Over Freezing Altitudes by Kate MacLeod

Author:Kate MacLeod
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946552686
Publisher: Ratatoskr Press

15

When Scout woke, the tent was almost uncomfortably warm. The dogs had moved away from her to sprawl their legs out. She had taken her coat off at some point.

The little glowing heater wasn’t even on anymore.

Daisy was already awake. Or, perhaps more likely, she had never slept. When she saw Scout’s eyes were open, she immediately set a mug of something steaming within arm’s reach.

“I was about to wake you to get going,” Daisy said as Scout sat up and sipped at the beverage. She had no idea what beverage it was trying to be, only that it wasn’t quite pulling it off.

“Yeah, I know,” Daisy said, seeing her face. “The water up here boils too soon to make a proper cup of tea. But it’s hot and has an extra shot of caffeine, so drink it up anyway. The storm stopped a few minutes ago.”

Scout wondered how she could tell, as silent as it had been inside the tent all night long. She tried not to grimace as she drank the tea. She could feel the caffeine stirring up inside her, so much less unpleasant than the stim had been.

Daisy opened a container of some sort of meat in a rich sauce, and the dogs were awake in a snap, rushing to fill their bellies. When they finished, they sat back to lick the gravy from their lips and quite willingly allowed Daisy to fasten the booties to their paws.

Scout found a protein bar in the side pocket of her pack and munched on that while she straightened her own clothing, rebraided her hair, then reached for her coat.

That was odd. She could have sworn it had been distinctly heavier the night before. How far up the mountain had they come?

“I took some plates out of it,” Daisy said when she saw the look on Scout’s face. “It will make you lighter.”

“Why?” Scout asked.

“The snow has blown up in some interesting arrangements,” Daisy said. “We might need to test a few places that look like they’re on a trail but aren’t. I’m too heavy, and I can’t make myself any lighter.”

“So I’m going to be walking in the front?” Scout asked.

“Yes, Scout,” Daisy said with a wry smile, “I’m asking you to scout.”

“I don’t think I can push up a trail as you did,” Scout said.

“You won’t need to for you or the dogs,” Daisy said. “About an hour ago we had a brief blast of sleet; then the temperature dropped very low. The snow has a nice crust on it now. You’ll be able to walk on top of it now that I’ve reduced your weight. Plus, I’ve consolidated the packs to just what we need, so you won’t need to carry one.”

Scout looked around and saw that indeed Daisy had an oversized pack beside her, and the one Scout had been carrying was mostly empty, sitting like a deflated bladder beside it.

“Did you sleep at all?” Scout asked, feeling guilty for how deeply she had been slumbering while Daisy did all this work.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.