Reignang had seen snow before, but never ice. Tarcans of the snowlands thought the blue sheen he was standing on beneficial. He couldn’t see how loosing your footing every fourth step was beneficial. Snow and small pieces of ice that fell from the dark clouds made dull tapping sounds when they hit his scales. The small divots between his scales were slowly being filled with the ice pelting him. Reignang looked back towards Frahlsa, at the ice and wind border. He could still faintly see the downward-swirling snowflakes through the gloom as if the water created from the melting snow was beckoning to him.
Come home, Reignang. Run not into the frozen plains. Come home!
Reignang blew air from his snout and watched the swirling white mist dissipate into the sparse snowflakes. Some of the powdery snow stuck to his side crumbled to the knee-high drifts when he turned back to the ice and scratched at it. Besides a couple small furrows and flecks of ice beside them, there was no change. It just wasn’t water.
Few of the southern territories used the North road and Reignang grumbled under his breath as he trudged across the frozen stream through the snow. Already the membrane that made up the sails he swam with was becoming less flexible. He worried over the slight crackling sound his sails were making as the rippled in the snow-filled breeze. All Reignang could smell was the cold, crisp snowfall – that and something he couldn’t quite place. It was cold, like the white cloth strewn around the landscape, yet it was difficult to catch in the breeze. Reignang kept his sense sharp as he followed the path of the slightly more shallow snow that marked the road’s boundaries.
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The snowstorm had stopped, black clouds breaking up and cracks of blue sky appearing between them. Reignang, having waded through progressively deeper snow, looked up at the widening blue spaces and a weight lifted from his chest. He wouldn’t eventually end up feeling more warmth drain from his body as he pushed through drifts taller than himself. The crisp scent had fallen from the air and the heady smell of evergreens was beginning to fill Reignang’s snout. Looking around, he saw the dark shapes of the pines standing stolidly to the west.
Reignang had lost the strange, cold scent during the worst part of the storm. The skirling white flakes and frequently gusting wind had kept him preoccupied with staying warm. Now that there was no storm to obstruct his snout’s abilities, he inhaled deeply to try and catch the cold smell again. Snow-scent was nearly overwhelming and he could still pick up the evergreens to the west, but there was now a hint of some sort of rabbit – at least, it reminded him of rabbit – and what he assumed was the rabbit’s dung. No sign of the cold scent. At the thought of cold, Reignang shivered and stamped his feet to get the blood moving again. The longer he stayed in the snowlands and the colder he became, the more he would begin imagining small pieces of ice in his blood, slowing it down and making him quake with chill. Reignang had never thought of ice as threatening before now. He cursed himself for going north. He could just as easily have gone south, slip through the mountain passes, and lose himself on the fringes of Charlindrini’s breathtaking rainbow plains until he made it to Terilinus. The Terils would never hand him over – that would mean giving Charlindrini something that it wanted. Surely, Charlindrini would have been informed of his current wanted status.
A small plume of snow caught Reignang’s eye. I was as if something had collapsed beneath the snow. With all of the ridiculous frozen water lying about, Reignang wasn’t surprised that sometimes it collapsed a bit and packed down more tightly. He was contemplating ice collapsing onto ice that created stronger ice when snow erupted a couple tails to his left – the opposite side from where the plume had appeared. As if the soft whoosh of snow flying into the air had been a signal, five other similar eruptions went off all around him – two more to the left and three to the right.
When the first gout of snow went skyward like mist dashed against the prow of a lake-bound ship, Reignang jumped away and was hit by something that had launched itself from one of the positions to his right. Claws bit deep into his right shoulder and the smell of blood joined that of evergreens and the strange cold smell he had lost earlier. Reignang’s head whipped around and he snapped his jaws at whatever had hit him. He heard what sounded like trees groaning and cracking in a great wind and realized it was coming from the creatures. The claws in his shoulder retreated when Reignang tasted blood and he whirled to his left to make sure the others didn’t get a free shot at his left flank. He caught sight of three of the long, sleek, and viciously clawed beasts and opened his jaws wide.
Crisp water surged forth and past Reignang’s teeth. He twisted his head and the torrent crashed over the three beasts. Reversing direction, he hit the others on his right. Reignang shut his jaws as he simultaneously cut the flow from his essence, frost forming around his jaws as the remnants of his attack began freezing. He glanced around at the slim shapes recovering from the blast and shaking freezing water from the pristine fur on their backs and paddle-shaped tails. Their growls cracked in the chill air as they closed in a semicircle facing Reignang. I suppose it was too much to ask that it be cold enough to freeze them in place.
The smell of pure, clean water filled Reignang’s snout as he summoned his essence from within in him once more, this time shaping it into a flowing shield that swiftly slid across his scales. No part of him was left uncovered and his vision wavered as he now witnessed the scene through a watery pane. Seen from a distance, Reignang looked a Tarcan-shaped mass of swirling water. The cracking sounds of their approach were dulled by the water rushing over his ears. Reignang hoped he could maintain the shield for long enough in such cold weather. Already he could feel the temperature attempting to mar the shield’s efficacy.
The far left and right creatures lunged first. Twin splashes marked where the shield deflected their attacks simultaneously. Reignang shifted to the left and lashed out with a fore claw, gripping the beast in the side when his claws sank deep. He pulled back and a ragged tear appeared in its side, gushing crimson. It reeled away, an immense groaning call accompanying it.
A cacophony. The creatures’ cries rising in pitch.
When Reignang turned to the left, the next creature on the right wing of the semicircle plunged toward him, jaws wide. Clever beasts.
Reignang ducked and surged upwards at an angle to the creature, opening his jaws wide, the swirling water sheathing his head parting in a white-frothed rush. He connected with the underside of the beast’s neck and streamers of red colored the water shield in swift patterns as the creature emitted a snapping cough and collapsed. The spasming body launched clouds of snow into the air, much of it landing on Reignang’s shield like a slush coat of armor. He cursed as he felt the shield’s temperature take a sudden dive and its speed slow. Bracken snow!
A groaning call from the smallest of the pack sent the two remaining from the original formation forward at once. The small one followed behind them. The creature to the right was swinging around for another pass.
Reignang considered fabricating a wave to knock the front three back, but was afraid his essence would give out in the cold – he was beginning to have to struggle to hold his shield as it was. Instead, he leapt backward.
The two leading creatures gained mouthfuls of snow and Reignang threw himself forward onto their heads in an attempt to break their necks. He felt one snap, but only succeeded in leaving a gouge on the other’s neck. It turned and snapped at Reignang’s forearm at the same time the smaller one launched into his side, claws trying to rip and tear through the shield.
Teeth clamped down around Reignang’s right forearm. He could feel dozens of small puncture wounds blossom as the beast continually attempted to bite through the shield. His second attacker came claws first and his shield was not enough to stop them. It hit his flank with all four paws, over a dozen long, sharp claws lancing past his scales. More teeth found purchase as the creature clinging to his side began trying to bite his neck, the thrusts of its head forcing gaping wounds to open where its claws pushed for purchase.
Puffing air between his teeth, struggling against the exhaustion born of refusing to acknowledge pain, Reignang swung his head to the right and bit down on the neck of the beast that held his arm. As it died, its jaws locked and did not free his arm. Reignang grimaced. The creature on his side was scoring more hits as the shield weakened and Reignang nearly passed out as the shield’s flowing protection slowed, then stopped, and the first solid bite connected with his neck. He thrashed, unbalancing the clinging pest and twisted to the left to bite down on the ridge of its back, getting a mouthful of fur and blood. Reignang yanked it off of his body and watched it roll into the snow, its back an eerier mix of white and red.
The remaining unbloodied creature made a series of calls and looked from one of its downed pack members to the next and then looked to the smaller one Reignang has just thrown off. It made another series of loud snaps and then rushed off, following the blood trail from the creature Reignang had nearly disemboweled. The rest followed.
Reignang watched them go, making certain they didn’t mean to flank him again, then laid down in the small clearing their fight made in the snow. He lied there, staring at the jaws still clamped around his arm, eyes unfocused. It was difficult to think. At least the pain overshadowed the cold. A spasm in his arm brought his brought his blurring senses into focus for a moment – long enough for him to pry the jaws from around his arm using his hind feet and teeth.
To the deep with the snowlands! The forest was a much better choice. And from the forest, across the plains and into Terilinus. Yes, he could find some remote corner of the Terils’ territory and be forgotten for a few years. Then he would return.
The snow was entering his body through the slick streams of red running along his arms – or so it felt. He blearily looked at the dozen or more ragged gashes in his left shoulder. Gusting snow from a rogue breeze landed there and slowly soaked through with red.
Away from cold. Must get away.
He made to stand up, but Reignang’s forelegs were not acting like they should. A few minutes more of struggling and he stood on all fours, swaying slowly from side to side and squinting in an attempt to make out his tracks that had led him to this place. The edges of his vision were blurry – that was odd – and he glanced down at the blood-pocked ground, looking like a crimson lakescape. There were so many lakes.
Suddenly, Reignang felt like he was soaring over the lakes, floating above the white, powdery clouds and flying home. His sails were catching the wind and lifting him. With a twist of his fins he swooped to the right and then back to the left – always passing over the clouds. Eventually the lakes became empty of any liquid; they existed as empty bowls. From this distance, the bowls looked like some sort of immense footprints of some lost creature, one here, the next crooked sideways with gouges nearby as if the beast had almost fallen.
It was strange that the lakes behind him were filled with red water. Reignang felt that he was the bringer of life, imbuing the parched ground with life’s blood. He wondered where he was getting it and who chose him to perform such a task. Perhaps he chose himself. Such a case would not be peculiar, he chose himself for tasks regularly. He recalled that being part of why he couldn’t go home. Why was he flying home, then? Reignang turned east into a sunrise that had appeared on the horizon. A burning corona projected from the sun, topping the mountains in an indigo illusion. He could not go home, could not go South.
The clouds below him floated away in his wake and looming ahead was hard-packed ground, a scatter of mountains here and there. Reignang kicked at them and they bounded away into a deep hole. He no longer felt like a bringer of life, but a purveyor of death. More mountains plunged. Was this what the gods felt like? Reignang shook his head of foolishness. There were no gods. They were gone, imprisoned ages ago. Nature was sovereign, now, and Reignang assumed it would be that way for ages to come.
Shapes rose before him and he quaked and shied away, falling to Rizer. The mountains shrank as he fell and the dark hole loomed as if it meant to consume him. The shapes pursued.
“He ran north, did he?” One said as great black clouds appeared to either side of it.
“Looks like the North ran him out.” said another, this one with violet bands around his black clouds.
“Does it matter?” said a third. “The Eldresses wanted him and now here he is. Grab him.”
Reignang quailed inside his head and willed his body to fly away again, yet it would not respond. The shapes appeared watery now and Reignang was confused. He wasn’t maintaining his shield anymore. His head bounced against mountains and he ground trembled. The dark forms of the shapes expanded to fill his entire view.
A shape said, “Think Feseera will take the bait?”
One answered, “The river flows uphill, doesn’t it?
