//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Frosty Fates // by Storm Vector //------------------------------// Vlyka helped Crystal as the mares burrowed into the snow, trying to free the way down the tunnel they'd found. Midnight's sharp eyes had picked it out, an igloo partway covered by the blizzard surrounding them. With the path clear enough Crystal disappeared down the tunnel, only to emerge a few seconds later shaking her head. "She's not there," Crystal muttered, as Midnight sighed heavily. He'd been standing with his back to the igloo as though he couldn't bear to look at it. Vlyka shook her head sadly as she tried to get a whiff of a trail. Winter's path was there alright, she could sense a faint whiff of the familiar icy unicorn, but her scent was being choked out by that unnatural scent that Vlyka had been trying to pin down. It was going to keep bugging her, but right now there were more important things to get into. "She went this way...up the mountain." Vlyka pointed her hoof to the peak they were standing at the base of. Midnight launched himself straight up in the air and hovered several feet above the ground. He flapped far beyond where Vlyka could tell what he was doing for a few minutes before diving down to the ground again, shaking his wings out. "I saw a path up there," Midnight replied. "She must have started climbing it..." "We'll get her back Midnight," Crystal smiled, stroking his shoulder gently as she trotted close to him. Midnight sighed and shook his head, pulling away from Crystal gently. "It's getting serious up there, it was hard to stay flying," he muttered. "If it gets much worse..." Vlyka shook her head and looked up the mountain path. "Let's go already," she snapped, harsher than she'd planned but no less motivated. Standing around wasn't going to accomplish anything, so even with her anxieties eating her alive Vlyka did not feel ok standing around. She proceeded to sniff her way up the mountain path, Crystal and Midnight in tow, silent for almost two hours save the howling winds that felt ready to blow her tiny frame off the mountainside. Midnight had fallen behind somewhere along the line, but by the time Crystal and Vlyka noticed his absence he was hurrying to catch up with them. Vlyka didn’t stop to let him catch up, as she’d just sniffed something encouraging out. "The scent is a little stronger, just up ahe-" Vlyka began, only for her voice to cut off with a gasp. Just around the corner was a massive chasm in the rock face, a frozen sheet draped across the sides like a bridge. "What the heck..." "Winter must have crossed that," Midnight said dryly, trotting closer to the gap and looking over the edge. "Did she make it, though?" Crystal asked her horn alight with her pinkish red magic. "Winter told me about a pattern she uses, some structure in the ice she puts in everything...but it's not here. I can't feel it." Vlyka rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smirk: of course those two had talked about crystal structures of materials, considering Winter specialized entirely in how water made crystal patterns... It was a struggle for Vlyka to think that her own relationship, interest in other ponies was lacking, with both Winter and her own adoptive sister. "It's lacking her artistry, her skill, that magic she has..." Midnight added, staring at the bridge itself for the first time. "This isn't her work, she's too passionate for...this." He gestured in disgust at the bridge, refocusing Vlyka's attention at the howling abyss that Crystal was staring down at from the edge. “That’s quite a step down…” Crystal muttered without thinking about it. Vlyka turned and glared at her big sis, baring her fangs slightly. “It’s the only way across,” Midnight replied, glancing worriedly at Vlyka as she bit her lip. He carefully took off, still practiced in flight even in unstable winds, and darted over towards the bridge's center, touching down lightly as he could. “Seems like it’s okay,” he called back, after taking a few steps with his wings outstretched. He turned back and leaped towards his friends, pushing against a rough headwind as he came for a landing on the mountainside. Vlyka looked at the bridge and gulped. Winter had to have crossed that thing, and Vlyka wanted to trust Winter. But, she didn’t know how long this thing had been there, and how much support it might’ve lost since creation. Plus, she didn’t have Winter’s ice traction, and the snow wasn’t collecting nearly enough on the sloped surface to help her stay stable. “I wish I’d been practicing my levitation…” Crystal muttered, “or my teleportation.” “Seriously, not helping,” Vlyka growled, making Crystal blush in embarrassment. “Just pop over there already, don’t worry about me.” “At least let me take your bag,” she offered, to which Vlyka consented. Might as well, it was less weight for her to risk cracking the ice with. Crystal took her bag gently in her grip and pulled it off Vlyka's back, setting it on beside her own as she looked across the gap to the other side. In a moment, she poofed out of existence, reappearing safely on the far rocks. “Maybe I can lift you,” Midnight offered, but Vlyka watched as he took to the skies. He was a good flier, there was no doubt about that, but she could see him fighting the wind and snow as he tried to just lift himself. Asking him to lift her would only put both of them in danger. She shook her head. “I can manage it,” she muttered, glancing across the bridge for any rough patches “At least let me stay next to you?” Midnight asked. Vlyka was about to glare at him as well, but sighed and nodded. Even she could tell he was panicking at the thought of her at risk, the chance of losing two friends forever in as many days. He was going to worry about her no matter what, there was no use fighting it. There were better uses for her energy…like keeping her balance on an icy precipice below her. As Vlyka stepped up towards the bridge, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she glanced up and spotted Crystal staring at her, her head lowered and horn aimed right at her. “I need traction if I’m going to walk!” she was about to yell, realizing that Crystal was about to try lifting her, but Vlyka bit her tongue. Her insecurities were tearing at the core of her psyche, the two older ponies having to take care of her in this dangerous situation. But as she shook her head to try and push back against the howling anxieties she felt her balance shift from under her. She was still on the rocks, but if she'd been scuttling along the ice she would have easily tumbled off the side. "Maybe some backup isn't such a bad idea..." Vlyka muttered to herself, just loud enough for the wind to tear it away from her mouth. Vlyka stepped out gingerly with her first hoof, setting it down solidly but as lightly as she felt comfortable. It seemed just as stable as Midnight had found it. She continued to work forward, one step at a time, taking her time to place her hooves very deliberately to prevent herself from slipping. Haste was the bigger danger here, instead of the temperance that had been an issue yesterday. Her heart was racing, but she focused on keeping her tread stable and breathing steady. She wasn’t even paying attention to how far she had left to go, feeling as though she’d only be discouraged at any distance, or be tempted to try and leap if she were “close enough." "Gaah! Whoa!" Vlyka cried out, as a small chunk of ice under her back leg cracked and slid off to the side. Two simultaneous gasps followed her cry, all drowned out by the howling winds around them. But Vlyka caught herself and focused on breathing, Midnight hovering closer to her as she looked panicked back at him. He glanced at her back hoof and nodded to her, Vlyka nodding back and gingerly moving the hoof still hovering in the air back to the bridge. She staggered for a moment trying to reorder her stance to maintain balance on the narrow, slippery pass. Thankfully for everypony, after two more heart-stopping slips, Vlyka’s hoof hit snowy rocks again, allowing them all to breathe a sigh of relief. Midnight set down next to Vlyka, who collapsed in the snow shaking from the stress. She lay there for a minute to breathe, Crystal and Midnight watching her carefully to make sure she didn’t end up too close to the edge. But finally the little mare felt her heart rate dropping back to rest, and she could stand on her own four hooves again. As she stood upright though, she smiled with teary eyes and hugged both Crystal and Midnight with a hoof each. She squeezed both of them tightly, trying to ignore how weird it was feeling of two ponies' body heat in her personal space. The pair hugged Vlyka back for a moment until she started to squirm out of their grip, the pair letting her go without hesitation. Crystal smiled proudly at Vlyka, Midnight giving her a gentle nod as well, as Vlyka grabbed her bag from Crys and resettled it on her back. She then turned her back on the death bridge and set her nose down once again. There it was, Winter's trail, weakening even further as they continued up the mountain. At least until there was a large concentration of her scent, somewhere just up ahead... The path up the mountain leveled out about forty feet below the tip of the mountain peak, though as the three of them trotted further up they realized that only half the mountain's tip was there. The other half was filled with open air, all the way down to the path level save for a ring of boulders twice a pony's height placed around the rim almost like a low grade guardrail. There was another boulder sitting in the middle of the arena the stones had formed, smooth and flat like a ramp stretching halfway to the remaining face of the mountain. As Vlyka turned to look at the rocks however, she froze in panic, as the rocks were staring back at her. Carved roughly into the rock face was the visage if a savage, snarling animal, almost reminding Vlyka of a wolverine. Its features were weathered by the elements, but the eyes were still striking, hollow pits in the mountain itself. Its jaws lay open, the lower lips about eight feet off the flat ground they were standing on now, too high to climb up it alone. But between the rocky fangs and the ramp lay an icy bridge, just like the last one, granting access to the pitched black cavern nestled deep within the creature's maw. "Holy Celestia..." Crystal gasped, staring up at the stone. “How long has this been here?” “Winter...” Midnight whispered, staring at the bridge of ice. “She’s here, she has to be!” Vlyka gulped as she looked up at the eyes of the carving again, feeling the back of her neck tingle with fear. There was something very, very wrong here, something so unnatural that it made her skin crawl. And just to add to her sense of unease, at that very moment from deep within the mouth of the beast, Vlyka heard it. Echoing off the walls, quiet and distant, with her hearing there was no denying it. She heard Winter, screaming out in pain.