Permafrost

28: Snowflake

⭐️Chapter 28: Snowflake

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

It wasn't cold anymore.

Ryn slowly opened her eyes, half expecting something to have eaten her by now. Every inch of her body stung, and she couldn't move. She could only see a bright orange ceiling and some lights, but that was it. To be honest, it was actually almost too much because of the brightness. She didn't have the energy to speak, turn her head, or anything. Parts of her actually felt tingly, as if they had been electrocuted or something. That also reminded her, her coat had been taken off.

She heard voices nearby, but they weren't ones she recognized.

"Are they going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I wrapped them up in warm and wet towels, and made sure they kept bleeding. I need to prepare to clean the wounds though..."

Well, Ryn DID feel warm everywhere. But...encourage bleeding? Had that stargazer done something bad to them? Ryn remembered learning that they had electrical powers, but nothing about injecting stuff into people. Maybe she could find out soon.

She heard a door open, but couldn't see anyone enter.

"Are you guys doing okay? Are any of you awake?" a kind female voice asked.

Ryn heard the groans of her fellow teammates, and internally sighed in relief. She too, groaned with them.

"I know, I know. It hurts. I had to encourage bleeding to get some of the venom out. Stargazer venom isn't fun, especially since it has electrical properties too..."

Ah, so that was what that was.

"Hang tight though. It shouldn't be too long before we get the proper supplies you need!"
Ryn heard one member of her team groan.

"Ffffff....fffeehssss" (face)

"Huh?"

"Feeeeyyyyyssss....shuuuuuuuuhhhw...." (face show)

"My fa-Oh! Right! You guys can't see who I am! Sorry about that! I'll walk over and show you! Name's Rudy by the way!"

It took a while, but the female voice got to Ryn. It was a female Argoling with 3 dark red tentacles swept to the side like bangs, and one longer tentacle in the back. She simply smiled and waved a little, and Ryn had enough strength to smile back. She then walked on to the others. Once she was done, she told them she was going to leave to get the supplies needed.

Ryn found herself attempting to sleep to pass time. Luckily for her, it wasn't too hard, and she wound up falling asleep in no time despite her aching body. She really was glad that this person had rescued her and her friends though, as who knew what might've happened if the stargazer "played" with them any longer. Upon reawakening, she found bandages all over her. She was able to move a little more now, but everything mostly felt...numb.

She turned her head to the side slowly, and indeed saw her other friends, who were all awake. They seemed to be looming around in curiosity, but none of them seemed to have the capability of sitting up yet. They were once again met with Rudy's voice telling them to try not to move too much as some ointment fixed them up. Ryn could do that with ease, but she still had several questions. Where were they, how did they get here, WHEN did they get here, why had Rudy rescued them, stuff like that.

Ryn heard the door to the room shut, and assumed that Rudy had left. She felt herself able to open her mouth and speak, but everything felt tingly and weird. Her teammates tried talking, but it all came out slurred and mumbled. Ryn couldn't tell what THEY were saying, but maybe they could understand her if she spoke well enough?

"Yeeeeeeh...aaaaaahhh...guuuuuurr?" (you all good?) she mumbled, trying to ask if her teammates were in good condition.

They didn't get it (she knew because they didn't reply), so she tried again, this time more slowly and more pronounced. She also tried a different phrase to see if it would help.

"Yaaaaaahhllll.......'keeeeeeeyyy?" (y'all okay?)

This time, she got a response. Actually, all of them responded.

"Yaaaaah..."

"Nuuuummmm..." (numb)

"Fiiiiiiiiiieh." (fine)

It was funny, but quite nice to hear her friends' voices again. It felt comforting to know that they were here with her, going through this together. Even if they wouldn't be able to talk for a while, it was still something. They just needed to wait, honestly. Then they could get back on track and start back down the trail...well, technically they didn't even know where they were, but they figured they'd ask when they felt better.

It probably took an hour or two from what Ryn could tell, but eventually she finally felt herself able to talk again, even though her limbs still felt fuzzy. She probably had the strength to sit up for a few seconds before collapsing, too.

"I can...talk now...you?" she asked.

"Me" she heard Jack grumble.

She didn't hear the other two though. Must've meant they couldn't.

"How well?" Ryn asked.

"Pretty...good. Got some...sssstuff down" Jack replied smoothly.

Huh, so he was doing alright, and way better than Ryn had initially thought at that. She sighed, hoping the other two would heal more in time. Everyone heard the door open, and Ryn slowly sat up to see who it was. It was Rudy and a vampire inkling, both were about the same height. She laid back down as she heard the door close.

"Well, you guys are almost good to go! I just brought Vance in to assist in the last medicinal part! He's a good friend of mine!" Rudy said.

Ah, so his name was Vance. That was interesting, and to be honest, Ryn wanted to ask about him later. He seemed about Rudy's age, and Rudy looked a little older than all of them. Actually, on the topic of age, she wondered where their parents were. No particular reason, just curiosity.

"Any questions before we start?" Rudy asked, "This last bit might take a while, but it could go faster if we don't run into many issues..."

"Oh yeah...I had...question. Where ARE we?" Jack said.

Rudy gasped, remembering that she indeed had not told the Infernos that.

"Oh right, you're in Cryos Town! Sorry for the cold weather though, we're right by Frostcap Mountain!"

Ryn and the others sat in silence.

So this was the place Tide was talking about.