Ice -- Wolv book II

28 - Ice

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I plodded on through the trees. Had we really been followed? Was there someone hiding behind that rock just up ahead, waiting to jump out and kill me? That idiot at the gas station! He's in on all of this! How could I just walk away from him!?!

Ha! What would I have done? Smacked him over the head with a two by four and hope for the best?

I grit my teeth and jumped around the boulder, snapping my rifle forward. Only snow waited for me on the other side--I was safe.

I sucked in a nervous breath, trying desperately to force my heart to slow--

BANG!!!

I jumped, throwing the smoking rifle down into the snow with surprise. A cloud of white smoke swirled around me briefly, before being whisked away by the wind.

"Frick," I muttered, and carefully retrieved the rifle once more. That's the second time I've done that. I guess there was a reason I'd never shot a gun prior to all of this; I probably would've shot my own hand off. Keep your finger off the trigger, idiot! I knelt down and reloaded the musket, than set back out along Mingan's tracks, making doubly sure that my finger stayed clear of the trigger this time.

Well, if anyone WAS trying to sneak up on me...here I am, come find me. Ugh, I'm too tired to be doing any of this!!

I pushed through a tiny patch of frozen brush, and found myself on the edge of the trees, staring out over a seemingly endless white expanse. From where I was standing, all the way to the horizon, was a flat, unbroken, snow-covered plain.

Lake Winnipeg.

Manitoba, while flat in the south, was home to three immense, inland oceans, and I was standing on the icy shore of one of them.

Mingan's tracks lead out onto the frozen surface of Lake Winnipeg, and a few hundred meters ahead of me, I could make out his grey pelt, loping forward across the ice. What the heck?!?

"Hey!" I called out. My voice seemed to drown over the wide open space, so I called again. "Mingan! Hey!"

I squinted, seeing him turn around and catch sight of me. He plowed forward even faster, dragging his pathetic legs along behind him.

"What are you doing?!?" I slung my rifle over my shoulder and took off after him, following the tracks he'd left on the snow and ice. He was only a few more paces ahead of me...

"Hey! I thought you'd been hurt!" I screeched, panting heavily. He began ferociously pawing at the snow, trying to drag himself forward and failing. He launched himself out onto an exposed patch of black ice, and his paws scrabbled helplessly on the surface. "Stop it!" I snarled, hurling myself across the ice and tackling him to his knees.

"Get off of me!" he snarled, turning around and snapping his teeth in my face.

"Stop fighting! Where are you going?" I yelled, grabbing at his paws. He managed to claw through my caribou-skin jacket, and carved four deep, smooth gouges into my arm. "Ow, dang it!" I pushed him over angrily, but he sprung back up and snapped at me again, this time, sinking his teeth into my cheek. "Ah!!!"

"Back off!" he growled. I punched him in the stomach, and roughly slammed his frail body down onto the ice. He howled in pain, barring his teeth at me angrily, and I reached up to wipe the blood from my face.

"What the heck is wrong with you!" I screamed, feeling my cheek and arm beginning to sting painfully.

"Just stay away from me, Humfrey! Leave me alone!"