The Journey Around The World, In Order To Save Spring

Run Like The Wind

"Who has summoned me?" The snake deity asked. "What? Summoned you?" Amaruq asked back. The snake had a very good question. Who did it? "Someone had contact with my pedestal and thus, summoned me here," he explained. Wait. His pedestal? It must have been the one with the deity's statue on top! "You're... that Wind God guy, right?" Atsuguk asked. "Quetzalcoatl," Amaruq corrected. Wait... could the other two understand the snake as well? That meant that it wasn't just his Universal Translator translating for him. He then thought about the deity's question.

No, they had not summoned him. He needed to clear that up. "We're sorry, but we didn't summon you. It's my fault. I accidentally got close to your effigy back in another room," he clarified for their team. The deity was silent for a while. "Well, as long as you're here... may we ask a question?" He asked the feathery being. By 'we', he meant 'I', but it was all the same. "Very well," he conceded. "Okay, so... uh. Are you aware of the ice slowly but surely creeping down on the world right now?" The teenager asked. The two wolves decided to let him handle this Q&A, they trusted that he would ask the right questions. ".... Yes. Now that you have mentioned it, I do notice the glacial expansion up North and down South."

"Now that I mention it? You mean you didn't before this?" The mortal asked suspiciously. "I will not lie. I did not notice it before. I was too busy creating air currents around the world," the snake admitted. "Hmm.... well, okay then. Do you at least know how to stop it?" Amaruq asked hopefully. "No, I do not. I'm afraid it is out of my jurisdiction. Beyond my power," the snake said truthfully. "Do you hear that?" Atsuguk asked his team. Amaruq concentrated and sure enough, he heard a low rumbling sound. And it was slowly getting louder and louder. As the ground started to shake, Amaruq looked to the door he had come out of.

From the far wall of the other room came a huge spherical boulder, and it was headed straight for them. "Run!" Amaruq shouted as he did just that, his legs moving him as fast as they could carry him. As they ran and left the serpent behind, Amaruq saw that the boulder was still coming closer. It was faster than they were! He transformed into Quake and made an Earth Wall between them and the rock. He kept running with the rest. The wall would only slow the stone down, not outright stop it. As they ran, he heard the rock wall crumbling behind him.

There was an opening up ahead. He saw his teammates run through it. It was not too far from him. He could make it. The rumbling of the boulder grew closer, but the exit did as well. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his legs. He burst through the doorway just as the boulder behind him slammed into it, too big to fit through. The trio caught their breaths outside, all heavily breathing from running so hard. The sky was dark, the stars shimmering in the night. How long had they been in there? A couple of hours? Who knew? "We shouldn't travel at night, but we also shouldn't be anywhere near this place," Taggak said and the others agreed.

So they booked it out away from the ancient civilisation, but not too far. After a kilometre or two, they stopped for the night's rest. That night, they slept heavily, exhausted from their ordeal.

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They walked through the grasslands more than a day later. Amaruq had said that they were in the South Caribbean Autonomous Region or the land of lakes and volcanoes. The other two just believed him. They weren't very good at geography. Their furless friend, on the other hand, had read a whole atlas he bought back in one of the cities they had passed through. He practically knew the globe like the back of his hand. Taggak shook his head. His packmate was such a quirky and endearing individual. He had not known him very well before this trip, but he knew of his eccentricities.

They weren't very close previously. Taggak only spent time with Amaruq when the boy's father had to cubsit him. Their age difference didn't help as well. But it was fine. Most of the time, he would just see Solar tinkering with another of his inventions or writing in his journal. Taggak admitted that he was sometimes curious about what the kid was doing, but he refrained from bothering him. Being aloof would save them both from embarrassment and wasting their time. He did, however, respect the younger one. The child was able to stand his ground and stand up for himself.

Atsuguk was a nice guy. But sometimes too naive for Taggak. He could see that the boy didn't notice all the girls fawning over him. But Taggak did not interfere. He knew not to meddle in other's business. Nevertheless, he did feel a sort of kinship with the pup. They would see each other every time Inuksuk would bring Taggak to visit the alpha's sister-in-law. And the two children would have to greet and spend time with each other as courtesy. Whatever. Now they were older and more mature. Only Amaruq stayed the same, which was why Taggak had shook his head. The boy would always be himself.

Amaruq enjoyed the lushness of the grass and shrubs around him. He speculated that their growth was attributed to the fertile soil beneath them, ash from volcanic eruptions. There were a lot of volcanoes here. Hmm... which was hotter? His fire power or a volcano? Maybe it depended on what level his fire power is on. Could he test that? He would have to find some way of measuring the thousand degree temperatures. An old mercury thermometer wouldn't work. What if he applied thermo-magnetism? With it, he could accurately take high-temperature measurements by inventing a device using that principle.

But he would have to restudy the Seebeck effect, which was defined as 'Under open-circuit conditions where there is no internal current flow, the gradient of voltage (∇V) is directly proportional to the gradient in temperature (∇T)'. The device would require two dissimilar electrical conductors, though. Maybe he could use tungsten and a rhenium alloy? Hmph. He would have to get the resources some day. He daydreamed all through the day until eventually they were camping in the dark. Okay, maybe not the dark since there was a campfire.

They were roasting a stout-legged llama or Palaeolama mirifica, as Solar preferred to call it. Solar explained to them that referring to an organism by its scientific name was the most precise and correct method to do so, without dialect or lingual problems. The two just nodded silently, not really wanting to argue. While waiting, Atsuguk excused himself. He had to take a leak. He sauntered over to an avocado tree to tinkle. While he was doing his business, whistling, he heard a strange sound. It was coming from behind some elephant ear bushes. After he zipped his pants back, he decided to investigate.

Amaruq and Taggak were still watching the even-toed ungulate roast when they heard a loud scream. Without hesitation, they immediately rushed to the scene of the crime. The screaming crime. What they saw would surprise them. Atsuguk was on his rump on the ground, looking to a bush. Amaruq found it odd that he would be so shaken at a shrub. It was a normal one, an American taro, or as the locals called it 'quequisque'. He sought to find out why it would be horrifying. "It's just an American taro. I mean, sure its corm isn't as delicious as normal taro or yam but surely it-"

"No! I'm not pointing at the who-cares-what-it-is plant, I'm pointing at what's behind it!" The young wolf exasperatedly clarified. "Ohh..." Amaruq drawled. That made way more sense. As Taggak helped his friend up and the trio made their way to the bush, Amaruq understood why. Behind it, they saw a goat. A domesticated goat. But that wasn't what was surprising. No. What was surprising, was the sick creature sinking its fangs deep into the caprine's neck. "Eugh, it looks like a mangy dog had a child with a lizard gremlin and the result was exposed to ten tons of radioactive waste," Amaruq commented.

The other two didn't really get what he said but they understood the gist of it. The creature wasn't very tall. About three or four feet in height, around their waist or navel height. Its spine was visible under its leathery skin and its eyes bulged out like a fly's. After a lengthy silence punctuated by the sucking sounds of the creature draining the poor life-stock's lifeblood. After it was finished, it looked up to the trio, making them shudder. They did not know to fear it or be disgusted at it. It didn't look very dangerous at its size. Any one of them could've easily taken it out alone.

"Hey, Atsuguk. Why don't you just spear it and end its misery?" Taggak proposed, but just as soon as he said that, the trio noticed glowing eye all around them in the shadows of the trees. Taggak cursed as all of the tens of the creatures crawled out into the open. They were surrounded, by goat-suckers.