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You can read more original fiction from Emily Chesley in the Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle<

The Windigo of Frigheim IX

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The Windigo of Frigheim IX
-- a speculative fiction by Emily Chesley

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The creature returned again that night. Benjorn woke to the terrible hissing noise as it approached, and listened with horror as it dug the captain's body out of its shallow, snowy grave. He didn't bother waking Leila, cradled in his arms, as it dragged the captain away. Lieutenant Chaunders had died trying to protect the body of their ship's playwright, Samal Bung from the feral creature, half-humanoid and half ursine. When the sound faded into the background roar of Frigheim's wind, Leila said, "I thought it would never leave."

Her hands did considerably more than cradle Benjorn, and he soon forgot the horror outside.

The next morning, Jeremy broached the topic that they had all avoided since they landed on Frigheim: "I say, it is a shame that the creature is taking away the bodies - you know they might one day be needed as a source of you know, nosh."

Bogo Fudgemar hooted his agreement: "aye, hees right lassie. Ye nevar know. And most 'a the ship's rations ware lost in the wee battle."

"Don't be obscene." Leila cut the discussion short before the Fetish twins could chime in, and Benjorn glowered at them threateningly. As the only other regular Fleet member, he had one of the two pistols left after the crash. The rest had been sucked out of the ship in the skirmish with the Neebies. He put his hand on the butt of it pointedly.

All talk of cannibalism quashed, the small group of survivors left the deceptive safety of the Retrograde, and started their long trek southwards; Leila believed that the ocean might warm the land enough for life to survive at the southern edge of the continent.