The Northfell Curse

1. When Hell Freezes Over, Who Will Save it?

Chapter 1 When Hell Freezes Over, Who Will Save it?

One year, when winter came to Northfell, it stayed. This wouldn't matter much to anyone who didn't live there, except that its season became contagious. Every day, the snow and ice stretched out from the center of the city and froze plants, creatures, almost the air, as Northfell's chill flashed across the countryside in glacial outbursts. As time passed, the frozen curse encompassed more and more land and began to freeze the ocean.

This saga follows a group of travelers who were caught in the wake of the curse, as their ship became strangled by the spread of cursed ice which moved with ungodly speed. Fearing the eventual spread of tundra across their world, these travelers became unwilling heroes who matched the threat with (an equally ungodly) reluctance. This is their tale.

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From her perch on the foremast of a ship, Tine was the first to notice the coercion of the Nagirrigan sea from water into ice. She rode passage on a ship crossing the sea's narrow strait when it became trapped in the unnavigatable arctic expanse that overtook it. The frozen plain that had appeared swiftly around them endangered the Brigantine vessel.

Her whiskers felt the cold before she could see it coming. Then she saw the frost in the distance, and watched, stunned, as it grabbed the ship in a breath's time. She scrambled to grip a nearby rope as the Brigantine's bow crashed and came to an anguished standstill. The ship, betrayed by the frozen sea, groaned sadly from its confinement in the ice. Tine wanted to groan, too, but remained quiet. Her right ear twitched while she clung fast to the rigging.

As a Mutkin with cat ancestry, Tine disliked large amounts of water in all its forms. She eyed both the malevolent glacier and the remaining area of ocean that flowed freely in the distance, trying to decide which she hated more. As the ship quieted down, voices from the other passengers soon replaced the din. Tine stayed in her perch away above the chaos on the deck below as crew and passengers panicked on deck. Some even disembarked and walked on the newly formed ice, testing it and scrutinizing the hull for damage. No need to get involved in all that. Not yet, she mused.

Above the crew's shouts, Tine heard a tinny scream from the ship, "Get this thing moving! I paid for immediate passage across this excuse for an ocean! Uneducated as you are, you may not realize, but I am a very important individual and need to get to Svlandir NOW. Don't you know who I am?"

What overblown drivel is this? Tine would have thought it was a joke, but she'd heard too many claims like his before. Most likely, he did really believe he was the most important person on the planet. And, most likely, he believed the laws of weather and physics simply didn't pertain to him. Tine found that, for the most part, if anyone had to proclaim something about themselves to make it known, it probably wasn't true.

She could just make out the Crewmaster's growling reply, "Sure, I know who you are. You're someone who's going to take a long walk to Rigan." Tine watched as some of the passengers who were standing on the ice had to move quickly to avoid a large trunk and satchel that were hurled over the side in their direction.

The Very Important Man - Tine silently named him VIM - sounded less confident now. "No, really, my cousin lives next door to a member of the Grand Consulate. You don't want to do this!" She saw him wring his hands, or try to, since wearing an obnoxious amount of rings made that difficult. She heard the Crewmaster's muffled retort and watched as the VIM screeched, "My baggages!" and leaned over the edge of the ship. The irate, glittery man's agonized face peered over the starboard side at his broken luggage below. Ok, this might be worth going down for, she thought.

She climbed with feline ease down the foremast, checked the straps on her backpack to make sure it was in place, then slinked toward the baggage on the ice. The crew had set the gangplank down so they could walk around the ship and assess the damage, allowing her to exit the ship with ease.