splash

Chapter Eight: To The Pole

"Jokul, that pipe of yours really stinks. Do you mind smoking elsewhere? I don't get why you use that antique to smoke" Stir complained.
"I have my own reasons, stir... Although considering my body's current state, maybe heating my lungs isn't the best idea." I responded. The sun woke the skies with its brightness and there were birds above us, chirping beautifully. The sun reflected upon the shiny white ice. It could make a person forget about the devastation of the world. The wind was freezing. The pole's seagulls, so we found out, came close and started singing around us as they were searching a glacier to land on. In the background we heard the fight of a sea lion with an unknown creature we couldn't get a glimpse of.
"If the weather keeps this stable I believe we'll reach the center of the pole within a week. I'm glad you joined me Stir. It's good having someone to talk to." I told him as we looked at the horizon, as if it was frozen in time. At first it seemed Stir didn't seem too interested in the view but suddenly he exclaimed "Look Jokul, polar bears!" Stir pointed at a group of three skinny polar bears. We could see the sea lion's corpse.
"Nature is cruel, ay boy? Out of those three only one would probably remain." I told Stir as I started feeling sick from the pipe and I put it away.
"Those amazing creatures had much better lives In Svalbard..." Stir said with grief.
"We have some time until we reach Svalbard. I've been told there's still some nature preserved there." I tried comforting him but he only lowered his head and said with sadness "Then you really isolated yourself for two years in the see, ay...? Technically, we're already in Svalbard considering the lines on the map. But all this is simply its remains... I remember back when I was little, I used to travel a lot to Norway and Svalbard with my family. We didn't have much money so we didn't really make far trips from Iceland, my home. I don't remember much of the period before the first thaw, but one of the only things I remember clearly is the first time I saw a polar bear in Svalbard. What an amazing animal, I thought to myself back then. Nature is amazing, I told myself. But today ... Today there are no children with such memories." Stir finished talking and looked one last time at the poor bears as they were disappearing in the distance. I looked at him and tried cheering him up, "Not if it's up to me, Stir. Don't be so pessimistic. Now, Stir, please return to the wheel. I see a glacier standing ominously right in front of us." Stir gave a bitter look at me and went back to the wheel without a word.
I stopped him in the middle and asked "Why do you call me Jokul and not Captain?", Stir stopped for a few moments, thought for a bit and said "My captain abandoned me two years ago... And You are a completely different person from him".

A few hours after me conversation with Stir we came across a very unstable glacier field. "Jokul, there is a big iceberg ahead of us. It looks like it's going to wreck the ship along with the glacier if we come too close to that area! I am bypassing him and going around this whole minefield." Stir said. "No fokking way you fokking igloo! It will hinder us for too long. We are going straight ahead. I will deal with this glacier if it poses a problem." I ordered Stir while wiping the sweat off my head. The sweat that only recently, thanks to Stir's perspective, I realized was much more than just regular sweat. 'I have to get to a colder place'. I thought. The IceBreaker approached the melting and crackling glacier but even before the ship passed the iceberg... Splash!.

The waves from the falling pieces of the iceberg shook the ship, but luckily we were still far from the main iceberg. I decided to advance, "go straight ahead!" I commanded Stir and just like the first time I discovered me powers, I sent a powerful ice stream in the direction of the main iceberg. With improved accuracy I blocked every tiny crack by manipulating and moving the ice while lowering its overall temperature. "it's not going to fall on us anytime soon, mate." I stated proudly as we sailed away from the same glacier with relative ease, not fearing it's gonna fall on us. We simply went around it but very close to it. Stir wanted to go around ALL of the field. After a while I noticed that Stir was not responding and in addition the ship was starting to sail off course. "Igloo where are you?" I shouted. I began to search all over the ship for him, me sense of panic slowly turning up, but it seemed as if the sea swallowed him. 'Maybe he fell into the sea from the waves of the iceberg...?' I was sure I killed another teammate until I began to hear strange sounds from the lower deck. I found Stir folded on the floor, completely shaking next to a food barrel. "Is everything okay with ya?" I asked in a soft voice. As Stir realized I was next to him he jumped immediately and walked away from me "Get away from me, you are dangerous!" Stir screamed in sudden paranoia. I watched Stir completely frightened and I understood the situation. I sat down in front of him and started to talk calmly, "I'm dying, Stir..."
Stir stopped shouting. His face filled with a strange mix of surprise, confusion, fear and panic. With a stammering voice, he began to speak "W...Why..?" He asked and I simply told him the truth. "You understand, me dear friend, because of you I realized that me powers not only give me the ability to create ice. I am ice. The white hair that grew so fast for me must mean I get older at an accelerated rate. That's also why I'm so much shorter than you remember me... I am melting me own life force, so to speak."
Stir was in shock. Not every day a person who has known you for so years tells you that he is dying and in such a strange fashion too.
"Global warming has become much more personal to me, so I'm aiming to fix it, Stir. I'm going to re-freeze the pole." I reaffirmed the plan in Stir's ears and I reassured him of me intentions. Stir began to sit slowly on the floor, trying to understand everything. "What will happen if you do not succeed?" Stir asked softly.
"That's not a possibility, no matter what", I told him. "And after we save the world, what are you going to do, after it's all over?" Stir asked.
"I intend to help people rehabilitate their liv-" Stir interrupted me, "Nice to see you still have parts of the old Jokul. You always think of others before you. I want you to answer me seriously. What do you, Jokul, would like to do...?" Stir surprised me. I must be honest here. I have never thought what I wanted to do when this whole thing would end, after all, it was me whole world since me mother died. I paused for a few moments and pondered through me long beard. It has been years since such thoughts crossed me mind. It takes me back to the time I was sailing with me father and Beinean. Damn It was really a long time ago. I'm tired of seeing glaciers, ya know... I would like to see a different environment. Something... Something I have never seen in me life. Deserts. When I finish me work here I'm going to cross the Sahara. Stir smiled and said "Sounds like a plan to me".
"What are you going to do?" I asked "Are you going to find the New-Vancouver and move there as you wanted back then?." Stir looked down, smiled and said "Yeah, Captain... It's a simple plan but that's what I want."
I got up and stood next to him, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "We will save the world, Stir, so don't worry mate." Stir shook me hand and suddenly froze for a moment and said "Your hand... it's.... it's cold."