By my dead reckoning it was eleven in the morning. Which meant I'd lost a whole day to the storm. How many does that make it now? I shook my head trying to rattle the numbers into place. Too many… I told myself, knowing my wounded leg reduced my chances of success.
Because of the time of year I had plenty of light to guide my limping steps, for the sun only allowed the dark of night to touch our land for a mere hour of time. In a few more days the sun wouldn't even allow that for the span of two months.
I just wish I knew how long my animal held control. With that knowledge I could determine how long of a rest I could take once I spot the stone landmark before I set upon the wolves guarding Joann and Clair.
Those thoughts barely finished swimming up in my consciousness when my toes collided with an immoveable object below the ice-capped hill, which gave out to my weight. First there was pain as toes and leg bone collided. Next came the ice pack, which I hit face first. I broke through into a hole beneath the ice. A fast tumble, a howl from my throat, and I landed in ice water. Startled and shocked into full presence of mind, I sought to escape the water in the dark.
Soaked to the skin yet again, I stood up in the light chilly wind and wrapped my arms around myself as I glared down in the hole. Damn, I'll need to dry out or freeze. Slowly I made out part of the wall landmark the hairless apes made long ago buried in the snow. “Uh oh…” was all I got out before a white blur of figures took me off my pads. Surprise, combined with pain, fatigue and a bad case of the shivers, made any attempt on my part to combat the well-fed and rested wolves futile.
Trussed-up like a birthday pig for the fire pit, I was knocked unconscious for easer transport. When I came to, it was by prodding to my side by a slat of wood broken off of a crate.
“Wakey-wakey,” a condescending voice requested.
“Hmmm…” I sought to open my eyes.
The same slat of wood slapped my muzzle. “Wake up!”
“Ow!” My complaint, though loud in my ears, had a hard time leaving my throat. My muzzle had been tied shut.
“There, that's better.” The wolf who stood before me cleared his throat. “Now that I have your attention, let me introduce myself. I'm Pyrois Dwyre, husband to Sassa Snow, presumably your sister.” My brother in-law did a formal bow. “I'm sure you're confused and disorientated, which is fine by me. However, my lovely Sassa asked that I inform you of a few things.”
Fully awake, I found Joann and Clair chained up on the hairless apes' ancient wall on either side of me. Worse yet, we were all chained up on the section the clan used to punish those who disobeyed clan laws. Punishment by a death sentence.
Pyrois eyed the sun, which hung in the sky at a level that said I'd been out for an hour or more. “Because Lovisa bested those opposing her, your father declared her clan leader by the law. Because of this, Sassa easily stepped in as mother of the clan. However, should you win out in your bid to reclaim the clan, she would have to step down as clan mother once you take a wife. She and I are opposed to that.”
But I don't want to be clan leader! I tried to tell him, save the rope around my muzzle made my words come out as if I were mumbling. “Mm m mm mo me mmummemmmr!”
“Save your breath, Byrghir. Trying to appeal to my conscience will avail you nothing.”
“Mmf mum mot my maa!” Uh, shit, he'll never understand me. In desperation I turned my head and tried to dislodge the rope by rubbing it on my arm. The act, though useless, did cause him to hit me yet again with the slat of wood.
“Pay attention, Byrghir…” Slap. “I'm trying to be respectful. The least you can do is hear me out.” Pyrois cleared his throat and resettled his shoulder belt. “As Elov Snow's son, regardless of your abandonment of the clan, you deserve a proper burial. However, no reasonable way could be contrived that didn't involve Lovisa having to kill you in battle. Although she is certain she could do so, there was that minute possibility you'd do her harm, for which she'd have to step down as leader.” Pyrois poked me with the slat of wood. “I thought to honor you by spiking your water with loco weed the morning of your run. I figured after some kilometers out on the glacier the drug would take over your mind and you'd disappear out on the ice where you'd run afoul of a polar bear, or at the very least another clan, in time. This would have guaranteed you a proper death.”
My ears perked up. So that's why my animal escaped so easily. Had I not been starving, I could very well have done as he planned.
Pyrois noted my raised ears but mistook the reason. “I appreciate that you understand me. Sadly, I must have put too little in the water, that or Lovisa was right in her thoughts an Alpha could fight off the effects. Regardless, she set me a task to await you at the second marker and make certain you failed to continue.” Pyrois began to pace. “Of course, her orders were to kill you on sight. But I will admit it rankles my fiber to do so.” He turned back to me. “You're my wife's brother, and regardless of your reasons for abandoning the clan, you're now family. Still I can't let you live, so this is my only alternative.”
Pyrois turned to the other wolf with him. “Lykaon, pull that crate of meat over and cast it out under their pads.”
“Right, cousin.”
While Lykaon did as asked, Pyrois told me. “As you know, polar bears are known to have a good sense of smell. Though frozen, the meat below your pads should be enough to attract the bears.” When the crate was emptied, Pyrois looked me in the eyes. “I'd free your muzzle to give you a chance to get a bite out of the bears if I was certain you'd keep quiet until they arrive.” Pyrois shrugged, signaled Lykaon, and the pair of them set out at a leisurely jog.
Once the two were well on their way, I looked more closely at Joann and Clair. Though both looked well fed, both held a look of fatigue. This afforded me a clue they'd been hanging on the cold wall for more than a day, perhaps two. Joann's sad eyes and my own met. While my muzzle could easily be tied shut with rope, a white-tail jackrabbit's could not, so instead a cloth had been shoved in her mouth and another tied around her head to keep it in place. I lowered my ears and whimpered; it was all I could do to say how very sorry I was. She lowered her head and nodded understanding. She looked down at the meat below her pads. Her head raised so her eyes could see the crate some centimeters away. After which she looked out onto the ice pack. I followed her eyes in looking at each item her gaze passed over. If a polar bear did come before she succumbed to the cold weather, he or she would tear into us without question. It'd be a horrible way to die and torture to my soul to see Joann torn asunder. But it was the law of the ice pack. Eat or be eaten. Meat was protein and to live on the ice you needed a lot of it.
With the knowledge I'd outlast Joann and Clair should no bear show up, I sagged within my thoughts, despondent. Surly a polar bear would come along and finish the torture started a day or so back. Still I couldn't help but turn my head and look at Clair with guilty eyes, only to have my guilt deepen upon seeing she'd already given up hope. A movement beyond Clair caught my watering eyes.
Oscar? Of all animals to see chained up here, I'd never had thought of him. From what I'd gathered he was a guest of the clan, and that meant the clan was honor bound to protect him. This goes beyond simple dishonor. This means the clan holds no traditions as sacred. Which in my mind meant the clan was going rogue. I looked at his face and saw he looked mad as hell. Hell, if he still held the vocal cords of his ancestors, I do believe he would've barked at the receding backs of the wolves in the distance.
After a little struggle, Oscar managed to loosen the ropes around his shorter muzzle and once they were off, he huffed, “Well, wolf, don't just hang there like a normal animal might. You're an Alpha Male. Prove it!”
I rolled my eyes. With the rope still holding my muzzle shut, I couldn't respond.
****
Chapter 13:
The Archeologist Dream: Our Only Chance?
Movement to my right caught my attention. Joann raised her ears and set her jaw. She pulled up one leg
then the other in what appeared to be an exercise. After a moment of deep breathing and being far more limber than I, she used her stomach muscles to pull both her legs up at once. Even though it was near on impossible, she bent her pads to place the tips of her toes below her upraised jaw to scratch at the cloth around her muzzle. I took more notice and saw the strain in her whole body this act was causing her. Ears lowered, jaw tense, paws flat against the wall and pads shaking in effort she worked at the cloth over her mouth.
Oscar also took notice. “That’s it. Don't give up.”
Her toenails caught the fabric just right and the cloth came off so she could spit out the rag, whereby she straightened out in great relief.
“Now talk some sense into your fiancé,” Oscar complained.
Joann looked out in front of her but her scathing glare and words wore solely meant for Oscar. “Shut it, fox.”
Oscar looked at Joann with questionable insult.
Joann leaned her head out away from the wall and called past me, “Clair.” When she gained no response she shouted, “Clair!”
This afforded her a sorrowful look.
“I need your help. Braxton can't double up as we can. I need your help to work off those ropes around his muzzle.”
Clair glanced up at my face. She worked her jaw and found her gag was loose. With this discovery and a little work to spit out the rag in her mouth she was able to work words past the remaining cloth and snapped. “At what end…? So we can hear his apologies for getting us killed like this? For getting my husband killed?”
Ouch! That hurts. Worse yet, totally true.
“Clair, I understand the pain you're in. I grieve wholeheartedly alongside you. But you must put away your sorrow briefly and aid me in this if we're to have a chance to survive.”
“A chance?” Clair's voice held just-checked tears. “Do you think his teeth are strong enough to bite through steal?”
“Never mind what I think. Just help me!”
“I've no idea what your sister plans, but prudence suggests you aid her,” Oscar advised.
Clair became lively and snapped at Oscar. “Shut it, fox. You're already on my shit list for forcing us to pack out here your crates of—of whatever they are.”
“Would you rather have been dinner for those wolves?” Oscar inquired with anger in his words.
I looked at Clair then at Oscar. He saw me and glared. “Don't you go and judge me, wolf. It was either that—”
“We know, we know,” Joann cut in. “We owe you our lives.”
“Damn straight you do.”
“Yeah sure, from the frying pan into the ice box to freeze to death. I think I would've preferred a warmer and quicker death.”
“Clair, don't!” Joann snapped.
“Believe me, rabbit, dying out here is far kinder than being a meal for wild ice wolves. I can testify from experience they can be barbaric in cooking their food.”
I closed my eyes in remembered nausea concerning some of the clan's cooking habits. Roasting live animals over a fire pit for starters, or worse, locking an animal in a covered steel pot of water before setting the wood afire. The screams alone within the pot had given me nightmares.
“Clair, it doesn't matter how we got here. What matters is that we're alive. And until I've drawn my last breath I intend to do whatever it takes to keep us that way.”
“Oh yeah? Is that so, Joann? Whatever it takes? I guess that never included Halsten—”
“Clair!”
“—All you need have done was give up Braxton and he'd still be alive.”
“Not true and you know it!”
“Rabbits! Now is not a time to air out—”
“Shut up, fox!” Both Joann and Clair cried out together.
For some moments after this outburst, only the ruffle of my fur showed any kind of life existed out on the glacier.
Joann sighed. “Clair, Halsten was killed before that lynx even told us why he was there. You know this as well as I do.”
I counted out four breaths before Joann re-aired her demand that her sister aid her in removing the ropes around my muzzle. As for her reasons in doing this, I couldn't even guess. Clair's right, removing the rope will only allow me to apologize, for what else can I do? Internally I despaired that I was powerless to save either white-tail jackrabbit. Still, a remote part of me sought out a way to prove myself wrong.
“Braxton?” Joann cut in on my search for an answer. “Love, look at me.”
I did as bidden.
“I love you dearly. Always remember that.” Her face had softened in saying this. Then she looked over at her sister. “Now, Clair, do as I say!”
“Fine, if it'll make you happy,” Clair said without enthusiasm.
The pair of them doubled up and strained against muscles not meant to work that way, and got a pad apiece under my chin for support. They each worked around my neck until their sharp toenails hooked into the ropes. With the leverage of one pad in my throat, they used their toenails to slice slowly through the ropes, only cutting into my muzzle a few times. Once this goal was achieved, they both sighed and fell back in place. I took in several deep breaths, as I couldn't breathe while they attempted this small luxury. I also exercised my jaw once the rope fell away, as it was stiff as hell.
“Love…” Joann spoke the endearment as if she were pleading with me. I turned to look at her. “I know in my heart Clair and I will not survive this climate long.”
“Joann?”
“Love, please shut up and listen to me. Really listen. Clair and I will not last more than three days in this cold weather before we succumb to hypothermia.”
I blanched.
“By tonight or by morning we'll be half frozen.”
“Oh, Joann…” Tears flowed from my eyes with the pain of knowing I caused her death to be this way.
“Braxton, stop it. You're not solely responsible for our predicament. You are, however, the only one who might have the strength to save my sister.”
“Joann, I—”
“Braxton, shut it! This is hard for me to propose as it is. I don't need—” Joann bit her lip. For a second or so she wrestled with whatever demons were eating her. “Braxton, I want you to put aside your sensitivities. The only way you can save my sister is to regain your strength. The only way I know to do that is for you to…to eat me.”
“Joann, no!” I looked at her in horror.
Clair also stared wide-eyed at her sister.
“It's the only chance we have, Braxton!” Joann pleaded. “We're already dead, love. Can't you see that! I'm dead no matter what else befalls us. But if you regain your—”
“No…by the maker, no. I won't. I can't do such a thing!”
“Then you condemn us all to die!” Joann shouted. “Clair and I don't have the strength to budge these chains or break out of these wrist shackles. You might.”
For each objection I gave, Joann offered up another reason why I should.
“Will you listen to reason! You're a carnivore. Your ancestors ate any animal they could bring down. Hell, those wolves that brought us out here still do! If they can, so can you!”
During a spell when Joann was tired of shouting at me, Oscar offered up his unwanted opinion.
“Beg pardon, but as gruesome as it sounds, your fiancée has a point. None of us has the strength. However, from what I've—”
“Back off, Oscar.” I growled. “If you don't, I'll leave you, should I get us out of this.”
“Shutting up,” Oscar said. “But it had to be said. Even this pretty young thing next to me would agree if—”
“That's it!” Clair screamed. “I'm going to pound you into mush!” Clair doubled up and twisted her body so she could rain blow after blow of her pads on his body and face.
Oscar sought to protect himself as Joann and I screamed and yelled at Clair to stop. Only after she'd landed the fourth blow did Clair tire enough to settle down and simply hang in place, to catch her breath.
“Damn, Clair, I know what he said was unwanted. But it's not worth wearing yourself out over. You'll need every ounce of strength you have to survive this.”
Clair's ears relaxed for a second then they laid back as she glared at me. “I have every right to pound him. He could have taken us back to civilization but no, he had to drag us out here to look at this piece of rock!” She indicated with her head the wall we were chained to.
“Clair, stop it,” Joann said across me.
“Why not? It's not as if we really have a chance to live out here!” Clair spat.
“Clair, you need to conserve your energy!” Joann reminded her.
“Would you two both stop this!” I growled at them, turning my head to look at each. “You're wasting energy you can't spare.” I gave Oscar a glance and saw he tried to hold himself out of her reach. Minor scratches wept blood where Clair's toenails dug in. If he had no clothes to fend off her nails. Had she continued, he'd be a dead, bloody heap in no time.
I let my exasperation show as I laid my head back on the wall. “Clair, besides wasting energy you haven't to spare, by cutting Oscar you've set out on the breeze the smell of live meat. If a roving polar bear hasn't already caught our scent and decided to investigate, he or she is certain to change his or her mind once the smell of blood on the wind enters his or hers nostrils.”
To my declaration of the consequences to her actions, Clair only huffed. Joann, on the other paw, gave me a long and meaningful look. A look that said I needed to take her earlier words seriously. Yet I could say with a certainty that nothing or no one could ever make me eat her. I'll never do it, no matter what. My mind firmly plastered those words in place above my eyelids.
****
With the coming of evening the sun rode close to the horizon. This in effect allowed the wind to retain the cold air it gathered up lying low on the glacier. Worst yet, the wind picked up force, pelting our bodies with below freezing air. As an arctic wolf, my fur protected me. Joann and Clair's short-haired bodies, however, were shivering with force as their core temperatures lowered and their bodies sought to warm up by eating up what energy was still left within them. Some short span into the weather, one of several gusts of wind dislodged the crate left by the wolves and sent it into the wall by Joann. Though she paid it little heed, I considered it.
Braxton Snow P.I. (The Snow Adventures Book 1) Page 22