by Logan Byrne
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, smiling.
11
“Glacio,” I said, my spell hitting the snow and forming a path about a hundred feet long in front of us. It was cumbersome, doing the spell over and over again, though Britta did relieve me every so often. It was a team effort, and it paid off well.
We’d been trekking for about three hours, the winds picking up even more, as there was a storm front on the horizon. I looked in the distance, seeing snow falling from apocalyptically dark clouds. We needed to begin looking for cover soon.
“Those clouds look terrible,” I said, coming to the end of the Glacio-enhanced trail I’d just created.
“We have to keep going,” Blake said, sniffling, as the temperatures had plummeted.
“I agree, we’ve only been at it for three hours, we sill have at least that many hours left of daylight. Besides, maybe we can get past the storm,” Charlie said, always optimistic.
“I don’t think we’re outrunning that, look at the size of the cloud. It’s too much,” I said, wiping my nose with my icy-cold glove.
“We should keep moving,” Faus said.
“You agree with them?” Britta asked, as if she were stunned that Faus would ever agree to such a thing. Usually he was a lot more logical than that.
“We aren’t mortals, we can set up a camp within minutes if need be. The best thing to do is gain as much ground as we can before the storm hits. Besides, we’re likely about two hours from the first set of ice caves, assuming there are any. We can make it, but we have to keep moving,” Faus said.
“Lexa?” Britta asked, looking at me, the fur lining of her hood whipping in every direction in the impending storm winds.
“Why don’t we combine our powers and both use the magic at the front? That way we can create a bigger pathway and climb the ups and downs easier,” I said, and she shuffled past the guys and walked with me.
“Glacio!” she said, the ground freezing.
I saw something move in the distance, so I gripped my wand and readied myself for a fight. The animal popped up into view, a small Arctic fox, before it saw us and scurried off, not even falling through the snow. Must be nice to be so light you could walk on top of it.
Another hour passed, my stomach growling as it clenched in agony. Trudging through this snow, and keeping myself warm, had really taken a toll on my energy levels in ways I didn’t even know they could. I’d never been exposed to this much snow or temperatures this low before, and it was showing.
“I need to stop,” I said, as I started to feel my thick wool socks getting wet.
“We can’t stop, we have another hour or two to go,” Faus said.
“I’m hungry, and my socks are getting too sweaty and cold. We could use a break, we haven’t stopped in hours,” I said.
“We’ll be fair and leave it up to a vote, then. Does anybody else want to keep walking?” Faus asked.
“I’m good to,” Charlie said.
“I could eat,” Britta said.
“Same,” Blake said, winking at me, making me wonder if he really wanted to or if he just wanted to be supportive and let me rest for a little while.
“Okay, then it’s settled. Let’s get filled up and then back on the trail. I don’t want to be out here when it’s dark,” Faus said, rummaging through his pack. He’d given us all our own meals to carry, so I pulled out one that didn’t need to be heated.
I sat with my back to the wind, before Britta took her wand and created a windbreak. “Glacio Maximus,” she said, as the ice flew out of her wand and she crafted a ledge as if she were painting a masterpiece.
“Good idea,” I said, as I ate a tortilla and chicken bowl with extra guacamole and pico de gallo. “This is delicious. They really did a good job.”
“This should keep us at least a little warmer, though I’m not sure if it will hold the entire time. How long are we breaking for?” Britta asked, ripping open her meal.
“Lexa?” Faus asked.
“How long is too long?” I asked, looking up at the sun as it began to retreat behind the storm clouds.
“Is twenty minutes enough, or do you need more time?” Faus asked.
“It will be fine,” I said, as I pulled out my wand. “Ignatius Procurus,” I said, lighting a quick fire, before putting my feet by it.
“Good idea. We should all keep our feet warm and get our core temperatures up before going forward. We don’t know how long until we can make another fire,” Blake said, taking off his gloves and blowing steam against his hands.
“Man, I wish I were a polar bear shifter, that would be really cool. I could just shift and walk through this with no problem,” Charlie said, before burping a little.
Fifteen minutes passed before Faus started getting antsy, eyeballing the storm as the strong winds pushed it closer. “We can go,” I said, and he perked up and packed up his things. I put out the fire, not keen on leaving a never-ending campfire in the middle of the tundra, only to be found by somebody who would be very confused.
•••
“We never should’ve stopped,” Faus said two hours later, as the five of us struggled to walk through the wind and falling snow. It was getting worse by the minute, and the caves were still in the distance and never seemed to get any closer, no matter how long we walked.
Our Glacio spells were getting lost in the wind, the shifting grains of snow not making it easy for the ice to form and give us a clear pathway. Eventually we accepted defeat and just started to walk through the snow, though it went past our knees, and then halfway up our thighs.
“Can you two teleport us there?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know, it’s hard to get a clear visual on the wall ahead,” Britta said, squinting, as we tried to contemplate the risks associated with such a move. “We should get closer, then maybe.”
“I don’t know how much longer we have, guys. Look,” Blake said, pointing towards the clouds.
If the end of the world ever happened and an apocalypse took over the world, it would look like the sky did then. Ice fell from the heavens, hail, and the balls of ice started to shoot into the snow around us like missiles trying to kill. “It’s now or never,” Charlie said, as one skimmed by his head.
“I agree, just do it,” Faus said, and the five of us huddled in a circle.
“Ready?” Britta asked, raising her wand.
“Ready,” I replied, raising mine. I focused on the edge of the ice cliff, trying to picture it and form it in my mind, before I felt myself, all of us, be sucked up into the air. We were spit back out, falling onto our stomachs, as bits of hail smacked me in the back.
“There!” Charlie said, pointing a hundred feet away at a small crevice in the wall.
We all struggled to get up, as if we were swimming in quicksand, before we moved our feet as quickly as we could. “Ignitus!” Britta said, melting as much snow around us as she could. Before she could even finish, more set in, covering the ashy grass underneath with a new layer that would likely be filled in within the hour.
“Okay, everybody in,” Blake said, standing outside the sliver of an opening as he helped us all squeeze through. I felt the glacial cool against my face as I shuffled in sideways. Faus said there was a larger opening deeper down, only about ten more feet.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that meal,” Charlie said, as I heard him suck in his gut and push himself through.
“Ugh, finally,” Britta sighed, after pushing herself out into the open room.
“I think this will keep us safe,” Faus said, looking around. I popped out, looking all around. The room was about twenty feet by fifteen, nothing spectacularly large, but it had one thing going for it—it was warm.
“Now it feels like a jungle,” Charlie said, taking off his coat and sweater underneath.
“Yes, the temperature in here is much warmer than the surrounding area. I wouldn’t suggest we start a fire in here, though. The fumes don’t seem to have anywhe
re to go, and I don’t feel like being poisoned,” Faus said, as he looked around the ceiling for an opening.
“What do you think?” Blake asked, looking at me.
“I think it’s perfect. We might have to blast our way out tomorrow, though. Not sure I can fit in again,” I said, smiling.
“Are you feeling anything yet?” Faus asked.
“I don’t know, it just feels kind of the same, really. Maybe a little different, stronger, but I don’t feel a nudge in my side pushing me in any direction. Maybe I can meditate tonight, if I have the energy, to see if I can find any clues,” I said.
“That still astounds me, that you’re able to do that. I wish I could,” Faus said.
“You mean you, a man of science, want to meditate?” Britta asked. “Who are you, and what have you done with my friend?”
“Get your jokes in now, but I have actually read many mortal studies that have shown the positive effects of meditation and calmed breathing. It is quite scientific,” Faus said, as he pushed up his drooping glasses.
“I tried meditating once, but I fell asleep,” Charlie said, as he walked around the perimeter of the room and felt the slick walls.
“I’ve never done it,” Blake said.
“Do it with me tonight,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah? Do you think I’d be any good at it? My mind races a lot,” Blake said.
“About what?” I asked.
“You,” he said, raising his left eyebrow just slightly.
“Save it for later,” Charlie quipped.
Later that evening, after we’d eaten dinner and gotten changed out of our sweaty, frosted clothes, I cracked my knuckles, calming my breath. I knew I needed to get my meditation done now before bedtime swiftly fell upon me. I had a bit of nerves, knowing everybody would be watching me, even though they were my friends.
“Anybody doing it with me, so I don’t feel singled out?” I asked, laughing, before walking over to the wall.
All four of them came over, taking me by total surprise, as they sat beside me, their backs frozen against the frigid wall. “I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep,” Charlie said.
“I think we all know that’s a definite,” Blake replied. “So, how do we do this?”
“Cross your legs, put your hands in your lap, and clear your mind of all troubles and worries. Don’t think about anything,” I said.
“What if something pops into my head?” he asked.
“That’s okay, but just don’t actively think about it. Let yourself be free and calm, as if you’re lying on a beach somewhere, the waves crashing around you. Focus on that,” I said.
“Got it,” Blake said, before closing his eyes, his entire face shifting downwards, as I knew he was feeling it already.
I opened my eyes as I stood outside in the vast snowy abyss I’d been in not too long earlier. Even though I was standing out there, I wasn’t really there, and I could tell that I was meditating. I was standing on the snow, for one, not sinking into it, and I wasn’t wearing my coat. I didn’t feel anything—not cold, not hot, just contentment, as if I were the perfect temperature already. The hard snowflakes swirled around me, dancing, as if they were trying to lead me somewhere.
I didn’t say anything, not daring to ask, but instead following, walking, as the swirl moved with me. Before I even got twenty steps in, the spinning gust of snow wrapped around me, picking me up, and I looked down at the ground as it grew further and further away. What was going on? I wasn’t scared—I was more intrigued than anything. We must’ve traveled far, at least ten miles, before we came to an opening in the earth and I was gently set down inside. It wasn’t large at all, the crack only about six feet long and four feet wide.
I floated downwards, an array of traps and natural formations providing obstacles, but the wind didn’t care. It navigated me gently through until I entered the main room.
It was huge, massive, the top of the ceiling at least two hundred feet from the ground. I came down, gazing at the smooth ice room with an eerie feeling. I looked around, confused, trying to find out where to go, but there was nothing inside. It was empty.
The wind gust set me on the ground, flying away before I could thank it. “Wait,” I said, trying to get its attention, but it vanished without a trace. I walked around the enormous room, looking at the pillars made of ice as a small draft trickled through.
I shivered, my former contentment with being jacket-less now betraying me as I felt the bitter bite of the Greenlandic winter. I walked towards another chamber, where there was a perfectly carved door with ornate designs etched in the ice. I tried to walk up to it, to get a better look at the runes inscribed in it, but I couldn’t. I took one step forward, then ten, then twenty, but it never got any closer. I was walking in place, it felt like, and I quickly became frustrated.
I turned back, looking at the room, and it grew even more in size, the dome now two hundred feet wide at least. It appeared to be more of an arena than anything else. Why did they bring me here? What was here to see? This wasn’t, no, it couldn’t be. There was no way the wand was here, where were the golems? All I’d heard about were the ice golems, and they were nowhere to be found. Maybe they couldn’t enter this plane, my meditation plane. As I tried to search for answers, I started to feel watched, and I looked over my shoulder and tried to catch whoever was there.
I knew somebody was there, watching me. I felt their lingering presence no matter how hard I tried to ignore them. “Show yourself,” I said, trying to bait them out. It didn’t work. Instead, they were hiding, stalking me from the shadows like a predator stalking its prey.
I reached for my wand, but it wasn’t there. I tried to activate my mark, but no matter how hard I squeezed, trying to flex that muscle within me, it wouldn’t work. I could always use it when I meditated, or at least feel its presence. Why not now?
I grasped my head quickly, feeling a sharp, stabbing pain, as I yelled and felt my eyes watering up. This was getting to be too much, and I knew if I felt pain in here, then I needed to get out immediately.
I tried calming myself, thinking of the room with my friends, and leaving my trance. I calmed my breathing as tears rolled down my cheeks, before the ice dome melted around me and I was flushed out of the meditation and back in the room.
I gasped, opening my eyes, before touching my head. It was fine. My friends looked at me strangely, like they’d seen a ghost, before I sighed a huge sigh of relief.
“What happened?” Britta asked.
“I was taken somewhere, in the meditation,” I said.
“All I thought about were sausages,” Charlie said, shrugging.
“Where were you taken?” Britta asked.
“I don’t want to sound stupid, but part of me thinks it has something to do with the wand, like it was calling me or something. I was lifted somewhere, maybe ten or so miles away, and shown an entrance to a hidden ice cavern, a massive dome, that looked too perfect not to be manmade,” I said.
“And you saw the wand inside?” Blake asked.
“Not exactly, no. There was a door, and it was carved, but I couldn’t get close. It was like any time I took a step, I was walking in place. It made no sense,” I said.
“What about the golems? Were they there?” Faus asked.
“No, not really, but before I could look any more I started to feel an immense pain in my head. I don’t know, I just think it’s something. How could it not be? Why would I be taken to a place not too far from here, and shown a massive underground cave, if it weren’t related to this? My mark wouldn’t do that to me,” I said.
“Would you know how to get there again?” Faus asked.
“Where’s your map?” I asked. Faus fumbled with his bag, taking out the map and also giving me a marker, and I looked for where I was taken. “Here, it was around here.” I circled a spot on the map, following the peaks and valleys on the map and comparing them to what I remembered about the journey.
“We should check i
t out, it could be something,” Blake said.
“I think it is. What if it’s there, but didn’t reveal itself to you? What if it just wanted to communicate with you somehow, and wanted to give you directions?” Britta asked.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is that something is there. I felt it. Whether that’s the wand, or something else, I don’t know, but we need to check it out. We could make it there by tomorrow, I think,” I said.
“It will be a long day, but yes, I think we could make it over there within a day of walking. No long stops, though, so make sure you’re well rested tonight,” Faus said.
•••
“Are you going to be okay?” Blake asked later that night, as we lay in our little tent inside the cave.
“Yeah, I think so, at least I hope so. It was weird, you know? I’ve never quite experienced anything like that, and sometimes I wish I didn’t. I just wish things would be a little more clear,” I said.
“I bet it’s frustrating to have to try to decipher these clues, especially by yourself. I wish I could’ve been in there with you so that I could help you,” he said.
“I felt something there, like a person or being watching me. I could feel their presence, like when you feel like somebody is watching you from across a room. It was like that, but worse. There was nobody there,” I said.
“Well, you were under a lot of stress and the entire situation was hard to deal with. Maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you,” he said.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, letting out a deep breath.
“Hey, it will all be okay. We’ll all go down there, and we’ll get you that wand,” Blake said.
“I just don’t think it will be that easy,” I said, shaking my head.
“Why not?” he asked. “Did you see something else down there you’re not telling me?”
“No, not that, it was just the scale of the place. You don’t understand, it had to have been two hundred feet high and just as big around,” I said, sitting up, getting a little antsy. “Why would Merlin create something that big? Think about it for a second.”