In the morning me and Seth continued down the trail. Nothing stopped or distracted us, and we didn't pass anything even remotely interesting enough to acknowledge. The trail stayed basically the same with the same type of trees and the same dirt road, but it was getting noticeably colder. I pulled the blanket out of my backpack and wrapped it around myself trying not to drag it on the ground behind me.
The air around us got colder and colder and the winds began to pick up I began shivering and found myself very jealous of Seth and his warm fur coat. We began passing small patches of dirty snow that hadn't finished melting. Seth drank from the puddles with a smile.
"It's like a snow cone," he commented, and I nodded through my shivers pulling the blanket around myself even tighter.
"What's wrong?" He asked confused drinking from another half-frozen puddle.
"I'm freezing!" I shouted over my dry, cracked lips.
"Don't worry things should warm up really soon," Seth said then mumbled under his breathe "unless of course we keep going up the mountain then it will get way colder."
We walked at a slow incline up and passed more and more snow puddles. Soon the entire ground was coded in a thin layer of snow, and it started seeping through my shoes soaking them through to my feet.
"I wish Beth had turned me into a Husky!" Seth complained starting to shake.
"You should be grateful she turned you into the dog you are now she could've made you a hairless Chihuahua," I said picturing the fierce and very annoying small dog my grandma owned.
"I bet she would've turned me into one of those if she knew the spell."
We continued walking and the snow only got thicker and the air colder with chilly winds freezing the tip of my nose. My snot hardened like ice. And I could see each breathe I let out like the steam from a teapot.
"Let's stop somewhere and build a fire," I mumbled my face was so numb I could no longer feel it and my feet were so cold they burned as if on fire.
"Alright let's find a nice dry place," Seth said, I noticed he wasn't walking with his tongue out like he usually was, his muzzle was shut tight covered with little white specs of snow.
We searched everywhere but couldn't find a nice dry place to start a fire everything was covered in thick wet snow.
"Seth, I don't know how much longer I can take this!" I tried to shout but it came out a s a mutter.
My eyes were freezing cold little flakes on my eye lashes. Everything below my knees was numb. My fingers were so cold I could hardly feel them anymore. It didn't matter that I was wrapped in a blanket I felt like I was naked. My entire body was violently shaking on its own and the cold air burned like acid as I pulled it in through my nose.
"Hold on I think I see something!" Seth shouted excitedly then he bolted off.
I yelled after him, but he continued running towards something tall and dark. The fog on my glasses made it hard to see what Seth was running towards. I took my glasses off and wiped them with the blanket as best I could. After putting them back on my face I saw that Seth was running towards a large mountain with a huge cave carved into the side. I ran after him as fast as I could but since I was battling through the snow it was more like a trot.
I made it to the huge mouth of the cave and hurried inside to find Seth who had already collected a pile of sticks for a fire. I got done on my knees and pulled out my backpack ignoring the bad smell. My numb fingers had a hard time unzipping the zipper and an even harder time lighting the match but eventually I got it to light and caught the sticks on fire. I sat so close to the blazing hot fire I burned the tips of my fingers. Seth continued running in and out of the cave gathering more sticks and kindling. I took off my shoes and socks so wet they no longer provided warmth and warmed my frozen feet near the flames.
"Don't burn your toes," Seth warned satisfied with the amount of kindling we had he curled up next to the fire happily wagging his big furry dog tail.
I looked around the magnificent cave, it had to be at least fifty feet tall with all sorts of intricate stalagmites and stalactites crystallized with water tens of thousands of years old. They twinkled from the fire light like a million little stars, the cave had no back wall and seemed to keep going through the mountain.
"This is great, cave people were geniuses!" Seth commented rolling over to warm his back.
"We should get back out there," I suggested after making sure my shoes were nice and dry.
"But it's so cold and besides we might not find another place to rest before it gets dark."
The day wasn't even half over but Seth was right if we got stuck out there overnight, we would surely die. I wrapped myself in the blanket and laid close to the fire. I closed my eyes and fell fast asleep.
. . .
I woke up earlier than I usually did the next morning freezing cold and shivering. The fire had burned out sometime last night leaving nothing more than some black ashes. There was almost no light in the cave. I felt around for my backpack crawling around on my hands and knees, I found it thrown up against the wall. I dug around inside frantically searching for the flashlight. I shone the bright beam in all corners of the cave. After making sure there was no one with me in the dark cave except for Seth fast asleep by the empty fireplace I pulled myself off of the ground the blanket still wrapped around my arms and head then made my way to the entrance of the cave. The small speck of light from the flashlight acting as my only guide.
When I got to the entrance, I saw daylight pouring in from the outside world. I smiled and shoved the flashlight in my pocket. It was the crack of dawn the sunrise barely peeking over the edge of the massive snowy mountain the sky was a bright pink full of purple clouds. though it was beautiful it was way colder out here than inside the shelter of the cave. I shivered as I wrapped the blanket around myself a little tighter and went searching for sticks.
The thick layer of snow on the ground made it next to impossible to find anything. I didn't know where Seth has been getting all of his sticks. The only ones I could see were way up in the trees, the snow was covering anything that could've been on the ground. I eventually ran into a small tree branch that had broken off from the weight of the snow and froze my hands as I dragged the massive stick all the way back to the entrance. The branch was cold and wet, and I prayed that it was dry enough to use as firewood.
When I made it back to the entrance, I reached inside my pocket to grab the flashlight and something sharp stabbed the skin between my two fingers. I let out a small gasp of surprise and pulled the sharp little thing out of my pocket to see that it was the leaf the fairies had given me, little miniature spikes growing out of the edges.
I recognized the drawing as the mountain with the small little door on the side being the cave, the fairies drew a simple sketch of exactly where me and Seth were staying, then they drew a little line around the mountain. I stepped outside the entrance to see for myself and saw that there was indeed a path that led away from the cave to where I assumed was the other side of the mountain. The fairies had given me a small map telling me to take this path.
I grabbed the end of the branch firmly in my hands and quickly ran while dragging it back to Seth to tell him the good news. I found Seth wide awake and wandering around the cave sniffing at the walls.
"Oh, good you have a flashlight, and you brought some wood," Seth said happily coming over to greet me.
"I found a path that leads right around the mountain we can follow it right after breakfast!"
"Well, that's great Bailey, but while you were gone, I discovered that there's this path that goes through the nice warm mountain," Seth bragged dragging the branch onto the fire's ashes.
"Where?" I asked in disbelief.
"Over there!" Seth said pointing with his nose to the back wall of the cave "there's a tunnel down that way."
"You don't know where that leads it could be a dead-end!" I said angrily.
"When I was a boy, I used to go spelunking with my father all the time and there's a rule when you're in a cave if you feel a breeze then that's where you'll find an exit and there's definitely a breeze coming down that tunnel so that means there's definitely an exit."
"But Seth the fairies gave me a map that says we should go around the mountain."
I had never heard a dog laugh before until Seth began laughing his head off. It was a half laugh half barking sound. Usually when Seth was amused, he would chuckle like a person, but I didn't know what he was doing now. He sounded like a mad man in a cartoon.
"Puh-lease!" Seth said after he finally calmed himself down "They're fairies! Fairies are the dumbest animals you'll ever meet they couldn't even fend off a woodpecker!" Seth said trying to hold back his laughter. "We're taking the tunnel that leads through the mountain, now where's that match?"
I held my backpack away from Seth and refused to give him the match until he listened to what I had to say. "I've trusted you before three times and you almost got us killed every time, you're always wrong, every idea you've had has been wrong!" Seth looked beyond offended.
"I am not always wrong! When was I wrong? Go ahead name a time!"
"You said we should cross that super sketchy bridge that snapped as soon as we tried!"
"There was no other way to get across."
"You made us take the wrong side of stairs in the caverns that almost got us killed!"
"I saved your life in those caverns you ungrateful little- "I cut Seth off and screamed.
"I saved your life from that giant plant! The one I warned you not to go inside!" My face was red, and I was violently huffing and puffing, ignoring the fact that I needed to use my inhaler.
Seth didn't say anything for a minute he just stood there thinking of a comeback.
"I only went with you because I wanted to help you out, if you don't want to follow my advice then fine, I'll go by myself!" Seth said then he turned to leave down the tunnel.
"Wait!" I cried chasing after him.
I ran in front of the entrance to the tunnel and blocked his way.
"Are you going to let me through, or do I have to make you?" Seth growled baring his pointy dog teeth.
"Look Seth I'm sorry I do care about your opinions very much and you're not always wrong, but can't we go my way this one time!" I begged.
"Bailey it's freezing out there and it's going to take way longer to go around the mountain trust me we want to go through it!" Seth said with an unusually serious look in his brown eyes.
"Are you absolutely sure?" I asked, the little voice inside my head was screaming at me not to listen to Seth he had been wrong so many times before, but I couldn't let him go on his own.
"Positive!" He said fiercely.
"You're absolutely 100% positive that this is the right way to go?"
"Yes!"
"Alright then," I said with a defeated sigh if I hadn't been so sick of the cold maybe I would have fought him off a little longer.
I picked my backpack off the floor and noticed we had forgotten to start the fire. I had worked up such a sweat arguing with Seth I was no longer cold.
"Should we start the fire?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Let's just leave the kindling for the next person," he said then he turned to leave.
I pulled one of the matches out of my backpack and left it on a rock for the next person to find then quickly followed Seth. I shouldn't have lost my temper. Seth didn't have to help me. He could turn back and leave me for dead any time he wanted. I just hope this is the right way.