Day 2 of Snowpoint Temple Expedition

"Alright, this floor has been checked! It's safe to go in!"

The crew cautiously headed down the stairs of the temple. The air was frigid and stale, leeching the life out of our lungs. This floor was different than the one before it, no obvious writings or strange patterns. Just ice. Ice clung to the ceiling and to the ground below it, almost making an ice rink in the middle of the floor. There was no way across the floor without stepping on the ice, and nowhere to look that lacked the cold companion, save the strips of land on either side of it.

"Well this is quite the spectacle," said Daron, who then rubbed his hands together instinctively to try and make a bit more warmth.

"I think we could use a heater down here," suggested Flora.

"You're kidding right?" I said to her. "You really keep forgetting your lesson about heat in a place of ice don't you?"

She hid her face in some of her several layers of winter clothing.

I looked around. There were pieces of stone protruding from the ice, but I couldn't see them making any sort of message or clue. In fact, I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary instead of the fact that there was ice on the ceiling of a stone building.

"Sir, there's something strange about this ice!" Brandon called out, already letting his ruin-investigation mind tick away at each and every little detail. "There are pockets of air under certain parts of it and it's thicker in some parts than others!"

Why the heck would that happen?

"Let me see," the boss commanded. He stepped out onto the ice, careful to not slip, but instead broke through. His foot was half stuck in the cold clutches of the structure.

Brandon got up immediately and helped him out of what was acting like a natural trap, but he too fell in through the ice.

For crying out loud--get off the ice you two!

They managed to get out and off of the slick and sneaky floor. "What should we do now? If there were any clues in the air pockets then we just destroyed them."

Daron contemplated, then issued his orders. "I want a complete scan of this room, ice thickness and all! We need to be able to recreate the scene if we damage anything important. In the meantime, the rest of us will take a break and reconvene here later."

-----

Flora and I sat under one of the tarps suspended in the air by wooden poles and ropes. We drank hot chocolate, an almost necessity for the unfamiliar weather.

"Hey Flora, something has been bugging me."

"What is it?"

"Who's going to be the best man at our wedding? I don't really have any friends to take up the spot..."

A twinge of annoyance shot through her countenance, but quickly resided. She put on a soft smile. "Aaron of course!"

The small steel creature let himself out of his confines and onto the ground in front of us. He sneezed and appeared to shiver as he sunk halfway into the snow.

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope. I mean it."

The Aron looked at me with a haughty smirk, which was interrupted by another sneeze, then a continuation of the smirk as if nothing had happened.

I pictured in my mind the foot tall creature carrying the ring in his mouth down the aisle. I would imagine that he'd be salty with me and try to mess me up as well. "No way."

Aaron glared at me and started growling.

"Fine, why don't you two sort this out the old fashioned way then?"

Aaron got ready to pounce. I could feel my bones shattering already. "If you want there to be any left of me for the wedding I'd suggest a 'no' to that. A human stands no chance against a pokemon in a fight."

"A fight? Na, an igloo making competition! You'd probably die in a fight against an Azurill." She giggled.

Thanks for your undying support and clarity...

"You have one hour, go!"

That's it?!

Aaron shot off without hesitation and was bounding across the face high snow like a Buneary through tall grass.

Well then, I guess we've already started. Why do I have to do this again?! I trudged carefully through the wasteland and found myself a large enough spot to build something. I sure hope Daron doesn't catch me doing this... I sighed and got to work.

I had no special tools to make the snow bricks necessary, so I improvised with just making a giant pile of snow as fast as I could, packing it down, then trying to hollow out the inside. By the time I had made hardly enough room for a Diglett's head I felt a nudge against my show. I turned to find Aaron looking at me like he had already won. "Time up?"

He nodded.

I sighed. "I suppose I'm done then." Relax! There's no way a pokemon without any hands or psychic powers could make an igloo on his own!

I followed him back to where Flora sat. She looked at us and then at her Pokegear, after unraveling a few layers to get to it. "You two are a little late, but I suppose that's okay. Let's see these, Elron's first!"

Prepare to be disappointed... I showed her mine and she cringed.

"Well... I can fit my hand in it! I guess I shouldn't have expected much from an hour."

If Aaron could laugh I'm sure he'd be rolling on the ground hysterically at this point. We then went to Aaron's igloo and my jaw dropped.

There, erected right there in front of us, was something that was definitely poorly made but was without a doubt an igloo. It looked like a pile of giant snowballs stuck together in a hollowed out mound, and almost had standing room for me.

"Well I think there's a clear winn--"

"Wait a second," I interrupted. "How did you make this exactly, Aaron?"

He looked away and avoided the question, not that he could exactly answer with words or anything. I squinted at him to show my disapproval and touched the walls of the structure to test its stability. He got enraged that I would mess with it, but it was too late. A large chunk of snow, not properly compacted, fell off the wall and revealed a large rock behind it.

"What's this Aaron?!" I snobbily asked. "Did you use Rock Tomb to make this?! You can't quite call it an igloo if it's made out of rock now can you?"

His tomfoolery had been revealed, so he ran outside and hit behind the walls.

Flora tilted her head and put her pointer finger to her mouth. "Now this is quite the conundrum. Who do I let win, the person with a ball of snow or the pokemon with a pile of balls of rock covered in snow?"

"Come on, let's just call the competition off, it was silly to begin with," I chided.

She shook her head. "Just for that, Aaron wins hands down. At least he made something that resembled an igloo, even if snow was just there for aesthetics."

My pokemon who is sometimes also my rival is going to be my best man! Someone please help!

-----

"So we have this area scanned and documented, have your way with the place everyone!"

The crew scattered across the floor, some on the ice and others investigating the walls and floor of the non-ice covered portions. I personally was curious about the ice, so I checked it out. "It's so weird, there's no apparent pattern, and the ground underneath the blanket of ice has dips and ridges everywhere, like the ocean waves or something," I thought outloud.

"Yes, it is quite peculiar," answered Brandon. "I would have thought that there would be something more in here, but it's just so random looking. I'm also very confused by the ice on the ceiling."

"I wonder if we'll ever figure this out..." I sighed and shivered.

"I say we just melt all the ice and see what's left!" shouted Maxie across the floor.

"While I wouldn't complain about the extra water, that could ruin the plans!" replied Archie.

"I agree with Maxie," said Flora from just outside of the icy floor's reach. "We could really use some heating in here."

I shook my head. "We went over this just today. This is, what, the fourth time having this conversation?"

"If we've already recorded everything, there shouldn't be a problem, should there?"

She might have a point there. "Fine, what do you think Daron?!" I shouted to the other side.

"If you think it will do something productive, then feel free. We're already slightly ahead of schedule so it wouldn't hurt to reset everything if we mess up."

"Looks like you get your way this time, Flora." Here goes nothing!

Everyone scattered off of the ice and Flora and I got out our pokeballs. Maxie wanted to melt the ice himself, but Daron didn't want Archie to bring out his pokemon too in spite and risk a battle in ruins, so it was up to us.

"Go, Bagel!"

"Baguette!"

"Why not Ninetales?"

"Don't feel like dealing with her right now! Flamethrower, both of you!"

The two popped out side by side and blew flames out of their mouths in a massive stream. The ice melted all around, and the room heated up to a livable temperature. Livable to everyone who wasn't wrapped in seven layers of clothing that is. The two went until all the ice was melted, then stopped and nuzzled up together, happy to see each other. At that time we beheld an interesting sight.

Are you telling me Flora's "let's use fire in an ice cave" strategy worked?!

I whipped out my notebook and flipped to the page with the Braille key. Flora glared at me with eyes that said "you should've listened to me." With the ice melted, the new water filled in all of the strangely rippled terrain and spots that had previously been filled with air. What was left were rocks poking out of the pool of water in an orderly fashion. In a way that made it look like Braille.

FIND THE ERROR, THEN USE ROCK SNASH.

"'Rock snash?' Are you sure you read that right?" interrogated Daron.

"Definitely. I'd guess that it means 'rock smash.'"

"Then that error would be... Is there a rock that could be removed to make that 'n' an 'm?'"

I looked at the chart in my hand once more. "There sure is!" I pointed to the culprit.

"Great! Can anyone use Rock Smash?"

Uh oh...

Aaron took that as a roll call for him and came out on his own accord.

"Yeah... He can."

He walked over to the spot closest to the rock on land, then headbutted with all his might forward, barely managed to hit it and break it. The room shook as he sunk to the bottom of the pool and a new staircase appeared on the opposite side of the previous one.

I recalled Aaron to his pokeball as Flora realized that he couldn't swim and started freaking out. "If you evolved into an Aggron then you could learn Surf and this wouldn't be a problem, you know?"