Sinking Feeling - Weekly Quest

Macaq reined in the blind female, chewing at the bottom of his lip nervously as he surveyed the stretch of ice ahead of them. The silver and white female lifted her head and sniffed the air, her ears swiveling. As she tried to get a better read on the surroundings. Macaq stroked her neck while he considered their alternatives.

“Are we going to cross?” Iraluq called from behind. Macaq turned to see his friend approaching slowly on a seal male. Both rider and tokota were alert. Iraluq had a history with near drowning and the threat of it happening again. A shaggy brown and white female appeared from behind the rider. She approached the ice with no fear. Of course if she fell in there were few consequences besides getting wet. For a human it was almost certain death.

“I think we have to. There is no other way to get the supplies. Mira is pretty smart on her feet. She can go first and you can follow behind.” Macaq offered. He studied his friend’s face closely, waiting to see how he’d respond to the suggestion. Iraluq was wavering… “You could go first!” Macaq added as an option, “Since you have special protection and all!” Macaq traced circles on his cheeks where Iraluq had the tattoos on his face meant to represent the tusks of a walrus. Iraluq narrowed his eyes at the other tribesman. Macaq laughed and pointed across the stretch of ice. “I’ll go first. Bran will probably change up the order. She doesn’t like being in second or third anyway.” With the thought of either of them risking their lives by going first placated Macaq was able to press on.

Mira sensed the change right away. She moved carefully, placing one foot down and testing if it would hold her weight before moving the other forward and repeating the test. Sure enough Bran was being less cautious. She was loping along, slipping and sliding on the ice under the thin layer of snow. She was having a good time. Sometimes the floppy hair hanging in front of her eyes would occasionally flip up and her bright eyes could be seen shining.

Uja and Iraluq were trailing behind. Both sets of eyes were on the ground. The seal male was careful to put his paws in the exact spot where Mira had before him.

“This isn’t so bad!” Macaq exclaimed despite the fact there wasn’t much worth exclaiming about. They were inching across the ice at speeds that would put a turtle to sleep.

“Do you think that they’ll give up the supplies for the tribe when we get there?” Iraluq asked just to put some fear into his friend.

It didn’t work. “Of course they will be willing to finish their end of the bargain! And if they refuse we’ll tell them who we are and strong arm them into handing it over! I’ll take my spear and hold it aloft and they will cower and you can dive in and slap them around and take the good and load up the tokotas and then we’ll split!” Macaq trust a first into the air like he was socking an invisible enemy.

Iraluq rolled his eyes. It wasn’t going to happen like that but Macaq was right about the other tribe being unlikely to back out of their bargain at this point. They couldn’t afford to make an enemy out of their current tribe given a number of factors.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sickening sound of breaking ice. They turned their attention towards the shaggy piebald female standing on the ice up ahead of them. The toko was panting stressfully. A spiderweb of a crack had formed under her paw.

“Good job, Bran.” Macaq muttered. He looked over his shoulder and cleared his throat to snap Iraluq to attention. “WE should probably just run.” He suggested. Iraluq gave a shrug and then a belated nod.

Uja and Mira took off at once, flying across the quickly shifting ice under them. Bran moved last and the breaking of the ice accelerated the moment she lifted her foot. The three tokotas raced on ignoring the thunder of ice shattering as they dashed for the opposite shore. As fast as they were going they couldn’t outrun the shifting ice under them. Mira leapt blindly over a gap and landed on a teetering ice float only to bounce off it and back onto slightly more solid ice. Bran was less fortunate and her back end got dunked when she jumped. She scrambled forward with powerful front legs, hauling her body across the ice.

Iraluq was less fortunate still. Uja made the jump but jarred his rider in the process. Iraluq was left behind on the slowly churning ice raft while Uja charged ahead.  “Heeey!” Iraluq shouted. Uja turned as did Macaq. Macaq acted first. He dismounted, letting Mira reach the shore. He pushed Uja as he ran by to get the seal to follow Mira and Bran to safety.

At least he was lighter than a toko. The ice didn’t break up as rapidly under his weight. He wasn’t quite the jumper the wolfbears were however. For the first time in a long time he wished he was in their skin as he jumped to the unstable raft Iraluq was stranded on. He didn’t stick the landing quite like he planned. He pin-wheeled his arms till he regained his balance. His presence managed to even out the tilting ice float for the time being and Iraluq was able to scramble forward.

“So if neither of us moves then we’ll be just fine.”  Macaq said.

Iraluq was breathing heavily and his heart racing. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes at the moment. “Move towards the center.” He commanded. Macaq complied. The two inched closer and closer, careful not to tip the float in either direction. Macaq offered his friend a hand and carefully helped Iraluq up.

“Does this count as me saving your life?” Macaq inquired.

“Even if it does I save you every other week so we’re not even close to even.” Iraluq grumbled. He released Macaq’s arm and eyed the safe ice. “We’re going to have to jump together.” He accessed. Macaq nodded, coming to the same conclusion. The tokos standing on the shore whining and baying for their handlers. Macaq and Iraluq braced themselves for the jump.

“If we die… Least there’ll be a next time.” Macaq reasoned. Iraluq rolled his eyes and took the jump. The short haired handler followed a breath behind.

They landed on the solid ice with a thud. No thunder crack of breaking ice followed and they were able to exhale. They took a minute before getting to their feet and making their way to the tokos standing on solid land.