The Next Step

"Where are we going exactly, Dagger?", Jeffrey asked after a few long minutes after we left that little encampment... We were only walking in circles, changing directions every now and then, and he and fox were getting more and more confused... I don't blame them, someone didn't explain to them what was my plan, after all...

"I am just making sure that the Coventry knights are not following us after we left that place... You know, they could have just waited outside and followed us here, but it seems like not... So I guess we should be fine by now", I explained to them and then sat a little on the ground, resting my legs for a second while I sighed a bit.

"I see... I am glad we escaped them with such ease..."

"Easy for you to say, they were going after me, not after you"

"I guess... But if you were to be taken by them, that criminals from before would certainly have an easy time going after me... What can be worse than that?"

"Well... Many things... Be in a dungeon, fall on a trap, be poisoned, have your items stolen... And the list just keeps going on...", I stated and the fox complemented my list by moving its paws, imitating a dragon, and then it tried to make what seemed to be a mountain, with something falling from it.

"Those things are a little bit more extreme, but it's true, they could happen", I said to the fox. With a long sigh of defeat, Jeffrey just accepted that we were right and sat on the floor with us.

"Anyway... Where are we going next?", he asked... He seemed a bit excited to see the world with his own eyes, now that he knew that the stories he was told when a kid were true. I can't say I dislike that, his enthusiasm was very contagious and motivated me to finish this journey quicker to see the princess again...

"Well, I need to check where we must go next. I put the sheet of paper that is guiding us inside the bag, can you check it out?", I said to him and he got two sheets of paper from inside, the map and the riddle paper.

"Which one do you need?"

"Both, actually..." I said and he handed me up the two. I attentively looked at them while the fox decided to climb up my shoulder to take a better look at them as well. When we looked at the riddle one, the words started to appear out of nowhere, like magic, pretty similar to last time.

"Breath in deeply Dagger and follow the wise words that the wind whisper to you, as they will take you to high places that you maybe have never imagined before. It's one of the keys for life, as well it's the key for you to get closer to the gem you seek". Those were the words on it.

Closing my eyes a little, I started to think about the riddle, considering what element we could be searching for now. Well, that was actually pretty much obvious, it could only be the air. But where it was hiding, that was another question...

"You two have any ideas to where we should be looking now?", I asked the fox and the Jeffrey, who seemed to be in a thoughtful mood.

After a very long silence of deep thoughts, the little fox pointed to the word "high" on the riddle paper and then made a triangle with its and forward legs... I didn't really get what it meant, until it pointed to a nearby mountain that was in our sight.

"Do you think the element is up there?", I asked and it shook its head in denial... It seems like I was wrong in the end, so I put myself to think a little bit more about it. When he noticed we didn't really get what it was trying to say, or rather, show us, he pointed to the sky.

"Oh, you think the element is hidden in a high place, right?", Jeffrey said, and it nodded. As soon as he said that, I picked up the map, searching for all the mountains we had on it.

"Umm... I think... We should consider a little bit more, there are dozens of mountains here...", I said, seeing the insane amount of them registered all over the map, the most notable ones marked with their names beside or under them.

"It's probably unique...", Jeffrey commented. From memory, I tried to recall if I ever learned something about the mountains on the map that made some of those stand out...

"Umm... There are about five of them which are notable for having something unique. Two of them are homes for societies on the inside and outside of the mountain... The third of them used to be the lair of dragons a long time ago, but all that lives there nowadays is a single dragon... The fourth is the mountain with the entrance to the Underground Lake, but the next element can't be hidden on the same mountain as the Water, right? Then we have the last unique mountain, which is the highest mountain ever discovered so far", I answered them. Thinking about it for a moment, all those four mountains in which are possible to be the home of Air were relatively close to each other, if by the location provided by the map... This meant that...

"Maybe we can check them all", I said to the others. They tilted their heads a little, a bit confused by what I meant by that. "Just take a look, they are very close to each other.The two mountains with societies and the lair of the dragons are even called the Triplet Peaks due to how similar and how close they are, we definitely can check all the four possibilities quickly"

"Well... I suppose that's a good idea. What about you, fox?", he asked and the animal nodded, agreeing with the plan we had just come with.

"Alright... We will go to the first of the Triplet Peaks then, the Fallscales mountain!"