Snowmobiles 2: Snowmobilening

:"The silent blanket of the frozen desert is what drives men to explore, discover, freeze to death. And he had a face I could not say no to. [...] He was going to get me killed. I was willing to let him."
Snowmobiles 2: Snowmobilening is the 8th story in The Yellow Butterflies and a direct sequel to the 2nd story, Snowmobiles. It is told from the perspective of Sven, as he and Clive descend into the caverns.
A PDF of the story's current draft can be found here.
The following sections contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
== Plot ==
Following the scare at the end of Snowmobiles, Sven and Clive flee into the tunnels. Clive is limping heavily on his wounded foot and seems to be losing his mind from the cold, exhaustion and desolated landscape. He becomes determined that he and Sven should investigate deeper and, later, write a book, and Sven follows along.
As they descend into the increasingly demented cultish maze of rooms, they notice large grooves on the wall, and theorise as to their origin. Eventually, they reach a deep well, and climb up through it into a large, domed red room, reminiscient of the sacrificial room from Windmill on Sin Hill. 
Witnessing a sacrificial ceremony in which a huge hand accepts the offering of a skinned human sacrifice, Clive is traumatised, and Sven guides him to safety, seeing the skinning rooms and room for holding the sacrifices before hiding in a nook. A sealskin-wearing cultist confronts them and attacks the two after Sven challenges the cult's motives.
The two flee and escape the caves, but are pursued and rained upon with arrows. As Sven collapses and Clive is wounded, they reflect on their adventure before being found by a snowmobile-riding search party. In an epilogue, two Ruby Lou members (one of whom is implied to be Steven from the original Snowmobiles) discuss the events. The story closes as Sven is said to have ran away from the Lejon Ros's base, mounting a snowmobile and travelling back to the site of the cult with as much explosives as he can carry.
== Characters ==
=== Sven Bergfalk ===
Sven is the narrative voice. He is visibly more level-headed and stable than Clive, but often goes along with his adventures. Although he is quite logical and cool about their predicament, he is somewhat sentimental at times, and is deeply selfless.
=== Clive Torch ===
Sven's companion and apparent love interest. Far more eccentric and spontaneous than in Snowmobiles, likely due to his slightly frazzled mental state. Excited to explore and become famous, but is plagued with doubt and guilt for dragging Sven with him, and is eventually traumatised and heavily injured by the actions of the Membra cult.
=== The Sealskins / Membra Cult ===
The Membra cult are a group of cultists referred to as 'sealskins' by Sven due to their large sealskin coats. Skilled hunters, they kill both their own members and lost explorers to feed a large hand, mostly due to fear and reluctance to kill or starve it. The primary antagonists of the story; they function somewhat similarly to Grandmother, Ethan, Logan and Patrick from Windmill on Sin Hill. 
They are only referred to as the 'Membra' by Inspector Candle in Manning's Meats, and they are said to have 'disappeared' in a yellow butterflies case.
=== Giant Hand ===
Implied to be the same hand from Windmill on Sin Hill - consumes 'truth' in the form of skinned offerings, though the Membra skin their sacrifices entirely while the family from Windmill on Sin Hill only skin their victim's faces. It is implied that Sven goes back to kill it with explosives at the story's end. It is also indicated that it has been out of its well before, judging by the deep grooves the heroes theorise to be caused by 'big fingers'.
== Trivia ==
* Due to the fact that Candle refers to them as a yellow butterflies-related case, and that in Clusby and Gray Logan says that when Salt Hill collapsed, yellow butterflies erupted from where the hand had been, it can be assumed that not only was Sven likely successful in blowing up the hand in the ice caverns (which would explain the cult's disappearance), but also that the two hands were related, either the same hand or connecting to the same subterranean entity.
* The 'snow orgy' recurring joke makes a second appearance here.
Category:Written Pieces
Category:Rhiannon H works
Category:Stories in The Yellow Butterflies