The New Northwest Expedition

The New Northwest Expedition

Franklin stood on the slope, surveying the landscape. Windswept rock mostly covered in powdery snow. Ice-sheets. A little open water further out, with ice floating in it here and there. No trees, no shrubbery, nothing green or growing. Had the old Franklin looked upon such sights with his men and wondered if they had made a mistake?
But they didn’t have thermal underwear, or frost-proof sleeping bags. No coffee in thermos mugs, no industrially produced tents or handy portable gas-heaters, the kind mountaineers used. He had all these things, and more. Like GPS, and the full knowledge of the landscape that the brave crews of Terror and Erebus had lacked.
He sniffled a little and pulled his scarf over his nose. Cold out. Very cold. He checked his watch. 11:34 AM. Almost high noon, yet the sun was nowhere to be seen. All nature offered him was an ambient light, a grey and cold light. Cold, always with the cold. Why was his back slick with sweat if it were so? His crotch and armpits too. His shoulders, from where the straps of the backpack dug into him. Maybe he was overdressed and it wasn’t as cold as all that.
At least it wasn’t if he kept moving. So move he did, down the slope and toward the water. Not too far to the water, of course. Ice could be thin. It probably wasn’t. It didn’t even creak under his feet. The snow crunched, but the ice was solid and quiet. It hummed every now and then, as ice does. Almost alive, really. And below that the cold, dark waters. So close to that world, a world where a man couldn’t exist. How had the sailors of centuries past endured the thought? How had the Inuit people, who canoed on their tiny little canoes, made from taut leather or whatever, bobbing up and down on every wave?
Yes sir, Franklin had nothing but the utmost respect for those doomed explorers and the natives. He yearned to write his name in the history books as well. Of course the Northwest Passage had been found long since, but that didn’t make traversing these environs in the dead of winter any less of a challenge, modern comforts aside.
He removed the scarf from his face again, it was getting moist from his breathing and that was no good. He breathed free air again, deep lungfuls of the most refreshing, frigid air. Wonderful, clean. No pollutants in the air, no polluters anywhere near him. Just him and the great outdoors, and -
“Murph!” a voice cried out. A human voice, it seemed like. Murph?
“L’egg!” it cried out. Where could the voice be coming from? Franklin saw no one.
“Fibph,” the voice said, dejectedly, and Franklin noticed a bluish lump on the ice, moving. A seal? A massive seal, by the look of it. He only saw it from behind, but there was a hole in the ice, and the animal’s head would’ve been near the water. Was that where the voice was coming fro-
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” it cried out, starling him. He jumped back, slipped on the ice, fell and then the ice cracked. He heard it crack. Then the light was gone and the cold waters rushed all over him.
Franklin’s heavy clothing and backpack pulled him down, he couldn’t struggle up to the tiny hole of light, then the current had pulled him away and there was only the dark around him, he couldn’t see the hole anymore he couldn’t find the air again he wasn’t he was no he couldn’t be he would he was going to die oh no oh no ohno-
Something grabbed onto him. Something strong, it pulled against the current. It felt soft against him. Many soft things were pressing against him. Then they broke the water surface, he gasped for air but couldn’t see anything still, had he gone blind oh god he was blind!
 “Aaah, ca va, homme?” a voice asked.
“W-whuh?”
”Ah, l’anglais? You alright there man?”
“F-f-fff,” he tried.
“What a bummer, hey?”
Franklin responded with just the clack of his teeth.
“No worries, there’s a good boy,” the voice said and opened the zipper of his coat. “Just got to take off these wet things, no worries, no worries.”
Yes, that made sense. Out of the wet clothes.
“Mittens in the way,” the voice mumbled and a shuffling sound indicated her removing said mittens. Franklin was soon undressed. His backpack was thrown somewhere.
“A little light, yeah?”
A light was lit, one of those magic orbs you rubbed to make it shine, hanging from the ceiling. The ceiling was all white. The walls were all white. Made out of blocks. An igloo? He was in an igloo? But they’d come in through the water, hadn’t they?
Franklin turned his head and saw the pool of water right there. And on the other side was his savior, a woman. The top half of a woman, wearing a seal-skin over her head and shoulders. A mat of reddish hair ran down her shoulders as well, in wet curls. Her breasts were exposed, the cold seeming to only affect that part of her by having the nipples stand out firm.
Below the waist was more seal. There was a word for things like these. A Selkie. Not quite a mermaid, but a real lifesaver at any rate.
“Now you just open that pretty mouth and drink up some of this firewater, yeah? Got to warm up on the inside too.”
Franklin opened his mouth and accepted the offered vessel. The burning that spread through his mouth and throat spoke of strong spirits, the taste was that of brandy.
“Good firewater. Everybody likes it, but not too much at once, hey? Gets you in trouble.”
The spring of life-bringing liquid ran dry and withdrew from him. Franklin smacked his lips. So good. It felt warm going down. The only part of him that did. There was some kind of fur under his back. He only began to feel it now. So soft.
The Selkie climbed onto that fur right next to him, almost on top of him, and pulled the fur around the both of them. It was so very warm, and not because of hypothermia.
“T-to boldly go, where no man has gone before,” he mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“You may be delirious from the cold. We better warm you up some more, hey?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
The Selkie kissed him, their tongues met. Got to warm up from the inside, too.