Chapter 10: Drift Makes A Decision
“Where is she? Where’s my daughter? Where’s Fish? Tell me, monster. TELL ME.”
Anna and Viktor stood before him and Drift shook with fear. A series of tiny avalanches cascaded through his body. The last time they’d met, Fish’s mum had managed to scare him with just a stare. This time, as she leaned over and faced him nose-to-nose, she was terrifying.
“Hello,” he said, making his body thinner and extending a hand. “I think we might have got off on the wrong foot,” he explained.
Drift managed to sit up, sliding out from under Block’s immobile paw. “It wasn’t me, you see,” he said. “It was those two.” He waved an arm towards the two hefty snowmen.
Despite her anger, Anna glanced up. She saw Block and Blast. She looked right at them. She saw their huge bodies squatting motionless in the snow. She even saw the bony ridge of trees running down their spines. If this had been, in any way, an ordinary world where killers were human and not walking talking snowmen then perhaps she might have believed Drift. But it wasn’t, she didn’t and all Anna saw were two ordinary hills covered in snow and trees.
“You said he was mad, Viktor” she said, not once dropping eye contact with Drift. “But I think only a killer, a cold-hearted killer, could take Fish’s dad away from us. And then my daughter. Where is she?”
“I’m innocent,” Drift said. “They…“ Once again he pointed at the hills. “…are working with him.” This time he pointed at Viktor. The sour-faced man stood just behind Anna and smiled at the snowman prisoner. Anna turned back to Drift.
“Where is she?” she asked for the second time.
“Anna, leave him.” Viktor stepped forward and took her by the arm. “He looks weak. He won’t get away again. Take the sled and go to the town. I’ll keep watch here.”
Drift dropped his tired, water-ravaged body into the soft snow. His chest stopped heaving as hard and his shoulders sagged.
“Pathetic,” Viktor said.
Looking defeated, Drift spread himself out, like a deflated balloon. As he did so, his body began to absorb the snow around him. Strength seeped into him as he listened and tried to come up with a plan.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said, trying to make himself heard above the wailing wind. The snow was falling handful by handful. Anna heard him. Her obsidian eyes fixed on him, quiet and steady as she listened the way Fish had listened right before she had told him she believed.
Then Drift ruined everything. Again.
“Well, that’s not entirely true,” said Drift. “I did kidnap your daughter, of course. And I did let her float away on a block of ice. She’s almost certainly dead by now too, because last night was pretty cold and, let’s face it, you people aren’t the best in cold weather. But I really didn’t…”
Anna leapt at him. All the rage she had felt in losing her husband and then her daughter filled her with strength. Nothing could stop her from reaching Drift. Viktor jumped to one side as mother and snowman connected in an explosion of snow and anger.
Clouds of snow sprayed into the air as Anna landed punch after punch. The pair rolled over and over with Drift shapeshifting as best he could to absorb the punches. They twisted and turned, and as they did they rolled out of reach of Block and Blast. Viktor hesitated, watching the two wrestlers with interest and waiting to see who would win.
“Sorry…” Drift said. Letting instinct guide him where his eyes could not, the snowman dodged one of Anna’s fists. “…about…” He dodged another. “…ow…” He didn’t dodge that one. “…ouch…” Or that one. “…but I think…” He ducked. “…we are best…” Another duck, this one a real one flying South for the winter, distracted Anna with a loud QUACK. “…getting out of here.”
Drift hugged Anna tightly and did that thing snowmen, even blind snowmen, do so well – he snowballed.
He rolled and he tumbled and with every turn, he grew. Anna’s arms became locked in ice and her struggles gave way to shouts over her ragged breath. “Viktor,” she called. “Viktor.”
“Look,” Drift tried his best to explain. “You’re making me out to be the bad guy here but I’m really not. Wait until we find Fish. She’ll explain. If she’s alive.”
Viktor lunged forward, and then stopped and stepped back. Drift was bigger now. The snow had given him new strength and his legs were taking shape. Viktor couldn’t chase after them. He couldn’t risk losing Anna. There was no way to prevent her from learning the truth now, but perhaps there was a way to prevent her from telling anybody else.
“Block. Blast.” He shouted above the wailing wind and pointed at the snowball with legs which was making its way towards a long, winding crack in the ice. “Er… block and blast them.”
The two hills roared into action. Each of them had four, powerful legs and a barrel-like body. Their necks were barely visible under the bulk of head which jutted out like an overweight pig. The trees along their spines shook as they began to pound the ground to cover the distance between them and the escaping snowman.
“Block ‘em, Block,” Blast said. He slammed two large and heavy paws into the ground, sending a shockwave of snow exploding everywhere. The force propelled Drift away even faster.
“It’s the end of the road for you, little snowman,” Block said. He too struck the snow with enormous force and a great wall of ice shot upwards in a tidal wave of white. This too impacted upon Drift and shoved him further and faster out of reach. Block thrust his mighty head through the wall, sending it tumbling down. “You can’t escape us,” he bellowed.
Using the noise to guide him, Drift ended his roll by jamming his legs down and breaking into a run. Still holding onto Anna, he stretched his legs as much as he dared and, in six or seven long strides, managed to put a little more distance between himself and his pursuers. A curtain of warm air wrapped itself around him and he skidded to a halt. Anna, her head and body appearing as Drift’s body became less like a snowball, gripped him as he teetered on the edge of the ice. He sniffed and sent out a toe to test the space in front of him. Ahead lay a snaking river of warm water.
Behind him he heard Viktor clapping. It was a slow and steady clap, like a battle drum. “Almost, snowman. Almost. Anna, I can see I will have to insist you sign the papers now. This can all still end happily if you come willingly.”
The Colder Brothers skidded to a halt.
“There’s nowhere to go,
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Illustration © Carl Pugh