Disclaimer: me no own nobody but Glacier and Marabelle.
I can't believe I'm on chapter 6 already. Yah to me!
Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to imakeladrygirl because she was the first person to get back to me, but I won't tell you if she's right. They don't appear in this chapter, but they do the next (which I forgot about till I looked at my notes :) sorry!). Till then I'll leave you hanging.
Chapter six: The North Star, Northern Lights, and Hope
She was leaning over the side off the boat heaving up what little she ate for midday as she had been doing for the past two weeks of the four she has been here. Oama was holding her braided hair back and the girl.
The Titans had allowed them to roam the ship after a week of "solitary" (meaning the three humans and the polar bear in one room) confinement, the only time Glacier is allowed is when she is on a leash. Of coarse they had slapped some weird bracelet on Sandry's wrist that she discovered, when trying to contact Tris and Daja, which blocked her magic from her use unless she was given permission by the "captain". Some of the women that were on board, to do the men's cooking and cleaning, had loaned her some gowns and private women things.
A small salty breeze blew across the girl's face. The salt breezes would normally calm down the girl's nerves or, in this case, a queasy stomach, but this time all it did was make it worse. She heard some of the men stop and call her a weird name in the "cold" language as she had started calling it, it sounds like a grating of an ice burg, their wives scolded them and dug elbows into their sides, among other things. A few times Sandry had asked those kind, yet dirty, women what it meant, but they would only look at her sympathetically and shake their heads as if saying 'she will now when the gods deem her ready to know'.
"You feeling better milady?" Oama asked helping her young mistress back onto the boat.
"I believe…" she began to answer when her stomach started to revolt again, sending up what little she had left, she went back into her old spot. She groaned as the waves sucked down her midday, "I've never been seasick before."
Oama looked guiltily out at the swirling gray waters of the sea. The sky was a deeper gray, almost a black, then the ocean meaning it meant to storm today. "We've been here a month." Sandry pushed herself away from the rail and stumbled across the deck and to the hatch (a/n: it is called a hatch isn't it?), nodding like she was half-dead. She wanted to find her cool bed and lie down and take a nap. "I got my monthly last week." The two women came into the room they shared. It was compact, the two beds barely fit in. On the floor by the foot of the beds were two small trunks stuffed full of the clothes that had been lent to them. "You, normally, get yours a day or so before mine."
"So?" the noble asked throwing herself onto the bed by the sleeping Glacier. She sat up and kicked off the boots wearing. "I've always been irregular. You know that." She pulled off the cotton blue gown she was wearing, and with just her breast band and lion cloth, slipped under the sheets, with a little trouble from the bear. "Much better."
"You said yourself you've never been sea sick before. Ever!"
Sandry gave her an amused look, eyes twinkling dully. "It sounds like you think I'm pregnant." Oama nodded. Sandry, barely containing laughter said, "Impossible! Briar…" the laughter died from the girl's eyes at her slight mention of her former lover/ fiancée. The tears that always seemed close these days filled her eyes. "Well, he used Droughtwood which sterilizes a man for days."
"And it isn't possible he forgot about it? Just once?"
Sandry opened her mouth to retort no, that they had always been careful about making babies, but there had been such a time. It had been the day before the Titans had taken her, the day before that girl had appeared Sandry had just gotten over her monthly and Briar's Droughtwood had run out the day or so before and he decided to wait till her monthly was over before taking more of the plant. It would have taken a few hours to go into effect, but neither of them wanted to wait that long. What could happen just this one time? They had asked each other falling into each other's arms and onto Briar's bed.
"Lady Sandry?" Should she tell Oama? She will most likely understand but… it scared her to think to be pregnant with no husband and more importantly no Briar to hold her hand.
They had talked about starting their family as soon as they were married. They had both agreed to have a big family. But planning it was different from the truth she was alone, pregnant, and husbandless. In their plans they were married, in a household of they're own, and not separated by miles of ocean waters and with another girl pregnant with his child.
Oama guessed the truth; she sank down onto the bed besides the young woman as the girl's shoulders began to heave with suppressed sobs. "No one will think the worst of you." The guard whispered as Sandry kept trying to hold back the tears.
"It's all wrong!" the girl shouted collapsing into Oama's lap, tears running freely down her face. "I should be getting ready for my wedding! Briar should be here! With me not… not with that girl!" Oama gently rubbed the girl's back as she cried. Slowly the sobs quieted and the young woman fell into an uneasy sleep full of dreams of whining babies and her fiancée walking down the street holding another faceless woman's hand as they cooed over a baby.
"Oama, Sandrilene! Wake up!" Kwaben the bald black guard shouted running into the room, stopping short at the sight of the two women doing patch up work on clothes and other senseless chores. He rushed up and grabbed one of their arms each. "We must go to the deck."
"Why?" Sandry asked voice frail and wary from her near constant morning sickness. Kwaben, who was rarely around during these episodes, didn't yet know of his young mistress's condition.
"To see the… the what'ca-ma-call-it!" he said pulling the two women to their feet and out of the room.
"The… what?" Oama asked, jerking her arm out of the man's grip and glaring at him.
"I don't remember the name, but I'm sure they'll tell us." He ignored the death glares he was getting from the two women and opened the hatch. The three friends stepped out into the chilly night.
Kwaben dropped his jacket over the shivering Sandry and led the way up to Captain Kiers. Snadry respected his abilities as captain as did her two guards, none of them respected him as a person though. They didn't like them or any of the Titans. Well besides the small amount of children on board. No matter what their parents had done it was hard to blame their innocent faces, especially Sandry who was pregnant with a, no doubt, trickster growing in her own stomach.
"'Ello there." Kiers said as the three of them approached him. "Come to see the rising of the Aquarist Baubles?" they nodded dumbfounded.
Sandry nodded curtly in greeting as did Oama and Kwaben.
"You know that bear you grabbed?" Sandry rolled her eyes, she had not "grabbed" it. "He's ransom for our enemies the Hopians. We only grabbed you because you grabbed him."
"Her." She automatically said without thinking.
"The bear talked to ya?" She didn't say anything. "Amazing. Never thought he would talk to anyone." The captain said thoughtfully. "Yeh be chosen by Ivelane."
Who is Ivelane? Sandry asked herself as the captain turned from her and towards were several grubby mages, both male and female, stood near the port side.
"Rise the Aquarist Baubles!" shouted and soon every man, woman, and child, excluding Sandry and her Guards, were shouting it. The mages mumbled some words in the Cold Language and a great bubble burst from below the ship and surrounded it, not leaving a hole open so that water could get in, Sandry noticed when she touched it with the little magic she was now allowed to use. The bubble was a gray-green and had little slit like things at set intervals on it. "Below we go!" and the ship began to sink down into the ocean. It trembled as it slipped between the sleeping waves, Sandry stumbled and Kwaben caught her, grabbing hold of a strand of rigging, so neither of them went over board. Oama quickly grabbed the sides and held on tight till her knuckles were white, holding herself onto the land of the living. When the trembling stopped, Sandry stumbled over to the side and emptied her stomach of her meager dinner.
"What the hell was that?" she demanded of the captain as soon as she felt semi-herself. She wiped her mouth on the woolen dress she was wearing.
"Our way of getting home faster." Was all he said, staring up at the sky. His lack of interest raised her curiosity, so she too looked up at the sky. She gasped in wander, the bubble was still in place and a good thing to or the weight of the water above them would surely have killed them, but being under water wasn't the biggest shocker. The biggest shocker was what was swimming above. She was looking at a long white underside of a huge undersea creature. "If you get easily sea sick I would go below, we are entering a current." Sandry knew he knew about her. How could he not? Unless he was as oblivious as Kwaben. And yet he still was gentle about her… condition.
Sandry stumbled over to the hatch and opened it, but for a moment she stood there looking at the large black and white creature swim gracefully singing a sad song and Sandry swears it was singing her own sad tale. Right before it disappeared for few a last note reached her ears, "Almond." It seemed to say, as if as a predication of the future. Then it was finally gone from sight and her heart bursting with joy and hope for the future disappeared from sight as well.
"Sandry!" a wet nose pressed itself against her cheek. Sandry pushed the furry beast away from her. "Sandry!" the nose was now in her ear. "We are above again. We can go up now." Sandry opened her tired eyes and glared at her polar bear friend. It had been months since they've been on the deck, Sandry loved the new sights, but hated the rolling sensation the currents gave her stomach. She had now been on this cursed ship for four months, two of which have been under water.
Her stomach had begun to show a little over a week ago and Kwaben finally caught on and was more over protective of her, if that was even possible. Glacier had grown a bit and was almost to the woman's waist. She joked with the bear saying by time the baby was born she could ride on her. For hours later Glacier would prance around ecstatic that soon she would be able to help.
"And Kwaben wants you above." She continued to pester as the girl rolled over onto her side and placed a pillow over her ears. "Wake up!" Glacier started to nudge her back.
"I wanna sleep!" she cried out hitting the bear on the head with her pillow. The door creaked open and Sandry heard light steps. She instantly recognized them as Kwaben's.
"You'll really like this, milady." Kwaben whispered in her ear and before Sandry could do anything scooped her into his arms. She punched him as he tucked the blankets around her, to keep the little warmth in (it had gotten extremely cold above). She tried to punch him again but he had wrapped up her up in a cocoon of blankets. "Glacier, c'mere." And the polar bear happily pranced over. He reached down and grabbed the bear's leash, dipping Sandry dangerously in the process, forcing a scream out of her mouth.
The three of them, Kwaben carrying Sandry and Glacier prancing happily at his feet, stepped out of the room and into the narrow hallway, out of the hatch, and onto the deck. They were back on the surface like Glacier had muttered but it was like nothing she had ever seen, heard of, or imagined. Instead of the normal chill there was a stinging bitter coldness and shining far above them and to the north was a multicolor light show. In the middle of the deck, laying down on a blanket and wrapped up in another one, was Oama, sipping some of the hot fashionable drink called chocolate.
Kwaben gently set her down by Oama and settled onto the pregnant girl's other side, their radiating body warmth and their presence kept the girl warm in the bitter coldness.
"It's the most beautiful thing in the world," Sandry whispered, awed in spite of herself. "What is it?"
"The aurora lights," Troika, one of the men they had first met when they came aboard, said coming to stand by them.
"And you live so near this beauty." Silently adding, and yet the Titans are still so cruel.
The man grunted. "The Hopians are said to live right beneath it." And then he left.
"Aurora…"
Her night-light fell off the little nightstand, really a crate she had placed in here recently, and rolled beneath the bed. The sudden lack of light caused Sandry to wake with a start, barely able to contain her scream. Her baby protested by kicking her under the ribs. After he settled down Sandry tried to bend down and grab her boots only to be kicked harder on her spleen. "You are just like your father!" she scolded him, talking about Briar no longer hurt as it did at the start of her pregnancy.
She was roughly about six months along, she didn't know for sure because it was hard to keep track of days when they were either under water or she was throwing up or staying in bed because of her swollen feet. The baby was active almost all the time now kicking her in various spots and laying on her bladder making her need to go pee. There were times, like when she was musing about Briar, that she didn't mind the baby's kicks, reminding her that her thoughts should be on him. But of course there were times, like now, that she could do without them.
She stood up and the ship gave a lurch sending her crashing onto her butt on the floor, with a shriek of pain.
"Are you ok Sandry?" Glacier muttered sleepily from the top of the bed as she looked down at her.
Sandry glared at the bear and tried to stand, but her stomach was too big. Sandry, laughing, told Glacier, "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
"What's so funny?" the bear asked a little more then confused, but the noble continued to laugh. "I'll go get Oama up." She jumped off of the bed and crawled over to Oama's and using the blankets for ladders Glacier levered herself onto the bed.
"Glacier!" Oama shrieked at the polar bear. Sandry noticed her pause as she noticed the lack of light. "Are you here Sandry?" She giggled to let her know as well as for comical relieve from her predicament. "Where are you?"
Sandry giggled again, "On the floor." Oama put her feet on the floor and stood up.
Sandry heard her get on her hands and knees and began to crawl towards her so has not to accidentally hurt the baby. "Why?"
"I've fallen and I can't get up." She shrieked again, laughing.
"I'm so glad you find this amusing." Another lurch rolled the ship and brought the two women's heads together in a clash. Oama got to her feet a few minutes after she had made sure she and Sandry were ok. "Where is your light?" she asked pulling the noble to her own.
"Under the bed." Sandry giggled. Though it was pitch black and they wouldn't be able to see their own hands if it was waved less then an inch from their faces, but Sandry still felt the glare Oama sent her way. "It fell off when the boat first lurched, that's when I woke up."
"And you just had to get up." She bent down and crawled under the bed.
The noble pouted, saying, "I can't sleep in the dark!"
"You also can't bend down, but you still try to do that." The room flooded with brilliant light as the woman crawled out from under the bed. Sandry wrapped her arms protectively around her bulging belly like all pregnant women seem to do.
"Thank-you." The girl said taking the stone from her guard, flashing Oama her brightest smile, and cradling it like she was her stomach.
The ship lurched again and Sandry fell backwards onto the bed. "What is going on?" Oama started to ask before the door banged open to reveal a disheveled Kwaben.
He came over, pulled Sandry to her feet, and pulled her and Oama close to him. "Sounds like the ship is running into the shore!" Oama and Kwaben protectively wrapped their arms around their pregnant charge. Glacier left the solitude of Oama's bed and crawled over to where they huddled, digging her claws into Kwaben's boots.
Grating sounds started along with the petrified screams of the people outside. The screams begging to be let in where there was a greater chance of survival and the grating begging to rip people apart. Sandry wondered half-coherently if Kwaben had locked the outside door. "Giant piece of wood is blocking it. It would take hours to remove." He whispered about the door when she had asked him. "I tried to help but… if anything happened to you, or your baby, His Grace will kill me… us."
Sandry clung to her light stone and to her three friends, human and animal alike, praying to all the gods, known and unknown to her, for a miracle. She must live to give her baby a chance, to give birth to him, and to raise him. She was all he had and would ever have.
As suddenly as it started the rocking and grating stopped, but the screams of the dying continued. Sandry let go of her guards and sat heavily on her bed, tears running heavily down her face. "Go see if you can open it." She whispered to Kwaben and Oama. Kwaben left instantly but Oama stayed.
Sandry ignored her and buried her face in Glacier's soft fur, who had just wiggled up the bed and lain down by her. She heard Oama rustle around the room when she looked up it was to see the retreating back of a fully clothed Oama. Wearing even the furs, which she hated more then everything.
Sandry cried silently as one by one the screams began to die along with their owners. Sandry knew all of the Titans, from the smallest baby to the sixty-year-old cook, were out there. There had been some sort of party that night and they had been invited to join but Sandry's ankles were swollen and it wasn't good for her baby to be in such freezing temperatures for long and her two guards had said their warm beds beckoned them too much. If we didn't, Sandry shuddered. We would be dying too!
An hour or two later the guards returned to find their charge sitting straight backed on the bed. The screams had stopped an hour before. Her guards' faces were glum and Sandry knew without even asking that they still hadn't gotten the door open.
Sandry looked down at her lap and at Glacier's head stared up at her peacefully, trusting her completely and back up at her guards, they had similar looks on their faces. "I'm getting changed. You two search the ship and find the supplies we'll need to survive and anything that will get that door open." She stood up, sending the polar bear tumbling to the ground much to her delight. "We can't stay here. We will surely die that way. Our only hope is to find the Hopians."
Kwaben came over and slung an arm around the girl and said, smiling brightly, "There's the dog we know and love. For awhile we thought we lost ya."
She glared at her two smiling guards. "I'm only doing it for my baby."
"Whatever the reason is, I'm glad your back. More chance of survival." My magic, the girl thought and realized if she could break the bracelet she could use her magic to keep them warm thanks to Tris's influence.
"Find something to break the bracelet as well, I just hope using my magic won't hurt my baby too much."
Oama snorted. "And all of this won't?" Sandry gave the woman a brilliant smile and shook her head. "Yeah, he's probably too much like his mama." Or his father! Sandry thought as he kicked her in the bladder yet again.
Sandry bent down and picked up her warmest pair of breeches before, while holding them in her hands, she remembered that they no longer fit her, that none of her breeches did. She would have to wear a dress and as it happens her warmest one, a thick burgundy woolen one, lay on the bottom of her trunk. Out of her bulging belly's reach. Great! As if I don't have enough problems.
Sandry looked up and around, Kwaben and Oama were already gone doing what they had been ordered to. Glacier and her were… "Glacier!" she shouted causing the little polar bear, who was tumbling around near Oama's bed, to jump. "Come mere." She beckoned and she bounded over. "Get my woolen gown."
"Which one?" the polar bear asked a little more then confused.
"The thick one." She said pointing at the gown.
"They all look alike!" the bear protested in a whiny voice.
"The burgundy one…" Polar bears couldn't see colors Sandry realized. "Look sweetie. It's the one way at the bottom. You can't miss it." The bear nodded uncertainly and scampered into the trunk, within moments Sandry had her woolen gown. "Good work." She told Glacier and patted her on the head. "Now, I don't suppose you can help into this." Glacier shook her head. Sandry sighed, "I didn't think so."
Sandry pulled her nightgown off and let it drop to the floor. "It's a good thing I kept my breast band on." Trying to glimpse her invisible feet. "And my stockings." Sandry had been having trouble getting in and out of her clothes lately thanks to her growing child.
Thankfully the gown was large enough to fit over her stomach without all that much pulling. To say the least the burgundy didn't flatter her, not that anything did these days, but this one was worse then all others. This dress bulged in places were there shouldn't be bulges like on the shoulders and mid-calf and it showed her swollen ankles and feet more then she would have liked. But it was warm and it would have to do.
She gathered what little things she thought they would need. She piled blankets, coats, her stone, a few books that could help them later including the one from Summersea, and bags that all this could be carried in on her bed.
Oama returned soon after, as the noble tried to tug fur lined boots on, carrying bags of food, some unfinished maps, and more blankets and coats. Kwaben wasn't with her, but Sandry heard, a moment or so later, grunting and hacking sounds telling her he was chopping down the wooden beam.
"I see you got dressed." Oama snickered dropping her load by Sandry's and coming and helping the girl put on her boots. She eyed Sandry's much larger pile and then her much larger belly. "I hope you didn't carry that all at once. It's not…"
"Not good for the baby." Sandry finished for her, getting to her feet. "It's a good thing I brought one or two things onto the bed at a time, then." Oama glared at her and began to put folded up blankets and coats and furs into bags. When she was finished all that was out were three fur coats and her light stone. The first was a bulky black coat, the second a medium sized white one, and the last a small gray one.
"Here!" Oama said, coming over and pulling a small key out of her pants pocket. "This should unlock it." She grabbed Sandry's wrist and pulled it towards her. She unlocked it and dropped it and the bracelet onto the ground.
Oama went over to her bed and picked up the small gray coat and pulled it on. She pulled matching gloves and a hat out of the pockets and put them on. She, then, picked up the white one and handed it to Sandry who slipped it on with a little help from Oama. Then with the black over Oama's arm, and the bags in her hands, the two women and the polar bear left the room and stepped into the disastrous hallway.
The right half of the ship was caved in, freezing water seeped in and out of the cracks. Kwaben was at the end of the hall tearing down the last of the timber.
Oama called out to him and tossed him the fur coat who slipped it on before clearing the last of the wood away so fast that if you blinked you would have missed it. "Ready?" he asked placing his hand on the knob and looking at the women. They nodded and Oama tossed him half the bags. He opened the door into the horror of the outside.
Everyone was dead. All had died of hypothermia. They were all clustered in groups lending body heat to each other, but it hadn't worked. Everyone was dead and couldn't come back. Sandry placed a gloved hand over her mouth and stared at Captain Kiers deformed body, apiece of the mast had broken off and rammed itself through his head. Litters of their party were everywhere, in the dead's hands and all around their feet. It was hard to believe that were they had seen the aurora and where they had heard the black and white creature sing a sad song about almonds was now a sad place of death and destruction.
Someone placed a hand on the girl's arm and pulled her away from the horror and towards the crushed side. She looked up with tear-filled eyes at the person. It was Kwaben, tears running down his face as well.
They hadn't liked them but no one deserved to die frozen in the middle of nowhere, where there was no one can bury them. With no one to pray over there bodies in despair. No, no one deserved to die this way.
"It's not fair." She whispered to him. He patted her arm in silence. Then left her alone with Glacier, gone to comfort Oama.
"Help." A voice on the wind whispered form close by. Snadry looked up and around. There was no one nearby. "I'm so cold." The voice came again as another burst of wind blew across her face. It took Sandry a minute to realize she was hearing it one the wind. But Tris was hundred of miles away so how…? Maybe when they reopened their connection in Namorn? "Help. Please. The wind is so bitter." The wind was coming from the back of her. She turned around and looked around, there was a clump of people not that far from her.
Clicking to Glacier the noble moved towards the pile of bodies, every now and again another burst of the bitter wind blew across her face getting the words stronger with each and every step she took. She was almost to the pile when she realized that the voice belonged to the captain's lover's daughter. Snadry picked up her pace at the thought of the shy little girl she saw holding her mother's hand as the woman did her chores.
It was a big pile, it seemed like every man in the area had come over to save the girl's live and her mother's, Sandry noticed the woman a minute later. I wonder why she wasn't with the captain. Sandry thought glancing back at the dead captain and noticing for the first time he wore a wedding ring. And where is the captain's wife? I never met her. She looked back and forth between the captain and the young mother. What kind of woman would turn her back on such a disgrace? It's kind of hard to miss when everyone knew about it. Never mind, I can't worry about that now. I have to get that girl out!
"Kwaben! Oama!" she called over her shoulder to her embraced guards. They, eventually, lumbered over to her, eyes locking onto the pile of dead bodies. "I believe there is a child, alive, stuck in there." Neither asked her how she knew, but started to pull the frozen bodies away from the center and sure enough there was a shivering child inside. Sandry bent down and offered open arms to the little girl singing lullabies quietly. Slowly the girl crawled out of her spot from in between her mother and a six-foot black man and into Sandry's arm. Sandry stood up with the six-year-old girl in her arms and the four companions left the ship and their old lives behind.
Kwaben hitched the little girl farther onto his hip and looked back at the dragging noble. It was their third day of walking and none but the little girl had gotten any sleep. About an hour ago Sandry had asked him to carry the little girl they found out was called Marabelle. With each passing minute Sandry fell further and further behind. Kwaben worried that if they didn't find the Hopians soon Sandry's body will go into early labor and the baby will be lost. Kwaben shuddered to think what would happen then.
Sandry wrapped her arms further around her stomach and quickened her pace to catch up with her companions; Glacier had stuck by her side faithfully through the hard times, even though she was excited about being so close to her home and family she wouldn't leave the woman who had tried to save her.
Sandry collapsed in pain clutching her stomach moments later. Glacier looked at her curiously, not knowing what was going on. Kwaben and Oama stopped walking and hurried to her side. They knew what was going on. Kwaben's fears were coming true!
Icy's p.o.v.
I raised my head and sniffed the air for the hundredth time in the past three days, I couldn't believe what I was smelling, my daughter. But the Titans had taken her many months ago almost a year ago and that's why her people didn't trade with the Hopians anymore, they blamed them for the lost of one of their young ones. But still I smelt her.
"Mama?" one of my other cubs, Burg, named after his father, asked coming to stand by me at the head of our cave. "What is wrong?"
Inspiration hit me; Burg had a strong nose like his father maybe… maybe if Glacier really was nearby her little Burgee could smell her. "Burgee come her." The little cub came to his mother's side. "Turn your nose into the northern wind. What do you smell?"
The cub's eyes widened in surprise, he turned his black eyes on his mother and whispered, so as not to wake the other cubs, "It's Glacier, Mama and there are humans with her. They're heading our way."
"Burg stay by your siblings I must go speak with the council." The cub nodded his head and retreated further into the cave. I turned my snot towards the wind, took one last sniff of my daughter, and headed towards the council cave.
"Snowlia!" I said, addressing the head councilor as I made my entrance into the cave. At the back sat the four council members my husband Burg among them. They were all laying down on a raised ice platform that allows them all a view of whomever has a complaint or warning.
"Icy what is it?" the wizened old polar bear asked, looking up from her conversation with Hail, a cruel male bear who complained about everything and everyone. My husband looked up at me in shock and started towards me, but Windo, my husband's brother stopped him with a paw to his chest. Things must be followed through according to tradition. Only the elder of the council/of the tribe could address the problems first.
"My son and I both smelled it."
"Smelled what?" she calmly asked of me.
"We both smelled Glacier. She is north of us and… with humans."
"Titans?" Hail growled at me, I shrugged. "Hopians? She-bear you must give us details."
"I don't know. Burg is to young to have met many of either of them." I turned my back on them, Burg, my husband, called out to me demanding where I was going. "To get our cub back." And I bounded out of the council cave and into the swirling snow. Three of the council followed, I heard Windo bark out the distress signal calling all males to help. Other bears bounded out and, with Burg and me in the lead, we exited our tribe and dashed towards the place where our cub was waiting, more then likely with Titans.
Eventually Burg took the lead. His amazing nose, able to pick up any scent within three hundred feet (a/n: I don't know if that's possible so I made it up.), leading us onward. A few times Hail or another male shouted for me to turn back but I needed to see my little Glacier for myself, first. Every moment we stopped for Burg to trace the scent I panted thinking this time he would say he smelt her blood instead of her fur, but he would just bound off again into the growing snowstorm.
Finally we saw shapes not that far from us. There was a human female, pregnant by the looks off her, collapsing in the snow. My daughter Glacier was by her, without a leash, companionably. Three more humans, a male and a female, the male carrying a small human cub, were a foot ahead of them, but seeing or hearing the girl fall they rushed to her side.
Normal P.O.V.
She knew she was in labor but it was way too soon, the baby wouldn't survive in this bitter coldness. She wouldn't make it either. She tried to force herself to stand, but it felt like her stomach was being ripped open, so she stayed where she was. She bit back a scream and forced herself not to push.
"Who are you?" a growling voice asked from above her. Sandry forced herself to look up into the face of Glacier's mother and father. How she knew they were she didn't know. Family resemblance? Maybe from all the time she spent with Glacier?
"Mama? Papa? Is it really you?" the young polar bear whispered stepping up to her parents and then rushing forward and bumping her head against their furry bodies. The two bears nodded in sync, then stared suspiciously at the four humans. Glacier looked back and forth between her parents, with all the male of the tribe behind them, and her friend Sandry and realization dawned on her, they thought they were Titans. "This is Sandry, my bestest, best friend, she tried to save me from the Titans but ended up being caught herself." The bear said, bashfully. "The man and woman are Kwaben and Oama, her guards. The little cub is Marabelle."
Her father sniffed the air above the little girl's head. "She is a Titan."
"So, you'll blame a child for her nation's mistakes." Sandry growled in pain at the grown bear.
The bear looked down at her in shock. He didn't believe she would have the ability to talk now, Ivelane knows his wife didn't when in birth of their cubs. "How do you manage to sound so fierce in such undignified position?" The noble woman scowled at him and bit back another scream of pain.
"Should we move her?" asked an older male bear grumpily.
"It could be dangerous, Hail," Glacier's mother said addressing the older, mateless, bear, which grunted to show he was listening.
"Wouldn't it also be dangerous for her to give birth in the snow, considering she, and her cubs, are human?" Another of the males asked.
"Make up your…" Sandry started to say before being cut off by another wave of labor pains ripping through her petite form. When the pain had subsided Sandry was unconscious, the pain had proven to be too much for her.
She was warm and comfortable in a bed. There was no sunlight where she lay. But there was light, strange light, but light all the same. Thank the gods there was light. But where was she? The last thing she remembered was being in the snow, in labor. In labor! What happened? Was her baby ok?
Sandry sat up in the bed she was in and looked around. She was in a beige room with beige carpeting and beige sheets and comforters. Other then the bed the only furniture was a dresser. But she still did not know where she was. She didn't know where her baby was or what happened to him.
Sandry swung her feet out of the bed and stood up. She was in a simple white nightgown that she hoped another woman had changed her into. She stepped towards the door and just as she reached out for it, it swung open to reveal an older woman with gray hair streaked white wearing a light blue kimono. In her arms she carried two small bundles.
"Ah… I thought you might be up." The woman said in a weary voice. Sandry looked at the stranger with raised eyebrows. "Sit, sit. You must tell me your story."
"Where's my baby?"
The woman chuckled. "What do you think I'm carrying? Both of your babies are healthy. Yes, I said babies, you had twins." She added when the young mother opened her mouth to speak. "Please come take them off a tired old woman." Sandry hurried forward and took her twins out of the woman's arms. "They are beautiful young girls."
"I guess I should be glad they're girls, they'll be much easier to handle, especially considering who their father is." Sandry sank down on her bed, cradling her children to her chest. "What is your name?"
"I forgot to introduce myself? Well, it doesn't matter now; my name is Gwen, Sandrilene. Before you ask Kwaben and Oama, not to mention the Ice Tribe, told me your name." Gwen sat down by the girl on the bed. "They told me you used to live in Emelan." Sandry nodded, still hypnotized by her daughters. "Do you wish to return?"
Sandry stood by and went over to the curtained window. "Where am I? Are you one of the Hopians?"
"Yes, and you're in the city of Hope. Open the window." The girl did as she was told and gasped in surprise. Hope was a large city… underground. There were gardens and pools and everything else a city needed to survive. At the top of houses, along the cavern's walls, on its ceilings there were crystals that shown with light much like her own. Through the ceiling you could see the Aurora lights. All of this was shocking, but what was the most was that through the left wall, facing the ocean you could see those almond song-singing creatures swimming along with littler versions of themselves and, of course polar bears. Near the northern entrance was a port, where a lone ship was unloading with a long tunnel yawning behind it.
"Always has been a beautiful sight." Gwen said coming to stand by her. "The larger creatures are called whales, the smalled penguins." Gwen turned around and mioved back to the bed sitting on it heavily.
"When the Kurchal Empire fell, our people came here by complete accident. Sixty percent of our population is made up of mages. We have every type of mage out there, because we need magic to survive. The Titan's mages are few and in between and all of them know the same type of magic, the one where they raise that bubble of theirs and one to make a medicine that can cure anything." She smiled wickedly at the young mother. "Which our mages can do now thanks to you and your companions."
"What do you mean?"
"You brought back some of the bottles of the medicine, which our plant mages are now, as we speak, working to decipher, and brought back a book that contained the bubble spell.
"Will you stay or will you go?"
Without thinking Sandry said, "I'll stay."
The woman chuckled, "I thought as much. Now… what should these girls' names be?"
Sandry smiled at the woman and looked towards the curtained windows and then down at her daughters, "I know the perfect names. They will be…"
Put your shotguns down you'll know soon enough. Well… more or less.
Review please!