#ikyc

Opening his eyes didn’t reveal much at first, but as the minutes ticked by, his surroundings began to lighten. The darkness inches in front of him began to take on a blue tinge, and as the light increased– as dawn approached, he realized– his surroundings were revealed to be a very smooth, distinguishable blue-white.

Ice. Almost every inch of him was encased in solid, thick ice.

Instinctively, automatically, he tried to summon lightning to his fingertips, leaning on his nature as an elemental giant to free himself.

Not a single spark formed. He barely had the energy to run a current through his nervous system, let alone manifest an explosion large enough to crack anything. To top it all off, his nerves, now reactivated and almost hypersensitive, began to convey the burning cold in earnest.

Virgil let out a low breath, forcing himself to think through the pain.

Clearly, someone had trapped him here and forced him into an unnatural hibernation. Going by the total shutdown his body was trying to recover from and his own foggy memory, he must have been under for a while. Why had he woken up now?

He frowned. There wasn’t anyone in his line of sight or speaking nearby. The only identifiable noise he could discern was the sound of dripping, which was, upon further squinting, water dropping past only a few inches away.

Wait. The answer was right under his nose. Or, two inches in front of his nose, in this case.

The ice was melting. The gap in the ice in front of his face was a recently melted crevice, and probably the only reason he could breathe now in the first place.

He testingly shifted his body, and rode out the resulting wave of pain as his nerves screamed. The ice groaned softly at the pressure. There was barely any space, and his limbs were slow and nearly non-responsive, but he could move. Daybreak had just begun, but if night fell and the ice refroze, there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t slip right back into a protective sleep.

The time to act was now. Virgil took a deep breath, and started pushing against his prison in earnest.

–

The morning greeted him, as always, with a jagged landscape of ice and rock.

Logan stepped out into the cold, his bulky winter layers keeping his core warm and his goggles strapped on securely to take off the worst of the snow glare.

There weren’t any harsh winds today, which meant he could spend longer outside without risking frostbite, a fact he planned on taking full advantage of. The further he traveled, the more ground he covered, the more diverse his samples would be. Of course, it was also surprisingly sunny, which meant that he needed to set out early to prevent his evidence from melting away.

As such, he didn’t waste any time admiring the monochrome scenery before setting off, seeking out the coastline. It felt almost like a shame to cut through the freshly fallen layer of snow with his boots’ footprints, but he’d been here for over a month and as such, was used to disturbing the smooth landscape.

The air was crisp and cold, not a cloud overhead or a snowflake in the air, but Logan planted his pathflags anyhow. Better to waste a bit of energy recovering them on the way back than getting permanently lost in a surprise blizzard. Or, even more embarrassing, having his steps covered up and forgetting the way back.

Soon enough, he could see the beginnings of pink spattered along in the snow.

Chlamydomonas nivalis was an algae that was found in polar regions all over the world, notable for the effect it had during the spring and summer: its presence in the snow gave off the impression that the snow had turned a pinkish-red, often colloquially referred to as ‘watermelon snow’.

A well-studied and quite interesting feature of their world, for sure, but it currently symbolized a larger problem for Logan, and humanity at large. The alga itself wasn’t the problem. It had proved itself more than sufficient at surviving in extreme environments, having been present to intrigue researchers for hundreds of years. It’s presence here was normal.

However, the current state of the icecaps wasn’t normal. Every year, they lost more and more mass, melting far more and far before they were supposed to. And now, the algae was exacerbating the situation.

The darker color of the snow made for more sunlight absorption, which caused the snow to melt faster, which produced more algae, in a continual loop that eventually contributed quantifiably to glacier retreat and reduced snow’s ability to reflect solar radiation.

In summary, it was hastening the effects that global warming was already bringing about, and Logan was here to figure out just how bad the damage was and what level of conservation efforts would be needed to reverse or at least halt it.

And for that, he needed samples.

Unlatching the small cooler case from his backpack, he crouched and began to pull out his snow sampler tubes.

Luckily, he didn’t need to rush. The snow was still safe from melting and refreezing for a bit longer, thanks to the shadow cast by the nearby glacier wall.

Preoccupied as he was, he didn’t notice the distant groan of ice under pressure.

–

Time passed in a blur of agony and the slow, subtle fracturing of ice for Virgil.

At first it was nearly unbearable, but the longer he pushed and kicked, the more wiggle room he gained, and the more force he could apply against the walls.

Occasionally, there would be a loud crack, a jagged line just barely visible in the sunlight that made it through the thick ice, and Virgil would grow excited, but his prison was well-built if nothing else. A few cracked ice sheets wouldn’t crumble it.

A shit ton of cracked ice sheets, however, might do it. No glacier was impenetrable.

Virgil pressed against the wall and heard a series of eerie, pinging fractures. As he shoved, the wall of ice began to cave beneath his shoulder, shattering and falling away in chunks. A victorious grin spread over his face, and he redoubled his efforts.

The weakened ice began to fall away, and he finally found himself with enough space to draw his arm back and slam it against the brightest patch of wall. Sunlight wasn’t normally something he looked forward to, but just this once, he let the thought of golden warmth on his skin propel him forward, shattering layers of ice with every hit.

His knuckles split and began to bleed, but he’d come too far to let something like that stop him.

Finally, his fist went right through a pane of ice– and found fresh crisp air on the other side.

He wasted no time in prying at the edges of the new hole, chunks of ice breaking off in his hands as he broke through the last barrier and found himself standing on a frozen tundra ringed by distant mountains.

He was out. He had no idea where he was or how he was going to get home, he was about as far from his element as one could get, but he was out.

Below him, the snow was pink. How strange.

A flicker of movement amidst the still ground caught his eye and he glanced up to find what was undoubtedly a human, though their tiny silhouette was made bulky and uncertain by the thick layers they were wearing and the fact that they were crouched on the ground. Going by the sharp bits of ice glittering around them, they’d probably been trying to shelter from the fallout of Virgil’s escape.

Now, they seemed to be frozen themselves, head craned back to presumably look up at him, eyes hidden by a pair of large goggles.

What in the world was a human doing all the way out here?

Curious, Virgil reached out and scooped the human up in both hands, eliciting a surprised little yelp.

Bringing them up close to his face, Virgil studied them carefully. They certainly looked human, and if there was one thing Virgil knew after centuries co-existing with them, it was that the little guys were hardy and clever enough to situate themselves almost anywhere.

The human was trembling, hard enough that he could feel the shaking against his palms, and he frowned in concern.

Right. He’d just climbed out of a glacier: his hands were probably freezing.

He considered trying to warm them up with a small electrical shock for a moment, before remembering that that killed mortals, actually. Better to just set them down, then.

Virgil glanced over the land around them, struggling to find a patch of ground that wasn’t covered in glacier remnants, but the human immediately distracted him by sitting back on their haunches and pushing their goggles up to make eye contact.

“H–Hello,” they greeted, tilting their chin up determinedly. “My name is Logan. I’m a researcher.”

–

When ice began to impact the ground around him, Logan had first assumed it was an avalanche.

He’d begun moving before he even looked up to check, already running the odds of surviving in his mind and finding them alarmingly low. For some reason, his mind chose to focus on his irritation that the snow samples he needed were about to be buried, rather than the terror of an imminent, suffocating death.

A single glance back, however, stopped him in his tracks.

Because it wasn’t an avalanche.

It was a hole in the glacier wall where there hadn't been one moments before. It was a giant hand curling around the freshly-made edges. It was a pair of glowing eyes visible in the moments before it returned to destroying its way out of the glacier.

It’s a giant, Logan thought, and then narrowly avoided death via icicle impalement and had to focus on ducking for cover.

Moments later, those same hands were now holding him far up in the air, only feet away from that huge face. Logan couldn’t tell if he was shaking from the fear or the excitement. One one hand, he had no idea whether or not he would survive this encounter! But on the other hand, this could be the discovery of the century!

Unfortunately, the discovery of the century didn’t seem enthused by his introduction.

The giant’s eyes had previously been scanning him with open curiosity, but now they were narrowed in some sort of suspicious displeasure. For a moment, Logan wondered if they even spoke the same language, but–

“A researcher?” the giant asked in a low, gravely voice that Logan probably could have heard clearly all the way from the ground below. “Checking in on the prisoner’s status?”

Logan paused, thrown off track of his pre-prepared ‘first contact’ speech. He’d always thought it would be aliens, but another sapient species already present on Earth was almost as exciting. “Pardon?”

“Who did this to me?” the giant asked, voice dropping lower as they gestured to the glacier behind them, which now looked somewhat like a geode that had been cracked in half. Their knuckles were bloody, and Logan realized abruptly that they’d been trapped in there. “Who do you work for?”

“I’m here on behalf of an international non-profit, I’m grant-funded,” Logan answered automatically, his response streamlined after several past conversations of tedious small talk. The giant didn’t seem to grasp his meaning, so Logan cleared his throat for a moment, trying to come up with a more cohesive answer that could also help him figure out what exactly had instigated this line of questioning. “I’m doing research into the algae in the area and how it’s affecting snow albedo.”

He gestured to the abandoned equipment below, and the giant followed the motion and raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“...Algae.” Their voice was flat. “Coincidentally right next to me.”

Logan nodded and then shook his head. “Yes, in the snow. No, Nobody told me you were here. Frankly, I wasn’t aware you– giants, rather– even existed? If I had been told, I certainly wouldn’t have condoned the imprisonment of a living creature in ice. I’m not even sure how you’re alive.”

‘Please tell me more about your miraculous survival and existence in general,’ Logan attempted to convey via intense staring and the potential latent telepathy he may or may not have had.

To his surprise, the giant partially obliged.

–

“I’m not a giant,” Virgil corrected.

The human– Logan stared at him for a moment, and then very pointedly looked down at the hand he was seated on.

Virgil rolled his eyes, his cheeks heating slightly. “I mean, yeah, I am giant, but I’m not a giant. I’m an elemental. Totally different.”

“So, there are non-elemental giants as well?” Logan asked, eyes glittering with interest.

That was the other thing about humans. They were nosy.

Virgil could have the human swear a secrecy oath on the matter of his existence, but that didn’t account for any other humans that might be listening in. The development of electronics had been a bit of an annoyance for beings like him, even if he personally loved the surplus of electricity humans began to produce. Better to find out more about the situation before divulging anything else.

“You said you came here for someone else. You have a way back?”

Okay, so maybe he mostly wanted to find out more about how to get out of here. Could anyone really blame him, though? There was no way he was swimming home through those icy waters.

“Yes?” Logan answered, his head tilting slightly to the side with implied curiosity. “I’m not sure what that has to do with–,”

“I’ll make you a deal,” Virgil interrupted before Logan could try to sneak in more questions. These scholar-types, honestly. “You get me on the reverse of whatever route you took to get here, and I’ll tell you more about me and the rest of the creatures that most humans are totally oblivious to.”

“Deal,” Logan said immediately, visibly perking up at the promise. Almost made Virgil feel bad about the fact that he was going to swear him to secrecy, but he certainly wasn’t going to be the one to give away everyone else. Especially when he still couldn’t remember why he’d been imprisoned like that in the first place.

“Fantastic,” he replied with only a bit of sarcasm, and crouched briefly to scoop up the rest of the human’s belongings in his other hand. “Well then, lead the way.”

This was just a minor detour. He’d be home soon enough.