The last sunlight disappeared, replaced by a glittering sky of unknown stars accompanied by two moons. But even with the moment of rest I couldn’t seem to calm down, something keeping me alarmed as dangers could still linger around.

Sitting up I glanced around. The snowstorm raging beneath still showed no signs of calming down, but its outlook changed drastically. Glimmering in the light of the moons it shown with a silvery blue color, waving gently to look like a sea while the few mountaintops in sight played their parts as islands.

Within this lonely ocean only we two were left behind, any other sign of life gone. At least that was what I though before I saw another light make its way upward a neighboring mountain, too far away to make anything out of it.

Seeing this I looked for our light that should still be around here, finding it waiting in front of a small, barely visible crack in the wall. Stepping near the whisp just waited there, swinging left and right like it always did whenever it wanted someone to come nearer. Only when I was directly next to it did it slowly glide into the crack.

So whatever it is leading us towards is hidden inside? I was tempted to follow, but stopped, looking towards Narva. I should wait until she wakes up. Shouldn’t leave her alone out here and waken her up is even worse. She needs the rest.

I turned away from the crack and sat down next to her once more when we were covered in light once more, the whisp reappearing out of the crack. At least we don’t need to fear losing it somewhere inside.

Morning came without another incident, the rays of the sun waking Narva up after a night of sleep. Still half asleep she locked around confused before she shot upwards with reddened cheeks.

“Sorry, I just slept through the whole night, you must be tired too.” She said while trying to keep her eyes from me.

“It’s okay.” I chuckled at her embarrassment. “I don’t sleep very much.”

“Still, you should rest a little at least.”

“I’m fine. Rather than that our little guide led us towards an entry inside the mountain.”

Curious about what I said she turned towards the whisp, walking over until it disappeared inside.

“So we got to swap an ice desert for a dark cave?”

Stepping next to her I answered. “At least we have our guide at the beginning now. Let’s go.” Pressing myself into the crack I scratched against it with chest and back, but it quickly got wider, allowing me to stand without hunching over.

Inside the crack a tunnel waited for us but opposed to leading us further the whisp just circled around us, giving up his role of guiding us to turn into a source of light.

“So much for having a guide.” She said, suppressing a small laughter.

“Well,” I paused but nothing came to mind other than a simple, “yeah.” While she giggled at my sudden speechlessness I created some fireflies to light up more of the tunnel. The walls were rough, untouched stone, leaving us enough space to tread past till we reached another crack, a faint light shining out of it.

Pushing ourselves through it we landed in an enormous cavern with light shining down from an opening above, lighting everything in a faint grey. Opposed to the tunnel earlier the ground we were standing was firm and even, seemingly having been shaven till it was this way, though cracks were visible here and there.

A guardrail surrounded an enormous pit of about sixty feet in diameter, but what once seemed to be an intricate carved piece was whetted down by time, leaving behind rough shapes at most or nothing at all where the pit claimed more room for itself.

No sound was heard as we wondered over the scene in front of us until Narva broke the silence.

“This must be something those living here had created. Before their planet was selected as the last stage for some tournament long passed at least.”

“Whatever they were I don’t think we will learn much here.”

Aside from the pit the room was mostly empty. A few pieces of rubble, most likely fallen from above, were spread around, but they were all that was left together with stairs leading up and downwards. Making our way over we were faced with a question.

“Up or downwards?”

At my question Narva looked at the stairs leading down, soon shadowed with the fading light. “Let’s go upwards for now.”

“Okay.” While she certainly had other reasons I agreed, believing that the whisp wouldn’t have led us upwards only for us to climb down.

One at a time we took the steps carved into the walls, which were slightly to big for us, each step echoing in the cave while we made our way up. Every now and then the steps crumbled a little, small stones breaking off to fall down rustling. But even then, the construct held on, letting us step higher and higher upwards, the opening coming nearer as the level below us faded into a mass of grey.

Eventually, after an hour of walking the stairs disappeared into a tunnel, leading away from the opening outwards the mountain. White smoke greeted us, as a passing cloud shrouded the place in its mist, reducing visibility to a few feet in front of us. But that was enough as the stairs continued once more, leading further upwards as they circled around the mountain.

Only after we reached the top did the cloud show signs of moving on, letting us see the crater that the light shown through. What we didn’t see from below however were the arches that were build atop it. From all cardinal directions they reached towards the middle, supporting a platform.

As I stepped near the whisp shook delightedly, flying towards the platform, only to stop when it was too far from us, dancing left and right once more.

“Damn, you’ve got to be kidding me.” I cursed but the whisp just continued to wait for us to move towards it. Slowly I stepped on an archway as Narva’s voice rang out behind me.

“I don’t think we should both step onto this.” She said looking at the arches warily.

“Wait there.”

“Be careful.”

Little by little I made my way towards the platform. Opposed to below there were no guardrails to keep one from falling downwards into the dark abyss. Only after reaching the platform did I have some kind of handhold in the form of curved, pointed rocks, holding a long-lost beauty, that converged above a hole in the platform.

I stared at the whisp. “You better don’t try to drag me towards the other side.”

It however ignored my remarks as it flew upwards to rest at the end of the stone formation. I waited for something, anything, to happen, but it just flickered away, resting at its new spot.

“You serious?”

In my resignation I turned towards Narva, but before I could say anything, I got speechless.

“What’s wrong?” She asked confused.

“Turn around.”

She looked at me bewildered but still did what I told her to, only to end the same way as me. A pillar of white rose from the storm, sucking it into it to uphold itself as winds visibly raged around, creating whirls and twists inside. There was no way to miss its sheer size, but it must have been hidden on the other side of the mountain at our ascend.

“Ever seen something like that before?” I couldn’t help but ask, even if I could already guess her answer.

“No.”

Before we could take a closer look however the whisp began to flare red as the ground beneath us started to shake violently.