Tear of Ice

Chapter 8

I felt a familiar, gentle warmth under my head. Soft fur and a rumble from the source of that warmth. My eyes slowly opened, seeing the white fur illuminated by the snowy sky. I softly run my hands through it, scratching it at the base. A low rumble from the fur came out. The wolf’s head rose and turned, revealing a myriad of scars over the right eye. Instantly, my breath came short as my arms rushed around the head, my face buried into the scarred wolf.

“Icarus…” my voice was so quiet as I felt him nuzzle me back. It’s soft, he’s always been so soft under it all. He always put family above all, and as rigid and strict he could be, he loved me.

He loved me too much.

A hand came to my head, interweaving through my red locks as I looked up to see familiar grey-blue eyes, with crow's feet, dimples, and all.

“Grandma!” I pushed myself up and hugged her tightly, her shaking hands coming around me just as they did all the time while I was growing up. I felt it, that reminiscent warmth that somehow came through, even through the magic cold of the forest. And I was ecstatic to feel it again.

I began to ramble, as I always did whenever I got excited. Grandma sat there, a smile on her face as I rambled on about the bad dream I had. That I failed, that Kreidd attacked us, killing some of our precious family. taking Wiesse and leaving Lia and I alone to get it back. But her hand came up to my chest gently as she pushed me back.

“Grandma..?”

“Come now, dear. I knew I could believe in you. After all, Wiesse embodies sacrifice.” She had spoken, and I smiled at her as I felt the tears that had accumulated in my eyes fall.

“And I will sacrifice just as she, For my love is bigger than I.” I repeated the mantra ever so gently as I felt not only Grandma’s arms come around me, but Icarus’ soft fur rubbed against me. I sunk into them, just as I did when I was young over and over.

I was home-

“Back off!”

My eyes snapped open, My head bouncing up as Lia quickly rose from her perch on my lap and faced towards the driver’s seat of the cart. I look around hurriedly, finding that we'd stopped; not at Lostwick, but at a smaller village on the outskirts; I soon noticed that the older couple who had been in the cart with us was gone. Perhaps this was their intended destination. My head soon goes back to Lia, who growled as blue wisps appeared around her.

“Ah, you’re awake. Your friend doesn’t seem fond of me.” He spoke up again, back against the wooden wall that meets the driver’s place, who was not there at the moment.

“What did you do to Lia?” My hand comes to her fur quickly, attempting to come closer to her side.

“Whoa, whoa! I did nothing!” His palms faced us as he raised his eyebrows.

“He tried to touch you.” Lia growls.

“Now, that just makes me look bad.” He complains.

“I don’t care about you looking good, you don’t touch her.” The blue mist began to get worse around here, and I knew that if this continued the carriage would become made of ice soon.

“Lia, calm down.” She turns to me with wide eyes.

“But he-!”

“Lia, you’re going to destroy the carriage. Calm down.” My voice was stern, and slowly she released a breath of pure frost as the wisps of magic left her.

He sighs and fixes his hair a bit. “Now, are you willing to hear me out?”

I glared at him, “I talked her down for the driver’s sake, not yours.”

“1. Ouch, 2. I was just trying to wake you in case you wanted to get anything from this village while we were waiting. I was making conversation with your friend, even though they seem as antisocial as you.”

I stared at him as I listened to his flimsy explanation, as I then quickly remembered.

“Lia, you talked to him?” I asked her aggressively, her snout whipping back to me as well.

“He wouldn’t shut up!” she barks in response.

“Harsh.” He pouts.

“Shut up!” We both shout at him as we face each other again to resume talking.

“We’re trying to keep a low profile here! You talking to people isn’t helping!”

“I’m still not used to the fact that just anyone can hear me! I thought it was only a you and Rose thing!”

Our back and forth bickering was cut short as he cleared his throat, causing our attention to go back to him. He raises his shoulders a little and adjusts his sleeves.

“Well, not going to lie, your ‘low profile’ is quite hard to do with how you look.”

We both frown at him. “What do you mean?”

“1. The bright red cloak, 2. The bright red hair, 3. The blue eye with scars, and 4. The wolf.” He counted down casually. I lift the cloak over my hair, pulling my bangs farther into my face.

“You didn’t seem to care or notice anything until now.” Lia growls as she plops herself beside me again.

“That’s because I’m a traveller, weird people are my bread and butter. And I’m sure the old couple was too focused on themselves when they were here.” He adjusts his sitting position, back to the corner with a looser air to him.

“And besides, you both are going to Lostwick, yeah? That village isn’t too receptive to Loraines. It’ll be hard to do anything there for you.”

“And we should just take your word for it?” My arms cross as I lean against Lia once more.

“I brought it up because I’m trying to help you out here.”

At that, my eyebrows rose, I glanced at Lia as she looked back at him too.

“Why would you want to help us?”

“I’m bored.”

Once again we stared at him, incredulously. “You can’t be serious.”

“Look, you don’t owe me answers, I don’t owe you answers. So unless you wanna tell me why you’re on this carriage towards the biggest village in the Guecedand who obviously hates Loraines, I won’t tell you why I operate the way I do.” His smile was loose as he leaned again, arm resting over the edge of the cart.

“You’re a weirdo.” Lia deadpans at him.

“I’ll take that as a compliment from the talking wolf.” He chuckles as he reaches out.

“What do you say? Truce until we get out of Lostwick? Then we go our separate ways and never speak to each other again.” His hand sat out facing me, and for a moment I stared at it. Glancing up at his face to see if I could get a reading on him. Then glancing over at Lia who looked away from the situation entirely, before I sigh,“You better never speak to me again.” and I shook his hand.

He chuckles, “Who knows? We may never even see each other again. Hourn is a big continent.”

I yank my hand away, not wanting the contact to last too long. He leans back and I firmly hold onto Lia.

The driver finally makes his way back, feeding his horses and giving them water. I watch his actions as I huddle closer to Lia. She looks at me only for a second before looking back over at our reluctantly agreed-on partner.

"So, what's your name friends? Since we are in agreement." He gestures towards us as he fixes his furred collar.

"Carmine, and this is Lia." My hand runs through her fur as she leans closer to me.

"Lovely, I'm Rio."

My eyebrow raised at that, I went to ask if that was his true name. But I soon closed it as quickly as I had opened it; why should I care? This partnership won’t last that long anyway.

The driver hopped back onto his perch and settled in, leaning back to us. "Alright, you both ready?"

Rio looks back and gives the driver a thumbs up. And with a c***k, we continue on our way.

We went quiet for a while, but then we were all too quickly interrupted by Rio stretching flamboyantly with groans.

“Ah, such a long journey ahead of us, friends! Lostwick is a large town and they are not too open to people like us.”

“Us?” My eyebrow raised.

He blinks at me before chuckling and letting his arms flop back down to his knees, the red flowy sleeve trailing behind them. “You think the white hair is for show?” His hand runs through his messy short hair. “I’m flattered, but I am not much of a hairdresser.”

“A simple, ‘yeah’ would have worked.” Lia whispered, agitation clear in it.

“You mentioned it before though, too. So you’re a Loraine?” I ask, nails gently scratching between Lia’s ears.

“Goodness, no.” He waves his hand back and forth with a shake of his head. “If I could do a shred of magic, do you really think I would be here? I would be living it up, maybe even be a showman around in Cosave.”

“You do talk a lot.” I deadpanned at Rio’s rambling.

“Silence is boring, conversation is the spice of life.” he dramatically waves his arm around.

“I thought it was variety?” Lia looks at me.

“It is variety, he’s just...eccentric.”

He laughs, “Fair assessme-”

The cart suddenly screeches to a halt. Rocking the three of us violently, Lia just barely placing herself before me to stop me from hitting the wall. I pull myself up before whipping my head up to the driver.

“Hey, what’s up?” Rio looks up to the driver who happened to lean back.

“Sorry but there’s something up ahead. It seems to be a barricade.” I crawl up to the divider of the cart and look up over it, finding the dirt road stopped with a small brown fence. The edges of the road are overtaken with trees and bushes, the wilderness that the Guecedand is known for. Lia’s snout appears beside me as I glance up to the driver.

“Can’t we just go through?”

“Sorry, ma’am. We must stop at barricades and give identification. VGL code.”

“VGL?” I ask as Lia makes a slight noise of confusion as well.

“How else do you think the villages all cooperate with each other?” Rio speaks up as he leans back against the cart wall. “The VGL, Villages of Guecedand Laws. Rules that traveling merchants and guilds must meet in order to freely travel near villages safely without harm or ill intent.”

“Yeah, but usually there would be a guard or guildmate posted here. To get my name and license and all that.” The driver hums in thought, before rising from his seat. “Give me a moment, I’ll check to see if anyone’s around.”

Before I knew it, he walked off to the barricade and then turned to the bushier area. I backed away from peeking over to lean on the wall.

“You really never heard of the VGL? Haven’t been out here long huh?” Rio asks, kicking his foot a bit.

“Well, no. There was nothing like that around Nei-”I cut myself off. He raises an eyebrow as I look away. “-Where I grew up.”

He hums again, a smile as he leans back to the corner. “I’m surprised. So you never ran into the Abent Guild?”

“Who?” Lia blurts out, now that the driver was gone I’m sure she felt more comfortable speaking.

“The Adventurer’s Guild, basically. They’re the closest thing to a system the Guecedand has.” Brown hands intertwine as he stretches again. “They are posted in every village in the Guecedand, most merchants are from them and most carriage rides, like this, are from them. They give jobs and cohesion to the wildlands.”

“I thought every village just had a small militia and fended for themselves?” I ask.

“Maybe they did, decades ago. But after the Abent Guild and the VGL, things changed.”

Decades? But Grandma told me that the villages were really solitary and decently hostile towards one another, only conversing and aiding one another in dire situations, each having their own small army to protect themselves. Has that much time changed from when Grandma remembers?

“Wow, you’re really out of touch, huh?” Rio scoffs playfully.

“Shut it.”

“Nothing wrong with tha-”

“Ah!”

All three of us jump up from the cart, turning quickly over as the driver rushes past the bushes. Rushing back only for Rio to reach down and grab him by his wrist, yanking him back.

“Whoa! Where are you going? We’re your customers?”

“You think I’m going to get caught by bandits for YOU? Like hell!”

Bandits?

The driver shouts at us as he tries to yank himself from Rio’s grip. Before a rustling form the bushes echoed and all of us looked back to find 5 people, 3 men, and 2 women coming out from the trees and bushes.

“Oh, so you have a wholesale of fresh meat here? How lucky are we?”

The Driver finally yanks free and falls to the dirt ground.

“You owe us some silver if you want to get by here, or even better gold.” A large man said, his gun was large just like him. My hand instantly gripped my hood closer, even closer to hide the blue eye in the skull.

The bandits began to approach the cart, and I tried to make myself as small as I could, Lia leaning against me to hide me better. Rio was sitting in front of us as one of the women with a smaller gun pointed at us.

“You, pretty boy. Silver, now.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but I’m afraid that all my money went to this trip. Had to pay for my friends and I.”

What is he doing?

“Then what do your friends have?” She tilted herself and pointed more directly at Lia and I. Rio leaned with her and tried to cover us. “Hey you, Red hood and mutt! Give me your si-”

Lia leapt forward above Rio and tackled the woman down. As she groans and struggles against Lia’s sheer size and power.

Pushing Rio out of my way, I jumped out of the cart as well. Tackling down the other woman that was beside her. She fell on her back as I wrangled the weapon from her grasp.“The hell-”

The men who were busy terrorizing the driver had turned and quickly tried to aim. Just as a gunshot rang out, my shoulder was grabbed roughly as I was yanked back into the cart.

“Are you crazy? You could get killed!” He yells at me.

I look back at Lia who begins to surround herself in blue mist. Flecks of ice appear as she growls and rushes for the men. I struggle against Rio’s grip as he tries to keep me from joining the fight.

The magic of Wiesse glowed from Lia as ice and frost danced around her as she tackled and bit the men. They weren’t even fast enough to load their guns. The magic keeps them unable to keep up with her. Her fur tipped with blue as her eyes seemingly glowed.

Lia had knocked down the smaller men while the larger one finally reloaded his gun, taking aim. Instantly I felt a cold rush through my body as I finally yanked myself out of Rio’s grip. I scramble to stand up completely as I throw my hands forward.

“Lia!”

At that moment, blue rushed out of my hand, frost, and mist accumulated together and crashed against the large man. Across the ground of grass and dirt a sudden row of perfect ice stags stabbed out. His body was completely surrounded by it as the gun fell from his arms.

Silence fell as I panted and stared at my hand, the ice covering my hand. All eyes were on me as I shook and slowly brought it to my face.

“Carmine..?”

The other bandits scream, “A Loraine! s**t!” As they aim once more at us..

Instantly, my shoulder was grabbed roughly again as I was yanked back into the cart. “Lia! Grab the driver! Come on!” Rio shouts as Lia rushes over and grabs the driver by his shirt. Tossing him in easily and jumping in herself.

“Rio, What are you-!” Before I can finish he pats my shoulder.

“You just sit there and try to calm your ice fingers!” He leaps up over the divider and into the driver's seat. Grabbing the reign and cracking them. The horses neighing violently before breaking off in a sprint.

The horses jump over the small barricade but the cart itself bashes into it. Cleanly knocking it down and rocking us all around wildly.

“Hey! My cart!” The driver complains as he scrambles to look at Rio frantically. “This cost silver!”

“Oh, now it matters! Not when you literally tried to run off without us!” Rio led the horses frantically, his voice booming.

I stared at my hands, both covered in frost as they glowed. Lia’s paw comes to them in a panic.

“Carmine, it’s fine! Calm down!”

“H-He almost shot you. I-I panicked, I couldn’t-I can’t-” My breathing was erratic, vision blurring with the tears as I tried to focus on Lia.

“But I’m okay. We’re on the cart, we’re safe.” Her snout comes to my cheek as she nuzzles me. My tears fell, as the cold pulsated through me. What should I do? What can I do?

My arms wrapped around her as I pulled her close. She was one of the only pieces of my family I have left. I can’t lose Lia. I can’t handle that. I need her.

And there, amidst the wildlands of a place I don’t completely understand as my arms tightened around Lia in an attempt to calm my panicking mind and racing heart. I can understand it, just for a while,

Why Icarus sacrificed it all for me.