Frankenstuffie Logs

Log 1

Day 30 of Spritynn

I feel like I’m forgetting something. Something kinda important. Oh well, can’t be bothered with that right now. This is it, the big day, the day I will finally prove myself to Ma and Da. In case anyone else is reading this, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Scafirr, well, everyone just calls me Scaf because they think it’s cute. Bleh, nope that’s not me. I may seem little and cute, but I’m going to prove to everyone that I’m a strong raven just like them. I’m finally one years old, so I can hunt on my own, and that’s what I’m doing now. I live in a place called the arctic, which is basically just rocks, ice, and small oceans, but it’s home. Anyways, just wait until I have a mouse or lemming or maybe even a small rabbit in my beak and I land in the nest, Ma and Da will be so shocked and proud. Well, here I go, I’ll give you an update afterwards.

I did it! I did it! I actually caught one! I mean, it’s not too big, but still it’s in my beak! Everyone is always saying that the reason ravens are the top hunters in the Arctic is because of the ice storms scaring up all the little prey for us to catch, but I caught this one in perfect weather. I also caught it in the field, which is apparently much harder than rock hunting because of this stuff called permafrost that makes the ground too cold for anything to live in. Oh man, I’m flying back home straight away to show everyone!

My home is pretty nice for the area we live in. Because of predators like polar bears down below, we have to be careful and live only in the higher rocky cliffs. Our nest has a little limestone outcropping overtop of it, which blocks out the frequent snow storms, and a little bit of grass and lichen for us to rest on. Its surrounded by some smaller glaciers, which my parents say have been here for hundreds of years, and will be millions more. I’ve heard you can count the layers of the glaciers to tell how old they are, even though the ones around here only have around 10 (meaning their pretty young. It’s also right near a small ocean, which has a good amount of fish in it (which I’m pretty sick of because that’s all we ate last wiverfroid). Anyways, I can hear my parents coming now! They seem kinda mad at something…

Oh no! I knew I was forgetting something! Today is the 30th of Spritynn, when the weather is officially warm enough for everyone to get out on the rocks, so us ravens have deemed this day as Nestyrime, or the day of nest building! Everyone is out there, frantically looking for pebbles and rocks to build their yearly nests out of, and since I’m one year old, my parents expected me to do the honours. I completely forgot, and now all the good materials are gone. How could I have let this happen! My parents were so mad, that they didn’t even notice my mouse. Well, looks like it’s up to me to fix my mistakes.

Log 2

Day 17 of Autumyr

Ok, so every day since Nestyrime, I have been scouring the plains and sea shores for rocks, and guess what, I’ve getting close to finishing the new nest. Because the warm weather is fleeting, there have been more and more snow storms each week, but that’s ok. It’s been hard work, harder than I’ve ever done before, but I gotta make my Ma and Da happy!

Day 36 of Autumyr

Sometimes I wish we didn’t live in the bitter cold arctic. The warm times still aren’t that warm and there is never too much food, and the cold times are dark for days on end with little warmth or food at all. To make things worse, my parents say it’s going to be the coldest wiverfroid in years.

Day 72 of Autumyr

No, no no no no! The nest isn’t done, and wiverfroid is in 8 days. The ground has become so frozen that it takes hours just to get a few rocks out. My parents say I should stay in and that they will get the rocks, but I can’t let them do that. I must… I must prove myself!

Log 3

Day 1 of Wiverfroid

How did this happen. I’m going to die. I’m stuck, there is no way out. I went out in the dead of night to search for more rocks, when a terrible storm hit. I was knocked against an glacier cliff, and fell into a crevasse. I must have gone unconscious, for when I opened my eyes, the small slit at the top had been completely sealed off by snow and ice chunks. I’m so cold.

 

Day 2 of Wiverfroid

Ok, I’ve found a small cave with ocean water flowing through it. There are fish, so at least I’ll live a little longer. There is actually an underwater tunnel that could lead to outside, but the problem is, there are black whales swimming in it. These creatures are fierce, dangerous, and powerful predators, so I’m going to stay away from them. If only ravens could swim, I could escape here right now. I wonder how those whales adapted to survive the cold so well?

Day 7 of Wiverfroid

Alright… Ok, I’ve found a small ice pocket that is warmer for some reason, this is were I sleep. it has some glacier moraine deposited into it, so it’s harder and less likely to crack then the other ice. I’m really lonely, my parents are probably searching everywhere for me. I’d do anything to let them know I’m alright.

Day ???

What… what the… I’m not cold… I feel stronger, as if…

Log 4

Day 1 of Sumrust

I… can barley see. It’s so bright…. I’m I dead? Wait, no no, my head hurts like crazy, can’t be dead. Why is it so warm? Where is my family? My family! Oh no, how long have I been here? I have to find them! I… I can’t fly. What is going on?! My wings, they, they don’t have feathers anymore. They look like they are covered in a sleek fur like blanket. It’s warm though, so I won’t freeze. Just how long was I gone for? Wait….. how is that possible. The layers on the glaciers, there are thousands! That means I’ve been lost for…

Day 2 of Sumrust

Millions! Millions of years have passed! But how? How am I still alive!?

Day 3 of Sumrust

Ok, I think I know how this could have happened. My Da was always telling me about this thing known as the and carbon cycle, and that over then years they brought great changes to the land. It had a big affect on the climate for when a lot of carbon went into the atmosphere, things would get warmer. Well, turns out that the last mass extinction happened just long enough ago that all of the carbon from the dead things decomposing had finally wore off, and the earth began to get colder and colder. Turns out we were in the peak of that and I must have gotten frozen in a glacier. Then over millions of years (which I still can’t believe) something else big must have happened and the climate is now getting warmer.

This also explains the weird fur stuff. When it got hotter, the water from the ice must have melted and evaporated, waking my body up a bit from the cold. But then as it froze again and came down from snow and rain, it would get even colder so my body had to adapt to regulate my body temperature. I feel so weird, my body almost looks like that of a fish. My eyes have also turned a brilliant blue and have gotten glossier, which seems to help with the blinding light reflecting in every direction in the glacier.

Day 5 of Sumrust

Good news, the glacier has melted enough that I might be able to climb out of the crack. I just have to squeeze through really carefully and… footsteps, I hear footsteps. I need to find somewhere to hide, who knows what could be the predators of this time!

I can’t see them too well, but I can hear muffled talking. They appear to be covered in bright, colourful fur like stuff, and they are carrying something. Huh, they stopped? Could they have seen me? Oh no, what is that sound! The ice above me is breaking, something is coming through… a can hear a few words from them. “The ice is melting… the minerals and natural gas should be excavated… start in a month” what does this mean? “ What if the government finds out this much is gone?… Trust me, they won’t”. What are they talking about? Looks like they are moving somewhere else. Thanks goodness they didn’t see me. They’re leaving now, I’m going to try again to get out.

Day 10 of Sumrust

It’s been 5 days since I escaped the ice, and I still can’t get over the shock of how different the Arctic is. For one, the small oceans which dotted the land are now massive from the ice melting, and tons of the mineral beds that our nests were built on have been mined out by something. Also, most of the really small sea beds near our old rock nest have evaporated and left lots of sedimentary rock. Yet, what has shocked me the most is how hot everything has gotten, and I just can’t figure out what caused that. It seems to have caused almost all of the prey to move location, so food is scarce. But there are fish… Drat, I can’t fly, how will I catch them?

Oh, and there is another problem. Turns out those creatures I saw before in the ice are called Humans, and they have been the ones removing the mineral beds. They use these huge loud machines that scare off all the prey, and since I can’t fly to catch fish, and all the land prey is scared off, I’m kinda stuck. Also whenever they see me, they take these small boxes that have flashing lights and record me, as if I am some wonderful discovery. It’s a bit creepy, but who knows why humans do what they do.

Log 5

Day 11 of Sumrust

Ok… this idea is completely crazy, but it could just work. So the other day, I went down to the shore to try to catch some fish, but I saw a pod of black whales approaching, so I backed off. But then I realized something, the feathery fur that is now covering my body almost resembles that of the whales. Plus I’ve tested it in a bit of water and it seems pretty water proof. So what if… I tried swimming?

Ok, so I tried swimming, massive fail. My feet are small and have no kicking power, and although my fur kept me warm, I still can’t breath or see underwater. I nearly drowned, but am now recovering on a small rock just off the coast. But hey, there are fish, so I guess I’ll try again…

Day 30 of Sumrust

A little time has passed and I’m starting to get used to this new environment. I’ve made myself a nice little home under a rock outcropping like the one I used to live in, but this time it’s a lot closer to the water. This is key because that’s basically where my only source of food lives. Oh and get this; every day I have gone swimming a bit more and started learning how to maneuver better. Also, it’s pretty weird, but my wings now have a fine webbing in between them and so do my feet. I kind of developed these after swimming so much and they really help me go faster. My tail has also changed dramatically, and works kind of like a rudder to help me turn.

Day 37 of Sumrust

The water has gotten warmer again, and more fish have left, but I still don’t know why. More humans recording me and pointing… siggghhhhhh. But good news, I have grown a fin on my back from all of the swimming which seems to help me sense vibrations in the water, so I can know when the humans are coming. Huh, kind of like the one black whales have, wow… am I more raven or whale?

Day 4 of Autumyr

Bad news, the humans are back. Turns out this is what they meant by “mineral and natural gas excavation”. This time, they set up there massive metal beasts near the water, and the loud noises have scared all the fish to the deeper waters, where I can’t go. By the way, I got way to close to one the other day and nearly burned my beak off! All the fumes coming out of those gapping metal pipes where making the air full of an unnatural stench, and were raising the temperature even higher than it already is. Great, now something else to make the world warmer and make more prey move. Slowly but surely these rising temperatures will diminish my food supply and my ice shelter until their is nothing left, and it’s almost like the humans… wait a minute…

Day 5 of Autumyr

I’ve figured it out! The reason for this drastic climate change, the melting, the prey leaving, it’s the humans! How could I have not seen this before? All of those sediment and mineral beds that they mined out are chock full of fossil fuel and of course, carbon. On top of that, the machines they use to excavate and transport them spew carbon gases out of them every time they are turned on. Like I said before, carbon being launched into the atmosphere makes the temperature warmer, so if the humans are releasing this much, the arctic will become so warm that nothing can even live here anymore! It will all be destroyed! What am I going to do?! I need to find a way to stop this before it is too late! The humans don’t even know how much of an impact they have on this environment!

Log 6

Day 1 of Spritynn

This is Scaf, perhaps signing off for the last time. I’ve have come up with a risky plan, a very risky plan, that could save the arctic, but will most likely end up in my capture. It turns out that the humans were recording me so they could share their findings with other humans through a massive network, and then try to capture me for research. Well, if this network is accessible all over the planet, then maybe if I can show them how much this is melting the ice and harming the arctic, then they will stop! I plan to do this by luring them to the glacier where I awoke, and get them to record live footage of the massively melted natural wonder. Yet, like I said before, I will probably be caught and taken away in the process, but it is worth it, for my home, for the Arctic!

Alright, I’ve approached one of their machines now, but how will I get their attention? Oh… I know! Whenever the black whales come, I know because they jump out of the water. Well, if I did a few flips, maybe they would come look to see what’s going on…

It worked, it worked!… I mean that’s not specifically a good thing because now I’m swimming for my life to escape a group of armed humans. I’m going faster than I ever have before, but now I can use my adaptations to their full extent! Whenever there are rocks, my webbed wings tail allow me to dodge them, whenever I face the sun, I can keep going without being blinded, whenever the humans try to surprise me, I can sense them with my fin. All these thing are me keeping me going! They can’t catch me, I will survive! Uh oh, dead end… but I’ve reached the glacier. I need to find a way in fast, it’s almost too late… Oh no, they’ve cornered me, my exits are blocked, where is an entrance!? It’s like when I was stuck in the glacier, I have no way out… but this time I really might die. Wait, that’s it! That underwater cave that I saw when I was stuck in there before, and I can swim now! I see it in the corner of my eye, it will be tight, but I must try…

well, here goes nothing…

One year later

In Toronto…

“Welcome back everyone to the 6:00 News. I’m your host Barbra Dreny and tonight’s top story is how the arctic excavations have finally come to an end. As you probably know, one year ago a video went viral of a team of miners in the arctic chasing down what appears to be a small whale, and by accidentally revealing a nearly completely destroyed glacier from millions of years ago that was hidden from anyone’s knowledge until now. After further examination, research teams have come to the conclusion it was mainly mans fault for this damage, and the Government of Canada has decided to ban all mining and excavating in the arctic to prevent further harm. This is thought to also eventually help significantly with climate change and will save hundreds of animals from loss of habitat. Also on a side note, many eye witness accounts claim that the small whale in the video isn’t a whale at all, but a whole new species all together. This is definitely interesting information, and some think that maybe, just maybe, it was the creatures plan to save it’s home all along…

The End