Saving the Sea
“What does that entail for us?”
“The destruction of everything our peoples have ever known.”

The seaway between the southern ice shelf and the peninsular islands was beginning to freeze. A bridge of sea ice was forming that was already disrupting local sea currents and allowing the passage of land animals to places they had never been before. The nomadic hunting gravediggers and daydreamers of the southern waters had observed the formation of the blockage over the course of a year, and alerted the settled meadow regions, homeland of the greenskeeper and a smaller number of the other two sea steward species. They predicted within another year or two the ice jam would extend between all of the islands and reach the northern coast, closing the seaway for good. The effects of this would be catastrophic, for it would lead to the connection of both polar ice sheets and result in their convergence, freezing the entire ocean as the ice bridge widened.

~~~

“So what can be done to break it up?”, the daydreamer Whirl asked her motley crew of friends - two gravediggers and the unconventional nomad greenskeeper.

“Down there, they’re talking about trying to melt it.”, replied Pebble, one of the southern hunters who first noted the dangerous formation. “The dreamers dredging the seabed and then us going up and covering the ice to darken it with the mud so that it starts absorbing the sunlight instead of shining it off.

Her sister Patch added her thoughts.

“I’m not convinced that would work though. I think we need to manually break it apart. There are a lot of us, and some of us are huge and others can wield tools.” Admittedly, she didn’t know how big the ice blockage really was, having never seen it herself.

“There aren’t tools big enough to butcher a glacier.”, remarked Pebble dryly. “You’d have almost as much luck sinking an island with shovels.”

But that gave Seeker an idea. He had met others in his own travels who might have insight to this problem.

“The coastians. They still still use the continent for resources, though they consider it as inhospitable to live on as you do because apparently everything on it wants to kill you, so their nests are still on the isles offshore. They still have fire- He gestured onto the boat where the gravediggers sat, their faces illuminated by the low, flickering light of a small fire burning in a clay bowl nearby.

“- but they don’t have as much fat to use to feed it as you do out here with the bigger animals. There is less food there to start with, since the creatures are all still wild and wary out there, so they’d rather eat all they get. Instead there’s a type of dirt, or maybe it’s a rock? But they go onto the continent and and dig down and pull up something out of the land that the fire will consume even though you can’t actually eat it yourself. It doesn’t look like much, but they say the land is practically built on top of it. They don’t worry about running out. It’s cold there and it snows in the night, but their fires keep them warm.”

“Dirt that will feed a flame?”, inquired Pebble. She furrowed her brow. It sounded like an infinite resource. “This stuff, it’s as common as regular mud up there? Is there enough to perhaps… cover up an ice bridge?

“I don’t know exactly, since I obviously haven’t seen it, but they say it’s everywhere once you dig down a bit, and the coastians are pretty honest. I can’t see why they’d make up something like that. The only issue is going to get it seems dangerous, as since there’s not much to eat in the north, it makes the things up there much more desperate than our animals. Things with sharp teeth are said to be everywhere. Even things that look like you, but bigger. A lot bigger. And they don’t think. They’re not people, just crude imitations.”, he replied, and lowered his voice a little, twisting his face into an exaggerated snarl for effect. “You’re not the top predator out there.”

“Have you seen a wildwalker? For real?”, asked Whirl with equal parts unease and excitement.

“Well no… but from how the coastians describe it I don’t know if I would ever want to...”, he said, trailing off.

“That isn’t important!”, Pebble interrupted. “The rock that feeds fires! How can we get it? That’s got to be the solution we need! We make a big fire on the ice and we melt it down! Take Whirl up with the other dreamers to pull some of our ships north, load up and take it down. Me and the other walkers can set it up from there!”

Pebble had stood up and begun to pace. It was difficult for her to sit still for very long anyway, but especially when she was excited by anything - especially a grand adventure.

“Okay, slow down a bit. This is not something the four of us and our friends or our families are going to be able to do alone to save the world or whatever. We need to get in touch with all of the district leaders and formulate a wider, coordinated plan. This is something that all of us will be affected by.” said Seeker.

Pebble nodded in agreement, and sat on her haunches, but continued to fidget. Patch tossed her a small fish bone, which she twirled in her claws. Directing her excess energy toward that, she was better able to focus.

The coastians probably won’t be very inclined to have all of their fuel dug up and hauled out to sea either.”, added Patch. “They already think we’re the privileged lot down here with all of our bigger animals…”

Whirl agreed. “If this … dirt? Rock? If it really does what they’ve told you, and especially if it could be abundant enough to melt a glacier, it’s going to be valuable. We might need to formulate a trade agreement and offer something in return. But our animals don’t really do well up there, so I’m not sure what we would offer?”

“I mean… the offer of not going extinct?”, retorted Pebble. “” They’re in as much trouble as us if the water goes solid!

“That’s true, but will they see it that way Seeker?”, asked Patch. “Their home is so far from the ice jam that they may not consider it a problem worth attending.”

“From what they’ve said it doesn’t seem like there is a shortage of the fuel, but they’re going to expect anyone else to dig their own mines and not take from theirs.” Seeker paused for a second. “So that would definitely mean you guys…”, he spoke, referring to the two among them who could walk. “...would be going further inland where the animals… and the wildwalkers… are so hard to deal with even the coastians won’t go out there.”

“Why just us?? Why can’t you guys come too?? There isn’t an animal in the world that could eat you!”, cried out Pebble, motioning at Whirl.

“I don’t have legs!!!”, she exclaimed.

Pebble stood up again.

“See! I can’t do that!”, Whirl instantly responded. “You’ve proven my point for me!”

“Yeah, I’ll show you a point.”, she said, and she playfully tossed the fish bone at Whirl’s huge head.

“I think you’d be safe anyway, Pebble.”, interrupted Seeker.

“I’m not sure anything would want to eat someone so salty.”

Pebble glared at him, but then everyone laughed a little.

A little humor was necessary to lighten the mood in the face of impossible odds, if the sea stewards were going to save the sea.