Slipping on her snowshoes in the morning, Meowlynn was already tired of this trip. As much as it pained her to admit it, she secretly envied Ciylia for getting sick early on because she didn't have to deal with this natural disaster. Even acknowledging that Ciylia made her feel jealous about something disgusted her to her very core. After the camp was packed up, the Jellybeans continued their journey towards the Frosted Mountains that were well within their sights.

Everyone continued pushing forward until Kira nearly collapsed in the snow. "I'm sorry," her tiny voice weakly apologized. "My legs are just so numb that I can hardly feel them anymore."

It was understandable, the little ranger had no way of keeping her body warm. Meowlynn was heating her body up using magic to make her furs warm and dry. It was a very useful spell and didn't take a lot of effort as high-born elves were born with a large amount of magical energy.

"Fern," said Gene. "I need you to take her things and become a bear. We can sandwich her between the bear's warm body and her fur clothing."

The monk then turned to the rest of the group, "Keep yourselves warm any way you can, and if anyone can, try to help Kira. It should get a bit warmer once we get inside the mountain."

Taking pity on the justice-happy halfling, Meowlynn threw some warming magic on her from time to time. She did this because, in her mind, the only thing worse than teammates were useless ones.

After about 3 hours of merciless wind and temperatures dropping further with each step they took, the Jellybeans arrived at the location that Rolivish had marked on their map. Gene walked up to the cliff and started searching for the entrance. A few minutes later Blaine decided to join him, probably because it was better than freezing.

Meowlynn began considering if she should start building a fire when Blaine started yelling that he thought he found the entrance. Everyone rushed over and only saw a rockface on the mountain. "Where is it," inquired Meowlynn. "Did the cold get to your head? Is all the white blending together in your eyes?" The wizard had met someone when she traveled with her old group that loved saying that he saw shadows moving at night. He was afraid the darkness was going to kill him or something.

"No," snapped Blaine. "Look carefully, you blind idiot!" Upon reexamining the mountain at the location Blaine was pointing, there was a section of the rockface that was rounded as opposed to the flat, jagged surfaces around it.

"How are we suppose to get in," asked Ailya as she pressed the round chunk of stone. "I don't know if it's magical."

"I'm trying to figure that out," admitted Blaine.

"We'll dig it out if it's a boulder," said Gene as he walked up to the rock. "But to do that we need to see what's under the snow."

Gene turned to Meowlyn, "I need you to melt that snow."

Barely a second passed from when Gene requested Meowlynn to use her magic to when she started conjuring flames in her hands. With no effort on her part, the high-born evaporated the thick white powder and revealed the frozen earth beneath it. The ground beneath was worn and carved up, the boulder was round and little pockets of darkness were revealed.

"So it can be moved," pondered the monk. "Alright, I have an idea." This was good because while they stood there, Meowlynn began feeling physically drained from the cold. Her simple warming magic was proving to be no match for the icy wind.

Gene then gently removed Kira from Fern's back and placed her next to the boulder against the mountain's face. "Fern," addressed Gene. "I need you to become a creature that can dig through the earth. My plan is to loosen the ground beneath this rock and roll it out of the entranceway."

With a grunt and a nod, the bear became a giant mole, it was one of the most disgusting creatures Meowlynn had ever laid eyes on. She despised its ugly nose and ridiculous front paws with their shovel-like claws.

The grotesque beast then began digging under the boulder at a painfully slow speed. Claws on frozen dirt made scraping sounds like steel on stone. Blaine and Gene used some pitons and crowbars to get some leverage to wiggle the giant rock out of its resting playing.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

What felt like centuries later, the boulder finally started to shift and eventually roll away slightly. It was enough to allow everyone to finally get shelter from the treacherous wind and cold. Once inside the group moved away from the mouth of the cave they were in and started a little fire to warm up.

The cavern was large and continued further ahead, as it was in the stories, treasure was always as far back as possible. Kira was napping by the fire and even though Meowlynn never had to need or desire to sleep, it looked very comforting. She looked at the sleeping halfling, the warm glow from the flames, and her eyes closed for what she felt like was a second.

"I will freeze you and keep you within my collection," a deep and ancient-sounding voice crept into the darkness of her mind. Her eyes snapped open, a cold sweat slowly freezing on her body, embers of the dying fire barely keeping the sleeping group warm. She looked around the space but couldn't detect any other presence. Feeling safe but concerned, Meowlynn put one more log on the fire and decided that once it was burned out she'd wake up the Jellybeans to continue their gem hunt.

Less than an hour later, the wizard woke up everyone, the cold must have really taken a toll on the team. They made their way down the long and wide cavern, Kira's torchlight illuminating the path for mainly herself and Gene. Eventually, the path split into two directions, left and right.

The left path smelt repulsive like rotting shit but the right path has a cold breeze coming from it. "I think it's obvious we should go right," said Meowlynn. "Left smells like millions of things died in there."

"That is exactly why we should go left," rebutted Fern. "There has to be a reason things died there. Is it because the gem is in there? I don't know."

"Well let's do this," sighed Gene. "Let's go to the right first and regardless of the result we can go that way on the way back."

"There is some reason in that," agreed the wizard. "This way." Uncharacteristic of the high-born, she led the group down the right path, perhaps it was her pride that allowed this change of attitude, the desire to be right.

Walking forward for a while led the Jellybeans to a deep descent into the cave. The path down looked like a staircase made for a very large humanoid creature like the two-headed giant they fought. Maybe this was its home before Mistress Astrin took it or whatever she did. Most of the party could descend with a bit of effort but for Kira and Aliya, it was quite a struggle. The men had to help them to get down.

Once the group made it to the bottom they were met by a frozen lake or river, Mowelynn wasn't quite sure which. Blaine bravely went a few paces on the ice until it made cracking sounds under his weight and went back to the group. "It's thin."

"Well ice is usually strongest at the edges," commented the druid. "Maybe we could hug the walls of this space and make it to the other side."

"That is a possibility," nodded Gene.

While the men were being idiots and talked about heroically walking across the ice, Meowlynn had a brilliant idea. She approached the cold-stricken halfling and crouched down to her level, "Can I have that magical piece of wood that Gene gave you to hold onto?" The monk had given Kira the board because she is a long-distance fighter and responsible so she was less likely to lose it.

"Uh, sure, but why? What are you planning on using it for," asked Kira worriedly.

"To get us across the river," responded Meowlynn. "What else?"

The ranger reluctantly handed the wizard the magical object and stared curiously at her. The high-born elf walked past the men testing the stability of the ice and materialize a flame in the palm of her free hand. She hurled the fire into the ice, melting it. Once she had a space large enough for the magical raft, she threw it while yelling, "Float!"

The wood crashed on the surface of the cold water, splashing the dumbfounded men. "Kira, you control this as it's your responsibility," barked the wizard. "Everyone else, let's get on. I'll melt a path to the other side. Honestly, you guys have no sense of finesse."

Kira boarded the raft first to gain control of it, then everyone got on it. Meowlynn stood proudly at the front and blasted all the ice before them. The journey was slow and safe as opposed to the men's idea of slow, falling into the water and getting trapped under ice.

Finally, the group had made it to the other side where some form of light had found its way into the forsaken icebox. It shone on the fall wall revealing a white gem that was sitting on some sort of altar or pedestal. As enchanting as the gem was, something more pressing was in the room. There, feasting on something about halfway, were two giant white furry beasts. They here like oversized monkeys with think fur and looked extremely strong.

"What are we going to do about that? Those things are terrifying," squealed Aliya as quietly as she could.

"Well, since I'm the fastest," claimed Gene. "I'll run over there, grab it, then run back and we escape on the raft."

"Sounds simple in theory," commented Blaine. "But what if those fuckers catch you?"

"Then I guess we fight," shrugged Gene. "At least enough to run away. You'll also have the element of surprise as their focus would be on me."

"Be careful," mentioned Kira.

"I will," smiled the monk.

"I'll be there the moment there is trouble," said Fern.

"You better," replied the leader of the Jellybeans. "We are here for you." With that, the monk dashed into the cavern.