Ice Changers

By Darrel Day

Traveling into the deepest regions of the Peruvian Andes, John and his team of archeologists discover a valley. Set against the beautiful ruins of Machu Picchu, royal retreat of the Inca's ruler, Yupanqui, the team disocvers the magic that was the Incas.
John's body is being ravished by Cancer. A Cancer that will kill him if he doesn't find a cure. Discovering a hidden secret, the team walks through a waterfall that takes them in to a world of creatures that are not from Earth. Giant moths that in an instant become beautiful woman. Rommel's army, brought to life by a single thought, is just a small part of the world they have discovered. John must find a way to befriend the creatures that seem intent on killing him and his team.
The creatures, Venusians that have come to steal one of Earth's most prescious commodities, will stop at nothing to take what they came to Earth to send back to Venus. Fearless and capable of wreaking total destruction on Earth, they too have hurdles they must clear in order to save their world.
Together, John's team and the Venusians must find a way to save both worlds from the death that waits to claim them. Failure to achieve their goal will result in the loss of not only John's life, but the existance of two worlds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darrel Day
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458151179

Darrel Day

Darrel Day is a 12 time published author of suspense thrillers, short story collections and biographies. His books are available in both print and on all e-readers.  Residing in a smalltown in Iowa, Darrel enjoys the outdoors where he gathers inspiration for his writing.

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Ice Changers

By Darrel Day

Copyright 2011 Darrel Day

Smashwords Edition

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Prologue

They had walked as far as the team could handle today. John did not want to stop but he knew he had no choice. If he tried to take them any further tonight, he would likely lose some of them. Giving the signal to set up camp, John saw the look of elation cross each of their faces. He wished they thought the way he thought. Somewhere just beyond the twin ridges that separated them from civilization was a valley unlike anything anyone had ever seen.

John had seen the valley only in a script that he had found. He was searching for the ruins of an ancient site, once thought to be the final resting place of an Inca Priest. The script had made mention of a valley that was surrounded on all four sides by the great Andes. Passed Titicaca Lake, the highest navigable lake in the world at 12,500 feet, was the Tin Ajani Canyon. They needed to reach the canyon before the rains came.

Accompanying John on this trip was his best friend Felix Drudging, John’s archeological companion. Also with him was his long time love Sarah Lansing. Juan Salvadoran, who had traveled with Felix on several of his archeological digs, was with them. He and Felix had become good friends and trusted one another with their own lives. They also had three local Peruvians that were guiding the team as well as being pack mules for the equipment John had brought with him. The six people with John thought they were looking for artifacts. They believed they were there to bring back to the civilized world artifacts that would prove the Incas a very aggressive, war weary people. In truth, John had a much more important, personal purpose for finding the lost city. One that would take them all into a world none of them could have imagined in their lifetimes. A journey that might cost them all their sanity, their very lives.

Chapter 1

John, how much further is this valley of yours? We passed the marker for the lake and canyon long ago.

Sarah, I told you the markers are wrong! No one has ever seen this valley so they have no way of marking it. It is like an uncharted island somewhere in the midst of this mountain range.

I just want to get there and get what we came for so we can go home.

John walked back to Sarah and hugged her. He knew she was worried about her father. He had taken ill just days before the expedition started. Sarah almost did not make the trip but John had convinced her that they would be gone less than a week.

We will be in and out of there so fast you will hardly remember being there, my love. Just bear with me please. I need you here with me or it won’t mean the same to me. I want to share this wonderful place with you.

You keep saying it is such a wonderful place and yet you have never seen it before, John. How do you know that it even exists?

It’s there Sarah...I promise you it is there. I can feel it in my heart. Let’s settle in here for the night and then we can pick up our trail at dawn.

The camp was set up in less than half of an hour. A fire was started both for cooking and for warmth. The mountains were cold even in July here. The breathing was difficult and each person carried a small oxygen tank in case they needed to use it. Most of them were more tired than hungry but they knew they needed to eat to maintain strength and body heat.

Exactly what is it you hope to find here John? I know that there are ruins in this valley of yours. But what is in the valley that has you so intent on finding it?

John turned slowly towards Felix and smiled. Shangri-La, my good friend...Shangri-La. A land flowing with milk and honey right in the middle of the coldest mountains around.

"That is a myth, John. No one truly knows where Shangri-La is or for that matter, that it ever existed.

Why do you think that you are going to be the one that finds it?"

Because I just know it, my friend. Now get some sleep because we have an early morning and a long day ahead of us.

Felix went into his tent and John joined Sarah in their tent. She was already asleep and he did not want to wake her. He slipped back out of the tent and perched himself on a large stone that resembled a man.

Although it was believed that the stones here were man made, it was said by most archeologists that the stones were a result of natural erosion.

John lit his pipe and puffed on it hard to get it to burn. The high altitude left little oxygen to use on an old pipe. John looked out across the mountain range before him. As he watched darkness fall, John thought he had caught a glimpse of a flickering light along one of the mountain walls. He kept his eyes looking towards the place the light had come from. He saw nothing except mountains as far as the eye could see. As he stood to walk back towards camp, the same flicker of light shone on the mountain that he had seen before. John watched as the light danced in front of him. He wanted to follow the light and see where it led him to. Was there already somebody that had found out about this valley or was there more to this place than even John knew? The light suddenly disappeared and John went back to camp. He had already decided not to tell the rest of the team about the light he had seen.

The night passed quickly and at dawn, the team got their things together and ate a quick breakfast. They made good time and before noon the team had crested the last mountain peak that stood between them and John’s Shangri-La. Looking down into the valley, everyone was left speechless. The side of the mountain they stood on was covered in ice and snow. Taking one single step forward took them to green grass and a green, thick forest leading all the way to the bottom of the canyon.

A waterfall cascaded down at the line that separated the cold side from the newly discovered tropical side. As each of the team stepped through the mist, they found themselves quickly shedding their heavy Parkas and coats underneath them. The temperature was at least seventy-five degrees warmer on the hot side of the ridge. All of them stood in complete awe of what they were looking at. Sarah walked up to John and took his hand in hers.

How is this possible John? Pinch me or something to show me I did not die back there at camp. Tell me this is not just a dream I am having that I will awaken from at any time.

This is no dream, Sarah. If it is, then we are dreaming the same dream and feeling the same heat from our dream. It is just as the old script said.

Look down there in the fields beyond the tree’s John. It was Felix that had spoken now.

I know the trees block the site a little but I can still make out a herd of Rhino down in the clearing. At least they look like Rhino from here. And over to the north I can see a Saber-toothed tiger? I must be dreaming here.

Believe me when I say to you that you are not dreaming any more than Sarah and I are. From the looks on the tour guides faces, I would say they too are dreaming our dream.

It makes no sense to me John. Those two creatures did not co-exist at any time during the earth’s ten million years of existence.

Perhaps not in the world we just left behind they didn’t, Felix. I think we have just stepped into another world. We have the choice of freezing to death or roasting to death, all within a five foot step. I don’t even want to try and guess what all lies beyond those trees down below.

We won’t know until we start walking towards the trees either. We may need these parkas again sometime. I suggest that we pack them in an empty case and then secure them to a tree. We know we are going to have to come back through here to get back to our base camp.

I agree with Sarah, John. I don’t think that our guides look too happy about following us into the trees. Maybe we should just leave them here to watch the stuff we leave behind.

John went to the guides and in his broken Peruvian tongue asked them what they wanted to do. The response he received was both startling and surprising.

We will not go to this land. It eese the land of the Priests and Gods. The Serrano a} {man of the mountains} eese waiting for you. I feel the Salado {bad luck} eese waiting. Please, Senor’e ... I beg of you to hazme la taba {Come with me}. We will wait for you here.

Juan, there is no man from the mountain that is going to come and get you. The bad luck, the ummmm, Salado is only a tale. I will give you a lot of money if you come with us. Tell them; tell your friends that I will pay mucho Plata if they stay with us.

It will not matter amigo, they will not go with you. We will wait here for you to return. If you do not come back in one week, we will leave here and go home. Eet eese the best thing I can tell you.

Fine... we will leave our winter equipment with you. It should not take us longer than a day or two to find what we are looking for. Do not leave before that!

John wasn’t sure how much he really trusted Juan and his friends to be there when they returned. He really had little choice at this time. They needed to make their way through the tree line and find what was on the other side. They made certain that they loaded their rifles and handguns before starting down the mountain to the valley below them.

The trees were full and hard to see through to the outside world surrounding them. They formed a canopy over them that also made it appear to be night-time. As John walked in the lead, something moved in the trees in front of them. He pulled his rifle up to his side and motioned for Sarah and Felix to keep their eyes wide open. They had both also pulled their rifles up into the readied position.

Sarah had been with John for almost two years. They had met during a contest between treasure seekers throughout the United States. The contestants had five days to try and find a hidden staff made of pure gold. Each was given a list of clues that were similar to a buried treasure map. They were to follow the clues one by one until one of the contestants found the staff.

John had easily beaten out all the competition by the fourth day except for Sarah. She had been almost side by side with John through the entire race to find the staff. John knew there were only two clues left and that he would need to lose Sarah before reaching the last one. He was certain he would have no trouble doing just that. The problem was that John had fallen head over heels for this young lady that was threatening to take home the golden staff.

Sarah had long full auburn hair and the greenest eyes John had ever seen. She was tall and perfectly proportioned with long slim legs and a rear view that was almost intoxicating. He thought that she surely must have walked in front of him the last day just to mess his thinking process up. She accomplished her mission and very nicely.

Just as John was approaching the last clue, Sarah stood before him in the heat of the sun that beat hard down on them. Sitting down on a large boulder that led to the staff, Sarah had removed one of her shoes and was rubbing her feet. John was totally taken by these ladies actions. He watched as she dropped her shoe and gasped.

Oh no... I cannot believe that I just did that. The staff is yours John. I cannot go on with a shoe missing and there is no way to reach it from up here.