"We are at the foot of the IcePeak Mountains," Ryth said. "On my first journey to Draconia's surface, I was put here… There is a cave far to the north, hidden among the snow… On the other side of the cave is the Stairway to the Heaven-Realm."
"Is it going to be cold?" Keia asked.
"They don't call them the IcePeaks for nothing," Rona replied.
"I would suggest that, once it gets cold, grab someone to stay warm," Vegance said. Keia immediately looked to me. I saw Vegance glance at Rona.
"Don't worry about the cold much," Ryth said. "If you worry too much, we'll never find the Ice Key." Ryth started walking in front of us again while we followed.
Higher up on the mountain, the wind began to pick up and the snow blew across our faces. Keia clung to me and shivered enough for both of us. I was amazed to see that Rona was not bothered by Vegance hanging on to him. Ryth and Ceae, however, seemed unaffected by the cold.
"Ceae, aren't you freezing?" I asked.
Ceae turned to look at me. He was wearing short sleeves and his arms appeared to be caked with snow. "No, not in the least! I like this weather…"
"It would appear that he has a natural immunity to the effects of cold," Rona said.
"Lucky," Keia mumbled. I held her closer to me. "Thanks Cryos…" The wind picked up and started to blow harder. Soon enough, the path could no longer be seen. Despite that fact, Ryth still led as though he knew exactly where he was going.
"Ryth… How can you see in this weather?" I asked.
Ryth grabbed his ears on the top of his head. "See these ears? Fox spirits' ears are like personal tracking devices… They help us to locate ourselves, no matter what the weather is like… That's why fox spirits have such a good sense of direction."
"I was wondering why they were so big…"
"So long as these ears are still attached, I will always know where I am going." The wind began to blow even harder. I had to squint to prevent my eyes from being damaged, but even then my eyes burned. Keia's movements slowed down to the point where I was dragging her. Suddenly, her grip loosened and she dropped off of me. She fell to the ground and lay face down in the snow.
"Keia!" I shouted. Ryth stopped walking and turned around. The others had the same response. I dropped to my knees beside Keia and shook her. "Keia! Keia! Wake up!" Keia was motionless. I lifted her up and pulled her into my arms. "Ryth, we need to get out of this weather! Are there any caves nearby?"
"There is one… Follow me!" Ryth replied. He moved quickly to a nearby opening that was not covered in snow. I followed Ryth into the cave and set Keia down on the bare ground. Vegance let go of Rona so that he could build a fire. As the fire sprang to life, I moved Keia closer to it. I sat down beside her and removed my cloak. I pulled my cloak over her and watched and waited…
After what seemed like forever, Keia finally made a movement. I had been trying everything I possibly could to warm her up, until I had entirely given up and draped my body over hers. My hands rested against her bare back as she tried to nudge me off of her. Everyone else had already gone to search the cave.
"Cryos?" Keia said in bewilderment. "Where are we? What's going on? And why, exactly, are your hands down my shirt?"
I was asleep at the time, but the sound of her voice woke me up. "Keia? Keia! You're awake!" I exclaimed excitedly. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it…"
"What happened?" she asked as she rolled over. I pulled my hands away from her and gave her some space.
"You and I were walking through the snow… Following Ryth. Suddenly, you collapsed! We rushed to get you warmth… Rona built a fire, and I tried everything I could to warm you up… I think I fell asleep in the middle of the back massage…"
Keia smiled. "Thanks again, Cryos… I'll let you slide, since your actions seem to have helped me… Where are the others?"
"They left to explore the rest of the cave… Vegance felt an abnormal source of energy nearby, so she and the others went searching for it."
"Oh…" Keia rolled over again, but quickly rolled back. "Cryos? What are those symbols on the wall?"
I looked at Keia in confusion, and then looked around the cave. I did not see any symbols. "What symbols?"
"Those ones!" Keia pointed at the wall I had my back against. I looked up, and then I moved forward and turned around. Strange green symbols glowed on the wall.
"I don't know… They weren't there before…" I tried to read them, but they were not in Draconian. Keia got up from the floor and walked over to the wall. "Keia, what are you doing?" She put her hand to the wall and then quickly turned around.
"They're warm… And oddly enough, they make sense to me," she said. She turned around, and with one finger guided along the symbols. "'Here sleeps a dormant power awaiting the Heroes' return… The power leads them to the Doomsday.'" Keia turned around again to face me. "What do you think it means?"
"I don't know… Maybe we should alert the others of our finding?"
"No… I don't want to. When they're ready to come back, they'll return… I want to stay here with you… Keep me warm?"
I thought for a second. Keia walked back over to me and sat down. "I guess they all can handle themselves… I'll be slacking on my job…"
"You can give me that back massage…" Keia was really tempting me.
"Fine then… I really can't disagree." Keia giggled and lair her head on my shoulder.
Keia and I were sitting closer to the fire when Ryth led Vegance, Rona, and Ceae back. Ryth's attention turned to the wall with the glowing symbols on it. "No wonder! I've been looking for a cave with symbols on the wall, but I had no clue this was it… The symbols weren't here earlier," Ryth said as he rushed to the wall.
"But I thought your ears were good tracking devices? Shouldn't you have known this was the place?" I asked.
"Well, I… Rysta's magic does funny things to the head, and this cave is filled with her power…" Ryth replied.
"Did you find the 'power that lies dormant?'" Keia asked. Everyone's attention became focused on Keia.
"Keia, you made it!" Vegance pointed out.
"Glad to see you're alive…" Rona said.
"Ke-ia! Ke-ia!" Ceae chanted.
"Glad to have you back," Ryth said. "You can read Spiritian?"
"I guess so… Did you find the power?" Keia repeated.
"Right here," Rona said and held out what appeared to be a ball of ice. "The Ice Key… Here." Rona tossed the Ice Key to me. I put it away with the others.
"We also found the Stairway to the Heaven-Realm," Ryth said to me. "We weren't going to go on without you and Keia."
"Stairway to the Heaven-Realm… To get to meet Rysta would be quite an honor," Keia said. "Is it far from here?"
"It's not too far into the cave," Vegance said. "Actually, the Ice Key was at the back, but the Stairway began near the middle. It won't take long to get there."
"I just hope everyone is ready to walk," Ryth said. "The Stairway to the Heaven-Realm is a long climb… I asked Rysta if she could put in a highway or something, but so far, no."
"A highway to the Heaven-Realm?" I asked. "What would you call such a thing?"
"The Highway in the Sky. Cool name, right?" Ryth asked with a smile.
"Let's just take the Stairway," Rona said and walked off. Ryth turned to look at me and I shrugged. Without another word, we followed after Rona.
The Stairway was a collection of transparent stairs. They started upward from the middle of one of the chambers and led through a hole in the ceiling of the cave. I looked up to try and see the top of the Stairway, but was unable to.
"Here is the access to the Heaven-Realm," Ryth said. "Long way up, and if you can't walk it, start crawling. This is why I asked for a highway."
"I can't see the top," I said.
"If you could see the top of the stairs from the ground, then the Heaven-Realm is too close to Draconia. Are you ready?" I nodded. Keia, Ceae, Vegance, and Rona all nodded as well.
'I'm going to count these stairs,' I thought to myself. Ryth took the first step and was followed by everyone else. I took up the rear and started to count as I went.
"Ryth, how high is this thing?" I asked from behind. Thus far, I had counted 783 stairs, and still going. I still was unable to see the top.
"No clue… No one's ever counted the steps to get to the Heaven-Realm…" Ryth replied. I sighed and continued climbing stairs.
I was relieved when we finally reached the top of the Stairway. I counted 1,387 stairs. Why was there an odd number of steps? I fell to my knees after that climb and took a moment to breath. Ryth acted as though it were nothing! I looked around: oddly enough, the Heaven-Realm had stone flooring and large golden gates leading into what appeared to be an ancient city. Just beyond the gates was a fountain containing a statue depicting a woman. In further detail, it was a woman with very little clothing. A man with wings and full-body armor stood beside the golden gates.
"Here in the Heaven-Realm," Ryth started, "you might forget you aren't in Draconia. There are cities here, most of which were built by ancient fox spirits, and thus appear to be old cities in the sky. Linking the many cities is a series of light bridges. The city we search for we refer to as Babylon, Spiritian for 'Center of Light.' There, we will find Rysta's palace. She should be able to help us find the Light Key."
"How far is Babylon?" Keia asked.
"We have to pass through a series of districts here in Omega before we can move to the next city, Zeta… And from Zeta, we can travel to Babylon," Ryth attempted to explain.
"How about you just lead us, since you seem to know where everything is?" I asked.
"Good idea," Vegance said. "Ryth, lead."
"Right away!" Ryth started by taking us to the golden gates to speak with the guard…