"This is a bad idea," Tavra muttered darkly. Anyu couldn't help but agree with him.

The mountain rose up before them like a knife pointing at the heavens and sheering the sky clean in two. Anyu had never seen anything so immense before. The entire thing was completely coated in ice and snow, and the sun glittering off the ice gave it the appearance of a brilliant jewel sharpened to a point. This was a place meant for gods, not men.

"Come on," Anyu said determinedly. There was no getting around this. If an entire ocean stood between her and her home, she would cross it somehow. She only had to think of it as a test of her strength, the spirits' way of seeing if she was worthy to return, and she found hope. She pulled Shesh forward by the reins, and their long trek began.

Although Tavra insisted that his leg was nearly better, Anyu and Kano made him ride on Shesh's back. Shesh was by far the best climber among them. His tough hooves made him adept at finding even the tiniest crevices in the snow and rock to haul himself up, leaving Anyu and Kano scrambling to catch up with him. It was a grueling process, and exhaustion set in quickly. Anyu's fingers ached from climbing and her face stung from the cold. The fact that this was only the very beginning of their ascent wasn't very helpful in motivating her either.

The sky was clear, but the climb was no less treacherous. There was no convenient path carved into the mountain face, forcing them to either climb the cliffside along dangerously thin ledges or use what little climbing equipment they had from the supplies Denigi had given them. Anyu quickly developed a deep and intense hatred of rope, cursing the tool every time it scraped and burned her palms.

The progress they were making was heartening, but one look up towards the peak was all it took to call back all of Anyu's fears. Soon the cliff faces would be too slick for even Shesh to find a way up. Then the real hardship would begin.

In very little time, Tavra was forced to walk and climb on his own feet. Their position was growing higher, the cliffs steeper. Once, pulling herself up onto a higher shelf, Anyu chanced to look down. Her stomach immediately froze into a ball of prickly icicles. The ground was suddenly very far away, as far as the sun and moon, or even further. The icy tundra stretched out interminably behind them, an endless expanse of white interspersed with glaciers and other ice formations. She could just make out the surface of Kesuk Lake glittering in the distance. Anyu shivered just thinking about that place.

"Don't look down." Kano had walked up behind her, also looking at how very far away the ground seemed. He spoke as if he were commenting casually on the weather, and they were not in fact staring at a sheer drop that would mean certain death. "It'll just make you nauseous."

Anyu frowned and threw him a length of rope to pull Tavra and Shesh up.

"I don't understand how you can be so unconcerned in this situation," She griped as they secured the rope with an anchor and began to lower it.

"It's called being optimistic," He replied. How on earth anyone could retain a sense of optimism in this gods forsaken wasteland was far beyond Anyu's comprehension. "You should try it more often."

Ignoring his comment, Anyu walked over towards the ledge.

"All set?" She called down.

"Yeah," Tavra shouted back, accompanied with an affirmative neigh from Shesh.

Anyu checked to make sure that the rope and anchor were secure, and then she and Kano began to pull. The two of them alone were not nearly strong enough to lift Shesh's weight, but their combined effort was just enough to allow him to slowly scurry up the mountainside himself.

"So where exactly," Anyu paused to pull, grimacing as the rope blistered her skin even through her gloves. "Will we find Yahal?"

"Don't know," Kano replied through gritted teeth as they hauled on the rope again. "Somewhere in these mountains."

Anyu was far past the point of being surprised at Kano's lack of general knowledge. By now she was merely resigned to it.

"Then what?" Heave. "We search every mountaintop til we," Heave. "Find it?" Anyu's arms were starting to burn with exertion as they pulled the rope taut once again.

"Siku doesn't exactly advertise it's location." Heave. "But I know how to find it."

With one last grunt of exertion, they saw Shesh and Tavra clamber over the ledge and fell to the ground breathing hard.

"Yahal is a tuya," Kano explained after taking a minute to catch his breath. "I may not know where it is, but once we're really in the mountains it won't be hard to find."

A tuya. Anyu had never seen one herself, but the stories that had been passed down evoked equal parts fear and wonder. According to her grandmother, the last tuya was said to have sunk back into the earth a century ago. A tuya was a mountain that appeared to have had its peak slashed right off, as if struck by the hand of a god. It was not full of stone and ice like other mountains, but hollow, concealing a dark chasm filled with pools of liquid fire. Among the Nenet, they were known as entrances to the underworld, the portals from which the god Anguta would lead souls from the world of the living to that of the dead.

And how much of that legend is true? Anyu wondered as they collected the rope and put it safely into Shesh's saddlebag.

"How much farther?" Tavra groaned, sliding off of Shesh's back. He quickly shifted into a wolf and plopped his head down in Anyu's lap, exhausted.

Anyu glanced upward. They had made progress, it was true, but the mountain's peak still seemed an impossibly long distance away. The wind was picking up now, too. It howled loud as thunder in her ears, making her strain to hear Tavra's words.

"We'll stop to rest for the night soon," She said, petting him behind his ears. She almost laughed out loud when his tail began to wag back and forth in contentment.

"It's too dangerous to stop," Kano warned. He certainly looked like he would benefit from a rest: circles under his eyes, slightly labored breathing. They would all feel better for it.

"None of us are in any condition to keep this up," Anyu pointed out, "If-"

"If Sakari catches up to us, then that's the end.," Kano interrupted her. "I'll take our chances with the mountain."

Tavra growled low in his throat, an ominous rolling sound. Anyu tried to grab at his fur but he was already shifting back into that unruly young boy.

"Who made you leader?" He challenged, his voice still retaining that snarling canine quality.

"Me," Kano replied automatically. "And I say we keep going."

"Well, I don't have to listen to you anymore, do I?" Tavra snapped. "Anyu and I can go to Yahal on our own- we don't need you here."

"Stop making everything I say into a personal attack on you." Kano's voice remained calm in tone, but his eyes clearly showed his frustration. "If we don't continue, Sakari will find us."

"That's right," Tavra said, taking on that petulant attitude he always got when he fought this way. He was almost yelling now, partly in outrage, partly to be heard over the growing wind. "Siku and Sakari are right on our trail because you escaped from her prison. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be hunted right now."

"Tavra." Anyu's voice cut like a knife, her eyes hard. She'd had about enough of this bickering. She knew the boy was only lashing out, but that was no excuse for his insolence. It's not as if Kano had made the decision to escape all on his own; she'd been the one to free him. The blame for their pursuers was hers as much as anyone's. "That's enough."

"No, let the brat talk," Kano said loudly, angrily. Fantastic. Now the both of them were riled up. At this rate they'd never get anywhere. "What happened when Sakari came knocking on your door?" He asked, raising his voice to be heard over the blowing gusts. "Still too much of a coward to face her and risk being thrown in her prison?"

"You- shut up!" Tavra's voice merged into a growl, his canine teeth bared in rage. Kano remained composed, but still just as angry.

"Stop this!" Anyu commanded. The wind reduced her voice to a near whisper, and her words were easily ignored. Anyu prepared to step between the two of them to stop the burgeoning fight. A nervous neigh from Shesh made her freeze in place.

The wind was in full force now, whipping Anyu's hair around her face and blowing drifts of snow into the air. She closed her eyes, allowing her mind to focus on the cool air, the mountain peak far above them, the solid ice beneath their feet. She felt that tingling sensation crawl up her arms until it had encompassed her whole body, her whole being. Anyu listened.

The echo of a giggle reached her ears under the cover of the wind.

Her eyes shot open. With no time for a warning, Anyu tackled Tavra and Kano, pushing them all closer to the mountainside.

A familiar cracking split the air, the sound of ice splintering in two. The sheaf of ice that had been holding them not a minute ago shuddered and rumbled like a dying animal about to breathe its final breath. A smaller piece of the structure was the first to go, cracking apart with a mighty roar before the entire cliff followed suit. It fell as if in slow motion at first, tipping over inch by inch until its velocity was too great and it finally plummeted back down to earth. After the rush of noise, all was silent for a blissful moment. A few seconds later, they heard the crash. The sound was muffled by the vast distance the ice had fallen in those few seconds, but they felt the vibrations of it all through the ground.

Breathing much too quickly, Anyu stood up, dusted off the snow that now covered her, and walked cautiously towards the edge. Peering down below, she thought she could make out a figure on a cliff farther below theirs. A figure roughly shaped like a small child.

Anyu felt a shudder go down her spine. She blinked, and when she next opened her eyes, the ijiraq was gone.

She turned back to the others. Shesh was pressed as far up against the mountainside as possible, his eyes wide and looking thoroughly spooked. Kano and Tavra were both on their feet as well. Tavra looked confused and more than a little frightened. Kano looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes and a frown, most likely having already guessed the cause of the sudden collapse. All Anyu cared about was that, for the moment at least, they had forgotten their quarrel.

"We keep going," She said decisively. She finished collecting the climbing rope, adjusted Shesh's saddle, and started her way up the mountain. This time, the others followed without objection.

The climb only grew more dangerous as they went. Footholds grew scarcer, the sky grew darker, and they were forced to go at half the speed they had made before in order to ensure that their path was safe.

Still, Anyu no longer tolerated thoughts of stopping to rest. Kano had been right; it wasn't safe. The threat of Sakari had consumed them with such fear that they'd forgotten other agents of Siku could be roaming about, eager to destroy them. Even Tavra, finally understanding the gravity of the situation, kept his grumblings to himself.

The sun was rising on a new day when they finally reached the peak. Anyu's stomach flipped as she looked at the long way down. She had never imagined it was possible for anything to be this high up, and it still felt unreal to her. But the view certainly made it worth it. A whole tangle of mountains spread out before them, a few of them so tall that they pierced the clouds. The morning sun bathed them all in an orange glow, making the icy peaks gleam in the light. And there, in the middle of them all, the tuya stood, stout and humble among the sheer spires. It stood out like a runt in a pack of wolves. It's top was much shorter than its neighbors and as flat as the metal of a knife, a faint wisp of steam trailing towards the sky from inside its depths. Anyu almost wanted to cry at the sight of it. Soon, she told herself. Soon this will all be behind me.

Perhaps feeling some sort of nostalgia, Anyu turned around to view the way they'd came. Compared to what lay ahead, it looked empty, a blank slate waiting to be written upon. Except for that one speck, moving over the ice at an alarming speed. Anyu squinted. It almost looked like a small cloud of ice and snow rushing towards them over the tundra.

"What is that?" She asked, despite the sinking feeling that she already knew.

Kano turned to look where she meant. As soon as he spotted it, his shoulders slumped, as if in defeat.

"Sakari," He said. "She's found us."

XXX

I apologize for the big gap between updates. Life has been hectic, and things are just starting to settle down. Honestly, every single read, comment, and vote helped push me to finish this chapter, so I really appreciate all of you for that. :)

I have some exciting news as well! Icebound is currently in the running for two different contests:

The @FairytaleCommunity is running the 2016 Fairytale Community Retelling Awards! Voting just started, so if you enjoyed Icebound at all, it would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside if you voted for it. ^_^

Here is the link: https://www.wattpad.com/313558752-the-fairytale-community%27s-2016-retelling-awards

In addition, I'm incredibly proud to say that Icebound is in the running for @Fantasci's The Chosen One Competition! Voting begins Thursday, October 6th and will continue for several weeks, so again if you enjoyed Icebound I'd appreciate your votes.

Here is the link: https://www.wattpad.com/316875095-champions-and-heroes-the-chosen-one-competition

Thanks for reading through all of that, and once again thank you for your continued support! I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on the chapter or the story in the comments!