1
The dogs were restless, and so was Únik. Judging the hour was difficult at this time of year, here at the edge of the world, but she tried to hold to a semblance of days and nights. Unable to sleep, the dogs howling and pulling at their chains, she decided to get dressed and head out for the morning scavenge, whether it was morning or not.
Wrapped in thick snow bear pelts, she unhitched Barsa, the lead dog. Heavy set, like herself, his head almost reaching her chest, Barsa was her favourite among the sled dogs. She shouldn't have a favourite, they were working animals and she should treat them as such, but Barsa had that loyalty about him that endeared the great hound to her.
With the big sled dog by her side, she forced her way through the snow drifts towards the bay, whale hook in hand, rope wrapped around her chest and pack hanging over her shoulders.. Above, the scintillating ribbons of the aurora gilded the sky. Clear, this morning, or night, she could see the stars beyond the rippling colours of the aurora, light reflecting from the moons little as the two larger moons hid beyond the horizon, leaving only Kavis and the smallest moon, Iri, to shine their light upon the vast wastes of snow and ice.
Making good time, Barsa remaining by her side, his thick, strong legs brushing aside deep drifts, Únik saw the bay ahead. Tracis' Midden, as people called it, was a place where everything and anything could wash up against the ice floes. Following twisting currents and tides from the north, the hook of the bay was the last place upon Karramon where things floating down would congregate before the undercurrents would drag them off, far into the ice blasted ocean beyond, to the west.
It was a hard place to live. Cold, barren and far from any kind of civilisation. Just as Únik liked it. She had found herself here many years before after the death of her husband, fleeing as far as her legs could carry her until she had reached a place where she could travel no further and there she had made her home. Happy, isolated and free. A woman alone with only her dogs for company and the eyes of the Patrons upon her.
Barsa began to growl as the wind began to pick up, lifting the soft, new snow and sending it in flurries about them. The wind bit through Únik's scarf, pricking at her swarthy features beneath and she ducked her head against the onslaught, forcing her way forward. She had had to suffer worse than a mild flurry of snow in her face.
Hand atop her head, holding down the hood of her thick, fur coat, she prodded the butt of her whale hook into the snow, dragging herself ever forward, hoping that the journey would not become a wasted one. The Midden had gifted her with enough to live on, for the time being, but she would soon need oil for her lanterns, or wood for her fires. Food for her belly. Hers and the dogs, though she could, on occasion, allow them to free roam in search of ice foxes, birds or whatever they could find.
What she hoped for, what she needed, was a good size whale to haul from the frigid waters. Not dead too long, she'd prefer, but big enough for her to need the dogs to haul the carcass back to the rendering hut. There, to flens the corpse of its blubber and to boil that down for the precious oil that could light her home. Big enough and she could take the oil north, to Nihirgng, the nearest town, along with the whale bone, and earn coin for the things the Midden could not gift her.
Again, Barsa growled. This time she took greater notice, stopping in her stride through the snow to observe the animal. If the dog had smelled snow bears, she would haul nothing from the waters this day. Crouching, she used her snow bear pelt coat to help her blend in with the surroundings, reaching out with mittened hand to soothe the big sled dog.
Barsa's nose jerked in the air several times, tail pointed straight out at his rear, legs bent and poised, though he would do nothing without her permission. The dog lowered his head, staring out towards the bay, hidden by the swirling flakes of snow in the wind. Not one for fancies, Únik knew Barsa would not act so without reason.
Narrowing her eyes, the only part of her face uncovered, she glared out as far as she could see. Every so often, she saw the way ahead open up, revealing the waters of Tracis' Midden lapping up onto the shore. She couldn't see any snow bears, nor sign of anything that could have Barsa's hackles raised so.
Still, she couldn't dismiss the animal's senses. Thrusting the butt of the whale hook deep into the snow, she supported herself as she rose back to her feet. She knew the hook would have little use against a snow bear, the biggest, most vicious of bears on the continent, yet she held it before her as she edged forward, towards the rippling waters.
Above, the aurora continued its crackling dance, but Únik had no time to admire the swirling colours. Through the intermittent glimpses of the shore, she had seen several objects that she needed to scavenge. Barrels, crates, even a table. No doubt a ship had floundered somewhere along the coast. She only hoped that Tracis Kha, Patron of the Oceans had swallowed up any of the bodies.
As the swirling wind grew about her, making visibility become even more poor, she knew she had to reach the goods as fast as possible. High winds would send the items swirling back out into the bay, turning within the localised tidal whirlpools until released back out to the ocean, to the endless seas, or whatever land may be beyond the ice.
The wind began to howl as it started battering Únik, pushing her with strong blasts coming from the north, following the coastline. Too late to turn back now, she began to wade into the waters, thrusting out her whale hook to try and catch at least one thing before the waves began to build. The hook scraped over the side of a barrel, sending it spinning further out, away from shore.
Cursing herself, Únik waded a little further. She would suffer the cold, later, but for the moment, she only cared about gaining something, anything from her this trip through the frozen wastes. She launched the hook out once more, catching upon rope wrapped around one of the crates. With a whoop of joy, she began to haul the crate back to shore line. With much pulling and effort, she dragged it further up the shore, far from the tide line.
Satisfied her prize was secure, she headed back to the water. Another, even bigger crate bobbled towards her, rising and falling upon the growing waves, twisting in a lazy circle as the winds pricked and pushed at the water sodden wood. Únik's whale hook flashed out once more, again catching rope lashed about the crate.
Leaning back, she felt her mittened grip slide upon the shaft of her whale hook, but the crate began to turn towards shore. Behind her, she could hear Barsa continue to growl, but she couldn't turn away now. With luck, she could haul a good few of these crates to shore before the cold began to dig in towards her bones. Get the booty to the safety above the tide line and she could return after a few hours of warming up by her blazing fire.
The crate ground into the shale and pebbles of the shore and Únik cursed again, grabbing hold of the rope around the crate, digging her fur-lined boots into the gravel and pulling with every ounce of her considerable weight. She could feel herself tiring, but she would not give in. Not yet. Even through her thick scarf, she could smell what this crate held. Oranges! She hadn't had fruit in months!
Barsa began to bark, now, and that made Únik stop. Barsa never barked unless at the head of the sled dog team. Now she paid him attention, searching out through the whipping winds and curtain of snow snapping and cracking around them. The dog danced and bounced upon his heavy paws, teeth bared as he stared at something to the north, along the coast.
Try as she might, Únik could see nothing. The snow thrown up by the winds had become a wall. She hesitated, chewing her lip beneath her scarf. She couldn't leave this plunder, only for it to disappear, caught upon the whims of Tracis' Midden's undercurrents. Yet, if Barsa had seen snow bears, she could lose more than the plunder. Only a fool stayed where snow bears prowled.
Now Barsa's barks became more insistent, louder. Every so often, his big head turned towards her, a little skip of the feet as though he wanted her to follow him. She left the crate, heading up past the tide line, past the other crate she had hauled from the water, and stood beside Barsa, staring towards the direction he barked.
The wind dropped, of a sudden, the snow clearing, and as the sound of creaking and cracking reached her ears, Únik threw herself to the snow covered shingles.
The prow of a ship slammed into the crate she had only a second before abandoned, sending shards of wood flying, oranges bursting from the cracks, floating away, landing on the beach. Únik stared up at the great wooden hull of the ship and thanked the Patrons she had stopped ignoring her faithful hound.
-+-
Únik knew little about ships or sailing, but, as she lifted herself from ground, she knew battle damage when she saw it. The masts and rigging had collapsed, blackened by fire. Several large arrow-like objects peppered the hull along the length of the ship and a large, gaping hole, about half-way down the side, allowed sea water to slop in as waves crashed against it.
How the thing had stayed afloat, she couldn't even begin to understand. Few ships came this far south, at the best of times, so, she surmised, this ship had managed to travel along the tides for a great distance. The Patrons themselves must have kept the vessel afloat.
With Barsa at her side, she gripped her whale hook and began to move up towards the hole in the hull. The wind had almost disappeared by now and only the creak of the tortured wood of the ship filled the silence. The creaks and Barsa's intermittent growls. The dog didn't like this and neither did Únik.
The prospect of plundering the wreck held too great a pull on her, however, and she began to wonder what treasures the ship could still hold. The wood alone could keep her warm for years, though she doubted she would have the time to strip the ship of everything she would want. Even now the waters of Tracis' Midden pulled and tugged at the ship, threatening to drag it back out into the frigid sea. Yet, if she could take anything moveable, today could see her greatest scavenge of her entire time out here in the wastes.
Reaching the hole, she noticed scorched and blackened planking, broken and splintered. She'd seen its like before, where lightning struck trees, back in her homeland of Uriok. It seemed possible that the ship had suffered attack from a mage, or mages. Lightning, normal lightning, would not have caused such damage. Her mittened hand reached out, touching the nearest blackened strip of hull, only for it to snap away at her touch, falling with a splash into the water at her feet.
"Stay." Raising her hand, she caught Barsa's twitching, wary eyes. "Guard."
If she had any hopes of salvaging anything from the ship, she had to act fast before the tide turned and the ship pulled away from the shore line. Thrusting the butt of her whale hook into the shale beside Barsa, Únik waded to the lowest point of the hole in the ship, glancing inside. Nothing moved, that she could see, and she hefted herself up, falling over the edge into the ship itself.
She found the area knee deep with sea water and continued to marvel as to how it remained afloat. First things first, she had to find the galley and the food stores. If she could find food, that, at least, would make entering this damaged ship worth the trouble. Precious metals and jewels would mean nothing to her. She would find food and wood and lanterns of more value.
The ship rocked as waves crashed against the other side and Únik decided to hurry, rather than take her time. In this part of the ship, she found rows of hammocks taking up much of the space. Personal belongings littered the surface of the water she waded through, but she saw nothing of value.
Stairs, at one end, led up to another deck and she started up them, her eye catching a swinging lantern hanging from a hook. If she had time, she'd search through her fur coat to find her flint and steel, but she didn't. The stairs led to a landing of some kind. Thin and enclosed, her size, made worse by the thick furs she wore, made her walk sideways, passing several open doors to cabins along the way.
Not a sign of anything living came to her eyes as she passed through the ship. Plenty of blood, however. On the rough planks of the floor, on the walls and cabin doors. The ship appeared to have suffered a slaughter, yet she could see no bodies. Still she continued, until she found what she needed.
The galley had little more space than the corridors, with only a thin strip of space between worktops and a raised cooking fire with high, metal sides enclosing long since cooled wooden logs, charred and ashen. A door at the end of the galley led to a small store room where she found several sacks of foodstuffs. Potatoes, carrots, cabbages. The kinds of foods she hadn't eaten for so long.
It took several journeys, but she managed to toss a good number of the sacks through the hole in the ship, down onto the shoreline, Barsa sitting, watching the ship with baleful eyes as Únik worked.
After taking as much as she could from the galley, she made her way to the top deck and there she found her first bodies. All in various positions where they had fallen, cut down by swords or arrows. Others appeared burnt and blackened from the fires that had brought down the rigging. She passed by those bodies as though they didn't exist.
The ship lurched to the side and Únik stumbled, reaching out for the nearest support, but the wood she grabbed gave way under her touch, crashing to the deck. Her head whipped around as another noise had broken through the eerie silence of the ship. A scream, or a shout, Únik could not feel sure which she had heard.
Her keen ears, even muffled by the thick fur hood, pinpointed where the scream had emerged from. A raised section, to the rear of the deck, and an arched door. With her whale hook out on the shore, she searched around for a weapon of some kind, settling on a length of broken wood that seemed sturdy enough to crack a skull or two.
Taking cautious steps, she moved closer to the door and saw a sheen upon it. A coating of ice, so clear it almost looked like glass, covered the door from top to bottom, the waning light of the two moons in the sky glittering from the surface. The ice seemed almost an inch thick, covering the gaps between door and frame.
Reaching out, she stopped her mittened hand before touching the ice. She could feel the intense cold from inches away. Even more cold than anywhere else out here in the barren, frozen wastes. An unnatural cold. If anyone remained alive behind that door, Únik didn't want to meet them. Anyone who could survive the destruction of the ship and the intensity of that ice was someone Únik did not want to encounter.
"Help me!" The voice cut through the silence. A female voice, stuttering and fearful. "I can feel the heat of you out there. I can't break the ice. Please! Help!"
Únik took several steps back. The voice said she could feel her heat. That could only mean magic of some kind and the last thing Únik wanted any part of was mages and their schemes. She continued to back away from the door, deciding she had scavenged enough from this wreck. A quick glance to the shore showed that the last lurch of the ship had begun to dislodge it from the shore.
If she didn't leave now, she would have to swim back to Barsa. Yet, she couldn't ignore the voice behind the door. She knew the feeling of people ignoring cries for help. Knew it well. But she had no way of knowing who, or what, sat beyond that door. Someone, or something that had survived where everyone else aboard this ship had died or fallen overboard, or worse.
She found herself hesitating. The smart thing to do was leave. The voice beyond that door was not her problem. She could pretend she never even heard the voice. Pretend that she had found the entire ship abandoned. Not a single soul aboard. But she would know different.
Cursing herself, the Patrons and the ocean itself, Únik moved back to the door.
"Stand back!" With barely a second between her warning and the first blow, Únik began battering at the ice covering the door.
At first, she made little progress, the hefty piece of wood causing only minor scratches and dents upon the surface. Looking around, Únik saw something metal sticking out of the chest of one of the frozen dead. Praying that the Patrons would forgive her, Únik pulled a short dagger from the body and returned to the door, hacking away near the seams and gaps.
The ship lurched again as waves continued to crash against the hull and Únik felt the entire vessel shift to the side. A quick glance to the shore confirmed her fears and she began stabbing at the ice with even more urgency as the shore began to creep away.
It felt as though ages passed as she battered and dug the dagger into the ice before she made any headway. The shore continued to recede away and, with one final effort, she plunged the dagger into the ice, tearing away great chunks that fell to the deck, spinning and sliding away.
As soon as the majority of ice fell away, Únik launched her shoulder against the door, putting her considerable weight against it and found herself surprised that it crashed open so easy. She fell into the cabin beyond the door, to find the strangest person she had ever seen in her life staring back at her.