A farmer went into the woods for firewood—but he found something chilling encased in ice.
“Probably just a bear,” Russ scoffed when Henry described the ice block. “Got caught in a weird thaw and froze.”
Henry rolled his eyes but smiled. “Maybe. But Sophie’s coming over. You want in, you’d better get here before she figures it out.”
As he paced the kitchen, Henry’s eyes kept drifting to the frost-blurred window, where the block sat hidden under a tarp. The temptation to call more people itched at him, but the thought of chaos made him decide otherwise. For now, Sophie was enough.
At last, headlights swept over the snow in the drive. Sophie’s truck rolled to a stop, tires crunching on the ice. She climbed out, bundled in a thick winter parka, her backpack slung over one shoulder. Her breath rose in white puffs as she waved.
“Alright, Henry,” she called, her voice warm but edged with curiosity. “What’s this all about?”
“See for yourself,” Henry replied, leading her toward the shaded side of the lodge.
Sophie knelt by the ice block, tugged back the tarp, and froze mid-breath.
“Whoa,” she murmured, eyes widening. “This is… remarkable.”
The frosted surface masked much of the interior, but even blurred, the figure was strange. The proportions were off, its bulk crowned by faint, antler-like outlines.
“This ice is ancient,” Sophie said, running her gloved hand over the glassy surface. “Look at the clarity—it’s like glacial ice. And whatever’s inside… the frost and refraction distort it too much to tell.”
Henry crouched beside her. “It’s been sitting out there in the woods, just waiting to be found. Any idea what it is?”
Sophie pulled a small scanner from her pack and swept it over the ice in slow arcs.
“I can’t say for sure,” she admitted. “It could be an animal caught in a sudden flash freeze—maybe even something prehistoric. But the skeletal structure… it doesn’t match anything local.”
