The Empire of Ice Cream Read Free Page B

ocean. Its light is dreamlike, and it makes me wonder if I have really taken form or if I am still a spirit, dreaming I am not.
    A M OMENTOUS D ISCOVERY
    Phargo and I discovered a corked bottle upon the beach. As has become my practice, I took out my hatchet and smashed a hole in its side near the neck. Often, I have found that these vessels are filled with an intoxicating liquor that in small doses warms the innards when the wind blows, and in large doses makes me sing and dance upon the turret. Before I could venture inside, I heard a voice call out, “Help us!” I was frozen in my tracks, thinking I had opened a ship of ghosts. Then, from out of the dark back of the bottle came a figure. Imagine my relief when I saw it was a female faerie. I am not exactly sure which branch of the folk she is from, but she is my height, dressed in a short gown woven from spider thread, and has alluring long, orange hair. She staggered forward and collapsed in my arms. Hiding behind her was a small faerie child, a boy, I think. He was frightened and sickly looking, and said nothing but followed me when I put the woman over my shoulder and carried her home. They now rest peacefully down the hall in a makeshift bed I put together from a common clamshell and a few folds of that pink material. I am filled with questions.
    T HE M OON
    Meiwa told me the name of the white circle in the sky, which has now revealed itself completely. She said it was called the Moon, the bright specks are Stars, and the red orb was the Sun. I live in a time of darkness called the Night, and amazingly, there exists a time of brightness when the sun rules a blue sky and one can see a mile or more. All these things I think I knew at one time before I was born into this life. She knows many things including some secrets of the giant architects. The two of them, she and her son, are Willnits, seafaring people apparently who live aboard the ships of the giants. They had fallen asleep in an empty rum bottle, thinking it was safe, but when they awoke, they found the top stopped with a cork and their haven adrift upon the ocean. Sadly enough, her husband had been killed by one of the giants, called Humans, who mistook him for an insect and crushed him. I can vouch that she is expert with a fishing spear and was quite fierce in helping turn back an infestation of burrowing sand crabs in the dungeon. The boy, Magtel, is quiet but polite and seems a little worse for wear from their harrowing adventures. Only Phargo can bring a smile to him. I made him his own axe, to lift his spirits.
    A S MALL N IGHT B IRD
    Meiwa has enchanted a small night bird by attracting it with crumbs of a special bread she bakes from thin air and sea foam, and then using her lovely singing voice to train it. When she mounted the back of the delicate creature and called me to join her, I will admit I was skeptical. Once upon the bird, my arms around her waist, she made a kissing noise with her lips and we took off into the sky. My head swam as we went higher and higher and then swept along the shoreline in the light of the moon. She laughed wildly at my fear, and when we did not fall, I laughed too. She took me to a place where the giants live, in giant houses. Through a glass pane, we saw a giant girl drawing a colorful picture of a bird sitting upon a one-eyed woman’s shoulder. Then we were off, traveling miles, soaring and diving, and eventually coming to rest on the bridge moat of While Away. The bird is not the only creature who has been enchanted by Meiwa.
    150 S TEPS
    Magtel regularly accompanies me on the search for food now. When we came upon a blue claw in the throes of death, he stepped up next to me and put his hand in mine. We waited until the creature stopped moving, and then took our axes to the shell. Quite a harvest. It is now only 150 steps from the wall to the water.
    G REENLY S PEAKS
    I did not hear him at first as I was sleeping so soundly, but Meiwa, lying next to me, did