Chapter 18: Fish And Drift Are Almost Viktorious
Viktor had won. “People of the Cold,” he said. “Make me your king and I shall bring great wealth to your town. You shall have riches beyond your dreams.”
With a wave of his hand he pointed at the tsunami which rose like a ghost from its grave. “But refuse and I will unleash her power upon you all.”
The scattering crowd pushed and shoved in confusion, some trying to reach Viktor and others trying their best to escape.
The tsunami’s shadow stretched across the town and still she rose. It stretched over the tundra to where Fish and Drift stood with their mouths agog. Even Ava looked surprised as Sue’s shadow enveloped her. Only Viktor seemed unmoved by the change in fortunes. He released Anna and put his fingers in his ears.
“I hear the cries of my boys.
I hear the wail of the sea.
Now who will stay and grieve with me?”
The tsunami didn’t speak, she sang. She sang a slow, and sonorous song in tones like the ebb and flow of the tide at night. Her voice curled through the air like smoke from a dead candle. Fish found herself unable to move and Drift sank into the snow. Anna gazed across the space to her daughter and held out her arms. The people of the town slowed to a stop and waited for the song to continue.
Higher and higher, the tsunami stood and lifted the shroud of the ocean about her shoulders.
“I’m the fury of the waves
and the rage of the deep,
who here made my children weep?”
“Oh shimmering lady,” Viktor shouted. “Oh righteous mother. These are the people who have hurt your family.” He nodded at Fish, Drift and Ava, keeping his fingers in his ears and shutting out the song.
“I shall not be still,
I shall not be calm,
only revenge can repay this harm.”
Viktor raised his voice again. “Avenge them,” he screamed. “Cleanse the land. I will be king and build new towns in their memory.”
The tsunami slowly began to twist like a cobra about to strike. The sea’s foam stretched like scales across her body and her song became a single note of dread. The change broke the spell and movement returned to everyone on land. Anna kicked out at Viktor and sent him sprawling face-first into the snow. Then Fish, finding strength flooding into her limbs, left Drift and ran to Anna who was already making her way towards her.
Ava stood on her hind legs, a powerful sight at any other time but now easily dwarfed by the magnificent, fluid form of the tsunami. “THEY BE BAD UNS, ME LOVE. YOU DID YER BEST AND I SHOULDA DONE MORE BUT THEY BE BAD UNS. TIME THEY LEARNED. LEAVE EM BE.”
But rather than calm the coming storm, Ava’s words only caused the tsunami’s note of dread to be thinned into a hiss. Ava tried again.
“WE STILL GOT THE OTHER KID. HE’S NOT BAD. LOOK AT HIM AND CALM YERSELF. GO BACK TO SLEEP, ME SWEET.”
Stumbling, Fish reached her mum and found shelter in her arms. Anna lifted the girl on her hip, as she’d done when Fish had been smaller. “Come on, little minnow,” she said. “We have to get to safety.” And this time Fish didn’t wriggle or protest or run away.
Seeing there was nowhere left to run to, Drift rolled himself up into a ball and sped across the snow, growing as much as he possibly could until he reached his friend and her mum. He formed a wall of solid snow around Fish and Anna but even he knew it would be useless, like opening an umbrella in a hurricane.
It was the tsunami who attacked first. Darting forwards, she smashed against the coastal rocks and broke through the town. Her face was a scream of icy waves and she slowed for nothing.
“OH BLOCK AND BLAST IT, WOMAN,” said Ava. “YOU NEVER BLIMMIN’ LISTEN.” The snow dragon rushed forward, gathering about her the power of the avalanche. Snow and sea collided with equal, blistering force.
For a brief instant, for just that one single moment of impact when Ava and the tsunami met, they were like a tornado carved from ice which might last forever. One wrapped around the other and even the air around them froze.
Moments can be stretched. Experiences can be slowed. But nothing ever really stops. Parents die, children grow and time marches on. As all the people watched, helpless in their smallness, the tsunami and Ava crashed back down to earth. The collision scattered water and ice everywhere. The town buildings splintered and were engulfed. Fish, Anna and Drift vanished from sight, as did Viktor. Only nature could be seen.
And Ava, against all hope, pushed the tsunami back into the sea.
Everything went quiet. It was that 4am quiet after it snows for the first time. It was that moment when nothing dare look, when everything waits for something to happen.
It wasn’t a sound which first broke through the quiet whiteness of the land, but a colour. A small stub of orange pushed through the snow like the first flower of spring. Drift sat up.
He was followed by Anna and Fish, emerging from the cocoon Drift had made. And then, one by one, the people of the town shook themselves off and stood to look around. There was nothing to see except wreckage. There was no Ava. There was no tsunami. They might have cheered but though the danger may have passed, with it had gone their homes and everything they owned.
“Well,” Drift said at last. “That could have been worse.”
“The snowman!” A yell echoed through the newly laid hills. “It was the snowman!”
Anna stood and waved her hands. “Yes,” she said. “But not this one.”
“He’s the only snowman around here,” came the reply. And this was joined by calls to “Get the snowman!”
“I’m innocent!” Drift said. “It’s a crime I didn’t commit.”
Nobody listened. “The snowman. The snowman.” They shouted, approaching with any shovels and pickaxes they could salvage from the snowy depths. “Get the snowman!”
“Oh heck,” said Drift. “What do we do now?”
Anna and Fish looked at one another.
“RUN!”
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Illustration © Carl Pugh