winter in greenland

When Dan came last time, he just wandered around the city scribbled and glanced at many buildings. He didn't even know where the basic buildings like hotels, hospitals, and restaurants were.Just as he was about to find a place to buy a local map, August led him to turn left into a side road and walked into a bright yellow hut.

The room was very empty, with a cabinet placed against the wall, and no other furniture except a sofa and a coffee table.The owner of the house was sitting at one end of the sofa, holding a teacup in one hand and flipping through a magazine in the other.

August walked over, the owner of the cottage raised his head when he heard the sound, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face for a moment, and then he showed a big smile. He stood up from the sofa and greeted August , gave him a big hug: "Long time no see old friend."

August also hugged him back, with a smile on his face: "Time flies so fast, the last time we came here must have been three or four years ago?"

"It's been at least three years. Why did you come here suddenly and didn't say anything in advance? Let me tell you that we introduced a batch of new models last month, and the engine power has been greatly improved. Do you want to try it?" The owner of the house was a little mysterious. Some proudly winked at August.

August shook his head: "It's not business this time, I'm actually on vacation."

The owner of the house widened his eyes in surprise: "You are on vacation this season, and you don't care about your summer training?"

"And Heath."

The owner of the house blinked and noticed Dan behind him: "This is?"

August turned around: "Dan, my partner." Then he pointed to the owner of the house and said to Dan: "This is Bill, the only snowmobile supplier in Longyearbyen, and we have cooperated with them before. "

Dan stepped forward and shook hands with Bill: "It's an honor to meet you."

Bill smiled suddenly: "You want to rent a snowmobile?"

August nodded: "Yes, our ship will leave the port early tomorrow morning, renting a snowmobile can save a lot of time."

Bill snapped his fingers: "Since we are old friends, I won't say much else. Just take the X96, which is the new model I just mentioned, and drive it for as long as you want, and just come back before you leave." While speaking, he opened the back door of the hut, which directly connected to a spacious backyard, where about fifty or sixty snowmobiles were parked.

"It's the peak tourist season now. If it's the off-season, it's probably full, right?" August introduced to Dan and looked at Bill questioningly.

"Almost, the tourism industry has developed in the past few years, and this season is very lively." Bill walked to a row of relatively new-looking snowmobiles on the left, took out the key to start one of them, and turned off the engine after trying it out. , threw the key to August: "Try?"

August took it, stepped on the seat and started the engine, and walked slowly around the yard, stopping in front of Bill and Dan: "It's not bad, that's it."

Bill nodded: "Okay. Oh, by the way, do you have guns?"

August waved his hand: "We'll just take a turn around, not go deep. We shouldn't encounter bears."

Bill hesitated for a while, then nodded: "Okay then, be careful. This season, you can go to see the ice ridges along the coast. Maybe you are used to seeing glaciers in Greenland, but the ice ridges here are impressive. It feels different."

Dan thanked him with a smile too, and stepped into the back of the snowmobile.

After the two left from the backyard, they did not go around into the city, but walked along the road towards the north of Longyearbyen.

They were not fast, and August rode steadily, with the dark blue sea on the left, towering glaciers in the distance, and low, undulating hills and snow slopes on the right.

August parked the snowmobile at the mouth of a narrow fjord, where a dark gravel beach stretched from the road to the sea, opposite a rugged ridge of ice.The sea water gently licks the bottom of the glacier, and some ice floes of different sizes are scattered on the sea surface.

"Go and see?" August looked back at Dan.

Most of their previous time in Greenland had been inland, and Dan had never seen coastal ice ridges this close.He nodded to August, and stepped off the snowmobile first.

Svalbard is close to the pole, and most of the island is ice-free all year round, even in the hottest summer months.At this moment, there was still some trampled and dirty snow on the roadside where their snowmobile was parked, and the sporadic white spots stretched to a distance of about ten meters on the gravel beach before completely disappearing.

The two of them stepped onto the dark sandy beach one after the other.The sea breeze whipped up Dan's clothes and slapped his thighs continuously. The air was mixed with a coldness that was not commensurate with the sun above his head.

The ice ridge on the opposite side is not always white, but looks like some marble texture.The accumulation of thousands of years of long years has left a thickness that goes straight to the depths of people's souls on this land at the northernmost end of the earth.Looking at these blue giants and the dark cracks and snow-white salt bubbles distributed on them, it seems to see history through the distant time and space.

"Have you been here before?" Dan stood near the sea, turned his head and asked August.

"Well, at that time the base was considering using snowmobiles instead of traditional sleds for patrolling. This is the place where snowmobiles are used most widely in the entire Arctic region. We visited for about two weeks."

"It seems that the results of the investigation are not ideal." Dan smiled.

When the sun shines on the sea, the changing colors are refracted into the blue eyes of the young man. When they bend up, they look like two clear and shallow lakes, filled with finely divided gemstones, which makes people unable to move their eyes away.

August looked into his eyes fascinatedly, and nodded absently after a while: "Indeed."

He walked forward as he spoke, and didn't stop until he was about to touch Dan's face.

Dan met his eyes, inexplicably felt his heart beating a little faster, and forced himself to speak calmly: "What's wrong?"

August raised his hand and brushed his hair that was a little disheveled by the sea breeze, lowered his head slightly, their foreheads touched, and there was a distance of a few millimeters between the tips of their noses: "Your eyes are so beautiful. "His voice was very soft, and those few words seemed to slip out of his lips and teeth with his breath.

From such a close distance, he could clearly see the dazed look in Dan's eyes, and he gave a low laugh, just as he was about to kiss him——

"Boom—"

There was a muffled roar behind him.

The two raised their heads in shock. Because the distance was too close, the bridge of August's nose hit Dan's forehead. He snorted in pain, covered his nose and looked in the direction of the sound with Dan.

It was the ice ridge.

A piece of ice about 7 or 8 meters high broke from the ice body and fell into the sea with a bang, splashing a wave several meters high on the sea surface, and the water waves spread out circle after circle. A broken diamond, colorful and shiny.

When Dan came back to his senses, his eyes fell on August's face, and he couldn't help laughing when he saw how embarrassed he was covering the bridge of his nose.The sound reverberated in the lonely fjord, hit the ice ridge and turned back, it sounded a bit lively.

"Is it so funny?" August put down his hands helplessly.

Dan simply supported his waist with one hand and waved the other, not caring about talking.

Seeing that he hadn't stopped laughing for almost half a minute, August grabbed his arm with some dissatisfaction and pulled him over, before bowing his head and kissing him without any explanation.

Between the kisses, he could still see the corners of the youth's crescent-like eyes.

A slight "gut" sound came from the nearby sea surface, and the two turned their heads to look over, only to see a little brown sea lion poking its head out from under the sea water, with its short forelimbs clinging to a piece of near-shore On the ice floe, the upper body was slightly straightened, revealing some light-colored abdomen, and a pair of round black eyes looked curiously at the two people on the shore.

Dan couldn't help holding his breath, and just about to walk in, August sensed his intention, pressed his hand on his shoulder, and whispered: "Don't go over."

However, the gravel under his feet was moved by his movements, and there was a slight "crash" sound. The little sea lion seemed to be frightened, his light-colored beard trembled, and he turned his head and jumped into the water surface with a "swish". A transparent water bubble, a tan shadow can be vaguely seen swimming towards the glacier not far away under the transparent water surface.

Dan touched his nose in embarrassment: "Is this... scared away by me?"

August saw the expression on his face, the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily, and he said warmly: "Sea lions are timid by nature, and there are many in Greenland, I will show you when I go back."

After speaking, he wrapped the scarf around the neck of the person in front of the cage, grabbed Dan's hand awkwardly with his gloved hand, and turned around with the person: "Let's go."

The author says:

This chapter should be eaten with "Loving Strangers"~