Nature has a different plan

In the days before the long winter, when the cold and the snow was a seasonal thing, the townsfolk of Blackharbor welcomed the season that hailed at the end of the year. When the snow blanketed the country and changed the world to shades of white and green, everyone erected pine trees and baked gingerbread to share with their neighbours. No one knew when the tradition of christmas began, but they took part in it all the same.

Mara sighed as she braided her fiery red hair. She picked up her bag and started filling it with supplies.rope, iron probes, and enough lamp oil for six hours. Nothing else. If they could not reach the first ridge and return before Commander Saye gave the order to march, there would be no point in returning at all.

She turned around when she heard the shuffling of snow behind her. Sana and the volunteers were here.

The caravan slept peacefully, no guards and no Saye to stop them from there secret mission. There were no dangers lurking in the snow. The volunteer crew headed northwest in the dead of the night.

The trudged through knee deep snow as they walked past the iron marker. The giant blue wall of ice stood towering next them as they turned towards the ridge marked in the map, its deep blue ice standing vigil over a frozen world. The moonlight through the veiled sky painted everything in shades of grey. No one spoke a word as they walked, as if afraid to break the sacred silence the night brought with it.

The ground rose gradually out of the snow as they went further and further away from the old road. Wind had stripped the ridges nearly bare, exposing black stone beneath the snow.

Hard ground, Mara thought. Better than the valley.

Sana drove a probe ahead of her. “No drifts deep enough to swallow a sledge.”

“Not yet.”

“You always comfort people like this?” Sana asked

“It prevents disappointment.”

They reached the first ridge that Mara had seen when she and sana had hiked north at Saye’s orders. The land beyond descended into a broad channel between two lines of hills. It was not a road, but the slope was gentle and the snow shallow enough for safe travel. Farther in the horizon, dark peaks marked the edge of the basin.

Mara checked the compass twice.

Three days remained an estimate. But for the first time, it was an estimate supported by factual evidence. Visible ground meant easier movement, especially for a caravan of 600 sledges. Mara felt hope, and then despair. Convincing Saye to abandon the southern route was going to be a challenge.

“Sky is getting lighter, We should head back.” said one of the scouts.
Mara turned gave Sana a look that she knew too well. Sana nodded and placed a marking flag where they stood.

“Let’s hope we reach before they -” Mara was interrupted.

A horn sounded from the valley.

One short blast, followed by two more.

Recall.

“Saye knows,” Sana said.

“We will deal with him when we get there.” Mara swore under her breath.

They hurried back.

The sun had begun to peek across the horizon by the time they reached the caravan. Everyone had woken up and were hurriedly packing up their makeshift shelters as Sana and her crew marched through to the caravan to the lead sledge.

Mara found Saye arguing with Tomas.

“No, we will not sit down for a day and wait for you to pull resin out of tree trunks, we have already lost 8 hours and – YOU!”

Saye almost ran at Mara, the fury in his eyes obvious. Mara braced for a yelling. This wasnt the first time Saye had chewed her out for disobeying orders, but that didn’t mean it was going to be any more pleasant.

“You removed scouts from the column without permission!”

“I went with them to look for alternatives?”

“You disobeyed a direct order!”

Mara was furious.

“I didn’t delay anyone! We are already back! If you were going to leave, you would have left by now!”

“We leave no one behind! I thought I made that clear by now!” thundered Saye.

Mara heard sled runners creak as people shifted closer. This was her chance. She raised her voice.

“We found passable ground northwest,” she said. “The basin can be reached.”

“I have seen the map! There are no roads going to your basin!”

“ The snow is thinner than what we went through, And I saw the beginning of a channel through the hills.”

Saye threw the flag into the snow. He had had enough. The burden of 600 lives on a man requires hard decisions. He gave the order

“Captain Rusk, place her under guard.”

A burely, well built man wearing a uniform stepped forward. The captain of the guard. Rusk.

Mara knew it was over. She brought her wrists together and presented them to the captain to be handcuffed.

The hard look in Captain Rusk’s eyes softened ever so little.

Then the earth groaned. A low rumble that shook the entire caravan.

It was too deep to be thunder. Mara felt it through her boots. A long vibration traveling beneath the valley. An earthquake. Mara knew it, and so did Saye.

Every dog began barking at once.

"GET BACK!" Saye yelled at the top of his lungs.

The glacier answered with the sound as loud as a gunshot.

BANG!

A crack raced from glacier’s blue crown all the way to the bottom. For one brief moment, the wall remained standing. The caravan being half a mile away from the glacier no longer mattered, because then, a section of ice wider than a city street leaned toward them.

People froze. Their minds understood the danger, however their bodies refused to believe that something so large could move.

"RUN!" Saye gave the order.

That broke the spell.

Families scattered. Dogs pulled in opposite directions, twisting harnesses around their own legs and the runners trying to free them. A supply sledge overturned and spilled crates into the snow. The abandoned twelfth sledge vanished beneath the first falling slabs, taking its cargo with it.

Mara grabbed a little boy standing alone beside the cook wagon. She pulled him into the cooks cupboard and placed a giant wok between her and the door, covering his head with her body.

At that moment, the glacier struck the valley floor.

The sound of impact was so intense it drowned out everything and made everyone’s ears ring.The shockwave knocked Mara onto her side, extinguished the caravan lamps, and ripped canvas from the medical sledges. Snow and shattered ice rushed across the old road in a white wave.



The boy beneath her began to cry.

Good, Mara thought. Crying meant breathing.

She pushed herself upright. The glacier was still moving. Slabs and shards of ice still breaking apart and following the path of least resistance to where the caravan lay desolated.

"Higher ground!" she yelled . "Leave the sledges! Get to the nearest flag on your left! Run!"

People looked toward Saye.

He was twenty paces away, trying to free a girl whose coat had caught beneath an overturned sledge. He tore the fabric loose and shoved her toward safety just as a slab tumbled down at him.

The ice struck him across the legs.

Captain Rusk reached him first. Mara handed the child to a passing cook and ran after him. Saye was conscious, but his face had turned grey. His left leg bent below the knee at an angle that legs shouldn’t bend at.

"Lift it up!" Rusk ordered.

He and Mara pushed against the slab. It did not move.

Jessa arrived carrying a steel crowbar. She drove its end beneath the ice while Tomas dragged the compact screw jack from his axle kit.

"Give me room," Tomas said.

Jessa leaned on the bar. A gap opened beneath the slab, barely wide enough for Tomas to slide the jack into place. Jessa then attached the crowbar to the jack and pushed down with all her might. Tomas helped her, grabbing on the end and putting his entire body weight on it. The screw rose one painful turn at a time. Saye writhed and screamed curses in agony.

Doctor Oren Thane dropped to his knees beside the commander. He cut away the boot and made a crude splint with wood planks and bandages.

"We should move him. Its not safe standing here. Who knows when the glacier will throw another block at us" Tomas said.

" His bone is broken clean, I need to apply the splint before we move him.” Oren replied.


Mara climbed onto the overturned supply sledge. Her hands shook, and her ears were still ringing. She looked south and watched another section of the glacier collapse across the southern road. Blue ice filled the ravine approach and buried the trail they had argued over for two days.

South was no longer an option. She made the call, and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Children and patients ride! Everyone else, Take the food, medical, fuel, machinery and any sledges you can find! Cut everything else free. Head over to the first flag!"

Rusk looked up from Saye.

For one second, Mara expected him to remember the arrest. But Captain rusk was a military man. When the tides of fate changed, he didn’t waste a second issuing the order.

Instead, he drew his sword and pointed northwest. "You heard her! Guard to the front! Assist the civilians! All hands on deck!"

The order travelled throughout the caravan.

The next hour became a battle fought with ropes, knives, and human hands. Jessa led the machinists in cutting away tangled harnesses. Families abandoned trunks they had dragged all the way from Blackharbor. Tomas wrapped the ardent chamber in three blankets and made six workers carry it between them. The sick were pulled uphill while the people strong enough to walk leaned into the remaining sledges. Sana ran ahead to the early runners at first flag and shot a red flare. A beacon for everyone to head to.

Mara stayed in the valley until Sana returned for her.

"That is everyone who can walk," Sana said.

"And everyone who cannot?"

"Ahead of us. Rusk counted twice. We are lucky we didn’t lose a single soul."

They climbed together. The people gathered at the first flag, shivering in the cold, lighting up broken wood planks and heat lamps to keep warm.

Doctor Thane set on the task of setting Saye's leg while Rusk held him down by his shoulders. He held onto both sides of the leg above and below the fracture.

“Saye, old boy, you and I go way back. I hope you will forgive me for this.” said Oren.

“Just get it over with, Ori.” Saye tried to fake a smile, and failed miserably.

Orin got a twinkle in his eye.

“Quick question, old boy: whats your favourite color?”

“What?”

THWICK!

The commander's scream echoed through the channel. He remained conscious until the bone was straightened, then his eyes rolled shut.
Oren chuckled.

"He will live," he said. "But he will not walk for months."

Rusk wiped Saye's blood from his gloves.

"The caravan requires a commander."

One of the Hearthguard officers looked at him. "You are the next highest ranking officer."

"I command twenty-three guards," Rusk replied. "I do not command six hundred civilians."

Jessa folded her arms. "Saye never commanded civilians before the riots began. He got us this far."

Captain Rusk shook his head.
"Saye will wake up. He is still my leader. This is not the time for change."

"It is exactly the time."

The argument spread faster than the order to evacuate had. Guards wanted Rusk. Some sledge leaders wanted Saye's authority preserved until he woke. Engineers and machinists demanded a scientifically tempered mind. Parents wanted anyone who could promise food.

Mara wanted to sit down and let them argue until the glacier finished collapsing.

Instead, she climbed onto a flat rock.

"We have three choices," she said. "We can remain beneath an unstable wall of ice. We can dig toward a southern road that no longer exists. Or we can follow the channel my crew found northwest."
There was a pause.
"What waits there?" someone called.

"A basin marked on an imperial survey."

"Food?"

"Unknown."

"Shelter?"

"The ridges of the basin will protect us from the wind."

"Heat?"

Mara thought of the faded red words on the map.

"Possibly."

The answer disappointed them. 

"Who put you in command?" a man shouted.

"No one," Mara replied. "I am not in command. I am just proposing a solution. The fall of the glacier has changed our path, we must change to adapt. That is why we choose now."

The crowd quieted.

"I cannot promise that the basin will save us," she continued. "I can promise that digging through to the southern route will not. If you choose me, I will take us northwest. If you choose someone else, then they must stand here and tell you where they intend to go and why. The choice remains in your hands."

For several breaths, nobody moved.

Then Jessa raised her hand.
"I vote for Mara Vale."

Sana followed. Tomas raised his grease-blackened glove. Captain Rusk looked toward Saye's shelter before raising his own.

Hands appeared throughout the crowd. Not every hand. Some people were frightened. Others were angry that the choice had been forced upon them. A few continued watching the commander's shelter as if Saye might walk out and restore the world they understood.

But enough hands were raised.

Rusk stepped forward. he puffed his chest, squared his shoulders and announced the result.

"Until Commander Saye recovers, Mara Vale holds authority over the route and the distribution of supplies."

The words settled on Mara more heavily than the snow on her coat.

She climbed down, and Sana handed her the flare gun. As Mara took it, Sana pulled her close and whispered.
"I sincerely hope that you are right."

Mara took a deep breath to calm herself. then she issued the her first order.

"Turn the usable sledges northwest," she ordered. "Medical teams first. Strip the abandoned sledges for spare iron. We leave before twilight."

For the first time since Blackharbor, the caravan abandoned the imperial road and followed a line of red flags into the unknown.