Robinson's Diary (2)
KRAAAACK.
Had they been running for about ten minutes? A splintering sound was beginning to grow louder behind them.
"Doesn't look like the ice has given way yet! Hurry!"
"Aaargh! Help me!"
"Keep going, together!"
Sure enough, as the running dragged on, the soft-bellied scholars began to fall behind. They had set off before Woori's group even finished gathering their luggage, and now here they were, trailing somewhere in the back. He was busy trying to save his own skin — who had time to help anyone else?
"Hah... hah..."
"Not far now!"
He honestly couldn't remember a single time in his life when he had run this hard.
After what felt like an eternity of sprinting, a stepping-stone path of ice chunks finally came into view.
"Gah! What the—!"
"What are you gawking at? The gaps are narrow — jump across and move!"
Huge slabs had broken away and were slamming into one another, shattering into ice floes of every size that bobbed and drifted like a broken bridge. This was something you had to cross by pure instinct and good timing. Still, they had arrived early enough that the gaps weren't yet too wide.
"Move it! Faster!"
"It's too far!"
"If it's too far, throw your pack and jump, you idiot!"
Apparently the scholars were even denser than he'd thought. To be called an idiot by people like them...
One by one, the survivors began leaping from floe to floe until they reached solid ground.
"Hah... hah... Thought I was a goner."
"Heh heh heh. First time I've ever jumped like that."
"We made it... thank God..."
Those who reached land first slumped down, exhaling sighs of relief. Land or island, at least this one wasn't going anywhere.
"Aaargh! Help me!"
"Sniff... sob!"
Far off in the distance, they could see people trapped atop a massive chunk of ice, frozen in place, unable to do anything at all. Jumping into the water would mean freezing to death, so of course they couldn't move — but still, couldn't they at least try something—
"Hey! Hey, wait—!"
CRUNCH.
One man, watching for his chance atop a small floe, chose a chunk far too small for his weight. It jammed into the gap and flipped over completely, plunging him under.
He never resurfaced.
"Well... there's nothing we can do for him..."
"Let's at least build a fire and rest."
"Good idea? Doesn't it seem like the trees are a bit bigger around here?"
Indeed, along the shoreline stood a few withered but substantial trees — driftwood, perhaps, that had floated from somewhere far away before washing up here.
"Let's all go cut down that big tree first."
"Right. It's been a while since we built a proper fire."
The bone-dry wood caught beautifully.
Crackle... whoosh.
"Whoa..."
"So warm..."
For the first time in ages, they pulled frozen meat from their packs and roasted it over the flames.
This? Surely this wouldn't attract wolves... right?
This time it really seems to be the mainland. We've been walking south for nearly a month now, and the land simply never ends.
"But where do you suppose this is?"
"Could it be Daehan? I've never heard tell of a land like this."
Judging by the murmurs of the scholars, and by every rumor Woori himself had soaked up in taverns over the years, no one had ever spoken of such a place. It really was unbearably cold.
The party that had set out with twenty-six souls was now down to seventeen. Even that was only because the survivors had stripped the clothes from the frozen dead and layered them on.
"The trees keep getting bigger. If we keep heading south, there's bound to be people living somewhere!"
"Just so long as there aren't any of those strange cannibal savages about?"
Ah... that thought genuinely frightened him. Come to think of it, the only Daehan people they'd ever laid eyes on were sailors stationed overseas. He'd even heard rumors that the folk of the mainland slit open men's bellies and ate them.
"Grrr! Grrr!"
"Wolves!"
"Everyone, gather up!"
"Load your muskets!"
What on earth did they eat to survive in this frozen land? House-sized wolves prowled everywhere in enormous numbers. They merely growled at the travelers and passed on — but if a fight had broken out, half of them would have died before they ever got a shot off.
"Grrr! Grrr!"
"What now? They're getting closer?"
Then, some time later, a strange vehicle appeared.
Shhhhfff.
"Eh? And who might you be?"
"The same to you — who might you be?"
A man was riding the contraption, and wolves were pulling it. So in this frozen clime, they harnessed wolves instead of horses to draw their sleds.
"Ah~ Another lot of Daehan explorers who've lost their way, I see?"
"Th... that's right."
Thank goodness he'd learned to speak Daehan. So even Daehan folk got lost out here on their expeditions, it seemed.
"Though what's with those short little legs of yours? Curious lot. Well then, to the village. I'll see you there."
"Oh! Much obliged."
With his guidance, they finally got to set foot in a genuine Daehan village.
'Oh. We're actually going to see a Daehan village.'
'For the first time, wouldn't you say?'
'I suppose it'll be something like the port?'
'Ah... I never made it to the port, myself...'
But when they arrived, the village turned out to be far less than they'd imagined. Something like a small European town, perhaps?
"This here's the village hall. Rest up, then be on your way."
"Thank you kindly."
The building they entered wasn't even visibly lit, and yet it was remarkably cozy inside.
"Hooah... now this is living..."
"I can't remember the last time I slept under a proper roof."
Who knew that merely having a ceiling over your head could feel like such a blessing?
They slept the entire day away.
Having escorted the strangers to the village hall, Mehir was setting out again to resume his hunt when it struck him.
"Ah! I never told them where the firewood is!"
Left with no choice, he turned his wolf sled around and headed back to the village.
Knock knock knock.
No answer, no matter how he rapped at the door.
"Huh? How long were these poor souls wandering? Sleeping without even a fire lit?"
He eased the door open and peered in to find them sprawled every which way, snoring like sawmills. One fellow was lying face-down right in the entryway. Mehir's heart went out to them — who knew how much they'd suffered out there?
He'd assumed they were Daehan explorers bound for the frontier who'd met with disaster along the way.
"Hmm. I'd better light the fire for them before I go. And leave out something to eat, too."
He stopped by his own house briefly, gathered whatever provisions he could carry, and set them inside the hall. Then he went around to the side of the building, stuffed the furnace beneath the ondol floor chock-full of coal, and lit it.
"Their backsides will be toasty warm, that's for certain. Nyahahaha!"
Convinced he'd given his guests a proper welcome, he set off down the road again with a cheerful grin.
Trudge, trudge.
"Hah... hah... Where am I now!"
Robinson, who had come from Europe and wandered the frozen wastes, was now wandering a land of fire. Everywhere he looked, nothing but flames. Wasn't it only recently that he'd been trudging through a land of ice?
"It's so hot I can't breathe! What in God's name is going on?"
ROAR of flame.
Fire blazing on all sides. The ground beneath his feet scorched his soles.
What could this possibly be? Had he died and fallen into hell?
"Damn it all... That kind native who guided me to the village — turns out that was the last thing I ever saw. I must have died."
He had no memory of being torn apart by some beast, so he concluded he must have frozen to death in his sleep.
"I was only twenty-three! I should have married young! Emily! Maria! Forgive me!"
Faced with his own end, his thoughts turned to the sweethearts he'd left behind in London and the port of Venice.
"Ha... but which way am I even supposed to go? It's fire in every direction?"
And then — a smell of charred flesh crept into his nose.
"So this is what hell is really like? Forget the heat — what is that stench!"
Slap, slap.
It was arguably better than the cold, he supposed, but the stench searing up his nostrils was beyond bearing. Desperate to clear his head, he smacked his own cheeks hard.
"So there's no pain after death? No... wait. Am I dreaming?"
Blink.
Just as he was marveling that he felt no pain, his eyes opened.
He had, in fact, been dreaming. And directly before his face hovered a pair of filthy, unidentifiable feet.
"Ah... it was a dream... thank goodness. Ugh, the smell."
Robinson rose carefully, easing himself away from the dirty feet.
"Whoa? Why on earth is the floor so hot?"
"Hmm? Oh, you're awake?"
Apparently someone had gotten up before him. Mortified at the thought that he might have been thrashing around and talking in his sleep, he scratched the back of his head and spoke up.
"This house has gone from warm to outright hot. I was dreaming I was rolling about in a lake of fire."
"What? KWAHAHAHA! What a funny fellow you are!"
In all his life, Robinson had never met anyone who found him genuinely funny. Even his sweethearts Emily and Maria — may they rest in peace — had always told him to keep his jokes to himself.
"But there's no fireplace that I can see. How can it be this warm?"
"Beats me? It is strange, isn't it?"
To the travelers it was puzzling — and more than a little frightening. Invisible fire, and yet warmth. A faint fear of the unknown had taken root in their hearts.
"It feels like we came in during the day, but it's night already..."
"Mm. I'm starving — I was just about to fix us something to eat."
"Shall we build a fire and roast some of that dried meat?"
The only food they carried was jerky from the game they'd hunted. Whatever berries they'd stumbled across had been picked and eaten on the spot.
"Hold on — looks like the natives left us food while we slept. There's provisions over there by the entrance."
"Oh!"
Only now did they notice the large basket, holding a modest stock of potatoes, meat, and vegetables.
"What generous hearts! Bless the people of Daehan!"
They roused everyone and set about preparing a meal. When they had finished the first proper, human-sized meal they'd had in ages, their bellies full and their backs warm, they sank into sleep once more.
After finishing out the day's rest, the party was finally stepping out of the village when someone approached them.
"Heading off, are you?"
"Yes. Time we were going."
"Hmph... On foot, that won't be easy..."
It was an old man who looked to be the village chief. He'd come over the moment it became clear they meant to set out. The problem was that the party looked like a pack of beggars, and that worried him.
"Nothing to be done about it. Ha ha ha."
"Don't stray anywhere else. Follow the road, no matter what."
"Why is that?"
"Eh? You mean you don't know?"
The old chief was genuinely puzzled. Wasn't that basic knowledge for anyone heading into the northern frontier?
"The wolves won't attack so long as you stay on the road! You're bound for the north, aren't you? Did nobody tell you anything?"
"Ah... thank you. Truly."
"Heh heh?"
It was news to all of them — stay on the road, and the wolves leave you alone? True enough, many of the wolves they'd met on the way hadn't attacked people either. Committing the villager's warning to heart, the party departed.
"Fascinating, isn't it? The wolves don't attack on the roads?"
"Wolves stake out territories to live in. Maybe they consider the roads to be human territory?"
"Could animals really comprehend that much?"
Strictly speaking, the rule held only for the breed that had spread out from Seolju — but by now, more than half of the wolves in this northern frontier were Seolju stock anyway. Knowing none of this, the travelers simply followed the road the villager had pointed out and pressed south.
"A road, paved all the way out here to the frozen wastes? Extraordinary."
"Wherever did they quarry all this stone and lay it down?"
Trailing a road built of great and small stones, the party began their great project of investigating Daehan. Nothing — not even the smallest thing — was known to them yet.
"Ah! We really should have studied the houses more carefully."
"Exactly... we should have figured out how they heat the place!"
Determined to let nothing slip past them, they walked on, scanning in every direction — and gradually, trees appeared, then grass.
"Whoa! These look like edible berries!"
"Oh! Let's rest here a while before moving on."
Truly, there were no savages quite like them.
Was this how people had lived in the old days of hunting and gathering? Pick berries as they walked, and whenever they found a suitable spot to rest, pitch the tent and settle in. Washing, of course, went entirely unmentioned. Their skin, once reddish-brown, had darkened to a deep umber until they were nearly indistinguishable from the locals.
"Oh! A deer!"
"Get it!"
"We have to catch one today!"
And whenever they spotted game, they took it, stripped the hide, and draped themselves in the raw skins one piece at a time — until they cut a more bizarre figure than even the remotest tribes of the wilderness.