Old Snowy Trip I

The rest of the day went by in a flash. Before Kies knew it, the day came to an end with the sun setting and the moon rising. Right after the tournament, he went to Vistaken's mansion and did as he was promised. There were only a few people there who Vistaken accepted the challenge with and he took care of all of them in just a few minutes. Unlike the fights in the tournament, the so-called bodyguards and personal fighters of the nobles were nothing compared to them.

Sitting in front of the fading sun, Kies was atop Otane's tall wall and was watching it disappear under the sands. A fruitless day... While he did get a lot of things done today, he wasn't too pleased about things. Still stuck in Otane... It has only been a little over a week now, or was it two? He lost track of time, but he knew that it was less than a month. Every hour here in Otane was an hour that he could be using to search for the other fragments.

Maybe he should just leave... This fragment wasn't worth the time considering how small it was. It would barely do anything for him if he absorbed it. It wouldn't make much of a difference in the long run. But nevertheless, it was still something even if it was small.

Kies stood up, dusting the dust off his cloak. He took a moment to look down and saw how dirty it was. It had gone through countless battles with it. He relied on it way too much. It was time to fix that. Kies took off the cloak and folded it up until it was a square that was small enough to fit in his palm. He put the cloak in the dragonskin pouch without a second thought.

Next... Kies reached into the collar of his shirt and took out the necklace. It was worn out but retained its shape. Its appearance wasn't much, but it held a secret. Other than it being a memento to remind him of his past, it also held one more important thing.

Closing his hands around the wooden carving, Kies took a long breath and opened his mouth to say a single word. "Release."

The necklace shined, emitting a bright glow. A surge of magic power rushed out from the tiny wooden bird, and into Kies' body. His body began to undergo a change. He felt himself grow taller, his arms and legs longer, and he also felt his face shift a bit. The transformation only took a mere second and all the light went away.

Kies opened his eyes and looked down. The ground was now a tiny bit further down, meaning that he did in fact grow taller. There were no problems with the release of his magic.

Kies carefully put the necklace into the dragon skin pouch, alongside the cloak. He closed the pouch and walked to the edge. The desert was very lively now. Kies' senses were greatly sharpened. He detected the presence of every living thing in the entire desert. Behind him, he felt the presence of every person in Otane. There was nothing that could escape the detection of his winds.

Kies reached out with his hand and fired a Wind Cannon without saying anything. A gust of wind blew out from his hand instantly and took out a chunk of the sand where he fired it at, blasting sand everywhere and leaving a house-sized hole in the ground.

"..."

Kies was a little surprised by this. "Wasn't it bigger?" he asked himself, confused by how small the explosion was compared to when he previously unleashed his power.

Kies placed his hand on his chest, over the spot where his core was. He felt magic running in and out of it steadily. Something was amiss. It was much faster than before, which told him that he has indeed grown stronger, but why was his attack weaker then?

Kies held out his hand again, aiming at the crater he made in the ground. Silently, he fired another Wind Cannon. But instead of firing it instantly this time, he let the winds converge at his palm and concentrated it into a small ball.

*Foosh!*

He then let go of it, sending it into the ground. Almost like a missile, the ball of wind sped out of his hand and hit the ground, exploding and sending up a wall of sand several times taller than the wall he was standing on.

The sand fell back down to the floor and when everything cleared up, Kies looked at the scale of the explosion this time and was satisfied. That was more like it...

The house-sized crater from before was no more. It was gone. Replacing it was a massive hole, more than ten times the size. It was good to see that his magic did not get weaker.

When was the last time he used this? Kies wondered. It must've been years now. He really felt like an old man even though he hadn't even lived that long. If he remembered, the last time he went all out was against a giant. He accidentally wandered into its territory in the mountains while searching for a fragment. The giant was a troublesome foe. He was far too big to take down with his blade and so he had to unleash his full power to bring down the ancient being.

Thinking back to it, it had been a long and painful journey. He still remembered all the details clearly. That day was when the skies rained blood.

***

Rain poured from the clouds, flooding the nearby streams and ponds. Kies stood before the mountain where the fragment was supposedly located. The dirt beneath his feet had turned into thick mud and sloshed with every step he took.

Kies walked and walked until he finally reached the foot of the mountain. Now that he was closer, he saw that it was going to be an even more treacherous hike up than he thought. The slopes were all steep and there was no pathway for him to walk up. He had to climb it.

With the aid of the winds, Kies climbed the mountain. He jumped from ledge to ledge. If he knew how to fly, everything would have been so much easier, but he never learned how to. Haro never taught him and he never figured it out on his own.

Kies climbed all day and all night, not stopping even for a second. He didn't want to take a break. He didn't need a break. Food, water, rest. He didn't require any of those. As long as the surrounding area had magic, he had more than enough fuel to keep going.

Kies fell off the mountain a couple of times, almost losing his life, but he didn't care. Falls that would've broken all his bones and killed anyone else, did nothing to him. As long as his core was intact, he would regenerate his missing limbs and heal his injuries.

Even with the winds guiding him the entire way, it took Kies a week to scale it. Near the end of the last day, Kies finally reached the top. The view up there was magnificent. He could see the forests, plains, deserts, jungles, lakes, oceans, everything. He could see it all. Anyone would have been stunned by the beauty of the sight before their eyes, but Kies wasn't interested even the slightest.

He only cared about one thing and one thing only. He closed his eyes and sent his winds to search the area for the fragment. He felt a response from above him.

"Above?" That didn't make sense. Kies looked up. The only thing left for him to climb was the peak of the mountain, and there was nothing up there but ice and snow.

Did the fragment somehow get buried on the side of the peak? Whatever. It just meant that he had some more climbing to do. The way up the peak was even steeper, but that didn't stop Kies. With the winds guiding him, there was nothing he couldn't do.

And so he continued upwards. Kies made his way up the remainder of the mountain. It took all night and he managed to make it by the start of the next morning. The sun was just starting to ride when he stepped foot on the peak.

To his surprise, there was something at the very top of the mountain. It was hard to see from down under, but there was a cave on the side. Kies walked along the ledge and went into the cave, sensing that the fragment was somewhere inside of it.

Everything was pitch black and he couldn't see a thing. In order to navigate the place, he had to use the winds to feel the surroundings. The cave led down, and Kies followed it. At the bottom, he felt a wide-open space with a big pillar in the middle. All around, beautiful crystals glowed and sparkled. Without a doubt, each one of them would sell for a house or two, but as mentioned already, he wasn't here for this.

It didn't matter how much they were worth. The only thing he wanted was the fragment, and it was close. He no longer needed to use the winds to guide him to it. He could feel where it was without them telling him.

Kies pinpointed the location of the fragment and ran to it. His footsteps echoed in the cave as he walked. There were a lot of cracks in the ice and he ended up tripping on a bump and fell. He slid down the pathway and crashed into something hard, but got back up immediately. He had his mindset on that fragment. He was going to get it no matter what. Retracing his steps up the cave, he looked around for where the fragment could be.

A low growling sound echoed the cave as well. It sounded like the wind, but there was no breeze down here. That was very strange... Was it coming through from a small gap in the ceiling? No, he didn't feel any wind at all. But whatever. Kies ignored it. It probably was nothing.

After a couple of minutes of searching the cave, Kies traced the fragment to the center of the cave, where there was a giant block of ice stretching all the way to the ceiling. It was the last place that he didn't check, meaning that the fragment was likely up there somewhere.

With the help of the winds, he jumped up onto the pillar and clung onto one of the ledges, but instead of grabbing onto cold ice as he thought, he grabbed onto something else. "Hm?" The texture was soft and loose, somewhat like hair or fur. Since it was too dark for him to see what it was, he couldn't identify what it was that he was grabbing onto. In the first place, was this really an ice pillar that he was trying to climb? Was this moss? Could moss even grow here? Kies didn't know the answer to that question but it certainly felt like moss.

*Grrrr...*

Once again, the strange growling sound that Kies thought was the wind shook the cave, but it was a lot louder here than where he was before. Something didn't make sense here, but he didn't care. All he needed to do was grab the fragment and then he could leave this mountain. Ignoring the danger that he might be in, Kies continued jumping up the "pillar" until he made it to the top, where he landed on a bed of something soft, probably more moss.

"Grrrr!*

The noise was a lot louder now. Kies looked around for the fragment and he finally found it wedged inside the strange pillar. Kies kneeled down and tried to pry the fragment out of the ground. He pulled as hard as he could but it didn't budge at all.

"..."

The thing was embedded into the ground. Kies stood in front of it and called the winds to him. He formed a wind blade and aimed it at the small colorless crystal. Despite how fragile it looked, the thing was indestructible, or at least nothing he knew of could break it. His plan was to blast the fragment from whatever it was that it was buried.

Without thinking much about it, Kies shot his Wind Blade at the fragment. The moment the magic attack connected with the mossy ground, a loud roar made the cave tremble and shook Kies off.

Kies fell to the floor with a loud thud. "What in the world?"

In front of him, the thing he thought was a pillar moved. It grew in height and something big came down towards him.

Kies rolled out of the wall just in time as whatever the thing was smashed through the icy floor and sent the whole place falling down.

---

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