by Allan Joyal
She giggled. "Father is a huge sports fan. He would complain about three-way trades all the time. I figured it might work here."
"Good plan," I said as Relway took the jar. It vanished into one of his sleeves. "Beatia!" he shouted. "Bring out two campaign chairs."
"Thank you," I said. My friends all gathered at the entrance to the store. Rolway sat down next to the fire, sulking.
Beatia came out a moment later, carrying two of the strange wooden and leather chairs in her arms. She looked at me and nodded.
Jennifer stepped forward and held her hands out. Beatia placed the chairs in her arms and then turned and ran from the room, covering her mouth with a piece of cloth.
"Can't say I blame her," Heather whispered to me. "The smoke is nasty."
I nodded and then started towards the door. "Our thanks again Relway," I said. "We'll be prepared to meet with you tomorrow."
"I'll be there," Relway promised. "And thanks for the phantom caps. This will help me quite a bit with the wizards."
"You're welcome, and I guess we'll see you tomorrow. For now, we have a sledge to look at," I said as I passed through the doorway. Heather and Jennifer followed me out.
"Should anyone go back?" Steve asked.
"If the ladies want to go back, I'll understand," I said. "More people to help at the shed might be useful. We won't know until we get there."
"We should get there quickly then," Hencktor stated. "It's cold, and the sooner we are back home, the sooner we can be warm."
"We'll go with you," Natalie said as she put her arm around Esme. "It's only fair."
Rolway stepped out and found us standing around. He scowled and then, without a word, starting walking toward the gates to the city.
We followed him quietly. Rolway had his hands buried in a bundle of fur he held against his stomach. His gait was stiff legged as he attempted to step over even the smallest rises and drifts. Our trek had taken us almost to the gates, when he turned right down a side street.
There was a group of people working to clear the street. Rolway led us to the cleared area, still refusing to turn back and acknowledge us. We could have just stopped and the man would have continued on his way.
As we followed the road, I noticed that the curving city walls were slowly creeping closer on our left. The houses on that side of the street were now a considerable distance apart. Here the street was not as well cared for, although there was still a path carved through the snow.
Ahead, I could see the city walls as they blocked the road. Only three houses remained along the left side of the path, when Rolway turned right and led us across the road.
Now we were climbing the snowdrift. The sun had been out since the morning, but the snow was still soft, and our feet sank deep into the snow with each step. Rolway took to throwing the fur he had been carrying down onto the snow and then crawling up it to reach the top of each drift. We fought up and down four drifts before Rolway halted.
When I reached him a few minutes later, he put a hand on my shoulder. With his other hand, he pointed to our left. I could see the top of a roof. The drifts actually obscured the bottom as I squinted through the glare thrown up by sunlight reflecting on the ice. "That's the shed," Rolway told me.
Before I could reply, the young man turned around and started fighting his way back toward the path. I stayed at the top of the drift. Ahead, there was one more drift to cross, but I thought I might be able to skirt the edge and reach a corner of the shed. I spun around so that my legs were in front and slid down the side of the drift.
The snow at the bottom of the gully barely slowed my fall and I ended up imbedded to my waist. Behind me, I could hear Heather calling to the others that the shed was in sight as I dug myself out of the snow.
"Thank god," Jennifer moaned. "I saw Rolway heading the other direction, so I'm guessing he didn't stay to see if we find anything."
"No," I called out as I started fighting my way through the snow. My legs felt heavy, but I still made a slow progress around the final drift.
What felt like an hour later, I reached out and put my hand against the wood of the roof. The snow here was soft, and I had sunk to my knees. Experimentally I kicked with my left foot. It punched through the snow, meeting no resistance until my shin struck something sharp and hard.
The numbness in my legs shielded me from any hurt. I tried moving my leg back and forth. Snow fell away from my foot, and I found myself sliding downward. I knelt down and reached under the hard surface.
I could feel cool air once my arm was completely under the surface. I tried lifting my arm and heard a dull thud.
"We must be just above the eave," Steve said as he arrived. He was breathing hard, but held up two shovels. "Shall we dig?"
I stood up and claimed one of the shovels. Steve nodded and then began by clearing the snow from the roof, working down to try to find the real edge.
I worked on expanding the hole we had already discovered. I found I had to stand to the side, because the snow kept sliding downward, as I dug. Heather arrived and was squatting down, watching the hole become bigger.
"I think I can fit," she cried after Steve had revealed a six-foot section of the roof. "Should I try?"
"Can you see in there?" Jennifer asked.
"Barely," Heather admitted as Steve and I started working to enlarge the hole. "It looks like we're about seven feet from the floor. The tumbling snow has created a bit of a ramp though."
"Slide on in," I told her. "If you can make it, I say we all enter. It should be easier to clear the snow from inside."
"Warmer if we aren't standing in it," Esme said. "We need to get a bit warmer. I want to be back in front of the fire."
"We all do," Heather said as Steve and I stepped back. She pushed herself forward and then lay back as she vanished below the roof. Steve and I jumped forward, to clear a bit more snow after seeing how close she was to hitting the roof.
"You okay?" I called out.
"Fine," Heather said. "Only, there's more here than just a sledge, and I don't recognize any of it."
Steve and I looked at the hole. "It would be easier to clear it from inside," Steve said. "We could just pull the snow downward and help widen the ramp."
"Let's go," I said. "Heather, we're going to start coming down."
"I'm out of the way," Heather called back. "I think I've found the sledge."
I glanced over at Henck to find that he was lifting Jennifer and setting her on top of the slide we had created. "Ladies first," he reminded us.
Jennifer quickly vanished under the roof. Esme followed, giggling as she sped forward. Natalie tried to get into position. She was grimacing as she sat down on the snow.
"You hurting?" I asked. I stepped forward thinking to help, but she raised a right hand and waved me back.
"The cold makes my right knee ache. I'll be fine," she hissed before she pushed off and descended under the roof.
Henck looked at the hole. "I think you might need to make it a bit larger for me."
Steve stepped forward and dropped onto the snow where the girls had started from. "I can do this," he stated as he held the shovel in his lap. "Give me a push."
Henck and I pushed him forward, and like the others he lay down to duck under the roof. I heard giggling from below. "Wipe out!" Heather sang out.
I rolled my eyes, but sat down on the ice. After so many others had slid down it, the snow was packed and slick. Henck gave me a push, and I found my body rushing towards the roof. I lay back just in time to avoid hitting my head against the edge. The ramp curved back towards horizontal, and I bent my legs to slow down as I reached the bottom. I slid off the ice and came to an abrupt halt on hard packed dirt.
Behind me, Steve was already working to expand the opening. I stood up to join him, but Heather grabbed my arm. "You need to see what we found," she told me.
"I can do this, or Jennifer can help," Steve said.
Jennifer grabbed the shovel from my hands as H
eather turned my body to look around. It was quickly clear that this shed had no walls, but was simply a steeply sloped roof standing on four wooden pillars. Snow had blown in on one side, but the amount of equipment filling the space had kept it from filling the center. We found that we could look through items that were on the leeward side of the barn. There was an assortment of wooden and metal devices scattered around the floor and stacked on top of each other.
Heather was dragging me towards a small cluster of items. I allowed her to guide me through the debris and found Esme and Natalie examining a large wooden platform.
The platform was as wide as a person is tall, and perhaps twice as long. It was sitting several inches above the ground, and I bent down to look underneath it. The dim light in the room made it hard to make out, but it appeared to have a solid block of wood running along the side of the board.
I was still looking it over when Henck made his way over. He looked at what we were examining and snorted. "It's too big. We'll never be able to pull it through soft snow."
"Damn," Natalie said. "I was hoping to be able to ride it and not walk."
Everyone laughed at her comment. I was disappointed, and started to look through the rest of the items. "It's like they dumped stuff they weren't using here." I said.
"Yes," Heather said as she started climbing over the large sledge.
I walked over to the far corner. Here, most of the items appeared to be broken. I could see a number of shovels and brooms with broken handles and even found a rusting axe head lying on the ground next to a bundle of wood. The bundle puzzled me, and I tugged on it. At first it resisted, but then I stumbled backward as a huge part of the debris moved toward me with a crash.
Esme was by my side a moment later. "Did you get hurt?" she asked as she patted at my arms and chest.
"I'm fine," I said as stood back up. I walked back over to the bundle and could now see another bundle lying on the ground. The bundles were about three feet apart and clearly connected in some way. I pulled everything out again. This time I could see the two wooden arches that connected the bundles as well as a rope holding the bundles together. I pulled out my knife and cut the top bundle apart.
The bundle broke into two pieces. It wasn't a bundle of sticks, but what looked more like two thick skis that had been tied together. Esme gasped.
"What are those?" she asked.
Steve had come over after the first crash. He pulled on both skis, dragging everything out into the open area of the shed. We could now see that the bundles were kept separated by a mesh of wood and leather. At the far end, the bundles connected through an arced piece of wood that bent away from the runners.
"It looks like it might be a pair of dog sleds," Steve said. "We'd have to try them out, but that's the closest I can come up with."
Heather had squatted down to take a closer look at the assemblies of wood and leather. She ran her hands over the lower bundle and then held her hand up. "Knife please," she said.
I handed her my knife and she cut something. Then she pushed the lower bundle apart. Like the top bundle, it was two thick ski-like pieces of wood, attached to the rest of the assembly.
Henck picked up one of the sleds and pulled it the rest of the way out from the pile of tools. He set it down on the skis. Everyone stepped around it to take a closer look.
The assembly did not look much like my idea of a sled. The runners were probably three inches thick. At the rear of the sled, they stuck out over a foot. Jennifer jumped up on them. She had a bit of a grimace on her face. "They are a bit wide apart to stand on both at the same time."
Steve was looking at the front, where the runners came up off the ground and then curved inward. He shook his head. "This isn't a great design. If you hit a rock, you'll probably break the front of this thing."
I knelt down to press on the lattice of leather that spread between the runners. It was stiff. The leather was in fairly good shape, with only a few cracks showing. I checked the front and could see no harness connected.
"If the other one is in good shape, we could use these," I said. "But this one has no harness."
"I could set something up," Hencktor said. "But it would take a few hours, and I need to know what will be pulling these."
"Can we get them out of here?" Heather asked.
"Push it back up the ramp," I said. "Is there anything else we want to take?"
"Most of the tools are too rusted to be of much use," Steve said. "I saw a couple of small carts, probably meant to be pulled by a dog over dry ground, but we can't use those now."
"Dogs?" Esme asked.
"If I remember correctly, the American Plains Indians used dogs until they first met the white man. Horses are not native to North America. Before that time, the Indians walked," I said.
Steve was looking at the ramp. "Should someone be up there to catch the sled and pull it up?"
Heather and Esme both ran over by the ramp. "Send us up," Heather said.
The idea proved to be a bit more difficult than the reality. The snow that made up the slope had turned to ice. Heather and Esme slipped several times. Finally, Hencktor stood next to the ramp and pulled and pushed them out of the shelter of the shed. We heard their steps crunch in the snow as they stood up.
"Send up the first one," Heather called.
Steve and I went back to the pile to retrieve the sled we had not looked closely at. It proved to be awkward to maneuver through the shed, but we carried it to the bottom of the ramp and set it on the runners. Hencktor stood to the side, his hands ready to reach out and grab the sled.
"One big push," Steve said. "On, one … two … ."
Steve and I pushed off and pumped our legs like sprinters coming out of the blocks. The sled skidded as the runners left the dirt and started to climb the ramp. We managed to push it until our feet hit the base of the ramp and slipped.
Hencktor had expected this. He reached out with both hands and grabbed the side of the sled. Then with the muscles in his arms bulging, he walked his hands down the sled and pushed it upward until the front end was beyond the edge of the roof.
He held it there for a moment, and then it was pulled from his hands. He sagged back as the sled slid the rest of the way up the ramp and vanished.
"Damn," Heather called out. "This thing is heavier than I expected. Is the other one in good shape?"
"That is the other one," I said as Jennifer and Natalie helped Steve maneuver the second one into position at the base of the ramp. Jennifer then went to stand across from Hencktor to the side of the ramp.
Steve and I got behind the sled. I could see Steve about to talk when I realized something. "Wait. Let's put the shovels on this one. Otherwise they'll make getting out just a bit harder."
"I can get them," Natalie said. She limped around, picking up our discarded tools. It seemed to take several minutes and two trips before she put her hand on my arm. "There, that's everything.
I looked down, expecting to see two shovels, and found a treasure trove of shovels, hoes, and other metal items. One had a strange curved inner blade that ended in a sharp point. Natalie had also found two good woodsman's axes and placed them on the sled.
"Where did you find all of that?" Steve asked.
Natalie just giggled. "Women's intuition. Now can we get out of here? I want to sit in front of the fire and cuddle with my love."
I looked at Steve and shrugged. "Sled out of the shed, take two."
"Go," Steve said.
We charged forward. The sled jumped up the ramp, but once again, we slipped when we reached the slope. Jennifer and Hencktor then took over, pushing the sled from the sides until Esme and Heather could pull it out of the hole.
Everyone was breathing heavily when we were finished. "Climbing that is going to suck," I said.
Natalie was over by one of the piles of broken tools. She limped back, holding several broken handles. Nothing was said as she walked up to the bottom of the ramp. She pulled one of the handles from
the pile she was carrying and thrust it into the edge of the ramp.
Natalie then pulled herself forward, using the embedded handle for leverage against the slippery slope. When she could advance no further, she pulled another handle from the pile and thrust it into the show above the first. That one would become her new anchor has she dragged herself up until her head bumped into the roof.
Natalie then knelt down carefully. She had two remaining handles, which she thrust into the snow very close to the edge of the roof. Then she rolled onto her back and pulled herself up. She got her head above the edge of the roof, and then shadows from the side seemed to drag her out of the shed.
Steve and I just looked at each other. "Permission to feel stupid," Steve said. "I guess we now have a way out."
Jennifer was the first to follow Natalie. Her progress was much quicker as she was not carrying anything and soon she was pulled out of sight. Henck looked over at Steve and me. "You both better go first," he said. "I'm not sure the girls could pull me out."
"You first this time," I told Steve. He shook his head and grabbed the first handle. At first his progress was faster than the girls, but he had a bit of trouble when he reached the roof. The final pair of handles was above his head when he lay down. Henck and I had to push on his feet to help him get enough leverage to pull himself out of the shed.
Once his feet disappeared through the hole, I reached for the first pole. The snow ramp was now covered by a layer that had melted and refroze enough times to be slick as ice. The wooden poles that Natalie had driven into the snow provided leverage as I staked up the ramp until my head was against the roof.
At that point I carefully knelt down and then, holding the pole to my left in my right hand, I rolled over onto my back. I reached up but had trouble finding the pole. The girls had the advantage of lying on their stomachs so they could look at the pole. From my back, I had to flail around for a moment until my fingers finally made contract.
"I'll give you a push," Henck said. I felt his hand on my left foot. He shoved me up the ramp. The power of his thrust carried me high enough that I could easily grab the pole and thrust my head through the hole.