The girls walked all day long, sleeping in Realmspace at night. The next day they walked more, their symbols on the map moving southward ever so slightly each day. Squishy and Ember continued to provide food, and Nettal healed everyone whenever they got sore or tired.
They managed to march at an amazing pace, each girl taking turns in the lead to give the other a rest. Addie couldn’t help but think Christena would be proud of them. They managed to walk all day, except for two meal breaks: one in the morning and one in the mid-afternoon. After dinner, they either went straight to Realmspace for sleep, or they made another ice-shelter. They switched between the two places to sleep each night.
Whenever it was Nettal’s turn to lead, Addie would practice with some of her soul flames. Never enough to tire herself out, since she needed to save her flames for when they got cold, too. The book would sometimes split itself into two, one half showing the map at the front of the group, and the other half floating closer to Addie’s face. It gave her instructions, much like it had when she made her ice-fort the first time. The book seemed to hold her hand, so to speak, by guiding her will and intent into various flaming shapes. Mostly, they practiced the flame shield ability she had received from the Ennulic ruins.
Each time Addie and Nettal made an ice-shelter, they got better at it. By the sixth night, they formed the ice-shelter in record time, the motions well practiced to the point it didn’t take more than half an hour before it was finished.
By the seventh morning, the distant walls of the caldera seemed to shrink in height. According to the map, they were already climbing over the mountains that formed the ring of the caldera. Addie hardly realized they were even going uphill. The beginning of the mountain’s slope was so gradual that Addie would never have known they were climbing the mountain if she hadn’t seen the map.
For some reason, the longer they climbed the mountain, the harder it became to breathe. The snow wasn’t helping either, it started to get deeper the higher they climbed.
Currently, Addie had to trudge through waist-high snow— her flames making it easier to walk through as the snow in front of her melted. Her breaths came quick and sharp, a metallic tang at the back of her throat. The frigid air stung against her lungs with each breath, making the already ‘weird air’ even harder to breathe in.
Addie wasn’t sure if she was grateful that the Binary was out, or if she hated that it was out. On one hand, at least it wasn’t snowing, and it provided some level of warmth. On the other hand, the Binary’s blue light shined against the top of the snow, forcing Addie to blink almost constantly as her eyes watered from the brightness— Or maybe they were watering from the cold air. Either way, it made things difficult to see.
Every hour or so Addie checked in with Nettal to make sure she wasn’t too cold. If Addie saw blue lips or so much as a shiver, she made a ball of fire hover right next to her. She, ‘didn’t like the bright light,’ but Addie didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let Nettal freeze, even if she could heal herself.
About once per day, Addie and Nettal stopped as they heard a roar sound out from the distance. A few times, the roar caused waves of snow to come falling down and crash against distant slopes.
They tried not to talk about the roaring, since it just made them nervous. But, the further they walked, the closer the roars started to sound.
After a full week had passed, Addie wasn’t sure if they could just keep ignoring the roars. Well, she certainly wanted to, but Addie guessed that whatever was making those roars wasn’t going to ignore them.
Soon, a gap between peaks could be made out in the distance. In the gap between mountainous peaks rested a large fort-like structure, though clearly unmanned. Just like the Ennulic ruins, the stone had cracks in places, and entire pieces of wall or tower had collapsed into a jagged crumbled mess. Snow piled along the walls, almost seeming to climb upward near the base.
The Fort hadn’t existed on her map, only the mountains. According to that same map, past the gap between peaks should be a sprawling grassland— the same one that hopefully had the castle and people.
Addie wouldn’t be surprised if there would be a lot more walking than that, though. The map made everything seem small.
Despite easily seeing the fort in the distance, Addie and Nettal weren’t able to reach it that night. Its walls seemed to taunt Addie with promises of warmth and shelter, but she knew they needed to rest for the night.
That night, they heard another bestial roar. The mountains shook, snow avalanching down on one of the distant peaks. Luckily, Addie could tell it wouldn’t get close to them. The earth rumbled, and the air took on a hazy pink wave-like taint that cleared up moments after.
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Most worryingly, Addie figured out where the roars were coming from— the fort.
Addie glanced at the map again to see if there was a better way out of the caldera, but the entire thing seemed to be surrounded by impossibly high cliffs and jagged peaks. The gap in front of them was the only way out that didn’t involve some serious rock-climbing.
Squishy seemed raring for a fight, at least. She could feel his battle fervor through their bond— always eager to prove himself.
Nettal felt differently— she wanted to go around and avoid the roaring fort. After she talked with Lotty a bit, she hesitantly changed her mind, though. Lotty wouldn’t be able to climb a sheer cliff with his hooves, and Nettal wouldn’t be able to carry him either.
Unless they wanted to abandon Lotty, the only way out of the caldera was through the fort. Obviously, they weren’t going to abandon Lotty— that was like asking Nettal to tear off parts of her soul.
That night, the girls camped in another ice-igloo thingy. Whatever manner of creature made those loud roars, for some reason it only liked to do so one time per day. For the rest of tonight, at least, Addie knew they could sleep soundly.
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Sometime after she had fallen asleep, Addie activated the second half of the magic she shared with Ember. Previously, she had only briefly experimented with her ability to wander about as a soul. Perhaps noticing her, the book flowed out from Addie’s true body— she’d never get used to being able to see herself from afar like this.
Her book quickly flipped to a page, *Hello, Addie. Would you like training in your astral form?*
Addie tried to speak, but she couldn’t form any words. She had to remind herself that she had to communicate with her mind, “Yes, but not right now. I want to go see what’s in the fort.”
*I will accompany you* Then, the book turned a light blue transparent color— the exact same color that Addie’s astral form was. *Like this, nothing should be able to see us without some degree of soul-sight.*
Moving around in Astral Form was nothing like moving around normally. Addie had to use her mind to sort of ‘float along’ instead of walking. She found it difficult to move at first, too used to the muscle memory of walking. At first, she had to concentrate and focus a lot to move around in her Astral Form. But, pretty soon the world began to move by around her— which Addie thought was a good way of describing it. She didn’t move so much as the world around her drifted past.
She reached the walls of the fort, her soul-book gently drifting right beside her and a little bit behind. Up this close to the main walls, she could see a square gap in the middle of the front-facing wall. Addie didn’t know why there wasn’t a door, but it would make things easier for her and Nettal tomorrow, at least. As a soul, Addie didn’t need to bother with the doorway in the wall slightly to her right; instead, Addie just floated right past and through the solid wall directly in front of her.
She immediately felt glad she did, because there was a giant monkey off to the right guarding the entryway to the fort.
No, not guarding exactly— thick chains wrapped around the giant ape’s ankles, anchoring it to the ground. It had white course fur that matched the snow it stood in— the ape so tall that the snow only reached its ankles, but Addie knew that same snow was at least waist high for her.
Most bizarrely, the ape had a gigantic curved sword lodged through its neck, though the ape was still clearly alive. It glared at the entrance to the fort with bloodshot eyes. It panted heavily, as though it could hardly breathe. The ape hunched in on itself, its front knuckles brushing against the snow as it stood.
Ever so slowly, the ape turned its head to its right, the motion looking painful due to the sword lodged in its neck, though it wasn’t bleeding. Then, it locked eyes with Addie.
A soul-deep panic shot through her. The next moment, her soul book was moving— doing something with its magic as it flew toward her.
With a jolt, Addie sat up from her position in the ice dome, her soul instantly jarred back to her body. She held a hand over her chest as she tried to catch her breath.
The experience had been just like a nightmare, the gentle floating and unearthly movement in her Astral Form making the experience feel less real. It had ended just like a nightmare, too— the abrupt suddenness of being forcefully woken up after extreme terror.
She took a moment to scan the surroundings and catch her breath. She knew it was silly, to stare around like this. She couldn’t help herself. With wide eyes, she kept glancing all around, certain that at any moment she might find a shadow out of place.
Eventually, though, with Squishy’s calming presence and Nettal’s comforting one beside her, she managed to settle down. She was just glad she wasn’t alone.
The face of the ape practically stared back at her through her memory of moments ago. She could make out its blood-red eyes and eerie glare.
Lying back down into the grass, Addie tried to shake the thought from her mind. If they were going to get past the ape tomorrow, she needed to get plenty of rest.
Regardless, Addie poked Squishy right behind his triangular ears a few times to wake him up. He stared up at her, his eyes half closed— his nictating membrane still mostly shut.
Addie scooped him halfway up and placed his upper body on top of herself. His warmth comforted Addie further. He let out a gentle huff and readjusted himself slightly until his head rested over his paws. He closed his eyes again.
Letting her head gently drop back to the ground, Addie stared at the ceiling for a moment, not that she could see it with her eyes. Instead, her spatial sense kept track of her surroundings for her.
She spent a few minutes scanning the outside surroundings of their ice-dome. Looking around helped calm her down even more— just being able to confirm nothing was out there.
Her heart calmed down, and slowly she lost the focus to keep scanning. Her mind began to cloud over, the normal gentle drift of sleep coming over her and drowning out the terror from earlier.