Icebreakers

“Interesting… current temperature is at 9 degrees, with windchill of -3 - definitely not as cold as it usually gets, and yet the ice is still extremely dense…”

Cera sighed as she looked over at Amanda, who was standing outside the tent with a handheld monitor. She didn’t understand why Amanda had to log and keep track of every little thing, from the humidity to the slight changes in air pressure.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just log the thickness of the ice every day if they wanted to figure out when and where in the lake it was the thinnest, and thus easiest to crack open? Wouldn’t that help the Nimare the most, rather than wasting their time and resources making notes on if a squirrel sneezed a few feet away today?

“Andy! I’m going to start taking thickness recordings without you if you don’t catch up!” She called, shrugging her winter coat over her shoulders.

Amanda’s ears twitched slightly, as she got back up, tilting her head to the side as she smiled— but despite her confused expression, she still did what was asked of her, making her way back to where Cera was waiting. “Don’t worry, I’m coming… it’s quite important to our job to keep track of any other factors, though, don’t you think?”

“Not at all, actually,” Cera said, sighing. “We find out when the ice is at its thinnest, then we break it. Seems a bit simple to me.”

“Interesting. I’m of the opinion that if we can figure out what factors cause the thinness in the ice, perhaps we can replicate the environment that causes it, making the ice easier to thin out, and thus break.”

Cera laughed, shaking her head. “I think you’re overthinking things again. But alright, I’ll let you keep taking notes if you’ll let me chisel away at this ice for a second after. Deal?”

Amanda grinned, tail wagging slightly in the cool breeze. “That sounds fine to me.”