Climbing the staircase was slow moving difficult process. For Meow and Dandy it was easy enough, but for Qt, who had wheels for legs it was tedious work. Dandy took Qts left arm, while meow took the right, and they pulled him up step by step.

Qt being a lighter form of robot it wasn't extremely difficult pulling him up, but after the first 100 stairs Meow and Dandy were getting noticeably tired. Qt stopped them not too long after this.

"look Meow, you and Dandy should go on without me. Getting me up these stairs is going to be too difficult for you and Dandy. You guys aren't going to make it dragging me all the way up there."

They were well above the lava pool from the volcano, but they were still inside the cavern. Meow looked at Qt, with a pitiable frown. "What? Qt don't be like that. We have to make it to the sacred pasture together, the three of us so we can obtain spiritual enlightenment."

Dandy groaned from inside his thermosuit. "Ahhh don't be ridiculous Meow, there's no way we're gonna make it up this mountain pulling him along like this. You guys should have thought about this before we came."

"What do you know? You wouldn't have planned any differently. You wouldn't have planned at all, At least we got up to this point."

Qt interjected at this point.

"No meow, Dandy's right. There is no way that you guys are gonna make it up this mountain with me. And it's ok. It's not like I can obtain spiritual enlightenment anyways, I'm a robot. I have no spirit to enlighten in the first place.

You guys can be enlightened though. And you will! I believe in you."

Meow was overcome with emotion at the words of the small vacuuming unit. The beetlejucian threw himself on the robot, embracing him in a deep hug. "I promise Qt, after all this is over and we get the reward for bringing in this Dali whatever. I'll buy you the best enlightenment program known to sentient life. You'll be the smartest vacuum in the universe."

"Ahh, thanks Meow. Thats sounds, ah.. nice."

"You bet buddy, in the meantime you just wait here for us. We'll be back in no time"

And with that both Dandy, and Meow climbed upwards once more without their wheeled friend. It took them another two hours to reach the ceiling of the cavern. Once the staircase got to the ceiling, there was a tunnel in the rock where the staircase continued. Dandy and Meow climbed the stairs into the tunnel. The stairs here were dark and and covered with water. In the distance the light of day showed through what seemed like an opening in the tunnel. A few minutes later they figured out that that's exactly what it was. Snow poured in through the opening along with a fierce wind and the light of day. Meow and Dandy stepped out into the open air, and gazed around at an amazing sight.

They were a fair distance up the side of a huge mountain. The ground could be seen from where they were, but the mountainscape above them extended all the way into the clouds and looked like it would continue from there.

"Well" Meow said looking around them. "we're back in the snow again. But at least there's no blizzard."

"blizzard or no blizzard, this is still gonna be a pain in the ass. Do you see the size of this mountain? All the way up to the clouds!.. I should have brought my jetpack."

"There are no shortcuts in the path to enlightenment Dandy. Weren't you listening to anything those spiritual guidance counselors had to say?"

Dandy snorted and shook his head. Meow sighed and waved at Dandy "c'mon Dandy, this is the last leg of the race, let's finish strong."

Together they continued up the staircase which continued up the side of the mountain. The stairs were covered with snow, but large enough to fit both Dandy and Meow on their steps comfortably.

Side by side, the Beetlejucian and the spacer made there way up the face of the mountain. There were parts of the stairway that were more narrow than others. Other parts where the stairs have eroded away, and left big open gaps in the path. These parts were troublesome, but the two managed to get by them. Some of the stairs were also covered in ice, making crossing them especially dangerous. There were a couple times that Meow almost slipped.Luckily on these occasions, he was fast enough to reach out to the side of the mountain, and grab on before any real harm was done.

The two of them climbed all through the day into the night. Only stopping twice for sleep and rest. Sharing rations out of the hiking pack they had brought with them, they shared a meal of dried fruit and bread. They ate their rations, sat around watching the winds now softly blow the snow around them.

The mountain took three days to climb. about mid-afternoon of the first day they broke the clouds. The clouds extended below them drifted fluently like an endless sea of heavenly fluff. The sun was visible from this point, and the light made the climb a little bit warmer.

On the fourth day of climbing they finally reached the top of the mountain. Straggling up the last few final stairs, Dandy and Meow collapsed onto dried out straw-like grass. The wind blew fairly, and the mountain air was sharp and crisp with a sweet smell in it like sugar.

Meow slowly woke up to the feeling of something light being dropped on his face.After getting agitated enough to break his comfortable posture he opened his eyes to see a bundle of dry grass shaking from side to side only inches above his nose.