Ice ice baby

Winter brought with it many problems, such as sickness and prey scarcity. However, it also had a big advantage: ice. Ice was everywhere in the thick of winter, forming in the shallow pool that was in the center of the shrine and washing up on the shores of the archipelago. It could be quite dangerous, especially if one happened to be out ice fishing and fell through a thin patch. She’d known a few wolves who’d fallen victim to such a horrible fate, leaving them unable to find a hole back the surface and leading them to drown beneath the frozen layer above. She shuddered to think of it. It could lead to several cuts and bruises to the wolves under her care as well, especially to those who made hunting their prime directives. The snow would melt ever so slightly in the daytime then freeze overnight, and when it snowed again it would restart the process, leaving layers of snow, ice, snow, ice and so on. When a hunter would go out to scout, they would break through this layering and cut their ankles on the sharp ice below.

Yes, ice could be nasty, but it could also help with swelling. If a leg was broken, it was very beneficial to pack it with ice after setting it to help the swelling go down. Loss of swelling allowed the bone to set more easily, thus speeding up the healing process. It was similar for bruises and cuts. Ice narrowed the flow of blood in the vessels when in contact with skin, helping to staunch excessive bleeding. It could be the difference between life and death for a wolf in the dead of winter, and she knew many wolves who had been attacked by large predators or foes while out alone, and the only reason they’d made it back and were able to be treated was because it had been the dead of winter and the cold and ice had lessened the blood they’d lost.

When she could, she liked to gather as much ice as possible for storage. It was much easier in the winter months, but in the summer it became increasingly more difficult. This difficulty made her more thankful that she lived in the palace, where deep caves were abundant. Kiyo had spent quite a bit of time when she’d first arrived at Ashen searching for the perfect ice cave. It had taken her and her companions weeks, but she’d been able to find one within the recesses of the palace that sunk down further into the earth and remained around freezing year-round. It was a natural ice chest. They were quite rare, as they required a certain shape of the cave itself and it’s entrance, and it needed to be far away from the entrance to the outside world, especially in a land that could get as warm as Boreas (or so she’d been told). After she’d found it, she’d started supplying water inside to be frozen and stored, and during the winter she’d employed the ninja dogs of the pack to help her in hauling slabs onto a sled and pulling them down to her ice chest. There, she was able to get the valuable ice she needed when she needed it, and she was able to use it as storage.

Some of the poultices and mixtures she concocted were required to be stored in cold climates, or else their healing properties would diminish dramatically or be changed altogether. She’d kept a small section of the cave open to storing such remedies, labeled by what they were so that her companions or herself could easily find them should they need to. There were also balls of moss, dipped in water and left to freeze to form a natural ice pack. She’d used them quite often on her grandson, Takeshi, during his months of migraines. They’d helped to soothe the inflammation within his cranium and ease the tightened muscles in his neck leading to them, allowing him to sleep and rid himself of some of the pain. That, in and of itself, proved to her that her efforts were not in vain. If she could save one single wolf from any amount of pain through her inventions and cures, everything she did was not in vain. Even more so if that wolf was a part of her family.

The ice cave was open to any healer between the Armada and Ashen, as healing was not an individual skill. It required collaboration in many instances and with all the wolves they had between their ranks, it would have been utterly selfish of her to keep the finding to herself. Thus, there were regularly wolves coming in and out of the cave with blocks of ice or to store their own concoctions. It pleased her greatly. She knew she would continue to tend to her little discovery for years to come, because as much as ice could hurt, it could also heal.