Entering Skîbæria

Illyára joined us later for a quick dinner, consisting of cold rice and overgrown chicken meat. She looked tired after being on lookout and flying around for hours.

“It’s really urgent to get out.” she said. “The dragons are gathering in small, mobile and very flexible units that are increasingly difficult to hunt down, even cloaked. They are probing where to find the least resistance and are fleeing immediately when being attacked. They really try to separate and wear us down.”

Funny, there weren’t any dragons here during the last hour. Right on cue she sighed and said: “Here we go again…”

She stood up, but Al’Reeza touched her arm and shook her head.

“Stay. It’s my turn now.”

With that she jumped into the air and soared towards the incoming threat.

The ælven girl sighed again, but now in relief and slumped down a little bit.

“I swear, when this is over, I’m gonna sleep for a whole sideh!”

“Unfortunately we’ll need to pedal for some candles after reaching the plane.” interjected Lily immediately.

“I know,” sighed the ælven girl, and I immediately asked: “What’s a sideh?”

“A period of six days.” answered Lily and quickly added: “Come on, we have one more thing to do before we can leave.”

Right! We had to strap the Munchie onto the forward platform. The mast was already fixed in a lying down position. We’d need it only later in an upright position, after we put some distance between us and the dragons.

I wondered at all the possible applications of magic, since Al’Reeza not only has provided us with cloth and a sail made from plant fibers, but also several ropes of varying thickness and length. Only one thing made me think: Never ever had I seen the ælf and the daimon girl use any incantations, magic words or spells. They just concentrated and let things happen through pure mind work. If this was common here, then it was probably something similar to telekinesis?

It wasn’t long after we’d strapped the Munchie down that Al’Reeza returned.

“Just a bunch of scalie, feathered rascals.” she joked and apparently had easily taken care of them. In the meantime I had also cleaned the dishes (quite poorly for my liking) with fresh snow.

Now came the big moment: Together we pushed the iceboat slowly towards the edge of the rim. I helped as best as I could, but despite having a little bit of muscle (working in mechanics is often a natural workout) I was mercilessly outclassed by the girls. The combination of magic and living in a high gravity environment seems to work real wonders for your body!

After we got into position, Illyára and I settled down in the streamlined starboard cabin, Al’Reeza went to the steering controls at the bow and Lily gave the ‘Ice Wallow’ one last push to put it in motion over the edge.

The vessel lurched, once, twice, then slowly started moving. A dull thud signaled that Lily had also jumped on board. The movement started taking momentum. The ‘Ice Wallow’ gained speed and got faster and faster, the side slopes of the ravine starting to fly past us, and I got slightly uncomfortable.

I’m no adrenaline junkie, who gets some kicks out from high speed. I increasingly started to worry about a crash, despite Al’Reeza’s skillful steering. Still there were some bumps from the not completely even terrain and I winced with each and every single one, thinking about my supplies in the Munchie, hoping they were adequately secured.

Thankfully the high speed part of the slope didn’t last all too long. The ground evened out, the ridges started disappearing, the icy part of the slope gave way to snow and firn, and we steadily lost momentum. In the middle of the vast ice plane we finally came to a stop. The caldera rim behind us now looked like an inconspicuous, gentle rise in the ice, and around us …nothing but a vast, wide plane of nothingness. We officially had now arrived in Skîbæria!

The girls seemed disappointed at the ‘early’ end of the fast, self propelled movement, especially Lily, who reminded me of Diego, the sabretooth tiger from ‘Ice Age’ after the crazy ‘bob run’ in the ice cave of part one. She didn’t say anything, but certainly looked as if she had nothing against going again!

Unfortunately we had to postpone every further activity, because Illyára warned us of an approaching dragon patrol. We didn’t have to wait long before even I could see them, three of them flying low, three more flying high to cover as much ground as possible.

They flew fast from east to west, the lower ones often zig zagging in an unpredictable pattern that looked like dancing jumps in the air. They flew so close I could even identify their beautiful, fractal-like, on every individual unique colour pattern on their skin and feathers. I was also captivated by the incredible wide variety of sounds they communicated with. Their screeching, croaking, squawking, even barking reached far over the endless plain.

We were of course deadly silent, and despite sitting in plain sight we really went unnoticed! Illyára’s and Al’Reeza’s cloaking techniques proved to be very effective!

Finally the dragons disappeared behind the horizon and we could continue our journey. We untied the ropes and Al’Reeza lowered the Munchie from the ‘Ice Wallow’ telekinetically and gently positioned it in front of the iceboat. Then we harnessed the velomobile in front of the vessel. I noted that I didn’t feel particularly cold. Cool, yes, but it certainly wasn’t freezing.

Illyára confirmed to me that she magically warmed all of us subtly. I also wondered how we could see everything and also ourselves perfectly fine, yet the dragons couldn’t. Lily as always brushed me off and told me to concentrate on more important, urgent matters. After all, I had to show the two magically skilled girls how to pedal the velomobile, where to sit, where to look and generally all the things they had to watch.

It turned out surprisingly easy for them since both seemed to have observed Lily’s first attempts through their mind link which made them more comfortable around the machinery. Still I had to show them how to activate their respective middle motors, how to change gears and how to adjust their seats. It was the hardest for Al’Reeza, because her digitigrade hooves worked differently than our plantigrade feet (or Lily’s paws) the pedals were designed for.

Still it was difficult to get moving, not only because of the unusual weight behind the Munchie (further increased through the high gravity) but also through the low grip of the snow cover. Thankfully it wasn’t very loose or deep, but rather a compressed, harsh, firn like snow. Despite that I had to lower the air pressure in the fat tires a lot and set the suspension as high as possible. And still again it needed Lily to give a little push to get our carriage moving. The middle motors came buzzing to life, the hub motors groaned in their attempt to gain momentum, and we all wheezed to exert enough force to overcome the icy grip of the snow cover.

Slowly we built again some speed and thus started our long, arduous crawl toward the south. Behind us our tracks disappeared as if they’d never been there. We left behind a seemingly virgin, pristine, white snow cover, lying untouched again since eternity in the vast plains of the land they call Skîbæria…