Alika opened her eyes, surprised she was still alive. Out of nowhere, the pillar in the center of the vent blocked her view.

With a yelp, Alika instinctually twisted her wings. The wind carried her to a sharp right, so close to the pillar that when Alika extended out her paws to keep herself from crashing, she found herself running along the sheer surface. A moment later, and she was out in the air again, still keeping herself aloft.

Alika banked left, making a slow circle around the pillar. Her wing muscles were stiff and sore, atrophied by years of neglect. They shuddered as she tried to keep them at a still angle, and she found herself jittering from side to side to avoid crashing into the pillar. The slurry of ice and water below growled. This was definitely a poor location for a first flight.

The platform that Tarka was on was still far above, and she’d lost most of her height after she’d leaped. Somehow, she’d need to get back up there.

Alika flapped her wings, propelling herself upwards through the air. She pointed her snout upwards, flapping again and again, slowing down as she did so. She glanced down. The heights were dizzying.

With a yelp, Alika found herself plummeting back down: she’d been flying too slow, and finding her too much of a bore, the winds had betrayed her. She stuck her wings out again, trying to right herself, call the winds back to her side.

As she sped up again, they grabbed her once more. She was back in the horizontal circle she’d been in, but now, was even closer to the slurry. She had to be patient, to climb upwards slowly.

Alika flapped her wings, this time, trying to head at a small angle upwards, still circling the pillar. It worked, and she found herself slowly rising. She didn’t look down, only up, seeing the top of the pillar grow closer. There was a small white blotch amidst the snow: she was sure of it now, Tarka was safe, or as safe as she could be. And right now, Alika was the only one who could save him.

By the time she got up to his height, her wings were aching and shaking. Tarka lay half-buried, using a claw to make drawings in the snow.

“Tarka!” Alika called out, trying to hold herself steady in the air.

Tarka’s head perked up, twisting as he tried to figure out where the voice had come from. His eyes focused on Alika, snout turning as Alika flew around him.

“Alika?” Tarka called out, getting to his paws. Yarik’s stringed instrument dangled from his neck. “You can fly?”

“Apparently!” Alika laughed, flapping her wings. She found herself pushed forward again, speeding up, the circle becoming larger. “Watch out! I haven’t landed before!”

Not quite sure of any other way to slow herself down, Alika turned herself towards the platform and flapped upwards. As the winds left her side, she slowed, and began to fall. Fortunately, she’d managed to aim herself right: her fall was directly over the snowy platform.

With a splash of snow, she pulled in her wings and crashed down. The fresh snow cushioned the blow, and she found herself under it, up above her head.

Tarka’s snout peered over the hole she’d made in the snow. Only slightly bruised, Alika climbed out of it, wrapping her wings around her brother. He did the same with his forepaws, holding her tight. Alika felt Yarik’s Wayfinder rub into her fur as she hugged him.

“You came to rescue me!” Tarka exclaimed. “I thought I was bird food!”

There were scratches of huge talons around Tarka’s ribcage, but the injuries were nothing too bad. He seemed shaken, but alright.

“Of course I came,” Alika said. “I wouldn’t just leave you here.”

“I’m sorry for running off.” Tarka tucked his tail beneath his legs and unclasped the Wayfinder, giving it back to Alika.

“I’m sorry as well. I should have stood up for you.” Alika accepted it and gave Tarka a nuzzle. “When I brought us to Kurka’s pack, I was just trying to do what I thought was best for you. But I should have been listening to what you actually wanted. We should have gone with Snow and Gust.”

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“You mean we don’t need to stay with Kurka?” Tarka’s ears perked up.

“Thank the Dreamer, no,” Alika snorted. “I just wanted you to have a family again, but we already had one.”

“But I looked for Snow and Gust and couldn’t find them!” Tarka said. “Do you think they went back? What if Tshishi got them?”

“Don’t worry,” Alika replied. “They’re here right now, busy distracting Tshishi.”

“Are they?” a voice screeched. “Are they now?”

Alika and Tarka whipped around to the huge tunnel. Tshishi’s huge beak was poking through, her eyes alight with rage.

“The scrumptious worm flew away!” Tshishi squawked. The mountain shuddered with her voice, the ice below creaking. “Flew far away! So now she will treat herself to two dragon cubs instead!”

“He wouldn’t do that!” Tarka yelled back. “He wouldn’t leave us!”

“Oh, but he did, he did!” Tshishi screeched. “Cowardly little worm! Cowardly little worm!”

Alika grabbed her brother with her forepaws and extended her sore wings, flapping as hard as she could. There was no lift. She thought about dragging him off the platform’s edge with her, but knew there was no chance she could fly while holding him. Perhaps it would still be a better fate.

“Stay put!” Tshishi screeched. “Stay put!”

Tshishi’s huge wings extended out as she leaped from the tunnel’s edge. Her talons raked against the ice wall of the vent as she climbed, half flying and half scrambling. She scratched against the pillar, her sharp beak pecking at stone.

Alika tucked Tarka under her wings, pulling him away from Tshishi. Her beak slammed into the platform, knocking snow off the edges and far below. Alika suddenly found herself at the edge. She curled her tail inwards.

“Now!” Snow called out, her voice emanating from above, where the mountain was open to the sky. For a moment, Alika saw Gust, swimming down towards them.

Illusory flakes of white snow blew down from above, filling the vent with a dense snowstorm. Tshishi’s blue feathers disappeared within it, as well as Gust’s turquoise scales.

“Show yourself!” Tshishi screeched, flailing around the pillar, her talons scraping ice. “Show yourself, little worm!”

“Alika, I’m right here,” Gust whispered.

Gust’s whiskered snout peered out from the snowstorm right next to Alika. Snow was still situated on his back, her eyes closed, deep in concentration.

Gust hooked his claws under Tarka’s left wing and foreleg, while Alika took his right. Holding him tight, Gust began to pull upward, while Alika flapped her wings. With a quiet hum from Gust to push them along, the winds began to lift the two, Tarka with them.

Slowly, the four began to rise, all together.

“She hears you!” Tshishi cried. “She hears you sing, she hears you flap!”

Tshishi’s beak broke through the illusory snowstorm, snapping just a tail-length above Gust’s antlers. With a yelp, he faltered. Snow’s eyes opened, and the snowstorm was gone, revealing Tshishi in all her terrible glory.

Tshishi shrieked, talons extended, beak stabbing down at the four.

Gust screamed a furious tritone back, his multi-voiced cry so loud that it shook the very mountain. A gale just as furious slammed into Tshishi’s wings, knocking her away and pinning her into the frozen walls of the vent.

“Cruel winds! Cruel winds!” Tshishi cried. Her wings twisted and turned, but no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to get free. “They betray her! They betray her!”

Gust kept screaming as he and Alika lifted Tarka up, his voice unwavering. Slowly, the four rose over the edge of the mountain’s crater, into the thick mists of the Coldfire Peaks, away from Tshishi’s lair.

“She’ll pluck the voice out from you, little worm!” Tshishi screeched. “Pluck it out!”

Gust’s voice was beginning to strain. Far below, Tshishi’s head poked out from the crater, still struggling in the winds.

“It’s almost time,” Tarka announced.

“Time for what?” Alika asked.

Tarka, hanging from Alika and Gust by his wings and forelegs, stared down at the mountain.

“Three,” he said. “Two. One.”

The mountain rumbled, and snow slid down its slopes. The sound got louder and louder. Tshishi screeched frantically, clawing at the ice.

Gust finally quieted, just as the roar of the erupting mountain drowned out all other noise.

Water and ice blasted up from the vent and into the sky, Tshishi caught within the huge torrential column, finally loosed from below. The monster eagle was shot into the mists above, her screeches inaudible.

Glittering crystals of ice rained back down upon the four as the slurry fell. Alika wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw Tshishi fall with it, down into the crater. This time, piles of ice and snow came after her.

“That’ll hold her for quite some time,” Tarka grinned.

Snow laughed, stretching out on Gust’s neck.

“So, where to?” Snow asked. “Are we heading back to Coldwater Bay?”

Alika extended her claws, and green arcs of light stretched across the sky, like the aurora itself was leading them. They led away from the mountains, out from the snowy shore, and finally, into the Land of Eternal Ice. The pack ice stretched out before them, white, flat, and barren. But Alika knew, eventually, it would come to an end.

“No,” Alika said. “We head north, to the Emerald Isle.”