The early beginnings of an escape plan

Wait! That can’t be right!

“Excuse me,” I turned to the daimon girl. “How long is one of your miles?”

Both Al’Reeza and Lily looked puzzled.

“Why do you ask?” the addressee asked back.

“Well, seven thousand miles seems an awful lot to me.” I answered. “Just for comparison: the diameter of my homeworld is close to eight thousand of my miles. So seven thousand miles for just the extension of the skîbærian ice sheet seems …just too big to me.”

“One of our miles is 1728 steps long.” answered the daimon girl. “One step is two feet, and one foot is twelve thumbs.”

She showed me one of her thumbs and I took the liberty of measuring its thickness. Turned out it closely resembled one inch, so our feet were also of comparable length. A quick calculation revealed then that their miles were just a little bit longer than a kilometer, so 7000 of their miles meant roughly 4350 of my miles.

Still quite a lot, but more manageable than my first guess!

“Could we get back on track, please?” asked Lily, irritated.

“Of course,” apologized the daimon girl.

“First we need to gather enough supplies to sustain us for at least two sideh. Then we need to find a way to escape the attention of the dragons.”

Lily nodded, while I wondered what in all heavens was a 'sideh'.

“There are huge flightless birds here, roughly five feet tall, weighing about two dilouts, that taste really good, little bit like chicken. I already hunted three of them down. Then there is fish in the lakes and streams I’ll try to catch later.”

“We don’t have much time.” Al’Reeza pointed out. “Better concentrate on the prey where we can gather as much food in as little time as possible.”

Lily nodded.

“Alright! Oversized chicken it is then!”

I hold back myself not to ask about their weight units, since I didn’t want to interrupt again. But Al’Reeza already turned her attention to me.

“Vilém, how fast can your vehicle carry what weight and how far?”

Oh dear! A difficult question!

“Well,” I replied carefully, “that depends…”

“Excuse me,” interrupted Lily impatiently, “do you need something else from me? Otherwise I’d be on my way.”

“It’s fine,” the daimon girl replied with a subtle smile. “Go and get us some overgrown skîbærian chicken!”

That’s all the beast girl needed to hear. A moment later Al’Reeza and I were alone in the cave.

I tried to answer her question.

“You see, it depends largely on the environment.” I explained, when her attention had shifted back to me. “It can carry about one thousand pounds and tow at least the same weight, maybe even more. The batteries have a capacity of fifteen kilowatt hours which is enough for about two hundred of your miles with that weight. When the sun shines, it can drive further, because the solar panels on the roof generate electricity from sunlight.”

Al’Reeza frowned, but listened very concentratedly.

“The thing is, the batteries are just about half full.” I explained further. “The cooking also drains energy and with the dragon attacks I can’t set up my Munchie under the open sky to recharge the batteries.”

Her left eyebrow wandered upwards.

“Munchie?”

“I named it like that, because it can drive so fast.” I explained, somewhat embarrassed over the odd name. “It's like it eats the miles away on the street, you understand? A mile munchie, shortened: Munchie…”

She smiled.

“That’s cute, admittedly, but how fast can it drive?”

“On paved roads it can go up to one hundred of your miles per hour.” I said. “But on ice, I don’t know. I haven’t tested that yet. But it may be less.”

She nodded, despite almost certainly not knowing how long an hour lasted, or how heavy a pound would be. But she seemed to have a vague idea, probably a side effect of probing around in my head.

“We measure our daily time in long and in short candles.” she explained after a short pause. “But I suppose our long candle may roughly correspond to one of your ‘hours’. How long does a day in your world last?”

“Twenty-four hours.” I answered.

“Hm,” she mumbled. “Same here. Our day lasts twenty-four long candles or sixty short candles.”

It was getting complicated, so we postponed exact time measurements for a better occasion.

“When I understand correctly, your …’Munchie’ needs lighting energy to move.”

Al’Reeza picked up the earlier thread of the conversation.

“It’s called electricity, and it can also be moved just by pedaling, albeit much harder.” I corrected her. “The electric motors are just an assist. But if you have to carry a lot of weight they are absolutely necessary, especially uphill.”

“Hm,” she mumbled again. “I could try to charge your batteries with magic.” she proposed. “It’s easy to convert mana into lighting energy.”

Oh my dear!

“Please don’t do that!” I pleaded. “It has to be charged with direct current and 144 volts. If you don’t match these numbers, you might do permanent damage!”

The daimon girl gave me a huge, fang intense smile.

“You know, your ‘Munchie’ seems really sensitive.” she joked.

“And don’t forget about the cold out on the open ice.” I added, ignoring her jab. “It is possible the batteries won’t work all together under these harsh conditions. I added some heating (and cooling of course), but it wasn’t designed for arctic conditions. Or better: skîbærian conditions!”

“With that I can help,” said Al’Reeza. “Without magically shielding us from the freezing conditions out there and improving our body heat, nobody in our group would have made it this far.”

A shadow crossed her face.

“But nonetheless, I think your ‘Munchie’ could be crucial in our escape from here.” she added with renewed vigour in her attitude.

“How so?” I asked bewildered.

“Your vehicle doesn’t need magic for moving.”, she said. “Or at least so little that it could be easily cloaked from the dragons. I believe Illyára told you that they are very good at sensing mana and casted magic?”

I nodded.

“You see, and we are largely dependent on magic to move our iceboat on the skîbærian planes.” she explained.

“Me or Illyára have to magically manipulate the wind into the sail to get it moving and to reach a speed that allows us to cover at least three to four hundred miles a day. And that casting can’t be as easily cloaked like moving your vehicle via electricity.”

I saw the dilemma. But I couldn’t see my vehicle as the solution.

“I get it.” I said. “But as I said, I don’t think my Munchie can cover more than two hundred miles in one go. And how can we recharge the batteries without getting the attention of the dragons?”

I could easily imagine using the solar panels or the enerchute for charging, but I couldn’t see how to hide that from the vicious dragons in pursuit.

She smiled.

“I wouldn’t think of your vehicle to transport us all the way to our next supply deposit, but it could be crucial to sneak through their surveillance. I think the dragons will be monitoring closely a few hundred miles around this caldera oasis. Outwards we should be safer and can use the iceboat as our main transport vehicle.”

She shook her head, anticipating my question.

“Their numbers are not high enough to monitor millions of square miles in the open ice plains. So they’ll concentrate mainly on the area around here. It’s still large enough to spread their numbers really thin. But I’ll want you to consider, if you can tow us with our iceboat for at least the first five hundred miles, where we can then change positions and transport you and your ‘Munchie’ further to Tóràbun.”

Five hundred miles! That was more than double the figure I had given her! And under these conditions! Consider not only the harsh environment of the skîbærian ice plains, but also the watchful eyes of a most hostile dragon horde!

On the other hand: what other options did we have?

I was still thinking and pondering different scenarios, when Al’Reeza suddenly perked up and tilted her head, as if she was listening to an inaudible voice. Then she sighed.

“Sweet curses, they are changing tactics!” Exasperated, she gave me a long look out of her piercing, golden eyes.

“The dragons are sneaking in, hopping over the caldera ridge and hiding in the woods.” she said. “I have to go and hunt them down before they find Lily or the pieces of the iceboat I’ve already crafted. Please think about my plan and if it’s possible for you to assist. And leave under absolutely no circumstances this cave, until somebody of us comes and lets you know it’s safe again. Can you do that?”

Her words and the look on her face was more than urgent, so I promised her to stay this time firmly in the cave and not peek around like last time. She nodded and then quickly left in the direction of the lava lake. I suppose she didn’t want the dragons to lead here, where their potential ace sat.

I sighed. Alone again and this time without any option to monitor the action!