CROSSINGS

  The sun was rising, and the first thing that Icalave noticed was that the island had indeed gotten smaller. The other two were still passed out, like two white pieces of meat served out onto a platter.
  “Wake up!” Icalave tried to rouse them. He looked round at the side of the river they were trying to reach. There was a small cliff rising out from the river. Not to high, but high enough for him to not be able to reach the top. He scanned around to see if anything had spotted him and his companions in the venerable position, and with daylight becoming more and more profound, even more venerable. He couldn’t see, nor smell anything in the humid air, so turned back around to see if the others had started stirring.
  They hadn’t. They’re were both still alive as far as he could tell, from the slow rising and falling of their ribs, and the twitching every now and again.
  The sun moved hastily across the sky, and with it Icalave’s patience. He did not wish to be left in the open for all eyes to see.  He looked down into the water, and could see the ripples of the current taking away all the smaller stones on the bottom of the river bed. Also the water was deep where the island was. He could see down, as in the light the water was crystal clear, and the whiteness of the ice stretched into the rivers floor, creating more of a pillar rather than an island. His head raced with ideas and ways of getting off, but none were workable. It was another 6 yards to the side of the river that they were seeking, to far for all of them to jump, and to far for all of them to swim without being caught in the current and being swept away like himself.
  It was quiet a few many moments after Icalave had started thinking when Arssneq stirred. At first Icalave didn’t notice, taking it as another twitch. But after a few heavy breaths and a few hauls at the muscles, Arssneq managed to get his front half off the icy-ground. Icalave then swivelled around, now taking notice that one of his loyal followers was finally waking.
  “Arssneq!” He cried, as the newly arisen’s muscles shook. Icalave was soon at his side, helping him to hold himself up. “You are too weary. It was foolish of you to conjure up such a thing with so backup. You should have just let me go. I would have eventually reached the other side.”
  “And you were foolish too.” Arssneq’s voice quivered. Icalave could tell that he was still trying to recover from last nights performance. “You should have let one of us follow you in, to catch you if you fell like you did. What I did, what we did, saved you from turning days of trek into weeks. You would have been lost to us. And we are no use without a guide. We haven’t set foot in these parts before, let alone heard about them, apart from in tales and legends.”
  “That is true.” Icalave didn’t want to argue, time was already debating with him. “Anyway, all this is in the past now. Time is fast getting away, and I want to be off this ice within the second! I do not like being placed out as a tray of food to the hungry like this. See if Rossmend can be awoken; I am still thinking of a way for us to cross safely without having to be drained of energy again.”
  “If it comes to the result of having to, then I’m sure I could conjure some more up myself. Perhaps not a lot, but it depends on what way your thinking of.” Arssneq then went to attend to Rossmend. Icalave turned to look at the destination side of the river again, and again went into thought.
  Little did he know that two sets of eyes had soon discovered the icy platter, and were watching from above, hidden in the shadows of a large boulder.
  Rossmend started to stir after Arssneq had sprayed quiet a bit of water onto his face. His fur drenched face suddenly jumped alive with one word,
  “ICALAVE!” He sat upright and startled Arssneq.
  “I’m here. And I am quite fine.” He spoke without turning around. Concentration penetrated from his black nose, to the tips of his white and blue stripped ears. Creases formed lines that not even the wisest of Wolvians could have. Something foul on the air broke his concentration. It came from the south, but it was both strange and familiar to him. Strange that it was so incredibly foul, like many different species had died and been stacked on top of one another, yet familiar because it had the basic scent of the dead Mann that they had found under it. He looked around to see if he could find the source of the smell, but nothing was visible save the land and plants. The two eyes that had previously laid their sight on them had gone without notice.
  “Have you figured out a way yet?”
  “A way to what?” Rossmend butted in before Icalave could reply. His strength of voice didn’t fail, and his short temper was rising with panic. “A way to what?!” He asked again as Icalave didn’t answer.
  “A way to get across the river,” Arssneq filled in when Icalave didn’t, “and what was that foul stench I smelt not a second ago?” He added on. It took a while for Icalave to reply. He was lost in thought again.
  “It was both strange and familiar to me,” Icalave let out slowly, answering the second question and not the first. Truly he had no idea how to get across without using at least a little power. “Strange, because it smelt like a dead herd of animals, and familiar because it smelt a little like the Mann that we found. Do you remember?”
  “Yes,” spat Rossmend,” especially when that little rodent went and threw up all over the place once he had finished priding himself.” Icalave chuckled deeply to himself. He looked at the southern sky out of memory and noticed that it had continually, very slowly, turned brown. But the fresh water now confused him even more. His mind was drifting back off to memories of certain things when something snapped him back into reality. It was a loud splash.
  “Well, are we going to get across this thing or not?” Called out Rossmend from the downstream side of the icy island, so as not to be swept away.  “What were you planning on doing, Icalave?” Icalave smiled at the energy. Rossmend was a fairly quick recoverer, but not entirely wise on how he spent his energy.
  Icalave then let out a Howl.
  “Spare what energy you can,” his voice was deepened in the Howl state, only making his commanding voice even more harder to disobey, “and be as fast as you can too. Follow me.” With that Icalave walked to the edge of the icy island; Rossmend climbed back on, dripping. At the water edge on the island, Icalave pressed a paw in the water onto the side of the ice, then froze the water around his paw. He gave a tug at it to make sure it held. The others came over to have a look at what he was doing.
  “Well we can’t go over it, or swim through it.” Arssneq agreed. Then the other two let out Howls, as they also went into the Howl state. Icalave took a deep breath, and plunged his head into the water.
  The current pulled him strongly to the left, eager to take him back to the North that they had so far trudged from, but he had already fastened his second paw to the ice and was making his way down to the bottom. He had to work quickly, finding his footing before melting the ice around one paw, and freezing another, so that only one paw was free at a time. The current pulled horribly from the right, forcing him to walk almost horizontally to contemplate for the force. His breath was already being used by his hard working muscles, but still he moved on against the waters will. He could feel the vibrations of moving rocks behind him from the others would had forgotten to unfreeze their paws from the rocks. It was hard to see, but he could feel the ground rising, and his spirits too. Pressing on he could feel the current easing off, before the water’s surface broke before his head. He took a large gasp and as soon he was on safe ground he faded out of the Howl state. Arssneq was next, followed after a few worrying seconds by Rossmend, who had forgotten to unfreeze his left back paw and misplaced his footing. But they were all still alive to Icalave’s contentment.
  The icy island glistened in the sun, as threatening clouds started rolling up from the south. He was happy that such a plan worked, even though the others were completely exhausted now. The cliff face stood in front of them, and luckily there was a wide enough landing at the bottom for them all to stand on. Icalave looked up and down it. There didn’t seem anyway up except for doing what they had done in the water. But it would be a lot harder, and require a lot more strength and energy because there was no water around for them to freeze except that in the air. Icalave knew that wouldn’t be enough for all of them, perhaps not even for one of them to get half-way up.
  “We’ll have to go back north. I can see no way up from this point to the south, unless one of you has trodden these lands before?” Icalave looked at them and there clinging wet fur. No doubt he looked much the same, except for the fact he had broader shoulders, and was slightly taller than them both. Arssneq was the slimmest, and Rossmend being the muscles and quite fast. They both looked disgruntled at the fact that their quest was turning into an errand of backtracking. It took them nearly half a day of flat running to reach where they were from the boarders of No-Manns Land and the Wind Swept Grasslands.
  Icalave understood, but it was the only way that he was sure of that they could go safely. He lead on and the others reluctantly followed at a trotting pace. The two sets of eyes watching them from the top of the cliff from the shadows.