What: Determined people 1 Ice: 0
When: 2/11/10



Trundlebug Glacier
The glacier proper does not appear for quite a few metres beyond the end of the trail, which places one at the lowest point in a deep valley, turning at that point from the greyish rock of the trail to a dirty white and then finally to a purer, brighter white with the tightly compacted snow and ice of the glacier proper. Off in the distance of that glacier, deep crevasses, resembling slashes into the ice, offer dangerous travel for anyone foolish enough to attempt to cross.
While the trail ends as it meets the ice flow, vaguely resembling a dirty stream trapped in time mid-flow, a sturdy bridge has been placed across from the end of the rocky trail to a hole in the ice that covers the valley walls. On closer examination, the hole is in fact an entrance to a hollowed out section of the glacier itself, forming a cave.
The air is filled with the sound of the ice crackling and shifting as the glacier continues its slow but inexorable movement all around.
A fairly tall handpainted sign is posted for all to see, the name: Trundlebug Glacier. Underneath it, in small but no less carefully written letters, are the words 'Cross at your own peril' and the signature of Miner Journeywoman Iisana. A small sketch of a trundlebug has been added to the sign, by the looks of it by a child.
Perched upon a rocky outcropping is a green firelizard.
Obvious exits:
Meadows Ice Cave

Eilem walks in from the Lower Alpine Meadows.

Little hard hooves navigate a path that's soon to terminate into a glacier's beginning. On his back is a small figure that, given the attire, may be either male or female. There's a queen firelizard leading the ground-bound team with vigorous swoops and deep dives. She isn'y inhibited by the dropping temperatures whatsoever. Summer is behind them though Rukbat still hangs strong in a cloud-clotted sky. The figure avidly looks around for signs she expects to see.

Eilem sits crosslegged on the cold ground, his small shape bundled in a heavy white coat, with the fur-fringed hood pulled up over his head. From a distance, the grays and whites of the coat would be nearly invisible against the washed-out, snow-frosted ground around him. As the traveling figure draws closer, though, she'd spot two piercing green eyes peek out from under the hood, and the mouth below them curl up into a grin. The boy lets out a breath an takes a moment to watch it mist in the air, then groans and levers himself to his feet, raising a gloved hand to wave at the newcomer.

The mountain pony is a thing of pale scruffy hair, wintercoat actively shedding. He's easily reined and the figure dismounts nimbly on the side furthest from the seated individual. Erarei gathers the thin reins in a gloved fist and tugs the small beast into following. "I carry two knives and am trained in guard techniques." AKA how do you do. The young woman pushes back a shearling mantle and looks around Eilem. "Did you get left here?"

Eilem's shoulders shake beneath his coat as he chuckles, and he reaches his hands up to push back his hood. "Nah. On m' way up, stopped t'ponder a route." He blinks and gives a quick shake of his head to settle his rather badly mussed hair down, and leans forwards to peer at the other curiously. "Wait, I've seen you before. You've stopped by Chadey once 'r twice."

"Ponder a route? North there is only ice, south you'll find better terrain." Erarei's straightforward contralto sounds like a local strain with sharper contrasts in its frequency. "Yes," her face softens at the young man, "I do know your face if not your name. Chadey, are you a scout then? I did not think I passed their tracks. I'd be eager to though." The runner tosses his head, harness jingling.

"Nah, they're ways south already. I'm up here'n an errand." The young man points a gloved hand up the glacier, the movement rattling the climbing spiked tied to his belt. "Boss deals'n herbs, needs some that grow up here. There's a fellow'n Nabol who'l pay a premium on 'em, but they're a ... bit inconvenient to get to." A little sigh escapes his lips, coalescing into a little white puff of moisture before dissolving in the wind. Eilem half turns back and shoots the woman a sidelong grin. "I'm Eilem, by the way."

Erarei chases Eilem's gaze to the glacier behind them humped like a lounging beast. The sunlight cast off the accumulation of ice makes her eyes smart. She quickly looks away and forcibly blinks. "Ernsa?" A rare alpine plant is named that fits the requirement of expensive. "I've seen only the basic green type but I am told it comes in yellower shades as well." An item is pulled from a saddlebag, some arrangement of tethers and teeth-like pegs. "Well met Eilem, call me Rei."

Eilem says, "Charm'd. And yeah, that's th' one. Told t'keep a look out for yellows." Eilem pauses for a few breaths, shivering as the cold wind grazes over his cheeks and ruffles his hair with icy fingers. After the moment he speaks up again, his eyes watching the woman curiously. "And what're *you* up here for?""

Erarei flops the cloak's hood back over a nest of curls, also tugging on a draw string to further limit her face's exposure. She hasn't any desire to turn the runnerbeast loose so arrangements are made to fix him around a peg driven into the cold ground. Tethers are fitted over and under her boots where pegs will bite into the ice. "Why, being your partner of course." A sudden smile is a bit wolfish. "I suggest climbing around that bump or going maybe that way," her hand assumes an array of angles in demonstration.

Eilem snorts and pulls his own hood back up, opening his mouth to speak but pausing and closing his eyes as a shiver runs up his spine. After a brief moment the wave of cold passes and he frowns, the comedic timing of whatever bit of rapier wit he had planned thrown all askew. Instead of a rib-achinly hilarious riposte, he just nods with a grateful smile and clambers up the indicated obstacle, crouching atop it and peering down at his newfound companion as he waits for her to finish her preparations and catch up.

Feet now bristling with spikes Erarei throws a pouch with a strap long enough to diagonally traverse her torso. "So Eilem of the Chadey caravan," she tries to catch up in a hurry, legs gouging the crust of snow and ice with firm stomps, "what exactly does your position entail?" A last look in back discovers the runnerbeast in place and secure. "Much time has gone by since I was last this far up."

"'m basically Akadriel's errand boy. Run messages, run goods, tend th'bar when there's gaps in the shifts..." He leans forward and extends a gloved hand, offering to help pull Erarei up the last few feet to his position. "Got no real skills b'sides being light in the feet and havin' a smile people like. But there's a lot of call for both."

Erarei hasn't the well-padded mits she would've liked but these will be nice and pliable until they freeze. "Lot of call indeed." Though eschewing Eilem's hand she tucks her bottom lip in and tries smiling like that. "And how do you expect to get these plants, provided we find some, to Akadriel if he's not around? Did you stash a runner in your pants?" This wind-blown patch of glacier is quite porous, heels sink in quickly.

Eilem says, "No, I'm...just happy t' see you?" He sighs and shakes his head apologetically, hooking his thumbs in his belt and looking back up the glacier. "There's a rider who owes us some work, e'll pick me up. Can't take me up the glacier, though, 'parently dragons and winds like these don't get along." He shrugs his shoulders and continues on, keeping pace with his fellow traveler and watching her out of the corner of his hood while he talks."

Erarei's hushed laugh and tuck at the waist means there's less energy put forth into moving forward. The drawstring is tightened further around the healer's face and cloth wound about her neck is forced nearly to her nose. The slope levels out enough for Rei to straighten and achieve some type of perspective. "This is where a firelizard comes in handy. Head left, I think Alsu sees what we're looking for. Shards, it is colder than the Weyrleader's arse out here, jeh?" Erarei works her fingers to and fro to snap them into shape and warmth. "Where's the caravan destined next?"

Eilem chuckles, a sound of mirth that is abruptly cut off when he swears and bows his head against the wind trying to kick stinging flecks of ice into his face. He didn't ask about his partner's own profession, or her extensive knowledge of weyrleaders arses; it would've been polite, but he already knew what she did and it was *cold.* Instead, he starts off in the indicated direction with his arms folded tightly to his chest and his head bowed into his scarf to ward off the wind, but still managed to clamber across the rugged slope with an easy stride and a grace that borders on the obnoxious. The pair continue on for an indeterminate period of time, alternating between hiking and climbing, until the young man pauses for breath and leans back against a wall of ice, panting for breath and frowning out over the view from the glacier side. It's a much more scenic view now, admittedly.

"When I get back to the Weyr," inhaling a sisterhood of suspended ice crystals Erarei coughs repeatedly and still has breath to talk. Or rather complain. "I'm going to sit by the hearth with one, no /two/ cups of klah, have a warm blanket on my lap," she's brisk about keeping up with Eilem, no slouch herself when it comes to spanning inclines. "And someone nice to look at telling me how windburned cheeks are completely attractive. Pfwuh!" She arcs her back when Eilem stops and thrashes her hands through ther air. "If this place could be anymore beautiful I would choke."

Eilem peers out from under his hood, reaching a hand up to - wait, ack. After an eyeful of snow he brushes his ice-caked glove off as well as he can on his side, and *then* reaches up to lift up the hem of his hood, letting him take in the vista without exposing his eyes to the omnipresent wind. "Mmm, yeah." He looks up at Erarei and grins as much as he can with a stiff face. "That's the best plan I've heard anyone make all day."

Erarei compels the embroidered scarf further up to where it buries her face and smothers each word. Talking louder is an agreeable outcome. "If you can tell me frostbite is erotic you're hired." Rei reaches out to tap Eilem into moving on; it's barely a brush to his coat. "Let's round up gads of the plant, factor in fifteen percent more for labor, and call it a day well spent shall we?"

Eilem heaves himself to his feet and continues on, guiding himself with a hand on the wall as they trace upwards. He keeps his eyes forward and down to watch where he's going, and shouts his words back over his shoulder. Even though he's standing right in front of her, his voice sounds faint and far away as the wind does its level best to steal his words. "Honestly? More aroused at the thought of hot klah, at the moment. I think I can pull it off, though, once I'm *warm.* Also: we're almost there, aren't we?"

"There! There!" Erarei's sudden lunge forward has a stumble naturally occuring. A forward lean and fingers flat on the ice steady the apprentice into renewing a snow-hindered jog. An avenue of rock-hosted greenery twenty meters away is cause for due celebration. Alsuroor, formerly out of sight and mind, has already converged on this island of life. "Praise all the hairs on Hamoud's chin!"