Chapter seven! Thanks you SO much for all of you who have hung with me so far. Your attention is more than I could ever deserve. You guys ROCK! Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer- Shaman King=not mine=someone else's

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ZOE

I woke up before dawn at the sounds of voices outside. Huh? Voices? I reluctantly got out of bed and went to the door of our tent. There were several girls standing around the platform. I ran back inside and pounced on my shaman partner's sleeping form. She squealed and pushed me off.

"What do ya want?" she complained, half asleep.

"Third test!" She jumped up immediately.

"Are we late???" she yelped.

"Not yet..." I responded calmly as she put on her new clothes.

"Ok, let's go." She said as she tried to put on her armlets and her headband at the same time. I grabbed the pocketknife and followed obediently. The girls outside seemed to be doing a little skit concerning Tabitha and the platform. I chuckled. "Tabitha" was yelling at everyone to shut up while jumping up and down on the platform. Everyone laughed, but suddenly went silent. The real Tabitha had stepped into the platform and was glaring at the "other Tabitha". She blushed and jumped off the platform. Tabitha shook her head and turned to us.

"Only five of you showed up?" I looked around and counted. Nagini, her black-haired friend, Crystal, Jade, and Kigali. There were two people missing.

"Oh well, the sun's right about up and—"

"WAIT!!!" a duet of voices cried up at the same time. Everyone whirled around to face the two last finalists. Both of them had shoulder length, bright blond hair. The only difference was that one had red highlights in her hair and bright, russet eyes. The other had green highlights and emerald-green eyes.

"They're twins!" Kigali whispered. I nodded; they were identical twins. They blushed under Tabitha's disapproving glare and slipped in by Kigali, smiling at her good-naturedly. Kigali smiled back.

"Hey!" said the one with the green highlights, "My name's Azami, what's yours?" she asked Kigali.

"I'm Kigali," she answered as the twin with red highlights pushed her sister aside to talk to her.

"I'm Ayame, pleased to meet you!" She laughed, "Are you from this village?" Kigali nodded, "Yea, we're from the Nomel Tribe and—"

"Ok people! Shut up a second!" Tabitha yelled cutting Ayame off, who obeyed her grudgingly. "The third test is about to begin, so listen to the instructions." The seven girls went utterly silent in anticipation. Tabitha smiled.

"The third test WILL be a quest, as some of you know." She started, looking at Jade and Crystal. "This quest will take place on Quaff Mountain, as you know, this mountain is extremely dangerous and filled with many different kinds of spirits. Only the strongest survive the climb." She paused. "Some say that the mountain itself is alive, for it won't allow the use of Oversoul or any kind of easy access to the top. You'll have to climb it." Tabitha looked over each one of the finalists.

"The task will be to reach the top of the mountain, where two sacred items have been sited for 500 years in wait of the goddess of water. Of course, only two finalists will grab hold of the items, but you ALSO have to make it back to the bottom of the mountain with them. If someone else takes them from you it will still count. So basically, you've got to climb the mountain, grab the items, and make it back to the village to pass the test. It will be hard and you might die, so if anyone is too scared to go up there feel free to tell me." She waited a moment, looking with interest at the finalists.

"Ok, if no one is interested in renouncing the test, I will go on with the rest of the directions. Quaff Mountain is located at the west, about a day's walk from here, you may not use Oversoul at any time EXEPT if your having a shaman battle, because as you know, the mountain WILL NOT allow it. Fail to obey this rule and you WILL be disqualified. You have to make it back three days from now at noon exactly. You may leave... NOW!" Everyone stood there for about a second, then everyone rushed towards their tents to get ready. Kigali turned towards me.

"Zoe? I think it's time for plan B,"

"Umm... ok, what's plan B?" I asked reluctantly. She smiled a mischievous smile.

KIGALI

An hour later we were racing down the freezing tundra on one of the village's fastest dog-sled team. We were held up a bit when we had to sneak into the kennels, but somehow, we made it out without anyone biting our heads off. It was a team of six dogs and their half-wolf leader, the fastest around. Every now and then we passed one of the finalists who were walking to Mount Quaff, but with this team, we were going to get there in a third of the time.

We rode in silence the rest of the way, except when we saw an irritated Nagini trudging through the snow, then we couldn't resist a good laugh. But just the knowledge that we were ahead of Nagini made the test a little bit easier. Zoe soared above me as a bald eagle, skimming the terrain like the shadow of a rain cloud.

"See anything?" I yelled at her over the deafening rush of wind.

"Yeah! Mount Quaff should become visible right about... now." As always, she was right. The snowy tip of Mount Quaff became came into sight just as she said. It was huge.

"How much longer 'till we get there?"

"'Bout an hour," she replied, flying ahead. We rode on into the endless Alaskan plains. I looked up into the sky. It was almost noon. We had traveled all morning non-stop.

"Man, whatever happened to breakfast?" I muttered as my stomach growled. But I knew we couldn't stop until we got to our destination. Even the dogs seemed to know, who were pulling the sled with their endless stamina. I glanced at the mountain only to find myself at its roots. Zoe landed on the sled.

"This is it. It's a no-go for the sled, Key. We'll have to leave it behind."

"Great... what do we do with the sled?"

"Tell the dogs to stay nearby." Zoe said calmly. I looked at her as if she were crazy.

"Talk?"

"Yea."

"To the dogs?

"Uh-huh."

"I can't speak dog!"

"Yea you can! Look, it's easy." She turned into a wolf and spun around to face the team. She yipped at them once; the dogs immediately stood up from their resting places and looked at me expectantly.

"Ok, acquire Winka's spirit. A beautiful gray husky trustingly walked up to me and laid her head on my lap. I put my hand on her head and obtained her spirit, then she quietly walked back to her fellow dogs.

"Ok, now talk to them." ordered Zoe. I looked at the team.

"Umm... Hi everyone..." They tilted their heads and looked at me with confused looks on their faces. Zoe sighed.

"No, not like that. You gotta focus on the animal you wanna talk to, as if you are going to become the animal, but focus on the animal's voice instead." Oh. I turned towards the team once more. I focused on Winka's bark, and then spoke to them.

"Hi..." They pricked up their ears and instantly gave me a large array of answers.

"Hey!"

"What's up"

"Hiya!"

"What's new?" I took a step backwards, laughing nervously.

"Ok, um... team?" They yipped in response.

"I want you to stay in this area until I call you back, and... um... you can't go back to the village yet... Ok...?"

"Sure thing, chief." Replied a black-coated shepherd with a German accent, "We'll stay around here until you howl for us." I untied their harnesses and let them loose while Zoe hid the sled.

"You don't think they'll leave us here, do you?" I asked Zoe suspiciously.

"Are you kidding, nothing's more loyal than a dog!" She laughed, wagging her tail in demonstration. I looked at the Mountain.

"How on earth are we gonna climb this thing?" I asked her.

"Well, we can fly up, because that doesn't require Oversoul." She turned into a huge eagle, "Climb up." I sat lightly on her back. She spread her wings and beat them once, sending a back draft of wind right back at us, granting an easy lift off. In no time at all, we were fifty feet up in the air, flying towards the summit.

"Hey Key?" Zoe inquired.

"What?" I yelled over the rush of wind.

"What's THAT?" I followed her gaze. There was a huge, black cloud enveloping the summit, and crawling rapidly towards us.

"It looks like a—" WHOOSH! A freezing blast of air hit my face with chilling accuracy. I gasped for air and grabbed hold of Zoe's feathers as hard as I could. We were inside the cloud, it was like a black blizzard, I couldn't see anything. It was like freezing smoke, forcing itself inside my lungs, I couldn't breathe! I saw a shadow through the corner of my eye. Something was flying right by us! I yanked on Zoe's feathers once more.

"DIVE!" I chocked. She reacted instantly. I felt fresh air flood my lungs as we broke away from the cloud. We crash-landed about four feet away from a cliff. I breathed deeply, half in relief and half in asphyxiation.

"Tabitha was right. The mountain won't grant easy access to the top." Said Zoe weakly. I remained silent. That thing I had seen on the cloud...

"Key?" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Yea, I'm with ya. Well, let's look at it on the bright side. We're probably halfway up the mountain, and on the lead." I stood up and shook the snow off me. Zoe turned into her usual figure and followed me as I started climbing the slippery rock walls of Quaff Mountain. With no ropes and probably seventy feet up in the air.

"Don't look down, now!" Zoe joked.

"I'm not THAT stupid, stupid!" I replied, sneaking a glance below me.

We climbed on for hours nonstop. Sometimes the black cloud appeared above us, threatening like a mother grizzly over her cubs. We knew it was because one of the finalists had made the same mistake that we made. We climbed on. The temperature kept falling to impossible levels, but my shaman capacities kept rising to meet it. Unfortunately, my shaman abilities couldn't make roasted chicken appear out of nowhere, so that afternoon I practically collapsed into a cave we had found by pure dumb luck.

"Man, I'm starving!" I moaned. Zoe nodded in agreement. Zoe was a special kind of spirit, I had learned; humans could see her if she wanted to be seen, she could not go through walls like other spirits, and she could stuff her face as much as I could, even though she didn't actually NEED to eat.

"Ok Zoe, hypothetical question." She twitched her ears in amusement, "Ok, if you were in a freezing mountain, with no food, and you were starving, what would you eat?" I waited patiently while Zoe closed her eyes in deep thought. When Zoe looked like that, a prize-winning answer was usually on its way. She finally opened her eyes and smiled.

"If I ever happened to be in that impossible situation," She played along, "I would go to the heart of the mountain." I looked at her eagerly, wanting to hear more, but she just looked at me and tossed back my question. "What would YOU do?"

"I'd eat roots," I said.

"Caves don't have a lot of roots. Besides, half of them are poisonous and would give you hallucinations for weeks. My solution, is in the ground."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, the only people who survive are those who can eat the grubs that live in the cave mud, if you can eat that, you can survive anywhere. It's a valuable skill. Could YOU eat a grub?" She asked sneakily. It was a trick question.

"Sure," I said. "What are they?"

"Larvae." Zoe reached out and swiped her paw across the ground, leaving a foot-deep gash in the freezing ground. I felt my stomach roll, then twist as I peered in the hole. There were several white, tiny worms squirming in the soil.

"Oh! Gross!" I covered my mouth with my hands, as though Zoe were going to force-feed them to me. "They're pukey!"

"Not when you have the spirit of the wolf inside you and are hungry, besides, you'd get lost and starve to death if you can't eat grubs. Believe me, when you have this skill, you're going to survive when everyone is going hungry while pining away for hamburgers and chocolate shakes." I shivered in repulsion, but I couldn't deny it. Zoe was right.

"Ok... give me one." I said hesitantly. Zoe nosed one to the edge of the hole.

"Take it." She ordered me. Slowly, I grasped the grub between my fingers. I looked at Zoe and whimpered.

"Do it!" She encouraged. I popped the grub into my mouth. At first, I thought my stomach was going to fly out of me, but then I bit down on it and swallowed it swiftly. It had a sweet sort of taste. In a sick sort of way. I stuck out my tongue and cupped my hands. Water immediately swelled up there.

"Good thing about being the goddess of water; you'll never lack water." Zoe said good-naturedly as I hurriedly drank. "That was excellent, Key, I knew you could do it. How do you feel?"

"Well, I'm not hungry anymore."

"Too bad, because I figured out another answer to your little question." She said nervously.

"WHAT!!!!!!!!????????" I screamed.

"Well, you didn't eat the grub for NOTHING." She replied, reading my mind. "Think of all the skills you gained." I let the subject go.

"So, what're we eating?" I asked instead, dreading the answer.

"Don't worry, it's not bad. Follow me." We walked deeper into the cave.

The cave became darker, but light still came through some cracks high up in the roof. The path curved and opened up into a huge chamber. Through its middle, a small lake started, which connected into a stream that followed a tunnel deeper into the mountain.

"Great. What now?" I turned to Zoe. She smiled.

"You're gonna love this." She walked into the lake. The water went up to her canine ankles. She wagged her tail, giving me confidence. I took of my tennis shoes and followed her into the lake. The water was cold but not frozen.

"Hey, slow down!" I called after Zoe, who was already walking into the stream.

"Come on!" She called back. I went after her into the stream and out of the chamber. The tunnel was uncomfortably narrow. Zoe must have heard me grumbling, because she turned around and waited for me.

"Don't worry! Passages of caves never stay narrow for long." She skipped ahead a few feet. She was right, after a few minutes of walking we trekked into a wider expanse. The stream was ten to fifteen feet wide here, and flowed around mounds of massive white-and-yellow stalagmites. As Zoe walked ahead, I became aware of the stream bottom softening; my feet sinking deeper the further they went. I glanced down at the water for a moment, and when I looked up, Zoe had gone around the bend. My heart began to race.

"Ok, Keep calm." I said, completely aware that I was talking to myself. I hurried my pace, trying to catch up to Zoe. The water was up to my knees now. I plodded straight through the bottom mud. With each step, ooze slipped between my toes.

"Zoe! Wait— AHH!" I ended the sentence with a scream. Before I knew it, I was sitting waist deep in the stream, my left foot doubled up beneath me. Zoe came rushing back.

"What's the matter?"

"My right foot's stuck!"

"The mud's thick here..." she mused.

"AHHH!"

"What!?"

"Something's moving on top of my leg!" Zoe nosed my leg under the water.

"Feels like a rotting log or something..."

"PULL IT OFF!" I yelled in exasperation.

"I'm coming..."

"Hurry up—" Zoe suddenly plunged headfirst into the water, soaking me completely in freezing water. She was struggling with something under the water, splashing frantically, but she eventually surfaced, holding the "log" in her mouth. She smiled and shook herself.

"What IS that?" I asked, pointing at the object in Zoe's mouth. She dropped it in the water, where it floated lazily at my feet.

"Giant catfish." She replied. "AKA, our dinner." I shrugged uncomfortably.

"Better than grubs."

We made it back to the chamber where the lake was. It was already nighttime, so we decided to camp for a few hours to eat and get some rest.

"Are we leaving tomorrow morning?" I asked Zoe as I gutted the catfish with my pocketknife.

"No, I was thinking we should leave in a couple of hours. It'll reduce the risk of having Nagini catching up to us." She added quickly after she saw my face. But she had hit a nerve.

"Yea, good idea." I took off my clothing and set it aside to dry. I shivered. "Isn't there any way to make a fire?" I asked Zoe.

"Nope. No flammable stuff here, besides, the soil is too moist." I gave Zoe part of the catfish, but she refused it.

"You eat it. I can live without it." I wondered if she meant that in more ways than one, but ate the catfish with no complaints. After I forced the rest of it down my throat, I laid down, using Zoe as a pillow. I could see the stars through one of the cracks in the roof. They reminded me of that boy. I fingered my earrings and fell asleep with stars and snowflakes dancing in my head. Tomorrow would be no better or worse than today.

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That's chapter seven! Yay! I hope the story's not boring you guys. Kigali will grow soon... SOON! Hang with me!

Review if you have time!

Lady Dragonfly

Next Chapter- The Second Day