Ice

Once upon a time, in another life, I braved a world colder than my own.

Across a frozen sea the ice rose and the winds struck my little ship. For on the ocean, all ships are little, no matter their size. In the Antarctic fog, icebergs rose suddenly, as if from the imagination but I could hear the lure of the sea.

The ice groaned and snarled against the hold, the prow nosed forward and the greedy ice surrounded the ship. I turned to the horizon and the bleak sky, knowing I was lost. A night passed, but I did not sleep. When dawn came, there on the ice a pair of seals were watching me, perhaps puzzled at my peculiar ice-encased vessel. At first I wanted to be alone in my misery and I nearly shouted at them.

Instead I leaned over the railing and spoke to them. "Do you know a way out of here?"

They looked at me solemnly, but just at that moment, the ice gave a shattering crack and the ship rocked. I immediately put the ship about and sailed into the open water. When I looked back, the seals were gone. 

I put the ice far behind me, I put the northern stars into my sight. In time I entered another ice cloaked world, where my ship slowed among the treacherous waves. I was cautious though, watching only from afar the inhabitants of this land.

In the end it was the orca that found me lost at the edge of that northern place, and I followed her swift dorsal fin through storm and calm. Through many weeks she rarely left my bow, straight and true, better than any bearing, she kept me safe and so I came home at last.

The end.

On the same theme, I created an icy-cold treasury of my etsy team's ceramic art -

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d45a6ec72478eefa774ca02/cold-waters