Anyu clung onto the warmth. She could feel it beating through her heart and blood, sense it chasing away the cold. It was a good feeling. It brought back memories, old memories of a child huddling under the furs beside her mother as a fire warmed their frozen bodies. I must be dead, she thought. Anyu had never felt heat this intense before, not even when standing right in front of the fire in a crowded igloo. She must have died and gone to the Sun mother's domain. It was the only explanation.
At first Anyu had reveled in the warmth, but soon she grew uncomfortable. It was too hot now, a flame sparking and growing out of control. The sun was shining so brightly it scorched her skin, and melted the blubber right off her boots. She was burning, as if her very soul had caught on fire. Never had Anyu thought she would wish for the cold, but she'd never wanted anything so badly as she wanted a freezing wind to wash over her in this moment and save her from the flames...
Anyu's eyes flung open as consciousness finally grabbed hold of her. The sky was still a thick, swirling gray, the sun completely obscured from sight. Small tufts of snow drifted lazily to the ground. The air was cold, without any trace of the warmth that she had dreamt of in her sleep. A strange dream. Her grandmother would have been able to interpret it if she were here. But her grandmother was a world away, and Anyu still had a long way to go to get back to her. She stared up at the clouds for a moment, blinking away the snowflakes, before pushing herself into a sitting position.
Her eyes immediately darted to the ice, searching for the hole from which she'd escaped the water. She saw nothing but the same interminable landscape of the frozen, mist covered lake, as flawless as ever. The crack in the ice had been washed away like an unsightly blemish on the lake's skin.
Anyu shakily rose to her feet. Her clothes were still damp from the freezing waters and every brush of the wind struck her right down to her bones. Sleeping out in the open with wet clothes was normally as good as a knife in the heart. She should be dead right now, or at least close to it. Anyu took an inventory of all her appendages, fearing the worst, but the cold hadn't stolen anything from her. She had both her hands and feet, and no toes or fingers missing either. She pinched at her nose and ears as well, just to be sure, and found them intact.
Anyu tried not to think too hard about the anomaly. There were all sorts of magic in this land. Some of it must have rubbed of on her at some point...
A memory came back to her with a sharp jolt. She fell to her hands and knees on the ice, scrabbling through the freshly fallen snow in search of-
There.
Her hand shot out and snatched the shiny black hair that stood out so starkly from the white snow. She clutched the strands tightly in her grasp, understanding their value. This must have been what had saved her, whatever residual power was left in the hair she'd stolen from Sedna. Anyu closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling out the power with her mind. She felt somewhat silly, sitting there out in the snow trying to make a connection with a tuft of hair, even more so since there was no aura of energy or magic around it whatsoever. Not that she could tell, anyway. She should have Kano take a look at it, he'd probably know how to use it properly.
Speaking of Kano and Tavra, her two companions and her trusty reindeer were nowhere in sight and she hadn't the slightest idea of how to look for them. She was probably miles off from where she'd initially fell into the lake, and they had most likely moved from that location by now anyway. There weren't even any markers to go by, nothing telling her if this was a part of the lake she'd already seen or completely unfamiliar territory. A hunter's nightmare.
So, stuffing Sedna's hair securely into a pocket, Anyu walked. She squinted through the clouds, trying to at least ascertain the position of the sun to guide her, but soon gave up and chose a random direction. How far across had Kano said the lake was? Only a day's journey? If the lake was roughly symmetrical, then she'd reach land at some point and at least be able to find food and shelter. Unless the length of the lake was much longer than its width and she was going in the wrong direction...
Anyu distracted herself from any thoughts of hopelessness by trying to take an inventory of what she still had. She'd lost her daggers fighting off the qalupalik, so she was virtually weaponless. Her spear, at least, had been flung out of her grasp before she'd gone under the water, so with any luck Kano and Tavra would have it with them.
Her tamga still hung limply around her neck, the yellowing bone bouncing against her collar with every step. The blasted thing seemed to be her one constant in all of this chaos. Maybe it really was a true good luck charm. Anyu brought the amulet up to her lips to give it a brief kiss, thanking whatever spirits had been protecting her. Given her current situation, she still sorely needed their help.
A large thud reverberated through the lake, vibrating the ice beneath Anyu's feet. The sound was familiar. It was the same noise of the creature that had been chasing them across the lake before, the one that she had turned to confront before being plunged beneath the lake's surface.
Only this time, she didn't have any weapons to defend herself.
Anyu broke into a sprint. Her odds of beating the mysterious creature had been skeptical at best even with a spear in hand and friends at her back. Now, cold and weak and defenseless, she had no chance of standing against it. Her only hope of survival would be escape.
Anyu ran as fast as she could, but it wasn't enough. Her clothes, still heavy with water, slowed her down, and she kept slipping on the thin layer of snow on the ice. The deep booms became closer and more frequent. The monster was catching up.
She glanced over her shoulder. A dark shadow loomed in the mist, shapeless and vague but as big as a boulder. Another sound shortly began to accompany the heavy thuds, these a lighter and faster clacking. Anyu's mind conjured up the image of giant mandibles clicking together hungrily and forced herself to run faster.
It was almost upon her now. She could feel its presence just behind her and, as it cleared the fog, finally hear its angry screeches. She took a ragged breath and forced herself to turn her head. Before she could even get a look of the creature, something swiftly snaked around her waist and hauled her upwards.
Whether or not she had her spear, Anyu didn't intend to go down without a fight. She made a desperate swipe at the creature- and froze at the sound of a distinctly disgruntled "ow" as her fist connected with its target.
Anyu took the moment of paralyzed shock to process the situation. She was sitting on Shesh's back, the reindeer galloping at top speed across the frozen lake. The clacking sound. She'd listened to the rhythm of Shesh's hooves against the ice a thousand times but she'd been too terrified to even entertain the possibility of rescue.
A glance to the side revealed an equally terrified black wolf running alongside them. Behind her, Kano sat rubbing his jaw, but she barely even registered him. The monster that she saw chasing after them captured her complete attention in simultaneous horror and awe.
Anyu hadn't been far off at all with the mandibles. The beast chasing them was a sea scorpion grown to a monstrous size, towering at least fifteen feet above the ground. It's chitin shell was a dulled green, it's eyes a beady black. It's pincers were huge, each one easily big enough to tear off a man's head, and it snapped them crazily trying to reach its prey. The creature was clearly meant for water- its long plated tail thrashed out uselessly behind it- but its small insect-like legs still propelled it forward with alarming speed. The longer it scrabbled towards them on the ice, the closer it came. Just like the first time they'd been chased by it, there was only so long they could run.
"What is that?" Anyu asked loudly. She briefly leaned forward to give Shesh a tight hug about his neck, allowing herself a moment for her relief and happiness to overwhelm her. Shesh was too busy running as fast as his body would allow him to return the gesture, but the reindeer's hooves pounded just a bit faster against the ice.
"That is Kanajuk," Kano replied, wisely deciding to ignore Anyu's mistaken punch. "Sedna's little guard dog."
"Little?" Anyu repeated.
"Not literally," Kano replied. "But more importantly, how did you survive?" He sounded relieved to find that she wasn't dead but also intensely curious. "Escaping once you're in Sedna's lair... It shouldn't be possible."
"No, it shouldn't be," She agreed. "I cut some of her hair off. And then when I reached the surface I just... Put my hands up against the ice and broke through." She shook her head vehemently. "Look, I don't know exactly how I did it. I'm lucky or something, I don't know."
"You broke through Kesuk's ice?" Kano asked as if he couldn't quite believe it. "But-"
Shesh veered to the left to avoid the grasp of a giant claw, cutting off whatever Kano had been about to say. Tavra yelped and dove to the right before picking up speed. He looked absolutely exhausted from the effort it took to keep up with Shesh. Anyu felt an intense guilt burning in the pit of her stomach, but he was the only one of them who could possibly run fast enough on foot to evade Kanajuk.
"Do you have my spear?" Anyu asked over her shoulder.
"This isn't something you can defeat with just a spear."
"I know that," Anyu retorted. "But it'd be a comfort to have something to defend myself with regardless."
Kano didn't respond right away. Anyu was about to take his silence to mean that he didn't have her spear when he spoke.
"You don't need your spear," He said. "If what you said is true... We have a chance."
"What?" Anyu asked. "How?"
Their attention was torn away from the conversation at the sound of a pained howl. Kanajuk had managed to get his claw around Tavra's hind leg, dangling him in the air as he bit and clawed. With a particularly deep bite, he managed to twist out of the monster's grasp. He fell heavily to the ground, briefly reverting back into human form.
"Give me your hand!" Kano shouted as Shesh slowed down, unsure whether he should continue forward or not.
"Are you crazy?" Anyu asked. She pulled on Shesh's reins, motioning for him to turn back around. "We have to help Tavra!"
"This will help him," Kano insisted. Anyu continued to rummage through the sack hanging from Shesh's saddle for her spear while Kano pulled off the sealskin mitten on his left hand and held it outward. A question. "You have to trust me on this."
Anyu glanced back to Tavra. He'd rolled over in time to avoid the jab of Kanajuk's claw and when he sprung to his feet he was a wolf once again. He danced around Kanajuk's legs, making the sea scorpion angrier by the minute. He wasn't using his left hind leg and a splatter of bright red blood could be seen on the otherwise immaculate snow.
There wasn't time for any doubt. Pulling off her own glove, Anyu grasped Kano's hand. She waited to sense some sort of magical transfer of power, the casting of a spell, anything. But if it was there, she couldn't feel it. After a few seconds Kano let go and promptly pushed Anyu off of Shesh's back.
"Hey!" She called angrily as he reached for something behind him. It was her spear. The bastard had had it slung across his own back the whole time. He took control of Shesh's reins and turned him around despite the reindeer's obvious confusion and objection to seeing Anyu flung from the saddle.
"Take off your gloves and press your palms on the ice!" He shouted back as Shesh rode off towards Tavra's losing battle with the giant sea scorpion. "We'll buy you some time!"
Press her palms on the ice? Did he think she'd be able to break through the ice with her bare hands? But he was already too far away to object or ask questions. He and Tavra had begun a dangerous dance around Kanajuk, Kano bringing Shesh around for a jab before backing off and letting Tavra take a snap at his heels, and so on. They were keeping him distracted. For now.
She didn't know how to use magic even if Kano had somehow given her some. But she could try at the very least, for them. She knelt on the ground, removing her gloves and exposing her hands to the wintry air. She ignored the urge to curl her fingers into fists and hide them safely in the warmth of her coat, instead placing them flat on the ice.
She took deep, calming breaths, as if she were aiming her spear at a wounded target. She always emptied her mind before striking. Tried to forget how much was riding on her killing that moose, how many would starve if the hunt didn't bring in enough game. Hunting would have been impossible otherwise. The pressure would have made her aim untrue, let the animal get away. She never let it.
It was much harder to clear her mind now, when just a little ways behind her a giant monster hissed and screeched and her friends fought for their lives. When her own life was in imminent danger.
This had always been her grandmother's domain, the spiritual, magic stuff. She wished she'd paid more attention to the prayers and rites the shaman woman had tried to pass on. She'd always respected the gods and spirits, of course, but the ceremonies had been too tedious to keep her attention. The call of the hunt had been too strong. Anik had been the one fascinated by it, the one who longed to be shaman one day, not her.
She was still lost in her thoughts when she felt it. The warmth budding in her chest and emanating out from her fingertips. It was familiar, yet strange. She took a moment to savor it, forgetting where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. She forgot about the snows and ice and freezing temperatures. All she knew was the warmth. She didn't want to let it go, not ever.
But she had to. As soon as it had arrived, the warmth dissipated, leaving her fingers numb and cold once more. There was no discernible change in the ice beneath her palms, at least nothing that could be seen with the naked eye. Had she done what she was supposed to? Had it worked? A loud shriek of fury reminded her that she was out of time, whether or not she'd accomplished her task successfully.
Shesh was galloping towards her at top speed, Kanajuk clambering close behind at his heels. Kano sat astride his back, an unconscious Tavra laid out on the saddle in front of him.
Anyu stood up as they approached and when Shesh blew past, she grabbed onto Kano's outstretched hand and pulled herself onto the saddle.
She turned around to watch Kanajuk. The monster hissed and raised a mottled green claw to strike at them, but he never got the chance. The ice shuddered and cracked beneath his weight and collapsed completely. Kanajuk fell beneath the waves, thrashing madly in protest.
He's a water scorpion, Anyu thought hopelessly. He'll just climb back out, and then he'll kill us. We were fools to think we could escape.
But as she watched, the gaping hole in the ice began to refreeze itself. It was as if all of the broken shards had suddenly remembered their proper place and decided to put themselves back together. In a single moment, it was as if nothing had ever disturbed the ice in the first place. Just a perfect, uninterrupted surface stretching on endlessly in all directions.
Breathing hard with adrenaline, Anyu grabbed her tamga and whispered a prayer of thanks to the spirits watching over her. They surely had a more difficult job than any of their peers.
"Let's go," Anyu said after Shesh had rested and all of their breathing had returned to normal. "The sooner we're off of this damned lake the better."