"Edmund….."
When he woke up, he realised that the world above him was veiled by a thin blue wall. There were some bubbles on the wall, and everything else behind it was blurry. The light of the sun could barely pass through despite the wall being as thin as gossamer.
"Edmund…."
He can't get through the ice. No matter how much he smacks his fists on the wall that separates him from the world he wanted to be in. He was trapped. All alone, with only the desperation of getting out as his company.
"Edmund….."
A low and guttural voice was calling his name. He turned his head, and from a distance, he saw a giant. This giant had red skin, and had three heads. The three heads feasted on the bodies of three men with its hideous face contorting in leisure as its sharp teeth sank deep into the flesh. Feasting for eternity.
"Wake up, mate!"
At this, he finally opened his eyes.
He blinked for a while. Then, he mumbled with some drool on his lips. "Henry?"
His first mate, the second-in-command when it comes to manning the ship Arctic Seer, sighed. He was a real dandy looking blond with the shiniest pair of blue orbs in his eyes that Edmund has ever seen. It was comparable to sapphires or perhaps lazuli.
Those eyes were full of worry as he scolds. "I had been trying to pry you out of the hands of Hypnos for a while now. You have been sleeping all the way through noon. And you had been talking in your sleep again."
Henry's brows furrowed in worry. "Are you feeling alright?"
Edmund sat up. "I am, just.... Had a nightmare, is all. Bunch of scary fiends in the mountains."
"Fiends?" Henry sat by the side of his bed.
The first mate pressed the back of his hand on his forehead and his neck to feel his temperature. So no fever. He does not seem to have acquired the cold or the influenza either.
"Bony, grey fiends…. I dreamt of killing them with fire that sprang from my own two hands. So it is not the fiends that I was scared off. And the strangest thing was…. My dear Joan is by my side, doing the same. We have managed to eradicate their lot."
He touched his chest, suddenly feeling out of breath. "Yet all of a sudden, this large beast that wears the skin of a deer, or some sort similar.... Appeared and striked the shite out of us. Sent us flying all the way into the afterlife or some other, I could never recall. I found myself searching and searching for my Joan amidst the blizzard or perhaps purgatory."
"Oh." Henry's lips became a thin line. "You dreamt of Joan. You must miss her a lot."
Edmund chuckled. "Not a minute passes by on this Earth that I do not miss her. Even when she was by my side, I still miss her sorely. I am smitten, you see."
"Smitten men often end up with a malady in the head." Henry poked his temple. "I'd be careful not to obsess on seeing Joan much if I were you. A long journey awaits us, possibly the last journey we'll ever have."
"Hah! You are always the ray of sunshine in the Arctic Seer, aren't you, Henry-berry?" Edmund ruffled his hair.
Henry pushed his hand away. "I'm just being realistic. None had reached the Farthest North, and everyone has been trying for decades, Ed. None had returned alive without being near death or losing more than half of their crew."
"We will make it." Henry promised. "We will be the first, and finally gain some notoriety once the Queen has taken notice of us. No more scraping for some food and equipment, no more relying on that old-man quid you got from your folks."
"You don't like using my money on our expeditions?" Henry frowned.
"I would prefer it if we do not have to." Henry answered seriously as he stood up and put on his clothes. "Though that does not mean I am not the most appreciative of it."
"Edmund, all the money in the world is nothing to me. I may be sceptical, but believe in your abilities as captain. I believe in this expedition too. I am merely reminding you how treacherous it may be. Even more treacherous than usual."
"Well, the icy tundra of treachery awaits us." Edmund put on his overcoat and his hat. "Let us greet it with our chin up and our spirits strong!"
And yet, Edmund could not help but feel a pain in his chest. Like something was wrong.
But as long as he pushes through these doubts, he will persevere, right?
He do realise it was a bad habit of his, denial. But it was through this that he had managed to fare well for himself, or at least as good as one half negro in the 18th century may have.
Edmund went to the deck and took out his spyglass. Eventually, he wore a grin. "Land ho, sailors! We're approaching the Far North soon!"
Henry went by his side, taking the spyglass to check as well. "Are you certain, captain? The fog is still too thick to spot anything, much less land upon this white marsh."
"It is land, don't you see that shape over there? The colour is different."
And the captain was right. Soon, they docked on the snowy beach of what was known as the Far North of the British Isles at that moment. The Arctic regions were still being charted at that time as they try to reach as far as they can.
"Bring in the sleds and the dogs, boys!" Edmund called out to his men. "And our dearest cartographer, please take some notes, will you?"
Henry rolled his eyes, already holding a quill pen and some parchment. "No need to tell me twice, Captain."
They all set out on their journey, with sled dogs as their main mode of transportation and walking at certain times. They have set camp once in a while when the snowstorm was at its worst, and when they have been terribly exhausted and in need of rest.
In the tent, Edmund wrote some letters he planned to send to his dear Joan. It may be almost impossible for them to reach her within a year or so as there were no messengers in the Arctic, but he still took time to express himself to them.
The next morning, they somehow reached this large pillar of ice. The crew of the Arctic Seer was fascinated by such construction. It was an almost perfectly shaped monolith, with a jagged sphere on top.
"Well, well….. Looks like we are not the first ones to reach these parts." Henry approached it, touching to check if it was truly made of solid ice. "I estimate it must be at least 600 inches tall or so."
"666." Edmund said.
Henry raised an eyebrow. "How'd you reach that number?"
"It is written here, at the base." The captain pointed out. "It is impressive how clean the cuts were. Also, we are in the middle of a frozen lake. So that makes this feat even more outstanding."
He then spotted something inside that ice sphere. It was a different colour, something that looked translucent yet greenish in hue at a certain angle, blue, red, yellow or purple.
He thought it looked like a shard of glass.
"Lads…. Give me some rope, will you? I want to get that sphere."
Edmund made a lasso out of the rope, and tossed it with finesse to get that sphere at the top. He yanked it out and it fell to the ground, cracking. He retrieved the shard with a smile.
"Now what do we have here? Some piece of jade, crystal, or—"
"Edmund, look out!"
Henry pointed to the cracks that formed on the ice beneath him. Edmund tried to rush back to the side of his crew...
But it was too late.
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