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“No.”
“Then it’s not working.”
“I turned it on, and I picked the highest magnification setting. What am I missing?”
The bear sniffed at them again, falling onto all fours and taking a tentative step forward.
“Oh, shoot,” Dewey said from inside his carrier, “you need a pinch of nymph nectar.”
“Oh, that’s just great. So, this is just a giant useless box.”
“No, no, I brought the nymph nectar. It’s in the bag. Just watch when you open it because it…sticky…drip…grow.” Dewey’s words cut out as the wind whipped past them.
“What?” Paige dug through the bag again and found a small vial.
She tugged the top off and poured the syrupy sap into the hole at the top of the machine. Her frozen fingers made it difficult to manage the small vial. A smear of syrup coated her purple hand. She licked the sticky substance from her finger, pleased by the sugary-sweet maple taste.
“There we go,” she mumbled to herself, shoving the cap back on and dropping the vial into her bag.
The machine started to shimmy before an image burst forth from it. A massive version of Paige stood in front of the bear.
“Get out of here,” Paige shouted, her large projection mimicking her.
The bear sniffed in the air again before it fell to all fours and loped into the woods.
“Ha! And stay away,” Paige shouted as she flicked off the projector and dumped it into her bag.
She slid her glove onto her exposed hand, tugging at it as her forehead crinkled. It barely came to her wrist.
She shook her head at the shrunken fabric while she charged forward toward the mine entrance. As she approached, she caught sight of two snowmobiles, hidden behind the nearby trees surrounding the mine entrance.
“Dewey,” she exclaimed. “There are snowmobiles here. Maybe we can use those to escape after we get warm.”
She tugged the metal door open that warned visitors to use caution and slipped inside. The door slammed closed behind her, plunging the space into darkness.
With the wind no longer howling and snow not coating her, it immediately felt warmer.
“Ah, that’s better,” she said, her voice echoing in the rocky chamber.
She pushed the hood off her head before she set the carrier down and dug for her cell phone. Her gloved hand struggled to work properly.
It must be half frozen, she thought.
She flicked on her flashlight and searched the space, finding lanterns hanging on the wall. After cranking one, she switched it on, and light filled the space. She set the lantern down on the floor, kneeling next to the carrier that rocked back and forth as Dewey emerged from his blanket.
“You okay?” she asked as she struggled to unzip the carrier.
“Yeah, much better now. Unzip me.”
“I’m trying. Wait, let me get this glove off. My fingers won’t work. They’re probably stiff from the cold.”
Paige tugged off her left glove with her teeth, then her right, which threatened to pop off anyway and barely covered her palm.
Her eyes went wide, and she fell onto her backside as she stared at her hand. “OMG!”
“What is it? Let me out.” The carrier shook again.
“My hand! Something’s wrong with my hand!” Plump digits stuck from a swollen hand that resembled a balloon.
