Solo [Week Long Challenge] Restless

[Isaac Iceglaze]

1st of Winter, 520 AV

Isaac Iceglaze laid on his back, on the ground of his home. He was staring into the night sky, his cerulean eyes reflecting the light of the countless stars. The beauty of the sky never failed to amaze him, even in his formless state. It was one of the rare parts of the world these days that really gave him any sense of feeling awe.

If I could find her amongst the stars, I would, he thought, wistfully. A part of him failed to note exactly who he was talking about. It was just the 'her' that really stuck with him. He let himself close his eyes, not wanting his mind to wander off into places he refused to go. There was no point in attempting sleep in this state. He'd wished for it before, desperately, yearning for the true form of peace that slumber would certainly bring him. He knew, though, that this was not the life he'd chosen. No, he'd chosen to stay here. Like this.

Dead and awake.

He opened his eyes again, glimpsing the trail of a moving star. The corners of his lips curled upwards.

Dear sky, so vastly open and marvellous. You carry the light of our hearts, up there, where none of us can reach you. What a miracle it seems, to me, when any of your light travels across the map of your territory. Can I wish upon the magic you surely must carry? I wish with all my heart tonight that I might catch a trace of that which used to be so natural...

Please grant me a night of sleep.

Suddenly, he went unconscious.

As if the lights went out in his mind, Isaac experienced nothing at all as his vision went dark and his ethereal body vanished into thin air. Many moments passed although there was no one to witness it. Isaac was nowhere. Yet, just as quickly as he'd disappeared, his entrance back into the world was like the snap of a finger that could only belong to the Gods. Eyes flashed open. He screamed.

The sound was nothing like what he expected and it made him scream some more as he shut his eyes with his hands. When he felt his hands on his face, realizing that they were so much smaller than he'd expected, he uncovered his eyes and looked at his hands, continuing to scream as his mind raced to look at everything around him.

"Oh my Gods, help, anyone, please," he said, screaming. He was so frightened by his own voice and the way he spoke that it was almost impossible to concentrate. I need to calm down, he thought, realizing that there was absolutely no one around for miles. There was no way that he could leave this strange body and it was getting colder by the tick. He looked down to his feet... his bare feet, standing in fresh snow. He kept looking and kept coming to the recognition that he needed to get rational as soon as possible.

Especially since he finally realized, after looking down at himself, that he wasn't in his own male form. Nor his Kelvic form. Plus, if the sound of his voice and the size of his hands were real, then he was probably inside of a women's form.

"I'm not me," he said, whispering. The heat from his body was quickly leaving him. He turned to search for any sign of life that might be nearby. "Hello?" He walked forward, then stopped as a freezing cold wind pierced into his chest. Isaac spun around, covering himself with his arms as his teeth began to chatter, letting the wind hit his back instead.

Where am I? He wondered, walking towards a large, unruly cedar tree before him. There was a burlap sack hanging from a branch. He quickly went up to it, then wondered if it was appropriate to take it down. He thought about whether there could be someone nearby, judging from this sign. The winds began to pick up, and it was hard to hear anything outside of the howling in his ears. Isaac figured he'd take the chance and try to ask for help from anyone that he would come across. He took the sack down and untied it, looking inside, and was immediately glad to see a large pelt. Isaac grabbed the wolf head as he shivered, noticing his own long hair tickling his back. He brought a hand up to feel his head, and noticed that his silver hair was tied in one long braid, started from the top of his forehead and going down the middle, the length of it reaching the middle of his back. Or her back, rather, as he started to become strangely more familiar with the body of his form, as cold as it was. In the sack was also a stone dagger, flint and steel, and a metal pot of sorts. He didn't notice the rolled up parchment.

WC = 837

[Isaac Iceglaze]

Can't stay here. Need protection from winds, he thought, his logical nature overtaking his curiosity as looked around. The gnarly tree seemed to be the only one at this level of ground in a sparse landscape of snow covered rocks and mountains. There were no footsteps, and when he looked up, the sky was bright blue, the sun at its high point, which meant that it was probably around midday or so. Standing in the sun and grateful for the meagre warmth of its rays, Isaac paused. He would need to find or create a decent shelter before nightfall. Warmth would need fire. Fire needs wood. Tinder. He looked to the tree and gathered anything dry and broke off branches to fill the burlap sack with what he could. As he shivered again, Isaac decided to walk towards the nearby rock face to find the leeward side where he could work with the pelt while being sheltered from the blowing winds. It was a quick jog in the snow, and he could begin to feel the numbing of his small feet. Isaac prayed to the Gods under his breath, memory beginning to come back to him.

I wished to sleep, didn't I? Isaac shook his head, knowing he could think straight once he was out from the grips of the powerful freezing winds. His stature didn't seem to help, and it was clear that he was no longer a Kelvic. There was no memory of where this body was from. He guessed he wasn't as tall as he was used to, though his current body still felt strong, his stamina steady when he reached the dryer side of the mountain. Isaac was grateful that the distance wasn't far. He wondered though, how long it would be before he began to freeze to death. He was afraid to see how blue he was becoming already.

Once he spotted a place clear enough to make into his area of safety, Isaac sat down in the dry grass and plonked the burlap sack beside him. He tried to pick a rock face with enough cover, though it was barely anything more than a shallow cave, and he figured he would need to make a fire soon, to plan out his next steps. For now, he just wanted to cover his body with some warmth. He pulled out the wolf pelt and went to work with the stone dagger. Tapping into the knowledge of his body, he found that he could use the pelt to make simple clothing and shoes. He cut two circles big enough to cover his feet, sticking the dagger in the ground to steady himself as he cut out thin strips of the hide for laces to tie the makeshift coat, shoes, and loincloth. He used a branch as a fastener, cutting holes into the pelt big enough for his head to fit through, and then for the laces to thread around his feet and heel. Finally, with some form of solace found, he started to build a small fire.

Reaching into the sack, his eyes caught sight of the rolled parchment. A letter? He thought at once, hesitant to open it. He focused himself on the task of creating more warmth before deciding to breech any potential privacy. Slowly but surely, from the pieces of bark, dry grass, and branches he'd tried to gather as quickly as possible, Isaac built a structure that he was sure would not last very long. He would need to find more tinder, but it would be enough warmth to allow him to think things through. Striking the steel and setting the fire alight, Isaac finally took the time he needed to really gather himself and his surroundings.

The winds were no longer a bother. He put his hands over his heart to console himself, and to try to lessen the panic and anxiety that was beginning to creep in. He tried to make a list of what he needed next. Food, he would need food. Water, that should probably come first.

Isaac sighed. Could there be a town or a city nearby and I just can't see it?

Thinking of the existence of people made him suddenly shift into realizing that he had no idea how he got here, nor where 'here' even was. Was this Morwen's doing? It was certainly far more of what Morwen's beloved city used to look like than what he remembered of home as of late.

Was she here?

Isaac blinked twice, then closed his eyes. It was impossible to feel like truly himself, in this form. He searched his mind for a name, a history, or any other memory to help him orient himself better, but nothing came. He was surprised though, to feel much more at ease in this body than he expected, considering the utter shock and fear he started with when he... 'arrived.' He remembered, then, the rolled parchment. Isaac grabbed it and decided to unravel it, hoping it could give him a clue about his environment.

Sure enough, it was a map.

Strange, he thought, beginning to remember made up scavenger hunts that his family was fond of creating for the kids. Some of the images drawn seemed to align with what he had seen. A small 'x' was marked beside a tree, which must have been where he found the bag. The mountainous rock face nearby seemed to circle around for a far bigger distance than he'd initially guessed. Off in the corner of the fairly large piece of parchment was a very large 'X'. The destination, is it? He wondered, hearing his stomach growl. Isaac cursed under his breath, focused now, having a direction to follow. There was no point in sitting and waiting for either trouble or death. He'd refused death before this body, and he was determined to refuse death in this body as well.

If a journey was what it would take, so be it.


WC = 1003

[Isaac Iceglaze]

Day 2

After a cold and brutal night, Isaac managed to gather and tie the burlap sack to his back in order to set off and away from the current site. He'd also managed to harvest some edible fern, pine, and crowberries nearby, boiling some of them for last night's dinner and saving some in his sack for later. The map, however, had outlines for what looked to be perhaps a grazing ground or an animal den in a clearing within a marked tree line before a river of sorts, so he decided to gather his resolve and hunt for meat to eat. Though he knew that his body was at least young enough and strong enough to move around, he was afraid of the whether she had enough reserves of fat to fuel himself. They would need some form of protein sooner than later. He'd begun to feel responsible for her, feeling a sense of both exhaustion and protectiveness while occupying her form. As his mode of transport, she needed careful handling. It was part of the reason he'd fashioned clothes for her, unsure if she would be as comfortable as he would have been being naked as a Kelvic.

As he reflected upon his reasoning, he noticed how peculiar it felt. It was impossible or him to assume that this form was his own. Every fibre of what he knew of 'Isaac' was one hundred percent sure that this body was not his own.

But this was all he had to work with.

It looked like the map might be leading him down the mountainous lands, judging by the location of the big 'X' drawn beside a dark and irregular circle shape on the other side of a body of water. There was no telling how he'd cross that yet. Taking one step at a time, Isaac mapped out his route along the river marking and was willing to get moving. He refused to doubt himself and resolutely framed his course. With no clear sign of how long or how far anything was in this place, and practically no other way to find out more information, Isaac set forth into the frigid wilderness.

It was more than possible that his current body would die out here. The thought had plagued him as he tried to experience what 'sleep' was again. He'd wanted to just fall into it, but the first night in this strange place gave him no dreams, no nightmares, and barely a continuous period of unconsciousness. The sky stayed light the entire night with clouds overhead. He'd managed to find a few stones last night to heat by the fire to warm his body, but the lack of a night sky bothered him immensely, more than the cold at some points in time. It was a more annoying version of what he had been experiencing before he came here. Isaac wondered if perhaps all he needed was a better form of shelter and more warmth, and perhaps the success of a hunt. It was worth a shot.

He followed along on the map as best as he could. There were some words written in a language he couldn't read, but he thought he could see 'Karjin' written in a very formal script of Common. It was too faded to know for sure. As he continued walking in the highlands, the ground uneven and watching his step, doing his best to avoid snow fields that were too large... he wondered if he would ever see home again. Was this a test of the Gods? Did they put him here, to learn something important? It seemed highly impossible that he would be chosen for a mission of any sort, given his circumstances. He wracked his body's brain for anything that could give him a piece of understanding. Being alone with his thoughts used to be perfectly normal before. Now, in this terrain, with a body he wasn't born with and a map of a place he'd never seen before... being alone was beginning to feel like being inside a prison of his own making. He'd even tried to read the script on the back of the map to try to gain more confidence in where he was and where he was going. There wasn't much, but Isaac somehow convinced himself that he'd read the words 'In darkness, there is not just one thing, but many. Search using the reaction of materials listed here. Then, begin with a small flame before increasing the magnitude of ability. Use only for enlightenment. In us, there is mag-'

Isaac guessed the last word was perhaps magnificence or magic. In any case, it was cryptic. He couldn't read the materials list since it was in the unreadable language.

And besides... it didn't seem like it would ever get dark here.

As he continued, he began to see something glimmer in the distance far below. The sun managed to peek through the clouds and its rays were reflecting sparkles of light from what he believed to be the large body of water on the map past the trees. Off to the side, exactly where it was noted on the map, was an oddly shaped dark opening in the face of the rocky mountain. Isaac was relieved to see that the map was indeed correct, and it gave him hope. He set his sights on the opening.

WC = 900

[Isaac Iceglaze]

"Hum, hey, a jolly old play. Up on the icestone, the Vantha way," he sang, softly. He looked up to see more clouds forming, and the winds picking up again. The ground had evened out a bit, and he could no longer see the river. It felt colder now too, with the sun behind the clouds. Isaac begun to fear a potential change in weather, but was grateful that the sparse conditions from earlier were no longer a part of his reality now. Seeing spruce trees were a blessing of their own. He needed to make shelter soon, and was glad to see that he'd walked downhill enough into the clearing on the map. He'd poked drainage holes in his makeshift shoes, but his feet were still numb from walking, and he was scared that if he didn't get himself some meat to eat, he'd get slower and tired. With his stone dagger in hand, he walked up to a tree that looked and felt dry enough before beginning to chop down boughs.

He gathered moss for insulation, and went to light a fire with the dry tinder and grasses. With no forethought of his surroundings, he watched as the flames began to get bigger and bigger, engulfing the area. He ran to collect snow and did his best to put out the out of control fire as quickly as he could, overwhelmed by the possibility that he might set the trees on fire. With enough snow he finally managed to suffocate the fire. It took him some time to focus again as he breathed in and out to slow his heartrate back down to normal. Don't burn it all down before you get to where you're going, he thought to himself, angrily. Isaac went to find rocks nearby to attempt to create somewhat of a fire pit that would contain the size of it.

As he went searching for rocks, he noticed tracks in the snow. Oh no, he thought, trying to remember what animal they would belong to. He couldn't recall. Fear crept in as he stopped to think about whether he should find another place. Tired as he was, he ignored the tracks, but kept his eyes and ears open for any further signs of trouble. These aren't rabbit tracks, they're too big for that. His hands went to scratch under the fur of his pelt, and that's when he realized it. He quickly searched for a paw and compared it to the tracks.

"Wolves," he said, his voice solemn. He crouched down and looked closer, examining the prints. It was hard for him to tell whether they were fresh or not. He tried to guess by comparing to his own footprints in the snowy ground. The edges of the wolf prints weren't as defined as his own. Isaac thought for a moment. Should I follow these? He looked up at the sky, completely unaware of how much time had past, but he could tell that there were more clouds forming. Let's just take a look, he thought, his instincts getting the best of him. He followed the tracks backwards into the trees. It seemed to be a pair of wolves that had exited the area of spruce that we he was now entering. He started to pick up a smell, like blood, which stopped him in his tracks. Isaac squinted, trying to see clearer in the distance. There was a mound of something up ahead, and when he studied the ground further, he could see more tracks.

The wolves had been hunting. A carcass, he thought, walking up to it. He saw antlers on a dead head attached to picked and cleaned bones of a skeleton. Isaac figured he could use the stones he'd collected to break these bones apart, to see if there was any fresh marrow inside. I could boil the bones, he thought, eagerly. Gathering them up, he whispered a prayer.

"Dear Gods, thank you for allowing me to find this creature's remains. May it find the peace it needs most," he said.

He traced back his steps and examined the ground, finding clay and mud that he used to set the stones into a circle. Tired of the silence, he coached himself as went to work.

"We'll make a well under the low tree branches after we build our fire here, and then we'll use these rocks to break open the bones, and we'll cook the marrow, boil the snow water and bones and leftover ferns, and drink a broth. That'll be fine for now," he said, decidedly. He did as he said he would, and the fatty meal was good enough to settle his stomach and regulate his body's ability to handle the cold. The tree well was not much, and the day's events were good considering that his limbs were fine so far and he felt no clear signs of hypothermia just yet.

It was time for sleep.

WC = 836

[Isaac Iceglaze]

Day 3

Isaac had packed the pot back into the sack, and had sharpened his dagger on a stone while he watched the sky. He stayed covered under the tree boughs and amongst the warmth of his furs as signs of a blizzard began to unfold. He spent ages in silence, listening, in fear of being buried alive in the shelter he'd built for themselves. It was agony listening the the winds blow, peering out every once in a while to check and make sure that he'd be able to get out from under the tree. Once again, Isaac was certain he hadn't truly slept that night. Having to focus on the weather had taken up most if not all of his awareness, even in the moments he'd had his eyes closed. There was nothing to do except wait out the storm and hope that the snow cover wouldn't be too much to handle.

The young Kelvic missed his friends and family, and surprisingly just people in general, having gone what he thought were two full days without seeing not a single other soul. His mind flashed back to Simon's laughter, and Rick's tales of adventure. He wondered what his brother was up to, and whether his family missed his presence at all. He wondered, then, if the people he knew had began to think the dreaded.

"They better not think I've moved on," he said, to no one but himself. "It probably looks that way. Shyke, what is this cruelty, Gods? It wasn't enough to kill the masses in order to find her, now you need to torture the dead as well? I swear I will find out what the petch is going on and bring her back. You've caused enough suffering, have you not? Gods," he said, pausing. The thought of someone like him even daring to smite the Gods was so tragically comical that he began to chuckle to himself.

"How naive have I been, huh Gods? How ignorant, how arrogant, how downright insane am I, truly, to think I can help find her? Me, the dead spirit in a foreign body sitting in a tree well on an unknown land trying to get to an 'X' on a map drawn by a stranger. What life am I living, Gods? You know that I could just kill myself with this dagger right here, and end it all. I could decide to just end this game and go onto whatever you hold for me next. But no, I'm not doing that. I can't. I refuse to. You know my mother left me, and I've never found out why. I know I've just needed someone to blame. I can't bear the thought that it was my fault she left. My father never told me anything, he refuses to breech the topic, and has basically told me all my life that 'it was for the best'. He couldn't even tell me whether she died. He kept me believing that she's alive somewhere, happier somewhere else."

Isaac stopped himself, beginning to feel the tears well up in his eyes, and quickly wiped them away. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he found out that Morwen was happier wherever she was now. Her absence caused so much grief and turmoil, not to mention the damaging physical effects in their city. Has she not seen this? Has she refused to care anymore?

None of these thoughts were truly new to him. They were just piling on that much more heavily now, being stuck waiting out a blizzard.

He curled her knees up to her chest and rested her forehead on her kneecaps.

"Petch you, Gods."

WC = 611

[Isaac Iceglaze]

Day 4

The snowfall stopped and it was less cold now, with the sunlight peeking through, scattering shadows and blinding sight in the bright sparkles of the freshly covered ground. Isaac climbed out of the hole. His form ached in the joints, her knees having locked up in the night. He went to make another fire with the remaining dry tinder in his sack to warm himself up before setting up to follow the freezing river downwards through the trees. He was certain he'd heard wolves howling the night before, and even the stomping of hooves. He guessed there must have been a herd nearby, in a clearing further ahead. Isaac was unwilling to kill game just yet, and figured he could catch some fish once he reached the large body of water on the map, which shouldn't be too much further ahead.

He took out the map again to examine it further as he sat with warm rocks on his body, moving them around every once in a while. The remaining few crowberries were all he had left for food. He figured he would last for the journey to the water, but he took a glance at a strange marking he failed to notice on the map before. Isaac squinted, seeing the drawing of a creature he'd mistaken for a drawing of trees before, noticing a well hidden script right below the drawing.

"Baby," he said, reading aloud. Brows furrowed in confusion. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, he thought. The rational part of him figured he should ignore it, and continue on the path he set for himself at the start. However, the image was just too peculiar to ignore. Its location was not far from where he stood. He guessed it would take roughly a bell to get there, seeing how the map was scaled out thus far. He tried to think through the pros and cons. If it was potential food, he could makeshift a wooden spear and attempt to kill the creature. If it was a Kelvic, he could befriend the creature. If it knew the owner of the map, maybe it could tell him more about where he was. It could also turn out to be a waste of time and energy. It could be dangerous.

But would anything labelled as 'baby' be truly a threat?

Isaac was never spontaneous. When he made a plan, he stuck to it. All of his friends and family knew how stubborn he could be, and how determined he was to do everything the 'right' way.

This time, however, Isaac had no clue what the 'right' thing really meant. The whole plan itself was spontaneous and on a whim for Gods' sake. If he survived thus far, he could survive for longer. Besides, it really wasn't that far away.

He popped the last crowberry in his mouth and started to pack up.

The trek was actually a little harder than he'd expected. He'd failed to take into account that it had just snowed the night before, so walking through the cold snow was actually numbing his feet a lot faster than before. It was hard to see which parts of the ground were deep, which parts were densely packed, and which parts were shallow.

But of course, since Isaac decided on the location, he did not want to turn back.

Slowly but surely, he began to think that they must be nearing the goal, He looked around for any sign of life. Searching for a resemblance to the drawing, he scanned the landscape of shrubbery and even rock formations. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something wavering behind a large snow covered mound of stone. Isaac rushed towards it, hearing no sounds, smelling nothing out of the ordinary, wondering what the glimmer of a mirage might possibly be.

Right then, an image came into view.

There, before him, almost five times his size, was a sleeping giant of a creature engulfed in a shimmering, icy shield. The giant was a dark, earthy green, its long haired fur perfectly smoothed down, with two large curved tusks on either side of a long, resting trunk. Its eyes were closed, its thick curly eyelashes like a cloud of black cotton. The sight of it was incredible. Isaac stood, shocked, unable to believe what he was seeing. The encapsulating box-like formation that surrounded the creature continued to shimmer in the sunlight. The creature made no sound, no movement, yet Isaac was absolutely positive that it was alive.

Was he hallucinating? Is this a sign of hypothermia? This entire trip could simply be a nightmare, couldn't it?

Isaac stood still. Quietly, he called out.

"Hi... baby?"

An eyelid opened. They made eye contact.

He immediately knew that he didn't belong here.

Isaac turned and bolted in the direction he came from. He kept running, not turning back to look, immediately overcome with a sensation he was entirely unfamiliar with, from head to toe. He somehow felt lighter, his vision got blurry, his mind simultaneously raced and slowed down.

Good morning, mother.

"Oh no," he said, whispering, trying to run as fast as he could. He tried to sing a song in his mind to block out any thoughts, and it was working, but then he decided to just repeat a nonsensical phrase in his mind, like the sound of a loud horn, as he kept running towards where he was initially planning to go, which was to follow the river out to the large body of water. When he got far enough and knew that he could hear nothing behind him, he slowed down.

Isaac was relieved to be feeling normal again. He tried to forget what he saw and focused on the path ahead, on following the course of the river, and setting up the next base of shelter where he could figure out how to cross over to the 'X' on the map.

He resolved to pretend that he never saw what he saw nor heard what he heard. At least until he could talk to someone who resembled a human.

WC = 1020

Continued here...