Her teats diminishing into her fur Kykherhenha climbed to the sky again. As Thekherham watched her, he thought about food. He knew this adventure they were on would not be completed in a day. And the way this region looked, they would have a hard time finding anything to eat. Sure, he could drink from his whistling dragon, but he needed more than that. He needed solid food; in other words, meat. But there were no prey animals nearby, and in her flight, Kykherhenha had seen nothing that resembled something that they could eat.

He heard Tyro talking about that Light Stone again. What was so important about that Light Stone? And where was it? He wondered if trying to find it would be like, as the humans put it, trying to find a needle in a haystack?

He turned to Zola. “You keep mentioning a cave… and blood and bones. Kykherhenha’s been up there, but she hasn’t seen anything. How far away is this cave?”

Wait a moment, Kykherhenha sent. I could have been flying too high. You better tell the others to be careful. You could be walking into a snow trap.

Damn.

Let’s just say that if you keep going you’re going to be taking a long trip down a big hole, and you won’t get anywhere near the cave.

“Kykherhenha just told me there is a cave up ahead,” Thekherham said, “but there’s a trap. A chasm of some kind, covered with snow. You wouldn’t notice it until you stepped on the snow, and then...” He swept his paw in a downward motion. “We’ll have to approach the cave from another direction.”

Thorn let out a sudden grunt, "Ugh, you know! I don't care what your little friend told you!" he spoke up, directing it to Thekherham by the look in his eyes, "I don't trust such mind games and while I would be curious to know what they actually saw...I don't care! I'd rather just get this thing sorted with and destroy it...even if it's not the yeti we're looking for; still beats nothing." Thorn had been patient and willing to follow on with them for this length of time, but when different ways of speaking came into it, he got annoyed. He didn't like the thought of someone being able to talk behind his back because he couldn't hear or understand them; it provoked him quite a lot, "You also know how disgusting that is? Dear gods! Have you no decency??"

Thekherham turned on Thorn. “Let me make this clear. I don’t like you, but as long as we’re here I’ll have to put up with you. And as for Kykherhenha, she is not my friend, she is much more than that.” He tried not to let his anger boil over, but his ears were flat against his head, and the black tip of his tail was waving back and forth hypnotically. “You’re a demon, aren’t you? One of those nasty types? Should have figured.” Deep inside he wished that somewhere on this journey Thorn would attack him, and he quickly tried to dismiss the thought. He had no desire to kill anyone, but if one of them attacked him, he would have no choice but to defend himself.

“I was going to tell you,” he said, calming down slightly, “that what happens between Kykherhenha and me is nobody’s business, but I am willing to tell everyone what she tells me. She can’t communicate verbally, the only way she can communicate is telepathically, and I am the only one who can read her thoughts. As for me drinking from her, I am not going to apologize for that. I do not apologize for being what I am. If you don’t like it, you can look away. I am sure you have done some disgusting things in your life, or do you want me to ask your friend there?”

He had said enough. He knew Thorn was not the type of being he wanted for a friend, and that was the furthest thing from his mind. He walked away, looked up at Kykherhenha flying just above him. She wanted to know if he was going to keep his anger in check. “I’ll try,” he said, glancing at Thorn. “But it’s a two-way street.”

“You keep mentioning a cave… and blood and bones. Kykherhenha’s been up there, but she hasn’t seen anything. How far away is this cave?”

Zola heard this, but kept silent, listening out for something. Her eyes narrowed when she heard Thekherham say, “Kykherhenha just told me there is a cave up ahead, but there’s a trap. A chasm of some kind, covered with snow. You wouldn’t notice it until you stepped on the snow, and then...” Zola watched in half-amusement as he swept his paw in a downward motion. “We’ll have to approach the cave from another direction.”

Zola sighed. Damn.

"How big is this snow trap?" she asked. "Can Kykherhenha see which direction would be the best way to avoid it?"

"Ugh, you know! I don't care what your little friend told you!" Zola's silver orbs turned to stare at Thorn's sudden outburst. "I don't trust such mind games and while I would be curious to know what they actually saw...I don't care! I'd rather just get this thing sorted with and destroy it...even if it's not the yeti we're looking for; still beats nothing."
Zola could just see the anger boiling within him. What was up with him?
"You also know how disgusting that is? Dear gods! Have you no decency??" She heard him yell.

Zola's lips tightened when Thekherham also suddenly became angry. She watched with a glint in her eyes as they looked as if they were about to murder each other. This would never do, she thought, highly unamused.

But she did not interrupt their bickering. It would only become worse if she did, she just knew.
She watched with a slight frown as Thekherham walked away from Thorn.

At least he has the common sense to walk away from a fight, she thought. She knew she would now have to keep her eyes and ears open for any trouble between those two. If they fought amongst themselves, she could never gain what she wanted... Her fists clenched tightly.
Patience was indeed a virtue.

Rose shook her palms as well as her head very quickly at Theknerham, implying that she wanted nothing to do with their little argument. Thorn, on the other hand, seemed ready to put up a fight of words, "Ohhh really? Going by what I am other than who I am? Real mature of you, pansy-boy!" he spoke in a mocking tone, he really wasn't in the mood for another person's wisecracks, "I didn't even ask for you to come! Disgusting! What is she? Your mummy? Still not moved onto the bottle, I see? I've never done anything disgusting...never! Ugh, you're just disgusting..."

Tyro had basically ditched them at this point. Several meters in the direction he;d taken, he could still hear Thorn bickering with Thek about.....breast-feeding? At least, that must be what the 'bottle' reference was for. What the heck is that supposed to be about? They're all adults here, right?

His booted paws stepped on something. Whatever it was, it lifted some snow as it rocked on its pivot. Tyro investigated, sweeping the white stuff away. It was a sword. It wasn't in bad nick either. He tried to pick it up but the pull brought the hand on the other end out of the snow, with the arm and body with it. Frozen solid but otherwise preserved. Tyro jumped back a little in fight, dropping the sword. "Whoa. Sorry mate." He looked over to his comrades, who still seemed to be bickering.
"OH COME ON!" He shouted. "You can nag at each other later. By the time we find the monster he's died of old age!"

Nyoko was rather dissapointed that the demon hadn't reacted to her comment about the possibility of it being a frost giant, but she would find something to tease him about shortly she was sure...

Looking back and forth between Thorn and Thekherham as they started arguing, Nyoko sighed, somehow she couldn't see this group managing to kill the yeti... they would probably be killed by it while fighting one another!

Looking at Zola, who at least was managing to keep her temper and use her mind, Nyoko nodded in approval of Zola's question, "And how wide is the chasm? if it isn't too wide I could conjure something to use as a bridge... although if you aren't sure we can always tie a rope around him and throw him out there to see if he reaches the other side to find out." she said as she waved her hand towards Thorn, mostly to tease the demon, but partly from annoyance. "And that would stop the arguing as well..." she added under her breath.

Looking at Thekherham Nyoko sighed, "You shouldn't judge someone by what they are though, he is right about that much." she said with a little irritation, "The Djinn race is stereotyped in many ways, and I've had problems because of those stereotypes... a Demon may be born of the Darkness, just as a Djinn is born of the Light, but that only indicates the base nature and says nothing about how one will act."

Turning away, Nyoko walked over to Tyro and frowned at the body as she felt traces of magical energy, "This man was a mage." she said quietly, not sure what prompted her to say it, but trusting the instincts that told her it needed to be said.

Zola continued to ignore the bickering, although it was getting on her nerves.

Her emotionless face suddenly sparked with slight curiosity as she saw Tyro jump back a little in fight, dropping a sword. "Whoa. Sorry mate." she heard him say.

Zola moved towards the found corpse, her eyes searching. She heard Nyoko sigh loudly and thought, she's unhappy about the bickering too.

Zola heard her ask, "And how wide is the chasm? if it isn't too wide I could conjure something to use as a bridge... although if you aren't sure we can always tie a rope around him and throw him out there to see if he reaches the other side to find out." Zola hid a grin as Nyoko waved towards the Demon, and heard her mutter something like, "would stop the arguing as well..."

She focused her attention on the corpse.

It was completely frozen, and the look on the man's face was appalling. It was obvious he had died in great pain.
"This man was a mage." Zola turned to look at Nyoko, her expression thoughtful.
"He's magical aura is still around him, even when he's dead?" she asked quietly. "He must have been very powerful. I wonder what he died from? A powerful mage like him surely wouldn't just freeze to death because it's cold?"

She looked back at the corpse, her silver eyes sweeping over the figure. She glanced at the ornate sword that Tyro had tried to take before. She paused, considering something, and then her eyes fell on a small, cold, leather pouch half-covered in snow beside the dead man.

She picked it up and opened it. Inside, it was filled with gold coins. She grinned.
Zola took out her own pouch from her belt and then placed all the gold into it.
She smirked. "Looks like we've found something useful for later. That man does not need it anymore. He's dead. We can use the gold later."

Zola glanced back at the sword. She tried to pull it out of the dead man's grip, but it was too tight. Annoyed, she took out her own sword and severed the corpse's hand off it.
She did not even flinch or blink as the frozen hand shattered to pieces.

Zola picked up the sword, sheathing her own. She examined the newly-acquired treasure for a moment and then turned towards Tyro, her eyes glinting in slight amusement. "You wanted this?" She held out the sword towards him, encouraging him to take it.

Thekherham wanted to explain to Thorn that Kykherhenha’s milk was the only liquid he could drink, but he was in no mood to even speak to him. What did he look like? Did he look like a human? No, of course not. He was a Tereskàdian, he was born like this, and he would die like this, and nothing could change that.

He was thinking of turning off his hearing to shut out Thorn’s voice, but what would that prove? He walked up to the others. Tyro had found a corpse holding a sword.

Nyoko had asked him how wide the chasm was. There was one way to find out. “Wait a moment,” he said. “I’ll have Kykherhenha give us a picture, then you can decide what you want to do.” He instructed Kykherhenha to fly across the chasm ahead, hidden underneath the snow. Kykherhenha not only did this, but she also flew its perimeter. When she was done, he pictured a large oval, with the top and bottom of the chasm very much narrower than the center.

He looked at Nyoko. “Maybe I was a little... judgmental, but I didn’t like the way he... I mean... All right, I didn’t like his attitude... just because I drink from Kykherhenha. Every Tereskàdian does it, not because we want to, but because we have to. I have no desire to fight with Thorn, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to fight with me. Since we’re all in this together, we’ll have to see this through together, but I cannot change my ways to accommodate him.”

He saw Zola sever the corpse’s hand to retrieve the sword. The hand shattered into innumerable pieces. “This man was a mage,” she had said. What was a mage? A magician? A wizard? Had he died out here because of the cold, or was something else involved?

Thorn didn't look like he was going to be taking lightly to the teasing, especially when he began to growl. It was quite the vicious growl, his eyes beginning to glow a deep red, "Do you want to test your willingness to carry that out?!" he growled hard, his claws raised up in front of him. He didn't take kindly to little threats and was simply beginning to show that he was still a demon with quite the attitude. As soon as Thorn looked like he may just do something he'd regret, like show off just how demonic he could be, Rose immediately flew forward. She waved her hand while just as she did, Thorn's shackles began to glow. His eyes reverted back to what they were, just before he was dragged back by them and fell over onto his back.

"Thorn! Don't go down that path again! Remember where it lead you last time?" Rose finally spoke up. She didn't looked pleased at all, especially at the other's comments. She sighed heavily, released Thorn who immediately sat up and rubbed his wrists, "You speak of not judging people yet you make a hurtful comment before you proclaim that? Is that not a little judgemental as well? You don't even know him".

Thorn was back on his feet now, a sigh coming from his mouth. He still looked slightly annoyed at it, all up until the moment he actually spotted the corpse as well. He walked up to it before getting on his hands, giving it a quick sniff, "...He used up a lot of his magic to get into this state...plus his insides seemed to had exploded", he spoke before standing up, "My guess is that he was overpowered before thrown around like a ragdoll! Maybe even stepped on afterwards".

Tyro took in Thorns analysis before wiping off a little more snow. Frozen blood had pooled on the mage's clothes.
"Yeah, and if that didn't kill him, the age old way would. He appeared to be leaking..." He got up and placed his weapon on his shoulder, taking the sword Zola had offered.
"C'mon. I think he'd want to be left alone. We've got bigger things to deal with." So he continued to wonder off.
"Zola! Where's this cave?"

Zola smiled a little as Tyro took the weapon from her hand.

She looked at Thorn as he struggled against his glowing shackles.
Then she glanced at Rose, pondering a little. So that girl had power over that demon, huh?

She watched as Thorn got distracted by the corpse, examining it closely.
"...He used up a lot of his magic to get into this state...plus his insides seemed to had exploded", he spoke before standing up, "My guess is that he was overpowered before thrown around like a ragdoll! Maybe even stepped on afterwards".

Zola frowned, not liking the sound of that at all. And she knew demon instincts were sharp.
"Whatever it was, it's probably better avoided for now. We're here to find the yeti. Let's get on with it."

"Zola! Where's this cave?"

She could hear the impatience in Tyro's voice.

"As I've said before, it's up ahead. But apparently there is a snow trap along the way, we'll have to go around it. Let's go slightly to the right and then turn left again. That might do the trick."

She began walking again in the direction, giving the looted corpse a final flicker of a glance.

Thekherham listened to what Thorn had to say about the corpse. If he had been overpowered, it must have happened very quickly, or this mage would not have ended up like he did. But Zola was right. They had come here to find the yeti. Patience did not seem to be in Zola’s or Tyro’s vocabulary.

He caught up with Zola. “The best thing to do would be to stay as close to those rocks to the right there as possible. It’ll mean walking in single file. If you take a wrong step, it’ll be a long way down.”

If they stayed close to the rocks... What was wrong with that picture? There had to be. From what he remembered of Kykherhenha’s flight to describe the snowtrap, the narrow ends of the oval could be traversed easily enough, but what if...

“I wonder if there is another entrance,” he said, mostly to himself, and Kykherhenha. He looked at Zola. “Just thinking out loud.” He did not want to elaborate, because he knew both Zola and Tyro seemed eager to find that cave.

Tyro followed Thekherham's instructions, walking towards the rocks he'd refered to and slinking across their surface.
"Come on then!"k

As Zola walked, she saw Thekherham catching up to her. She listened quietly as he explained, “The best thing to do would be to stay as close to those rocks to the right there as possible. It’ll mean walking in single file. If you take a wrong step, it’ll be a long way down.”

She nodded and began to walk in the pointed direction, following calmly after Tyro who seemed more than eager.
"Come on then!" he called. She too, began to slide along the edge of the rocks.

“I wonder if there is another entrance,” She heard a mutter carried by a strong wind and she looked at Thekherham with a raised eyebrow. He looked at her. “Just thinking out loud.”

He's not one to keep too many secrets, she thought to herself.

Zola looked down at her feet momentarily and stared at the ice underneath. Her dragonhide leather boots stopped most of the slipperiness, but to her alarm, she saw cracks along the ice that they were all standing on. This ground was not stable either.

"We better move along quickly!" She called out to the others above the howling wind. "There are cracks here! The ground here could break too!"

Thekherham was following Zola, who was walking behind Tyro. Kykherhenha was still in the air, and Thekherham saw through her eyes that what Zola had said about the cracks was true. He looked behind him to see if Thorn and Rose, and Nyoko were following. They did not have a moment to lose.

I see the cave, Kykherhenha sent. All you have to do is go past those boulders up ahead.

Looks easy enough, he sent. Aloud he said, “The cave entrance is just ahead… just past those boulders… Kykherhenha showed me. I can see through her eyes.”

He didn’t know why he thought it would be easy. He had a feeling nothing that was going to happen to them would be easy.

And the cracks weren’t getting any smaller.

(Nyoko will show up again shortly...)

Nyoko chuckled slightly at the demons antics but decided to stop teasing him for the moment, simply shaking her head as she followed the group along silently, staying just behind Zola, a displeased look on her face from the moment Zola first tried to take the sword, "One shouldn't disrespect the dead." she said quietly, wrapping the words in magic so that only Zola would hear them, but saying nothing else for some time, merely wearing a dissaproving look.

Looking at Zola as they crossed the rocks, Nyoko sighed, "You know... I've noticed that you seem a little tired and have since we got here... despite what you think, it requires a large amount of energy to stay warm without warm clothing, and that is a constant drain... I don't know if that is what is causing the exhaustion, but either way the strain probably is a bad idea. You might want to let me conjure you a coat at the very least... it would remove some of the strain and-" Nyoko's voice cut off with a sharp intake of breath as the ground cracked loudly and a small patch broke away beneath, causing her to lose her balance, catching it again for a brief moment before more rock broke away and she slipped over the edge and dissapearing from sight without a further sound.

As she walked along the rocks, she heard Nyoko's voice floating in through her mind,"One shouldn't disrespect the dead."

Zola glanced at her half-quizzedly. What was her problem? That man was dead. So what? She did not answer but shrugged it off, looking away from Nyoko's disapproving expression.

She looked down at the cracks beneath her. “The cave entrance is just ahead… just past those boulders… Kykherhenha showed me. I can see through her eyes.”

Zola looked at Thekherham and nodded. She could see the boulders ahead now, just around the bend.
She sighed quietly in relief. She didn't know how much longer she could stand this. She still lacked strength from that stupid darkness being that had drained her energy...
Her silvery-blue eyes suddenly darted to the side, noticing that Nyoko was staring at her again.

"You know... I've noticed that you seem a little tired and have since we got here... despite what you think, it requires a large amount of energy to stay warm without warm clothing, and that is a constant drain... I don't know if that is what is causing the exhaustion, but either way the strain probably is a bad idea."

Zola grinned to herself. So Nyoko thought she was exhausted from the cold, eh?
Her eyes narrowed. If only you knew, she thought darkly, you'd be trying to kill me right now...

She did not interrupt but continued to listen mindlessly, continuing on her path.

"You might want to let me conjure you a coat at the very least... it would remove some of the strain and-"

Zola could almost picture the scene before she saw it. She heard a loud crack from the ground and a sharp intake of breath that was Nyoko's. She spun around quickly, just in time to see Nyoko's startled face disappearing off the edge.

Her eyes widened. No!

"NYOKO!!!!" Zola yelled. She leaned over the edge, looking down. It was a long, long drop, ending into blackness.
She could not see Nyoko. Had she really fallen? But she was Djinn, Zola reminded herself. Surely, she was alive? She continued searching for signs of movement down below, her eyes darting this way and that.

"BLOODY-!" Tyro said, but didn't finish as she watched Nyoko drop. It was the edge that cut him off. The moment he saw over he nearly vomited. He could feel that horrible drag that you get as you peer over before dragging himself back quickly. He returned to the wall, shaking a little. What the hell was Nyoko playing at?

At least he know new that they were up a mountain of some kind...

Thorn could only raise his head in surprise as Nyoko suddenly vanished off the cliff edge, Rose immediately flew over out of instinct but even the wind from the hole was too much for her transparent body to cope with, immediately tossing her back out in the process. Thorn looked like he didn't quite know how to react but was smart enough to keep himself away from the cliff edge, "You can't change anything by screaming and nearly falling yourselves! Don't be foolish!" he shouted, showing no other emotion in his voice right now, "What good would it do shouting and trying to run after them? They're gone! Djinn are probably stronger than that any ways...hah! But if it was one of you lot, you would had went splat...for sure!"