Tear of Ice

Chapter 5

I felt a nudge against my shoulder, slowly as I felt a soft touch to my arm and light to my eyes, a muffle beside my ear as my eyes finally snap open, lifting myself off of the snow. Looking around, I see the forest in its usual hue, with no red glow at all, but instead a soft sheet of snow amongst black trees. My eye aches as I rub at it, blinking to get my vision clear.

"Carmine!"I turn to find Lia there, as I quickly collect my thoughts.

"Lia! What happened? Where is everyone?" I grabbed her fluffy fur and pulled her close. She gasps, her eyes wide as she stares at me. She was speechless. But why?

"Dad...he-"

"Where is Icarus? Grandma? Is the pack okay?" My voice frantic as I beg her for an answer. But her eyes were still wide and erratic. I push her away and quickly rise to my feet. Patting snow off of my skirt and cloak, only to think.

"The Tear!" I frantically search myself before coming to the realization. "N-no! It's gone!” Panic ripped through me as my gloved hand slams to my face. “We have to tell Grandma and Icarus!"

I frantically turn and rush back the way I came, hearing Lia run behind me. I couldn’t believe it, everything had happened at once. I wasn’t prepared enough and let that captain surprise me. The tear may be gone, but Grandma is here and we can always make a plan and get it back from them. That's all we need, a plan. A plan. A plan. A plan.

We make it back to the cabin; the usual picturesque scenery ruined. Blood soaked into the snow, as if the blood moon's light had never left. But on top of those splotches of blood-

"No…" I rush over to a pelt of white fur. Turning the wolf over seeing-

"H-Hey!" I shake the pelt, looking around to the other wolf bodies. None of them moved, all with blood on their bodies. Even littered on the lawn were a couple of corpses of the Kreidd knights.

Lia joined my side and tried to shake the corpse more. "N-no..."

"Lia. What happened?" My body was shaking, tears already falling before I could stop them.

"Rose told me to go find you. Hours ago. I haven't been back in...hours."

"Grandma!"

Instantly, after a gentle pet to the body, I rise to my feet, rushing over to the porch. The familiar creak in the wood as I stomp my heel up the stairs. Grandma must still be safe; though I know she would surely be distraught. She would feel so guilty, but we could mourn together. Get through this together. I need to hug her, I need her reassurance. I need her.

I slam the door open, to the darkly lit living room. The house was a mess, splitting wood and broken glass from the destroyed window. My eyes instantly looking towards the back where her bed sat. Leaning against the wall, hand hanging off of her bed, there she sat. Relief washes over me as I run over to her. My grandma, my mother, the one person in this world who cared for me! My arms wrapped over her, but she was limp. She didn’t move or react to my hug or make any sound. Jerking back, I stare at her. From her lips, her head, and her nose; blood. Grabbing her hand that hung off the bed it was limp and cold, colder than usual. Her usual shakiness is gone and completely flaccid.

“No.” Was all I could manage. “No, this wasn’t supposed to happen yet!”

My knees slam into the wooden floor, as my vision goes blurry. I hear a rush of steps coming to my side and a gasp.

“Rose? N-no way! Rose!” Lia called out, jumping onto the bed and using her paw to push the body. “Rose…”

Tears fell from me, as with all I had I mustered a shriek. My voice echoed along the walls of the cabin. But I felt something new, a coolness washing itself over me as I screamed, before my voice eventually died out, I used what little strength I had to grip her cold, dead hand.

“C-Carmine!” The door was rushed with footsteps. Looking up I found the wooden cabin coated in ice. The walls laced over with crystal, as familiar wisps of blue passed by my eyes. Leftover adults and children of the pack racing in and looking over the walls and to grandma’s body. I heaved breaths as my shaking hands touched the ice coated floor, puffs of pure frost leaving me as I breathe.

“Where is Icarus?” Seff walks over to me, as Lia leads the children up the stairs. Coming back down and shaking her head. “When Rose told me to leave and find Carmine, she was alone.”

My head was down as I stared at the ice. Still unsure and terrified about what I just did. Then I feel the pressure against my head, a nose nuzzling my cheek. I look up slowly, my hair all messy in my face as I gently pull it back.

Seff’s eyes widen as he steps back. “He did it.” He pauses

“W-what are you talking about, Seff? Where is Icarus?” I take my hand and reach out for him. He limps over to a broken piece of glass and brings it over. At the same time Lia rushes over and finally looks at me as well.

I take the glass in my gloved hands and look at it, seeing my face, instantly meeting my eyes and shaking. Instead of it's normal golden color one of my eyes was now blue, with very familiar scars hanging over the skin.

My fingers shakily touch the scars over the eye, the eye that the captain had shot with his rifle, that I was bleeding out into the snow when I passed out. The blue, the scars, everything about it only led to one thing.

This was Icarus’s eye. Which meant-

A howl interrupts my thoughts, looking up to Lia as she crumbles to the floor. Curling up as she sobs violently. The glass in my hands shook, ice slowly coming over it. Watching the crystal blue slowly over take it. Before I knew it, I threw the glass as it shattered against the wall. Hyperventilating as I drag my hands over the eye This was Icarus, my family. We had just reconciled, he did all he could to protect us. And now-

“They truly embodied Wiesse.”

“Don’t say that.” I plead, Those words that we say whenever a family member dies- It was too early, too real for me. I lost them both in such a short amount of time. These two people who saved me and raised me; gone. I almost couldn't believe it.

“The cold of death and the sacrifices that come with it ring ever true her name.” Seff continued the eulogy. Grandma's body lying coldly in the bed beside and the remains of their leader in my eye.

“Stop it, please.” My voice shook as my hands viciously gripped my own arms, searching for any semblance of comfort.

“May Wiesse be their light.” Seff finishes, opting out from saying the full speech. My hands slam into my face, feeling the change in terrain, feeling the scarred tissue over my eye that dragged onto my jaw.

My hands shook, struggling to feel anything in them anymore. Even as my hair passed through my fingers and I blinked the tears away, I could feel Icarus’ eye pulsing in my skull, and I wanted so badly to rip it out. But the most I could do was cry into my palms. I soon feel a nudge and a whimper against my hands as I grip my cloak closer to me all the while covering my eye. What they left me with.

“Carmine. We need to send Rose off.” Seff limps over to the body in the bed, Lia crumbling up and shrieking more. Seff looks back at her as he makes his way to the staircase, the rest of the adults in the pack standing there to help him. “I’ll tend to the kids. You two, take your time.” And with that, he and the rest of the adults rushed up.

I couldn’t even cry anymore, my hands limply falling into my lap. Grandma's dried blood on my gloves as I reached the buckle on my wrist to remove them. Soon looking up at Lia as she buried herself in her own fur, attempting to close herself off as she weeped. I soon toss my gloves to the side and crawl over to her. “Lia…”

“We can’t!” she cries to me.

“We...We have to. It’s what Grandma would-” I choke on my own emotions, “It’s what Rose would want.”

She looks up at me, her blue eyes matching Icarus’ shimmering from the tears. Her paw reached out for me gently touching the scars of her father that now litter my face.

“To be with Icarus.” I finish as I slowly help her up. Holding her paw gently before letting it slide away from my bare palm. We walk over to grandma’s body, me staring at her for a moment, before I sigh. My hand shakily, gripping the blanket and pulling it up and above her face, covering her body from sight. I finally turn away from her, Lia and I soon silently walk away from her and to the door, being careful to not slip on the icy floor.

“Carmine, where is the tear?” Seff spoke up.

“I don’t have it, I think-” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I think the soldiers succeeded.

The gasp from him was sharp and he shuffles to us unevenly. “Go check the altar!”

“Huh?” I look at him.

Lis nods, “Dad used to say the easiest way to see the state of the forest is by the altar.” I look to Lia who doesn’t meet my gaze, before we step out.

The front of the cabin looked like a battlefield, like a war was fought, which technically there was, what with all of the corpses of soldiers that were littered all around it. Lia soon nudges my leg, silently reminding me of where we intended to go, and with that I soon make my way to the side of the cabin to finally trek back to the tear’s altar.

Lia and I walked in silence, the weight of everything heavier than I'd ever thought it would be. My hands shook as we made our way to the altar, only to finally come face to face with another cruel reality.

The ice altar that was always so refined and magical, always laced with icy sparks and wisps of crystal blue hues, was cracking as if it were glass. Lia hurriedly rushed over to the altar where it usually sat and looks closer.

“It’s cracking?”

My head shook. “No...no, no!” I rush over to the altar, My hand hovering over it as I felt the cracking surface underneath my fingertips. In between each c***k, I could see familiar wisps of blue. It touched my fingers, and I watched the icy blue crystal pass onto my fingertips, and I yank my hand away, looking around.

“What’s happening? I don’t understand!” Lia frantically looked around with me, seeing how the forest was seemingly slowly falling apart.

“The tear is what keeps the forest afloat. Without the tear, who knows what will happen?” My hand came to my face as the realization really hit me. That captain really took the tear after all. When Grandma told us this forest relied on Wiesse, I now knew that she was being very literal.

The forest cannot survive without the tear. Without it, it'll slowly die. .

“Lia, we need to get the tear back.” I look down at her as I say that, face firm and determined.

“Huh? Wait, do you mean-”

“Yes. Our home is dying without the tear, and who knows what will happen to the pack if-!. Let alone Wiesse herself-!” I quickly raise the hood over my head, turning away and marching back to the cabin

“We have to get to Kreidd.”

“But it-” I put a hand on her head and pet her gently.

“We have to save our home. Otherwise-” I didn’t bother finishing myself, knowing she understood me. She nods, and we quickly run back to the cabin.

We burst into the house to find Seff and the other adults talking, all turning to us in shock. I ran in hurriedly to the kitchen to grab supplies while Lia explained the situation.

My hands rush around the cabinets, grabbing silver and the first aid kit. I take another hunting knife and place it in the holster on the back of my corset, before hurriedly shoving the supplies into a small bag and placing it on my waist, attaching it to a belt over my skirt. I run back out and nod to Lia, right then feeling a budge on my leg, and as I turn, it’s Seff.

“Carmine, are you sure? Can you and Lia really handle this? Right now?” His eyes wavered as he leaned on his left side.

“Do we really have a choice? We have to keep the forest safe, our family safe.” I steadied my breath enough to answer him without shaking.

Lia walks over to Seff and nuzzles her snout under his chin affectionately, the other adults joining in and nuzzling her as well.

“Take care, everyone. We’ll be back, with the tear.”

I kneel and join in the hug, the wolves surrounding us with whimpers and wishful words.

“Take care of the pups, alright?” I ask of everyone. They nod as we rise and rush out of the home, past the bloody ground of our front yard, into the black frosted trees of the Neigless forest, running through and jumping over fallen trees as snow rises and puffs from our footsteps.

“First, we head into the closest village and find a map for the quickest and easiest route to Kreidd. Then ask around about the battalion.” Lia nods at my plan as we continue our pace.

Before we even knew it, we were at the edge of the forest, where snowy terrain levels into empty fields spontaneously. We didn’t even bother to wait, rushing past the ending of our usual cold home. I felt the usual chill fade easily as the crunch of snow turned into the crushing of grass. As white turned to green, black trees began to vanish, and the sun hung low in the sky. We were now in the Guecendand, and on our way to Kreidd.

I’m getting back the tear. I have to. For my home, and for my family.