Cold is the Void

[Amaterasu]

Expedition, Day 5

"Well... this is bad", was all that Amaterasu could say.

Through the night the weather had turned from annoyingly bad to life-threatening. Had they slept in any less protected area than the cavern, they would likely have frozen in their sleeps, or been buried under the masses of snow. Snow was falling in quantities that not even the most northern parts of Kamui in its harshest winter had experienced, heaping up to create a two-meter thick layer that obstructed the rock-covered entrance. On top of that a blizzard had raged through the valley that the expedition group had been traveling along and lowered the tempreratures beyond what they had already been, which had hardened the snow into an ice-laden heavy mass too viscous for the Fur-Selkies to navigate and less viscous than mud, so that not even snowshoes would allow them to walk through it.

“Does this mean that we must wait here today?”

“Eh.” The dwarf that had inspected the snow spat on the ground near the entrance of the cave. “If we ‘ad Mardagores we could. But ah don’ think ye know what one o’ them’s like.”

“Mardagores, you say… are these mounts held in Dwarfholm?”

“Nay. Too warm for ‘em. Too low. They get heatstrokes.”

Amaterasu sighed. “Describe them to me… draw them maybe.”

“Can’t draw. Only thing me hands can craft is stone.”

“Then carve a rock.”

“Tha’ll take days.”

“I don’t need an artistic masterpiece, a rough sketch is sufficient. We’re stuck here anyway… so just do what you can, please.”

“Eh… Ah guess ah can give it a shot.” He scuffled back to the deeper part of the cave and unhooked a climbing pick from the luggage pile, then picked up a rock and, while explaining himself to his comrades, began his work. Amaterasu used the time that she could not spend otherwise anyway to pull two of the other dwarves aside and with their help let controlled amounts of snow roll into the cavern, to resupply their water and extract Omnilium. The snow was much less dense than other materials but it cleared the entrance to the cave some, allowing the expedition forces to determine how big the impact of the blizzard really was. The answer came quickly – it was major. The snow was not expected to go back for at least a week, it was likely to have extended further up along the valley and their route and with some bad luck would have shut the mountain pass that was about a hundred kilometres ahead. While not an impassable obstacle it would slow them down further, possibly costing them another day. And out here, time was not going in your favour.

When the afternoon came around the dwarf presented Amaterasu with a statuette made of stone. While it was a little rough around the edges it was clearly an animal… although, a very weird one. With an enormous, vaguely rectangular body and claws on its four corners as well as an elongated head it reminded her of a flying squirrel. “So… this is a Mardagore?” she asked while turning the statuette upside down.

“Aye. S’ a rough idea only, bu’ I got it pretty good. They’re huge an’ flat like that ta spread their weight across an area… an’ ta glide.”

“Glide? As in through the air?”

“Jus’ that. Mardagorees are predators, ye see. They lay low ta hide from the bigger fish like wampas, with white fur on their backs an’ diggin’ themselves into the snow, but when they spy some prey…” He spreaded his arms out as if they were wings and took a leap towards Amaterasu. “They jump down from their perches, swoop in an’ slice their heads clean off. Then they come back around, carry their prey to safety on their backs and have a feast. Ah’ve seen dwarves gettin’ caught by Mardagorees before. It ain’t a pleasant sight I can tell ya.”

“About how big is an adult one?”

“Hooh, they’re huge. From front to back paws they’re a good four meters… two, two an’ a half from side ta side. Kinda thin though, maybe eh… ‘bout a third of a meter, somethin’ like that.”

“And they’re prey to the wampas? Something this huge?”

“Wampas ain’t jus’ got one arrow in their quiver. If a Mardagoree attacks a wampa an’ misses, it’s a sittin’ duck on the ground cause they can’t get back up. An’ tha’s if the wampa doesn’t see the Mardagore comin’. Cause if it does, it’s just got to raise its claw and slices the Mardagore’s belly up as it flies over it.”

“I see… so the trick would be to dodge their first strike.”

“The trick’s never ta run into one of ‘em. Ah pray fer all o’ us tha’ we don’ meet one. So, think ye can make one of ‘em?”

“I’m fairly confident. They remind me of an animal from home, though they’re way larger. I’ll try making one this evening, and if it works out we’ll get going tomorrow.”

“Ah, ah’ll be standin’ by ta instruct ye if ye want. But fer now, we’ll need some firewood fer the night.”

Expedition, Day 6

Through the evening of the fifth day, Amaterasu, Oki, Fiara, Urist and the dwarves had shovelled an open spot in front of their cavern to set up for the following day. Now, the Kami of the Sun was sitting there, her legs crossed beneath herself and calmly breathing in the chilling air with big lungfuls. She would be cold later, but right now she needed the focus.

The dwarf that had carved the stone for her yesterday circled around her, speaking of the Mardagores and their characteristics, from their flat muscles allowing them to slide around in a manner similar to the Fur-Selkies to their sharp predator eyes. Amaterasu added a few twists where it mattered, to keep their future mounts from turning against them and devouring them in their sleep. While they were going to be predators, she made them omnivores instead. While they were pack animals she made it so that they would recognize the dwarves’ scents as that of an Alpha, of a pack leader, and obey them. Their bodies suited mainly for aerial navigation and slow crawling on the ground were enhanced with pads similar to those of the Fur-Selkies, that let them slide on the snow, and their backs that were suited to carry up to 300 kilos were enforced with potent bones and muscles that raised their carrying capacity to three times that, at the price of more rigid spines which made gliding harder for them. But she doubted that they would be in need of that a lot… perhaps if they ran into a chasm or ravine, but if they did that would be another problem that she would take care of solving when it came to it. For now they needed to transport their luggage and eight individuals, 300 kilos were just too little for that.

Now that the Fur-Selkies were no longer going to accompany them but they were too far out to live a regular life if set free, Amaterasu extracted their Omnilium once more. The dwarves who much more pragmatic in their thinking than Fiara who hid the tears in her eyes by turning away and putting on her eyewear “to guard them from the stinging winds” that nobody else could feel, redistributed the seats. Amaterasu and Fiara got to sit on one Mardagore along with two of the expedition dwarves and took the lead whilst Oki, Urist and the two others sat down on the other one. Then two of them did a test run with the “prototype”, the first altered Mardagore that Amaterasu had summoned, and started whizzing over the snowy surface at breakneck speeds after only a few instants of accelerating. Even Oki had to laugh when the pilots clung to the fur beneath them for dear life whilst spewing a chain of dwarven cursewords. But it was deemed more than successful and after packing their luggage onto the animal’s back, summoning a second one and doing the exact same with that one as well, they set off.

And surprise, surprise, not two hours after their departure they found the mountain pass that they had been steering towards, blocked by an avalanche. With a resigned sigh they started pitching their tents while Amaterasu went to work on extracting the Omnilium from the masses of snow and occasionally creating controlled explosions with the aid of the dwarves to remove more snow, without burying them in it in the process. But hundreds of tonnes of snow would not budge that easily, and there was no known way out of the valley without backtracking nearly all the way to Dwarfholm, so clearing the way was their only option. They lost not only the rest of their day here, but the two that followed. When finally the way lay clear before them and they slid through on their Mardagores in the morning of the ninth day to resume their journey one of the dwarves that sat with Amaterasu mumbled: “This pass… ah’ll name it ‘The Devil’s Maw’ on me map. A fittin’ name fer a place tha’s givin’ us this much trouble. Or is gonna give anyone trouble that goes through, to the center of the Fields.”

Fiara leant in a bit, looking over the dwarf’s shoulder. “What’s that struck-through scribbling that you have below the ‘Devil’s Maw’?”

“Ah was tempted ta name this place otherwise. After another openin’ on tha devil’s body, but that name ain’t as catchy. Or as fit fer teachin’ in schools.”

Amaterasu groaned and turned her head. “Save your breath, you two. We have to make up for the time that we lost, so this day will be extra tough. You’ll be more spent if you chatter back there.”

2941+ 1644 = 4.585 / 20.000 words.