a collection of tales [[ chronocompass writing ]]

Ashgar was awoken that morning by an excited Tidehopper jumping up and down, shaking the whole cabin. He blinked open his eyes wearily and asked “Tide? What do you want? The sun isn’t even up yet.”

Maristella was quickly waking up as well, as Tide responded, “But the snow outside is so nice! You have to go look, it’s beautiful! The perfect day to go look for some hidden treasures.”

Ashgar pulled his blanket further over his head and grumbled in exhaustion. “Not yet...”

Maristella joined Tide in trying to convince the Tsotska, flicking him with her webbed tail. “Might as well come along, yeah? We didn’t go out salvaging yesterday, after all. We’ve got to earn a living somehow.” Continuing to bug him with her tail, she eventually managed to get the tail under the blanket and pull it off. When Ashgar groaned she simply said, “Just come out and watch us. I’ll go under the ice with Tide. You can just sort through whatever we bring back up.”

Ashgar opened his eyes again, nodded blearily, and went to put on some warmer clothes - though not his salvage gear, this time around. He was going to take Stella up on her offer and just sit on the shore with his blankets and a warm drink.

After getting dressed and grabbing his backpack of supplies, Stella flew him out towards the ocean while Tide raced ahead, yelling excitedly all the time. Ashgar resisted the urge to fall asleep and instead watched as the snow below turned to frozen, rock covered shores, to an ocean, covered in ice. Maristella landed by the start of the ice, and Ashgar hopped off. He took a few tired steps across the shore until he found a slightly larger rock to sit on. The blanket went down first, followed by the Tsotska himself wrapped in another blanket. The backpack went to one side, and he set down his warm cup of hot chocolate with a smile. “Okay then. All up to you. Salvage away, friends.”

Tidehopper was already out on the ice, tapping it with her paws as she searched for a weak spot to open up. Stella, after shooting Ashgar a smile, unfurled her wings and flapped after the younger dragon. She met him out on the frozen ocean. “So then, what’s the plan?” she asked, pausing to hover in the air.

Tide looked up from her examining of the ice and smiled up at Stella. “Haven’t seen ice as thick as this in a while. Perhaps you could help me out? I’ve been looking around for a spot to break through but haven’t had much luck so far.”

Stella nodded along to her fellow dragon’s words. “Of course! I’ll check this way if you go that way?” she asked, with a flourish of her tail to show what she meant. Tidehopper offered a cheerful agreement, and the two began to scour the ice, while Ashgar kept an eye out back on the rocky shore.

The ice was challenging to stare at for a long time - the endless white was filled with many colors, but it was still a bit bland after a while, and the glint of the rising sun above wasn’t the best thing when it flashed right into Stella’s eyes. She moved along the ice, tapping it occasionally. Finally, she found a spot that cracked a bit when she touched it. “Tide! Come over here! I’ve got a good place!”

The other dragon hurried over, a bundle of energy and ready to go exploring beneath the sea. She looked at the spot Maristella had pointed out and nodded. “You’re right. Looks pretty good. Are we going to just hit it till we break through or something else?”

“Probably go ask Ashgar for an ice pickaxe. He keeps one on him for these trips,” the older sea serpent suggested. “Look, he’s still hanging out back there. You could fly back there and get it pretty easily.”

“Okay!” agreed Tide, cheerful as ever. She hopped back up off of the ice and glided her way back over to Ashgar. The Tsotska, back on shore, was having quite a nice time - or as nice of a time as he could in the freezing cold, as a cold blooded creature. He took a sip of his hot chocolate and was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of one of his dragons landing beside him.

“Hey there, Tide. What do you need? Everything okay out on the open ocean?”

Tide smiled and nodded. “Yeah! Stella just sent me back to get an ice pick, is all. She said that you always keep one on you?” Tide hadn’t been on many salvaging missions yet, so she was still figuring out how it all worked.

Ashgar put down his drink, turned, and rummaged through his backpack for a short time. After a bit of looking around, he pulled out a pick with a sound of triumph. “Ah! Here you go. Stella knows how to use it, but if you really have trouble just come and get me.”

Back out on the ice, Maristella took the pickaxe and carefully hit the ice with it. After a few well placed hits, the ice broke open beneath them and they were able to peer down into the dark expanse of water below. The first step had been made, but there was still much work to be done.

—————

Tidehopper dipped a foot into the water first. It was freezing cold. Still, that wasn’t going to stop her from adventuring into the depths so easily. She took a glance back to Ashgar back on shore, then dove beneath the ice, eyesight quickly adjusting to the slightly darker space. Slipping all the way in, she swirled further down into the ocean and started to look around for stuff to bring back to the surface. Maristella joined her below the ice with a muted splash and the two started to search together. While Stella began by checking the shallows for good rocks and old pieces of rope to bring surface side, Tide traveled a bit further into the depths. The surface got further and further away as she delved further into the darkness of the ocean.

Maristella gathered up an armful of rocks and old forgotten scraps lost to sea long ago, and made her way back to the gap in the ice that she was able to re - find surprisingly quickly. The sea dragon burst up from the water with a dramatic  splash and flew the supplies back to shore, setting them down on the rocks beside Ashgar. Ashgar himself was busy trying to make a rock tower as he stayed huddled in his blanket pile. She paused a moment from her work to look at his rock pile in interest. “Not bad. Are you feeling more awake now?”

“A little bit. It’s pretty cold today, but it’s kind of nice just taking a break today and watching the scenery is nice for a change. Are you both okay?” he asked, tugging his blanket tighter around himself.

Maristella organized the pile into a better stack and grinned. “We’re doing good down there! It’s really nice to have another dragon on the team. I haven’t seen someone so excited to grab random stuff from the ocean in a long time. Actually, probably not since we both were young.”

“That’s nice,” Ashgar said. “That’s really nice.”

Maristella flew back out to sea, metal wings gracefully carrying her back across the ice until she reached the hole in the frost and dove back beneath. She cast her gaze and mental link across the water to see where Tide was, and sensed that the younger dragon was in a spot of trouble. By the time she made her way across the water and through the freezing ocean to Tide, she understood what was going on. Tidehopper was attempting to dig up a very shiny, bright object, one that seemed to shine even here beneath the ice and the waves. It was fairly large at first glance, and Stella could tell that it would take some time to unbury such an impressive object.

Tide tried to lift some of the dirt and rocks away from the object, but she didn’t have claws, and neither did Stella. So they worked on digging around the object for a while. Not needing to breathe air above ground really helped in such a situation. They spent at least half an hour moving rocks and shifting dirt until Stella’s feet were sore and Tide’s scales felt numb from the chill. But, at last, the two dragons managed to move enough of the debris to shift whatever was hiding in the depths, and Stella grabbed the object and pulled while Tidehopper continued to shove stuff out of the way. With a sharp tug, the shining object came loose. In the darkness, it was hard to tell exactly what it was, but Stella held it carefully and nodded up towards the surface. They could examine the thing up top.

The two dragons jumped out of the water, glided over the ice, and made their way to Ashgar once more. He looked up from his next attempt at a rock stack as they both arrived at his side. “What did you find this time?” he asked, actually standing and walking closer to take a look, blankets still wrapped around him. He brushed some of the mud off the shiny mystery thing and took it from Maristella’s paws. It was pretty light for its size, and when he got a closer look he realized what it was. “Oh!”

“What is it?” asked Tidehopper, hope filling her voice.

“You both found some odd thing made entirely of glass. I’m shocked it’s not broken at all. Teeba might be interested in this next time he visits.” He looks at it again and adjusts his claws so he can hold it a lot better. “I’ll keep it on the pile. Did you two want to keep going or have you had enough adventuring for one day?”

“I’d like to keep exploring!” Tidehopper grinned, though he definitely appeared to have a lot less energy than before. Maristella nodded.

“I’ll go along with her. You keep an eye on our treasures here, will you, Ashgar?”

The Tsotska smiled at his two dragons, happy that he had his two friends with him. “Definitely! Please, go on as long as you like. I’ll still be here.”

The dragons went down into the depths for several more hours, and unearthed more wonderful treasures to clean up and send out to the crafters of Tsotska De La Mer later. By the middle of the day, they were both tired out, Ashgar was cold, and there was more than enough to lug back home, enough that they had to take two trips back home. By the end, they had gathered a decent pile of treasure, and Ashgar was happy that he hadn’t had to do much. After all, some days, people just get tired.