Permafrost

18: Frost

⭐️Chapter 18: Frost

Yup, that's right. Signature bandana, cold light blue eyes, that was him. He glared at the four.

"What do you want?" he snarled.

"Eep! Uh, we didn't mean to intrude-" Cosmo squeaked.

"We didn't ask for anything, but go off I guess" Jack grumbled, unfazed.

"Um...Th-Thrash is in the forest if...if you're looking f-for him?" Ryn stammered.

"I wasn't, but okay" Fang said.

He finished his drink. Nothing had changed at all since they last saw him, except for the fact that he now had a navy blue coat tied around his waist. They didn't remember seeing Thrash wearing any sort of clothing like that though? Maybe they had missed it. But that didn't matter now. Silvia looked him up and down, checking for injuries from fights.

"How did you escape?" she slowly asked.

Fang sighed.

"Was never caught to begin with" he grumbled, not wanting to talk at the moment.

"Wait, what?!"

"Oh my god why do you all want to know everything?!" he shouted, banging one fist on the smooth wooden counter. Nothing fell over or broke, thankfully.

"Because we're...curious?" Ryn replied, unsure if that was the right thing to say.

Fang facepalmed.

"Well, whatever. Spyke and Thorne were definitely captured, I know that."

Cosmo stepped forward a bit while Jack watched him.

"But what about y-"

"Thorne sacrificed himself by getting me out, okay?! HAPPY?!" Fang shouted.

The Infernos sat still for a while. Silvia quickly nodded to cover for all of them as they processed this information. So the Wave Crashers weren't exactly heartless people...then again, it was their own teammate. But...what did this mean? Did they have a stronger bond than the Infernos had initially anticipated? They had no information on them after all.

Fang turned back around while grumbling something, away from looking at them. They slowly went back to their seats, sat down, and finished up what was left of their meal. That had...certainly been something. As of right now though, they just needed something to get their minds off of this. Luckily for them, the crane approached them again, and now they could ask their question. Ryn spoke up.

"Um...excuse me ms...um..."

The crane saw her struggling to read the name pin on her vest.

"Tide."

"Yes, well uh, do you know a place near here that we could stay for the night?"

Tide set down the tray she had for taking away dirty dishes. She dug around her pockets for something, but couldn't seem to find it.

"Ah, well...I had a map on me but...seems I've lost it. The only place I remember is a small town a little bit away from Frostcap Mountain, they have a hotel there. Unfortunately it's quite a long way, and I don't think you'd make it before nightfall. Well, perhaps you could try..."

"Yeah! I don't see why not!" Cosmo replied.

"Sure! I'd be up for the challenge!" Ryn said.

"I mean, I'm not sure, but if you all want to, we can try..." Silvia mumbled, unsure about what might happen if the group wandered out at night.

"I'm down" Jack said with a shrug.

The group heard a frustrated groan from Fang.

"You all are annoying. I'm leaving."

Fang got up and out of his seat and headed out the door, taking his tenta brella with him. He didn't slam the door shut, but the group could tell he wasn't in the best of moods. They shrugged, and continued with their plans. They turned to Tide, only to see she was taking away their dishes. They decided to save their question for later. They remained sitting down at the table for now, waiting for Tide to come back. They were going to need some more information on this place if they were going to head out now. Every second that went by made them more and more anxious. Ryn looked around, but only saw the bartender, a man o' war unevolved jellyling. She wondered if he possibly had the answers to the place.

Luckily, Tide came back relatively quickly. She seemed to be breathing quickly though, as if in a rush.

"Sorry, had to do some dishes. I know you guys needed to know more about that place. To make it quick, the town is very welcoming and nice, but you might wanna get there soon or mutant fish and other species might attack. I hope you have some sort of defense?"

"Yeah! We have our inking weapons!" Cosmo replied.

"Perfect! Those will do. If you all need a snack to take on the road, I'm sure we could find something..."

The group had already eaten the snacks that were packed from earlier, and were about to accept her offer, but realized it was becoming too late.

"We'd take your offer, considering we do need to restock on supplies, but...we don't want to be any more late to this town than you say we would be" Jack explained.

"Ah, I see. Don't worry, I'll make it quick! What are you all trying to do again?" Tide asked.

"Rescue our friends from the Frost Army" Ryn replied simply.

Tide nodded."Got it."

And she dashed off, as if she hadn't actually taken into consideration what the team was doing. The group of four went back to thinking while they waited. They sure hope Tide would keep her word. They knew she was only trying to do her best to help, but this was a little...urgent, and she could've asked earlier. Oh well.

Luckily, Tide came back quicker than they had expected. She had brought all sorts of snacks with her, and all of them could fit in the backpack. Ryn quickly stuffed as many as she could into it, and the group stood up from sitting on the chairs. They were now prepared to resume their journey. Tide wished them luck, and told them they just had to keep following the path that connected to this place until they came to a village, with no split paths involved along the way.

The group was about to receive information about the dangers of the woods, when they suddenly heard a yell from outside.

They dashed out the door, spotting Fang first. It took them a while to take in the whole scene, but soon, they realized.

Outside, surrounding him, were five mutant fangteeth.

And they looked hungry.