p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Within the Ice mountain. . ./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko stood with her hands on her hips and a raised eyebrow while surveying the space they were in saying "Well, that was easier than I imagined." While talking her eyes fell on Batsu, his back to her as his skin began to cool. Her face turned red as she imagined how it felt to be held by his warmth./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""It's ice I figured it couldn't be too hard to melt into it no matter how it looked from the outside. Although, I wasn't expecting this , I'll say that much." said Batsu as he looked around him in awe. He glanced at Naoko who quickly faced away from him, embarrassed. Not paying her any mind he continued to investigate the surroundings./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"It was as if they had wandered into a miniature forest in the middle of autumn, leaves of orange, brown and maroon, littered the ground. A beautiful sight to behold, although the trees from which the leaves fell were quite small. They sat in an odd formation too and with no sun in the sky, still it blazed brilliantly reminiscent of midday./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""So now what do we do?" Rai asked while closing in on the head of the pagoda./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"The other two shrugged their shoulders as they continued to investigate the small forest. Until, Naoko came upon a small podium, inscribed on the podium was the phrase "READ ALOUD: If you turn right the trees will bear only orange leaves, if you turn left they will bear only brown leaves and if you turn me 'round you will be maroon... Read this message only midway and behold a dream./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Having only read this to herself, Naoko looked up out toward the trees with her sharingan this time, the trees swayed in an unnatural angle in opposing directions to each other. In disbelief Naoko stared at them for a moment and within the next minute they slowly moved to their original positions./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko looked to Rai who'd been staring off into the sky, "Rai is my sharingan showing right now?" Naoko asked while looking at her friend./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Rai jumped, as she snapped out of her daydream quickly moving closer to Naoko saying "Is it supposed to be, because it looks like your normal eyes, boring."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko's face scrunched over Rai's words saying "I do not have boring eyes." Naoko spat. Rai giggled while shrugging her shoulders./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""Whats this stone say?" Rai asked while continuing to move closer to the podium./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Batsu noticed the two girls huddled together, moving toward them asking "You two find something over there?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko covered the words with her hands saying "I did find something but you have to read it to yourself regardless of what it says." After which she removed her hands and the two began reading, Rai read within her mind while Batsu mumbled the passage to himself. Once the two finished they looked up to Naoko who stood staring at Batsu saying "I asked you specifically to read it to yourself, for a reason!"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"With a raised eyebrow Batsu retorted "I don't see what the problem- Naoko interrupted by pointing toward the trees. Batsu and Rai looked out toward the small trees that once gaggled throughout the thin forest, were now lined up in ranks./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""Shit..." Batsu said plainly./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""What's this?" asked Rai. Batsu seemed to have the same question on his face when they both looked to Naoko./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""It's a riddle for one and two I think if we don't solve it correctly we may not get to leave here." A look of worry on her face as she spoke./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;""This shouldn't be to hard right, I mean it says what we should do right? OK, there are nine trees from what I can see, each one has leaves beneath it, one of three colors... I'm not really sure where to go from there." Rai reasoned while panicking./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko had also assessed the number of trees but found no correlation between that and the passage on the stone podium. As her anxiety started to rise, biting her nail began to seem like a solution, eyes swelling with tears. Her body was tired, sleep deprived and wasn't aware of how much time they had, on top of it all her sharingan refused to activate./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"All the while Batsu merely continued to read the phrase to himself. Raising his head he looked out toward the trees the space they occupied twisted momentarily enough to catch the attention of all three of them./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Naoko began pacing back and forth while fighting back fears of failing everyone which only frustrated her further. Rai gripped her pants tightly while gritting her teeth looking out toward the trees./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Batsu brushed his hair back nonchalantly as he smirked, gripping the podium he attempted to turn it, it moved roughly, the sky flickered. "Hmmph!" he scoffed. Releasing the podium it returned to it's set position. Batsu at this point turned himself around, back facing the trees eyes toward the pagoda./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"The head of the pagoda, the wall he faced began to peel open like the mouth of a beast, wood dripped down the edges of the opening like saliva, the head of the pagoda was missing only a tongue to complete its feral expression. Only darkness and an anticipated cold awaited within the opening, while warmth and welcoming light stayed in the forest. Batsu began to move toward the opening, the serrated wood hanging over the entrance quivered with excitement./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"This prompted Rai to grab Batsu tightly "Wait! D, don't go that way, just stay here okay? Please!?" She pleaded with him./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Batsu looked over his shoulder to see the look of fear both girls had, his face still held the smirk from before saying "You two aren't scared are you? Hey, you know daddy's got you. Although-" He turned his head back toward the opening and continued "It does look a bit chilly in there so I'll keep you two warm, it's no problem." With that Batsu took hold of Rai who grabbed hold of Naoko the three of them filed into the dark depth that awaited./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%;"Author's Note: Comment and Follow, hope you enjoy./p