...again." She made herself stand up and continued rubbing at it, although it was fading already. "I keep getting them since we crossed Lake Superior--Gitchi-Gami. I think they started around when we went looking for Wabun's tunnel. They weren't so bad before, though...cripes." She made a face.
"Is this normal for you?" Moon Wolf asked.
Charmian shook her head. "No...not really. But then again I did hit it a few times in that tunnel to Geezhigo-Quae..."
Winter Born frowned and tilted her own head. "But that was after you went looking for Wabun's tunnel," she pointed out, and Charmian nearly winced again. She was far too attentive sometimes.
"It's probably just the cold and wet," she said lamely, brushing it off. "It's a lot warmer where I'm from! And we haven't really eaten in quite a while, either..."
Winter Born brightened. "Oh! That shouldn't be a problem! Monsieur Francois did say that we can hunt for some things, and some of Manabozho's wolves came along--I bet they can hunt pretty well too! Remember that nice moose they caught--?"
She cut herself off when splashing noises came from far ahead, and they all stopped in their tracks, listening. "Do..." Charmian started, then swallowed. "Do they have Mishupishus here, too...?"
"I've heard that they travel beneath the lakes," Moon Wolf said, keeping his voice low. He frowned. "It sounds too small for that."
"Well...whatever it is...it's right in our path." Charmian chewed on her lip. "Do we keep going, or head back for the others...?"
"Shouldn't we at least see what it is, first--?" Winter Born asked, then turned and started tiptoeing toward the water. Charmian grimaced and hurried after her, grabbing her up by the waist just as she reached the shore.
"Do you WANT Black Elk Horn to murder me?!" she hissed under her breath.
Winter Born's lower lip stuck out and she wriggled her legs. "He wouldn't do that! And stop carrying me around! I know how to walk, you know--!"
Moon Wolf halted beside them and raised his hand, blue fire flaring over his fingers. Charmian nearly dropped Winter Born, instead setting her down and nudging her behind herself, holding up her own hand. A bubbling roiling current formed, leading from the shore out deeper into the water several yards, then copper horns broke the surface. Charmian's heart began thudding hard in her chest when an Underwater Lynx emerged, but she promptly let out her breath to see that it was only Mishupishu--she recognized his smaller size and bent spine. The Lynx meekly poked his head out of the water, peered from side to side, then spotted them and immediately swam their way, eyes wide. His spines were flaring before he even reached them, and their greetings died in their throats.
"Oh! Humans! It's awful!" Mishupishu cried, winding himself in a coil as the water was shallow before them. His head swayed from side to side. "Horrible! Awful!"
"What is it--?" Charmian asked, perplexed and growing somewhat worried. She noticed that he was alone, and her alarm grew. "Is it X'aaru--?"
The Lynx shook his head. "The demon--? Oh, no! He's right behind me--! Well, he was..." He glanced back toward the shore and frowned, then shook his head and turned back to them. "No, not him! Something we found in the tunnel! Awful! So piteously sad!"
"What is it, then--?" Charmian snapped, quickly growing frustrated. Before Mishupishu could speak, she heard more splashing in the water, and Kwemoo and Maang bobbed up, sputtering and flapping their wings; they came paddling to shore, yelling the entire way.
"O-ho! O-ho! Bad news! Bad news indeed, o-ho!" they cried in unison.
X'aaru appeared next, head popping up; he shook the water from his ears and blinked a few times before spotting them, and his eyes grew. "Charmian--! It's awful--!"
Charmian grabbed at her hair. "I KNOW THAT ALREADY! So what is it?!"
In response the demon stuck his head back under the water, and Charmian started making an irritated growling noise. But when he lifted his head, clasping something gently between his teeth, her irritation faded, and she stared in surprise at what he pulled along after him as he swam their way.
The others backed either into the water or onto the shore to make room when X'aaru came onto land, carefully dragging the little unconscious Nebanaubae behind him.
No comments:
Post a Comment