Chapter 26 #2
“Well, your shoulder isn’t very comfortable. And I can pretend he’s my horse.”
“Don’t get smart with me, Dew,” Thorn said as Dewey landed on his back.
“That’ll make it easier for us to carry our gear. Paige, you’ve got your pack with the tent for you and Dewey.” Drucinda flung the large pack at Paige.
The bag smacked off her outstretched arms, knocking her backward. Her glasses skittered across the room as she toppled over. Devon’s blurry form squatted in front of her, and the room became clear moments later.
“Thanks.”
Drucinda loomed over her, casting a long shadow. “Put the snow goggles over your glasses so that doesn’t happen when we’re in the elements. The last thing we need is to be searching for your specs.”
Paige wrinkled her nose as she snatched the goggles dangling from Drucinda’s fingers.
“How far do we need to walk?” Paige asked as Devon tugged her to stand. She tottered back and forth to get her balance with the backpack.
“The last known location of the Bronze Ring was in the ice caves to our west. About half a day’s walk. We’ll set up camp inside.”
“Camp?” Paige asked, with a wince. “Can’t we just get the ring and go?”
Drucinda shot her an unimpressed glance. “The ice caves are extensive. We must explore them to find the chamber that holds the ring.”
“It’s that big that it’ll take long enough that we’ll need to camp?”
“I packed ice skates to make traversing the caverns easier. They are that large. Plus, it’ll help if we run into any ice panthers.”
Paige fiddled with the strap of her rucksack, trying to snap the chest strap. She lost her grip after Drucinda’s last comment. “Ice panthers?”
“Yes. Extremely fast, extremely deadly. They prowl around in the depths of the ice cave. Excellent tracking abilities, even in the dark, given their circumstances. And they love to hunt. They’ve so few opportunities, our presence will likely rile them.”
“What about the vampires?” Paige asked as she slogged her way to the door behind Drucinda, giving up on the strap.
Drucinda swung around to face her, securing the chest clip easily. “Oh, they’ll eat them, too, if they’re around.”
“So, they are?”
“I have no confirmation of it, but they supposedly touched down hours ago.”
“Great,” Paige grumbled as she continued down the hall toward the cabin, trailing behind Dewey and Thorn.
“Ya, ya! Giddy-up,” Dewey said as he bounced on Thorn’s back.
Thorn glanced over his shoulder. “Do that again, and I’ll eat you.”
Dewey wrinkled his nose and fluttered off Thorn’s back, returning to Paige’s shoulder and struggling to grip her thick coat.
“Oh, now you want to hang out with me.”
“I always want to hang out with you,” he said, gripping her hand to stay upright, “but this coat is unwieldy.”
“Tell me about it. It’s all I can do to move at all, let alone run from an ice jaguar or a vampire.”
“Ice panther,” Dewey said.
“And that’s why you shouldn’t go anywhere alone,” Devon added from behind them.
Paige flexed her jaw as she continued her trek forward across the cabin, refusing to answer. “I hope you’re warm enough,” she said as the first gust of icy cold air hit her when Drucinda opened the cabin door.
“This is pretty warm,” Dewey answered.
“I know, but you nearly froze to death in Russia. And it’ll be way colder here.”
“That’s a special suit with heat magic, designed to keep reptiles warm in even subzero temperatures,” Drucinda said as she tugged her goggles on. “He’ll be fine.”
“Heat magic?” Paige asked.
Dewey held out his arms, studying them. “Wow, my own special heat magic suit. Heat magic means I’ll always maintain my current body temperature, no matter what the temperatures are.”
“I wonder if she will be in that skin-tight barely-there snowsuit she has,” Paige murmured as the woman disappeared into the cold sunshine beyond.
“She will be. That’s specially designed to be warmer than anything on this earth. She’s got modified heat magic,” Thorn explained.
“Of course. What did she get for mine? The SmartMart special?”
“There was no time to get a specially made suit for you. But that’ll keep you warm enough. Onward, children,” Thorn said before he tugged on his goggles and disappeared into the cold air.
“I’m really starting to wonder if working together was a good thing,” Paige said as she wobbled her way to the door.
“Just keep thinking about finding your mom as soon as we get this little blip out of the way,” Dewey said.
Paige tugged her face mask down and secured her goggles before she climbed down the stairs and let out a frosty breath. “I guess. At least it’s not snowing or anything crazy.”
Within minutes of walking, dark clouds formed on the horizon. They made it less than half a mile further when the angry clouds obscured the sun, blotting it from their view and causing the temperatures to plummet further.
Then, the snow began to fall. Thick flakes coated them, whipping around them as the wind blew fiercely. Paige leaned forward into it, ducking her head to push through the inclement weather.
“Why did you have to say it wasn’t snowing!” Dewey shouted next to her as he clung to her head to stay on her shoulder.
“I can’t believe this. How much farther?” She groaned with each effort as walking became an arduous task.
“I don’t know. Drucinda said half a day. We’ve only been walking for half an hour.”
Paige cringed at his statement. “I can’t believe she didn’t bring snowmobiles. That would have been so much easier.”
“Doesn’t look like she’s having any trouble without one.”
Paige squinted into the distance, trying to make out the lithe form of their trek leader through the near white-out. The woman meandered along as though it was a bright, sunny spring day.
Puffing for breath, Paige doubled over, clutching her thighs with her thick gloves. “I really hate her.”
“You okay, Paige?” Devon asked, leaning forward to catch her eye.
“Yep. All good. Just needed a minute.”
“I can carry–”
“Nope,” she said, slicing a hand through the air and straightening. “All good.”
“I would have taken him up on that,” Dewey said as she continued behind Thorn.
“I’m fine.”
They continued forward for another half-hour before the storm let up. Snow fell without whipping around them, and Paige could clearly see Drucinda in front of them with ease.
“I never thought I’d be glad to be walking through a snowstorm that wasn’t a whiteout,” Paige said as they trundled along.
“Only a few more hours of walking, too,” Dewey said as he rode along on her shoulder.
They continued their trek for most of the afternoon, finally arriving at a gaping hole in what looked like an iceberg.
“Ugh,” Paige moaned, doubling over. “Everything hurts. My legs, my arms, my lungs.”
“No time to rest, darling,” Drucinda said, still looking fresh as a daisy. “We need to set up camp.”
She slung her pack off her back as she stepped into the mouth of the cave. Paige’s features melted as she struggled to right herself.
“Come on, Paige! I don’t want to sleep in the cold,” Dewey said, patting the top of her head.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said as she slogged into the darkened opening. Thorn set up a light to beat back the darkness as Drucinda worked quickly to put together a large tent.
Paige shrugged off her pack and dropped to her knees as she pulled the pieces of her tent from it. She stared at a few of the poles, her nose wrinkling.
“Need help, Paige?” Devon asked.
“No. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“Do you?” Dewey murmured in her ear.
“No clue. Never camped. It can’t be that hard.”
She spent a few minutes fiddling with various pieces before she tried to stretch the canvas over them. It slipped off one side and snapped back to its crumpled form.
Paige glared at it.
“You’re not doing it right. Look at Drucinda’s. It looks nothing like that,” Dewey said.
“She has a completely different tent. We can’t compare it.” Paige pressed her lips together as she slid her eyes sideways anyway to study the other structure.
Dewey huffed and fluttered over. “You have to start with the other pole. You’ll never get the canvas over it this way.”
He pulled up the fabric and flailed a gloved paw at it. “See?”
His eyes went wide, and he shot a glance at Paige. She bent down to peer at the hole in the canvas before she flicked her gaze to the cave’s mouth.
“OMG,” she squealed as Dewey screamed, “VAMPIRES!”