Chapter 12: Drift Sees Wonders

For the first time in a long while, Drift didn’t run. Block had said he was near water. That was bad. The last time he’d gone near water he had almost lost himself entirely. He didn’t want to fall into the water. But nor could he stay where he was. The Colder Brothers were breathing down his neck. Was Block telling the truth?

So he hesitated. It was just for a moment, but it’s always the moments which make the difference.

That delay, that hesitation, changed everything. It gave Blast sufficient time to get close enough to the fleeing snowman. He swept his massive tail through the snow and sent Drift spinning. Fortunately Drift’s instincts kicked in. He formed himself into a snowball, his body hardening almost to ice. Unfortunately he couldn’t do this whilst keeping hold of Anna. She tumbled away into the soft pillow of snow.

The snowman tried to reach for her again, but he had no way of knowing where she was. Anna lay motionless, all the wind knocked out of her whilst Drift rolled out of reach.

It appeared, for a second, that Block had been lying. But then Drift felt the warm splash of water sink into his body. He didn’t dare extend arms and legs to try and swim back to the edge and so let the current take him, carrying him bobbing along downstream like a beach ball.

“Flm flurglecent,” he said. A phrase which, if heard underwater, would sound something like “I’m innocent.”

Just as it had once before, the water threaded through him like a virus. The further downstream he floated, the warmer the water became and Drift felt himself shrinking. He tried to think cold thoughts but all that came were images of Fish as she sailed away on the ice. He’d dragged her into trouble by only thinking of himself. He might not be guilty of killing her father but he was guilty of many other things.

The air around him grew more mild as currents warmed by the water rose. The wind died down and the snowstorm eased. He floated in towards the sides of mountain which opened like a mouth, shielding him from the weather. As he drifted, he began to lose weight more quickly. “Ouch,” he said. “Hot. Hot. Hot.” He felt a blast of hot water jet through him and he pushed two legs out and attempted a jump. Surprisingly, his feet connected with solid ground and he sprang into the air. Flailing, the snowman landed with a splash. He tried jumping again. It worked, and this time when he came down he did so onto something solid.

Drift made an arm and hand grow out of his thin body and used it to feel about. The ground was firm – cold but rock, not ice or snow. Then he patted his face and body. The cold had slowed the rate at which he was melting but there was a lot less to him than there had been. Panting with the effort, he grew a second arm and hand and began to crawl across the rocky floor. As he moved, his body shaking, he heard a clink as one hand knocked against a hard, loose stone. His fingers lifted it and he held in his grip. It was the perfect size.

Popping the object into his head he blinked twice and looked around. It worked. He could see. One eye was better than none, but two was even better. He scanned the floor for another of the stones and found one. This time he could see the stone. It was small, semi-transparent and unlike any rock he’d seen before. He twisted it into his head and smiled.

Standing more steadily now, Drift looked around. He was in an enormous cave, the Cave of Wonders. It had to be. Block had mentioned it and this fitted the name perfectly. To one side, the river he’d floated along bubbled and jumped and disappeared through a crack somewhere at the back of the cave. The water sounded like angels gargling toothpaste in the morning and a clear, blue light danced about the walls. With his two new eyes, Drift gazed from wonder to wonder.

Great fistfuls of the pretty rocks lay everywhere. Drift pondered whether or not to add a third eye, but he decided against it. That would be greedy. Stones of all sizes, from tiny ones like salt to large ones like fists of glass, were embedded in the ground and ceiling. They gave the entire space a beautiful and majestic aura as they gathered light and refracted it upon every surface. It was the kind of sight you wanted to share with someone. Someone like Fish. He hoped she would forgive him for letting her float to certain death on the ice. Friendships often had these sticking points though, or so he’d heard.

Open mouthed he surveyed the cave and suddenly felt dizzy. All that Wonder, he thought. It must be getting to me. Or perhaps it was just too warm. He looked down and shouted. Drift was now less than half the size he’d been before he’d been thrown into the water. And that was at least a quarter of the size he’d been before he tried fishing. Which was a fifth larger than the size he’d been before he had kidnapped Fish. That, in turn, was at least seven eighths larger than before he’d rescued Fish from the crevice in the ice. He did the maths in his head. The answer was clear: it added up to trouble.

Sweating, the snowman moved as far away from the water as he could. He didn’t want to go back the way he’d come. There was no way he’d survive another swim. Besides, Block and Blast would probably be waiting. He moved deeper into the cave and raised his head, sniffing at the air with his broken nose.

His nose twitched. There. A thin jet of cold wafted towards him. He sniffed it with joy and followed. It wasn’t cold enough to stop him melting, but it would do for now. His feet left puddles in the rocks as he walked. He didn’t have long.

The air stream became colder and stronger. Nose still in the air, Drift rushed towards its source. Ahead of him he saw a crack, no wider than a fist. A freezing blast of wind whistled through, hitting him full in the face and rattling his teeth and eyes.

He was barely solid by the time he reached the crack and had to slop forward the last few paces. With a last gasp he managed to squeeze himself through the hole and pour himself into the snow on the other side.

Snow fell like manna from a cold heaven. Lovely, thick, cold snow. He groaned and fell back into it, spreadeagled in the joy of it and staring up at the sky.

If Block and Blast found him now there would be nothing he could do about it. He felt his body go numb and he stared up at the sky with its thousands of soft, white stars falling onto him. Soft, white stars and one dark shape.

He focussed his strange eyes on the shape. It couldn’t be…

“Wasn’t… me,” Drift managed to say. “Two… other… snowmen. Block… Blast.” And then he passed out.

“I know,” Fish said, staring down at him. “And I’m thinking someone really needs to deal with the snowmen problem around here.”

---

If you enjoyed this and would like to support my work then please…

Illustration © Carl Pugh