The Ice That Hides Fire

Polly flew east until the black land turned white. Ahead of her lay the largest glacier in Europe. The ice was so wide it makes its own weather. From above it looked like a frozen ocean, blue-white and silent. Polly landed on it, and the cold came up through her feet. Against all that white, her red head and blue-teal wings looked very bright.

She found a cave beneath the ice and gasped. The walls glowed deep blue. This ice is not from last winter. It is snow that fell hundreds of years ago. The snow was pressed down until all the air was gone, and ice with no air looks blue. A small river ran along the floor of the cave.

Then Polly learned a strange thing. Under the glacier sit volcanoes, still warm. Sometimes one erupts beneath the ice, melts a huge amount at once, and sends a sudden flood across the land. Here, fire and ice live one on top of the other.

At the edge of the glacier was a quiet lagoon. Great blue icebergs broke away and floated toward the sea. Some washed onto a black beach and shone like jewels. Polly sat on a small iceberg and let it carry her slowly, nowhere at all.