Lyssie was only able to register bits as she slowly woke up. She felt cold and wet. Somebody picked her up. Then voices.

"Move over, Riley."

A muffled response. Being laid out across a seat. Her eyelids fluttered after a few minutes. She groaned.

"Where… am I?" Lyssie asked groggily.

"A little bit north of the Arctic circle." A male voice from the front replied

"WHAT?" Lyssie sat up, suddenly alert.

"Ow." She turned and saw a man about her age sitting beside her, rubbing his ear.

"You must be Riley."

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"I heard him say your name." She pointed to the driver.

"That's Ben. And that's Ian." Riley pointed at the two men in the front seat.

"I see. Now, just out of curiosity, what are you three doing out here?" Lyssie asked curiously.

"We're looking for a ship." Ben answered.

"Out here?" Lyssie was confused.

"Long story." Ian replied. Suddenly Ben started looking wistfully out at the snow.

"Does he do that a lot?" Lyssie whispered. Riley nodded.

"I was thinking about Hanson and Perry, crossing this kind of terrain with nothing more than dog sleds and on foot. Can you imagine?" Ben asked.

"It's extraordinary." Ian replied softly.

"Fascinating…" Lyssie replied sarcastically. Ben opened his mouth to speak, but Riley's computer beeped before he could.

"Are we getting closer?" Ian asked.

"Assuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model's accurate, we should be getting very close. But don't go by me. I broke a shoelace this morning." Ben and Ian looked at him strangely.

"It's a bad omen." Riley and Lyssie said together.

"Should we turn around and go home?" Ian asked sarcastically.

"Or we could pull over and throw them both out here." Ben grinned. Lyssie glared at him.

"I'm glad you enjoy my company." she said sarcastically.

"Well, I could have left you in that snow drift." Ben reminded her. Riley's computer beeped once again.

"Are we here?" Lyssie asked.

"Yep." Riley shut the laptop and opened the door. "After you."

"Thank you." Lyssie climbed out into the snow. One of the man from the other snowmobile walked over to where Riley and Lyssie stood.

"Look, this is a waste of time. How would a ship wind up way out here?"

"Well, I'm no expert, but it could be that the hydrothermic properties of this region produced hurricane force ice storms that caused the ocean to freeze, then melt, then refreeze, resulting in a semi-solid migrating land mass that would land a shi pright about here." Riley nodded, and then walked away, leaving Shippen dumbfounded. Lyssie laughed. She patted him on the shoulder sympathetically and followed Riley. Just then Ben shouted.

"I… I found something!"

I hope you liked! Next chapter up soon!