The sudden bump of the plane jostled her awake, suddenly
paranoid something terrible was about to go wrong. The view out of the small
porthole window quickly calmed the sea otter’s nerves though, nothing but the
sea of ice below them. The view hadn’t changed any. No engine fire, no stalled
propellers, no billowing smoke cloud. She wasn’t sure why this trip had her so worried;
it wasn’t like she hadn’t flown before…

Originally from the south Pacific islands, LeiLani was used
to warmth, sunshine, and rolling beaches and islands where she swam, often times
diving down and showing the sights to fascinated and curious tourists, for a
fee of course. Her hazel brown fur didn’t soak up the water like most species
did, and it made her living doing something she enjoyed not seem like work at
all. Even her days off were spent in the water, swimming the warm oceans and
diving down between the colorful reefs.

Of course though, she had never swam, let alone flown to anywhere
quite this remote before either. It was technically in the summer seasons, but
you couldn’t have guessed it by looking around. The only clue was the fact that
the sun hadn’t set for over a day now. Across from her, her ‘host’, the one who
had invited her on this little diving expedition seemed all too calm, despite
the turbulence. Diving, that was how he had conned her into it, she was
certain.

“Oh, you should come
with me on my next diving tour in summer, you’ll love it, I swear! Like nothing
you’ve ever done before, I guarantee it!” He’d promised her, and being the
lover of water that she was, she could hardly pass up an invitation like that.
She had expected it to be… Warmer, though. When he’d shown up with thick polar
gear, she thought it had been some kind of a joke, but when his expression
didn’t change upon inquiring about just where he had planned on going diving,
she knew she’d been had. She longed to be back home right now, basking in the
sunlight on the beach instead, but it would have been rude to refuse after he’d
already made the arrangements.

The Antarctic icebergs below them were bigger than the
buildings on the little island she hailed from even, and the chilly wind that
whistled in through the seams of the windows and door bit at her feet, even
wrapped up in the blanket as she was. The worst part about it was that she knew
this was probably the warmest it would be for the next two weeks… Flights onto and
off of the frozen continent were always on a strict schedule, and if the
weather was bad, she might end up stuck in this cruel mockery of her idea of
somewhere she would love for lord only knew how long!

And yet through all of her turmoil about the prospect of
being stuck here, that smug little grin hadn’t left Isiat’s muzzle since they’d
gotten airborne. If she wasn’t such a nice person, she’d have slapped it off
his face a half an hour ago.

As if reacting to the very thought, the vulpine’s head
cocked upwards, looking at her from behind his ocean blue tinted sunglasses.
She didn’t even have to see his eyes to catch the clear glimmer of amusement
that he was taking at her attempts of adaptation to the cold.

“Sooo…” He began with a slow roll of his shoulders, his far
too numerous number of tails flickering up to drape over his lap like an
absurdly fluffy pillow. “How’s the weather treating you?”

“I feel like my feet are freezing to the insides of my boots.”
She shivered, despite the layers of clothing she had packed on before and
during the trip. Reaching one paw up curiously, she extended her fingers out,
before running them down the glass of the porthole and just as quickly
snatching them away. “Does it ever get warmer here?” She shot the question at
him, tucking her paw quickly down inside her pockets to try and restore some
feeling to the tips of her digits.

Isiat cocked his head, apparently taken somewhat by surprise
by that. “Well… I mean, it gets warm enough that it takes a minute or two for
boiling water to freeze outside if that counts.”

LeiLani’s expression was less than impressed with his
response, and he simply shrugged it off, the cold not seeming to bother him at
all. “It’s warmer in the station itself. They like to keep all the heaters
cranked up year around. The only building it’s kept below zero is the diving
station, but that’s more out of necessity than anything else. You’ll see.” He
nodded, letting his head tilt back with a relaxed sigh.

“I’m sure…” She muttered in response, reaching under her
chair for the flight blanket and quickly wrapping that around her already
bundled form as well, snuggling into the warmth it offered. Looking out at the
ice once more, she quickly came to the conclusion that the small bikini
swimsuit she had brought just for this trip wasn’t even going to leave her
suitcase…

A brisk and increasingly cold ten minutes later, and
landmass finally materialized beneath their small aircraft, like an icy white
blanket that had been haphazardly thrown onto the surface of the inky black
water. For whatever reason, it didn’t give any more comfort to her about her
situation. At least if they fell out of the sky, she’d stand a better chance
hitting the water than the ice… She would still rather avoid both of those
situations entirely. Darn him, if he had have told her where he planned on
going ‘diving’, she wouldn’t have ever had to leave her sunny beach so far
behind!

When they did at last touch down, Leilani realized she
hadn’t even noticed the landing strip; if you could call it that. It was more
just an agreeably flat strip of snow with some flares lit at one end so the
pilot knew where to stop. Isiat was the first one up, all but bounding from his
seat to open the side door, dropping the stairs down onto the flat below.

“Welcome to Antarctica Miss Perriere!” He called almost
mockingly as he stepped out of the crew compartment. Cold air rushed in from
the now open hatch, and even as the pilots stepped out in their burly
snow-coats, the otter found herself bundling up tighter. This wasn’t a summer
diving tour at all. This was a cruel mockery of summer that winter had mocked
up just to get the last laugh at her. Taking the blankets with her, she hefted
up her backpack and shuffled towards the infinite white plain that waited
outside.

The pair of bright orange Snow-Cats outside briskly ferried
them from the landing strip to the huddle of buildings a few hundred meters
away, and it was on that brief interlude she met the rest of the research team
stationed out here. Predictably, most of them were winter-acclimated creatures,
a Siberian tiger, two arctic foxes and a heavy set polar bear who simply
identified himself as ‘Grunt’, the station’s mechanic.

Still, at least they didn’t try to fool her that this was a
pleasant summer vacation, giving her a lecture on just how fast you could
freeze to death on the outside. That only reassured all those warm, fuzzy
feelings of doing something new that had frozen over somewhere just north of
the Antarctic circle on her way here. They were on better speaking terms to her
than the Keynari sitting adjacent, the smug male just grinning quietly,
evidently taking a measure of amusement at her readily apparent discomfort. She
tried her best to glare at him, but it only succeeded in making him snicker
quietly.

The base itself wasn’t exactly much for accommodations. It
was more just a series of metal portable buildings, drabbed in the same neon
orange paint as the vehicles. At one end, a tall radio mast had been erected,
and at the other end was a downhill slope leading towards an inlet, where a
mass of black forms were mulling about in the cold.

“Are those…”

“Penguins? Yeah, it’s a colony of Emperors that have been
our main focus out here, studying their habits while they’re in the area. It
might not seem like groundbreaking stuff, but McMurdo can do all the drilling
and ice cores for all I care.” One of the foxes in the front told her,
motioning out the window.

“Have to be careful down by the water though. Fall in, and
you’ll likely end up with hypothermia in a minute, and freeze to death in
around ten if the leopard seals and orcas don’t get you before you freeze to
death. They like to get the easy picking on the penguins while they swim. We’ve
got a few locals that we’ve tagged to keep track of.” He nodded out to the
water, and as if on cue, a large black dorsal fin broke the surface, the massive
shape a dark smudge just below the waterline before it dipped away.

LeiLani simply gulped, nodding her head, now with a healthy
fear that Isiat seemed intent on diving into that dark murk. She’d have traded
all of her earthy belongings right then to be back at her beach in Tahiti with
the crystal clear seas before her. The snow-cat lurched to a halt suddenly, the
tracked ice-crawler skidding a few feet over the compacted snow beneath it
before it stopped entirely.

“And we’re here.” Isiat chimed in, opening his door and
jumping out, before offering his paw out to the startled looking otter. “Welcome
to Outpost 12.”

Up close, it was even less remarkable than it had been at a
distance, and LeiLani hurried to collect her belongings and follow the group to
their accommodations, little more than a pair of the portable buildings that
had been assembled side by side to form one larger building. The walls were
coated with a thin layer of ice, and it had no windows to speak of. A simple
metal staircase led up to the wooden doorway, and as if to confirm her suspicion
that the maintenance of these buildings wasn’t a massive priority, the Fox in
the lead had to ram his shoulder against it before it would budge, dislodging
the ice that had gathered in the hinges. “It happens.” He explained with a
shrug, ushering her indoors. Three rows of metal cots greeted her, along with a
collection of mismatched footlockers along the wall.

“And this is it. Home away from home for the next two weeks.”
Isiat pushed past her, tossing his own rucksack down onto one of the vacant
beds, before flopping down on it himself with a broad smirk, his head propped
up on the over-stuffed bag. “See? What did I tell you? Like nothing you’ve ever
done before.”

“Well… It certainly is a quaint little place.” She
responded, setting her own bag down softly on the cot closest to the corner,
sitting down quietly as their ‘hosts’ settled in as well.

“Perfect summer retreat if you ask me. Quiet neighbors at
least.” He chuckled flatly, his many tails flicking lazily over the edge of his
cot. “Just you wait… The surface might not be much, but once you get below it
next week… Well, you’ll see. I wouldn’t want to spoil it.”

LeiLani wasn’t quite as convinced that she even wanted to be
near the water at this point. She loved the water, she loved swimming, diving,
exploring the reefs. This on the other hand, might as well have tossed her world
upside down and then froze it solid.

“I can’t wait…” She muttered quietly, pulling her jacket
around herself a little tighter. Like nothing she’d ever done before indeed…