by Eric Vall
It was too windy to carry much of a conversation, and all of us narrowed our minds on the task at hand as we devoted total focus to climbing the mountain without falling over. Our silent procession was grim, but it wasn’t enough to convince me to turn back. We had come so far, and to stop now would be nearly as dangerous as continuing forward.
Suddenly, an animalistic roar cut through the wind, and we spun to face the noise in panic. At first, I assumed a rift had opened nearby, and we would be faced with fighting monsters on the snowy cliffside.
Instead of a monster, a pale, grizzled bear emerged from the blizzard to our right. Its fur was a yellowing tan, and its haunches were thick with muscle. The bear roared again and rushed us as saliva dripped from its mouth.
The five of us backpedaled up the path, and the bear stopped its charge and growled as it faced us. Its teeth were long and yellow, and its gums were mottled black and pink. It pinned its tiny ears against its skull as its snout wrinkled in a vicious threat.
“It’s that bear Grigor mentioned!” I shouted over the howling wind. “We should put it down!”
“Already on it,” Varleth yelled as he drew his sword and infused it with dark, swirling banisher energy.
The gypsy brandished the dark blade at the growling bear and waited for it to make its move.
“Wait!” Erin cried over the blizzard. “She’s not rabid, she’s just defending her cub!”
“What cub?” I asked, but then I spotted the tiny, pale form of a smaller bear.
It was crouched in the shadow of a crag, and I could tell it was small enough to need its mother’s help.
“Bears don’t grow very quickly,” Nia added as she shouted over the wind. “It’s probably from the previous spring.”
“We can’t kill her,” Erin pleaded, “the cub will die without her.”
“It’s only a bear,” Varleth insisted. “There are plenty more of them, and this one wants to eat us. Let’s kill her and be done with it.”
“Nonsense,” Ashla interjected. “It’s just a bear, so it should prove no challenge to simply defend ourselves.”
After she spoke, Ashla threw up a wall of ice between us and the bear. Glittering crystals sprouted from the ground and formed a warped shield of frozen material between us.
The bear roared in fear and rage and ran at the wall. Her claws scraped deep furrows into the ice, and deep fractures formed in its surface. Suddenly, an entire chunk of ice broke away and toppled over to fall down the mountain, and it bounced as it thundered away into the blinding storm.
“We need something sturdier,” I yelled.
Nia gestured to make a wall of earth, and Ashla threw out another ice spell simultaneously. The two spells clashed and formed a crackling mixture of dual magics until they melded into one.
A giant wall made of frosted earth crackled up from the ground, and the sides of it billowed into an awkward, solid crag.
“Well,” Ashla commented in a raised voice, “she’s not getting through that.”
“Careful,” Nia added, “I think we may have--”
The ashen-haired mage was interrupted by a rumbling sound that shook the ground beneath us. Tiny balls of snow rolled from the side of the mountain above us, and I realized what was happening.
“Avalanche!” I shouted to my team. “Run!”
Ashla, Nia, and Varleth were further back than Erin and me, and I couldn’t do anything for them. Instead, I took the mimic’s hand and began to sprint up the path as I towed her along. With luck, all five of us could outrun the spill of snow and rock down the side of the mountain.
Suddenly, a chuck of packed snow slammed into my side and knocked me toward the edge of the cliff. I barely regained my footing, but the precarious mountainside didn’t feel very safe. Erin yelped and dug her feet in as she pulled me back toward the inner part of the path, but I could tell our safety wasn’t going to last.
An enormous flow of snow and rock spilled down the side of the mountain, and it was headed straight for us.
It was an avalanche, and we were directly in its path.
Ashla, Nia, and Varleth were still by the wall, but it looked like they would escape the avalanche entirely. Erin and I couldn’t outrun it, and I knew we had no choice now but to face the avalanche head-on.
I snatched a bullet bass from my bandolier with my free hand and crushed it to the ground at my feet, then the snow enveloped us.
Erin screamed, but I held tight to her hand. My magic worked, and in a split second, we were both covered in the chrome protection of the bullet bass.
Snow and ice pinged off the metallic coating, and I clutched at Erin’s hand like it was my only lifeline as we were swept off the side of the mountain. Snow gushed around us in a blindingly white flow which was only broken by dark glimpses of dead trees caught in the slide.
We bumped and rolled, and I couldn’t see a thing as the blizzard and the avalanche flew around us. I clenched my eyes shut and ignored the dull pain as we ricocheted off rocks with increasing speed.
The noise was deafening, and my stomach dropped as we rolled free from the mountain entirely. Erin and I plummeted with increasing speed as we began to freefall without a single thing to stop us.
Finally, we hit the ground and punched through a thick layer of snow before more avalanche piled on top of us. Darkness enclosed me as debris buried me alive, and my heart pounded with fear as the pressure increased above my head. Then the roar of the avalanche ceased, and I knew the flow had stopped.
Now was our chance.
The pressure of the snow above me was intense, but I knew I could escape if I kept my cool and tried hard. I thrashed and kicked my legs as I dug upward, and I tightened my hand to pull Erin with me.
My hand closed around nothing but snow and air. Somehow, in the fall down the mountain, I’d lost her. When had it happened? Did my bullet bass cover her entire fall, or had she dealt with the impact without an ounce of protection?
My head broke the surface, and I gasped in a desperate lungful of fresh air. Slowly, I clawed and kicked until my back and legs were free as well. Miraculously, my backpack had stayed with me, but my friend was gone.
“Erin?” I called loudly into the white, featureless landscape around me. “Erin, where are you?”
I listened closely, but there was no answer.
Chapter 11
“Erin!” I shouted into the blizzard’s wind.
The valley around us was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and I could see no hint of her in the white expanse. I shouldered through the swath of snow hoping to run into something, anything, but it was just white powder and debris.
Suddenly, a sizzling hole melted through the top crust of the snow. Erin’s hand poked through, and her fingertips were still coated in metal. I let the bullet bass protection drop, and I stumbled through the thick snow as I ran to her.
The warm glow of a fire spell melted the snow around her, and I pushed my way over to the sizzling hole before I seized her hand and heaved. I managed to pull her out with effort, and slushy, half-melted snow spilled from her head and shoulders as she climbed from the hole.
Erin emerged with a wild-eyed look on her face, and her hair and eyelashes were frosted with the cold. She looked free from injury otherwise, and she broke into a relieved smile when she saw me.
“Oh, Gryff,” she cried as she surged forward and wrapped her arms around me. “I was so worried about you.”
“You were worried about me?” I asked with incredulity. “I was worried about you. Besides, my bullet bass would’ve stopped protecting you if I died.”
“I just wasn’t sure,” she burst out as water welled in her eyes. “What if you were hurt, or … “
“We’re both fine,” I assured her, and I gave her a tight hug.
She gripped me back just as hard as we both recovered from our scare. When I pulled back, she ducked forward and kissed me briefly on the lips.
There was no transfer of mana, this time. Ju
st Erin, me, and the snow that swirled around us. She was warm and flushed with adrenaline, and I was just as keyed up with the fear of losing her.
We broke apart, and she looked at me with soft, amber eyes.
“The others are alright?” she asked me, but there wasn’t much of a question in her voice.
“If we both think we saw them escape the avalanche,” I answered, “I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Good,” Erin breathed. “I hope they won’t worry about us.”
“I’m sure they will,” I replied as I peered blindly into the swirling storm overhead. “I just hope they don’t do anything stupid trying to help us.”
“Don’t we kinda need help?” Erin questioned as she leaned into my shoulder.
“Maybe,” I admitted, “but we’ll have to make do. Usually, I’d just summon my pyrewyrm and fly us out, but in this weather … “
“We’d be more likely to fall off and die than make it back to the mountaintop,” Erin confirmed. “Cinder Mountain was too treacherous for us to fly up to begin with, so we shouldn’t start now.”
“Right,” I said. “So, all we have is ourselves and our own two feet.”
“Do we know which way Svellfrer’s Rest is?” Erin asked as she spun slowly to look around.
“I can’t say for sure,” I responded as I waved a hand behind us. “It might be that way, but I don’t know if this valley even comes out by the city at all. We might be stuck in a bowl of snow for the time being.”
“We’ll have to wait, then,” Erin confirmed, “and hope the weather improves.”
“The blizzard has to stop eventually,” I asserted. “We should definitely just wait.”
“Maker, I’m glad I picked up Gawain’s fire powers,” Erin said with relief. “Maybe I can make us a campfire, and we can build a log shelter, or … “
We both looked around at the total lack of trees around us.
“Maybe the forest got buried,” I suggested.
“Or burnt to the ground because this mountain hates us,” Erin replied with grim concern. “Without a shelter, a campfire will go right out, and this wind will freeze our toes even if I summon a fire spell. What’s the use of fire magic if you can’t burn anything?”
“It’ll be useful,” I said as I chewed my lip in thought. “Just let me think through this for a while.”
Erin obliged and stood close so we could shield each other from the wind.
I closed my eyes and ran through my options as I discarded a variety of doubtful theories. I grew up in the Wilds, but I didn’t have much experience with a situation like this. With no trees and no nearby town, we were stuck in a death trap of a valley. My monsters couldn’t help us, so our magical options seemed limited at best.
Finally, a good idea hit.
“We have to make ourselves an ice cave,” I proposed.
“What?” Erin asked. “I’m not a fan of the wind either, but I don’t see how a cave made of ice will help.”
“It’s just like the ice huts some people here make for fishing,” I explained. “They hew chunks of ice and form them into a round structure. The walls are cold, but the inside stays nice and warm if you heat it up with a fire or with body warmth.”
“I could use a tiny globe of flame and keep us perfectly hot through the whole night,” Erin realized as she considered my plan. “Yeah, I think this will definitely work!”
The pilot’s eyes brightened with exultation at the thought, and relief flooded through her expression.
“Alright,” I said as I grinned. “Let’s do this.”
I directed Erin as we troubleshooted our plan to create the ice cave. We stacked chunks of snow into the shape of three walls, and Erin used her borrowed fire magic to melt the sides slightly. I packed the slush into place to form a tighter, stronger wall, and then I let the frigid temperatures do their work.
Soon, we had a lopsided, domed roof to our hut, and I started work on the fourth wall. If we didn’t seal ourselves in, we would lose what precious heat we worked to create.
The sky began to dim as the sun faded behind the mountain range, and the blizzard showed no sign of letting up. We wouldn’t be able to find our friends tonight, but the ice hut was almost finished. Erin and I stopped when the hole was sized roughly large enough to crawl through.
“Think it’s ready?” Erin asked nervously as her amber eyes flickered over our questionable construction.
“It doesn’t seem like it’ll fall down very easily,” I said in return with a shrug. “I’m not sure there’s much more we can do but go inside and seal it up.
“Probably better to stop when the sun goes down anyway,” Erin agreed. “Temperatures are going to drop.”
We glanced at each other with obvious concern, but I took the plunge and went first. I shucked my backpack before I crouched on all fours and crawled into the opening with trepidation.
Ice scraped against my back, but there was more than enough room for me to maneuver inside. I slid my legs through and turned around as Erin shoved my travel pack through the hole.
I pulled it inside and gestured for her to come after me.
“Nice and cozy in here!” I called with a grin.
“Coming in!” she answered back with a giggle.
Erin stretched and dropped to all fours before she began to wiggle inside as well.
“Nice view from here,” I commented, and it earned me another high, delighted laugh from her.
As she entered, I examined her for scrapes and scratches. She looked remarkably good, thanks to the bullet bass coating, but her coat and winter pants had suffered in the fall. Rips and tears revealed the layers of clothing beneath, and some of those were damaged as well. She must have lost her backpack as well, I realized, because I hadn’t seen it since the fall.
It was a pain to have to replace everything inside a big hiking bag like that, but Erin hadn’t said a word about it. I knew both of us were far more grateful to have escaped with our lives, not to mention how happy we were to see Ashla, Varleth, and Nia make an almost-certain escape from the avalanche.
“Alright,” Erin sighed as she pulled her feet through the hole and into the ice hut. “Now we’re pretty much done, right?”
“Just about,” I replied as I eyed the hole. “We have to fill that with more icy snow, then we can rest and start to warm up the hut.”
“Awesome,” Erin said with a relieved smile. “I sure am sore and cold, I have to say.”
“I know what you mean,” I replied as I gathered loose snow from the bottom of the ice hut.
I packed the snow between my gloves and tamped it into the hole until there was only a small hole for air. As I did, our thin beam of fading sunlight disappeared from view, and we were plunged into darkness.
“Wow,” Erin whispered into the pitch-black of our man made cave.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I left a small hole for air, so we won’t be completely without sunlight.”
“Good,” she replied with a nod. “Maybe we can keep an eye on the blizzard to see if it stops, too.”
A fire spell flared to life, and Erin was illuminated by its soft, yellow glow. She scooted over and held the flame against the new snow, and it melted slightly to seal against the rest of the wall. With time, it would freeze into ice, and we would be completely trapped inside our own ice hut.
“It’s pretty dark,” Erin commented with a smile as she shivered, “but I prefer this to that blizzard wind.”
“Me too,” I agreed, and I pulled myself close to her to wrap my arm around her shoulders.
“How long until it gets warm in here, do you think?” Erin asked as she held her globe of soft fire aloft.
“Maybe a while,” I admitted, “but it will hold the heat really well.”
The orange-haired mimic leaned into me, and her shivering gradually slowed as she absorbed some of my body heat.
“I’ve never been truly out in the Wilds like this before,” Erin spoke softly to me.
&
nbsp; “I doubt even many Wilds people have,” I told her seriously. “Not everybody wanders from town to town doing odd jobs. Lots of people who live in the Wilds just spend their lives living at home and talking to the same neighbors all their lives. It’s not too different from the Enclaves, in that way.”
“I guess,” Erin responded with a smile. “Still, I just hadn’t realized how dangerous nature itself can be. I thought my only worries were monsters and the Shadowscape, but not everything dangerous comes through a rift.”
“That’s true,” I agreed with a nod. “I’m sure from a state of the art airship, not even the weather can really threaten you. I know you fly in all kinds of situations without a shred of fear.”
“I used to,” Erin whispered as her eyes flickered up to meet mine. “Maybe I was wrong to have so much faith in my flying skill, though. I thought nothing could go wrong, since I knew what I was doing. That’s not true, is it?”
“I … I guess it isn’t,” I admitted. “You can’t control freak accidents like this one. You’re one of the best pilots I know, but bad things can happen in the best of circumstances. It’s not very comforting, but it’s true, and I think that’s just part of life.”
“I think I get it,” Erin replied with a frown.
“It’s out of your control,” I suggested, “so just don’t worry about it.”
Erin leaned her chin on my shoulder and sighed.
“Why do you always have to be so smart?” she asked as she ran her hand over the back of my shoulder. “It makes me look bad.”
“Sorry,“ I apologized, but her words put a smile on my face. “I do think it’s funny you were helping me out just a couple days ago, and now you think I’m the one with it all together.”
“We’re both a little ridiculous,” Erin stated with a soft smile. “Aren’t we?”
“We are,” I confirmed.
The ice hut was beginning to really warm up, and I could tell the soft, radiating heat of Erin’s floating orb of flame was taking effect. The mimic’s shivering had faded away, and the air didn’t feel nearly as cold compared to the floor below us.
“C’mon,” I said. “I think if I spread out my blanket, we can sleep on it for a warmer night.”
