{"sf1_id":760516,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Ice Man Cometh","author":"StGeorgesHorse","words":2305,"posted_at":"2014-09-25T14:33:00.000Z","tags":["Deep freeze","Human","Leonardo Da Vinci","Plot Development","Story Progression","Werewolf","france"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/760516-the-ice-man-cometh","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/760516","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=760516\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#45 of The Moonrise Chronicles","content":"                The man\nsat up, still as cold as ice. It was a wonder his skin didn't crack under the tension it had to be under from the frigid temperatures.. He coughed\na few times, sending out little puffs of condensation before turning his attention back to the sightseers surrounding his\ncoffin.\n                \"Good\nday to you my friends.\"\n                No one\nthere understood a word he was saying. It was Old Italian, from the Renaissance,\nand even a modern Italian might have had trouble deciphering even the simple\nphrase he was speaking. His words were slow and measured, but tight and set through chattering teeth. Not knowing any language outside of his native English,\nEdward was left wondering what the man was trying to say.\n                The man\nwith the frost on his nose  saw the blank\nlooks on their faces and stopped. He reached over the side and felt around,\ncoming away with one of the rings. He grabbed Edward's hand and slipped it on.\n\"Is that better?\"\n                Edward's\neyes went wide. \"How did you do that?\"\n                Leonardo\nsmiled. \"I did nothing. It is the rings. They have many uses, and not the least\nof those is allowing our kind to communicate across the barriers of culture and\nlanguage. Nothing is more dismal than sitting around in a circle, scratching\nfleas, trying to have a decent conversation in wolf-speak.\"\n                He\nunsteadily climbed out of the casket, thankful for Edward's steadying hand. His\nfingers felt like icicles. \"Thank you my boy. I don't know how long I've have\nbeen in there, but it seems to me to have been an extraordinarily long while.\"\n                \"Almost\nfive hundred years I'd say.\"\n                \"Really?\nHow remarkable! I never figured the cooling system would last half that long. I\nmust consider myself most fortunate.\"\n                \"So you\ndeveloped cryogenics?\"\n                \"Cryo-genics?\nWhat an ingenious term! I suppose it's something like that. But don't go\ngetting anything stuck in your head now. As far as I know it only works on the\nkind. And speaking of which,\" here he looked around at the group, \"who are all\nof you and what do you need from me?\"\n                The\nfirst part was easy. After retrieving Maggie's ring, they sat around talking to\nthe master for hours. He was very much desirous to leave his chamber and see\nthe world as it had become in his absence. They regaled him with the\nhighlights, since there was too much cover with a month or more.\n                He was\nintrigues my Maggie's light, and he spent several minutes at a time cranking\nit. \"Extraordinary! A light without flame. This is beyond my scope of\nlearning!\"\n                \"That's\nnothing! We have automobiles, and airplanes, and cell phones and...\"\n                Leonardo\nhalted her  long enough to ask, \"Do you\nmean to say you have vehicles that move under their own power? No horses?\"\n                \"Yes,\nand machines that can think, and images that can be transmitted through the\nair, and so much more!\"\n                \"It is good\nto know that there were others who followed me with enough sense to continue\nwith science despite the misgivings of the church. It was amazing to see the\nstupidity that believing in a higher being caused the world. Give an arrogant\nman power and he will abuse it most readily.\"\n                \"You\ndon't believe in God?\" Maggie sprouted a tail and set it to wagging.\n                \"You\nmean as an interfering busybody bent on having all people bow down and worship\nhim? No. I believe that there is nothing more to life than this world, and that\nbehavior like that is more akin to what men want than what I think a higher\nbeing would want. But I think that if there is a God, he would expect us to\ntake our talents and use them to better this world, not to live long enough to\nmove on to another. Why then not just create us and place us in heaven? Seems like\na damned inefficient method to me. Maybe, if we have some time later, I'll tell\nyou about some of my arguments with Rodrigo Borgia.\"\n                \"Who?'\n                Maggie\nclarified it for me. \"Pope Alexander's real name.\"\n                \"Oh.\"\n                The\ntwins were well aware of whom we were talking with, and to give them equal\ntime, we shared our rings with them. They found the sudden ability to\nunderstand this ancient man to be beyond their wildest dreams. Then Maggie\nslapped herself up the side of her head. She pulled out the remaining two\nboxes. Leonardo's eyes lit up. \n                \"I\nremember these! It's a wonder they are still around after all this time. How\nmany do you have?\"\n                \"One\nthat my ring came in, plus three more.\" Edward told him. \" We figured out how\nto get two of them open, but not these two.\"\n                \"I\nassume you have a key?\"\n                \"Yes,\"\nEdward said, producing it.\n                \"I\nwonder what happened to the other six?\"\n                \"There\nwere ten of these boxes?!\"\n                \"Yes,\nten. It was a lot of fun, making each one different.\" He took the one and\nturned it in his hands. \"Clavem est in mente tua.\"\n                \"What\ndoes that mean?\"\n                He took\nthe box and grasping the base, forcibly turned it against itself. The entire\nbox clicked, splitting along a plane right below the lid. Eventually it rotated\nuntil the corners matched up again. There was a second click.\n                \"Just\nput your mind to it my dear. The person I made this for liked puzzles, and so I\nmade her box into one. The trick is to hide the obvious from view. The lock\nwill never open if it's not in the correct position. He put the key into the\nlock and the top popped up. Then forward once more and the bottom popped open.\nThere was no leather envelope inside. The box was empty.\n                \"Sorry\nmy boy, but this one is gone. I can't say who or where it is. After five\nhundred years of deep sleep, there are a great many things I cannot answer. I\nwill need to update myself to be of any use to you.\"\n                Maggie\nwas still excited. \"What of this other box?\"\n                He\nsmiled. \"This one is one of the hardest to open my dear child. It can only be\nopened by one of the kind in full were, under the full moon, while wearing one\nof the rings. And that full moon must be on or close to the summer solstice.\"\n                \"Why\ndid you go to that much bother? For that matter, how did you manage such a\nthing. It sounds like magic!\"\n                \"That\nis a long story, and I would prefer to tell it out in the open. Shall we go for\na walk?\"\n                Edward\nwas shocked. \"WHAT? You think you can just walk around in the sunlight like\nnothing has happened? Five hundred years have happened! You can't be seen. It'll\ncause a riot!\"\n                Leonardo\nwould have nothing of it. \"This is my home, and while the rest of the world may\nhave changed, it has not. Look around you. I have faith that my home above\nground will be similarly intact.\" He went to a ladder, and reaching up, he\nplayed with some strange arrangement of knobs. There was a grinding of gears\nand in the next instant a creaking noise. Then it stopped. \n                \"Damn!\nSomeone has built something over my door!\"\n                Edward\ntransformed in to his largest form, barely fitting between the roof and floor.\nHe put a paw against the unyielding device until it gave. Dirt cascaded in from\nabove, and then daylight. \"There!\"\n                The\nmaster bowed to him and climbed up the ladder, making way for the other s to\nfollow. Maggie, having dressed,  went up\nfirst, and Edward transformed back to his human self and donned his clothing.\nThe twins knew what they had to do and climbed up and quickly became wolves\nagain, complete with collars. \n                Leonardo\nsmiled and took their leashes and walked up to the immense house that was\nnearby. Edward dropped the door down, noticing it looked like a stone from this\nside, and kicked the dirt from the garden back over it. It left a depression in\nthe soil, but he hoped no one would notice.\n                He\njogged to catch up with the rest of them. Maggie was holding the master's right\nhand, and with the other he was holding the twins. In his period clothing he\nlooked right at home here, wherever here was. Edward ran to catch up.\n                \"Whoa! Slow\ndown! Where are we?\"\n                Leonardo\nmade a sweeping gesture. \"Clos Lucé, my home! Given to me by Frances the First,\nthe king of France!\"  The place was huge,\nnot as large as the chateau, but still remarkably enormous. \n                \"But\nafter five hundred years, you can't expect it to still be in your name.\nTechnically you died.\"\n                \"Son,\nyou have a few things to learn. First off, times don't change all that much.\nSecondly, I gave up the rights to this place a long time ago. But I think I can\nguess that I still hold sway here. It is the nature of people to respect their\nelders.\"\n                He\nhardly had those words out when people began to notice his presence. One of the\nvolunteers on the grounds came over and had a hurried conversation with\nhim.  Edward could only catch one half,\nthat of Leonardo's portion of it, because while he could understand him as he\nspoke, he did not understand the pretty lady he was talking too. The twins\ncould, but they weren't in the position to talk right now.\n                Apparently\nshe thought he was a re-enactor. And his French was sufficient to be\nunderstood.  He made a gesture to the\nothers to follow him. They went in through the main doors of the house and\nstopped inside.\n                \"You\nsee my son. No one asks more than they want to know. She asked if I was\nLeonardo, and I told her I was. Apparently I am to give a talk soon.\" He was\nlaughing under his breath. \"But before that can happen, I need to retrieve\nsomething of importance.\"\n                He\nwalked around the house until he brought them to one designated by the sign as\nbeing his bedroom. He read the French text and smiled. \"I guess they still\nthink a lot of me these days. I find that comforting.\" He walked over to where a\nportrait hung on the wall. He examined it and frowned. \"This is not my work!\nWhy is there a forgery here?\"\n                Maggie\nwas hanging on his arm. \"Because the real Mona Lisa is in the Louvre.  It's probably the most famous painting in the\nworld!\"\n                \"Only\nthe one? That's too bad. I made two paintings of the lady Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo. I\nguess I should be flattered, but I think that the original would be more suited\nto be here.\" He took the painting down from the wall, ran his hand over one of\nthe bricks, and pushed in sharply. The other end popped out, allowing him to\npull it out. Behind it there was a dark recess. He took his ring off and stuck\nit in. There was a click. He removed the ring and put the brick back, replacing\nthe painting to its place on the wall.\n                \"What\nwas that all about?\"\n                \"Nothing\nfor you to worry about. I just set a few things in motion. Now, I believe I\nhave some sort of talk to give. Will you excuse me?\" And with that, he walked\naway.\n                Maggie\nsummed up what he was feeling. \"What the fuck was that all about? The man was dead to the\nworld for half a millennia, and suddenly he's back in black like nothing has changed?\"\n                Edward\nwas still trying to take it all in. \"Well, he is Leonardo da Vinci. Who's to\nsay what is normal for this man? He was one of the most brilliant minds of his\ntime, and maybe even ever in all of history. Can you imagine what he can do in\ntoday's world?\"\n                \"It's\nalmost scary. Shall we go keep an eye on him? I don't want think I want him\ngetting too far out of sight.\" Maggie's voice carried both awe and concern.\n                As it\nturned out, he was outside giving a talk on himself. The workers at the chateau were a little\ndismayed that he wasn't following the script, but since his mannerisms and\nclothing were impeccable, they let it slide. His French was a little faulty,\nand from time to time he would slip in some Italian, but overall it made him\nseem more realistic. Seem being the key word. They had no clue he was the real\ndeal. Even the real actor ended up standing in the audience looking on as someone\nelse did his job for him.  And did it\nbetter!\n                Edward\nwas pretty much out of sorts again. It seemed the deeper they went, the more\nunrealistic things were becoming. How the hell did this guy, no matter how smart he\nwas, suddenly just fit in? And the casket. That was beyond belief. Of course,\nif it was the only one he ever built, then it made sense that refrigeration\nwasn't rediscovered for another few centuries. And it seemed to be powered, or\ncontrolled, or something like that with these infernal rings. But still; how did\nhe survive? And why bother flash freezing yourself? There were too many damn\nquestions and not enough answers."}