Chapter 17- Spirits of Ice and Fire
As sudden and jarring as the change overnight had been, I was struck by the beauty of the land we flew by. It was like the world had been muffled by a blanket of snow, with the only sound coming from the occasional wisp of cool wind, or the dripping from icicles starting to melt in the sunlight. It filled me with a feeling of peaceful contentment, as if I could just bury myself into a comfy little hole in the snow.
It did not take long for that impression to make way for the reality of our journey. I sniffled, trying to ignore the feeling of cold slime leaking from my nostrils down to my upper lip, where it rapidly sapped away what little heat it could. My whole face felt numb, despite the ineffectual glow of the midday sun. I breathed out, trying to direct my exhale up to my nose for just a fleeting relief of the cold. Of course, such attempts were futile, all warmth evaporated in less than a heartbeat. With a morose grunt, I wiped a hoof over my face.
The others didn’t fare much better than me. I couldn't help but throw worried glances at Honeydew, who kept his bandaged foreleg tugged closely to his body, occasionally rubbing his other hoof over it. He claimed that it just felt cold, but he never switched the legs out, you’d think the other one had frozen even more by now! With a heavy sigh, I averted my gaze, staring at the back of Kalypso, who stared sternly ahead. Shivers went down her spine, each time causing her to drop a few inches in altitude, before she regained them with an irritated huff.
I breathed out again, briefly producing a foggy cloud before our airstream dispersed it in the frigid air. About half an hour ago, my ears had begun to hurt, as if they were filled with sharp, icy shards, intensifying each time a cold breeze came up, in addition to forcing us to dive out of the way, lest it blow us off course. A few hours in, and I was exhausted in every way. But we couldn't stop, couldn't hold, couldn't even take a break. Staying in motion was the only thing that kept us warm, the only alternative to making a fire… which would prevent us from travelling far longer than we could afford to. No, we could only endure. Even as the hours passed, our bodies went numb, and the sun travelled further and further downwards, until it's light disappeared behind the treetops.
The worst part must’ve been my acute awareness of just how short I might’ve been able to cut this journey. On alicorn wings, I could finish this six-day trip in a day, sparing us of all the hassle and deprivations we’d have to face in five more days of this! I think I almost would’ve chosen to do so, if not for the niggling reasonings of my thrice-damned brain.
Because as much as Kalypso urged us to get back to the clan, and as much as she still seemed bent on pushing us to move faster, our arrival was not time-critical. As Honeydew had explained, once the snow fell, nearly all travel and scavenging ceased, it simply wasn’t worth the expenditure of sizzlegrass. Nor was our delivery needed now, we were just bolstering the supply so it would hopefully not run out at the end of winter… and I really hoped it wouldn’t. However, if I transformed, it would cause me to go hungry fairly quickly. And with the food supply as sparse as it was…
And all that didn’t even go into how we would find our way, I doubted Honeydew could orientate himself if we flew above the trees, and I was never agile enough to fly through a forest with any semblance of speed. And now I was out of practise, too. No, the only thing transforming back would do was to make our journey more comfortable, at the clan’s expense.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated my brain as much as I did now. And to think that the stupid thing used up twenty percent of my bodies energy, when it could be used for better things. Warding off that damn cold for example!
“Kalypso, are we gonna land soon?” It took me two attempts to make my quivering lips form the words.
I could only see the back of her head as she looked up at the sky, painted orange from the setting sun.”We can still-”
“Of course we will. We should’ve started looking for shelter before the sun touched the horizon!” Honeydew’s stern shout cut her off. “We can’t fly at night, Kalypso, we would freeze before the next sunrise.” He shot me glance over his shoulder. “Look for anything that would ward off the wind and where you could do your fire-thing.”
“I’ll need wood.” I shivered, letting my feelers glow. A quick surge of warmth spread from my forehead, but I had to stop it before it could grant any lasting relief. Lighting your feelers was tiring, something we couldn't afford for matters other than visibility.
Before too long, Honeydew spotted a small alcove below a protruding rock. I had no idea how he saw it, the surrounding snow covered it up almost entirely, only a small gap allowing access to the shelter. But on the inside, we found a little patch of dry earth, protected from the rock on one side and above, and by a wall of snow on the other. Like a half-cave, half-igloo.
Again, I had no idea how Honeydew had managed to spot this, in the growing darkness no less, but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. We immediately went to work, scouting the area for firewood while Kalypso remained in our shelter, scraping at the earth to create the pit we so desperately needed. Normally I wouldn’t envy her for the task, but at least she had a windshield…
Luckily, the recent storm had caused enough damage to the forest that wooden splinters and loose tree bark wasn’t hard to come by. Plus, I’d already packed the stick to light the fire with. If only my hooves weren’t so shaky! Muttering a curse, I noted Honeydew’s curious look. “W-what?”
“Are you a shaman?” He whispered.
“Excuse me?” I said, baffled by the strange question.
“You cause fiery death to the wood, out of nowhere. A-are you persuading its spirit to suicide?”
I couldn't help it. Despite my aching, numb skin, despite the freezing cold, I cracked a smile. “It’s not like that. I’m simply using friction to induce a thermal reaction strong enough to cause combustion.”
Honeydew’s head tilted as he took in what I just said. “...Twilight, are you sure those are words, or are you getting sick?”
I snickered, the conversation giving me the strength to ignore the cold as the end of my twisting stick produced a thin stream of smoke. “I’m not sick, I’m just using a natural phenomenon. You know how your hooves get warmer when you rub them together?” I waited for him to nod before I continued. “Well, that is because movement produces heat, especially when it scrapes over something solid. That’s called friction. And when I make fire, I’m basically producing all the heat you would when rubbing your hooves, but in a tiny, tiny spot, until it’s hot enough to catch fire.” With that, I triumphantly beamed down at the glimmering embers on the tree bark.
Honeydew’s jaw rested on his chest as he stared at me with widened eyes. “H-how do you know all that?”
I hesitated. He wouldn’t understand if I told him that I learned from a children physics book. “I-I guess you could say my clan taught me.” With a quick glance to Kalypso, who sat at the far side of the alcove, I added in a whisper: “ponies have used fire for a long time. We use it for warmth, light, cooking, decorations and sometimes even as a weapon.” And for steam engines, electricity and other uses that you wouldn’t understand.
“Isn’t that… dangerous?”
“Not if you prepared for it. Can I borrow your knife for a moment?” While the embers grew into a flame as wide as my hoof, I continuously fed it with strips of wood I carved from the larger sticks. “And today, the entire forest is covered in great extinguishing material.” I added with a nod to the solid wall of snow to our side.
Honeydew sighed with pleasure as he held his hooves out to the growing fire. “Y-you’re a wise mare, Twilight.”
I chuckled nervously as his compliment warded off the cold. By causing heat to rise up in my cheeks! “Uhm, y-you wanna see something cool?” I grinned, placing a stick next to a small clay pot I’d packed. Then, I held the stick into the fire, until it held a sizeable flame. “Now watch.” I said as I dropped the flame to the ground, causing Honeydew to jump away. Myself, I just calmly put the pot over the flame, before giving him an amused glance. Then, a few seconds later, I raised the pot, showing him the completely extinguished fire.
His jaw dropped as he rushed forward, his feelers frantically bobbing up and down as he stared at the once-burning stick.
“How did you do that?” Kalypso came closer, mimicking Honeydew’s bafflement, if to a lesser extent.
“I starved the flame.” I snickered as I watched their confused expressions. “Fire needs a steady supply of air to keep burning. If you limit that supply-” I gestured to the pot. “the fire burns up all the available air and dies.”
“Wow…” Honeydew breathed. “Fire spirits aren’t much for moderation, huh?”
I couldn't help but laugh ath that conclusion. How beautifully breezish!
Our little cave was starting to get cozy as Kalypso demanded we tugged in for the night. As much as I tried to push off the thought, tomorrow was another day out in the cold. My stomach growled, but I kept my eyes away from our bags. Our supplies were meagre, and Honeydew had told me it was better to go empty for a few days, using up your ‘reserves’ before refueling. I think I only went along with it because I was seriously worried we just wouldn’t have enough otherwise. This… weird looking, grey-ish, crumbly cream seemed to be just enough for one meal. And it was supposed to last us all for six days! Still, my stomach demanded something. Just a little taste…
I caught Honeydew’s look as he watched me with a sad expression. “You don’t want to eat yet.” he whispered.
“I know, I know.” With a sigh, I tore my eyes from the bag. Again. He gave me a short nod, before he slid to my side, his hoof reaching over my shoulder as we got cozy for the night. As cozy as one could be when your belly made you believe you were going to starve tonight…
Although we tried to conserve what we could from that first, lucky night, it quickly faded into memory when we were once more exposed to the freezing temperatures of the outside. Trying to distract ourselves with conversation wasn’t very successful, as we kept having to shout due to our constantly changing distance to one another, as well as looking backwards during flight simply being really uncomfortable. And so, we once more flew in silence, until we found the next shelter. This time however, we didn’t get nearly as lucky, having only a ring of frozen grass as windshield. Honeydew tried to save the spirit of the first night by giving me a lesson with the flute, but we were too cold, our lips quivering too much to produce any sort of melody, and so we had to give up, simply huddling close to one another until the fire was large enough to allow us a few hours of uneasy slumber…
On the fourth morning, I suddenly felt something cold splash against my face. With a startled shout, I rolled away from the moaning Honeydew, shaking the wetness out of my fur… wait, why was I wet? Honeydew and Kalypso also roused, glaring up at the sky- just as another drop of water hit right into our fire, causing a sharp hiss as it evaporated. Confused, we extinguished the fire with a heap of snow and prepared for our flight. Only when we were up in the air, did we realize what had caused our sudden and uncomfortable awakening. The ice was melting! The air wasn’t as frigid as the night before. Even after the first hour, I retained some feeling in my snout! The sunbeams actually felt somewhat warm. The land was still covered in snow, it would stay like this for at least a day or two, but it was slowly starting to melt off!
“What is causing this?” Kalypso asked for what must be the third time, staring in shock at a melting icicle. “I-I didn’t see this! This shouldn’t be happening!”
“Seriously?” I rose an eyebrow. “You’re going to complain about it?”
“Of course not!” she rubbed her forehead. “But I don’t understand. Why is it warmer now? None of this makes any sense!”
“No, it doesn’t.” Honeydew agreed, though his sober tone couldn't detract from his grin. “But it’s nice nonetheless. We shouldn’t question the god’s gifts, now should we?”
“I guess not.” Kalypso sighed. “I just never knew the gods were fans of surprises…”
Despite this conclusion, my outlook had grown more somber. This was inexplicable, even to the breezies inhabiting this world. And had the temperature not been better at the High-breeze clan, just before that storm hit, transforming the landscape into one of deep winter overnight? I think my mood could be best described as ‘wary’. Kalypso’s vision still told of winter. At this point, hoping for this change to be permanent seemed… to good to be true.
My conclusion would prove to be right on the very same day.
Me and Honeydew were practising the flute in mid-flight, as Kalypso suddenly let out a startled shout, her antennae emitting a sudden glow. With a gasp, I had to close my wings to avoid crashing into her. “Kalypso, why the heck did you stop?” I shouted from several feet below. Honeydew asked something similar, but Kalypso cut him off.
“We need shelter. Now!”
I think it was the trembling of urgency in her voice, the clear panic that made us forego any questions as to why and drop straight down, Kalypso darting into a nearby knothole. I Was the last to squeeze inside, breathing out, just to find my breath produce a noticeable cloud of fog.
I shivered as a terrible cold seeped into my skin, worse than anything I’ve felt before, a feeling like I’d been thrust into the opposite of the sun. Even the knowledge of the absurdity of this exaggeration didn’t help the impression as we huddled together, conserving any bit of heat we had.
All of a sudden, pain exploded in our sides as we impacted on the wooden wall, the entire tree lurched to the side as it was hit by a wave of howling wind. Snowflakes shot from the sky like a volley of arrows, undoing what little change the melting period had made. And then, an unearthly noise reached our ears. An ethereal whicker, sounding as if it could’ve been made by the storm itself, yet clearly distinguished, it’s unearthly voice seemingly echoing in our tiny hideout as we squeezed together as close as we could, biting into our own hooves to prevent our teeth from clattering as we tried with all our might to not alert whatever that was to our presence. Hours seemed to pass. Maybe they did, until the storm slowly let up. We were half-frozen when we emerged from our hideout, shivering for more reasons than just the cold.
We did not continue our journey today.
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wendigos? how long till twilight finally realizes what it is?
9604219 (Haven't read the latest chapter yet.)
...Wait, they are still exclusive? I thought they fixed that...?
I mean, even PenStroke complained about how Past Sins was both and he couldn't tag it correctly.
......Yeah, they must've fixed that, there are stories that have both tags, posted recently.
Otherwise, personally I'd say... exploring a strange new culture, and trying not to give away you're an "alien" actually are is an adventure in itself. So I'd pick adventure.
9604365
oh, yeah, they did change that XD
Windigo alert! Or maybe some cousin of them.
Twilights gonna change into a pony to investigate the source only to find out that it’s just some Pegasi practicing wheather magic.
Theory: The Breezies caused a global warming by overusing sizzlegrass (somehow), and this is basically The Day After Tomorrow happening right now.
Yep, totally. There're absolutely no flaws with this theory whatsoever.
9618428
thats exactly what happened, yes
9604283
If you think about it it’s obvious that wendigos are the cause really. The question still stands when will twilight realize it.
That’s what I’ve been wondering.
9619963
Yea i mean this is after she and the other 5 did that heath warming play so she should of realized pretty quick by now
Okay so far it's an ups and downs Journey right now and apparently the cold weather is slowing down there progress so they had to land somewhere but somehow the weather got a little warmer some odd reason not even kalypso doesn't even know what's going on with the weather lately but then suddenly it just escalated quickly the weather change to frigid cold I wonder what's going on with the weather
I like that it was finally addressed why Twilight wouldn't just Alicorn up to help the situation. To avoid death I could see, but she definitely doesn't want to assist on that level. The reasons in the story aside, I think the worst would be that if she did, she'd create a situation where the clan would have to rely on her, and we saw in the show that that is a bad idea. She wants the clan to survive as it is, not make them all her pets.