"Finally! I was beginning to think we'd never get here!"
As soon as they had approached the side of the mountain, Ikay woke up and leaped off Link's shoulders, running excitedly toward the wall of red rock. The mountain was very steep and there were almost no footholds.
"It's a good thing you're my friend, Link! 'Cause if you weren't you'd have a really hard time getting up this mountain!"
Ikay turned, lifted her hand, and pressed it against the rock. When nothing happened, Link gave her an unimpressed look.
"Was that supposed to make it easier to get to the top of the mountain? Putting your hand on it? It sure seems like it'll be easier now."
Ikay wasn't listening, she was concentrating too hard. The cracks on her hand suddenly began to glow a more intense purple and she gritted her teeth. Then, a burst of lavender shot from her palm and into the rock. Cracks spread out in all directions from her hand and the rock continued to crack until it all crumbled away, revealing a hidden passage with stairs leading upwards. The remaining rubble crunched under Link's boots as he stepped through the entranceway.
"Well, it seems placing your hand on the mountain really did make things easier."
Ikay beamed at him.
"Cool, isn't it? How I used the energy inside me to break open the door? Well, I actually wasn't supposed to break it, I was only supposed to move it to the side, but completely destroying it just seemed like more fun! Anyway, these stairs lead to the entrance of my village. We can rest up there if you want."
"I won't be needing any rest, I only need information."
"Information about what?"
"About something hidden in one of these mountains."
"Oh, if you want information, you should talk to my teacher. She knows pretty much everything! Do you want to have a race?"
Link raised an eyebrow.
"A race?"
"Yeah! Not too far up the stairs, the path splits into two. Both paths are the same length and lead to the village, but one will take you inside the village and the other just outside of it. We should have a race to see who can get to the center of the village first. There's a big shrine there, you can't miss it."
"This does seem like it'd be more entertaining than just walking up the stairs, but I know how fast you are, it'd be impossible for me to beat you there."
"Hmmm… Then how about this, I'll take the path that leads outside the village. It'll take longer to get to the center of the village from the outside. Besides, that route also has way more monsters to- "
"Whoa, hold on a second, monsters?"
"Uh, yeah, this is the Stigma Mountains you're traveling in. There are monsters practically everywhere. As I was saying, the outside path has way more monsters than the inside path, so it'll take me longer to reach the end of it."
"But with your speed, couldn't you just run past all the monsters without being noticed?"
"Ugh! You're ruining my easy win! Fine! I'll fight and kill every single monster that crosses my path, okay?"
"That sounds better. Although, I'm sure it'll still be quite the challenge to try and beat you there. Good thing I enjoy a tough challenge every once in a while."
Link smirked and his red eyes gleamed with amusement. Ikay grinned back at him.
"Let's get going then, friend. It won't take long to reach the separating pathways."
…
Upon reaching the two dividing routes, Strata finally decided to speak up, even though she figured Link would only ignore her.
"I'm not sure if this is a good idea. What if one of you gets injured? It'd be much safer to travel together. Especially since there are powerful monsters in here."
Link answered.
"It's not like I'll be alone, Strata, because I have you, and you're very helpful in a fight."
Ikay cut in.
"Yeah, and I can take care of myself, thank you very much!"
Strata was surprised that Link had replied so calmly, then she surrendered.
"Alright, let's just get this over with."
Ikay seemed pleased that they were finally about to begin.
"Okay, the path on the left is the one that'll take you into the village and the one on the right will take me outside of it."
Link stood in front of the left passage, Ikay in front of the right. As they were about to begin, Ikay's eyebrows raised in alarm.
"Dang, I almost forgot to mention something really important to you! So, one of the main reasons the Stigma Mountains have so many monsters gather on them isn't just because of the darkness that lives here. These mountains are a place were two realms overlap. There's the realm we live in, the Pendent Realm, a world that hangs between light and darkness. Then, there's the Silent Realm, a completely different world filled with power that no one from this world could ever comprehend. A world of neither light, nor darkness, nor anything in between. Sometimes, monsters from the Silent Realm find their way here. In fact, I've even seen a few of them, although I've never fought one. They're… different from your typical monsters. The most common ones are what we call, Guardians. They're kind of like ghosts, they float and can go through walls. However, unlike ghosts they always seem to have a solid form. They also carry these weird weapons. This is where things get bad. If you're hit by their weapon, you're a goner. No one knows what happens exactly, but every person who's been hit by one so far, has gone into a comatose state. And they're never injured physically by the weapon, it seems to just pass right through them. Not long after they're hit and go into a coma, they die. They're hearts just stop beating. There have only been a few people who have managed to live more than a couple hours in that state. I'm telling you this as a warning. If you see any monster with an unusual, pale green aura, I suggest you run. I have orders to run, those are the only monsters I'm forbidden to fight. Okay! Now that that's out of the way, ready to race?"
Strata was staring at Ikay like she was insane, which she probably was.
"Are you out of your-"
Link interrupted her.
"I'm ready."
"What? I'm surrounded by lunatics!"
Ikay and Link both tensed, preparing to dart up their staircases. Ikay began the countdown.
"Three."
"Link, I swear if you don't listen to me!"
"Two."
"Link!"
"One."
"We're all going to die."
"Go!"
They both began climbing their stairs.
