The Knowledge of the Mountain

After one or two days of walking, we reached the base of the Skytouch Mountain... Perhaps the name was inappropriate for the mountain, though, as it seems to be even higher than the sky, the clouds up above even blocked us from seeing what is hidden on the top. The only problem was that it would take a lot of effort and time to climb up the mountain... And the difficulty of such a task was already seen on how steep the mountain was... It was nearly impossible to climb it up.

"So... Air is up on the mountain, right? How we're supposed to find Air?", Jeffrey asked after looking up to the clouds for an instant.

"Well, we can try to climb... But I think we will die if we try that. If this really is the place where Air lives, I am sure there must be an easier way", I opined and started to look around the area, to see if there was anything like a passage or anything similar that could take us to the top of the mountain, but nothing like that was in sight.

Upon our failure, Beech was the first to act, jumping off my shoulder and then walking ahead, around the base of the mountain to search for the entrance we needed. I and Jeffrey followed it, running as the animal sped up... It seemed excited, as though it had just discovered something of major importance, and luckily, it did find something.

It was just like the entrance of a temple, sustained and decorated by pillars and statues on the walls, with figures that seemed to have great importance to the world's history, even though I know the name of none of them. Its glorious and intimidating architecture was what welcomed us inside...

After the entrance, a giant hall prolonged. I could deduce that even that dragon from before could enter through here if it wanted to, it would just have to force its way through the entrance, but the rest is fine for him to walk inside. Deeper inside, however, it was rather dark... We couldn't just walk in like that.

"Do we have any light source? A torch maybe?", I asked, but Jeffrey and the fox both shook their heads.

With a long sigh, I could only walk ahead, careful to not stumble into anything... In the first steps I took towards the darkness, however, I ended pressing a button that made a loud noise. All that was left after was a tense long silence while I had my sword in hand ready for a trap... But instead, torches put on the walls lit up, making the darkness ahead of me disappear in the blink of an eye.

"Well... That... Was easier than we thought, right?", Jeffrey asked and walked inside to catch up with me, with the fox quickly running to climb me up and return to my shoulder once more.

With the light to help us now, we just walked further inside the temple... It was a long hall... We were walking for hours and hours, yet we couldn't see anything useful. For a moment, Jeffrey thought this could be a maze, but it certainly wasn't... We were walking in a straight line ever since we entered, after all. After a long, long time, we could see the giant double doors that put an end to this long walk...

"Ah, finally...", I said with a sigh of relief and then approached the doors. Only for them to be blocked by two long spears.

"Halt!", the statues beside the door, owners of the long spears, said in a loud shout that echoed through the hall. "Those who want to speak with Air must pass through the test of knowledge... Have you listened to the wind? What did it whisper?"

"Wait, listen to the wind?", I asked them a little confused. They nodded as an answer.

"Yes, listen to the wind. This is your first question out of the four that allows proves one is worthy of hearing the voice of the goddess", they answered in chorus.

I looked at the fox and Jeffrey, as though asking with my eyes if they had any idea of what the riddle meant by that... They shook their heads in answer to me. With a slight sigh, I just closed my eyes to focus better on my own thoughts... "listen to the wind"... "what did it whisper?"... Those sentences were familiar to me... I read them before... Somewhere... But where exactly?

When I finally remembered, I picked up the paper in my shoulder bag. The third paragraph, that guided us here. I checked it once, twice... It only confirmed my thoughts, the answer could only be...

"The wind whispered wise words to me", I answered them. The statues looked at each other and then at me again.

"Your answer is correct... May the next answer comes, with the next riddle that the wind blew upon us. What's the symbol of Air, which grants her strength?"

That was a difficult question, I couldn't really remember what was Air's symbol of strength... I could only remember that Water's is the Moon of Carus with its green light. I never studied much about the four entities, after all... So I looked at the fox and Jeffrey. The former had no idea either, apparently, but Jeffrey...

"If the stories my grandparents told me is right, that's easy... Her symbol of strength is Family, a belt of asteroids in the space, though her family, the other three elements, are her strength as well", he answered to the statues and with not much surprise, the statues nodded.

"The wind is pleased with your correct answers, but is yet to be satisfied... Who is the sibling that shares the strongest bond with the Air?", they asked. We got ourselves thinking again... The one who seemed to have read books about the stories of this world, however, had the answers in his mind as though the questions were nothing for him.

"The Air is is the closest with her sister Water... Both are essential for life, after all, they work together to keep us alive", he said, proudly. It seems like he was happy to have all the stories he had once heard were actually the truth of our world. I am just glad he knows all the answers we need to surpass this challenge.

"The wind wants to let you in, but one final answer it requires before the doors can open for you. Which of the four items can persuade through its beauty that it could change someone deeply? Which is the artifact so cherished by the Air?"

"The Air's flute, whose melody can change the heart and thoughts of anyone", he simply answered.

The statues looked at each other in amusement, and with a simple gesture, they unblocked the door and bowed before us. It was indeed impressive that Jeffrey knew about all that, but we heard from him himself the motive for that... He is a person who was born with those stories being told to him ever since he was little.

"Your knowledge has been judged worth by the wind... Be gone with it now, it will lead you to Air, the one whom you search for. But beware that one's physical mustn't be weak to follow to the top", the statues said, and then the doors magically opened to us, letting us in.

That was surprisingly quick, but I am not complaining about that... The faster we go, the faster this will come to an end. But something was still bothering me... What did the statues mean by physical? I could only thing they meant thousands of steps on a stair awaited us... And there are no other meanings for that, right?