Frozen 3

Chapter 23

Ryder

My life seemed to be back to normal. Or almost. I had found the sister I had missed so much. After days of not hearing from her, Honeymaren had suddenly reappeared. I remembered her return perfectly. I was awakened by screams outside. I rushed out of bed, quickly put on a T-shirt and slippers and ran to the front door, which I opened suddenly. Although surrounded by Northuldra who were relieved to see her back with us, my sister had continued to walk unperturbed through the camp. Alone and walking with a determined step, she had walked towards me without paying attention to the curious looks and the questioning murmurs around her. We had both remained motionless, a meter away from each other, without knowing what to say. I was speechless for a few moments, not believing what I was seeing. She had changed. Her look, her attitude... She was not the same anymore and had finally freed herself from the weight that oppressed her. I had not asked her anything, I had remained silent while looking at her from the threshold of my hut. I had not wanted to know anything about her sudden disappearance. She had returned, that was all that mattered. When I finally came to my senses, my first reaction was to burst into tears and throw myself on top of her to take her in my arms. We stayed together for many minutes, crying, not caring about what was going on around us. It was tears of both joy and relief. I understood that her isolation had brought her the serenity she had been seeking for years. She seemed to want to move on and finally let herself live the life she had kept from herself for so long.

"I left Erik," she had whispered in my ear while we were still in each other's arms.

I wasn't surprised by this announcement. I had expected it. It was obvious that she could only live fully after having definitively broken up with the young man. I realized what that meant. I stepped back from my sister, keeping both hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes.

"Does this mean... you're moving back in with me?" I asked her hopefully.

Honeymaren smiled a little before answering:

"Let's just say it would be possible, but only if you want me!"

I could hardly contain my joy. After months of feeling abandoned and rejected by the young woman, I was finally going to be reunited with my twin, the one who had accompanied me throughout my life and whom I loved more than anyone else.

***

Spring had set in a few weeks after Honeymaren returned to Camp Northuldra. It was usually my favorite time of the year, the time when nature was slowly coming back to life. But it was also the time of births in the reindeer herd I was taking care of. This year, few females were expecting young. There were five, the first three of which had already given birth to three adorable fawns. The remaining two were finally reaching the end of their gestation period but did not seem to be in any particular hurry to get there. I had been walking for over an hour, leading my herd through the forest in search of pasture. The ones closest to the camp did not offer any square meter of lichen to my reindeers. There was nothing left for them to eat. The plants were gradually eaten away by huge black streaks that first attacked their roots before spreading to their shoots. This phenomenon had become frequent. Every tree in the enchanted forest was suffering the same fate and no one could do anything about it. The disappearance of the spirit of the earth was the cause, I was convinced. But that was not what worried me most. The food we were harvesting was becoming increasingly scarce and difficult to preserve. Most of it would rot within a few hours, despite all our attempts to preserve it. Until now, we had not had any major food problems, although we had to adapt to this new rhythm of consuming, almost instantaneously, everything we ate. Our main food was now fish. Even though we had to cook and eat it almost as soon as it came out of the water, it was a resource that we always had in sufficient quantity to feed the tribe. The plant species did not escape the black streaks under our feet. Our few plantations had all been ravaged. Nothing grew anymore. The land had become uncultivable, looking more and more like ash as the days went by. What worried me and all the Northuldra silently was a possible future famine that seemed to threaten us with every new plant we reached. We could not feed ourselves exclusively on fish forever. It was not an inexhaustible source of protein. It would eventually run out, and we would have no other way to survive.

A bellowing sound drew me out of my thoughts. I turned around and realized that some of the reindeer, especially the younger ones, were beginning to have trouble keeping up, exhausted by the long walk to an uncertain goal. I stopped and looked around. A small clearing lay just a few feet away. It did not seem to be affected - or at least not yet - by the black tracks that were ravaging a large part of the forest. The few trees surrounding it were intact, as was the fresh grass with little yellow flowers at my feet. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know this part of the enchanted forest. But it didn't matter. My sense of direction would lead me back to the Northuldra camp without much difficulty, I was sure. The reindeer didn't wait for me to agree and pounced on the young shoots that were scattering the ground. They devoured them in a few moments, obviously hungry. Suddenly I noticed one of the youngsters, born only a few days ago, lying at the edge of the small clearing. He did not seem to want to join the group and stayed away. Yet his mother had been calling desperately for several minutes, hoping to get him to come to her. In vain. The little reindeer remained motionless, keeping his four legs folded under his tiny body. He looked at the others with half-open eyes. I knew something was wrong. I slowly approached the little animal. He didn't react when I got to his side. He looked so fragile to me. He was so thin that it was disturbing. It didn't even seem to be able to carry its own weight. I reached down and gently stroked his little head. He didn't react to the touch of my hand on his fur and seemed unable to make any movement. I grabbed him and took him in my arms. The reindeer did not try to struggle, on the contrary, he let himself be held. He was so light that I didn't even feel like I was carrying anything. His mother, by reflex, approached us. I put her little one back down next to her, hoping that he would finally react. But nothing happened. He remained immobile between the four hooves of his mother who tried to motivate him as well as she could by a few strokes of her tongue. It was a lost cause.

***

The afternoon had passed quickly, without me even realizing it, having dozed off quite quickly. The sun was already starting to disappear behind the tree tops. The sky had turned orange. We had to get back before nightfall, or we might get lost. I motivated my herd, most of which had fallen asleep, by clapping my hands and blowing a few whistles. The animals quickly straightened up, ready to go again. I led them out of the clearing where we had stayed and took the opportunity to count them one by one. I recognized the last reindeer that passed before my eyes. It was a female reindeer, the mother of the calf I had been so worried about. But this time she was alone. I looked for the reindeer calf. He was not with the rest of the herd. I looked around the clearing and suddenly saw him at the foot of a tree. I walked over to him, whispering so as not to scare him:

"Hey, get up big boy, we have to go."

The animal did not react. When I got close enough, I noticed that its eyes were slightly ajar. However, they were not moving and seemed to be staring at a point in the void. I crouched down with a heavy heart and put a hand under his tiny nose. No breath came to me. His heart was no longer beating either. The little reindeer had finally died at the foot of that birch tree. It was not the first animal I had lost, but it was painful every time, especially when it was a baby at the beginning of its life. I sighed as I got up. It wasn't until I stood up that I noticed the black marks on the trunk of the birch tree. In just a few hours they had made it to this more remote part of the forest. I followed them with my eyes and noticed something even more surprising: one of the marks at my feet seemed to draw a boundary between the dead animal and me. I looked up. All the trees were now affected by this strange disease. The fresh green grass that my reindeer had grazed on this afternoon had also turned black. On mine, however, everything was still intact. This border showed a clear demarcation between life on one side and death on the other...