We woke up the next day ready to continue our journey, I went to hunt and everyone else got ready to move on. I brought back an elk and a few fish. After eating we discarded of the leftovers we headed west again. After hours of traveling, the air got cooler I didn’t notice it cause I was raised in the mountains but Trent felt it first, then Tetra and then Sark. “Brrrrr! It’s cold! Trent said through chattering teeth. “Huh it’s cold?” I asked, “Yeah! It’s about to snow too, how can you not feel the cold?!
“I’m used to cold climates, this is nothing compared to Katridge…..hey that reminds me, where are you from Sark?” “Sark looked at me and then replied “I lived in Katridge too, I lived in the Evergreen Valley.” “Wow, I thought you lived in Youroak” I said before I tripped over a rock and fell on my face into the dirt. “Are you ok Zatch?” Tetra asked. I’m alright……waiting a minute…where are we?” I closed my eyes to memorize the map and when I did I realized we were only a half hour away from the crater. “C’mon everyone were close, follow me.” We ventured onward through snow that grew in inches on the ground. The wind was brutal and pushed us back but we refused to give up, onward we pushed into the blizzard. Poor Trent passed out from the cold, I had to carry him. Finally after 30 minutes of the blizzard it seemed to stop and before us was a frozen lake with a lone island in the middle. “Is this it Zatch?” Sark asked me. “I think so….We should go check out the island, Trent won’t last long in the cold.” I said looking at Trent who was shivering violently and loosing body temperature.
Just getting there was a problem; the ice was slick and incredibly slippery. I used the wind around us to lift us up and over the ice lake and to the bank of the island. When we got there the island we saw was just a point in the middle of the frozen lake. “Damnit,” I told myself in self doubt. “Why did I even do this…? We came out here for nothing…Dominum lied to us there’s nothing out here…” I angrily stomped on the ground and when I did the earth rumbled and the pointed rock shook so hard a hole crumbled in it. When Tetra saw it she ran over to me and then nudged me “Zatch….Zatch look there’s a hole in it!” She said with glee. “Let’s go in it might be warm.” Sark suggested. I looked at the hole with disbelief and ran toward it at full speed.
When I got through the hole I looked around in disbelief, “What is it Zatch, whoa…..” Tetra said but stopped abruptly Sark didn’t say much, she knew we were looking at. We were in a natural cave filled with warm red Spark crystals that gave off a beautiful orange-red glow that made the cave warm. “Th-These must be Spark crystals,” Tetra said in a hushed tone. “They carry the essence of fire, and those who touch them will warm up on the inside like a camp fire. Keeping one with you is helpful in a blizzard, for they bring you warmth and good luck.” I looked at her then I looked at Trent, then without blinking I broke one off of a bigger crystal and I put it close to Trent’s neck. Slowly his shivering stopped and his temperature turned to normal. He soon woke up with a confused look on his face. “Where am I?” He asked groggily. Tetra looked at him and she trotted over to him and nuzzled him and said happily: “We made it Trent, were finally here.” He looked into her eyes and he smiled and then he looked around at the heat crystals. “Whoa….its beautiful in here….kinda like someone in this room…” “Ahem, anyway we should go explore.” I said cutting him off as he looked at Tetra.
We got up and explored the Spark Crystal caverns and tunnels, the warmth of the crystals canceled out all cold and ice. We found a cavern with a hot spring, a cave with all sorts of other crystals in it. “Hey look at those Splash Crystals!” Tetra said as she pointed at a cluster of glowing blue crystals. “Whoa, check out the Soil Crystals!!!” Trent said as he ran over to a cluster of glowing brown crystals. “There’s Breeze Crystals, Charge Crystals, Seed Crystals, Freeze Crystals, and Spark Crystals too!” Sark said as she looked around in fascination. Hey it’s a…..wait what the hell…? Is…is that a mushroom?” I said pointing a crystallized mushroom that emitted a lilac color. Wait….what kind of crystal is this,” I said as I looked past it and grabbed a small lilac colored crystal.
“Huh, that’s strange….I’ll keep it and figure out what it is later.” I put it on the fang necklace I got from Wade. When I did it glowed brightly before it dimmed down to its original glow. “C’mon guys its late….lets go find a place to sleep,” I said with a yawn. And with that we all went back to the room we entered when we came into the cave and went to sleep.
