In the Jaws of the Ice Worm
The northern lights played weirdly overhead
Like the departed spirits of the dead.
The team traveled the land of endless night
Headed to the North Pole by their strange light.
The three dog teams carried the men and gear.
In the extreme cold the stars looked quite near.
Ice on the men’s eyebrows and eyelashes
Formed from their breaths in great frozen patches.
The race north from the small Inuit town
Was against some others for great renown.
The Inuits warned them not to go then.
The dread ice worm would be out of its den.
They had laughed at the foolish native lore
Thinking only of their fame and not more.
The competing team was on its quick way.
They had no time to dawdle or to stay.
They were six men and guide for the conquest.
Just enough and no more for the contest.
Making ready their sleds and dog teams too,
They carried enough supplies for their crew.
All around were the white white ice and snow.
The darkness made the temperature low.
They had left the village in a big rush.
Snow flew from skids as they started to mush.
For two days they traveled the icy plain,
Each enduring wind and cold, strain and pain.
Jackson mushing the last team in their line
Had misgivings about the plan’s design.
He kept an alert, shrewd, and watchful eye
Knowing the prospect for danger was high.
On the second day of travel they saw
A dim bluish light that left them in awe.
It traveled quickly under the ice pack
And swiftly turned on an intercept tack.
It ran towards them straight as an arrow
Breaking the ice as if by a harrow.
As it reached the team the ice split apart.
Into the crevasse the sleds did depart.
Jackson, last in line, jumped away safely.
As the rest shrieked at their doom insanely.
Shaking, he looked and thought he saw below
Something white and moving; must have been snow.
No GPS had he, only his gun.
He looked down and his brass compass just spun.
He thought there was something wrong with the night.
Something in the air just didn’t feel right.
With nothing to show proper direction
He followed their tracks as his selection.
Soon, though, it began to snow very hard
And quickly the tracks wiped out and marred.
The snow stopped and he trudged on in the cold.
Overhead the aurora fire burned bold.
He needed to get out of the cold wind
Or too soon his strength the arctic would spend.
He looked for a place to make a snow cave.
He craved the warmth that it and candle gave.
He dug carefully to avoid a sweat.
That would surely be a serious threat.
He piled the dug snow on top of his cave.
Inside his candle the cold it did stave.
He wondered what it could have been he saw
When his team fell into the icy maw.
Something long, white, and round he was certain.
Mayhap it was the ice in inversion.
Hours later he emerged from his den
And picked up his bleak journey once again.
Suddenly, in the distance flared a fire.
It’s orange glow lit the horizon entire.
A fire in this place was likely human
And his rescue a foregone conclusion.
He hurried towards the conflagration.
If he were wrong it was his damnation.
No food, no water, only a shotgun
He had in case of bears and not for fun.
His face was stiff and he couldn’t feel it.
His feet were ice cold but he wouldn’t quit.
Bent to the frigid wind he hurried on.
He hoped against hope they would not be gone.
The fire was fading against the dark sky.
The voice of hopelessness he did deny.
He topped a mound and there before him lay
Wrecked snowmobiles and scorched ice on display.
Two people stood forlornly to one side.
Hope within Jackson there and then just died.
Twas a man and woman, he could now see
Looking around so lost and helplessly.
“What happened here and are you two alright?”
The man said, “We’ve had a terrible fright!
A monster arose from the ice this night.
And smote our friends and camp with fiercesome might.”
The woman picked up the tale, “A faint hue
Of blue; twas worm that split the ice in two.
Our camp and our friends were so quickly gone
Killed by that monster, that white devil’s spawn.”
Jackson replied, “Inuits warned before
We left, but we thought it was simply lore.
Now my entire team has been wiped away.
I alone, of six men am here today.
We saw a faint blue fire under the ice
Moving faster than by human device.”
As they were speaking, out from the wreckage
Rushed the frightening nature’s miscarriage.
The worm made no slightest sound as it came.
About it a blue glow played like a flame.
It was fully fifteen meters in length
With a tentacled round mouth full of teeth.
The worm was as big around as a car.
It came swiftly onward with mouth ajar.
It was as white as were the ice and snow
And from it a frozen wind seemed to blow.
The worm simply engulfed the other man.
As it did so its color flashed cyan.
The woman screamed and swiftly Jackson
Got his twelve gauge shotgun into action.
The heavy lead slugs tore into the beast.
It seemed twas unaffected in the least.
He fired into the white tubular head
Until blue ichor pooled round as it bled.
Closer, now, he fired till the thing was dead;
Firing till sure there was nothing to dread.
The fight had been short but was furious.
The monster had been simply murderous.
At that moment they heard the welcome sound
Of the search and rescue aircraft inbound.
Landing, the crew could not believe their eyes.
The monster was of incredible size.
Jackson and the woman clambered aboard
And headed ‘way from the land they explored.
As they flew over the site they saw below,
Headed to the corpse, four blue trails aglow.
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