"HOLY CRAP! Not cool! Not cool! So totally not cool!"

Both key bearers scrambled to their feet, shivering terribly. This dive had plopped them into a fluffy snowbank. Only, unlike outside the Prince's kingdom or Bryan's experience in the Ice Fields, this place was properly cold. Like, get-an-ice-cream-headache-just-by-breathing kind of cold. And they were hilariously underdressed for the dead of winter. Bryan didn't have sleeves and Rachel had a summer shirt. It didn't help at all they grew up in a climate that had its chilly days but rarely got cold enough for snow.

"Where are we! And who could possibly live here?" Rachel hugged herself tightly and looked around for signs of life.

Seconds later, per the norm, their Dream Eaters appeared in quick flickers of radiant light. Jewel took one look around and went ballistic. She did several backwards summersaults, squealing with joy at all the snow. The Ice Whale dove in the snow and swam through it as easily as if it were water. At least somebody wasn't freezing. Well, her and Seger. Hard to make a creature of fire uncomfortable in the snow. However, you could make yourself comfortable by staying close to a creature of fire. Rachel jumped on Fantasia's back to get her feet out of the snow. Both of them called their Keyblade with the ends lit up with Fire. Anything to keep warm.

Once they felt a smidge more comfortable they got a better look around. They were in a mountainous landscape with towering pine trees heavy-laden with snow. If their jaws weren't so tense from trying to restrain the teeth chattering they might have smiled at the beauty of the sparkling diamond snow, the bright sun and clear skies.

"Catch me on fire or something will you?" Bryan said. He was talking to his sister but Seger looked at him with his head cocked and his ears perked in a confused why-would-I-do-that sort of way.

They trudged through the snow as quickly as they could. Maybe they could find some sign of civilization, find out where they were and where to go next.

"Wouldn't you know with our luck this is a place inhabited by yeti people or ice goblins or something."

"Oh don't even say that out loud. I'm already freezing. You've at least got sleeves."

"Of a light and feathery material. You really think this shirt holds heat?"

"My arms look like a plucked chicken. And look! White's a reptile and he isn't even bothered by it!"

It was true. Maybe the electricity that flowed within him generated enough internal heat he wasn't bothered by the chilly mountain air. Or maybe Dream Eaters just didn't feel the elements like people did.

"So where sh-should we go n-now?" Rachel shivered.

"I th-think down the mountain t-to find people. Up again t-to look f-for the Keyhole."

"Why up?"

"What a better place for th-the door to a worlds heart th-than the top of a hard-to-reach mountain?"

"I guess that makes s-sense. Though I really d-don't like it."

So that's what they did. Fantasia made her way through the snow with ease, as did Jewel but she was mostly playing in it. White slithered on top of the snow, Bryan lay on his stomach on White's back, just going along for the ride. Seger left a strange trail. His body heat melted the snow slightly as he walked. Surely they looked like some kind of traveling circus. The siblings looked around at the scenery…and saw nothing but mountains. Was this place strictly a mountain world? Would certainly make for a very exhausting trip if it was. But there was a flicker of hope in the distance.

From beyond a slope they could see a pillar of smoke. When they reached the top, they could see a log cabin at the bottom. That did raise their hopes that this place actually had human inhabitants. Then again, last few places they'd been, lions and mice lived in castles, yeti's in cabins wouldn't be that big of a stretch. The Spirits were left on the slope. Regardless of what species the inhabitants of the cabin were, a giant snake and dark wolf with huge fangs that didn't like anybody might not go over well if they were to get help. Bryan knocked off the snow that partially obscured the welcome sign.

"Wandering Oaken's Trading Post." He read aloud.

"Oh goody! They might have something warm to wear." Rachel paused at the door.

"What?"

"Should we knock?"

"It's a trading post, its open to the public. Just walk in." Bryan slipped in front of her and opened the door. Inside, the cabin had a high ceiling and lots of rows of miscellaneous items. There were tools, clothes and jars of food. It felt a little stuffy and (according to Rachel) smelled like cedar.

"Yoo-hoo."

The key bearers turned to see a large man with a big red mustache sitting behind a counter.

"Oh, hi." Bryan said. "So are you Oaken?"

"That vould be me. Just so you know all our summer stock is half-off."

"No chance you have anything suitable for winter?"

"Dat vould be in our vinter department." He gestured to a place on the wall across the room. It was a small area in the corner of the shop. It had a lot of little shelves and pegs for coats, hats and scarves. On the floor was a basket of mittens. However the entire corner was less than half full.

"Not to be rude," Bryan said. "But isn't your winter selection a little sparse for the dead of winter?"

"Theese is not the dead of vinter my boy. Othervise our vinter stock vould take up most of the store."

"Then what do you call all that snow outside?"

"Nobody knows."

"You mean this is supposed to be summer?" Rachel asked, trying on a coat.

"That's right, dear."

"You just got a raging blizzard in the middle of summer?" She confirmed.

He nodded.

"Is that normal?" Bryan asked, testing the fit of a pair of boots.

"Nobody has ever seen anything like this before. A young man said only a day ago it vas coming from de North Mountain."

The siblings looked at each other. Result of a dreaming world perhaps? Would certainly be interesting to learn what caused this and if it happened in real life. And it did give them a direction to try. After they picked out their winter gear, Bryan nudged Rachel on the arm, leaned in close and asked a very important question.

"How are we going to pay for these?"

"Uh…oh! I know! Do you still have your dream shards?"

Both of them shuffled for their pouches to see how many dream pieces they still had. They stopped collecting more after RolliPolli and Seger. In all honesty, they'd forgotten they still had any left up until then.

"Think he'll take these?" Bryan asked with some skepticism.

"Why not? They look like jewels. All he has to do is say yes. It's not like this is real so it's not really like we cheated him."

"Fair point."

Mr. Oaken had never seen anything like the dream shards before but when they told him they were magic jewels and offered a lot of them he didn't ask questions. Each shard radiated a wisp of emotion that could be felt when touched. That was enough to convince him they were in fact magic. Afterward, they asked for the direction of the North Mountain and started hiking again. Rachel hopped on Fantasia's back, Bryan knelt on White's coils and let their Spirits trudge through the snow. But neither of them minded. Jewel was still having too much fun swimming through the snow to notice much else.

"Now that we can talk and understand each other over the chattering of our teeth, there's something I wanted to bring up."

"If you're apologizing again for the guy in black, please don't. I already said I don't blame you."

"Well I'm still sorry about that but that's not what I was going to say."

"Okay, then, what?"

"When I was fighting that guy, I was able to carry your Keyblade."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that's only half of it. Not only could I fight with it, somehow the two pieces snapped back together and became No Shortcuts again."

Bryan looked at her in a 'Oh? Go on' sort of way, his eyebrows rising with interest. "You were able to put our Keyblade back together again?"

"I'm sure it was just a fluke considering what was going on, but I think it's worth trying to repeat once we're conscious again."

"So?" She had his full attention and interest at its highest. "What was it like?"

"Fighting with a whole Keyblade?" She rolled her head back and smiled brightly. "It was incredible. It was like…I could feel the Keyblades' joy to be whole again. I could feel such an amazing power tingle beneath my fingers. And this was while No Shortcuts was whole in a dream! I can't imagine what it will feel like in real life."

They discussed it a while longer but were interrupted by the appearance of the first Nightmares. Interestingly enough, the first thing they saw was a small herd of Yoggy Rams. Very reminisce of the real-life mountain goat but this was a world of ice and it was a Nightmare of fire. Also in the Dream Eater menagerie as they trekked the mountain was the penguin-like Iceguin Ace, a reindeer-like Paynedeer; a Nightmare with sharp tined, wide antlers and a broad-shouldered thick-armed yeti thing with long fur and a short temper. And NOOOO! There was even a winter version of the blasted Pricklemane! Only instead of spikes, the quills were sharp icicles.

"I don't like the cold. And I'm so sick of those Pricklmanes!" Rachel snuggled as close to Fantasia's neck as she could. She didn't even get off the UniGlow's back to fight unless she had to. They felt a lot better now that they had proper coats and shoes but they still weren't that used to such temperatures.

"My least favorite Nightmare…and that's a very weird thing to say. Let's hope we don't have to spend many nights up here."

"Eee-yauck! Don't even say that."

Bryan laughed a little. "Let's go up to that ledge and see if we can find a path or something."

"Up a huge mountain looking for a better way to get up a huge mountain?"

"Exactly. Only, let's fly."

"A novel idea."

Rachel switched mounts and the two of them flew on their spirits to the ledge Bryan indicated. They kinda felt as stupid as they did back at the beanstalk. The easiest solution stared them in the face for a while before backhanding them hard. Fantasia wasn't too happy about being switched and gave Rachel the silent treatment for a while.

The key bearers only took a few minutes to reach the ledge. The view was incredible. The kinda place you would want to shout and sing from just to hear the echo. They could see what they assumed to be the North Mountain in the distance. If they could fly fast on their Dream Eaters straight across the valleys and hills, they might make it there by evening. But that idea was shot down immediately. Flying fast only meant inviting wind burn of very icy air. Might take longer to go slower and require more stops but at least there would be no snow trudging, they couldn't get lost because all mountains look the same from the ground and there would probably be much fewer Nightmares unless this place also a snow eagle or something. And that would have been the plan they'd've gone with too, if it weren't for the commotion they noticed at the bottom of the cliff. There were people down there. And the Nightmares had found them first. Five Paynedeers had surrounded a small group of mountain travelers, who, by the look of things even from a distance, had no way of fighting back.