Anyu expected to feel the shock of cold as the snow buried them, the unstoppable force of the avalanche as it crushed them beneath its path.

Instead, she felt warm. A comfortable sort of warmth, as if a fire was burning beneath her very skin. She slowly opened her eyes. Ice and snow surrounded them, but it did not move forward to crush them. Instead it formed a sort of cocoon within the ice, protecting and hiding them from within.

Anyu stood up, looking around intently. Enough light filtered down through the ice for her to see. Shesh was lying on his belly, completely knocked out, and both Tavra and Kano had yet to wake up as well, using Shesh's soft fur as a pillow.

Anyu cocked her head to the side, listening. There was no sound, no movement. The avalanche was over, probably had been for a while now. She thought of Sakari and shivered. Hopefully she believed them to be dead. If not... Well, Anyu didn't want to entertain the alternative.

But nothing immediately explained exactly how they had survived, or what had created this small, protective space out of ice and snow specifically for them. Anyu walked up to the wall of the cocoon. It had a strange, shiny quality to it, almost as if...

Curious, Anyu removed one of her gloves and pressed her palm to the ice. It came away soaking wet from the melting wall. Anyu looked from the wall back to her hand again. The heat that she'd felt as she woke up... It didn't seem possible but the only explanation seemed to be that she had done this, somehow melted away any of the ice that would have crushed them.

Anyu walked over to the others and shook Kano's shoulder.

"Kano," She hissed. "Kano, wake up."

After a few seconds his eyes opened, and he slowly stood up taking in their surroundings.

"So we're not dead?"

"No."

"Well, that's good."

Anyu sighed, sitting back down on the icy floor. She didn't even have the energy to scold him. "But we're stuck in here, as far as I can tell," She said, knocking a fist against the solid ice beneath them. "So I suppose we'll be dead soon anyway."

Kano was silent for a moment longer, his eyes moving around their little bubble of ice.

"Not necessarily," He said after he seemed to finish his evaluation. "We can get out the same way we got in- just melt some ice, and we'll get to the surface."

Anyu frowned. "It's not that easy," She protested. Tavra stirred in his sleep, and she lowered her voice. "This- this was unconscious!" She shoved her hand in his face, as if it was some kind of evidence of her incompetence. "I don't know what I'm doing, remember? This inua thing- I don't know how it works!"

Kano waited patiently for her to finish before standing up, and walking to one of the walls. Unsure of what he was doing, Anyu stood up to follow him. He put his hand against it, just as Anyu had, and discovered that the walls were half melted away.

He dried his hand on his tunic, and spoke without looking up. "Do you remember how you weakened the ice on Kesuk lake?" He asked simply.

Anyu nodded.

"That wasn't normal ice- it was Sedna's, her creation. The entire thing was infused with part of her inua." He said. "When I grabbed your hand then, that was me giving you some of my inua, in order to melt it. I didn't think you'd be strong enough to do it on your own."

He lifted his head and fixed Anyu with his gaze. "Sakari's ice is the same as her sister's- it has a part of her inua to it, except hers is even stronger." He raised a brow. "This time, I didn't give you any extra power, Anyu- you did this by yourself."

They both glanced back at the sound of both Tavra and Shesh stirring. Tavra stretched as if waking up from a long name, his yellow eyes opening blearily.

"What'd I miss?" He yawned. He yawned and tried to lean back on Shesh again, but the reindeer was done acting as pillow. He indignantly stood up on his hooves, letting Tavra fall unceremoniously onto the ice with a sound of protest.

The little commotion seemed to wake him up at least. He finally looked around at their situation, his eyes growing wide until they finally landed on Kano and Anyu.

"Whoah," He said. "This is awesome."

"It is not," Anyu said vehemently. She marched over to Shesh and began to give him the last bit of feed they had packed away. At least Shesh would always take her side of the argument. Not that he could say anything, but that was beside the point.

"Anyu," Kano sighed. "Can you stop being stubborn for a minute?"

Shooting him a glare, Anyu marched over to the side of the wall and pressed both her hands against it. "There. You see any melting?" She asked, patting her hands on the ice a few times to emphasize her point.

"You know that's not what I meant," He pressed. "You have to focus your mind. If you just..." He seemed to rethink his words and trailed off. "Just meditate on it," He said after a moment.

Anyu looked back at her hands uselessly resting on the ice. Meditate on it... Perhaps that's what she needed, for herself even if not for the sake of escape. It would help her to forget their hopeless situation for a while anyway.

She sat on the ground where she stood, crossing her legs and closing her eyes. She tried to focus, but her mind was abuzz with activity. Instead she gave up and let her mind wander.

Say they did escape this ice bubble somehow- what then? Would they be able to approach Yahal undetected now? What about Sakari? Would she be waiting for them there?

Even if they did reach Yahal, Anyu thought that their chances of success were slim. Denigi had said that her tamga should act as a key to free the summer indwellers from their prison- but surely such an important place would be guarded by more of Siku's minions. How on earth were they supposed to reach the indwellers before they were caught?

Her thoughts slipped wistfully to her home. The scattered yurts and igloos, the cold yet enduring people. No pesky magic or spirits to drag you onto impossible quests with them. And her family, they were there as well. She'd been gone too long now, long enough for them to assume her dead of the cold. Had they held her funeral already, burning a symbolic pyre for her even though there was no body to burn? Had Anik cried? And what about her grandmother? Anyu couldn't recall ever seeing the shaman woman cry before.

She remembered the map that Kano had drawn for her- how the way back home was only a two days' ride north of Yahal. She didn't have to face any more crazy spirits or monsters. She could saddle Shesh with two days' worth of food and sneak away while the others weren't paying attention. Once she returned home, all of this would just become a strange, lucid dream.

But even as Anyu entertained these thoughts, she knew she couldn't follow them through. She couldn't just abandon Kano and Tavra here, leaving them to be captured by Siku. Tavra had already been hurt too much in this conflict. Behind all of his rebellious airs he was still just a frightened child, and Anyu's heart clenched at the thought of him being captured and locked away. And Kano, too. He was good at hiding it, but he was clearly almost out of hope. If they didn't succeed in this mission, Anyu figured he'd simply give up completely.

No, she had to see this through to the end, whatever that end would be.

She tried once more to focus her mind, concentrating on her hands and the warmth in her blood. She felt the warmth course through her, making her straighten up, and without opening her eyes she pressed her hands to the ice.

There was a soft hissing sound, and then a small splash as a sheet of water cascaded down. Anyu opened her eyes, taking in the large hole that she had melted in the wall of ice. It was only a foot or so deep, but if she kept going...

An excited bark sounded from behind her. Tavra, who'd apparently decided he was more comfortable in wolf form, bounded up to her, his tail wagging enthusiastically. Anyu let out a short laugh and petted behind his ears.

Kano walked up behind him with Shesh following not far behind, also appearing happy at her discovery. Anyu was pleased to see that his smile, for once, wasn't smug. Inhaling sharply, Anyu turned back towards the shallow hole in the ice and got to work.

XXX

Thank you so much for being patient with my horrendous updating schedule. Just know that no matter how long it takes, I will absolutely finish Icebound. In fact, the story should be reaching its conclusion fairly soon. Thank you again for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!