On the third day of travelling, they came across an obstacle.

Jale stopped the kyloe and hopped off of the carriage. In front of them, snow lay in patches over what looked like ice. The ice wasn't contained to the road—it spread out on either side, with trees poking out of the ice. Like the whole section of forest had flooded and frozen.

Tanden guessed that was exactly what had happened. As he and Soren joined Jale at the edge of the ice, he said, "So... is this normal?"

"Normal enough," Jale sighed. "We had some warm days, which melted a lot of the snow, so it flooded. And then froze. This is the problem with the road being in a valley."

"But if the ice is strong enough, can't we just walk across it?" Tanden asked.

"It isn't all ice." Without another word, Jale kicked at the end of a stick that was poking out of the snow. When it wiggled, she grabbed it and wrenched it out of the icy ground. Then she tossed it further up the road. Instead of skittering across the ice, it broke through. "See? The top is sort of frozen, the bottom isn't. We couldn't even walk across it, the kyloe definitely can't. And we don't know how deep it gets."

"Certainly not very deep?" Tanden asked, trying to be somewhat positive.

"Probably not," Jale agreed. "But I'm not making the kyloe walk through icy water, anyway. Not only is it too cold, they could cut their legs on the ice. We'll have to go around." She eyed the forest on either side of the road. "Which is going to be hard."

Tanden followed her gaze. The forest was dense, with wide trees growing close together and lots of underbrush. Not to mention the snow. It was definitely going to be hard to fit the Wayfarer through the trees. "What if we can't?"

"Well, we have to try," Jale said. "Or we can hope for a colder day to freeze it solid. Or, we can leave the carriage behind, walk the kyloe, and hopefully make it to Morie Caro in a few days. But I'd rather take the Wayfarer."

"All right," Soren said. "Tell us what you need us to do."

It didn't take long for Jale to decide that their best bet was to backtrack until they could get to higher ground. She drove the kyloe back along to the road, searching for the perfect place to head into the forest. Tanden and Soren tried to point out places they thought would work, but Jale never agreed. Finally, she found a spot where there was less underbrush. The evergreen trees were tall and full. They had served to both protect the ground from most of the snowfall, but also protect whatever snow had fallen from the sun.

"This is it," Jale announced triumphantly. "Soren, pull out the tool crate."

He dragged it out from under the bench as she turned around to drop into the back of the carriage. Once Soren had removed the lid, Jale started pulling out tools and lining them up on the bench. Two hatchets, a strange axe, a pile of spiky straps, a pile of thick metal rings and a large coil of rope.

"Take these." She handed each of them a hatchet, then got to work unravelling the straps. "These are for tying to our boots if the ground gets too slippery. This," she waved her hand over the rings and rope, "is if we need to help pull the sleigh once the ground is steeper. For now, I'll lead the kyloe, and you two can clear the way for us."

"And the axe?" Tanden asked.

"That's for climbing," Jale said. "Let's go. This is going to be a very long, tiring afternoon. Let's get as far as we can before sunset."

"You don't think we'll be back on the road before nightfall?" Tanden asked, as he and Soren followed her out of the carriage.

"I know we won't be back on the road." Jale walked around to kyloe, and started to talk to them cheerfully in Tallenese.

Together, Tanden and Soren used the hatchets to clear away branches and bushes to make gaps wide enough for the Wayfarer to fit through. Jale cleared big obstacles on the ground and guided the kyloe along. While the ground remained fairly flat, moving was easy. A few times, Tanden and Soren had to stop cutting to help push the carriage sideways to get into the right position. Once, with no other choice, they had to take the time to cut down a small tree. But for the most part they moved forward at a relatively steady, if exhausting, pace.

It became more difficult when they started up the side of the hill. The incline started gradually, but it was manageable. They all tied the spiky straps to their boots, which helped a lot with the crustier ice. Things were going well enough until they came to a wall of rock about twice Tanden's height. The outcrop continued in either direction for as far as they could see.

Jale handed out flasks of water. Tanden leaned against a tree as he drank, and watched the other two discuss what to do next. His back and shoulders ached as if he had been fighting the forest instead of just trying to move through it. He felt too warm for his jacket but worried that if he took it off he would get cold. If Jale had announced they were going to stop and spend the night right there, he would have been happy.

Jale was looking around at the forest around them, reading something in the land Tanden couldn't possibly understand. "I don't like this," she finally said. "We're not high enough. If we try to just go west from here, I think we'll end up heading back down into the valley. We might get around the ice, but we might just have to turn around a climb back up here. I think we if we get up this, we'll be in a better place to start west."

"How exactly are we going to get up it?" Tanden asked.

"We'll have to lift the Wayfarer, and the kyloe." Jale looked up at the darkening sky. "We'll do this, then make camp." She jumped into the back of the carriage and slung the coil of ropes over her shoulder. She clipped the metal rings onto the rope, and picked up the strange axe, then hopped back onto the ground. "I'll go up first."

"Wait," Soren said. "Are you going to use those rings like pullies?"

It clearly wasn't a word she was familiar with. "We'll put the ropes through them, to help lessen the weight."

Soren nodded. "Pullies, like the rigging we have on the Wanderlust. I'm good at climbing and I'm good with knots. I can go up, get the ropes set up and secure."

If Soren and Jale weren't going to let exhaustion stop them, Tanden wasn't, either. He tossed his flask into the Wayfarer and pushed off of the tree. "If you get the ropes around something strong enough and throw them back down to us, we can have the kyloe pull from down here."

Jale looked between them both. Then she shrugged off the ropes, and handed them and her strange axe to Soren. "I'm glad sailors understand ropes so well."

It wasn't a far climb, but the rock was fairly icy. Soren used the axe to break into the ice and pulled himself up bit by bit. When he reached the top he rolled over and lay on his back for a moment. Just a heartbeat or two, because there wasn't time to be tired. He forced himself to his feet and looked around.

The top of the outcropping was actually quite nice. It was relatively flat and clear, continuing in both directions almost like a bumpy road. In front of Soren, there was a similar outcrop, but with an overhang that created a shallow cave. It would be a nice place to spend the night.

But first, he had to find things that were strong enough to tie the ropes to. A few of the trees looked promising. He tied the rings to four different trees, threaded the thickest rope through them, and then dropped both ends down to Tanden and Jale. They tried to work quickly in the fading light. One end of the rope was wrapped around and tied off to the carriage, the other was tied to the kyloe's harnesses. Then Jale unhooked the kyloe from the carriage and led them back down the slope until the rope was taut.

Soren heard her say something in Tallenese that sounded like a prayer. She walked ahead of the kyloe, talking to them and encouraging them along. Soren's knots held. Very slowly, one end of the carriage began to lift. Then the whole thing was in the air, hovering just above the ground.

"It's up," Tanden announced. "Keep going, Jale."

She kept walking with the kyloe. Soren crouched at the edge of the outcrop, ready with another rope. As soon as he could reach part of the carriage, he tied the rope to it, which he quickly attached to a few more makeshift pullies. When the wheels finally cleared the top of the outcrop, Soren began to pull on his rope.

"Hold, Jale!" he called as he strained against his rope. He needed to pull the Wayfarer sideways so it was actually sitting on the rock. Very quickly he realized that it wasn't going to work. He had it pulled far enough that the two left wheels were above the higher ground, but the right side of the carriage was still hovering over the drop. He tied off his rope, letting the carriage settle precariously on the edge.

He leaned over the edge. "Captain, I need one of the kyloe."

Tanden's grunt indicated that he had come to the same conclusion, and he was annoyed about it. "All right, mate. Hold on."

Pretty soon, they had one kyloe ready to lift. Jale had carefully tied ropes around it to create a harness, and had blindfolded the animal with her scarf to keep it somewhat calm. Using another set of pullies, they lifted the kyloe as quickly but as gently as possible. Once it was on top, Soren attached his carriage rope to the kyloe and had it pull the carriage the rest of the way onto the outcrop.

The trees around them creaked with relief when all four wheels finally touched down.

They quickly used the pullies to lift the second kyloe. Soren let the animals wander around looking for food while he helped Jale and Tanden make the climb. It was too dark to bother untying all of the ropes, so they decided to leave them for the morning. Soren quickly made a fire under the overhang, and Jale dug out some dried meat, onions, and her box of herbs.

The shallow cave was dry and sheltered from the wind. With the fire, it warmed up quickly. They ate their first bowls of stew too quickly to talk, then slowed down on their second helpings. By everyone's third bowl, they were all in better spirits.

Tanden put aside his bowl to pick up his cup of tea. "I almost can't believe we did that."

"I didn't think it would work," Jale said, stirring her spoon in what was left of her stew.

Soren blinked. "What?"

"All the ropes and pullies," she said, casting a glance towards the carriage. "I know how all that works, but I've never actually had to do it. If you two didn't know ropes I don't think we could have done it."

Tanden laughed. "Remember when we first met and you said you didn't think I could make it in the wilderness?"

"Soren actually did most of the work," Jale teased.

"True," Tanden agreed without skipping a beat. He flashed Soren his usual charming grin, but kept talking to Jale. "Is it too much to suggest we sleep in tomorrow?"

"Oh? So we make you do some hard work and now you want to sleep in?" Jale stretched and stiffy got to her feet. "We'll take a day in Morie Caro. I think we should sleep by the fire tonight, just in case the carriage isn't as secure as it looks."

"All right," Tanden agreed. He finished off the last of his tea in one gulp, then began to stack up all of their bowls and cups. When Soren tried to help, Tanden tutted. "No, mate. You just did all the hard work. Relax."

For some reason Soren found the order amusing. Not that Tanden was lazy. Despite the taunts he and Jale had just tossed at each other, Tanden had never been lazy. He just wasn't usually good at voluntarily doing mundane tasks. "That isn't really how we work, Captain."

Tanden shrugged. For a few minutes he and Jale were at the carriage, putting things away and pulling out the bedding. Soren took the opportunity to wander over to the kyloe. They were happily munching on some undergrowth nearby, and if they still remembered the indignation of getting hoisted into the air, they didn't care. Soren gave both of them hearty pats before returning to the fire.

While they were setting up their beds between the fire and the wall, a rumbling broke the night silence.

Tanden paused and looked around. "What was that?"

"Avalanche," Jale didn't seem particularly worried. "When a lot of snow slides down from the hills, like a big wave."

"Are we safe?" Soren asked.

"It sounded far away, we're fine," Jale said. Almost like she was proving how unconcerned she was, Jale curled up under her blankets, pulled them up to cover her head, and fell asleep almost instantly. Soren put a few more logs onto the fire, and was about to slip under his blankets when he realized that Tanden wasn't getting ready to go to sleep. He had a blanket pulled over his legs, but he was leaning against the stone wall behind him instead of lying down.

Soren sat beside him and adjusted the blanket to cover both of their legs. "Not tired?"

"I'm exhausted," Tanden said. "Bodily. But I have too many things in my head. You don't have to sit up with me."

"I don't mind." Soren slipped his arm around Tanden, who leaned into him. "Anything I can help with?"

"Not really. I just need to figure some things out," Tanden said. Then he laughed quietly. "I used to be better at this, you know."

Soren shook his head. "No. You were just used to having to figure things out on your own."

"Hmm... insightful. You've changed. I know, I know," he added quickly, before Soren could interject. "I've changed, too. Now, mate, let me think."

Soren smiled to himself and fell silent. He watched the flickering fire for ages, until he felt Tanden's breathing steady and realized he had fallen asleep. Moving carefully, he lay Tanden down, stretched out beside him, and pulled the blankets over them both.

Tanden woke up just enough to shuffle closer and slide his arm around Soren's waist.