A Week later
Lyra-
I continuously yanked my small travel brush through my thick hair. I needed a hair cut, but mine wasn't as short as Nathan's and the ends would split if I used my knife.
I had enough to worry about at the moment so I pushed my self concerns away. The temperature outside was deathly cold, nothing could stay out there, well, nothing but Baine. He loved the cold.
As soon as he found the ice tunnel, he was up and out. I didn't know where he was for hours until the lump of snow beside the entrance to the tunnel wiggled and lifted its head.
He'd slept for so long that the snow had covered him and he didn't seem to mind at all.
I knew the temperature had to be subzero or a little more. This was nowhere near subarctic conditions. Believe me, I don't think emperor penguins are worth your eyebrows freezing and your toes being blue.
Most days, we didn't leave the cave because it was so bad. Nathan went out for traps and to get meat from the cache but made me stay here. He was absolutely terrified that I was going to get sick again, even when I reassured him that I wouldn't.
The cold never really bothered me but I did prefer warmer places, the Amazon was pretty nice in this case for instance, but I hated the bugs. Especially the spiders.
The wind always howled and screamed but we were very insulated between the cave and the snow cave built around us. We would hang around in the domes of ice to stretch out or take a walk. Nathan and I picked up the process of tunneling to the crack again. We had a whole system running under the snow like a web.
Early on, it was clear that we were going to need a smoke vent and an oxygen hole, so we poked a hole in the ice ceiling just outside the door. We kept it open by re-opening it with the spear every few hours.
To keep ourselves sane, we played stupid games like hangman, tic-tac-toe, and even checkers that I'd made with rocks and a horribly drawn board.
Now, Nathan was trying to teach me chess. Trying.
"Wait-wait a minute, can I move the uh...horse..one..." I struggled to remember what the stone with the etched in horse head was.
"Knight?" Nathan raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, can I move it here?" I pointed to a small space near the original spot where the knight sat.
"No, Knights can't move that way."
"Can I move this one?" I picked up a stone with a small crown on it.
"Yes, the queen can go before the king because the queen protects her king," he took it from my hand and placed it in front of the King.
Ten minutes later, I lost my last pawn and bishop. Nathan sat triumphantly with all of my playing stones next to him while his players littered the space we called the board.
I scowled at him, "That wasn't fair."
"Life isn't fair," he shrugged, smirking.
I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. Can you hand me a hair tie?"
I gestured to my bag and he pulled it into his lap.
"Where are your hair ties?" He asked, shuffling through my things.
"I dunno, look in the pockets," I sat back and poked at the fire with a twig.
"Well no hair ties, but I found a notebook."
I turned to him, "What? I don't remember packing a notebook"
He pulled a red notebook out of the very back pocket of my bag. I never use that pocket, no wonder I forgot all about it. Nathan handed it over and I leafed through the pages.
It was all blank except for my name on the first paper. I grinned at it and looked up at Nathan, "I can draw a map! All I need to do I figure out the double L."
"The what?" He sat with his legs crossed.
"Latitude and longitude lines," I mumbled thoughtfully.
"Don't you need a pencil?"
"There should be some in that pocket. I know I'd never pack paper and nothing to write with."
Nathan reached into the pocket and rifled around. When he withdrew his hand, he held three un-sharpened pencils and a black pen. I smiled and reached out my hand. He handed them over and leaned against the wall.
I flicked out my knife and started to sharpen a pencil to a point. It was a little rough but it would do.
"Is it clear outside?" I asked excitedly.
Nathan was silent as he listened for howling wind, "I think so."
I scrambled up and grabbed my coat, hearing Nathan copy me. Stumbling out of the door, I slid through the snow cave and out of the tunnel. The night sky was actually clear for once and boy was it beautiful.
It was perfect. Nathan popped out of the tunnel and stood next to me, both of us crunching across the icy snow.
"Do you have a compass?" I asked him.
"Uh..." He disappeared back into the cave for a few moments before returning.
He held out a flashlight. I took it and turned it over in my hands. On its side was a little compass that spun to find the direction. I smiled and started to run up the snow bank on the side of our cave.
When I reached the very top, I plopped down in the snow and opened the notebook. Nathan sat beside me, "So whatcha doing?"
I looked at the compass briefly before I started to scribble longitude latitude lines across once paper and then onto the next and the next, "First, I have to map out the double L lines."
Not wanting to waste the flashlights batteries, I went by the light of the moon. Scattering six different papers out in front of me, I started to draw the constellations and their movements, every now and then I had to sharpen the pencil again. I predicted where they'd be moving when we left in the spring. Nothing was perfect or exact but it would do.
My legs and butt started to get cold and my back ached from bending over the papers. I grabbed the paper I was working on and climbed into Nathan's lap. Leaning into his chest, I soaked up his warmth and put the paper on the notebook for a hard surface.
I felt his arms wrap around my waist as I scribbled down stars that we would follow to the west.
"How far do you think your cabin is from here?" I looked over my shoulder at Nathan.
"Before we crashed, Paul said we were about thirty miles from my run way," he said thoughtfully, staring at the stars.
I smiled, "That's not too bad at all. We can hike about ten miles a day and be there in three or four days."
"How are we going to pin point where the cabin is?" He looked down at me.
"You said you can see the Big Dipper out of your window. We follow it across the sky. It'll disappear from the valley for a little while but this constellation is just behind it," I pointed to a small cluster of stars.
"We follow that out of here and catch up to the Big Dipper. There's a small window of about three weeks in the spring that we'll have to leave," I sighed and looked at the finished papers.
"Let's go inside," I stood up and held out my hand to help Nathan up. We slid down the bank and to the tunnel.
I shook off my coat once in the ice cave and sat in the back, leaning against the cool wall. I spread the papers out and looked them over, making some notes and underlining a few things.
Nathan sat beside me, "Done?"
"I think so. I need to put these together with something but it's a good rough draft," I muttered, numbering them and stacking them together for later.
"Alright, now we have something to go by," he smiled.
A small smile graced my lips, "Yeah I guess it'll be easier to look at the paper. If it's clear like this tomorrow, I'll make a land map."
"How are you going to see everything at once?"
I looked at him, "Climb a tree of course."
"You're crazy," Nathan chuckled.
"Crazy is fun, normal is boring as hell," I laughed and tossed the papers aside.
"Well you're definitely not boring," Nathan said we we went to our warm cave to sit near the fire.
I leaned against him and laid my head on his shoulder, " Do you think we're going to get out of here?"
"I know we're going to get out of here," he said quietly.
"How are you so sure?" I fiddled with my fingers.
"Because I have faith you. You're too stubborn to roll over and die," he chuckled.
"So are you," I grinned at him.
"Damn good thing. Now we know we're going to survive."
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As it turns out, it wasn't clear for the next few days. But whatever.
I sat in our lumpy nest of blankets, stitching a hole in the leg of one of Nathan's jeans. Baine was at my side with his head in my lap, dozing peacefully. I laid the finished and folded jeans aside and picked up my newly made land map I had drawn up yesterday. It wasn't very clear but it was better than the last few days had been.
The entire time Nathan had an arm around my waist, totally afraid I was going to fall. After adding some more details and notes, I noticed a scribbling noise.
I looked up to see Nathan with the notebook and a pencil, furiously working on something. I raised an eyebrow but looked back at my map, studying a sketched path of which way we could go towards the ravine.
Every now and then, the scribbling would pause and I could feel Nathan's eyes on me, and then the noise would commence. Sometimes a paper would flip like he was starting on a new page.
I set my map aside and looked up at Nathan, "Whatcha doing?"
Nathan glanced up and stopped doing what he was doing, ".....Nothing..."
"Wow, that wasn't suspicious at all, now you have to show me," I said flatly.
"It's nothing," he said in a not-so-convincing tone, closing the notebook quickly.
"Right," I gently pushed Baine aside and got up, "Let me see."
"No, you don't need to see," he chuckled nervously, "It's not important."
I rolled my eyes and strolled over to him. He turned the notebook away from me and smiled "Hi...."
"Hello, whatcha got there?" I smirked and sat on my knees next to him.
"A notebook," Nathan muttered.
"Obviously," I scoffed, "Don't you want to show me what you were doing in the notebook?"
"Hmmm, no. Not really," he shook his head.
I huffed and stopped trying to get him to willingly hand it over. I started to lean closer to him, "Awe c'mon Nathan, you can't hide anything from me."
He swallowed and leaned back until his back hit the wall.
"Are you hiding something? You know I'll see it eventually," I whispered lowly and leaned closer until our noses were almost touching.
His eyes were wide and completely focused on mine. I narrowed my eyes and looked at him through my lashes.
Before he could say a word, I snatched the notebook out of his hands and bolted across the cave. He jumped up and chased after me, "Damnit Jay!"
I threw open the door and darted into the snow cave, running into one of the many tunnels. This one was off to the side and unfinished. I could hear Nathan running around the other tunnels, yelling for me.
I suppressed a giggle and flipped open the notebook. What I expected was a hunting plan, a map, notes, or a list but never did I expect drawings.
I leafed through them and became truly interested. Most of them were of me. And they were beautiful. Some were of me laughing, sitting by the fire and doing regular things. There was a doodle of an elk and one of Baine. I found one that looked like a copy of the mountains.
The most recent one was me in the cave, sitting with the map in one hand and the other on Baine's head. That was me just a few minutes ago. Nathan was gifted at sketching.
I got up and wandered out of the tunnel with the notebook in my hands. Nathan was leaned against the icy wall with a scowl, Baine sat next to him.
"I had no idea," I said quietly, smiling at him.
"Sorry, it's just, you were one of the only things worth drawing-" he tried to explain.
"I had no idea you were an artist!" I squealed and vaulted over to Nathan.
"You're not mad?" He asked carefully.
"Why would I be mad? These are amazing!" I flipped to the one of Baine. It looked so realistic.
"I haven't drawn since high school, I just got bored and figured what the hell," Nathan smiled.
"Wow you need to teach me how to draw like this," I grinned at him.
"Maybe I'll give you a lesson or two," he chuckled.
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So, Nathan's got a knack for art? His photography skills may also be beautiful *wink wink*. Vote, comment, share!
-KJ