Chapter 3
When I woke, there was a little bit of light streaming through the cracks in the ceiling. It was a safe assumption the tower above no longer was there. The stairway had rubble blocking the way out.
I sat up and looked around. Everyone seemed to be shivering. As I thought about it, it was rather cold, but not unbearably cold as the others were making it seem.
“Where are we?” Cortanna asked through chattering teeth.
“I’m pretty sure we’re in the Northern Waste-” Sanji began to say.
“No, don’t go over there! Just leave the penguins alone,” Cortanna demanded. Well all looked at her wondering what she was doing.
“Well if there’s Penguins, we definitely are in the Northern Waste then,” Sanji said to me and Kedra. Sanji then walks over to one of the walls and opens a door I hadn’t noticed. He walks outside into this white stuff that looked to be everywhere. I peered out after him. He looked at the top of the tower. It is here I realized he had but his shirt and vest back on.
“Yeah, it’s completely collapsed. But the bed’s up there. Gonna go get the bedding so the girls can cover up so they won’t freeze,” Sanji told me. He then disappeared. I wanted to go with him, but the door was much too small. As I sat back, suddenly I’m swarmed by little red creatures. They cling to my exposed skin. I look at one that’s about the size of my thumb. It had little horns, red skin and a pointed tail. They looked vaguely like me. They were very cute to me.
I felt a sharp pain in my arm and looked to see a sore in the spot the creature last night had stabbed me. It was red and oozing pus. The little red creatures were clinging near it which made it hurt.
“Hey little guys, if you’re cold, you need to be gentle around this spot. It hurts a lot,” I explained to them. The creatures looked at me and gave a wide berth. I worried about the sore. I tried lifting the scythe with my wounded arm and it hurt way too much. That made me concerned. What was to happen to my arm if I didn’t get it treated?
Sanji came back in with the bedding. Cortanna and Kedra wrapped themselves in and seemed to be happier with the added warmth.
“So what do we do now?” I asked.
“Well, we’re right outside the Ice Tyrant city... so if we go in there, we’re probably gonna die. If we walk toward the penguins I saw, we could survive, but after that is just barren waste land of snow and ultimate death too. Or we can head in the other direction away from the penguins and Ice Tyrant, but that’s likely to kill us too,” Sanji said. Talk about how delightful those options were.
“Surely there are other towns and villages near by,” Cortanna said.
“There are. The trick is finding them,” Sanji answered.
“Then lets try and find one,” I said. Everyone seemed to reluctantly agree. Sanji turned me into a creature that could dig very well. I got myself out and soon was turned back into my normal self. The red creatures had for a moment left me when I had transformed. Now they clung to my skin with earnest once more.
“Why are those imps clinging to you Penelope?” Cortanna asked.
“I suspect they’re cold,” I responded.
“Oh yeah, they were in the bedding and I told them to go find something else to cling to. You probably shouldn’t keep them Penelope,” Sanji added.
“Why not? They’re kinda cute.” There was an obvious shudder from the group.
“First off, they’re evil. Secondly, they’re licking your wound,” Sanji pointed out. Sure enough I look over and I spot one of the imps licking my wound. Granted, it didn’t hurt any,but it was kind of gross. However, what if them licking it was cleaning it? I decided to test if Sanji was right about them being evil.
I picked up one of the imps and tried placing it on Sanji. A force field about an inch thick prevented the imp from touching Sanji. A felt the hairs on my neck rise. Were they evil!? But what have they done that would make them evil? As much as I wanted to bid them to the cold element of the Northern Waste, I did have a couple dozen of these imp creatures clinging to me... would they harm me or my party if I suddenly casted them out? What if they were like me and just misunderstood by folk because they hadn’t taken the time to get to know them?
“Um... I see what your spell thingy did, but... I’m going to let them stick around. No sense being mean to them since they haven’t done anything to us that would suggest they’re evil,” I defended. The others looked ready to protest, but I suppose my logic helped them understand why we should give them a chance.
Sanji then took off in a direction and we followed. I had fun picking the snow up and holding it in my hands. It was such a curious thing. Never had I heard of it. How was it something so soft and moldable was so cold? It was interesting how it melted on my tongue. All it was was just cold water. I really wanted to lay down in it, but alas, I kept moving on after Sanji.
As the sun got high in the sky, a village came into view. It was a pleasant contrast to the whiteness everywhere. I could see folk walking out of the town. I suppose they don’t see many folk traveling between the towns.
“Imps, don’t you give yourself away,” I whispered. I figured if the group was repulsed by them, that maybe this town would be too, and I didn’t want to hinder my friends from a warm place to sleep tonight. I could feel the little creature flatten themselves on me. It almost looked as though I was wearing some kind of leather shrug. I could feel them still shift over to my wound to lick at it.
“Leave that wound alone! You need to be still or I’ll leave you all right here in the snow!” I demanded. The imp at my wound went back to the others and they all became very still.
“Hello there,” a voice called out as we got closer.
“Hi!” I responded, waving my free hand above my head. A look of shock appeared on their faces.
“Wow, what are you?” one of the men asked as they eyed me. I felt sheepish suddenly. I was the only one not wearing warm clothes, though the imps seemed to make it appear I was wearing a red shrug. And I was tall on top of it all.
“She’s a fey creature,” Sanji announced. I looked confused at him as well as the townsfolk.
“What’s a fey creature?” the man asked.
“Nothing to be afraid of. Anyways, we’ve been abandoned in the tundra and were wondering if we could work for a place to stay and some food to eat?”
The folk conversed a little bit. He said they did have a few odd jobs we could help with. I volunteered to break the ice. If only I knew my strength better than I did. It was hard to gauge too with my hurt arm. My good arm to lift the scythe just fine, but without the added strength of my right arm, I kept hitting the spike too hard. I feared I would sink the village if I continued my efforts seeing cracks forming in directions they weren’t meant to go.
The man, Humphrey, mentioned that the roads needed to be cleared. They had a log, which he spoke with greatest envy, that they put a chain on. THey drag it through the streets to clear the recent snowfall.I figured that would suite me better. Humphrey tried to offer help, but the log was nothing to me. With the scythe in my left hand, I braced the chain in my left elbow and held firm with my right hand the excess chain.
It’s suffice to say I managed to clear the roads with minimal damage to the buildings lining the road. If my arm wasn’t weak and the chain was on either end of the log, I know I would have been able to have cleared those roads flawlessly. Alas, I cringed every time I slipped and heard the scraping of log against ice.
Once i was done, Humphrey tried to give me an encouraging tap on the shoulders. I heard him say ‘ow!’ to which I assumed he pricked his finger on the horn of one of my imps. Humphrey didn’t seem to notice the imps, but when he held his finger out and I could clearly see a bite mark.
“I’m sorry, my coat is oddly prickly...” I lied, “I should have mentioned that... I’m sorry,” I repeated. Humphrey brushed it off, though it seemed he was clearly hurting from the bite. He asked for me to just stay put and he’d be sure to get accommodations made for me and my friends.
I did as I was told. I sat down right where he asked me to stay. The irritation toward the imps grew a little. Why was it one of them would bite the guy!? Maybe they were trying to protect me? Just then, Sanji showed up.
“You look upset,” Sanji pointed out. I rolled my eyes.
“Humphrey patted my shoulder and got bit,” I mentioned.
“I told you those things are evil,” Sanji stated. I slumped down. Did one little bite make a creature evil? Was that just a taste of what they will do? What if they decide to turn on me?
As I thought about the possibilities, one of the imps flew in front of my face. It’s face was sad and it gestured at it’s tummy and it’s mouth. A light bulb went off in my head. They didn’t hurt Humphrey maliciously, they’re just hungry! Great... how was I to feed 2 dozen imps?
“I’m sorry little guy,” I whispered, “I don’t have anything to eat either.” The imp flew over to my right arm and pointed to the wound. It wasn’t hurting any more than what I was already experiencing, so I figured them feeding off of it was cleaning the wound and therefore helping it heal.
“I guess they’re just hungry Sanji,” I told him, “I’m going to walk outside of town a distance and wait ‘til dinner is prepared. I won’t travel beyond sight of the town.”
“Suppose I’ll go check on the others while you do that,” Sanji said, “But remember, they may be hungry, but I doubt the bite was by accident,” Sanji persisted. I nodded and made my way out of the village. Once a good distance away I let the imps feed on me.
“Okay you little imps,” I began, “Don’t you go biting anyone else. That’s not a nice thing to do. Humphrey was giving me a little pat on the shoulders. I know you’re hungry, but that’s no excuse for hurting people who haven’t harmed you.” I don’t know if any of it was getting to them. They seemed sorry with their big eyes looking at me, at least the ones I could see.
Eventually it was time to go eat with the town. I told the imps to be still and reminded them to not bite anyone. The townsfolk had some kind of hairy cow that they killed. For whatever reason, they don’t cook their meat. I must say though, raw meat tasted great! I don’t know why my parents didn’t feed me raw meat before! I even saved some for the imps to help with their hunger.
Humphrey never showed up for dinner. Sanji said he had gone to get it checked out after he saw it. I sure hope Humphrey will be alright.
The townsfolk put us into an igloo, a house made of ice. Cortanna had received a nice set of winter clothes. I still didn’t understand why they needed extra clothes. It wasn’t that bad. After giving the imps some of the meat I saved, I hunkered down for the night. The imps made space so I didn’t squish them. Sanji used this rope trick of his to make a room so Cortanna wouldn’t have to sleep on the cold floor. It is here that Sanji leaves the igloo suddenly after getting Cortanna secured. I wonder what he was in such a hurry to get to?
No comments:
Post a Comment