The Elementals

No Kidding

I wake up to a knocking on the ice. I faintly hear Stella’s voice calling my name and I shift, letting the wall dissolve into snow that blows away into the wind.

    “Coal! Tide!” Stella exclaims happily, staying outside, not bothering to duck under the ice. “We have a snowmobile a bit away.” She walks away, expecting to be followed.

    “Flippers?” Coal shifts under me as I make no attempt at moving. I try to steady my breathing, pretending to be asleep because I don’t feel like walking and I don’t want to get off Coal. He sighs, but it’s more of an airy laugh, and then he stands, picking me up with him. I smile to myself.

    “You’re a pain, you know that?” he asks in my ear, calling my bluff.

    “I’m tired!” I whine in pathetic defense. He chuckles and doesn’t say anything more.

I grumble but stop bothering him. After all, he is carrying me. I push my nose into his collarbone, closing my eyes against the wind. I notice his skin is warm. Obviously it would be, but this doesn’t feel intentional. I go to question him about it, if he’s feeling okay but Audrey breaks my thoughts.

    “Is she okay?” I hear Audrey ask worriedly. “Did something happen?”

    “She’s fine.” Coal says, and he puts me down on the seat of a snowmobile. “Unless lazy is a health condition.”

    “Hey!” I sit up, but decide to let the comment slide because I have a more pressing question. “Can I drive?”

    “No.” both Coal and Audrey chorus.

    “You can radio Owen and, Terra, and Steel. They’re on the other side of the mountain.” Audrey hands me a blocky looking walky-talky and starts the engine.

I hold down the button and the walky-talky crackles with static. “Hello?” I call loudly into the speaker. “Guys, its Tide. Coal and I are okay.”

There’s a silence, and then my ear is nearly blasted off with a string of words. “Oh my god Tide! You’re there! It’s you, you and Coal are there, we found you! This is great! Where are you? What happened? How did you survive? Where are Izila and the clone?” I can tell Terra is bouncing up and down with excitement, even though half the message is cut out because of bad reception.

     “Um, Terra, slow down. Please.” I have to shout over the snowmobile. “Just get back to the base and we can talk then. Steel and Owen are with you right?”

    “Yes, but –”

There’s static, and then the line goes dead.  I wait for any more, but there’s nothing. I shrug, and grip Coal’s shirt as Audrey takes a hairpin turn. I feel his warm hand on mine, moving my arms around his waist. It’s like riding a motorcycle, but on a slippery mountainside that has many straight down drops, ridges and cliffs. You know, basically the same thing.

By the time we reach the entrance to the base, I can’t feel my fingers. I clench and unclench them numbly, trying to regain any warmth. I turn as the sound of another engine approaches. As soon as the other snowmobile stops, Terra leaps off and engulfs me in a hug, squeezing me so hard I can’t breathe. She has on a brown winter coat with fur around the hood, which I’m now choking on as she bounces up and down, chattering so fast I can barely hear her.

    “– and we thought the clone was you again but then Caelum came up and kissed her and then Coal threw a plate at him and then they started fighting and Coal destroyed him and –”

Terra keeps talking but I tune her out and raise my eyebrows at Coal. He meets my eyes and the satisfied smile is wiped off his face. He shrugs and looks down guiltily, which makes me laugh.