Ice & Cream

Hard Way Down

“Whooah!”

A monstrous bird flew past them, blowing winds that threatened to send Sprinkle flying right off the mountain top. It was sheer luck that it didn’t.

 “What is that thing?” Jack asked, watching the winged creature.

“I dunno, kid, but it’s coming around!”

The bird did indeed make a turn. It was shaped like a pyramid of the ice cream balls, the two on the bottom being much smaller – the legs. A voluminous amount of icy blue feathers covered almost all of its body so that Jack could only discern the glint of its protruding silver beak, and the two black-stained talons.

The thing was the size of the average adult man.

Jack searched for the next rock formation, hoping for a more defensive location. It looked a bit bigger, which was better, but it was far enough away that he feared the bird might catch them in the run. The floor they were on was not wide at all so a bit of a tug and one of them would easily fall over.

No, he couldn’t just run for it. “Ptiu.” Jack spat dry saliva, which was a weird feeling that nonetheless helped with his nerves, and drew his sword.

“What’re ya doing, kid??”

“Thinking of Jane,” Jack replied, frowning against the encroaching sun as he pulled his sword free of the rope loop. The rock formation they were on was essentially a bit of ceiling protruding from the floor they had come down from, so the bird had a clean angle of approach so long as he didn’t come from above. It had made the first pass to plan an approach, and now he was executing it. Coming from the left side when facing the mountain, Jack’s right, it would smack right into them.

Jack squinted his eyes and focused them on the pile of predatory feathers that was screeching towards him, and held his sword up above his head.

He let out all his breath in a yell as he brought the sword down on the beast, bringing its screech into a sudden high-pitch halt. The force of the collision was so great it almost cranked his wrists out of place and wholly discombobulated Jack, but the creature did drop and crash against the mountainside just under his feet. It shook the ground enough for the half-disoriented Jack to lose his step.

Failing to recover, Jack fell back. “Oof!”

“The sword, kid! You let go o’ the sword!”

Jack opened his eyes, alarmed, and saw the sword rolling down to fall after the bird.

“Scoop!” Jack scurried frantically across the floor and managed to grab it by the blade just as it was about to slide off.

Breathing harshly, Jack pulled it into a hug. “Haaa… ah… oh scoop… I almost lost it.”

“C’mon, kid, before it comes back!”

“Ah, right!”

Jack stood up readjusting his rucksack as best he could. He picked up Sprinkle a bit more awkwardly since he was still holding onto his sword, and then made another sprint to the next rock formation. By the time they reached it, he heard more of the bird’s screeching.

It was coming back, and it had a friend.

“You have to be joking,” Jack exasperated, wiping sweat off his neck while Sprinkle landed on the shaded floor. “Bad enough we have to race the very sun.”

“We can’t turn back, kid,” Sprinkle pointed out, looking up.

“I know,” Jack gripped his sword while he watched the two birds flying upwards in circles. His protection above was even better this time. “I will swat them away, and then we run for the next shade.”

“This is nuts,” Sprinkle complained, hiding behind Jack.

The birds flew towards Jack from his front, flying in parallel, so he brought his sword back past his side. He swung it widely in a horizontal arc, but did it too soon. The birds reacted fast by dropping down in a controlled spin, avoiding the collision with his sword and the mountain face.

Good enough, Jack thought at once, grabbing hold of Sprinkle.

Running with Sprinkle under a fatigued arm, sword in his other hand, Jack searched ahead for the path they would have to take. Through his peripheral vision, he could see the birds spiraling up and maneuvering to take different approaches. The floor went down before the next shade, having naturally formed a few stair-looking steps. However, those were thinner than the platform he was walking on, widening only once it became flat again. Then, there was a person-sized protrusion which would give them a bit of shade. Then, he had to go down a flight of man-carved stairs, which spiraled down into the lower floor taking him in the opposite direction. It had become pretty clear that the path didn’t go around the mountain but had instead been set up to go back and forth across that one side.

Trying to think fast, Jack listened to his intuition, which expected the birds to try and get them on the thin climbing platforms. Reaching them, he heard a screech that made his spine shiver and knew he was right.

He turned around and held his arm out, holding the sword.

“What’re you doing?!” Sprinkle asked again, shocked that Jack would try to collide with the bird with so little legroom, and with only one hand.

However, Jack lifted his sword in preparation for a downward swing, which didn’t dissuade the bird at all. Then, when he was supposed to swing, he instead dove to the side.

A gust of wind rushed past him and crashed against the wall, shaking everything.

A moment later, Jack landed on his arm and shoulder with a grunt. A second screech announced the other bird’s approach, which gave Jack all of two seconds to twist his body around, take a knee, and swing his sword with violent intent. He only nearly managed to hold his sword with both hands, but it didn’t matter since the bird halted its momentum with a flap of its fat wings and thrust with its talons instead. Luckily, the swing was strong enough to smack one of them away, and that threw the bird entirely off-balance. It awkwardly lost the draft it had under its wings and fell down, flapping for control.

Jack had to again swing rucksack around to his back, after which he grabbed hold of Sprinkle and got up. Heaving.

He started running with the intention of skipping the little spot with the shade. They had to risk for something better after curving down. The first bird was shaking off the collision, gaining back its senses, and the second would be flying up to try again in no time.

Jack and Sprinkle ran across the curve into the lower level, and once they reached flat flooring, they saw the cave a short distance away.

“It’s the cave, Jack!”

“Yes!” Jack urged, glancing ahead to see one the birds coming for them. It had decided to do it the hard way and fly across the platform. That way, there was no dodging it, and it would be able to fight on equal footing. And that was if it failed to just knock them off by ramming into them.

Jack realized he had to drop Sprinkle and meet it straight on. He held his sword up as he had done previously, but before he could crouch to let him down, the bird suddenly flinched and let out a deafening whine.

Steam erupted from its side as the bird broke off from the mountainside to get away from the pain.

Resuming his run, Jack saw a woman exiting the cave and looking around perplexed. She couldn’t see the other bird coming in from above her.

 “Lady!” Jack yelled out, “above you!”

She looked up and saw the other bird flying down in circles, stalking them.

“Hurry up,” she called, gesturing at them though she did not turn her eyes away from the threat.

Jack could see she was carrying a two-handed squirt rifle that had a transparent capsule half-filled with a shining orange liquid. It also had some kind of monocle on top of its barrel. She was aiming it down, but when the bird began to approach, she brought it up.

The woman held the weapon against her shoulder. She closed one eye and focused the other down the monocle, her head tilting slightly.

When the time was right, she pressed the trigger. A high-pressured colored liquid that, apparently, was steaming hot, shot out and hit the bird at a fair distance. The bird cried out in anguish as the liquid burned through its feathers. It quickly dropped out of the sky to fly away.

Leaning over to follow it with her aim, the lady yelled out after it, too. “And keep well away, b****y sky vermin!” Satisfied, she relaxed her posture, aiming down at the floor again. She turned around to meet the two just as they were about to reach her. “Come along, you nutty pair, get in there.”

Jack wasted no time running past her, and once inside the cave, he was happy to just collapse. Both Sprinkle and he gasped for air, utterly exhausted, but also wholly relieved. They had made it to safety, and to a shade that would resist the sun. They were going to be okay.

“What are you doing here?!” the woman asked, appalled.

Jack looked over. Red-headed and standing tall with disappointed hands on her hips, he remembered her from the tram. She was the lady who had refused the escort and had left to venture the woods on her own. Knowing the terrain, she must have decided to wait out the sun in that cave.

“We. Aherm. Heading down, miss.” Jack remembered to call her miss. “I suppose you are? Uhm, as well?”

“Yes, you suppose correctly, my boy, the difference being that I actually know how to go down the mountain unassisted.” Haughtily, and a bit upset, she pointed outside. “This cave is the only protection along the way, in case you were unaware… We have to wait here until night falls.”

“I understand,” Jack said, nodding in respect and apology. “Thank you so much for the assistance, miss. We would have been doomed without you intervening. My name is Jack O’ Creams, this is Sprinkle.”

“Hey there,” Sprinkle said, still sweating a bit, which looked too much like melting to Jack.

She regarded them a bit more pleased and a little less upset. “How polite,” she said, scratching under her armpit. “My name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth Peppermint, first officer of the Hot Tea guard.”

Now that Jack looked more closely, her trousers did seem to be some kind of uniform, even if it was very dirty. Her jacket was tied around the waist. Her shirt was slightly dirty with its sleeves rolled up to her elbows and its bottom tied into a knot just below her bellybutton.

Thinking about it, Jack looked down at himself to find out that he was remarkably dusty, as well. Also, that he had not put the sword away, so he did that, sliding it through the rope loop at his waist.

When Jack faced her again, Elizabeth was nodding in understanding. “High altitudes and hot stone do not a good mix make, do they?” She sighed and shrugged. “Ah, well. Come along, child, I made a fire deeper inside.”

Elizabeth led them in the dark around a small curve, which meant they could wholly avoid sunlight. Jack immediately spotted the light coming from the fire.

“I heard the birds screeching, you know? They kept being noisy like that so I knew it had to be something else than their usual prey. I did not expect to find a boy and his pet monster, though.”

“Hey, don’t call me that,” Sprinkle complained.

“Pet then.”

Sprinkle gave his head one protesting shake. “Not better!”

“Whatever,” she said, flustered as she clumsily sat by the fire. She gestured at them to take a seat but didn’t seem bothered by whether they decided to stand.

Obviously, they didn’t. Jack was more than happy to take a seat near the fire and get some needed rest for his lungs and limbs. He was having a hard time situating himself and calm down after what he had been through.

It was crazy to think about the danger he had been in, so just like in Soda City, he decided not to. They were safe and that was all that mattered.