A/N: Hey everyone, so this is my first story on . Previously, I had only read the stories of others, so I finally decided to put something up. The trouble I had with uploading before was due to the fact that anything in 'ready' condition to be posted was original faction. But this story based on the Odyssey is certainly fair game. I guess I'm a little excited. I wrote this for a classics course during my freshman year in college. BTW: I know the story seems a bit rushed, that's due to the fact that we had a four page limit for the paper. ENJOY!
Oh yeah, the Odyssey belongs to Homer...yep.
Oh another note: I'm still waiting on my Beta to review this, but she hasn't yet, but I'm just going to post anyway and edit later.
Eternally Cold: The Queen of Ice, The Lost Nostoi of Odysseus
Takes place between books 10 and 11 of the Odyssey
The cool tactician Odysseus, and his crew, had just left the witch Circe's island with instructions to the underworld. While journeying there, the men fell asleep and woke up some time later, drifting through a thick and eerie fog. When the fog clears, they find themselves upon another island, and not at the border of the River Styx. They benched the ship on the beach and divided into groups. The first group, consisting of ten men, would stay with the fast, black ship and guard it while making repairs. The second group, with ten men as well, led by Eurylochus, would go west and search for food. And Odysseus, with the last ten, would lead the third group, east, to find signs of people or life.
Odysseus and his men strapped swords and other weaponry to themselves and set out to the east of the island. As the group moved deeper and deeper into the heart of the island, and further and further away from the beach, the brown dirt and grassy hills became covered with snow and ice.
"Odysseus!" one of the men alerted him, "The ground.."
Odysseus nodded. "I see it. T'is very strange. Eyes and ears, everyone!" the hunter replied. The men continued on in silence, listening to the sounds of the wild.
Eventually, after hours of walking (for they left the ship at high noon), they came upon a castle made of ice and white brick. It was a grand structure, fitting for the most kingly of kings—fit for the gods, if one dared to say. The face of the castle was like any other, yes, but the ice—the ice made it sparkle in the late evening sun. The levels were so many it seemed to reach out and grab the orange sky. In the windows by the main door, torches lit yellow-red, seemed frozen in time, forever, waiting to dance again. Around the arch of the door, there was a saying in unknown tongue, reading:
"Enter if that be your will,
Stranger, friend, wayward traveler.
But watch your back and step lightly,
For they are on the kill.
Many come from far around,
To rest their weary feet.
And many more are lost and cold,
Awaiting their defeat.
Come in now wondering friend,
We welcome you once more.
Here you'll rest in eternal sleep,
Because you are undone."
Odysseus examined the strange markings around the door. He could not read them, but did recognize a few symbols. He shook his head in frustration.
"Shall we enter?" another man questioned from the back of the group.
"What choice do we have?" came the intelligent Odysseus's reply. At that, the crystallized doors swung open admitting the 'weary' man.
The entrance hall was just as majestic as the castle face. On either side of the hall, statues of men and women looked down upon them with warning glances. White stone and ice, adorned the walls and archways. The path was lit, by frozen red flames. Odysseus's men looked around at one another. Should they continue or turn back? At the end of the hall, a silver door heaved in the wind blowing on the other side. Odysseus stood before the door, and just as he was about to turn back, it open with a great sigh "come".
Despite the protest of one fellow, Eleon (who considered staying where he was, but when everyone else followed Odysseus, he changed his tune), they continued through the double doors down another series of long and frozen paths. The temperature became so cold, all had to wrap cloaks about themselves, to shut out the chill and retain the warmth. There was another door; this time it was glazed blue, which seemed to be screaming death or certain aminous doom. They went through the doors anyway, without a backwards glance.
"Who goes there?" came a low and powerful voice. The doors slammed behind the men. Immediately, four men tried to wrench the doors open, but their strength failed. Odysseus stood out in front of his group, eyes moving from side to side, attempting to put a face to the demand.
With a gush of frosty wind, a white throne appeared before the men. In the seat, a woman of terrible and damning beauty, looked down upon them. She wore a pure white robe that matched her pail face, which seemed frozen in a state of permanent cold. Her dark hair fell down upon her shoulders and back. Her eyes were the lightest blue imaginable, and her lips looked dead in a deep blue hue. A sliver crown with ocean-blue sapphires adorned her head and set contrast to her dark locks and dead looks.
It was then, when the men realized the beauty of the room they had entered. Like all the rooms, it was white brick with ice. Eleon, the young lad, pointed out the strange frozen statues embedded into the walls. They almost looked like frozen people.
"Why are you here?" the voice of inevitable doom spoke. The men turned back to her. They stared unable to form words. Odysseus stepped up.
"We are lost and in need of direction," honest Odysseus replied.
"LOST!" she boomed in all her glorious fury, the wind accented her wrath. "Did you not read the door? When you came, you do not leave." Groans of sorrow went around the group of men, fresh tears sprung into their eyes.
Odysseus, enraged in his own fury, stood taller among his men, "You will let us go!"
"No," she laughed; the noise was hardened by years of ice and sounded like screeches to the men's ears. "I will not, unless it is my will. For that is the power I have."
With a wave of her white hand, the frozen statues dislodged themselves from the walls. The men looked on in horror. "Take them to the guest quarters, tonight will be a feast." Her smile petrified the men. Only Odysseus remained calm. He vowed his revenge before they were ushered from the chamber.
That night, the feast was served in an equally frosty looking chamber. The weird frozen people served Odysseus, his crew, and their Queen dinner. Surprisingly, the food was not odd or frozen, it was real. The men ate quickly in abundance of the meal, forgetting their predicament. Odysseus only lightly sipped the wine. He did not touch the food.
"Why do you not eat?" the Queen asked.
"I will not eat the food of someone who refuses to let us leave or whose name I do not know!" The men quickly put down food and drink, agreeing fully with Odysseus.
She tilted her head oddly at Odysseus. "I am known as the Queen of Ice. You must be Odysseus, great and intelligent hero." She paused, "But if you are so great, then how did I trap you?" she smirked.
Odysseus's blood boiled. He reached for his sword at his hip while rising. "I wouldn't do that, Odysseus. You kill me, and they," she pointed up; and sure enough hundreds of the frozen people looked down at them from the walls and ceilings, behind unblinking eyes, "They'll kill you." Odysseus returned to his seat, defeated, but not entirely undone. He began to plot.
"Eat up boys!" she said, "The food never runs out." As evening waned to night, and night gave way to dawn, the men had their fill and returned to their chambers, full and happy; all except plotting Odysseus. How many days would they be detained here, before they could leave?
The Queen of Ice went to her own chambers, and fell upon her bed with great sorrow. It had been so long before she came in contact with another human. And each time, the Queen, was forced to turn them into one of her frozen people, thus was her curse; to remain in the castle forever and take the life from any passerby.
She cried out in anguish, beating her fists upon the white pillows. Tears streaked her face as she wept for the life she once had and never again would receive.
Odysseus was prowling, having eluded the watchful eyes of the frozen people, around the castle discovering ways to escape, when he heard muffled cries. He stopped to listen.
"Why?" the Queen cried from in her chamber. "Why?"
Odysseus, turning to leave, heart was soften by the woman's cries. She reminded him so much of Penelope, and how she must be suffering even now. He entered into her chambers.
"What do you want?" she scoffed wiping away her tears. "Leave!" He did not. "I said LEAVE!" He did not and instead sat on the edge of her bed.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
The Queen of Ice recounted her fate to Odysseus. It was something about him that made her want to tell her story. Of how she came to the strange island and was forced to rip away the lives of people; about how, she had to pay for her mother's misdeeds and carry the family curse, as dictated by the gods. Of how she was now all alone, when what she really wanted was to return to her homeland, to see her family again, if they were still, indeed, alive.
Odysseus managed not to shed tears of sorrow for the Queen. He knew all to well how cruel the gods could be.
"Then we will help you escape," he said with resolve.
"I cannot," she said, "They will get me."
"Who?" Odysseus asked.
"The creatures of the snow. When ever I step foot outside of the castle walls, they come from the abyss to attack me," she cried. "I can never get away!"
"We will help you,' Odysseus declared.
For the next week, Odysseus and his crew plotted how they would help the Queen escape. He sent a few men outside of the castle to test these snow creatures, and soon enough, they came and devoured two of his men. He then made sure everyone had weapons: bows, arrows, and swords. The men, then devised a way to create small bows of exploding fire that would be thrown at the snow creatures. After they planned everything, it was time to leave.
They stood at the main doors with the Queen of Ice. Odysseus quickly explained the plan to her. She along with two archers would go out on to the grounds, and when the snow creatures came, four men would drop the two nets on the creatures, and the remainder of the men would throw the exploding bowls of fire. When she nodded that she understood, they began the task.
She walked out, on to the grounds, tears of fear and apprehension in her eyes. The archers walked at her sides, arrows cocked and ready. As soon as the Queen got more than eight feet from the door, the snow creatures rose from the snow mounds and raced for the kill.
The Queen of Ice, stopped in dead fear and begun to turn back to the castle's safe haven. "You must not," one archer cried, "We must follow the plan." Regaining her resolve, they continued.
From near the door, Odysseus shouted, "NOW!" The two nets fell upon the four snow creatures, two caught in each net. "FIRE!" Odysseus yelled, and the bowls of exploding fire were thrown on the snow creatures, turning them to water where they fell.
A great cry of triumph resounded around the group as they cheered as one. The Queen ran to Odysseus hugging him firmly. Color begun to return to her face and hands; the cruse had been lifted.
"We must hurry," he said.
Back on the beach, the twenty crewmembers who had been left behind, were sick with grief that Odysseus had died. They were covered in sand and lay on the beach lifelessly gazing at the failing sun.
Odysseus approached them, "Hurry men. Get the ship ready we must leave now, if we want to ever escape." Cries of joy emitted from the weeping men as the kissed King Odysseus on the arms and hands.
Within the hour the ship, with all of its' crew, except for the two dead, and the Queen, sailed away from the cursed island. They were now on their way to the underworld. Odysseus offered to take the Queen home, but she wanted to stay with him.
After days of sailing, the River Styx came into view. And all the crew rejoiced that they were back to the original mission.
Just as they sailed onto the river, a violent gods-influenced storm broke out, rattling the ship, spilling the crewmembers on the decks, and spinning it into circles.
Odysseus screamed orders at all of the men and demanded that they get into secure positions. "Where is the Queen?" someone asked. Odysseus searched the water-drenched decks for her.
"There!" someone shouted, pointing to a figure clinging onto the boat's railing.
Odysseus dived for her, just as the boat rocked; it threw him back against the deck. The men screamed in agony as the form of the Queen was swept away into the violent sea.
"The Queen!" they yelled. Odysseus clung to the railing, pain of loss in his eyes as he watched her hands slip slowly under the dark wine colored waves of the sea.
Thus was the tale of the Queen of Ice.