Immortalys

Chapter Four: The Arctic Circle

Another whole day of driving passed fleetingly for Friction. He was wide awake and insisted that he drive the whole day so Willow could take a nap. He enjoyed driving; it kept him calm and focused on the road ahead, so he wouldn't have to worry too much about what he had left behind.

Around 7:00 in the evening, he looked sideways at Willow. She had been working out of a book of crossword puzzles before she had dozed off; now the book lay open on her lap and her pencil hung out from her limp hand. Friction smiled. He supposed she was getting sleepy so often because she could never stop thinking. Her mind was always occupied by something and it probably tired her out. He laughed to himself as he thought about this. He could always choose to keep his mind blissfully blank if he wished, like he did when he was driving; he decided he would probably go crazy if he thought about something every second of the day.

They were now driving in the middle of nowhere. Friction couldn't help contemplating as he stared out at the coniferous trees and the snow-capped mountains in the distance, I hope my car doesn't decide to break down out here, because... there is nowhere to stop for help. He hadn't seen any other cars out here in hours; the last time he had witnessed two other cars at once had been much earlier that day when passing the latitude of Yellowknife. Friction even wondered if he would run out of road to drive on.

A couple hours later, he double-checked the destination coordinates to make sure they were on the right road... well, there was only one road out here, he realized. It skirted an immense, flat body of water, gleaming softly with the sky's grey light, which Friction quickly identified from his map as Great Bear Lake. They were so northern now that it was truly unexplored frontier to his mind.

A nagging suspicion kept creeping into his thoughts: what if there really wasn't any city up here? So far, nothing was promising.

Friction knew he would be bitterly disappointed, and so would Willow. And it would make him feel even worse for leaving his parents the way he did. They had tried to contact him quite a few times as they were driving, and Friction hadn't answered. After a couple calls and a couple frantic texts from his mother, his conscience was squirming enough that he thought to himself, I really should call back now. But already he had waited too long to contact them, so doing so now seemed... well, wrong. Friction then made it a goal to call his parents right when he arrived in Immortalys, so that they would know he had gotten there safely. And then he would make it up to them somehow... maybe he would bring them to visit it too? Maybe bring them back a box of gold? Friction shrugged to himself. He would figure that out when he got there.

He checked his map again. They were nearing the place much quicker than Friction expected. He had planned on being there around midnight, and... well, he realized, glancing at the clock, it actually is about midnight. That's weird. Time had gotten away from him.

The night was still crystal clear, and to Friction's delight, blue and green auroras had begun to swirl around in the dark sky above him, occasionally taking on a pink tinge when they wavered too far out. He smiled up at them, wondering if he should wake Willow so she could enjoy this as well.

He decided he would, and Friction put his hand on her shoulder. "Willow, wake up... we're almost there."

Willow stretched and rubbed her eyes. "Friction..." she gave a huge yawn. "What time is it?"

"Eleven forty-eight," he replied, glancing at her and then back at the dark road, "nearly midnight. Willow, look outside."

She leaned forward to view the sky out of the windshield. She smiled as the green and blue auroras snaked over their heads like fiery ribbons. "...Wow... I've never seen auroras like these before."