Chapter thirty-two: problems with the ice

"How much longer do you think he's gonna sleep?" asked Pidge as she stared at the wolf that Keith had brought back with him, his furry body wrapped up in bandages from head to toe, curled up on a blanket that Shiro had set out.

"Who knows?" Hunk asked as he stirred a cup of eggs for Keith and the others. "He had a lot of wounds on him."

"You said you found him like that, right?" Shiro asked. "Perhaps something attacked him."

"Possible from the creatures that I bought back!" Keith said.

"Well, you must have bought them well!" Hunk said as he handed Keith the scrambled eggs, which he eagerly began to eat down. Unbeknownst to him, however, he didn't realize that the smell of eggs had made its way toward the daemon wolf's nose, and soon after, he began to blink his eyes awake as he began to stir, causing Pidge to gasp quietly as she noticed.

"Hey! He's waking up!" she called, causing the others to look back and see the wolf beginning to stand up, a bit wobbly at first, but then, after shaking his head to relieve himself of disorientation, he blinked as he began to regain his bearings.

"So, you're finally awake, huh, big boy?" asked Keith. "How do you feel?"

The wolf blinked his eyes before he looked back and forth between the group...and that's when his gaze fell on Keith, who had a egg yolks sandwich and devour them. He blinked at the big daemon wolf for a moment before he glanced down in his sandwich. Not much left except for bread, or what's left of it.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Keith plucked a piece of his sandwich and held it up to the teleport animal, who sniffed the topping before he soon chomped it up in the blink of an eye.

"Well, I think it's safe to say he has an appetite," said Keith.

"Oh!" Shiro exclaimed as he reached into his backpack and began searching through it. "I know I put it in here somewhere...now where is...aha!" He then pulled out a small package of beef jerky. "I brought this from home and I'm hoping for you people will like it." He took out a stick of jerky and held it out to the wolf, who eagerly took the treat right out of his hands and devoured it as fast as possible. Deciding it would be a wasted effort to just give him the jerky, one-by-one, Shiro dropped the whole package, allowing the daemon wolf to eat his fill.

"...I would've liked a couple..." Keith muttered.

 "Shush...!" Shiro scolded.

After licking his lips and his paws, the wolf soon sat down while wagging his tail, showing his contentedness.

"Well, it looks like he's satisfied," Lance mused.

"Which begs the question," said Shiro, "what's the wolf's name!"

"You're still on that!" Keith said.

"Well, we have to pick a name after all you found him." Lance said as the wolf lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh, got any ideas!" Keith said.

No one in the room said anything, because they knew Keith had a point. How do name a wolf they just met.

"That's what I thought". Keith said, crossing his arms. His new wolf friend barked at his words as if staring that he agrees with his owner.

"I guess even Kosmo agrees." Pidge said, scratching the wolf behind the ears.

Keith raised an eyebrow, "Kosmo".

"what? I think it fits. plus, he is a cosmic wolf". Pidge defended.

"I have to agree as well". Shiro chimed in.

"We're not calling him that". Keith muttered.

The newly named wolf barked aggressively at his owner's remark.

"Well, too bad. I think he likes it". Pidge smirked as she played around with Kosmo.

"Okay!" Keith said, known that no argument never change.

"Now it's that settled, we have a long walk to the Mountain!" Shiro said. He picked his backpack.

"Ok!" Hunk said, opened his pack.

Keith, Lance, and Pidge followed his lead, Pidge gently swaddled her mat and slid it in her own backpack. Then she heaved the bag onto her back.

Lance stuffed the rifle, mat, and other items in his backpack, the pack seemed full, but still he felt he was forgetting something.

"Come on, Lance! hurry", Keith said.

"Okay, relax-I'm coming", Lance said. Hunk scooped up Kiaion and run to catch up to Keith and the others.

After an hour or so of walking, Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Stats, Kiaion, and their new friend, Kosmo emerged from the forest into a valley of steep snowy mountains loomed on either side of them, but straight ahead there was a smooth, trodden trail. Keith observed the well-worn walkway, relieved that someone else had followed this path. As the Wolf, Kosmo, let out a happy bark as his tail wagged even faster than before, causing Keith to grin.

"So, your new name is Kosmo, huh?" Keith asked, and the daemon wolf barked again as he jumped up onto his knee and licked his face, causing him to chuckle. "Hey, easy!"

"So, it seems our new friend here like his name," Lance mused. "And better trained too!"

"You're saying that he used to belong to somebody?" asked Shiro.

"Used to or he still could belong to someone," Hunk pointed out. "It's possible. Some people do tame wild daemons. Look at me and Kiaion."

Kiaion gave a small mewl at his name being enunciated.

"Even if that's the case," Shiro began, "how did Kosmo even come to be here? And for that matter, where is his master? And how did he end up getting so badly hurt?"

"Well...he seems pretty smart," Keith said. "Maybe he can show us."

"I don't know, Keith," Shiro said. "He might still be too hurt to go anywhere."

To prove her wrong, however, Kosmo soon stood up from Keith's leg and hopped off and teleported in front of the path.

"I guess that's our answer," Pidge mused. soon, the group continue on their merry way.

"Wait. This path is too easy", Keith said. He put up a hand to stop them from walking farther.

"No, it's not, it's exactly the right amount of easy," Shiro said.

"Listen to me, Kosmo can teleport to the hard one, The trail is well-worn. And sooner or later, it might collapse". Keith frowned, moving towards a much steeper path. "We have to go up that way".

"Why?" Lance said.

"Tougher terrain is safer for us?" Keith said.

"I hate this", Lance said.

"Should've stayed at the campsite!" Hunk said as the group went the steeper path.

Hours later as the group climbed higher into the mountains, the wind whipped harshly around them. The snowdrifts had deepened and the ice had slickened on the farther they got up the mountain. Shiro continue to be sick, sick of coughing up blood at least, but he wasn't struggling as much as possible as Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Stats, and Kiaion and Kosmo struggled to keep up with Keith's pace.

Finally, Keith paused and looked back at all the ground they'd covered. "All right, let's stop and eat", he said, "I'm starving."

"Finally". Lance said, collapsing onto the snowy ground and started to dug his hand into his backpack for the bread. When he didn't come up with anything, he stuck his face in the pack and rifled around more vigorously. Oh no.

"I don't have the food", he admitted. "How could this happen?" he slapped his palm against his forehead.

"What?" Keith asked. "You had one job, carry our food. How could you leave it?"

"We're rushing, remember." Lance said. "we were too busy with other things we just forgot about other things".

"what's that supposed to mean because that didn't mean any sense". Keith said.

"sure that it does!" Lance said

As Lance and Keith stirred another argument, Shiro looked at them, scowled and turned his head away from them, looking at the wilderness below them, Shiro closed his eyes and shut the arguments out.

"Hey!" Shiro heard Keith yell.

Grudgingly, Shiro opened his eyes. "Yes?"

"Why are you walking slower than the others!" Keith said.

"Well...I" Shiro responded, until he was interrupted but "oh no!" from Hunk.

"Hunk, what is it!" Shiro said.

"Someone drink my juice!" Hunk panicked.

"it wasn't me!" Pidge said. A hiccup sounded from Stats. The little thief.

"Wait. Did that little glowball monster?" Hunk growled

"Stats wouldn't do that". Shiro said. "You have no reason to think!-"

"UUURRRPPP" Stats let out a belch right in Shiro's face.

"Yeah, he drank it". Shiro said as the smell of juice washed over him.

Hunk shook his head, put the bottle away, and continued walking. Everyone moved on in silence.

The journey was silent for the most part as they reached an area complete covered by two or three centimeters of snow. That made it harder for Shiro to continue. He had to ask the group to slow down at some point, which made Stats realize that Shiro was slacking behind.

"Stats!" Stats asked as he ask Shiro if he was okay.

Shiro nodded, "I'm fine buddy!"

"Stats!" Stats said.

"I...I don't know what's happening to me!" Shiro said. "My body keeps on feeling weaker than before, not as bad as...back at the time!" he remembering that he had his disease.

"Stats!" Stats said, rubbing his head onto his face.

"Don't worry buddy, I'll be fine!" Shiro said. "but more I could stay about them!"

Pointed out to the arguments between Lance and Keith were not any better, resulted Pidge and Hunk rolled their eyes as the two argued. Shiro went in between them as Lance shouted, "How many times do I have to say that I'm sorry!"

"He's got a point, it's only bread!" Hunk said.

"Shh, you guy need to stop fighting look". Shiro said pointed upwards where the ice seemed to be breaking. "All your yelling is cracking the ice. if we're not careful, we could start an avalanche. got it?"

Lance and Keith both stopped yelling.

"Got it". Keith whispered.

"Not a peep", Lance mouthed to Shiro.

"Good", Shiro said. He gave them the thumbs up sign, put a finger to his lips and resumed walking up the mountain. Lance and Keith followed behind silently.

But Stats stood still as a statue in the snow, a strange, almost pained look on his face. His cheeks puffed out, and his eyes bulged-he felt something coming. If he could go back in time and not drink Hunk's juice, he would. There was no stopping what was about to happen though, Stats gave into it.

BBBUUURRRRRPPPP.

Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Kiaion and Kosmo froze as the megaburp echoed through the canyon, as lond and menacing as a clap of thunder. A moment later, an ice sheet broke free in the distance. It began slipping down the mountain, picking up speed and snow as it went.

"Avalanche!" Lance yelled. "Run!"

Hunk scooped up Kiaion and Stats and they took off running, but Pidge's legs were too small to move through the deep powder very fast. She slipped and grabbed one of Shiro's hands to catch her balance, but he moaned and shook him off. Pidge nothing that his hand looked...Bloody.

"Oh my gosh", Pidge said. "What's happened to your hand?"

"Don't worry about it. Just run". Shiro said. With his good hand he yanked Pidge's arm and they continued down the part, but a few moments later, when he looked over his shoulder, Shiro knew the avalanche would overtake them.

"We're not going to make it", Shiro said. " It's like a snow-nami". Lance skidded to a stop on his heels and turned around to face the snow, Shiro was right, they could never outrun the avalanche. He had to do something. He returned to his own hand.

"Get behind me", Lance said. "I have a plan".

Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, Stats, Kiaion, and Kosmo obeyed.

Lance stepped forward and remove the beads from his hand in front of him. The wall of white doom was only feet away.

With a deep breath, Lance put his hand on the floor of the Mountain and summon a wall of ice, strong enough to split the snow creating a sanctuary for the group. The avalanche rushed past them on both sides.

Lance felt like his entire body was going to turn into an ice sculpture as his wall of ice grew longer and stronger, strong enough to protect his friends but over and over he tumbled, careening down the mountain in a flurry of white, putting his beads on his arm. He finally came to a stop under several feet of snow.

He gasped for air as he pushed his way to the surface. It seemed the snow had settled peacefully on the mountain. But Shiro and the others?

"Is everyone okay?" Lance shouted into the eerie quiet. Then he saw Keith's legs sticking out of the snow. A second later, he had kicked his way out of the drift and righted himself.

"I'm good", Keith said, dusting some powder off his pants, "Where's that burping, juice thief, Larval-monster?" he held his hands out, ready to seize Stats by the neck.

Nearby, Stats popped up and shook the snow off himself along with Kiaion and Kosmo.

"He's right behind you". Hunk said. "And he's okay", Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro had landed on the icy surface of a frozen lake, yards away from everyone else, they looked up and down and determined they was still in one piece.

"We're all okay!" Pidge said.

"Oh, yeah we're all okay..." Shiro coughed, leaving the feeling of relief didn't last, Shiro checked his hand, only to discover more blood.

"Shiro, are you all right!" Pidge said as she twisted around to see Shiro coughing up blood- and they were lying on the ice, a good ten feet away on the icy surface, unscathed but completely alone.

"We'd better get back!" Shiro said. He and Pidge stood up slowly and with great care made, made their way off the ice, however, the extra weight was too much for the fragile ice. Small cracks started to form and multiplied quickly around Pidge and Shiro's feet. They froze, not knowing what to do.

"Shiro, Pidge! Don't move", Keith called to them from the shore. "We're coming to get you", He, Lance, and Hunk slid down the snow to the edge of the lake. Keith crawled out onto the ice on all fours, trying to distribute his weight as evenly as possible, "Stay still, we're almost there", he said, Lance slid out onto the ice behind him.

As Keith approached Shiro and Pidge, he reached his hands out for Pidge first.

"Easy does it. just get over there", Shiro encouraged Pidge.

Pidge carefully grab Keith's hand, but as Keith stood up with the extra weight of her, cracks formed in the ice beneath him. He turned to Hunk and Lance, who was much closer to the shore.

"What now?" Lance asked. It was as clear to him as it was to Keith that if they were going to get Shiro and Pidge to safely off this fragile ice, Lance and Hunk would need to be part of the relay.

"Lance, Pidge is going with you, I'm sorry if I was a jerk before", Keith said. He held Pidge out to Lance like a peace offering, with a warm, trusting look in his eyes.

"That's okay Keith, sometimes I forget things!" Lance said.

"Yeah I know...I'm lucky to have you as my friend!" Keith said. He started to hand him over Pidge but Lance took another deep breath and held up his hand and Pidge grab his, to safety.

But CRACK! The ice beneath Keith split. But Pidge was safe.

"Ok, Shiro it's your turn!" Keith said.

But Shiro shook his head as guilty welled up inside him.

"Keith, I..." Shiro said.

But the cracks were spreading rapidly in every direction.

"Don't worry I got you!" Keith pleaded. He showed his hand towards Shiro.

Shiro was caught off guard, and though he catch Keith's hand. It was too late, the cracks had broke through, causing Shiro to fall into the ice.

Keith's jaw dropped, there was now a huge hole in the ice, opening to the cold, black water beneath. The light of the egg faded and then disappeared as it sank in the deep water.

"Shiro?" Keith shouted.

"Keith, Shiro is in the ice?" Pidge cried. "We have to do something!"

But before Keith or Lance or Pidge could make another move, Kosmo dove into the icy hole. He disappeared into the murky water.

"Kosmo, no! Kosmo", Keith called out into the hole. "I'm going after him", he said to Pidge and the others, but Pidge grabbed his arm.

"Don't", she said. "He has to do this alone, He'll get him; he'll save Shiro, we must believe in him, and we're going to need to be up here to pull him out.

Kosmo hadn't thought before diving into the freezing water. He wasn't sure if he had chosen his destiny or it had chosen him; he only knew that this was what he had to do.

But under the ice, the water was nearly pitch black. Kosmo could barely see his hand in front of his face, let alone Shiro. He paddled desperately in the direction he thought Shiro had gone, scanning the dark for any sign of it. The cold pricked at his fur like daggers until numbness started to take over.

And then he was something. It wasn't much—a glint smell of blood. He lungs burned as pushed through the water, but the speck of light seemed to bob farther out of reach.

Then a stranger sensation crept over Kosmo's body. Warmth traveled from his paws to the top of his head. His mind went fuzzy.

But there—a bright light seemed to be getting closer. Without really trying, he drifted toward the white glow. The light started to take shape and a silhouette emerged. A sense of comfort washed over him—it must be his owner, he thought, here to retrieve him from the frozen waters. It been so long since he last saw him or her. But something he knew them. He or her smiled and beckoned Kosmo toward the light. He paddled to reach him or her and as he came close closer, he or she appeared ready to hold him in his warm embrace. Kosmo held his body out in a circle to hug him or her.

But the moment Kosmo wrapped his arme around the glow, he knew something was off. He wasn't hugging his owner, he was holding something soft and Squishy—it was Shiro! Jolted out of his dreamy stupor, Kosmo thrashed his legs to propel himself and Shiro. But where was the hole he'd fallen through? He searched left and right but it was too late—With one bit of energy, Kosmo teleported as hard as he could.

About the ice, Keith and the others waited in silence for Kosmo and Shiro to reemerge.

"Come on, come on..." Keith muttered. He thought he might throw up.

"It's going to be okay", Lance said, "Kosmo will get Shiro."

One minute passed, then two. Keith couldn't believe this was happening, He spun around toward Lance.

"You were wrong, Lance!" Keith said. "He's not coming back".

Tears formed in Lance's eyes as accepted Keith was probably right. "I'm so sorry, I thought he would be able to do this." He brought his hands to his face to wipe away the tears, just then, a strange bright light covered their eyes. Wait, Kosmo's cool teleportation powers.

"Keith look!" Hunk pointed as in a flash, Kosmo appeared with Shiro. Alive and well but froze to the touch.

Keith carefully runs to them as Lance grabbed him by the ankles and pulled both him and back to shore, trying to ignore, Shiro's bluish skin. Once on land, Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro to generate some warmth.

"Shiro, Shiro! You safe now, you back to us!" Keith said.

There was no response.

He placed the back of his hand on Shiro's ice-cold cheek. "Please, Shiro, you've got to be okay! Just say something—speak to me".

Finally, finally, Shiro blinked his eyes open.

"Sorry, Keith, I didn't mean to let go!" Shiro said.

Keith hugged him tight and Kissed him on the forehead. Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Stats, and Kiaion hugged the two and everyone laughed with relief.

Then Keith looked over at Kosmo, "Thank you!"

But the celebration was short-lived as Shiro started to cough up blood again.

"Shiro!" Keith asked as he saw the blood coming out of his mouth. "Oh, no, guys I think there's something wrong with Shiro.