Ice: The Immortality Trinket

VIII: Trio

Was it really necessary for Eliza to bring along her paints and brushes? I don't even know where to begin arranging them. I'll go and ask her, since I don't want her throwing a fit because I creased her canvas. I squeeze through the various obstacles in the undersized room.

As I'm making my way to the living room, I could hear chatter from the two women. Do my ears deceive me, or is Eliza... laughing? And Kelli's joining in too? I tip-toe again to the edge of the wall.

"Fuckin' hilarious that one time me and Eve were watchin' England play against Scotland. Somehow we managed to inch out a win and she didn't hear the end of it for a week!" Eliza cackles together with her newly found friend.

"Oh, I remember watching it! Made waves across the community that." I couldn't bear hearing Eliza talk about that match for even longer than she already already did, so I made my entrance while yawning and scratching my back.

"Hey Liz... I need to know how you sort all your arts things."

She replies still with a grin on her face. "Oh, no need to touch it. I'll put them all in Kelli's room."

Kelli's room? That's a tad odd, but alright then. Less work for me. I thumbs up and make my way back before I remember something.

"Oop, almost slipped my mind. You might need to cramp in since it's a bit small."

"That's fine, I'll be sleepin' in Kelli's room."

"What!?" I close my mouth but it's too late. All four letters and every decibel of shock escape my gob. Yvette, you're such a mong at times.

"Woah mate, what's with the volume?" asks Kelli. Eliza also looks at me with slight offense.

"Oh I'm so sorry, just came out of my mouth so quick. It's so unlike Eliza to be so, trusting, with someone else. See, she doesn't have a great track record with that sort of thing..."

"Yeah, haha, Lizzo here told me about this one Brian guy who she almost shoved off a pier because he offered a Coke."

Eliza lifts her hands up in mock surrender. "He could've spiked it!"

"You can't spike a drink that's in an unopened can, mate." She stifles her giggles to no avail. "She's cool, Evie. Let her."

"You fine with this?" Eliza makes sure.

The conflict in my mind runs wild. When we're in unfamiliar places, Eliza's always there to watch over me. I don't always need it, but the extra reassurance helps in a good night's sleep. Damn, I don't know though, she seems so happy being with Kelli and I'm sure she could use the extra space. She of all people earned it.

"I'm just fine with that. Take your stuff once you're finished chatting it up, yeah?"

>>

"You plannin' on branching off from Neto?"

My now-roommate hums, mulling it over. She's got a peculiar routine where she sticks her hand out straight upwards every few minutes. "He pays well, and I really don't have the credentials for an honest job."

"You know about his ins and outs, aye? You could hatch a plan with us."

"Maybe..." she muses and examines her painted nails. "but it would be hard to find a buyer for such an odd artifact without some good connections. We could get traced, and you know what happens next. That's even if we manage to solve the puzzle of him having a private army. But yeah, I don't like him any more than you."

I lie there staring at the ceiling. Hard to believe this all started from some silly discovery Yvette did. The darkness beckons me to yawn out loud and so does the soft bed. "I'm sure our Brit can think of something. Ugh, my eyes are gettin' heavy." I turn around and close my eyes.

"Night Lizzy."

"Night. And no silly business, Kelli, or I'll sock you in that pretty mug of yours."

>>

"Morning, sleepyhead." greets Yvette as I walk out the room. The morning sunlight hurts my eyes for a moment, but I can see her sitting on the main table and scribbling on a huge sheet of brown paper. A Sharpie's in her hands and a bleedin' calculator's in the other.

"Who the fuck does maths this early in the mornin'? It's 8 AM."

She looks up from her work with a marker cap in her teeth. "I've gotta triangulate some key locations and cross-check them with coordinates. No room for error. See?" she points to the values on the calculator, "I'm using pi to the 7th decimal place, you can tell I'm not fooling about."

"Christ, whatever. Where's Kiwi at?"

Eve blows some air out of her nose while drawing a line. "Wouldn't you like to know, 'Lizzy'?"

Blasted thin walls. "You heard that?"

"It was fun hearing you lot talk, but I was getting afraid I might overhear you choking Kelli out, if you know what I mean."

I groan low at her rilin' me up. "We've got more important things to do than talk about that."

"Right right, my bad," she apologises without a single ounce of sincerity. At that moment, Kelli makes her presence known by entering with a small cloud of smoke in front of her lips.

"Had a good night's sleep?" she asks, hair moussed up from yesterday.

"Aye." She winks then pulls up a seat. She takes a drag out of her cigarette before continuing. "We're deliberating today, Liz. Neto's experiencing yet another delay so we're going out on our own first."

"Sounds good. Shoot." Kelli stares at me, donning a stupid smirk.

"You're way easier to convince than Yvette. I like that. Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?

"We start our journey here, south of the river," she starts, pointing to Luta on the map. "We'll go northwards to São Felix do Araguaia using a jeep outside, then the river bends west to Carajas. I couldn't make out a trail on satellite images so we'll disembark and continue on foot. Any questions?"

I half-raise my hand. "Yeah, I do." Kelli rests her elbow on the table, awaiting my query.

"Just what the fuck are we looking for?"

"Oh, forgot to tell ya," she springs up. "You can thank Yvette here for figuring it out actually. It was from a riddle, and I quote, 'Enter the domains of the red fish and discover the stepping-stone.' The arapaima, or pirarucu depending on who you ask. Huge fish, can reach up to 3 meters in length. They used to be an important source of food for the natives, but that was a while ago. Overfishing happened and their population's a shell of what it used to be. We've whittled the possibilities down to this specific area." She circles a spot on the map.

Yvette picks up from where she left off. "All we have to do is find out where these fish are staying. We believe it'll be the next clue of our little treasure hunt. The water in the Araguaia is oxygen-deprived, so they sometimes surface for air, and that will make them easier to spot."

That's a mouthful if I've ever heard one. Bit miffed that I can't meet our employer yet, but I reckon that's for the better. "Seems a solid plan. Can you handle yourself out there, Kelli?"

"Pff, can I handle myself..." she repeats in a sing-song way. "I'm pretty sure I can, 'lass'."

"Well, canny do much with your shoe untied eh?" She falls for the bait and checks her laces, only to be then greeted by my very amused visage when she looked back up.

"Funny."