Green Fox Chapter 18

“It’s got to stop soon. I’ve never known a storm to rage for so long. Someone really made the glacier angry,” Famor bellowed over the storm’s roar. As the tempest intensified, he and Turr unhitched the ponies, leading them away from the door. Fitch shrank away from the wind while the other stomped its feet and tossed its head at every thunderclap. Famor draped an arm around its neck, whispering soothing words with each lightning flash. “At the next lull, we need to be ready to bolt. We stick together, aim for the stairs. Keep pushing all the way there.”

“We can’t,” Eva said. The constant battering from the storm had worn them all down and only the smallest of the children had drifted off to sleep. “I’m worried about Cosi.” Despite being secured to the floor, the curtain flapped wildly with each gust of wind, revealing the storm’s fury outside and Cosi bearing the brunt of it. His hair lashed around him, and his drenched clothes snapped in the wind. But it wasn’t his unnatural stillness that unnerved those who saw him; it was the steam rising from his shirt. The heat radiating from his skin seeped into the cave, warding off the freezing cold. Rocks, as large as hens, whizzed past the entrance, propelled by the ferocious wind, narrowly missing Cosi. They whirled past his head or ricocheted around him, clattering among the loose shale. “We’ll get him help as soon as we can. But if we venture out there, the rocks will knock us down, or worse.” Famor stared at his young friend as the storm raged all around him. He wasn’t sure there was anything that could be done. The ether in his body should have torn him apart. At least that was what Famor had gathered from talking with Eshale. The only explanation as far as Famor was concerned was that the boy was on a divine path. He saw the frightened faces of the Farans and attempted his most reassuring voice. “It will pass. The storms always do and then we’ll get you all to safety.”

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