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Chapter Twelve: Snow Worries

“What happened here?” Koza and Tera asked in unison.

“It’s the weirdest thing,” one of the people said. “This chunk of snow just fell out of nowhere and completely covered up the entrance.”

Koza and Tera looked at each other. An amount of snow this large couldn’t have just “fallen out of nowhere.” Koza didn’t know if what he was thinking would turn out for better or worse, but he wasn’t about to sit around and wait for the blockade to melt. Motioning for Tera to follow him, Koza worked his way out of the crowd, with Tera behind him. When they were away from the people, he told her about where he had been to get the Snow Demon Tear, and how there was one path that he hadn’t tried before. Tera shrugged and didn’t see any other choices. They both nodded, and went off towards the rear gate.

Once they arrived, Tera looked around for a little bit. When she was done, she noticed that Koza was already a little ways into the maze.

“Hey! Wait up!” she yelled after him as she took off. She caught up with him and slowed to a walk beside him. “You may know where you’re going, but I don’t!” she said. “I don’t want to get lost!”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “Even if you did get lost, I wouldn’t stop looking until we found each other again.”

She smiled at his words. Walking along, Koza made sure to take the exact same path as before to get to that fork in the road with the blocked path. Left… right… right again… another left… straight…

It wasn’t long before the fork in the road came into view. Both of them stopped in front of it and examined it. The left path was blocked, just like Koza remembered it.

“What do we do now?” Tera asked. Thinking on it for a moment, Koza replied with,

“Wait for it…”

Tera seemed confused. Wait for what?

As if to answer her thought, a rustling was heard nearby behind some trees. Koza knew what it was, but Tera was slightly nervous. Looking over, she saw a pair of sapphire blue, glowing eyes. She screamed and hugged onto Koza,

“What’s that?!” she asked frantically. Looking over, Koza noticed the eyes.

“Oh, that? Just a friend…”
“A fr… friend?” she asked. He looked at her reassuringly and said,

“Nothing bad is going to happen. Just watch. Trust me.” He smiled while he talked.

Still hugging him, Tera nodded. They turned their attention to the figure behind the trees. After it watched them for a time, its eyes began to glow an even brighter blue. As if by magic, the ice sheet over the path in front of them began to melt away, and a sheet of ice began to form over the right path instead. A little while later, the left path was cleared, and the right path was blocked off. The eyes behind the trees then began to fade away into the shadows of the forest.

“You sure have some weird friends Koza…” Tera said nervously.

Koza just laughed and headed down the path, with her right at his side. The longer they walked, the less the snow fell around them. Even the temperature seemed to slightly increase the farther along they went. Before long, it had stopped snowing completely. When they stopped for a moment, Koza cleared his throat. Tera, still hugging close to Koza, gave a nervous laugh and let go. By now, it was at least 70 degrees out. Both of them gave a disappointed sigh. They were enjoying the cold weather.

“Oh well… I guess its not that hot…” Koza said.

“Would’ve rather stayed in Winter Ridge though, right Koza?” Tera asked. Koza nodded.

“We can always go back and visit,” he added. “What place are we close to now?”

Tera pulled out the map again, this time making sure it wasn’t upside down. Following a path that was drawn from Winter Ridge, they found the next closest area was called “Rock Ridge.”

“’Ridge’ must be a popular name,” Koza said. Tera giggled and put the map away. “Well, we might as well be going then. Nothing to do around here anymore.”

“Right,” she agreed.

“With a name like that, it’s bound to be fun,” Koza thought to himself.

“I remember this place. I won’t say anything to Koza yet though,” Tera thought.

Both had their own ideas and theories, and they chatted about what it could be like while they walked. Tera commented that the name “Rock Ridge” sounded familiar to her, though she couldn’t really remember why. This of course, was a partial lie, as she had been there previously, back when she was traveling alone. She had no intention of telling Koza about it either. She’d just mention it later on if she had to. After all, it wasn’t really that important.




Next Chapter: Between a Rock and a Hard Place