They awoke the next morning at daybreak. The fires had burned out, but the sun was shining overhead. Atoravo blinked and stood up, slightly confused. Then she remembered that they hadn't made beds last night and just slept on the bare ground. Looking around, she noticed that several others were up, also. She spotted Cotwit standing by large cauldrons with other pets. Rushing over, she saw they were using Magic Berry and filling the cauldrons.

"Goood morning!" Atoravo shouted to Cotwit.

"Same to you!" Cotwit said back."We've filled up three cauldrons already."

"Let me help." Atoravo offered.

She stood with the others, working her mind to conjure up Magic Berry. A handful of tasty purple berries appeared in one of the cauldrons. Smiling as she added more, she recalled an incident the first time the three of them had gotten Magic Berry.

They were in Atoravo's living room trying to see if they could fill up the entire room with the berries. They had gotten halfway through when her mom had come home. That look on her mom's face was priceless. A pang of guilt hit Atoravo. How could she not tell her parents she wasn't coming back? She had no desire to go back at all, but maybe they deserved to know. Maybe just so they wouldn't worry too much. Cotwit seemed to know what she was thinking about.

"Maybe we can find a post office once we're out of these mountains." He whispered.

Atoravo was about to answer him, but Lexii came galloping over at full speed. She screeched to a halt in front of them, bringing up a cloud of dust.

"Good news!" She shouted, trying to catch her breath.

"Slow down! What's so good?" Atoravo asked.

"I found this perfect spot for rock climbing. It's not near these crumbling mountains, and there's plenty of ledges." Lexii said, eager to start.

"Rock climbing? Why would we climb? We've got wings." Cotwit asked.

"This is way to high for us to fly. You know that we can't fly at high altitudes unless we've actually got the ability Flight." Lexii said.

"Hmmm, that sounds like a good idea....." Atoravo trailed off on her sentence.

The thought of jumping from rock to rock while trying to cling to a mountainside appealed to her.

"Oh great, now we'll never be able to avoid it." Cotwit said with a smile."Just let us finish this job before we go."

After the three helped to fill up the cauldrons for the other pets, they separated from the little encampment with a few farewells. They walked, or flew, to the place Lexii was talking about. After a short distance across some trails, they came to an enormous mountain. It was the tallest mountain out of all the mountains in this range, and it was solid gray rock. It was steep all the way up, with ledges, nooks, overhangs, and every other feature for climbing. Atoravo rapped her knuckles on a rock and waited for the entire place to come tumbling down. When the mountain didn't fall and Lexii and Cotwit assured her that there would be no rockslides, Atoravo nodded her approval.

"Wait, how can you climb up this mountain, Lexii? You've got hooves." Cotwit asked.

"I've got this. I got it from one of the other pets." She answered, showing them a grappling hook.

"Ahh, do you know how to use one of those?" Atoravo asked.

"Of course I do, it's easy." Lexii assured her.

She held onto the rope in her mouth just below the medal. By tossing her head the right way, she managed to snag the hook into a small crack.

"Going up." She said.

She gripped the rope with her teeth and jumped sideways onto the mountain. By moving her mouth a little and keeping her hooves firmly in small cracks, she could slink her way upwards.

Cotwit shook his head. He could easily grip onto the rock with his feet and flexible wings. He climbed up the mountain faster than Lexii.

Atoravo was eyeing the rocks for a nice place to climb.

"This shouldn't be hard." She thought. "I don't have hooves and I have a better grip than Cotwit."

"Yep, this should be a piece of cake." She smiled to herself.

She jumped sideways like Lexii had and grabbed the rocks. Smiling even more she practically ran upwards, passing Lexii and Cotwit. She was gaining speed and not looking to the ground below her, then she stopped.

Looking down to see where Lexii and Cotwit were, she saw the amazing height she had gone up so far. Fear usually never catches Atoravo, but she was never before caught vertical on a mountain side. She began to shake as she clung to the rocks. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she tried to get rid of the fear, then Lexii and Cotwit came flying up to her.

They hovered beside her.

"Relax." Lexii said with a grin. "We're not even past flying height."

Atoravo realized how silly she was acting. "Of course I shouldn't be scared." She thought. "I've been higher than this before!"

"Come on, we'll fly you up higher, then we can really start the climb." Cotwit suggested.

Atoravo nodded, and they flew up. Higher and higher they went. They were only halfway up when they reached the maximum height Lexii or Cotwit could fly. The air was just too thin for anymore flying without magic. Atoravo went back to climbing, but Lexii and Cotwit didn't follow her.

"What wrong?" Atoravo asked.

"Nothing, it's just that I broke my grappling hook." Lexii said with a sigh.

"Well, if you can't go up, we can just turn back." Atoravo said.

"No, you see, we were hoping that you could do us two a favor." Cotwit said.

"OK, but what is it?" Atoravo asked with a puzzled look.

"Well, we were hoping that you could look around from up there and tell us the quickest way out of these mountains. It's like a maze trying to get out of here, and I really don't want to end up near the Mountain Clan and the Wocky Clan of adults who are still at war." Lexii said.

Atoravo nodded, but then shook her head. "I don't want to climb up by myself! That just wouldn't be fair to you two." She said.

"That's OK, we're going to explore the cave that runs below this mountain. I spotted it when I was trying to fix Lexii's grappling hook." Cotwit said.

Atoravo thought about just going with them in the cave, but she did owe them a favor for flying her all those times.

"All right." Atoravo finally agreed. "I'll try to figure out the quickest way out of these mountains, and you two can explore that cave."

With a few good-byes and good lucks, they parted. Atoravo held onto a nook as she scanned her path up.

"Easy as pie." She thought.

She looked down at the two small dots who were Lexii and Cotwit, they were on the ground now. Atoravo wasn't scared now. She was determined to fight fear and keep climbing. Slowly and carefully she made her way up. It was getting a little hard to breathe, and she felt tired very soon. She rested as her front paws clung to a crack. Her back feet dangled in the air. It gave her a shivering feeling to have her feet free from the rock.

After a few minutes, she continued upwards. There were plenty of handholds for her to grip. It seemed like pets had been climbing this mountain for ages. She was easily gaining altitude.

"It's nice up here." She thought. "Plenty of sun, quiet, sky, ducks.... Ducks?"

She looked in pure surprise as a flock of ducks flew behind her. It was far to high for ducks to be flying, and what were they doing in a place like this with so few ponds? One of the ducks turned his head and spotted her. He quacked and flew towards her. He perched neatly on Atoravo's head and began to peck her.

"Ow Ow Ow!!! Get off my head you poor excuse for a slug! I bet there's boulders over here smarter than you!" Atoravo shouted at him.

She flailed her secondary ears about wildly at him. The duck quacked in surprise. He took off and flew to catch up with the rest of his flock. Still wondering about the ducks, she continued to climb. It was getting harder to keep a straight path now. The natural cracks and grooves were farther apart.

Soon, she had to make a choice: jump from where she was and try to grab onto a small ledge, or make her way back down a few yards and then climb sideways for a while before going back up.

"This is a no-brainer." Atoravo said to herself.

She crouched against the mountain side (more like cliff side now) as well as she could. She stayed like that for a minute before springing off. She flew sideways and grabbed a small rock jetting out of the "cliff" side.

After taking a deep breath, she pushed herself up and grabbed onto the ledge. She scrambled up and sat down. It was only large enough to stand or sit on, but it was some comfort for resting.

She looked down again. This time she was so far up that she could see over some cliffs and view the small camp in the arena. Smiling to herself, she looked about some more.

There were canyons, cliffs, mountains, and hills galore. Here and there she spotted lakes and even a river.

"No towns." She thought with a sigh.

Her eyes turned above her. She was surprised to see that she wasn't very far from the top at all. With another 30 minutes of climbing, she could be at the top.

"But how long have I been up here?" She wondered.

She estimated one and a half hours. Her bones and muscles ached slightly now that she thought of it. It was kind of cool, too. The high air made her shiver slightly. She also noticed that the air wasn't that full of oxygen.

Brushing aside further thoughts, she stood up and began to climb again. This time there were lots of places she would have to jump. After three more leaps flying across smooth spots, she began to get a little used to it. She moved faster and faster. Jumps were made in seconds, leaps in minutes, and she wasted no time side-running her way up the climbable parts, then her clumsiness kicked in.

She made a long, flying leap towards a nice rocky part. A small rock jetting out of the cliff was the only rough part of the large smooth spot she was clearing.

Taking no notice of it, she passed her foot by it. Her foot somehow managed to trip her while she was in midair. She got caught off balance and missed the rocky piece.

Now she was falling down as fast as gravity allowed. She had tripped herself far enough away from the cliff to not be able to reach it.

"AHHHHH!!!!!" She cried out.

What else could she do? She couldn't move herself through the air without propelling herself off of something. She ran through her abilities and found none to help her. She was approaching the flight-level now. Just a little bit more and she'd be halfway down the mountain.

Then the flock of ducks appeared again. Atoravo didn't notice them until they had encircled her.

Before she could fall further, they all grabbed her with their bills. There were 50 or so in the flock, and they all flew up with her.

"Ow Ow Ow! Thank you, Ow Ow Ow! Could you loosen your hold a little? Wait! Don't! Ow Ow Ow!" She was saying the entire way up.

They flew with amazing speed and reached the mountain top. The mountain was more like a plateau. It had a flat top, now that Atoravo noticed it.

The ducks hovered over the top and dropped her onto it. A cloud of dust flew up as Atoravo landed.

"Ahhh, thanks." She said, trying to keep the dust out of her eyes.

It was waterless at the top, there were large boulders and no small rocks. The ducks landed beside her and stood in a little huddle, bobbing their heads and quacking at each other. Then they all stopped and looked at Atoravo.

Atoravo looked at the flock of ducks watching her. They didn't move nor blink an eye (ducks don't blink like we do, but it seems very eerie if they don't move at the same time). She took a step away from them, but the ducks moved forward, not leaving.

Atoravo turned to face them. "What do you want?" She asked.

They began to look at her as they bobbed their heads and quacked. She thought for a moment, what do ducks like the most? She went into her memory for anything about ducks. She remembered feeding ducks at the park with Lexii and Cotwit. They always were begging for more, even after they had eaten an entire loaf of bread. She smiled and brought up Magic Berry. A handful of purple berries appeared in front of the ducks. They all moved in on it in one huge mass and ate up the berries like feathery piranhas. She realized that feeding them would be a huge task, and that every duck couldn't get the food like that.

She thought for a moment before using Bubble Shield. A pinkish bubble surrounded her, and she expanded it so there was plenty of room inside. The ducks surrounded the outside of the bubble, waiting and watching her.

Atoravo laughed. This was the first time she had had an audience of ducks. She used Magic Berry as fast as she could. Bubble shields only lasted 30 minutes, and it would take a lot to feed this hungry crowd. Using up the last bit of her energy, she furiously made handful after handful of delicious purple berries appear inside the bubble shield.

The ducks tried in vain to run or fly through the bubble to reach the berries, but it was of no use. She had created just enough berries to sustain these ducks for a while when the bubble shield disappeared.

The ducks quacked eagerly and rushed forward. Atoravo leaped out over the mass and landed on a rock. The ducks were gulping down and gobbling up the berries, trying to eat more than the others. Atoravo slid off the rock and trotted to the edge to look at the area.

While Atoravo was climbing and encountering ducks, Lexii and Cotwit had flown to the ground quickly. Going to the cave's entrance, they prepared Magic Torch. As they stepped inside, light shown throughout the tunnel. They walked through the tunnel. It was just high enough to stand, but the ceiling was slowly getting lower.

They went on for a long while before they had to stoop, though. Still, all they had seen was this one tunnel. Lexii was getting bored. There was nothing but a tunnel that went on. The ceiling was getting lower, the floor wasn't getting smoother, the ground wasn't sloping, and there were not turnoffs.

"Let's stop a bit." Lexii said.

Cotwit reluctantly stopped. He was enjoying being in the lead and traveling through a dark tunnel. He kept thinking that something interesting was just ahead.

Lexii, on the other hand, was quite bored with the whole tunnel.

" If there's nothing more than a tunnel here." She thought. "I'm going to turn back."

After a minute, Cotwit called."Come on, let's go."

Lexii sighed and leaned against the wall. She heard a rumble and part of the wall slid back. She fell onto the ground where the wall once was.

Cotwit rushed over and said."Good thinking! You've found something!"

"Found what? A bump on my head?" Lexii said.

"Just look." Cotwit said with a laugh.

Lexii turned her head and looked. In front of her was a small room with mining equipment.

"We must have been traveling through a shaft or emergency exit, this looks like a turn off of the main tunnel." Cotwit said.

Lexii nodded her head.

"I've found a reason to stay." She thought.

"Well then, let's explore!" She exclaimed.

The two went into the room to look about. There were picks, shovels, light helmets, flashlights, coal and oil lamps, rope, and other various odds and ends used for mining. Lexii found a light helmet with a hole in it. She flipped it with her horn, and it landed nicely on her head.

"Perfect fit!" She said."Cotwit, check this out!"

"Look what I found." Cotwit said.

Lexii walked over and saw he was holding a box full of gems of all sorts.

"This must be one of those mountains that are blessed to produce all sorts of gems. There might even be gold here, and look, there's stacks more of these!" He said with happiness.

Lexii was mesmerized by all the sparkling jewels. They hadn't been cut or carved into shapes yet, but they were cleaned off. She shook her head, trying not to be greedy.

"Listen, these are nice. We should get Atoravo down here so she can see 'em, too. For now, let's leave the rest here. We can always come back in that shaft and walk to where this rock was moved." She said.

"I'd like to keep exploring, and we shouldn't let our greed for riches weigh us down."

Cotwit was in total agreement with her, still, he wanted to mark the entrance in case the rock slid back.

While Lexii went to see what else there was in the room, he took some chalk that he found and drew a picture of a pick and shovel crossing over each other. Then he wrote below it "Lean Here". He muffled a laugh as Lexii walked over to him with a oil lamp in her mouth. When she put down the lamp and asked what was funny, Cotwit pointed to what he had wrote. Lexii smiled and laughed with him. It wasn't really that funny, but they hadn't laughed in a while.

Cotwit examined the oil lamp after he had laughed enough. He turned it on and found it still worked. He flipped on Lexii's light helmet. That worked, too. They rested Magic Torch for a while and just used these things to go by. They left the room and found themselves in another tunnel. There were tracks running along the center of this tunnel. Right in front of them were two of those metal carts that transport coal (or gems) along the tracks.

Cotwit went to look in the first one. It turned out to be empty. Lexii smiled and walked up behind Cotwit with a mischievous look on her face. She put her head down and flipped Cotwit into it.

The weight of Cotwit falling in the cart caused the cart to start moving. The tunnel sloped downwards, and the cart speed down with him in it.

"What the...? Lexii! Get me out of here!" He yelled.

Lexii smiled and jumped into the other one, it sped behind Cotwit.

The slope got greater now, and they began to pick up speed. The tunnel also was turning corners and they would've flown off the track if it hadn't been designed right.

"Weee!" Lexii shouted as she stood in the cart letting the wind from the speed whip her mane about.

"Ahhh!" Cotwit cried out as he was whipped about in the cart.

They continued on like this for five minutes or so. Cotwit had eventually realized the fun in it and was speeding along happily, with Lexii just as glad behind him. Then the track ended. There was a metal bar at the end, too. Cotwit's cart suddenly halted at the bar as Cotwit flew out (not of his own accord).

"Uh-oh." Lexii said.

Her cart banged into the other cart as she flew out (like Cotwit had). Cotwit had flown through an entrance of some sort and landed in a room. The oil lamp had gone off before he got in, and it clattered and clanked away from him.

A second later, Lexii flew in also.

She landed right on Cotwit. Her helmet's light had been broken by a rock while coming in.

"Where's the lamp?" Cotwit said.

"Oh, bother the lamp." Lexii said.

She used Magic Torch. The light suddenly came on in the room. It came from all directions, and it was a soft blue. The two gasped as they looked at the site.

The room was covered in blue gems. Not an inch of it was normal rock. The gems reflected the light and cast out a blue glow. They sparkled and glittered and shone upon Cotwit and Lexii.

They sat in awe for a while, just staring at the gems. Then they looked at each other and began laughing. They had just discovered a fortune.

"But," Lexii said. "Iit would be a pity to take out these gems and destroy this nice room.I think we should move on and see what else there is. There could be riches thrice this amount in other rooms!"

"I agree, but what if we get lost?" Cotwit asked.

"Just use some rocks or something to mark the way, come on!" Lexii said.

They stepped out of the blue gem room into another tunnel.

They looked at the walls and found that it was marked with arrows and words. The arrows were in a line, up and down each wall and even on the ceiling and floor.

They found one line of arrows pointing towards the room they had come from. The words for that read "Blue Gems." Others had things like; Red Gems; Rubies (a color, by the way, means many types of gems); Diamonds; Gold; Silver; Opals; and the list goes on and on.

"Well, that takes care of that. Let's follow Diamonds, that I'd like to see." Lexii said.

"I wonder why we haven't seen anyone else in here. Why would a place like this be abandoned?" Cotwit asked.

"It was probably some land dispute between those two clans we met. They must've closed off the mines until after their war. Come on!" Lexii said, a little impatient and eager to explore.

Cotwit nodded in agreement.

The two walked through the tunnels for a while, looking at the various rooms. After a while, they decided to turn back and get Atoravo so she could see this place too.

To be continued.

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