Sub-ice refugees

Again we were subice refugees, trapped in an even more confined space than last time, but, for a lack of balance, also less protected. At least my ice and snow barricade blocking the entrance held firm, and the storm filled the shaft Al’Reeza had created with an evergrowing blanket that insulated pretty well. I smiled often when I noticed how the furious howl of the wind grew softer and more distant the longer it raged, not because the storm eased up, but because of the endless amount of snow it dumped on us. It was paradoxical: the longer the storm lasted, the better it protected us!

The supplies we found in the isolated ice cave relieved our direst needs for now. Remember: they were meant for a much larger group than we were at present, so they could sustain us easily for several weeks, maybe even a month.

Ah, I forgot! Here on Liyúra with its three moons, there are no ‘months’! They are called ‘randas’, an abbreviation from Liýranda, Liyúra’s biggest and innermost moon, which circles the planet in thirty days and thus is used as the basis for dividing the year. It’s only logical that the ‘weeks’ here only last six days and are called ‘sidehs’ (a combination and compression of ‘six days’: sidehs, you understand?).

In the meantime I had also measured the length of a liyúrean day and found it almost exactly twenty five hours long. Now I also knew how long the long and short candles lasted: sixty two and a half minutes, respectively twenty five minutes. Minutes and seconds of course are unknown here too, instead there exist ‘blins’ which last a little bit more than four seconds and ‘doblins’ which consist of twelve ‘blins’.

Both time units are based on natural perception: A ‘blin’ is simply the average time a person takes to blink with its eyes, and a ‘doblin’ is nothing more than a ‘dozen blins’ or about fifty seconds. There is also a ‘fidoblin’ (five doblins) but I didn’t understand what this time unit is needed for. Don’t get me wrong! It’s used for lots of things but the need for it eludes me to this day. It doesn't help that it also reminds me of a really stupid dog name...!

Speaking of time: Yára and Reeza certainly took their sweet share of it before finally waking up! I was anxious to watch over them, but ended up falling asleep myself. It was too late (early in the ‘morning’ if you want to call it that!) and I was just dead tired!

When I awoke at noon they were still asleep! Next to me Lily snored in her seat and behind me the girls still lied motionless. Their colour seemed healthier, their breathing steadier, and when I checked their pulse, it was still faint, but stronger. Also their temperature seemed to have gone down. The beastess was probably right: they were a lot sturdier than they looked (and both were already half a head taller than me and a lot stronger!)!

Reeza was the first to wake, giving me the faintest of smiles, a weak, sweet flutter, that looked incredibly …fragile on her proud, aristocratic features. I gave her an open yfood bottle with a straw she immediately started greedily sucking. The noise woke up Yára, and when she started suckling her bottle, finally also Lily.

The space was cramped, so I left the Munchie to give the girls some privacy and to look after the supplies in the storage cave. Lily had already moved quite a lot of them out here, but there was still so much more. Most of it was food of course, a healthy mix of mostly dried meat, but also honey, fruits, berries, edible roots and mushrooms. Then there were herbs, salt, cloth, oil, wood, sticks, arrows, knives, and so on. Even spare clothes were neatly packed in bundles!

But the jackpot was a small stove that could be fueled with oil! Oh, what joy! Lily had once told me that two of their hidden lairs had emergency equipment stored for …well, emergencies. Once again I wondered, how well prepared their expedition had come to explore these unknown lands, how far they’ve gotten, how just a fraction of their members’d escaped a complete catastrophe, how good the situation’d seem to develop, only for us to lose almost everything again.

Lily’s voice could be heard, agitated, bellowing, surely scolding the two girls whose poor decision had led to our dire situation. We were safe right now it seemed, but our escape had been closer than I would’ve liked!

Over the next few days we could just wait for the storm to subside. And boy, it took its time! Eight days, or one and a third sideh it lasted, before we could finally return to the surface and breathe fresh, untouched air again!

We all had recovered well in the meantime, both mentally and physically. In the beginning I was often plagued by horrible nightmares, where somebody was dying or the Munchie got lost and we were stranded without anything! Or we were haunted, pursued or chased by nature itself, by mountains that’ve come to life, thunderstorms with dangerous, hostile lighting or simply the ground beneath us that cracked open and wanted to swallow us.

These dreams were bad, but even worse were the ones where I saw Lily as a young human girl transforming painfully into the shape she now possessed. I knew my mind was processing that way of what I’d witnessed (or nearly witnessed) and learned, but I didn’t know I had such a vivid imagination! Brrrr!

I felt conflicted and ashamed and became more reserved around Lily than before, knowing now that she was born a human like me and only later in life became a beast person. I really couldn’t imagine what it felt like, losing all her beauty, her looks, her status, her wealth, being kicked out and betrayed by her family, becoming a member of an antagonized, feared minority…

I felt enormous sympathy for her and admired how she coped with all that, how she saved all of us with herculean effort, endless stamina and immense strength. Not once had she given up, despite the situation being hopeless, fighting ‘till the end, until we all were safe. In all honesty, for me she was a true hero, but I didn’t know how to convey it to her. I didn’t want to remind her of her sad backstory and feared she may think I pitied her.

Of course I’d thanked her from my heart and told her that I knew exactly how this would’ve ended, had she not been with us. She smiled in a way I couldn’t decipher and just said: “Guess I was finally useful a little bit…”

And with that she went to tend to her things. Her tone wasn’t as harsh as her words, so I did my best to not take it personally. I’m telling you, it wasn’t easy!

Yára and Reeza both were tremendously ashamed. Lily had really chewed them out to the bone literally the moment they’d woken up, but I think that wasn’t even necessary. They knew exactly how poor their decision had been! But as much as I lamented the loss of our goods and the ‘Ice Wallow’, I couldn’t bring myself to be angry at the girls.

Really, what were the odds of an eruption directly under your feet?! I think that never occurred in the entire history of mankind! But it had happened and couldn’t be undone anymore. And the girls looked crushed in a way that I just couldn’t bring myself to crush them even more. Besides, Lily had already taken care of that!

They had come to me when they felt better, thanked me and apologized formally in a most humiliating way, kneeling and laying before me in the ice, begging for forgiveness, promising they’d never doubt my words anymore, become more cautious, more reflective, more modest, humble, self conscious, less proud, less cocky and so on.

I told them that everyone could make mistakes and they just had especially bad luck. Furthermore I was in no position to criticize them, because they’d rescued me in the first place.

“If you truly want to apologize and thank somebody, do it to Lily. Without her, we all would’ve died out there in the storm. She pushed through all the obstacles, never let up, never tired and never wavered. She is the true hero in all this. I’m… I’m just… ”

I faltered and couldn’t finish my sentence.

You can imagine the joy, when we were back on the surface again! The sun (Yurá) was up in a flawless, deep blue sky, the ice and snow so immaculately bright it hurt the eyes after the dimmed light down in the cave. We were refreshed (well, baths were sadly out of the question…), well rested, Reeza had charged the batteries of the Munchie with her light trick, and we were now well equipped again.

However, it was really crowded inside the Munchie! All the supplies took a lot of space and all seats were occupied. On the other hand, the situation was similar to when we set out from the caldera oasis at the start. And we didn't have the ‘Ice Wallow’ to tow…

And so started our next etappe, one thousand miles again to the next supply storage. We had lost a lot (including nearly our lives!) but we were in good spirits and felt well prepared and equipped to take on whatever would (or could) get in our way! Hopefully...