Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Thirty-Four

     "Tony!" I let out a shocked squeal into his jacket-clad back as he took a hard left to avoid a ridge that dropped down into the a frozen lake. My hold around him tightened to keep from flying off the side of the snowmobile and down the ravine.

     "Sorry sweetheart," his voice flew back to me in a muffled laugh. I squinted against the snow, the rising sun turing everything to a blinding white. Everything blurred passed me at such a fast speed that even behind my ski googles, my eyes still watered. Not a single inch of skin was exposed but the cold still managed to sneak through my scarf and bit the skin of my cheeks. I buried my face deeper into Tony's back to try and get away from some of the wind. Over the roar of the wind in my ears, the sound of three more snowmobiles and an Apache UTV hummed behind me. To my left, Natasha bent her head over the handles of her snowmobile. Her red hair tucked tight into her black hat. On my right, James's metal arm flashed in the sun and caught my eye every time he moved. Steve was somewhere behind me in the middle of Natasha and James. Behind them was the UTV with Sam driving, Clint seated next to him with his bow resting in his lap and his quiver strapped to his back, and Thor was kneeling on the bed of the UTV, holding onto the bars tight to keep from flying off.

     "Where's the next turn Lucy?" Tony asked, his scarf muting his voice slightly. I turned my face and leaned my chin against Tony's shoulder to look out across the ridge. All of the mountains looked the same and made it much harder to figure out which peak was which. The path that we were on curved down across the side of the mountain and into the valley below. I carefully released one of my hands and pointed toward the curve of the path.

     "Follow the path down into the valley. That should be the path lined with rocks that Johann told us about," I said into his ear. The snowmobile hit a bump of snow and I quickly returned my arm to around his chest. Tony's laugh came out in a puff of smoke that was swiftly knocked away by the wind. Tony steered the snowmobile down the path that led down the side of the mountain. As we started our decent, the compass around my throat pulsed quicker. The decent down the side of the mountain didn't take very long and suddenly we were in the valley between the two mountains. This path wasn't very long until it was flung open  with the mountains towering on either side. After a few minutes, small stones began popping up along the boarder of the path. As the path steeped up higher, the stones along side grew in size until they towered over us. The space between the stones disappeared until the stones became almost like a retaining wall. I pressed my cheek to Tony's back and studied the stone wall carefully. There didn't seem to be anywhere for a cave in front of us. Maybe the cave has hidden away somewhere in the rocks around us. Although that didn't seem likely, every stone was tall and smooth with no room for even the smallest stream of water to trickle through. I was beginning to get worried that Fury was right. Maybe I was wasting everyone's time on this mission. Suddenly, up in front of us there was a dark shadow against the rock. As we neared the shadow, I could make out the depth behind it. As we neared the shadow, the pulse jumped to an erratic rate.

     "Tony! Stop!" I gasped. Before he could stop, I threw my leg over the side and pushed myself off the snowmobile. My footsteps faltered for a moment before I took off toward space in the wall as fas as I could in the ankle high snow. James cursed as he swerved out of the way to avoid hitting me.

     "Lucy!" Tony called after me, pulling the snowmobile to a sudden stop. The others followed him quickly. Their crunching footsteps followed me into the cut in the rock. What I found when I entered the cut was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. I froze in my spot and looked up at it in awe. I slowly pulled the googles off my eyes to get a better look. The inside of the cave was shockingly warm compared to the outside. I slid my gloves off carefully and slipped them into the pocket of my jacket. I pushed my scarf down and took in a deep breath, "Lucy, what the hell-" Tony's sentence dropped off as he ran up to stand next to me. He pulled his googles off and slipped his gloves off. The cut in the rock was actually a deep cave that was carved out of the rocks perfectly. The smooth cuts of the stone were too perfect to be natural. The dull grey of the stone was much nicer in comparison to the blinding white outside. The ceiling towered above us by at least two stories. It managed to catch the light from outside and illuminate the cave so that it was almost disorienting. The cave descended down away from the rocks and into the side of the mountain.