Of Freezing Green: Chapter 1
Sometimes we wake up and find ourselves unable to remember our dreams, feeling how they sail away each second we remain awake. But Chammo never had that problem, she gave up her dreams for others many years ago.
Chammo didn't wanted to wake up. The pillow was soft as clouds, the blankets warm as an embrace and the mattress had already sank a little to her shape, making the bed hug her. But she was woke enough, otherwise she wouldn't be able to think on such detailed analogies, and there was work to do, so, she slowly opened her eyes to a sunless day.
Chammo thought it was rather unfair, how could the sun get to sleep for two weeks when she was only allowed just a couple of hours? Of course she knew the answer, but it was worth daydreaming about it.
Just in case she checked her starglass, the Dramyn constellation told her she was late, but it was inside her expected lateliness, so she would just take her usual fast route to be just a little bit late.
She just had to find her ice skates now, they should have been right in the rack that she left them in, but of course they weren't, at this point it had become some kind of challenge for Snowball to hide them. Chammo didn't know how he learned that removing the first emergency transport method meant that she had to use the second method, also known as Snowball. Anyway, the skates were not appearing, they weren't under the bed, neither inside the oven or behind the bookshelf. Snowball had won.
"All right, you win this time, you big furball, do you have all your stuff?" Chammo asked while checking the saddle and scratching the belly of the bear.
Snowball had already packed his food and toys, but seemed reluctant to stand up, could he be sick? Did he ate poisonous berries again? Probably a hint of worry crossed Chammo's face, because Snowball finally stood up, revealing a pair of white ice skates.
"Oh, you big dummy, i must admit it was halfway smart. C'mon, i will be actually late if you don't move, let's go" Snowball reacted to that last command and swiftly collected all his stuff, which consisted of a bag full of frozen hares he had hunted the day before and his tracking bell.
After collecting her books and tools, Chammo opened the door to the first sunless day of the winter. Winter was her favourite, the idea of longer nights was enticing, and everyone forgave her for sleeping as much, mainly because they also tended to sleep more. The sunless season was the epitome of it, two weeks of constant night, it was beautiful, it was peaceful, it was somehow invigorating. So, feeling herself smile, she galloped Snowball into the forest.
Amid the journey Chammo started her daily list, Snowball was a bear of few words, but he was the best company Chammo could ever wish for.
"How many hours do you think we should be on vigilance? Last week we went over our 60, but very few woke up in our area, i swear that they always put on my charge the most sleepy ones, and now that it is midwinter i am pretty sure that i will be able to count with my hands how many will wake up, they are like hibernating bears... Well, not you"
Snowball growled in response, he was a White Bear, that meant he didn't hibernate like those found inside the forest, he was one of the few things from outside the forest that Chammo saw in the flesh instead of in a drawing.
Talking about work never gave relevant answers, so she decided to talk about Snowball's favourite subject.
“How do you want me to prepare those hares?” Snowball made some weird noises, which she took as a complain.
“Oh, come on, it’s not like i purposefully mistook salt with sugar. I may not be the best chef, but at least now i can cook without burning the meat, i never had to cook for someone else before finding you.” More complaining noises came from Snowball, he was such a whining bear.
“Fine, i will ask Itza to cook for both of us this time.” At the sound of Itza’s name the complaining noises stopped.
They reached the frozen lake that marked the resting grounds, the city that Chammo loved so much, Prizto. The body of water was rather large, Chammo was sure that, if she ignored the mist barrier, she would be able to see it from far above in the sky.
"Let's go buddy, take it easy" Chammo scratched the bears head, giving signal to cross the lake.
The lake of Prizto was special, it's surface had always been frozen, at least it had been like that ever since the city was built. But somehow there was still liquid water below the two meter thick sheet of ice. Chammo wondered if there was life down there, maybe she should ask Xochi about it, last time she spoke to her, Xochi told her that she was studying about some kind of low-light algae that grew there, so she had to know something, right?
The frozen lake serenity and silence gave Chammo time for the simple thoughts, maybe she could have some hare soup for lunch and bread with cheese for dinner. She was also planning to write some papers about the changes in luxury items of some civilizations that she had read about recently, so maybe she could check some other sources and use her time while on vigilance duty. Ideas were formulating and plans were in process, that’s how Chammo loved to pass her days, allowing herself to move to the rythm of the life around her, planning her next steps and smiling to jobs done well, even her usual rests and lateliness were planned, that way she could allow herself to relax in the appropiate way.
But things don't always go as planned.
Peace was violently shook away by a reverberating whip-like crack that echoed around her. Chammo was startled to say the least, but past experiences made her search for a line in the ice, she could see non.
Maybe Snowball also had experience with this, since he stopped to sniff the air around, Chammo always thought he had grown so accustomed to the hounds of Prizto that he thought of himself as a really big one. It was also truth that it was shown that animals inside of Prizto grew to have an unusual level of self-awareness and intelligence, so, when Snowball started to gallop in direction of Prizto, she trusted his instincts and made sure to hold the saddle stronger.
Maybe he heard something inaudible to her human ears, maybe it was just that kind of sixth sense that some creatures have, truth is that moments later Chammo heard a scratching sound coming her way along with some kind of choked snarl.
She could only spare a glance to the thing giving them chase, but in that quick glance she could see an elongated shape with many feet and reptilian shaped face, as if someone had given feet to an ugly snake. Whatever that thing was, it was getting closer and closer by the second, freezing in terror she could only straight her sight to the front, thank Snowball and pray to the spirits for her safety.
Chammo was uncertain of what was happening, and uncertainty had to be one of her sworn enemies along with mystery and secrets.
“What is that and where did it came from?” were the most immediate questions in her mind along with a way to escape from it, and the opportunity to escape made itself present in the shape of an enormous wall of fog.
She hated feeling blind and misdirected about the things that were around her, and if there was an ideal thing to ensure that all of the things that she hated were to happen, it was the fog coming her way, well, she was the one advancing to it, but in her mind the permanent fog always felt like an amorphous creature ready to devour and never let her out.
The fog was many meters away, but, though she hated it, Chammo knew that it was the only path to safeness at the moment. So she just firmly took hold of Snowball’s saddle.
Her heart was racing, she was still half-way into the city, but the wall had to be enough to lost track of the creature giving chase, except that sparing another glance to the slithering creature she knew that they were going to be on its stomach before that.
Now it was turn for her mind to race alongside her heart. She thought on what to do, Chammo was horrible planning things on the moment. She could only think on the things she had already planned. Her head kept going to the hours she was going to work, the papers she was going to write and the hares that… That’s it.
“Sorry buddy, we will have to ask Itza to prepare something else for you.” Chammo untied the sack containing the frozen hares and, after almost slipping in the attempt, got herself to sit backwards.
In her new position Chammo could see more details of the creature, deep blue skin, big claws, enormous teeth, a freezing breath that instantly was condensing. It kind of seemed like one of those lizards of her books. But she had no time to analyze the creature, she was already trying to stabilize herself to find a good throwing pose. She had poor aim, yes, but considering that the creature was just an arm away from Snowball it would be easy to hit the creature with all her strength, the hares were frozen solid, so they would hurt like a stone. Still, an idea came to her mind, a stupid one. "Talk with it."
“Could it be that you are… Hungry?” It of course made sense, most beasts attack either for food or territory, and considering that this was clearly not it’s usual territory… It was crazy, her life was on danger, but still, hurting the creature sounded awful, and somehow she could perfectly picture the hunger of the creature.
“Look, this is a hare, a leporidae, they are free food, you don’t need to fight for it.” The creature made eye contact with Chammo. “Please, just accept it.” And thus she throw the frozen food at the beast’s feet. It came to such a sudden halt that its sinuous body slided a little before stopping, Chammo could see the creature feasting, an horrendous sound like cracking stones came from the frozen meat, and Chammo knew that if it wasn’t for the success of her plan, her skull would be cracking just like that. Just before entering the fog she could see the lizard-like creature looking directly at her, and she realized that she didn’t had deceived the creature, she had made a deal with it.
