Ice Man by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-13T07:24:53+00:00

Chapter Six

The first thing Kell noticed was the dogs. They had curly tails and looked like wolves. Tied to a sled, they pulled it like horses. The man standing on the back of the sled wore furs, and for a minute, Kell had the strangest impression he was seeing Vix or Tor. Then reality hit him and it felt almost as if the earth jolted on its axis, and he staggered.

“Are you all right?” Allie asked.

He nodded, unsure of his voice. He had not slept that night, or very little. Worry about Allie, and keeping the fire going, had kept him awake. He’d gone to check his snare, but it had been empty, so they hadn’t eaten any breakfast. Allie and he had left the igloo standing. They had planned to walk half the day in one direction, and if they didn’t find any settlements, they would turn back and spend the night in the igloo again. But as it transpired, they hadn’t walked very long before they heard barking and the dogs had appeared.

The man drove his dogs up to them and spoke. Kell understood nothing, but Allie did, and soon the man and Allie had come to an understanding. Allie beamed, her eyes bright with excitement. “I told him we need a place to stay for the night. He knows of a woman who rents a room.”

“We need to get a snowmobile.” Kell said firmly. He knew the importance of transportation. A man was nothing without his horse, his snowmobile…or his dogs. He noted how the dogs were tied to the man’s sleigh, and how easily they pulled it. He tapped Allie’s shoulder. “Ask him how fast his dogs go.”

“Why?”

“Do they go faster than the snowmobile?”

Allie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“But they would not need to drink gasoline all the time. Do we have far to go?” It seemed to him they’d always been stopping to quench the snowmobile’s incessant thirst for gasoline.

A pained looked crossed her face. “That’s true, but I don’t know a thing about dogs, I’m sorry.”

“We should think about it.” Kell touched her cheek. “Don’t look so worried, please.” She had tried to fill him in about the world today as they’d walked, and what he would see and hear, and what to expect. He still felt as if he dreamed sometimes. Mostly though, he thanked the gods for Allie, and prayed that they would never be parted. But where could they stay? Would they be safe here?

As if divining his feelings she took his hand and squeezed it. “This village will be one of the first places they check. We can only stay a little while.”

Kell nodded. The man in the furs and the dog sleigh took them to a village, and once again he felt the strangeness of time unnerve him. The houses were made of planks and stood for the most part on stilts. Nothing strange there, but the roofs were made of something he had never seen, and the wooden houses all had such straight walls and clean angles--as if they had been made by Romans.

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