Ice & Cream

Sunny Entrapment

Jack didn’t feel like contemplating beautiful things, but Soda City didn’t give him much of a choice.

It was known for its hot springs. They were everywhere around the city and its outskirts as well, steaming and bubbling. However, very few of them consisted of natural water. They consisted instead of flavored liquids, mostly fruits. Those flavors which were not fruity were yet unfamiliar or undiscovered, which was kind of exciting to think about. The way that some of Ice Cream City’s snow was affected by its stone, to become the creamy substance Jack knew as raw ice cream, Soda City’s springs were affected by its own stone.

Of course, it wouldn’t take much of a genius to figure out that all those magical liquids coming out of those springs looked almost identical to what Jack had seen inside of the soda sweetums. They even had the same kind of glow.

The buildings in the city were standing cylinders. The rooms spread around each floor with spiral staircases circling around the center, connecting floor to floor.

The city also had several rivers cutting through it, so they had built bridges to cross over. These rivers were made of the same magically transformed liquids that bubbled in the night, illuminating the surroundings with a varying glow of tinted colors.

They were beautiful, Jack had to admit. Especially at night.

He passed by two rivers that were merely a block apart and had different colors, so the glow would mix depending on where Jack was standing.

Another thing that surprised Jack was the billboards. There were billboards set up all around the streets, advertising the city’s different products.

They were being announced as belonging to different manufacturers, though, which was confusing. “All these billboards are weird.”

“Oh, Soda City has an internal market,” Timothy began to explain, “the soda makers are privately employed, so they compete against each other for the best sodas.”

“Really? Does that sort of competition help?” Jack asked.

“Remarkably well,” Timothy nodded. “Though I still have a hard time appreciating it since it sort of goes against the whole thing of the product being of the city, for the city. Soda City, you know? Because the manufacturers brand the drinks with the logo of their individual companies, it looks like the city and its stone have nothing to do with it.”

Jack nodded in understanding. “I agree, I like that ice cream is made by Ice Cream City, not a particular person.”

“Agreed,” Timothy said, “and trading, as well. When we sell our materials, the city is selling it. Here? The manufacturers are selling it, and pay the city a tax on the deals.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “A tax?”

Timothy eyed Jack exasperated. “A percentage of what they make. You really need to learn more about this sort of thing, Jack.”

“I suppose I do,” Jack admitted. “Just never had a need, so far.”

“Just plain dumb,” Sprinkle argued. “Why make stuff so complicated? Even selling and buying!? You could just trade. People just complicating everything’s why you wake up one day and you gotta cross half a world of war just to share ice cream with a friend.”

Once again, Sprinkle spoke words that were hard to argue with, at least for Timothy and Jack. They could hardly understand how money worked, let alone why it was there in the first place to replace simple trading.

Jack assumed there would be a reason, though. It was hard to believe people would make things harder for themselves for no reason.

“Sprinkle, my grandmother woke you up from some kind of… freezing thing.”

“I was in stasis, yeah.”

“For how long, if I may ask?”

“Hm…” Sprinkle gave the matter some thought and eventually decided it would be fine to tell him. “Since she was about your age, methinks. That’s why I barely recognized her, haha.”

“Wow… that sure is a long time. The world must have changed a lot since then, huh?”

“Not like I’ve ever seen that much of it anyway,” he said with a shrug. “Can’t leave the stone, remember?”

“Wait, but we are leaving it now,” Jack pointed out, stopping in worry.

“Couldn’t,” Sprinkle corrected himself, snickering. “I meant to say I couldn’t. It’s different now.”

“How so? Is that why you were in stasis?”

“Story for another time, kid,” he said with a smirk. “Don’t wanna talk about it.”

Jack deflated but accepted it, knowing it would be disrespectful not to. “As you will, Sprinkle.”

As agreed with Timothy, they found a room to share over the night, though it was hard for any of them to catch any real sleep. Jack himself had nightmares about the screeching noises that the soda sweetum had produced when they were yelling in their uncontrolled rage. He woke up twice during the night, sweating, to realize with relief that he wasn’t melting. While he didn’t catch Timothy awake, he could tell he was having a hard time, as well. Sweating, the boy was shivering and flinching from his own nightmares.

Gritting his teeth, Jack just went back to sleep both times. He kept his thoughts on Jane, and his desire to see her again.

The very next day, with slight dark rings around his eyes, he said his farewells to Timothy.

“So you are really leaving. Even after what happened?” Timothy asked, incredulous.

“I made a promise,” Jack simply said, a little less certain. “I must not delay.”

“Well, I am going to hang around for a while…” Timothy looked around at the city that was so different during the day. Less colorful but a lot livelier. “After yesterday, I decided that adventure can wait. Maybe if the stones are returned, it will be safe to travel.”

Timothy sighed and shook his head at the floor. “Who am I kidding? I might just go back home.”

People went around in clothes also named after their manufacturers, the same ones that made the sodas. They looked good but not that warm, a fact emphasized by a couple of them sneezing.

“You might want to get some new clothes if you are heading to warmer weather,” Timothy pointed out.

“I will,” Jack said, “and may I suggest, Timothy, you might not want to subjugate your life goals to your fears.”

“And end up like Emma?” Timothy asked sarcastically, but he immediately frowned with Jack, sighing with regret. “Apologies, I should have… My point is that the war might be over by the end of the year. I can absolutely wait that long to fulfill my life goals.”

“And yet, I cannot. But I hope we meet again, Timothy,” Jack said, smiling.

“Me too. Thank you for saving my life, Jack.”

“Thank you for saving Sprinkle.”

Timothy giggled. “Well, glad to know that was worth some gratitude from someone,” he said, winking at Sprinkle. “Godspeed, Jack.”

Jack nodded with a gentle smile and turned, and left.

With the sun still barely peeking over at Soda City, Jack once again set forth, with Sprinkle walking close in tow. They left through the gates, recognizing none of the guards, and headed off through the shallow snowy woods.

“This ain’t a good time of day for me to be traveling,” Sprinkle decided to mention as he stepped around a cone of sunlight.

“Well, it will definitely be better than a night crossing, Sprinkle,” Jack mentioned. “Clearly too dangerous.”

Sprinkle scoffed but agreed with his silence.

The small woods that made up the surrounding territory were much easier on the eyes when properly illuminated. The snow and frost covering them was slowly melting away, dripping like pretty tears shining brightly even in the shallow sunlight.

The white was giving way to brown. Spotting a nice portion of it, Jack leaned down to pick up dirt for the very first time in his life. He took a glove off and ran his hand through it. He felt the warmth within the cold of those specks of mold that did not melt to his touch.

“What’s wrong with ya, kid? Never seen dirt before?” Sprinkle asked, impatient.

“No, I have not,” he admitted.

Sprinkle didn’t even hesitate. “That’s what you get for never leaving home.”

“Is that why you left?” Jack asked, slapping the dirt clean from his hands to put his gloves back on.

“Why’s it always lead up to these questions with you, huh? Ever heard of minding your own business?”

Jack shrugged and smiled at his friend while he walked on. “I was just curious, Sprinkle. I never considered what I would experience by leaving.”

“Getting your hands dirty ain’t exactly what I’d call an experience,” Sprinkle joked, shaking off a piece of dirt all displeased.

“I know,” Jack concurred, “so I wonder what else is in store. I think I see Timothy’s point of view now.”

“His point of view? Why aren’t you cowering behind a tree and running back home, then?”

“That is unfair,” Jack argued. “He does not have a reason, like me, to brave such dangers. If circumstances with Jane were different, I would be making the exact same decision.”

Sprinkle shook his head. “No one nor anything will ever be reason enough for him, Jack. He’s a spineless little boy hiding behind his humor.”

Jack stopped and looked at Sprinkle with a teasing smirk. “I think someone slept on the wrong side last night.”

Sprinkle huffed to the side, embarrassed. “Well, someone kept turning around all night, didn’t they?”

Blushing, Jack offered no retort.

They eventually came to the path leading down the mountain. Unfortunately, it did not look as safe as Jack had expected. The path went down the very vertical face of the mountain, and the floor's width was not impressive in the slightest.

“Don’t look too safe, does it?” Sprinkle asked, voicing Jack’s reticence.

“No,” Jack simply replied. “Perhaps had yesterday gone differently, this might give me pause.”

Jack stepped onto the path, almost missing a bit of pride in Sprinkle’s smile.

They walked at a brisk pace that was nonetheless as cautious as they could make it. Jack prioritized safety to speed. Eventually, they needed to do some actual climbing, but it was still a path, so it wasn’t anything too steep or dangerous. Some portions seemed to have steps built into it which made Jack think that the pass had been safer, once, but with the war and the stolen stone, Soda City must have given up on maintaining it.

All of a sudden, Jack felt warmth upon his shoulder.

“Oh no,” Jack realized, frightened.

He looked up to notice that the sun was peeking over the edge of the mountain. “The Sun, Sprinkle, it will set over on this side!”

“Freezing crap, kid! We need to move!”

It was hard to move faster than the sun, and there was a lot of the mountain to cover. All of it near vertical. Thankfully, they came across a piece of the mountain that curved out from the wall to provide a ceiling.

They hid beneath it well in time to use the shade. “Well, that was lucky.”

“We’re still in trouble, kid, there’s no wall here, the sun’ll come down and scorch me from this side.”

“Not if you stand in my shade,” Jack said.

“Are you crazy, kid? You’ll get a heat-stroke doing that. No, I see more rock formations ahead, we’ll run for it.”

“What? No, Sprinkle, you will melt.”

“A bit, maybe,” Sprinkle pointed out. “It’s just like your sweat, though, it doesn’t matter that much. If I can get to shade fast enough, I’ll be back in form in no time. Besides, I shoulda known about this, I’ve gone down this path before.”

“Did you forget?” Jack asked.

Sprinkle frowned. “We made the trek at night so I never noticed. Anyway, I remember there’s a cave somewhere on the way. We need to move and try to get to it.”

Jack leaned in and squinted his eyes to see the next point of shade. It was still a good stride.  “You think it will still be there?”

Sprinkle took a frustrated breath. “Let’s not think about that, just pick me up and run.”

Jack bent down at once and picked him up. He took a few moments to get used to the weight, shift his back a little bit, and then he ran for it.

Jack reached the next formation, and its shade, pretty quickly, but not fast enough. Looking down, he saw Sprinkle’s skin secreting water.

“Are… Are you o-Okay??”

“Arf…arf…” Sprinkle breathed out in desperate bursts, but despite that, his skin was becoming freezing cold again. “I’m fine, kid, I’m fine. I’ll tell you when to go.”

“But Sprinkle--”

“Stop that or we’re not getting out o’ this one, kid. Now run!”

Jack ran again, this time having to skip down some rocky steps before turning around to land on another floor. Once he did, he had to rush to the next rock formation.

After a minute’s pause, they repeated the process.

Sprinkle needing to recuperate helped Jack to rest in-between sprints, and still, he quickly found himself heaving. “Geez…I don’t think I…uff…”

“None ‘o…none ‘o that now, kid. Man up and carry on. Gotta think o’ yer girl, right?”

“Yes,” Jack told himself, looking ahead with determination. “Think of Jane.”

Alas, suddenly, a deafening and animalistic screeching scream echoed across the mountainside.