Chapter 34 part 3

"What was that?" Amelia asked.

"That's what I meant," Beth said, wondering if they should get the others to let them know, and wake up Charlie if necessary. "When I touched it, I felt that. Though, I'm still not sure what exactly it is."

"Huh," Amelia commented, though it sounded more like it was to herself.

"What is it?" Hannah asked.

"It doesn't feel like I'm not getting enough air anymore," Amelia said, looking a little confused.

"Wait, what?!" Hannah cried.

"Uh," Amelia hesitated like she realized she said something that she shouldn't have. "Don't worry about it?"

Beth sighed, unable to suppress a smile from amusement at Amelia's clear attempt to distract them from her trying to dismiss what she's said.

"Yeah, unless you explain it, I'm going to worry," Hannah said flatly, her voice laced with concern.

Amelia merely sighed. "Alright. Well, ever since we stepped out of the cave, the air felt pretty thin. Since you guys didn't say anything, I didn't really think about it, even though you didn't seem to have as much trouble as I was," Amelia said, looking down as she did so. Beth wondered if Amelia was more down at worrying Hannah than she was at being caught in hiding something like this. "But when I touched the stone, it suddenly felt like I could breathe regularly. I just can't figure out why, though. I mean, I didn't have this problem yesterday."

"Maybe we're at a much higher altitude than we thought and its our magic that's helped us continue to breathe," Wes suggested as he came up behind them, Tim and Ralph accompanying him.

"If that's the case, then why would I have trouble breathing outside the cave, but not inside?" Amelia countered. "I mean, when I first came out to look around I could tell the air was thin, but when I went back in the cave, it was fine."

"Well, what if we didn't have as much trouble because of the gate?" Tim suggested.

"What do you mean?" Hannah asked.

"I mean that maybe the air from the elven world is coming through the gate and since that's at a much lower elevation than this one, it's not anywhere near as thin as this place in this world, so it concentrates around the gate, and since the gate leads to a cave, then it creates an area that has more air to breathe. Which, of course, dissipates when it reaches the mouth of the cave," Tim explained.

"Think maybe that's what Charlie's problem is?" Ralph asked, actually looking worried.

Beth didn't buy that Ralph was worried. She had a suspicion that he was up to some prank or another. Though, she couldn't deny the possibility of what he asked. She didn't think that's what Charlie's problem was, but on the other hand, if they'd all been using their magic unconsciously to be able to breathe, and if Beth herself was right that Charlie had been using more magic than they realized by being their translator, then it was possible that she could still be sleeping because of that cumulative effect.

After all, when she'd used her magic for their first dream conference, she'd used a lot more than any of them had realized and it had nearly killed her. However, Beth didn't want to let Ralph play whatever prank he had in mind, which she was sure he did, which meant she'd need to come up with something that would help Charlie and derail anything Ralph was suggesting.

"Why don't we just break these stones up and take some with us?" Amelia asked. "If that is what Charlie's problem is, then we can just take a few to her and let them restore her magic."

"Uh, think we should call it something other than just 'magic?'" Tim asked. "I mean, we use magic, but if it's in us, then is it magic still?"

"Fair point," Tim said. "In games, isn't it called MP or mana or something?"

"Call it whatever you want, we should first bring Charlie up here and have as much of her skin touch the stone as we can," Ralph said. "That way she can restore her magic that much faster."

Beth suddenly realized what Ralph was planning and she was sure it wouldn't be hard to put a stop to it. Besides, either he was getting really rusty at this or he wasn't putting as much effort into this prank as he usually did. After all, it felt too half hearted.

"You really want to see Charlie's body that much?" Beth remarked. "I didn't realize you liked her in that way."

"What?" Ralph asked, looking confused.

"Beth makes a good point," Hannah remarked. "Just putting her hand on the stone would be enough, so why would we need to put as much of her skin against it as we could?"

"It's not like that!" Ralph protested.

"Whether it is or not, you're the one who said it," Beth merely remarked, ready to let the subject go, not caring enough to press it further. Besides, if she did, she could imagine Charlie not happy with the direction the conversation had gone.

"So, putting that aside," Tim said, clearly eager to not let Ralph get a chance to respond, "what how would you suggest we break up this rock?" Tim looked at everyone, making eye contact with everyone, one at a time. "Maybe a mgical explosion or maybe we try to cut it apart?"

"Oooooh, we could try the Minecraft method," Amelia said, her eyes full of excitement.

Beth didn't realize how much Amelia loved that gave if she was this interested in doing this because of Minecraft. Especially when there were many other methods they could still use that didn't involve anything so… physical.

"Don't wear yourself out too much doing that," Wes warned. "We really should be getting down this mountain sooner rather than later. So, if you use up too much energy doing that, we'll just have to let you risk falling down the mountain yourself."

"You wouldn't carry me?" Amelia asked, sounding like she might burst into tears at that thought, though her expression was clearly struggling to not show any amusement, and failing.

"Nope," Wes answered without missing a beat. "I won't carry you down the mountain. If anything, I might help you get a 'rolling' start and see you at the bottom."

"How about this," Beth suggested. "We each make our own hammer with our magic, then each take a swing at the stone. Whatever breaks off we can take with us. Whatever doesn't, we just leave. If nothing breaks off, Hannah, Amelia, and I will carry Charlie up here to have her touch the stone to see if that will help her wake up or not. After that, we'll all recharge our magic before we head down the mountain."

"Sounds good to me," Amelia said.

"Same here," Hannah added.

"Can't we talk about this?" Ralph asked.

"I'm good with that plan," Tim said.

"Uh, does it really matter what I say now?" Wes asked, looking a little sheepish. "We have four in favor of that plan, so even if I and Charlie opposed it, that would still be the majority of us, so do I really have to give a vote?"

"Yes!" Beth and her friends chorused. Though, as soon as they said it, they all started to laugh at how they'd all spoken at the exact same time and said the exact same thing without trying.

"Well, then I guess, I'll be in favor of it," Wes said, clearly looking to take the easy way out. Not that Beth blamed him. After all, if it's already clear that something was decided, might as well jump on the bandwagon, unless you really have strong feelings about it.

It didn't take long for each of them to use their magic to create a hammer to smash against the stone, though only two sizeable pieces broke off when the last one of them hit it with their hammer.

Then as they brought it down to the cave, they found Charlie was just starting toa wke up on her own. Although, she looked as excited as Hannah was in regards to the hash brown patty, but she didn't complain as she ate it. Although, she was surprised to learn about the stones and how they seemed to restore their magic.

Plus, when Beth showed her the snow on the side of the stone, which fortunately hadn't been disturbed by them smashing hammers made of their magic into it, and how it looked like Mr. Samuels and Charlie laughed, which helped brighten Beth's morning up.

At the very least, it sounded like it was a good way to start the morning before they started to try and make their way down the mountain. Especially since Tim could only sense a gate down the mountain, although it was hard to tell how long it might take them to get down.

Naturally, it would be a quick descent if they just jumped off the side, but they all wanted to live to see the bottom, so they knew that they'd have to take it slower. As such, it meant they couldn't go as quickly as they'd like to. Especially since there were spots where the ground was covered with loose rocks and more than once, they nearly started sliding down the slope, towards a long fall.

However, each time, it was only one of them who started to do that and, as a group, they kept that from happening to each other.

_

In the end, it actually took them three days to climb down the mountain. Part of it was because at one point the stone and rock of the mountain stopped and the ice of a glacier blocked their path.

Beth was able to use her magic to help create bridges of ice to cross the fissures along the glacier, although, Charlie nearly fell into one and was saved by Tim catching her wrist before she completely fell.

Charlie didn't want to repeat that experience ever again. It was far too much like when she was hanging over the griffin canyon with now way to get out of that position on her own. She was determined to find another way back to that gate if they did need to come back this way after they found the griffin canyon and were done with this expedition.

It was also fortunate that there wasn't any more precipitation during their descent. Charlie wasn't sure if they'd have been able to continue if there had been. Especially since the visibility of their surroundings was part of what had kept them from getting in trouble on the slope.

Though, as they looked around at the bottom, Charlie looked back up towards the peak of the mountain. There wasn't any sign of the cave that they'd come out of, but she would have been shocked if there was. It almost felt like it should have taken them less than a day to get this far. Although, maybe it would have if they didn't have so many other hazards on the way down that nearly cost some of them their lives.

"So, how high do you think that actually was?" Hannah asked.

"Well, I'm going to assume it was closer to a fourteener than a regular mountain," Tim said.

"Wait, aren't fourteeners 'regular mountains' themselves?" Wes asked.

"Technically yes, but most mountains don't get that high in the Rockies," Tim clarified.

"You know, I think maybe we're closer to the Himalayas than the Rockies," Amelia remarked.

"What makes you say that?" Ralph asked.

Amelia shrugged. "Nothing really, just a feeling I have," she said. Then she opened her mouth again to say something more, but then closed it, apparently thinking better of it. Although, Charlie couldn't help but want to know what she was going to say.

"Well, if that's the case, it would explain why there weren't so many trees for the first couple of days," Wes remarked.

"So, would the trees we saw a couple hours ago be like the ones in the Himalayan mountains?" Hannah asked.

"Hey, I have no clue as to what trees they may or may not have there. I'm just saying, it would explain that," Wes answered, sounding rather defensive to Charlie.

"Well, we're at least close to the gate now, right Tim?" Charlie asked, hoping to leave this world. She didn't want to deal with the elevation of the mountains, although, she did suspect that the colorful stones that replenishes their 'mana' deserved further inspection. Such as was it like a battery that they could use whenever and forever? Or did it have a finite amount it could restore? If so, did the different colors signify anything?

She wished they could stay and study them, but she suspected that it would interrupt them from their expedition for too long in order to figure out. Although, she also couldn't help but wonder if they were naturally forming or if someone, maybe even in the distant past, had created them somehow.

"The gate should just be maybe a mile or two that way," Tim said, pointing in a direction that was directly towards another mountain.

"Lets see what's on the other side of that gate before we camp for the night," Beth suggested. "That way we can decide if we want to camp again on this world or the other one."

"Is it wrong of me to hope we'll still camp on this world?" Amelia asked.

"Of course no," Hannah said. "I just wish we could come across those rocks more often. We were only able to break off those two chunks off the first one we passed by, but all the others were where we didn't have time to try."

"Once we finish with our expedition, we can always come back and harvest as many as we can carry," Ralph commented. "After all, we'd be on our way back home then, right?"

"That's if we don't find a better way back to Earth," Amelia said. "I mean, I like the idea of getting more of those rocks, but I'm not sure I like having to acclimatize to the elevation at this part of this world."

"Well, there's a price for everything, right?" Tim asked cheerfully. "Although, maybe those rocks will appear at lower altitudes on this world, so there's always a chance of that."

"Should we take time to look or just move on?" Beth asked, sounding a little bored. Not that Charlie could blame her. They'd been going over this topic for the better part of the past couple days.

"Oh, you know, should we start some music?" Wes asked. "We kept it quiet the past couple days to avoid chances of an avalanche and stuff, but I haven't really noticed that much accumulated snow. So, I'm hoping this isn't a place that gets much snow."

"Or maybe its just the time of year that it doesn't precipitate much," Tim suggested, "and we just got unlucky to arrive during a snowstorm."

In the end, there weren't any objections to Wes starting to play some musci, though Charlie would rather it stay quiet. Especially since they didn't know anything about what any people who lived in this area were like. There might not be any, but at the same time, there might be some that would very much object to them merely passing through.

Charlie hoped that wasn't the case, but with music playing, that would likely draw anyone who lived in this area towards them, so they would eventually find out if they were welcomed or not. Which wasn't how she would prefer to have it occur.

Fortunately, Wes' choice of music didn't attract anyone who might have been living in the area, or there just wasn't anyone. Which, Charlie was starting to consider, given they hadn't come across any signs of people living in the area.

While she didn't care to have music playing at that time, she couldn't argue that it did make the last leg of their trip to the next gate a little more relaxed. Which also, in turn, made it feel like the time went faster and that they didn't have to walk so much to get there.

As they reached where the gate was, Charlie was a little surprised to have the gate so clearly visible while all the other gates weren't nearly as visible as this one. The distortions in the air were a lot more pronounced than she'd have expected and couldn't help but wonder if that might be a sign of something that she didn't know to recognize or not.

"At least we don't have to search for it by throwing rocks around," Ralph commented as he stepped forward towards the gate. "Last one in's a rotten egg."

"Should we just go in there without checking to see if it's safe?" Charlie asked.

"Why? We haven't done that so far when we've come to gates," Hannah complained.

"Maybe we should have," Charlie replied. "Maybe it'll be right by lava or something."

"Or maybe it'll be Atlantis that it opens up to," Hannah retorted sarcastically. "Come on, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Well, Charlie did step out of that gate above a canyon once," Beth remarked. "It might actually be a good idea to look through it before we step through. Or we could step through and find ourselves falling farther than we'd like."

"Well, when you put it like that…" Hannah grumbled.

"Fine, I'll just look through it first, I guess," Ralph said, clearly annoyed by having to do that.

So, Charlie watched as Ralph stuck his head through the gate, then a moment later walked right through without even looking back and letting them know what he saw.

"Uh, I guess that means it should be safe?" Beth asked, annoyance showing on her face at Ralph's actions.

"I'm sure he'll change once he gets to see the world from above like I did," Charlie muttered, not entirely convinced that Ralph would change even then.

"Let's just go through and see what we find," Tim said.