Ril and Zed started trekking up the mountain. They followed the road, seeing little reason to deviate when they had their destination in sight. The road itself was snowed over, but combined with the lack of trees growing over it and the slight indentation that it left in the snow they managed just fine.

A minute of travel, and the two stumbled upon a sign. The sign was a simple plank nailed onto the face of a tree. On the face of the sign were letters carved into the surface of the plank.

Observatory Trail 5.3

It stuck out like a sore thumb, not because it wasn’t weathered, but because it was surrounded by a patch of earth that was entirely devoid of snow. The snow seemed to have been pushed away, or shoveled such that in the area immediately around the sign the snow piled higher; at nearly waist height.

“Five point three kilometers?” Ril asked idly, looking from the sign to the trail. It wound tightly up the mountain, constant switchbacks causing it to appear shorter than it actually was. The trail also disappeared frequently behind snow-laden trees and rocks.

“Yeah,” Zed said, walking up to investigate the sign. “How do you suppose they made the sign snow proof?”

“No clue. A skill of some kind? It seems to just push all the snow away as it falls. The snow is clean, like this happened during the snowfall, not afterwards.” Ril said, then began heading up the trail. “Come on, this will take the rest of the day unless we hurry up.”

“Right,” Zed returned, jogging slightly to catch up to Ril.

They continued up the path, but their pace quickly slowed as the terrain roughened.

At the third tree that blocked the trail, Ril stopped to take a breather.

“These trees are different from what I am used to. All spiky needles and rough bark.” He said, mostly to fill the silence. “It’s like the mountain doesn’t want us to climb it.”

“Nah,” Zed smiled, “It’s just that deciduous trees don’t really grow at high altitudes. The cold kills their wide leaves so they can’t sustain themselves off of the sunlight. Coniferous trees on the other hand. These babies can survive in basically any environment. They aren’t called evergreens for no reason.”

“Evergreen. Sounds like a powerful skill.”

Zed laughed, “That would be pretty cool. What would it do though?”

Ril shrugged, “Are they all called evergreens or do they have their own unique names?”

“Of course they do. That one over there, yeah the one with the droopy branches and the fat needle bundles. That one looks like a black spruce to me, and the one over there with the kinda flower-like needles is a yew tree of some sort.”

“You can make bows out of that right?” Ril brightened, remembering how some of the hunters back in Elkshire used to use Yew bows.

“Yeah, although interestingly enough, it is technically categorized as a softwood.”

“Are softwoods better for bows?” Ril gave Zed a confused glance.

“No clue.” Zed smiled happily.

“Fascinating. Any other interesting tidbits regarding that tree over yonder?” Ril said sarcastically.

“Oh yeah, you’ll like this. Supposedly the entire tree is super poisonous. Especially the bark.”

Ril blinked, giving the unassuming evergreen a look of newfound respect. “Huh, who would have thought.”

“I know right,” Zed replied happily, “Trees are actually super cool if you take a minute to appreciate them. Like check over there, you see that clump of green peeking out of the snow? That is a juniper of some kind and its berries are...”

Zed continued enlightening Ril about the beauty and nuance of the mountain's ecology, oftentimes referencing how a particular plant could be used or whether it could be dangerous. Ril enjoyed the conversation and found that it helped pass the time splendidly.

They continued climbing the trail. At one point they stepped off trail due to the snow but quickly managed to figure out the best way to continue.

They were about halfway up the mountain when Ril interrupted Zed to point out a part of the mountain which was so steep that only bare rock was visible.

“Yo, Zed. What’s with all the colors? I see, red, green, yellow, and is that blue,” Ril stared wondrously at the cliff. “That’s incredible. How come none of the other rocks here are so colorful?”

“It’s ‘cause the cliff is... leaning in to us. Doesn’t get covered...in as much crap from all the snow...and wind.” Zed huffed, he had been talking the entire way up and had practically lost his breath at this point.

“I agree, it is pretty amazing,” Zed continued as he stepped up beside Ril and the clone and examined the rock more closely. “The blue color means the rock has copper in it. Although this area where all the colors kind of swirl together could mean that it is Cordierite which is actually iron and aluminum with some magnesium contamination, not copper.”

“And this blue gem stuff?” Ril asked, pointing at a part of the rock that had tiny translucent gems peeking out of it.

“Could be opal.” Zed replied with a shrug, “but it might be prismatic azurite, which is just a different type of copper if you can believe it.”

“Prismatic azurite.” Ril said, tasting the word.

“It’s pretty but mostly useless except for cheap jewelry, since it can lose its color easily. Honestly I’m amazed that this rock is such a vibrant blue, though that might mean that it isn’t azurite, now that I think about it.”

Ril leaned down and shifted some of the snow away from the base of the short cliff face, “the rock shatters into tiny little spears.” He picked up one of the fragments and tested the edge, “it's sharp too. Was this caused by the calamity?”

Zed laughed happily, “Haha, no. That’s just shale.” he frowned, “or maybe slate, I can never remember the difference. One of those breaks off in thin layers. Kinda cool, and really helpful if you plan on skipping a lot of stones, but don’t bother using it as a weapon, it is too brittle for that.”

Ril snapped the thin rock with his fingers. “No kidding, what about all the red brown? It kind of looks like someone took a dump and let the rain spread it out.”

“Iron mostly, and you’re not wrong. They are sometimes called shitstains.” Zed suppressed a chuckle.

“Are there mines in the area then? Considering the iron and copper in the rocks?” Ril tossed the rock to the ground and turned up the path. It snaked to the right, the slope getting steeper with every step.

“Maybe?” Zed replied, “Honestly, I have no idea. It could be, but I’m pretty sure that this place used to be a resort before the calamity.”

“A resort.” Ril raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Zed punched him lightly on the shoulder, “Some people like hiking.”

“You’re telling me...” Ril huffed in an exaggerated manner, as they continued up the steep slope full of switchbacks. “That some people enjoy getting up in the morning... during their vacation no less... and spending their time...walking? What...is this...nonsense. It doesn’t bloody end.”

Zed snorted, and Ril burst into laughter as he dropped the act. The path grew even steeper making it so that Ril didn’t have to act to appear winded.

They came upon another sign that was suspiciously lacking any snow around it so they took a moment to rest and reflect on how far they had come. They had been climbing nonstop since the start of their journey, and their thighs were burning from the exertion.

Big Old Tree

The sign was pointing at a large, gnarled tree that didn’t look much different from the other trees other than the fact that it had a sign venerating its existence.

“How high up do you think we are?” Ril asked, after clearing a rock of snow and leaning against it.

“Three or four hundred meters, maybe.”

“Bloody hell.” Ril said, craning his neck to see just how far they had yet to go.

Zed pulled out some dried food from his pack and passed some to Ril. They munched quietly on the food as their muscles and lungs slowly recovered.

“What do you suppose is up with this sign?” Ril asked.

“Maybe someone buried something near the tree and needed a reminder?” Zed replied.

Ril snorted, then noticed another bare face of rock several dozen meters up the trail. “Hey look, it's another one of those colorful walls. Let’s check it out.”

They trekked up to the wall and admired the colorful stone making mesmerizing patterns for a moment.

“Hey look, I think there is a cave here. The stones are probably even more vib...oh” Zed trailed off, after peeking into the dark spot.

“What is it?” Ril tensed, rushing over to Zed’s side and peering into the darkness with some trepidation. “Huh...”

It wasn’t a cave, but a deep alcove that ended after barely three meters. The ceiling was low, and glistened wetly from a thin layer of wet ice. But that was not what had brought the two up short.

Sitting peacefully on the dark wet stone of the rock cavity was a pitch black Spore. It was around shoulder width and waist height and resembled a gigantic flower that had yet to unfurl its petals. The last time Ril had seen one of these things was when he was leaving the Dread Thicket with Evelyn and her guards. Julius had destroyed the Spore back then, claiming that it would spawn a powder beast if left to mature.

“I guess we destroy it?” Ril said, phrasing it more like a question.

“I guess,” Zed replied slowly, a deep frown darkening his features.

They stood there at the edge of the small alcove for several slow seconds.

“Do you want to do it?” Ril finally broke the silence.

“...not really.”

“Right...”

“Think we could just leave it?”

“It is going to spawn a powder beast. Make the roads even more dangerous than they already are. Doesn’t seem very responsible of us.”

“Right...so we should destroy it.”

“Yeah.”

They stood there for another moment.

“What does Sin think?” Zed asked.

The stygian cat raised its head, its tail curling gracefully around Ril’s neck. He studied the Spore with lazy eyes then after a moment dropped his head down, resuming his nap.

[Follow your heart.] he hissed to both of them.

Ril and Zed looked at each other, partly amused and partly annoyed.

“Well that was spectacularly unhelpful.” Ril said eventually. “The point is my ‘heart’ is conflicted.”

Zed grunted, crossing his arms and staring at the Spore, conflicted.

They stood there for another moment, then Ril nodded firmly to himself and sent his clone crouching into the narrow alcove. The clone drew his short sword carefully and hacked at the black bulb.

It took several blows but eventually the Spore deflated, releasing a puff of nasty viridian smoke and a deluge of slime.

The clone retreated hastily, his lips curled in disgust.

“Let’s go.”

They continued up the mountain in silence. The mood destroyed but the chance encounter with the Spore.

Luckily they had made it almost all the way up the mountain and the end was in sight.

Suddenly Ril stopped, raising his fist into the air. Zed stopped behind him, his hand falling instinctively to his sword at his waist.

“What is it?”

“Do you feel that?” Ril licked his index finger and raised it up. A wind had suddenly started up in front of him, pushing him gently down the mountain. What had caused him to stop was that the existing wind that had been gusting on and off from the east hadn’t stopped. Instead both sensations buffeted Ril’s senses causing a mild sensation of nausea as his senses were confused by two simultaneous, yet conflicting sources.

“The wind? What about it?” Zed turned to keep an eye behind them just in case something was about to happen.

“I don't...” Ril stepped back, and the eerie wind coming from directly in front disappeared. “Ahh, I see. Here take a step forward.”

They both took a step forward and the ethereal force returned. Zed grimaced, drawing his sword completely and holding it loosely at his side.

“That is unpleasant.” Zed remarked, “It’s coming from the observatory.” He narrowed his eyes as he strained to view the far off structure through the rocks and vegetation.

“Check it out?” Ril asked, drawing his own sword and buckling his shield.

Zed chewed his lip. “Can’t hurt. Or, it could, but we haven’t come across anything dangerous yet, so...”

Ril sent his clone forward. It stepped cautiously through the snow, sword raised and eyes scanning. After a dozen steps, Ril and Zed began to follow it at a respectable distance.

They marched in silence, careful to minimize the noise that their feet made on the snow with careful applications of darkness magic. The force pushing them away grew steadily stronger. The longer Ril was exposed to the sensation, the less he thought that it felt like wind. It was too even. Too consistent. Never varying and applying even force over the entire length of his body. It felt oddly like walking into a blanket hanging from a clothesline. A thin blanket. Gossamer thin.

Although the force strengthened noticeably it never became more than a nuisance. A suggestion rather than a compulsion.

They stepped out of the tree line and into a clearing. The observatory stood proudly at the highest point. A small manmade tower defying the flora that overwhelmed the immediate area. It extended ten meters into the sky, a flat topped platform covered by a slanted roof perched delightfully at the apex.

At the base of the tower was another sign. It was similar to the other signs that they had seen up until this point. A plain plank with letters carved into its surface. Instead of being nailed to a tree, this sign was mounted onto another plank that was driven deep into the ground. Like the other signs, there was a suspicious lack of snow in the immediate periphery of the marker.

Observatory

They continued forward carefully, scanning the area as they approached the observatory. As they moved forward the invisible force shifted, coming more from the right than the tower itself.

They stopped and retreated a couple of steps. The force returned to being in front of them.

Ril adjusted the grip on his sword. “What do you say? Go forward?”

“It clearly doesn’t want us here. Whatever it is.” Zed replied.

“Not necessarily. Might just be an aura of a new type of powder beast.” Ril said.

Zed gave Ril a long look. Then shot Sin, who was napping under Ril’s hood, a pointed glance. “I’d rather not meet any ‘new’ powder beasts right now. The last time didn’t go so well.”

“Right. We should at least find the source though. It shifted after we took a couple of steps into the clearing.”

“To the right, yeah. Wait. What if it can detect our presence and alerts the monster that we are here? Or triggers some trap.”

Ril blinked, “I didn’t think of that, but we already entered the area. I feel like it would be weird if it triggers once we get really close, as opposed to triggering immediately.”

“Okay, send your clone in first.”

Ril nodded, and the clone stepped forward. The force shifted as before gently rotating until it was perpendicular to what it was before. To Ril it was nauseating. He now felt three different forces pushing on him. The wind, the first force, and now the perpendicular force.

“This is unpleasant.” Ril curled his lip.

“Point at where the force is coming from.” Zed said, and Ril complied.

“It is coming from a sign.” Zed said in surprise.

Indeed, after pushing down the unpleasant sensation of his stomach rebelling, Ril noticed that by using the two positions of himself and his clone he could triangulate the source of the force.

A sign. Nailed crookedly to a tree on the far side of the clearing.

Zed gestured, and the clone moved carefully over to it.

No Powder Beasts Here

“Well that’s a relief.” Zed said, after Ril relayed the contents of the sign. He relaxed his tense posture but didn’t sheath his sword. “Presumably the signs have some sort of aura effect. They push the snow away from them. It isn’t such a stretch that they could push other things if they needed to.”

“Like powder beasts.” Ril frowned.

“Like powder beasts.”

“We are definitely categorized as powder beasts then.” Ril said unhappily.

Zed nodded, “I had my suspicions before but this confirms it.”

“How come we haven’t lost our minds then?” Ril retorted, recalling his clone back to his side as they moved to the tower. The nausea faded.

“Dunno. Sin seems pretty sane. Maybe being a powder beast doesn’t preclude being insane? Could be that high warp is what causes the insanity, not the classification itself.”

Ril grunted. “This would be easier if Sin could tell us how much warp he has.”

They stepped over the broken remains of a wooden door and paused in the darkened insides of the tower. It was empty except for a spiral staircase that hugged the walls. After a brief investigation they ascended the stairs, pushing open the trapdoor at the top and stepped onto the top of the observatory.

It was a small space, only several paces in diameter, but that gave it a cozy feel. Like it was a place you could spend hours just looking at the stars. A low parapet marked the edge of the roof, beyond which was a spectacular sight.

Gorgeous snowy mountains spread expansively before them. Tiny scars riddled the landscape as trails and rivers prevented the growth of trees. Where they did not exist, snow laden boughs spiked out from the surface of the mountains, giving the behemoths furry green-white beards. Snow covered everything, sometimes only in a thin veil, and other times a thick extensive blanket. It made the vista blinding in its brilliance.

“It’s beautiful.” Ril gazed at the vista in awe.

“Would you come to this resort on your vacation, despite the ‘walk’?” Zed smirked as he too took in the view.

Ril snorted, “Hey look, think they had a telescope mounted here?” he pointed at a rusty frame that was bolted to the side of the parapet. Unfortunately whatever the frame used to hold was gone, leaving behind only crumbling red iron.

A wide stone plaque roughly in the center of the space was carved with many illustrations, presumably about the park or its trails, so they ignored it for now, choosing instead to investigate a tarp that hid a bulge near the trapdoor.

Zed pulled the edge of the tarp up, and threw it to the side revealing a dusty faded green duffel bag. A piece of fabric with words sewn into it was stitched to the side of the bag. It read:

emergency supplies

leave some

could save life

Unbuckling the bag revealed an old blanket wrapped around several rock hard loaves of bread and the remains of what might have been some vegetable in the past.

“Huh, this place might have been a haven for adventurers at some point.” Zed murmured.

Ril walked up, his clone still enamored with the view. “Should we leave something?”

Zed picked up the rotten vegetable and tossed it over the parapet, then wiped the residue off on the side of the duffle bag. “I have a stick of jerky. That might survive up here. You?”

“I got...hmm, I could leave a bun. Although it would go stale pretty quick.”

“Crackers are better than nothing.” Zed replied, as they both left some of their rations before rebuckling the bag and pulling the tarp back over it.

“Come over here, there is a map of the park.” Ril gestured, pulling Zed over to the stone plaque.

The stone plaque was large. It detailed in great length the features of the park. The Flat Mountain Preserve, as it was called. The trails that it offered and the best times and places to ski in the preserve. On the far right of the plaque was a detailed map that covered the surrounding area. It was carved from the same perspective of the observatory which made it easy to figure out where they were.

“Looks like there are three possible paths we could take to Menteridge.” Zed said after a couple of seconds reading the map, his finger idly traced one of the trails.

“Two, the Crooked Arm Trail wouldn’t work. It looks like we will have to cross the Lariat Grave Gap. That sounds like a nightmare even if the bridge has survived.” Ril said, then peaked over the parapet, “which it hasn’t by the looks of it.”

“So you are saying either the Laurel Falls trail, or the Chimney Top trail and then cross country through Cowl’s Cove until we reach Menteridge.” Zed replied, pointing at the respective paths.

Ril chewed his lip, unhappy with the options presented to him. “Ugh, sure. They are so roundabout though. It would take days. At least.”

“What are you suggesting then?” Zed replied.

“What about Angel’s Landing?” Ril replied, pointing at the most celebrated path in the park. It was almost perfectly straight, with only a single slight detour before arriving at Menteridge. It also had the benefit of meeting up with the Nahal before reaching Menteridge which would be convenient. Unfortunately it had one glaring issue. It involved traversing over what seemed like the tallest and narrowest peak in the entire preserve.

Zed stared long and hard at the map, then squinted off into the distance, trying to discern Angel’s Landing in the distance.

“Do you think the others could make that?” he said eventually.

“We could tie ropes to each other. Make a daisy chain. Liam is more than big enough to keep us from falling should the worst happen. Also, worst case he could carry Delilah across the gap. It looks like the super dangerous part is only about a hundred meters long. Probably less.”

“I don’t know...” Zed said, “seems risky.”

“It would save us days. Like, literally days of travel. Also I could send my clone across and test if the ground is unstable or something. Delilah strengthens us and we’ll take it slow. I say we can make it.”

“Ok, but let’s ask the others. We’ll offer the other trails as possibilities at the very least. Liam seemed to know this place. Maybe he could offer some insight.” Zed replied.

Ril shrugged, content with the decision that they arrived at.

“Cool, let’s go tell the others.” Ril said, turning away.

Then he stopped, contemplating the journey they would have to embark on in order to reach the others.

“The joys of hiking!” Zed patted Ril’s back cheerfully as he disappeared through the trapdoor of the observatory.

Ril sighed, and followed.