Act I: Castle In The Mountains
It was a bitter journey through the mountains. My skin grew blue and firm. Alas, it was frostbite! Dread filled my body like a flood. But the voice within called to me. It told me to keep traveling, and soon, I stumbled upon the castle in the mountains. Oh! How beautiful, how marvelous, how splendid it was to see it! As I laid foot onto the cobblestone walkways, I felt as though I was warmed by a thousand suns, and I fell down in pure bliss. I had found a home.
The Sky Palace is located in the state of New Hampshire in the US, nestled in the depths of the White Mountains. The Sky Palace is a 1-2 hour walk away from the nearest town, a small hamlet called Burlingwood. The path quickly becomes impossible to traverse by anything other than foot, and the walk is not easy. Far from it. At the end of the road is the whirling, endless storm of snow and ice that is only traversable by Communicators. On this particular early October day, it is especially cold and snowy in the range. With luck and guidance from their mentors, hopefully, the Communicators will be able to reach their goal of arriving at the Palace. Though the journey to the palace is not necessarily a test, there have been Communicators that failed to complete the journey...
Gwendolyn Elery Zhang hated the cold.
Gwen had grown accustomed to California summers for the past 18 years of her life. She had once traveled up north to Washington State to visit her uncle Joe, who lived in Seattle, but that was in the late spring, when the weather was a little nippy, and quite rainy, but overall agreeable. This trek was totally different, however. Totally different. As soon as she stepped foot off the plane, she was hit with a crushing wave of cold that she had never experienced before. Luckily for her, she had a nice, warm bus ride across the countryside awaiting her. But once Ryujin told her that the rest of the journey would be conducted through the blistering cold while on foot, Gwen died a bit inside. And for good reason. She already wanted to just curl up in bed after 10 minutes on the path.
Calling it a path was an understatement. Ryujin had guided her out of the homey town of Burlingwood into a thick coniferous forest, and then onto a narrow path that looped around the mountains. It was narrow, precarious, and snowy. The thin pathway was covered in a layer of snow, as was the rest of the mountain. Gwen had very nearly plunged to her death twice along the journey down the looping lane. The pathway went around the entire mountain before sloping into another evergreen, snow-covered forest in a valley between the mountains. After two hours of this pain, Gwen was now cold, wet, terrified, and very, very tired.
"How much longer?" the 18-year-old girl moaned. She shivered, clutching onto her jacket tightly. Her jacket was a heavy, sky-blue parka that she had bought during her brief stop in Burlingwood, and she also adorned a pair of salopettes and black snow boots. These boots were not at all visible to an observer, though- the snow nearly up to Gwen's knees. Gwen was admittedly rather petite, but it was still a lot of snow, more than Gwen had ever seen before in her life. The wind was also starting to act up, an ominous howl of the gale resonating through the area, and blowing shards of ice and pinecones into Gwen's face.
"Not too much," came the response in Gwen's mind, the deep, reassuring voice of her mentor, the dragon Ryujin. At this point, though, not much besides the fleeting thought of warmth and a cozy bed could reassure Gwen. "You have reached the edge of the barrier. Hence, you can feel the strength of the winds grow stronger."
"Are you sure this is the only way to get here?" Gwen said with a pout as she continued to trek forwards, the crunch of the snow beneath her feet almost inaudible from the blowing winds. "This was terrible. Correction: is terrible. This is terrible."
"There is another way. Through a cave full of giant spiders and bats. I imagine you would prefer this route, considering that you almost had a heart attack when you found a daddy-long-legs in your bedroom a week ago," Ryujin said politely, though there was an edge of snarkiness in the dragon's tone. Gwen decided to shut up and continue walking, cupping her hands together as she did so. A puff of steam rose from her fingers as a small pool of water formed in her hands. Gwen smiled softly before eagerly raising her cupped palms to her face, and gulped down the water before it could freeze from the cold.
A short while of silence later, Gwen saw a clearing in the forest and picked up her speed using the little energy she had left, moving as fast as her tiny legs would carry her. Once she managed to escape the canopy of evergreen trees, she saw a pass between two massive mountains of stone. The passage was wide but not enormous, perhaps about 150 feet across. At the end of the passageway, a good distance away, was what appeared to be a wall of snow, whipping around furiously. It was like a blizzard, but strangely, it seemed to get quieter as Gwen got closer, as if it was beckoning the girl forwards. Though she still had a few more minutes of walking to go, Gwen was feeling quite confident in herself, and proud of her accomplishments. Throughout all this pain and suffering and coldness, here was the light at the end of the tunnel. That was, at least until she heard the scream.
"Scream" wasn't an accurate term, it was more of a screech. Gwen quickly jerked her head to look at the source of the sound, and found it immediately. Sitting perched on a rock was a hideous, bird-like creature. It was ugly, with the upper half of its body being some sort of disgusting-looking female, and the rest of its torso is that of a hawk. The creature's golden eyes were locked onto Gwen, and it was staring at her cruelly. Gwen squeaked. "Ryujin, what the hell is that thing?!"
"It's a harpy. Strange, they've never come this close to the barrier before..." Ryujin paused. "Anyway, you might want to kill it. It's probably going to try and either eat you, or abduct you for its children to feast on."
Gwen shivered, in a combination of pure fear and the cold, as she put up her hands hopelessly as the creature cawed again. She had left her only weapon- a nice ornate dagger Ryujin had procured for her- in her luggage, which Ryujin had said would be brought to the Sky Palace in advance. The only thing Gwen had on her was her fists, along with the two Tide Jewels that were dangling from her neck. Still, Gwen hadn't exactly had much experience using her powers for combat. She had only used them to create drinking water and create cool-looking fountains in the past. Still, it was either she figure it out now or get taken to some nest to be chewed up by a bunch of angry bird ladies. IT was time to learn on the fly, Gwen supposed.
Before she could even channel her magic, though, the harpy attacked, diving at Gwen and swinging its talons. Gwen lifted her arms in an 'X,' bracing herself from the attack. The thick parka blocked the slice, leaving a massive tear in Gwen's sleeves, but keeping the girl unharmed for now. The blow knocked Gwen onto her back and into the snow, however. As she struggled to get up from the thick, knee-high layer of snow, Gwen gulped as the harpy looped around midair, before facing Gwen once more. With another loud crow, the harpy began to launch towards the junior Communicator once again, talons outstretched and ready to slice.
"Another spider. Fuckin' Christ."
Teddy walked through the dark cave, shaking his head in vexation. He was wearing a dark fur coat and holding a flickering torch in his hand that cast a glow across the darkness of the chilly cave. He walked slowly, leaving behind a trail of green footprints in his wake. "I knew there would be spiders, but not this many. Ugh." Teddy stopped for a moment, holding up his torch to illuminate the area. The cave was creepy, even Teddy had to admit. It was covered in stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, that jutted up and down everywhere throughout the cave, like razor-sharp stone teeth. Small pools of water formed at some points of the cave. While not as bitterly chilling as the outdoors, the cave was still rather cold. Teddy continued to walk through the cave, swerving around the stalagmites as he made his way through. Anubis had given him instructions to get to this point, but had gone silent since: Teddy had guessed that the God of the Dead was testing him.
Teddy continued to walk through the cave, holding the torch ahead of him to guide him in his path. He stopped suddenly, his eyes darting around the room as he heard a strange fluttering sound. He lifted his other hand, his eyes gliding across the room as he did so, before he found his target, a massive bat-like creature that was hiding behind a stalactite. The creature noticed Teddy's awareness and tried to attack, his fangs beared and ready to suck the Communicator dry, had Teddy not been prepared. The young man flicked his wrist, and as if by magic a blast of what appeared to be bandages launched from Teddy's hand, ensnaring the bat and wrapping it, head-to-toe, in a cocoon. The creature dropped to the floor, looking like a football that had been wrapped in bandages. Teddy scoffed as he made his way forwards. "Clearly, I'm the first one to pass through here," Teddy muttered as he continued to walk through the area.
Teddy had been trekking through this cave for about an hour, give or take, when he hit a wall in his journey. A literal wall. The wall was covered in runes and markings, with edges and grooves that made Teddy suspect there was some sort of inner workings at play in the wall. Teddy ran his fingers along the mysterious wall, trying to decipher it. After a moment, he stepped back, stroking his chin as he examined the wall further. There was something here that he was missing...
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