A farmer went into the woods for firewood—but he found something chilling encased in ice.
Henry stomped the snow from his boots on the porch steps before stepping into the lodge, grateful for the embrace of the wood stove’s heat crackling in the corner. The bite of winter clung to his coat as he shrugged it off and reached for the phone on the counter.
There was only one person he trusted to make sense of what he’d found: his cousin, Sophie Clarke. Sophie was an ecologist with years of fieldwork under her belt, including expeditions as far north as Ellesmere Island. Though she now lived in Pine Hollow, her experience with Arctic ecosystems was second to none.
If anyone could help him, it was her. The phone rang twice before Sophie’s familiar voice answered, warm but tinged with surprise. “Henry? Calling me in the middle of the day? What’s going on?”
Henry let out a nervous chuckle. “Sophie, you’re not gonna believe this. I found something out in the woods—a block of ice. But it’s not just ice. There’s… something inside.”
“What do you mean, ‘something’?” Sophie’s tone sharpened with curiosity.
“A creature,” Henry said, lowering his voice as though the thing might overhear. “I can’t make out the details—too much frost—but it’s big. And it’s not like any animal I’ve seen before.”
There was a long pause on the line. “You’re joking,” Sophie finally said.
“I’m serious, Sophie. It’s outside the lodge right now. You’ve got to come see it.”
She sighed, but there was an unmistakable spark of excitement beneath it. “Alright. I’ll be there in an hour. Don’t touch it. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Henry grinned. “No promises.”
After hanging up, Henry couldn’t resist sharing the discovery with someone else. He dialed Russ, the local mechanic, always game for a bit of mystery.
