The Walled Cities

Chapter 28

Chip! Clunk!

Chip! Clunk!

It had been three days since my encounter with the wolves, and Winter had begun to show itself. The stream once crystal clear, now had a layer of ice over it. This ice was the first true indicator of Winter, as the next would be the first snow.

Unfortunately this ice meant that getting water or checking my traps took more time and effort as I had to chip through the ice to get to the water. Kaelyn accompanied me now whenever I went to get water or check on my traps, as a fall through the ice would be deadly if she was not around to pull me out.

Each time we went out we passed the time by talking about plans for the days and the coming weeks. I had yet to bring up the fact that it was still going to get colder than it was now. Already I could see my breath in the crisp cold air until midday. Kaelyn saw it too, though she had yet to bring up the question of if we would be warm enough in our hut. Eventually I would need to bring up the idea that I had thought of before. We would need to share her bed and stay under the blankets together when the snow came and the night air could kill us.

I worried about her more than I did myself. Her recovery had continued but I was unsure if there was any damage below the skin that I had missed. So far I had kept her from doing any of the heavy tasks like cutting firewood or carrying it back to camp. Today she was cutting willows on the stream bank so that we could make snow shoes.  Snow shoes were the best and really only way to travel efficiently in the snow, which we would have soon.

While she cut willows I continued chipping through the ice, trying to get to one of my fish baskets. I had already checked the other fish trap which had been empty. Even if both were empty there was food in the cellar and the other traps were feeding us just fine. Still it was annoying to do all this work and get nothing, but I did not want to give up on a food source just because there was extra work to be done to get it. Each bit of food we could get now would give us that much more of a buffer for when it was dangerous to go outside and just check traps. If I had to chip more now and save myself from freezing to simply find food, so be it.

This extra work of chipping through the ice took time and twice or three times I had to stop and take a drink of water. My body worked up a sweat with the thick winter gloves and hat I wore. They kept me warm though, and Kaelyn had already discussed making a second pair that would be thinner and more flexible for tasks such as this.

Despite the gloves and the ice, after a few more smacks with the harpoon, I broke through to the blue water below. Careful as the ice was thin and could easily break if I stepped the wrong way, I shifted so that I was crouched over the hole I had just made. Positioned over the hole, I slid my glove off and plunged my hand into the freezing water. Rather than pull the basket up, I felt around the entrance of it, trying to locate any fish caught in it. My arm was buried past the elbow in the stream when I felt one, wriggling in my fingers.

Tight as I could hold onto a slimy moving fish, I brought it up to the surface, and tossed onto the ice behind me. Confident that it was the only fish in the basket, I stood up and moved away from the hole. Rather than kill it right away, I put the fish in the pack basket Kaelyn had made for transporting game back to camp. There was already some water in it so that the fish did not die before we could get it back to camp. This method allowed the food to stay fresh longer which was a nice change from the normal rush to clean and preserve meat.

Finished with the trap and the fish, I shuffled over to where Kaelyn was still cutting willows. She was making good progress and had already cut enough to build two pairs and make a second pack basket or something else with the extra pieces. All of the willow branches would be easy enough for her to carry in a bundle, so I waited patiently for her to finish cutting the last ones. She did not need my help to bundle them together, and with that we headed off for camp.

While we walked Kaelyn thoughtful, asked "With the stream frozen, does that mean that Winter is coming here now?"

Reminded of when I was younger and has asked the same questions of my brother and Cassiel, I smiled before replying, "Yes. This is only the beginning though. Winter here is different than up in the mountains. You are used to more snow but also a lot of wind. Down here there will be snow but there will be much less wind. We will not need hoods to keep the wind off of us, but making thick winter coats is a good idea, granted we can find the furs. For now we will be able to manage with what we have."

Perhaps worried at the idea that it would get colder, she hesitantly replied, "Will we be warm enough in our home? It is just trees and branches. No bricks, no metal, only a single fire for heat and cooking. We only have three blankets and I use two of them."

Not wanting to tell her that I felt it best to share our warmth, I shrugged my shoulders and stopped as I spotted one of my otter traps. This was the only trap I had thought about checking today. It had produced otters a couple of times. Their was no harm in checking it as we were nearly back at camp anyway.

Careful so that I did not slip, I made my way down the short embankment and stepped out onto the ice.

Crack!

Before I could react to the noise, the ice beneath me opened up into a blue hole. All thought left me as I hit the water and my vision went black.