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"Who do you think is gonna be the next one to make it out of door number one?" Trom asked, changing the subject.

Sophie thought about it for a moment. "Hmm... Maybe Elva? She was pretty good at answering riddles when we met that Sphinx."

"Elva!? I don't think that bigmouth has a creative bone in her body! Besides, the only reason she could answer those riddles was that she'd heard them before. It's not like she figured them out on her own."

"That's true, but Elva actually came up with some good ideas when we were escaping from the big wolf."

"Come on, you slowpokes!" Loki called back to them from further up the staircase. "I thought you wanted to get through this sometime today!"

Soon, the three of them passed through a cloud. Everything around them turned misty, and they all made very careful movements to make sure they didn't miss one of the floating steps.

"Can you guys see anything?" Loki asked. Sophie and Trom let him know that no, they couldn't. After several suspenseful minutes of moving very carefully from step to step, they made their way out the top of the cloud.

Once they reached the other side of the cloud, they could finally see the end of the staircase – if you could even say that it ended. Up ahead, the steps split off into two paths, each continuing in its own direction, winding up and down and around each other, until finally the two paths connected. The shape reminded Sophie of a complicated infinity sign. Between the two paths floated a platform the size of a theatre stage and shaped like a snowflake.

"There it is!" Loki exclaimed, pointing to the center of the snowflake-shaped platform.

Sophie and Trom both looked but didn't see anything.

"Um, are you sure?" Sophie asked carefully.

"Have you gone snowblind? Of course I'm sure! That's the power source!"

"I can't see it either," Trom said, turning to Sophie. Sophie didn't react though – instead she just stood staring at the big snowflake.

"I don't think the power source will become visible just 'cause you keep staring at it, Soph."

It wasn't the power source that Sophie was looking at. Rather, it was a small ice figure with its back turned towards them, floating in the air at a point between them and the snowflake.

"Trom, does that figure look like a bird to you?" Sophie asked.

Trom took a couple of steps to the side to get a better view of the figure. "Oh yeah! That does look like the bird from the door!"

Sophie took a couple of steps to the side to look as well. It really was a bird figure, with its wings folded together and standing on its legs.

Trom scratched his nose. "But how do we get up there?"

That's a good question, Sophie thought. The path split into two and went around both the bird and the snowflake.

"It's always got to be something. If the stairs had just kept going, we could have just walked to the big snowflake and picked the bird up on the way," Loki complained.

"Hmm... Loki, did you bring anything that might be useful?" Sophie asked.

Loki took off his backpack and rifled through it. "I've got blankets, some food, a lantern, a rope, a tent, some rune stones and a change of clothes."

"What can your rune stones do?" Sophie asked.

"They can light a campfire no matter the weather."

She turned to Trom. "Do you have any ideas for how we can use this stuff?"

He sighed wearily. "I don't see anything particularly useful. Besides, my ideas never work anyway."

"Don't say that! I'm sure you could come up with something good. Like maybe... Maybe we can use the rope," Sophie said. "We can turn it into a lasso and catch the bird that way."

"But do any of us know how to use a lasso? We could try for hours before we even manage to hit the bird with the rope," Trom said resignedly.

Loki quickly tied a knot into the rope, turning it into a lasso. With a fancy flick of his wrist, he tossed the lasso at the bird and caught it on his very first try. Sophie cheered, and Trom just stared.

"Good throw," Trom said, stunned with disbelief.

"I've actually spent hundreds of hours working on my rope throwing skills. So I didn't need much luck to get it," Loki said with a wink.

Loki started to pull at the rope, but the bird wouldn't budge. It remained stuck where it was floating. Even with all three of them pulling at the rope, they eventually had to give up.

Loki patted Sophie on the shoulder. "It was a good idea, though, Sophie."

Sophie let out a disappointed sigh. She looked out at the floating steps. "Hey, we can still use the rope! Maybe not to get the bird, but to get you to the snowflake. We could either bind the rope to one of the steps higher up and then swing from it, or we could tie the edges of the rope to a step on each side, so that the rope hangs over the snowflake. And then we could climb across on the rope!"

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"Sophie, that's a great idea! I'll get started." Loki hurried off up one of the two paths.

Trom didn't share their enthusiasm. "That doesn't help us get to the bird, though."

"I know, but we can still help Loki."

Trom shrugged. "I suppose... Oh well. I'll head up the other side so Loki can toss me the rope."

Suddenly Loki made a loud, startled sound, and both Sophie and Trom turned to look at him. Loki was standing very nervously on one of the steps with a shocked expression.

"What's wrong?" Sophie asked.

"The step," Loki said, "it moved!" He carefully straightened his back and moved his body back and forth a bit. True enough, the step he was standing on rocked back and forth under his weight.

"I guess we'll have to walk extra carefully. Are there any loose steps on your side, Trom?"

Trom carefully tried to move the step in front of him by pressing against it with a foot, but nothing happened. Relieved, he stepped onto it, and then onto the next one.

Trom let out a loud yell as the step he'd moved to started to wobble under him. He fell, but just barely managed to grab onto the step with his tail. Shaking all over, he pulled himself back up on top of the step, clinging to it like it was his favorite teddy bear.

Sophie stared at the steps that had moved on Trom's and Loki's sides.

"Loki, could you check if there are any other loose steps on your side?" [https://img.wattpad.com/71737aa8fac766cc2a0365e7574cd67c8e556ffa/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4364394562656445694e356e64673d3d2d313336383337393630312e313737373038306666636565636333393935383833333436383031382e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

"Loki, could you check if there are any other loose steps on your side?"

Loki pushed at the next step in front of him. That one seemed fine, but the next one was loose. Meanwhile, Trom had made it over his initial shock and was testing the steps on his side. It appeared that on both sides, every second step was loose.

"Then all you need to do is to skip every other step and then it should be fine. So you can still tie up your ropes," Sophie said. Loki followed her suggestion, continuing up towards the highest steps, but Trom stayed where he was, staring at the two paths.

"Is something wrong, Trom?" Sophie asked.

"Why would they make every other step be so loose... and that bird figure..." He poked at one of the loose steps while staring at the bird figure with its wings tucked together, floating in the middle of the air even though it looked like it was walking. He looked over at the opposite path, then at his own, towards Sophie and finally at the snowflake.

"Hmm, what if..." he muttered pensively. He tapped lightly at the step again, hesitantly, like he was about to do something he wasn't quite sure about, but then he finally gave the step a proper shove. The step flew out of its position, flying towards the row of steps on the opposite side, but halfway there it stopped. Right in front of the bird and the snowflake platform.

"Ahhh, so that's what we're supposed to do!" he exclaimed. "Thank the Troll Mother! This'll be way easier!"

Sophie quickly caught on about what Trom meant and hurried over to the steps on Loki's side. She gave the first one a shove and it whooshed off, also stopping at the midpoint in front of the snowflake.

Trom had figured out the solution! She was happy for him, though as she went on pushing the steps off towards the middle, she also felt a bit disappointed that she hadn't been the one to work it out.

"Loki! Help us shove the loose steps in towards the center," Trom yelled.

It didn't take them long to push off all the loose steps, and together they formed a perfectly linear path to both the bird and the snowflake. In order to make it back down to Sophie, Trom and Loki had to take extra large steps, since every other step was now missing. It occurred to Sophie that whoever had designed the staircase had probably thought it would be an adult who solved the puzzle and not some kids – Trom was having a much harder time making it from one step to another than Loki was.

Luckily, they both made it back without too much trouble. Before stepping out on the new staircase leading up to the snowflake, they made sure to test the steps to see if they were still loose. They weren't.

Trom hurried up to grab the bird, which he was now able to move with ease. "Sophie! We solved it!" Trom cheered, pointing up towards the snowflake-shaped platform, where the second door had now appeared.

The three of them walked up to the platform. Sophie and Trom still couldn't see the power source that Loki was talking about, though.

"It's so beautiful! And look at the colors! It's like a flaming rainbow! What a sight!" Loki stepped onto the platform.

"It's so beautiful! And look at the colors! It's like a flaming rainbow! What a sight!" Loki stepped onto the platform [https://img.wattpad.com/bf02c355adfc83cf84b90c1f97cddd8e61e9808b/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4561594354536d72396735396a513d3d2d313336383337393630312e313737373038333233663731616262363139383432363336373739342e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Sophie squinted, still hoping to see the power source. "What's it look like?"

Loki carefully picked up some invisible object and held it.

Trom walked up next to them. "We need to move on, Soph."

"What about the power source? Shouldn't we figure out why we can't see it? And what did you do to the bird?"

"I didn't do anything to the bird," Trom said defensively before looking down at the bird figure and realizing that it had spread out its wings. "I didn't do that!" Trom hurriedly tried to fold the bird's wings back into place. To his relief, the wings slotted back easily. "There, fixed it! No harm done."

In the next moment, the platform and the floating steps all started to shake so violently that Sophie and Trom fell over. Trom hurriedly spread the bird's wings back out, but that didn't change anything.

Sophie looked around for Loki, but he was nowhere to be seen. What she did see was that the nearest steps stopped floating and dropped towards the ground.

"We need to get to the door!"

Sophie pushed herself back up off the ground and Trom did the same. They ran towards the door, but the shaking floor sent them falling backwards again and again.

The snowflake platform started to show cracks, like a frozen lake with too much weight on it, and pieces of it started to tear off and fall down towards the clouds.

Sophie crawled towards the door on all fours. She reached the door, got it open, and threw herself in through it. She turned around and saw that Trom was right behind her. She reached a hand out towards him.

Trom was just a single step away from the door when the ice cracked beneath his feet. Sophie desperately tried to reach him. She didn't manage to get him by the hands, arms, body or legs, but she caught onto his tail and held on. Trom was heavier than she'd expected, though, and the weight pulled her forwards, making her land on her stomach. The air got knocked out of her as she hit the floor, but she managed to still hold on.

She had to pull him up while she still had any strength left, but she could barely even hold on. Her grip was starting to slip.

- Next chapter will be out on Monday the 7th of August [https://img.wattpad.com/b30ca22cf65385750bf79e15da4dc70a0f333b27/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f52586b306e34736c3745653358673d3d2d313336383337393630312e313737373038343733333663323435353133383131333635353635372e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]