Chapter Text
Sheba had never seen snow before. During her childhood in Lalivero, travelers and foreign dignitaries had occasionally stayed at Faran’s home and described adventures in the far North and South. But whenever they described snow to her, she always had trouble putting their words to an image that could really exist.
“So, explain this to me one more time?” She lightly tugged on Jenna’s sleeve. They’d both taken to occupying themselves in the crow’s nest, gazing out to sea and making occasional notes on the crudely-drawn map they’d adapted from an outdated one they purchased in Daila. Below, Felix was at the tiller while Piers coached him on avoiding the reefs surrounding the approaching continent of Tundaria. Jenna squinted in thought. Her hands grasped loosely at the air in front of her as though trying to catch the right words.
“It’s like… sand, but it’s wet, and white, and… because it’s wet, you can play with it and build it into things. Like, back home we’d make people out of them and dress them up in old clothes. Felix always ruined mine by giving it a third eye or something when I wasn’t looking, but-”
“Wait, if it’s wet like water, how does it form into shapes?”
“Well, it doesn’t feel wet. Like how ice doesn’t feel wet. Except it gets everywhere. Like sand. So if you spend all day playing in it, once you come inside to get warm, you’re soaking wet because it’s all melted.” Sheba quirked an eyebrow and stared at the quickly-approaching land, fully blanketed in a sheet of white. She guessed she’d know soon enough, Jenna’s wandering, nonsensical descriptions notwithstanding. Jenna jabbed her finger in the direction of a small island near the mainland and leaned over to Felix and Piers below.
“Let’s stop at that island before we go to the continent proper!” Felix, fully focused on avoiding the reefs, didn’t acknowledge her. But Piers waved in recognition and began directing him to a narrow stretch of coastline where they could dock the ship.
To Sheba’s surprise, Jenna’s description of snow had been more or less accurate. It even crunched softly when she stepped into it, the way sand sometimes did. And like sand, it seemed to emanate its temperate so that within minutes of arriving on the island, she started shivering in her thin robe and loose shorts. They were perfectly designed for desert living, which made them poorly suited for travel on frozen tundra.
“You should really learn to dress for the weather if you're planning on a worldwide journey," she heard a deep voice behind her mutter as a thick fur cloak settled heavily on her shoulders. Pulling it tight, she looked over her shoulder to see Felix smiling wryly and following Piers and Kraden farther onto the island. She and Jenna, now similarly cloaked in fur, followed.
They found a tiny settlement nestled at the foot of a range of not-quite-mountains in the heart of the islet. The houses were domed, yurt-style, built of stacked stone blocks to keep the heat in. None of the settlement’s human residents were outside -- unsurprising, given the temperature. Instead, a penguin greeted them as they approached.
“Can you read animals’ minds the way you do people’s? I swear he’s trying to tell me something,” Felix said with a short laugh that jarred Sheba at its unfamiliarity. It had been several months since Saturos and Menardi took her prisoner, and now, even after their tiny group’s liberation from their collective captors, Felix was often cordial but never mirthful.
“Of course I can,” she huffed, snaking her way into the penguin’s mind. “He’s upset that his girlfriend isn’t here.” Just then a cold, hard substance struck the back of her head and the impact made her stumble forward. Jenna’s unmistakable laugh turned Sheba’s head just in time to see her friend balling up snow in her cupped hands. Next to her, Piers was laughing heartily and dusting snow off of his fingers. Not to be assailed without redress, Sheba chased after them, reaching to the ground to scoop a handful of powder as she ran.
Their snowball fight was short-lived; Jenna quickly redirected them to demonstrating how to build a snowman. Sheba and Piers followed her instructions, and soon the settlement welcomed the addition of three new snow-based residents. Jenna and Piers’s creations smiled widely. Sheba’s had more of a sneer. Jenna stepped back to admire their work.
“Where’s Felix? He can judge whose is best, even though it’s obviously me.” Sheba shrugged.
“He made me read that penguin’s mind and then I got distracted.” She turned back to the spot where she’d left Felix and the penguin. Both were now gone, but she followed the penguin’s footsteps with her eyes and found it now hopping eagerly by the banks of a small stream that ran through the heart of the settlement. Felix had apparently crossed the stream and now balanced delicately on a log he must have laid across the water, cradling another small penguin in his arms.
The group watched him set the penguin on the ground gingerly. The penguins waddled to one another and hopped joyously, seemingly the penguin equivalent of a reuniting hug. Then they turned and seemed to speak to Felix in their own way. He bent to one knee to get closer to their level the way one addresses a child. To Sheba it was silly to watch this grim, towering man humble himself in front of a few birds, but his expression was one of pure sincerity. The group watched this in silence until Jenna spoke, thinking out loud.
“I don’t think they had many animals up north; he got really excited the first time we saw a dog after leaving Vale.” No one responded. They watched as one penguin handed Felix something, which he accepted with reverence and spoke back to them, cradling the object gently in his hands and bowing softly in thanks. Sheba, Jenna, and Piers all stared at this exchange in silence until he joined them next to their snowmen.
“What the heck was that?” Jenna asked.
“The penguin’s partner was stuck on the other side of the river, so I helped her across. He gave me this.” He showed them a turquoise stone. It was no more than a pebble, but it glittered in the sun and changed colors as it moved.
“What are you supposed to do with that?” Felix shrugged, but carefully tucked the pebble into a pouch at his waist where Sheba knew he kept his most important possessions: the Jupiter elemental star and a tiny sketched portrait of his parents.
“Not sure. But it seemed important to that penguin, so I’ll hold onto it for now.” Sheba stared for a moment at the imposing figure before her, puzzling through what she’d just seen. She’d been traveling with him for several months now and still knew barely anything about him other than what Jenna had whispered to her behind his back on the road -- his apparent death three and a half years ago, his sudden reappearance, and his struggles to maintain respectability during his captivity and extortion. She knew the big facts, yes, but precious few details that really made someone know a person. Now he towered over her, tall and dark and silent, undeniably imposing.
But now his serious expression revealed something no less intense, but now, tender. She’d always wondered whether his small kindnesses toward her had been perfunctory, obligatory acts to endear a captive to her once-captor. But now she wondered if she wasn’t giving him enough credit. Maybe the fur keeping her warm had been put there out of genuine concern, not just fear of losing a valuable asset to the cold before he could collect on his investment. Jenna’s voice broke her out of her reverie.
“Now that you’re back, judge our snowman contest!” Felix appraised each figure for a few silent moments, fingers resting on his chin as though he were putting a lot of thought into a complicated problem.
“Jenna, I can’t possibly judge this. Yours is incomplete.” Before she could stop him, he stuck his index finger deep between her snowman’s eyes, creating a third eye. “Now we’d better get going. Where do you think Kraden is by now?” He turned, barely concealing a smirk beneath his scarf, and headed for the settlement while Jenna yelled after him.