Venrel, Hema and Stands-At-The-North-Wall all met up at the stables at the following night. Hema was thankful that it was her turn to go gather ice. The two weeks of being grounded were starting to get to her. Staying in town for long periods of time was normal but usually she’d get to help the underground farmers or catch a breeze and just float through the forest. Being trapped with her siblings and other people all day was a bit much at times.

  There was a rota of those who went to gather ice. Everyone on it was either extremely good at fighting, or running away. Venrel and Hema were the latter. The Sorrow’s certainty didn’t care about ice so if one appeared running, hiding and waiting was generally the best choice. You can’t get hurt if you don’t stand and fight, especially over something like ice. While melting snow was extremely inefficient it was always an option and lives were cherished and finite. Water was not.

  Hema shivered and pulled a thick section of verogant fur over her shoulders. She was sitting in the front corner of a open bare sled. It was pulled by a single large ram which had a thick brown fur coat and a single set of large curled horns that frame either side of it’s head that were prefect for bashing. Around her were axes, pickaxes, steel poles, hooks a good thirty to forty centimetres long. Long coils of thick rope were tied into tidy loops with stacks of wood and dried dung. A thrusting shield for herself with a spear and axe next to it while Venrel had a poleaxe with them. Lastly was a large bag full of snacks and drinks to give them the energy for their job as well as supplies for the fishermen.

  At the front of the sled behind her Venrel was driving it while Stands-At-The-North-Wall looped beside them unhindered by the cold. The dryad didn’t care for town and Stretches-Highest did visit to teach her magic. She got the impression that Stretches-Highest was older than Stands-At-The-North-Wall and more tolerant of them.

  The river they were headed for was frozen for the vast majority of the year. It ran from Herne’s Range of Mountains and the ice caps there down to the ocean. The river was wide, deep and turned into a massive delta. This allowed for large quantities of clean water for all the frozen months. Around it remained the thick purple and black forest, with the occasional red bush that had managed to get free of the endless snow.

  It took them the better part of two hours to reach the river. Owls hooted at them from their hiding places. Hares, foxes and wolves darted through and around the thick banks of snow. They all had white hides it was was difficult to pick them out but Hema found she could always find the foxes. Sometimes she wished she could become a fox and hunt mice with them under the snow.

  The river stretched out for two kilometres wide and Hema shivered just looking at the expanse of barren space. They weren’t however alone. On the bank was a single hut with smoke rising in a thin stream from the chimney. The hut was so covered in snow that it aside from the chimney it looked like just another hill.

  Venrel steered the sled over and Hema quickly got up. Woeful to leave her heavy verogant pelt behind. She helped Venrel remove the goat’s tackle and it marched off to find some bark to nibble much to Stands-At-The-North-Wall’s ire.

  “I am going to keep an eye on it. I will be back when it returns to bed down,” Stands-At-The-North-Wall said.

  “Just let it eat something,” Hema said.

  “I’ll grow it some grass if it keeps it away from the trees,” Stands-At-The-North-Wall said, but didn’t waste anymore time and followed the goat.

  “Prickly that one,” Venrel said as he heaved the tackle together. “Get the door for me?”

  “Of course,” Hema said and walked quickly over the packed down snow. It was tell trod path so fairly smooth, it had a habit of clumping together into hard edges or ice-like sections when it got like this. She heaved the heavy Sorrow bone door open and Venrel darted inside with the tackle.

  The door itself was four sections of what was probably a thigh. That had been cut in half lengthwise then braced together with steel. She stayed by the door as Venrel moved their supplies inside, then darted in after him when he was done.

  The space within was a round dome around a single square masonry heater. The ground was packed dirt covered first in reed mats, then with worn out pelts. They had likely served as clothing at one point but had since been retired to floor covering. There were no beds to speak of, on the far sides had a large pile of pelts and woollen blankets. By the door rested their weapons, a pair of heavy spears and large round shields with axes beside them.

  To the left the wall was covered in hooks and pegs where fishing equipment hung and now their own ice cutting gear. The last side had a small kitchen space, a chest for mushroom flour and a barrel of water. Dried herbs hung above it. Within were two fishermen, both were feline flesh woven unlike Hema though their woven features extend beyond white-black spotted leopard ears. They were completely covered in thick fur both over and undercoat with no garments. Both had a sturdy squat body time of dense muscle well padded with fat. Hema was fairly sure they had been born twins with woven features more akin to her own. Then one time a trading caravan came with a doctor in it and they had asked for their flesh weaving to be extended to fur and claws. It was the chief reason they were in charge of fishing, there was no one better suited to the dangerous task.

  “Hello, Mons and Findus how is the night treating you?” Hema asked.

  Venrel knelt so she could untie the ropes that helped keep a pelt over his wings.

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  Mons was the eldest of the pair and he had warm golden eyes like her. Which was rare but again Hema suspected that he asked the doctor for them. “Well, we caught something like twenty kilos yesterday. Your timing is good we might head back with you if all goes well over the next few days.” His voice was smooth with a almost purring rumble under his words. He stood and helped Hema work through the knots with his much warmer fingers.

  “It would be best to go back together,” Venrel said and sighed in relief as Hema and Mons pulled the petal off his wings. He cautiously stretched them as much as he could within the confided space.

  Mons reached out and stroked through the feathers. He caught a stray bit of down. “Do you think I could tempt you for some of your fluff?” Mons asked.

  “No,” Venrel snapped and pulled his wings back in. “Fitteslikker.”

  Findus helped got up and helped Hema out of her coat. He said, “You look well Hema. Fur’s got some extra poof today.”

  “Thank you,” she said as he hung her coat up on a bit of rafter. While he helped Venrel with the same Hema worked her way through the rest of her layers. Each were in turn hung off the rafter, they steamed slightly as the hot air evaporated what scat sweat had gathered in them.

  Mons gathered a wooden bowl and Hema heard the tink of ice clicking against itself as he gathered water and poured it into a copper pot on the back end of the masonry heater. “Fresh water soon, you both look like you could do with a scrub down,” he said.

  “Thank you,” Hema said. “We brought berries for you and fresh cream.”

  Both feline woven perked up the mention of cream. Hema giggled at their hopeful expressions and said, “Box with white seal.”

  Mons zipped over to the box and sliced into the seal with a claw as Hema sat close to the masonry heater. With larger ones it was safe to sit on them but this was one to small for it.

  Venrel sat behind her and fanned his wings out over the space. It wasn’t much of a stretch but it was the best he could do. Findus helped Mons unpack as Hema and Venrel thawed out.

  He asked, “So how are things back home?”

  “Well, nothing really to report there.” Hema said. “A couple pregnancies due within the month. Corven is probably going to be first but you know how that doe is. She might throw me off and be a month late again.”

  Findus chuckled and scooped out a hand sized bowl worth of wild cowberries. “I’m surprised they let you leave, your mother seems to think you’re needed for births,” he said.

  “Eh, she’s angry with me or was angry with me. I left town without permission or escort and you know how she gets about that,” Hema said.

  Findus winced, he did indeed know. “What posed you to do that?” he asked and set the berries down by Hema.

  “A moment of stupidity,” she mumbled as Mons handed her a bowl of cream and a wooden whisk. She began to whisk the cream furiously, she was best at this particular task out of the lot of them.

  Venrel helped himself to a cowberry. He said, “it was just our turn to cut ice. Besides I think we’d both go stir crazy if we weren’t allowed out at least once a month.”

  “I couldn’t imagine it,” Findus said. “Sure we see Sorrows here and there, even catch a few on the lines and... yeah those are not good days but it’s manageable. Fun at times even. Besides fish are so tasty and to go without any at all would be awful. Here I’ll go get a char, we can have it with the cream and berries.”

  Venrel said, “I’d love a rainbow trout if you have one.”

  “Oh we do! One moment,” Findus said with glee and dived out into the cold.

  Hema shivered as the breeze blew over her skin. She swept her tail over her chest and tucked her arms against her. Thankfully he shut the door quickly and went back to whisking the cream into a nice thick consistency. She licked a small dob off a finger and sighed happily at the thick creamy glory that was the whipped cream. She poured the cowberries in as Findus returned armed with two fish.

  One was about twenty centimetres along with green-white black scales with a long red line down it’s flank. The other was almost a metre long and wide, it had a black-green top with a much paler belly and smaller scales than the rainbow trout.

  “Ooo,” Venrel said with glee and fluttered his wings as Findus handed the frozen small fish over.

  “Enjoy,” Findus said smugly. He plucked a hunting knife off the wall and sat down by them.

  Venrel shifted back to rest against the wall as he chomped down on the frozen fish head first and melted. “Oh gosh, I haven’t had one of these in months,” he mumbled around his full mouth.

  Findus set his knife against the fish and shaved off a thin section from tail to gills and handed it off to Mons. Before doing it again and handing Hema the slice of orange flesh.

  Hema bit down and let it melt on her tongue, it was a fatty sweet fish and like Venrel she tried not sag. Fish was a rarity with how dangerous it was go fishing. The thins of the slice helped it to further melt on her tongue.

  Findus shaved most of the fish down in long curls onto a wooden plate. Then put the rest of the fish back outside. Mons passed some spoons around and they settled in to eat the rich foods. By the time they were finished the ice had melted and Hema happily enjoyed a little bath then helped Venrel with his back and wings.

  Mons asked, “so are you two heading out to start cutting today? Or are going to leave it till after a rest?”

  “Eh, nap first if you don’t mind.” Hema said, “it’s not a task I enjoy at the best of times and Venrel should let his wings rest unconfined for a bit longer.”

  “Not at all, it will be nice to have some more people around.” Findus said.

  Venrel licked his fingers and shifted back toward the pelt pile. He laid down on his front and shifted his wings up and down before letting them fill as much of the space as he could. Hema felt bad for him, his wings were good at keeping warm but far from prefect and he hated having them weighted down under the cloak. He also had been the one to drive while she had a nap.

  “So,” she began as she drew out the word. “When do you head out again?”

  “When the clouds thicken, it warms the air a bit and makes it harder for Sorrow’s to spot us when the moon isn’t out in full,” Findus said.