Cold Welcome
CHARMIAN AND MOON Wolf jogged along the shore of the bay, heading toward the start of the ice bridge that Thomas and the GeeBees had formed. Now, the GeeBees had scrambled onto dry land, and Augwak was pacing back and forth and muttering; Thomas remained on the bridge, on hands and knees, staring at Charmian as she approached. He waved, as if to tell her to move faster; she scowled but obeyed, Moon Wolf following suit.
"What the heck is it?" she called out as she drew close.
Winter Born was on the ice bridge now as well. "Look!" she exclaimed, hopping up and down and pointing. "Is that some Nebanaubae--?"
"Huh? Here too?" Charmian asked in surprise, shielding her eyes and squinting out over the bay.
"They started acting up just a moment or so ago," Thomas said. "I thought, maybe if it's them, you might find a way to ask them to get us across."
Charmian grimaced. "As tempting as it is...I don't really feel up to dealing with Nebanaubae right now," she said, remembering the sight of the little wounded one dying in her arms; she realized that Thomas and most of the others hadn't been there when that had happened. As such, he frowned at her in puzzlement, but odd noises coming from the water distracted them, and they turned to look again.
Winter Born got a strange look. "That doesn't sound like Nebanaubae..."
Thomas frowned. "I don't know what that sounds like."
Stick-In-The-Dirt, on the shore, began shifting from foot to foot anxiously. "Is it more Lynxes--?"
Mishupishu shook his head adamantly. "No, of course not! We don't sound like that!"
Charmian listened to the noises for a moment or two, then stepped up onto the bridge. She walked to the end of it and listened carefully. Odd distant squeaking noises came to her ears. Her brow furrowed.
"It sounds like..." She looked at the fins poking out of the water and then vanishing again, wide fishlike tails slapping the surface of the bay; she got down on hands and knees and peered into the water. When she reached out and splashed it a little herself, the shapes came closer, the squeaking growing louder. Something suddenly stuck its head up, making everyone else gasp and jump back; Peepaukawiss even let out a little scream and leapt into Manabozho's arms, before Manabozho ground his teeth and let him fall to the ground.
"...Dolphins?" Charmian murmured, staring at the long smooth shapes drifting around the end of the ice bridge. When their tails came into view, she could tell that they weren't fish; the fins were positioned incorrectly. And the squeaking noises made it pretty clear that they weren't Nebanaubae, either.
"Dolphins?" Thomas echoed, his own brow furrowing. He crawled back to look at them. "But I've only ever read about them in books," he exclaimed.
"What are doll-fins?" Winter Born asked, coming forward to look at them.
"They're sort of like fish," Charmian said. "And sort of not." She blushed. "It's hard to explain."
"They look like fish," Stick-In-The-Dirt said, overcoming his anxiety and stepping out onto the bridge to peer down at them.
"They're not," Charmian said.
Manabozho showed up and looked at them as well. "They've got fins like fish."
Charmian rolled her eyes. "They're not."
"They swim like fish," Mishupishu remarked.
"They're NOT!" Charmian clenched her fists and got to her feet. "Cripes--just trust me--they're NOT fish, okay? They're more like OTTERS than they're like FISH!"
Now everyone save Thomas, Lieutenant Barrington, and the two voyageurs frowned at her skeptically. "I don't know," Winter Born mused, sticking her hand in the water to try to touch one. "They don't look like any otters I've ever seen..."
"Just look like regular old smelly boring fish," Augwak muttered. He stuck his own hand back in the water. "Can we eat them?"
Charmian plucked a hunk of ice from the end of the bridge and hurled it at him, hitting him in the head. "NO, WE DON'T EAT DOLPHINS!" She whirled back to look at the creatures as they swam in slow circles, squeaking. "Some people say they're just as smart as humans are! Maybe they can help us...?" She bent down and reached into the water, shivering at the chill; several dolphins drifted closer, snouts opening and shutting, but she had no clue how to address them. "Crap...I don't know dolphinspeak. It all sounds like eek-eek-eek to me!"
Marten scrambled atop her shoulder and waved at the dolphins. "Hey, Charm! Try the necklace! Maybe it works on dolphins too--? Hi, little fishie-things!" he exclaimed cheerily.
Charmian ground her teeth, picking him up by the tail and setting him down on the bridge. "For God's sake, you live on the Atlantic--surely you know that they're NOT FISH!!"
Marten rolled his eyes. "Glooskap says they're fish! Good enough for me!"
"Glooskap's going to be getting a science lesson as soon as we get back," Charmian grumbled, fiddling with the necklace and leaning toward the water. "He didn't say this worked with animals. At least, I haven't been able to understand any since wearing it!" She frowned. "Now that I think of it, this thing hasn't been working properly ever since I started using it! What, did he forget to program it right before handing it over...?"
Winter Born let out a very long sigh. "Just try it!" she, Marten, and Kenu all exclaimed at once.
Charmian ground her teeth again but clasped the necklace in her hand, concentrating on the noises that the dolphins were letting out. Everyone else fell silent as she did so; they squeaked, and squeaked, and squeaked, and she furrowed her brow, trying hard to figure out exactly what it all meant...
A faint halloo made her ears prick, and her face lit up. "Hey! One of them said something!!"
Someone started tugging on her vest. "Um, no, I rather think they said something!" Thomas exclaimed in an urgent voice, and her head popped up to look out toward the glacier at the other end of the bay. Her eyes widened when she saw a bunch of distant shapes out on the water, coming their way. Everyone drifted toward the ice bridge now, lifting their hands to their eyes to get a better look.
Winter Born's brow furrowed. "Canoes...?"
"I thought they didn't have birchbark here!" Charmian said.
Francois squinted. "Dugouts," he said, and they all watched the little fleet of canoes draw closer. Their occupants were paddling almost frantically, yet there was an order to it; the shout came again and Charmian readjusted her necklace, since she wasn't certain what was being said.
"They look like the Islanders," she murmured as the canoes approached. "So how come I can't understand them...?"
Francois frowned a little now and tilted his head. "I believe they might be Cree," he said.
"Are they friendly...?"
"Usually...from what I know of them, they really are much like those on the Island." He cast her a look. "Though remember that we can't be certain where or when we are...so things may be different here."
Charmian swallowed. "Got it," she said weakly.
They stood and waited as the canoes came closer, and Charmian could see their occupants better. She shivered and rubbed at her arms on seeing the warm-looking skins that they wore, and she hoped that they would be willing to share the love, though the looks on their faces made her hesitant to even start talking. Those in the lead canoe slowed their paddling and glanced at everyone in the group, frowning. They looked suspicious.
"Where are you from and what are you doing?" the bowman in the lead canoe asked, but when he asked it, he looked straight at Niskigwun.
Everyone in the group shifted their eyes to look at the Michinimakinong. He seemed just as perplexed as anybody.
Charmian blinked, then straightened. The feathers on your head! she exclaimed in his mind. You're wearing the most. Maybe they think you're the leader.
Niskigwun's eyes grew. Well--DIVEST them of that belief, then!!
Charmian glanced around and then hurried up to point at Manabozho. "He's the leader!" she exclaimed; Niskigwun's jaw dropped, Black Elk Horn bristled, and Manabozho gawked at her for just a second before his own mouth snapped shut and he strode forward as if he'd been intending to do so all along.
"That's right!" he practically shouted. "What makes you think that piffle is the leader--?"
Niskigwun's teeth looked ready to break off, he ground them so hard.
The bowman frowned a little but addressed Manabozho now. "Where are you from, and what are you doing?" he asked again, and this time Manabozho looked at Charmian and shrugged helplessly.
Charmian ran her hand down her face and stepped forward. "We come from the south...way south..." she gestured vaguely "...beyond Gitchi-Gami--um--" She looked to Francois.
"Their language is much similar, ma chère," he murmured. "Just keep going."
She nodded and turned back to the canoes. "Gitchi-Gami," she said, again gesturing. "We came this way to try to help our Island."
The bowman frowned a little, but lowered his paddle. "Why do you come so far? What could there possibly be here for you to look for?"
"Well..." Charmian rubbed her neck. "Actually, we're looking for the North Wind."
Stares. "The North Wind?" the bowman echoed, his frown growing.
Charmian nodded and pointed at the distant mountains. "We were told that he lives up there."
Even as she said it, everyone's eyes slowly widened, and she had to glance over her shoulder just to make sure that a Sasquatch or something hadn't sneaked up behind them. She gasped when the lead canoe came bobbing right up to the ice bridge, the bowman staring up at her as if she'd just turned green. "You can see it?" he exclaimed, pointing back at the mountain without looking at it himself.
Charmian's brow furrowed. "Well...yeah. I mean, it's kind of obvious."
Murmuring arose in the other canoes. "No other visitors have been able to see it before now," the bowman said, shaking his head. "Even most of those in the camp can't see it, not all the time. That mountain comes and goes with the mist!"
Charmian stared at him in disbelief for a moment, then peered up at the mountain, hovering hazy above the clouds, then peered back at the others with her. "Comes and goes with the mist...?" she echoed, and turned to the bowman. "You mean that mountain isn't always there--?"
He shook his head. "Only at times! Otherwise--there is nothing there but ice and snow." He put the paddle against the ice and pulled the canoe forward, the dolphins swimming away, and gave her a pensive look. "You're certain you're seeing it...?"
Charmian lifted her head and pointed. "Big pointy mountain...little side mountains. Big old glacier. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing it."
More murmuring. "Why is it that you seek the North Wind in the first place?" the bowman asked.
Charmian suppressed a sigh. "It's kind of complicated...but basically, we hoped that he would help us figure out how to help our Island, and..."
The murmuring grew louder now, and the bowman's mouth fell open. "HELP you--?" he exclaimed. When all that she did was frown and nod his brow furrowed. "You do realize you're speaking of the North Wind--don't you? He who brings the snow and ice and has plunged this land into cold for countless moons now--?" He gestured at the glacier. "He brought this very mass of snow and ice itself--it's been here since before any of us remember, but it moves and it lives--so long that our camps are built upon it, and forests grow upon it. But the stories say it wasn't always like this. They say it was warm and green once, until the North Wind came, and breathed over the land and brought the Whittikos..."
"Whittikos?" Winter Born echoed, tilting her head curiously.
Charmian nodded to shush her. "Wendigoes. Same thing."
"Oh." Now Winter Born glanced over at Pakwa and Augwak. The bowman did the same, merely to see what held her interest--when his eyes goggled, Charmian realized the mistake they'd just made, but all that she got to do was open her mouth.
"WHITTIKOS!!" the bowman yelled at the top of his lungs, and a second later, a dozen bows were aimed at the two GeeBees. Charmian nearly heard Augwak's jaw hit the ice. She turned around to see Francois, Baptiste, Black Elk Horn, and Lieutenant Barrington all aiming at the canoes, and several of the others aiming as well, only without guns. She grabbed at her hair and yanked on it.
"Not AGAIN!!" she cried.
The bowman turned to her and bared his teeth. "You travel in the COMPANY of them--? Have you any idea how foolish this is--? When they run RAMPANT in these parts--?"
Charmian blinked. "Rampant--?"
"As if you have no clue!" someone in one of the other canoes snapped. "They are so obviously Whittikos that it makes me wonder what exactly you were trying to REALLY do here!"
"This wasn't here before!" the leader exclaimed, rapping the ice bridge with his paddle. He pushed the canoe away, picking up his own bow with a scowl. "THEY made it--to try to reach us and eat us--didn't they?"
Charmian shook her head wildly. "No--of course not!!"
"Take a look what ELSE they've got with them!!" another one yelled, and pointed at X'aaru, who whined and ducked his head, sneaking back behind Mani. As soon as he did so, everyone in the canoes gasped and fell still, staring at the manitou as he peered from side to side as if to say, "What?! What?!"
Are they ALWAYS like this?! Charmian thought at Francois.
Not always, ma chère, Francois replied. But considering the circumstances, can you really blame them?
Well... Charmian grimaced at the bristling mass of arrows facing them. Any suggestions for defusing this situation?!
Perhaps you should think in their terms, Francois said, but before she could ask him what that meant, the lead canoe paddled closer, the bowman's arrow pointed at her head.
"And you, even!" he snapped. "With fire-hair! What sort of creature are you--?"
Charmian chewed on her lip, then pointed at Mani. "We've got a manitou with us!! So don't piss him off!!"
They all looked at Mani again; he blinked, then puffed himself up, letting out a snorting blast. The arrows wavered a little, then even more still when the two okis stepped forward to flank him; but the bowman didn't lower his.
"Manitous can be in league with Whittikos, too," he said icily.
Charmian quailed. "Well--" She glanced around, and pointed at Manabozho again. "He's the leader! Take it up with him!!"
Manabozho's feathers flared. "WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?!"
Promptly, all of the bows lowered, and everybody in the canoes stared at Manabozho with their mouths wide open. Everyone on the shore blinked and then peered at him, but he hadn't changed any, that Charmian could see. The bowman paddled a bit closer to peer up at him and furrowed his brow as if perplexed. He tilted his head to the side.
"Wisakedjak?" he said.
Charmian frowned and tapped the necklace, thinking that maybe it had malfunctioned again. The confused look that Manabozho gave her told her that it was working just fine. Manabozho opened his mouth to say something, but Charmian caught Francois nodding at her somewhat urgently, and she spoke up before he could.
"Um--yeah!" she exclaimed, and the bowman and Manabozho both looked at her. She rubbed at her neck. "Um...Wisa...Wisk...yeah! That's...um...that's him. The Great Rabbit."
The bowman started to frown again. "What's this Great Rabbit stuff--?"
Manabozho stomped toward the canoe. "I'll have you know that I am a CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND of Wisakedjak's!" he boasted, earning their attention. "AND he is the one who CALLED us here!"
The canoeists' faces began to light up. "You have spoken with him--?" the bowman asked, hope in his voice; Charmian tried not to cringe, thinking that whatever this was, it might be a bad idea. Manabozho nodded and the canoe turned his way. "Is he going to defeat the Whittikos--? And banish the Wintermaker at last?"
Manabozho stopped nodding and furrowed his brow. "That's what Wisakedjak said he'd do...?" When the canoeists' faces began growing dark again, he resumed nodding. "Yes! Of course. As soon as I speak with him. After all--he did say that he would not do this thing until...er...until we were helped along our way. To see the North Wind. Because we have to talk to him, and everything, because Wisakedjak said so." He tried not to look too confused. "Or something."
"What of these others?" The bowman pointed toward X'aaru, then Marten, and then just stared at everyone else, perplexed. "Are they too friends of Wisakedjak?" He looked at Charmian. "And why does she have hair like fire?" A glance at Winter Born. "And why does she have hair like snow--?"
"Cripes," Charmian grumbled under her breath.
Manabozho puffed himself up and waved at Mani; the manitou blinked, but stepped forward. Several of the wolves came trotting up as well and the canoes pulled back a little bit with a collective gasp. "You ask far too many questions, you know!" he said. "Wisakedjak wouldn't be happy hearing all this!"
An uneasy murmur arose. The bowman frowned, seeming skeptical, but brought his canoe forward again anyway. "Did he ask that you be brought to our camp, too...?" he asked.
Charmian's face lit up and she nodded eagerly. "Exactly that! Um--I mean--" She looked to Manabozho.
He crossed his arms. "Well...I think that's what he asked...but I can't be too sure..."
Thomas grasped Charmian's wrist when she looked ready to tear all of his feathers off. Ma-na-bo-ZHO...
"Ah yes, that's right," Manabozho said, giving Charmian a superior look. "That's exactly what he asked...now I remember."
"Deep breaths," Thomas whispered to a steaming Charmian.
"Well..." The bowman seemed to ponder this. "I guess if he asked it, it's for the good of all of us, then." He waved at those toward the back, and they brought their canoes forward. "There are more of us coming soon...in case you all do not fit."
"They can swim," Charmian said, gesturing at Mani, the okis, and X'aaru; they accordingly splashed into the water and started swimming toward the glacier. The Cree eyed them anxiously as they passed; Charmian spotted Mishupishu's horns and eyes peeping out nearby, and frantically gestured at him to disappear, which he did.
"Well...I suppose there's room for the rest of you, then," the lead canoeist said somewhat reluctantly, and with a sigh Charmian watched as the others stepped down toward the canoes, carefully climbing in. When Charmian and Winter Born made their way toward them, however, the bowman put out his paddle and blocked them from entering. Charmian frowned a little.
"What is it?" she asked.
The bowman looked ready to scowl. "Seeing as you speak so much, and seem to know what you're doing, I take it that you are actually the leader here!"
"HEY!" Manabozho yelled, and promptly fell out of the canoe with a splash.
Charmian blinked. "Me--? Uh--no I'm not! Not really!"
"Whatever you are, you don't come across until you take care of that first," the bowman said, gesturing at the ice bridge.
"What...?" Charmian and Winter Born both looked back to see Pakwa and Augwak still standing where they'd been left. Pakwa looked puzzled; Augwak looked pissed off. They turned back to the canoe. "Them? But they're harmless...mostly," Charmian said.
In response the bowman nudged the canoe away from the shore a little. "You are obviously in charge--and you obviously have your own ice medicine," he said, first to Charmian, then to Winter Born; when Charmian looked at Winter Born in puzzlement the little girl just gaped back at her.
"No I'm not!" Charmian exclaimed, just as Winter Born spoke up.
"No I don't!"
"Charmian--?" Thomas called out from his canoe.
"Just a sec!!" Charmian called out with a wave. She stepped toward the lead canoe. "Look," she whispered. "What do we have to do to get over there? Because this is REALLY important, a whole lot more important than you can know! Wis--um--Wiswhatever said so!"
"And that's exactly why you'll take care of THAT," the bowman retorted, pointing at the GeeBees; Augwak was by now digging his claws into the ice, but Pakwa was gnawing on his own toenail. "Wisakedjak vowed that he would free this land of the Whittikos when he returned," the bowman said, making Charmian fall silent. "If you truly act on his behalf--then how is it that you're letting two Whittikos run free--?"
"He said he'd do that AFTER you guys help us!" Charmian protested.
The bowman glared at her for a long moment. "Very well," he said after a pause, and Charmian let out her breath. "We will just take care of the problem ourselves." That made the unease in her spring to life again, and she and Winter Born stood and watched numbly as the bowman gestured, and several of the canoes pulled close, their occupants clambering out and onto the ice bridge. Augwak began hunching in on himself, teeth bared, while Pakwa looked up at them as if expecting food.
"Hey..." Charmian took a step forward, but was barred by the bowman's paddle. "What's going on?"
"You say you come on behalf of Wisakedjak," the bowman echoed himself.
"Duh!" Charmian snapped. "How many times do I have to say that?"
"Then you surely won't mind if we take some preventive measures," he said, and before she knew it, spears were aimed at the two GeeBees' necks, and she could have sworn that she'd never seen Pakwa and Augwak look quite so panicked before.
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