Goldenscale gave a nod.  "He is a terrible leader, and he needs to know it.  And I will have no shortage of words for him when we get back.  It was quite difficult keeping peace when he was being so rude.  Hopefully he will learn what he has done when he is removed from the very thing that has caused him to be so arrogant." she said with a snort.  She then smiled.  "You would be a wonderful leader, Deniigi!  Hopefully you won't let your power go to your head, but you will be wonderful, I know it." she said happily.

"It will be a long road, but there are several things I will need to change. Having been the village shaman and retired, I have an understanding of what needs to be changed for the better of the village itself," Deniigi said, looking up to see the Fortress of Ends peeking over the top of the path, "One thing I know for sure, people will be a lot more welcoming to strangers than they are now. The village needs new blood to continue to be."

"Deniigi will be fine. He doesn't care for the power. I know he'll do what's best for the village," Ahnah said, lightly nuzzling into Goldenscale's neck, "We just need to make sure we make it through this."

"We'll make it, I just know we will," Midnight said,looking out from underneith Deniigi's wing, "We have too much weighing on us to fail."

"Well, I wish you luck on that path for when we are gone.  It does sound like a hard process, but it is worth it in the end." she said with a nod, smiling.  She then nuzzled Ahnah back, her purring muffled by the soft fur.  If she could, she would stay nestled in Ahnah's side for longer, but she had to be able to see.  After a moment, she stolped nuzzling Ahnah and went back to seeing where she was stepping.  "We will make it.  If we fail, then the world will suffer.  We must get the runes, though if anything pops up, we will make sure we all live first." she said.

"We will make it. we wouldn't have been picked by Moonlight if did not possess the ability to achieve this task put before us. The spirits of nature have put their faith in us, we can't fail them," Ahnah said as they approached the ice covered door of the Fortress.

"You have finally made it it seems. I was beginning to worry you had got lost," a voice said as the snow began to gather and form an ice covered dragon similar to Deniigi, "My champion is already inside. He is in the rune chamber, waiting for you."

Goldenscale gave a nod of agreement.  "That is true.  We will do what we must to collect the runes." she said.  She then gasped when she heard a voice, then saw a body form from the snow.  "We have made it, Icewarden." she said, lowering her head in respect.  "We shall find your champion and retrieve the rune so that we can continue our journey." she said, a calm smile on her face.

"I'm sure you will, Moonlight speaks highly of you. I wishh you the best of luck," Icewarden said, stepping up to the door and placing a claw on the seal to break the ice that was covering it, "The way is open, I do hope you are prepared for the challenges within."

"We are ready Icewarden. I have given these souls my guidence and protection. Whatever presents itself, we shal face it with all we have," Deniigi said, clutching a wood charm hanging around his neck.

Goldenscale bobbed her head again.  "Thank you, Icewarden, for passage into your territory." she said.  She then looked at Deniigi and nodded in agreement.  "We shall do what we can to succeed and live." she restated, smiling at Deniigi, then the Icewarden.

"You have done well so far, let's hope that continues," Icewarden said before breaking back up into snow.

"Let's hope so.Especially now since we're on a time crunch," Ahnah said, starting forwards once the Icewarden was gone, "Come, the less time we spend out here, the less of a rush we'll be in. Last time I checked, this place is not a place you want to be rushing through."

"That's why you brought me, but you're right. While there will be no way to protect ourselves from the cold inside, we must keep a level head. The path in I know may be without traps and danger, but our path out wont be so easy," Deniigi said, wrapping his wing round Midnight when he felt her press into him, "This place as meant to house the Icewarden and his rune. The forced removal of one will cause the place to activate every defense it has."

Goldenscale gave a purr, then followed Ahnah into the entranceway.  She was surprised that she was able to survive this long in the freezing cold, but she marveled in that wonder as well.  She was cautious though, so that she wouldn't end up loosing more heat with the cold around her.  "Well, we can at least embrace the cold.  If we keep worrying about how cold we are, we will only feel the cold.  I have barely noticed the cold up until now, so I think it would be a bit beneficial.  We need to be able to use every bit of our reasoning to get through here." she said, adding to what Deniigi said seonds earlier.

"Thaat's the best thing to do. Keep the cold in mind, but don't bother with it until it starts posing a threat. At least you and Midnight have Deniigi and me to help stave off the cold," Ahnah said, letting Deniigi take lead, "Once we have the rune and champion with us, we'll need to be careful what path we take to get out."

"Yes, there are paths that will take us longer to get through. I'd very much like to take one of the shorter paths. It'll be more dangerouse that way, but we should be more than enough to handle it," Deniigi said, leading the group towards a small passage, "This will take us straight to the rune, but we wont be able to return through this way."

Goldenscale gave a smile in response.  "Yep, it is.  But I also have blankets and then as a last resort we can use magic." she said with a nod.  She then turned to look at Deniigi as he spoke, soon nodding in agreement as well to his statement.  "Whatever you think is best, Deniigi.  I personally will support any decision made and will do what needs to be done to bring everyone back safe and sound." she said, her face frowning now, but filled with determination as she turnned towards the surrounding area.

Giving a nod, Deniigi lead the group through the tunnel. With every step, the sound of sliding ice could be hear from behind as the passage closed up behind them. "You may want to keep your tail close. If anyone gets caught, there will be no way to free them outside of melting the entire fortress," he said, wrapping his tail around his own leg, "I've lost the fur off the end of my tail too many times because of this little contraption around us."

Goldenscale's eyes widened at the thought of loosing her feathered tail.  With a fearful and quick look behind her, she wrapped her tail around her leg.  As she did so, she figured out that ice had begun to form on the feathered part of her tail and shivered from theburst of cold.  Thinking she might have ice on her wings, she shook her body as she walked to free herself of anything cold.  She hurried away from the ever looming ledge behind them and tensed her body up as she looked forward.  "Sounds terrible..." she said quietly.

"It isn't really a threat unless you stop moving. Loosing a little bit of fur to something like this is  nothing compared to what we might run into on our way out though. Since there will likely be five of us making the trip out, we will need to pass through five if the puzzles before the path out is opened," Deniigi said, holding Midnight closer as the temperature around them slowly dropped, "The more you know about nature, the easier the puzzles will be, but one failed room and we'll have to confront a guardian yeti. I only wish we can make it out without having to confront one."

"If my memory serves me right, the yetis are by no meas an easy fight, and there will be no sneaking around them should we have to confront one," Ahnah said, offering a wing to Goldenscale once more, "We'll have to keep that in mind for the time being."

After a few minutes of silence, the floor took on a steep slope the deposited the group inside the inner sanctum of the fortress before sealing. In the center of the room, a blue-white stone with the glyph for ice etched into it hovered over what looked to be an egg half covered in spines.

"That is true...  Though I tend to loose feathers and scales myself...." she said, still worried about the opening gap behind them.  She gave another shiver and cursed in another language, though to everyone else it sounded like an incomprehensible murmur, annoyed with all the ice forming on her wings and tail.  For some reason she wasn't exactly freezing, yet her wings and tail had enough condensation on them for ice.  "So does that mean that we will have to face a puzzle for each person in our party?  And since yetis seem to pose such a threat, what if we come into contact with one even before we reach a puzzle or we get out of the cavern?" she said, now obviously overthinking everything.  SHe then sighed and moved underneath Ahanh's wing, hopeing that it would stop the ice from forming.  She then gasped in awe as she sae the egg floating in the air.  She ran up to it and began to inspect it.  "What is it?..." she asked, curious as to what it was.