A strange new Urruth part II
The alien band was making slow, but steady progress up the side of the ridge when disaster struck.
A Rogan’s personal shield on low power would create a bubble of warmth around his body, but it ended at any physical barrier
Shintok; elron-A had learned that every step he took his claw feet sank into strange ground and he felt cold. That was not too bad, but the ground was not consistent, sometimes it was hard and would just compact down a little, but then it would be soft and a leg would sink halfway into the strange muck not-muck.
After this happened a few times, he realized that he could walk on three legs holding the affected limb up until it warmed. Using hands, and sometimes feet to grasp trees as he passed, gave needed leverage, and aided the climb .
Elron failed to notice that the rest of the band had apparently made the same discovery, so the group was moving slow, but holding together. It was even possible, though difficult, for a Rogan to travel upright on two legs, but definitely not a good idea for walking uphill.
Near the head of the column upslope, one of the Sheen was attempting just that, when he lost his footing and tumbled over backwards. He hit a companion, who likewise lost his footing, and then landing on his back, began to slide downhill headfirst.
Thus began a chain reaction that affected 42 of the 60 Rogans. The lucky ones wold be knocked down and slide a few yard before smacking into a tree or rock, others were less fortunate.
elron both saw and keened another Shintok fall and slide fully ten yards, before hitting poor elron like a trick shot in billiards. elron landed in a snow drift, and sank in untill he was almost completely buried.
“Cold is!, Colds is!, Cold, is!” he wailed aloud. Instinctively he tried to swim but the forward movement simply compressed the snow, preventing any escape. Without the bubble of warmth his body temperature began to plummet, at the same time slowing his metabolic rate “cold cold… cold “ his voice growing weak.
Suddenly a pair of claws grasped him and then another soon he was being pulled out of the snow by his broodmates, argo and teth. The renewed warmth of the force shield was a pleasure he had never imagined.
“Warmth is” he declared “cold was, but cold is not, cold memory must go, cold must go”
huk, argo and teth were silently appreciative of this remarkable dissertation. Of course it never occurred to elron to thank his broodmates for saving his life, such is not the Rogan way.
Those Rogans not affected by the alien avalanche, were by now, far ahead of the others. elron and his broodmates soon began to follow the path to the crest, along with a dozen or so other stragglers. Those Rogans injured or stuck in the snow would soon succumb to the cold and die.
None of the Rogans yet realized, that for them, the conquest of Alchibah was not going too good.