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The moment James entered the climber's house, he knew he was in safe hands. Flippers rather. Climbing gear decked out along the walls from karabiners to hiking poles, taut ropes and snowshoes well-placed and categorised all along the wooden log walls. He was impressed at such order and dedication to a physical activity that wasn't a sport. "Wow you must be one hell of a climber." "It is best to be prepared," said Fridrik sternly, "the others here think it's all just snowballs and ice-skating, but the true power of the frozen north lies within those mountains." "Huh? What power?" "The very force of nature. Like what you saw last night. ...I must come clean with you before we go." "Uhh huh?" "...me and my son were searching for the other missing climbers." "...oh. That's a bad sign." "We were trying to find them since we had the mountain well-mapped, but they were never found in all of the past two weeks. So we did our best to map the place ourselves. We found one area left unmarked. Somehow. Then the blizzard came, as if out of nowhere." "But...one of the guys here said the blizzard was coming, everyone knew surely." "...who told you?" "Some old guy yesterday, said it was coming in like four hours and we had to settle in or else we'd get stuck in it." "...hmmmm..." He said no more and merely kept packing supplies, the experienced bumpty climber making sure every rope was up to snuff for its duty. He gave a small crash course to James in mountain safety and climbing, handing him a knapsack of supplies to carry with him as well as a protective thermal coat. Despite his protest at wearing the coat, he gave in quickly in realising this was no time to bicker. He wanted to do whatever it took to find the missing climbers.

They then had a good breakfast, needing the energy in order to get ready for the arduous climb. As they ate a thick meal of fried eggs and beautiful steaks, Fridrik went over his plan once again to his temporary companion. "We will climb up to where my son was last seen, which is also the same spot that the other climbers were last seen at." "Ahh...wait really? They were all last seen at the exact same place?!" "That's why we went there, the fact they all disappeared from the same spot is very unusual. Thankfully I indicated it with a flag before I was forced off the mountainside. Surprised I managed to survive the fall." "Ahhh, now I see why you two got into this. Why doesn't the mayor like call the police or some guards from the castle?" "It would take too long to mobilise, plus they are not well-equipped enough to handle the frozen north. I've been climbing Shiver Mountain for years, I know it like the back of my flipper." "Right...so what you want me to do?" "Keep up with me and keep an eye out for anyone else. I would go myself but it is dangerous to go up a mountain alone." "Yeah Koopin told me." "Oh, your friend?" "Yeah..." A slight unconfidence grew within James as he thought back to his guide. Was he right to stay behind and not risk his life? In a previous life James would have done the same. But he knew now he couldn't allow someone else to be in danger. Not anymore. I promised her, thought FG. I promised I would be a hero, even if I have to risk my life to do it. I have to do this...I just wish I could have told Koopin, but I don't think he needs to be burdened with all that crap, it's not his problem. After an hour and a half of preparation, with Fridrik's wounds not slowing him down one bit, the two stepped out towards the mountain to the north. A dominating ice spire that rose high above the open tundra. Thankfully the blizzard had calmed down the flurries of snow that would have scoured across the Shiver Snowfield, but in its place was a lot more snow piled up into thick layers. James trudged through with a blue arctic coat, padded thick enough that he was quite toasty within it much to his delight. He did however manage to not wear boots, finding none that would fit his clawed feet as they struggled to push through the ice-cold landscape. Thankfully he used his fire trick from last night in order to clear a path before them, with Fridrik complimenting him on his "magic" in clearing the way for easier access. Halfway across the tundra, soon finding themselves looking straight up at Shiver Mountain, a voice came from behind to greet them. "HEEEEEEEY!"

Rushing up from behind through the melted path FG had made, was Koopin. Much to FG's surprise, he was wearing a thick greyish-blue arctic coat over his shell, with a backpack full of climbing gear to boot. "Koopin?! What are you doing here?!" "I...decided to come with you." "...really?" "I-i-i felt bad about not coming, I mean I was sitting in the Toad House for like an hour going back and forth about whether I should stay or go with you, and I got...I got worried about you. And those climbers, I felt awful for not even trying to help and darnit I couldn't just stand by and do nothing! ...I know it's dangerous...and I'm kinda scared but-" "Hey, Koopin...listen, you shouldn't worry about me dude, I'll be fine, and I don't want to spoil your vacation-" "Th-that doesn't matter! There might be people in danger up there and you need a guide to help you! I might not be strong like you or as experienced as Fridrik, but I AM a guide." "But Fridrik here knows the whole place well." "I mean an official guide." Koopin pulled out from his shell via an unseen pocket a small green identity card. His face sweetly smiled up through the laminated plastic, alongside a rather officious-looking title. "Koopin S Kennidon, member of the Mushroom Kingdom Institute of Tour Guide Associations. As an official tour guide it is my duty to guide you up that mountain safely. ...that's my reason and I'm sticking to it. Plus the mayor had me because no one else was available at the infirmary." He said his title with a rather authoritative tone, which to James was adorable. He could tell the koopa was a lot more confident in himself when infused with a sense of duty, rather than as himself. With a smirk, he allowed Koopin the benefit of his authority. "Alright then mister tour guide, whatever works for you, you can come along for the sake of duty...even if you're off-duty. That okay Fridrik?" "Fine by me," said the bumpty, "have you climbed this mountain before?" "A-about five times," said Koopin with a nervous waver. "...alright, you brought more of my equipment I see." "Um...I hope you don't mind." "Long as it's near me and you know how to use it, yes." "Oh don't worry, I'm trained as a climber! The TGA trained me in dealing with all environments ever since I left high school." "Hmmm...very well. Now, tie this rope around yourselves and follow me." After making sure all three of them were well-tied together by a single strong-fibred rope, the three climbers soon reached the base of Shiver Mountain, heading upwards cautiously so towards their cliff-edged destination. Shiver Mountain, while a mountain of ice, was not as difficult to navigate as FG first expected it to be. Visitors over the years had sculpted and carved pathways throughout the mountain edge, from blocky steps to snowy cliffpaths, all allowing better ease in climbing upwards.

However, Fridrik's path took a more difficult route, moving away from the traditional path and up along another more crevassed area of the mountain. They were thankful the day was dry and clear, a pure blue sky of the far northern night allowing them to perfectly see where to go. Despite the cold, James and Koopin handled it well, the former through endurance and the latter through training. Fridrik was all experience, hoisting his tiny body up with amazing efforts, his knitted cap and bundled climbing pack bobbing up ahead of them as he practically leapt onto one higher overhang after another. James' natural claws were perfect for digging into the icy cracks of the mountainside, grasping his way upwards and onwards. Koopin, while at the rear, was still able to keep up by digging his yellow fingers into the proper places, always keeping his feet properly aligned against the cliff in order to gain the best footing. James was pleasantly surprised to see the koopa keep up, looking back regularly to make sure he wasn't having problems. Other than one or two heart-stopping slips, there was little trouble as they reached halfway up. But their struggle was not yet over. As they neared the indicated area of the missing climbers, Fridrik suddenly stopped. "Hey, why'dya stop?" asked FG. "...you feel that?" "Huh?" "...the air's turning colder. It's coming again." "What is?!" "...climb faster." "What?!" "CLIMB!" Fridrik began scrabbling upwards with a furious pace, followed swiftly by James and Koopin who tried to keep up. The rope continued to remain taut and stretched between them as they tried to keep up with each other's pace, the sky above turning darker with a subtle change in the light. The sunlight was fading away, and with it came a darkening cold wind. Koopin started to panic. "OH STARS, NOT A BLIZZARD!" "KEEP CLIMBING!" roared Fridrik.

They followed him dutifully, forcing themselves onwards as the cold seeped into the marrow of their bones. James was starting to shake from the unexpected drop in temperature, as the wind started to pick up. Howling banshees would envy the shriek of this arctic gale, wrapping around Shiver Mountain like a serpent of ice and snow. The snow started to come from their side, pelting them horrendously, whitening their clothes as they cried out against the dark wind. "ALMOST THERE!" Fridrik's encouragement helped them climb the last few steps up towards a precipice, which had been marked by a red flag firmly embedded into the rocky cliffside with a piton. The three hugged together against the wall, trying to shield themselves from the chaotic hurricane, its screams streaking across the mountainside like nails on a chalkboard. "IS THIS WHERE YOUR SON WAS?!" screamed Koopin. "YES," replied Fridrik, "BUT HIS SUPPLIES ARE NOT HERE!" "DO YOU THINK HE FELL, OR MAYBE GOT BACK?!" "NO!" "WHY NOT!?" "BECAUSE I JUST KNOW! MY SON IS STILL HERE SOMEWHERE!" "THEN WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO?!" roared James. "WAIT UNTIL THE BLIZZARD DIES DOWN, THEN LOOK!" "WHAT IF IT DOESN'T?!" "...then things will get worse." James and Koopin looked to each other with fear in their eyes, incredulous at the idea that they could very well be trapped here if the blizzard never died down. They had no reason to believe it would not, but Nature can be a cruel unrelenting mistress. The raptor started slamming his fist into the rock wall with every few words he screamed. "THAT'S YOUR FUCKING ANSWER!? JUST HOPE IT DIES DOWN!? FUCK THIS! I'M NOT AFRAID OF SNOW, I'M GONNA FIND THEM NO MATTER WHAT!" "JAMES DON'T BE STUPID!" "I DON'T CARE KOOPIN, WE'RE ALL IN DANGER NOW, AND IF WE DON'T GET OUT OF HERE SOON, WE-GAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

His fury was soon cut off when he fell backwards into a suddenly-opened hole behind him. A cave of some sort had opened up when his fist slammed into one particular rock, pushing the loose unseen stone through a hollow wall and sending the whole rockslide down inside the mountain. None of them had time to react, as all three climbers soon fell and slid down hard along the bumpy newfound rockslide. Thankfully there were no rocks bouncing along with them to thwack them on the head with, as they scraped their rears to the bottom. The blizzard was somehow far behind them now, scraping along the outside walls of the mountain. At the bottom of the slide, they slid onto a wide icy underground lake. It was enormous, big enough to hold a hockey game in, perfectly-smooth ice covering the entire floor. Even the walls were completely covered in thick sheets of perfectly-formed ice. To James it almost seemed unnatural. He was right. "Wh-what the hell is this?" he asked aloud. "I-i don't know," said Koopin quietly. "I...I never heard of an ice lake inside Shiver Mountain." "Me neither," added Fridrik. "But this ice...this is not naturally-made." "How can you tell?" "No cracks. No imperfections like a clear-cut diamond. Someone made this here...but who?" "Ahhhh...it's nice to hear someone appreciates my work." The tender male voice that replied came from all around the ice cavern. They gazed up to see only rows of stalactites hanging above, precariously large icicles twinkling like swords of Damocles. Further in the room was a single ice-blue pillar, a monolith of some sort that stood so perfectly square in the very centre of the lake. "Wh-who's there?!" demanded FG. "Don't be afraid, little ones...come closer...come look at my masterpiece." With trepidation, they tenderly walked across the ice, gauging their individual levels of balance along the slippery mirror-like surface. James' claws aided somewhat in helping him steady his gait, despite having never skated on ice before. He wondered if he could apply the same principles to it as with roller skating. Fridrik was used to ice, his flippered feet flapping solidly on the floor. Koopin's boots had no sense of traction at all, and he whimpered with each slippery step that threatened to upset his balance. "J-j-james, F-fridriiik, h-h-help me out here!" Testing his own idea, the raptor gently skated back towards Koopin, keeping closer to him than their ropes did as he supported him across. "Just slide with me," said James softly. "O-okay..."

Eventually, all three of them reached the icy totem. At first it appeared to be nothing but perfectly-cut solid ice. But then they looked closer, seeing something writhe inside of it, like an eel in a filthy aquarium, a shadowy tendril snaking from within. "What in stars' name is this?" asked Fridrik cautiously. "Ha ha ha ha haaaa..." The voice laughed softly, coming directly from within the pillar. It was a horrid laugh, like the sound of breaking glass, or the crackling of ice. "Foolish bumpty. You should have stayed at home, instead of coming back for your son." "What?! What do you know about my son?! WHERE IS FINRIK!?" "Oh...he's around, somewhere." "What have you done to him?!" "I gave him a little time to...cool off. Ha ha ha ha..." "...you know what happened to the other climbers, don't you?" "Ohh my, aren't you a clever climber. They're around here too, just...hanging with me." They all looked up at this little pun, glancing upwards towards the icicles. Most of them were solid right through, but then Koopin saw one in a cluster that seemed to have a shadow within. Looking a little closer, he could just make out the clear shape of a bumpty, just like Fridrik's shadow from last night. "UP THERE!" he cried. "In the icicles, he trapped them in those!" "Wh-what?!" Fridrik quickly glanced up at each and every one of them, roaring out with panic. "FINRIK! FINRIK, ANSWER ME! PAPA'S HERE FINRIK, JUST ANSWER ME PLEASE!" "Stop that." A lancing spear of ice formed from the monolith itself, shaped like water until its pointed razor edge, barely scraping Fridrik's back as he quickly moved away from bare injury. "Stupid warmblood, you should know better than to start screaming your head off inside an ice cave. Now unless you want another new cold cut on you, you do what I say." "Who the hell are you?" demanded James. "Why did you kidnap the climbers?!" "Do you know how frustrating it is to try and sleep and grow, only to constantly be woken up by the scrabbling of pickaxes, claws and flippered feet scaling up my mountainside? Every single week? I would have tried to complain but there's just no getting through to such inconsiderate people. So I decided to make sure they'd stay still...permanently." "Oh...shit." "Oh don't worry, they're still alive. They're just...frozen. And they will stay that way until I am assured that no one shall ever climb Shiver Mountain ever again." "B-but you can't do that!" said Koopin. "You can't just hold people hostage and demand nobody climbs a mountain! That's just stupid, you don't own this place!" "Really?"

The monolith surged out a wispy icy tendril, formed entirely of water at first before suddenly coiling around Koopin's body like a snake, freezing immediately within a few seconds to completely trap him inside. The koopa shivered at the coils of freshly-frozen ice against his coat. "I can make anyone I want shiver like you. Freezing...trapped...unable to move. Such a terrible feeling isn't it? It really makes you feel your heart just burst with warmth, struggling to keep your body nice and toasty." Koopin did not have to shiver much longer when FG broke him free with a good blast of fire, melting the coils and making the frozen tendrils fall and shatter upon the solid ice floor. He soon brought out his scissors in preparation for a fight. "Listen up ice-boy, if you don't let those guys go, I'm gonna burn the hell out of you until you're black steam!" "Ha ha ha ha haaaa...foolish boy." "Huh?!" "You think you can fight me? Why try? Isn't it so soothing to be wrapped...within my embrace? I am a magnificent being. Pure ice, the simplest liquid of life itself. Water, made solid. Solid enough to touch...and consume." "Pfft, I can make fire, I can melt you back into water!" "Ah ah aaaaah...I would not do that if I was you. You might miss, and hit the walls...and there is so much ice to turn into water here, that you might...drown soon." "Then I'll aim better!" "James," cried Koopin, "don't be an idiot!" "Relax Koopin, I got this bitch covered!" "Such a foul mouth. It will be a pleasure of mine to...seal it." The pillar started to shoot out spears of ice towards the raptor, who immediately untied his rope to free Fridrik and Koopin, allowing them to get away as he skated past to dodge the attack. The spears never left the pillar itself, merely growing all of a sudden to try and impale the lithe agile velociraptor. "James," cried out Fridrik, "what are you doing?!" "I need to melt this guy's ass and I can't do it tied down! Just keep away from it and don't get iced!" "Let me help too!" Fridrik wasn't going to lie down and hope for the best, bringing out a climbing hook and swinging it out towards the icy pillar. Smacking a hook straight into the corner with a mighty KRAKK, he tried to tug on it hard in an attempt to pull off some of the ice, but instead the pillar responded by bleeding water onto the hook's rope. The water soon swirled down the length before immediately freezing within seconds, forcing Fridrik to drop the rope before his flippers got frozen.

Koopin kept away, struggling to maintain his balance with half-stumbles and forward falls. Being a turtle-like creature also gave him a new danger of being immobilised if he fell onto his back, which he struggled to avoid by keeping his balance forwards. If he fell fully forwards, he could at least slide forwards on his shell like a penguin. Realising this, he had a daring idea. "JAMES!" The raptor quickly skated over, trying to dodge the shafting lance-strikes of the immediately-frozen water that burst forth from the monolith, like some sort of terrifying alien relic of a most violent past. He was getting the hang of his skating now, feeling it to be more based around sliding with the motions rather than by steering with wheels. His agility was a blessing in helping his balance, skirting around, leaving smooth thin white lines in the thick ice much to the voice's irritation. "PLEASE stop skating across my floor!" Another violent spear that almost pierced James' skull had he not ducked. "It took me a VERY long time to iron out the wrinkles you little urchin." "Sorry jerkwad, I don't like your style!" Quickly skidding to a halt beside Koopin, who suddenly threw off his thick arctic coat, an idea came up between them when he told FG: "Hit me towards the pillar, like a hockey puck!" "Wha?!" "Just do it, I'll be fine, my shell's tough enough!" Koopin quickly ducked into his shell, perfectly pulling his arms and legs inside with surprising flexibility. James did not have time to argue, and whacked the occupied shell hard across the ice floor using his scissor handles, not unlike a croquet club. The koopa scurried hard across the room, spinning while closing his eyes hard as he braced for impact. A shuddering KRAKK was his reward as his hardened shell smashed against the base of the pillar, the voice within now rather irritated. "No playing games indoors!" As Koopin ricocheted off of the monolith, it tried to strike out with its shafting spikes, trying to hit the koopa without hitting the floor. Thankfully Koopin was spinning away at such a speed of recoil from the impact, that he was difficult to hit. Even one hit that got his shell wasn't enough, when it merely bounced off, despite the koopa inside shivering with both fear and cold from the hit. James quickly stopped Koopin like a football, helping him back up and making sure he was okay. "You alright?!" "Y-y-yeah...h-hoh stars that was cold when he hit me!" "Good thing your shell's tough, it's just the right thing to break that bastard apart. You ready for another spin?" "D-d-do I have to?! Again!?" "Got a better idea?!" "...n-n-no-" "Then it's time for the second quarter!"

James decided however not to attack so soon, making Koopin wait as they watched Fridrik try to attack on his own. Despite having one frozen rope and hook, he was eager to attack the unseen monster, charging forwards with an ice pick and readily swinging it hard into the monolith. Another powerful strike which created another powerful crackling of ice. It was certainly weakening, despite its dangerous defensive tactics in trying to impale the intruders. Fridrik however had enough reflexes to dodge away from the pillar, skating back and forth in a serpentine motion to avoid being struck by the lancing blows. But he wasn't as quick as the raptor to avoid it entirely, taking another searing cut to the side of his waist, squawking and rolling hard into a fall. At that moment, James readily got Koopin into his shell and smacked him hard towards the pillar, sending him off like a bullet. With the creature apparently distracted in targeting the bumpty, it never saw Koopin coming from the side. A powerful smash with the force of a sledgehammer, creating the biggest crack yet in the ice-cold armour, the point of impact shattering outwards like a spiderweb in the wind. Soon it all came apart, the sounds of crumbling ruin coming from the centre of the room. James, Koopin and Fridrik gazed towards the broken pillar, ready to see the true enemy within. As thick blocks fell apart one by one, tumbling with small half-turns towards the impenetrable floor, the creature was revealed.

A large eyeless plant, blue and white like the ice itself, snarling with its single widened grin of carnivorous teeth. Little leaves acted like arms from its central body, thin and rootlike as it wavered readily to fight. "Insolent landwalkers! Now I will make you sleep in the cold of night, FOREVER!" "Wh-what the hell is that?!" cried out James. "Tha-...that's a Frost Pirahna!" said Koopin with panic. "But...h-how is it controlling ice like this?! It shouldn't-" "Silence!" The ice plant focused with an intense sneer and sent the fragments of ice out towards the three with a furious speed, forcing them to dodge or guard themselves. Koopin took the brunt of it with his shell, falling flat on his face and skidding hard. "Just because I am not some landwalker like the rest of you, does NOT mean I am some pathetic little flower for you to TRAMPLE ON! Know and fear my name! Jack FROST!" Raising its jagged leaves upwards like hands, it commanded the ice around it to levitate around its form, the whitened spots upon its ice-blue skin glinting devilishly in the light. With a mighty blast of magical energy now apparent, more ice blocks came slaloming towards them. James could dodge easily, helping his two allies move with him across the ice with him at the front for agility. Guiding them back and forth as he held them by the hand, the three of them readied a plan to deal with the more destructive ice plant, with James thinking on how to burn a single enemy. "Okay, I got an idea." "What?" asked Koopin nervously. "I get close and confront it head on, make it drop its guard and let it play with me a bit. You two get out of its sight and when I say go, we do this. Fridrik, take Koopin out of sight and ready to knock him straight into the back of that thing's head." "Got it." The bumpty and the koopa nodded, Koopin now more confident of his attack as he let Fridrik take him elsewhere, while James skated towards the pirahna plant. With scissors out and at the ready, he readied his plan as he stopped before Jack Frost. The crystalline pirahna tutted as it waved its leaf towards him.

"Very foolish to stop moving in front of me. Do you have a plan?" "No, I'm just going to prune you good." "Ha! With a pair of rusty shears? I think NOT." The frozen plant heaved in a deep breath, before sending more of the icy blocks towards James. Despite his scissors being able to deflect and cut through some of the frozen projectiles, he still got hit enough times to get quite a few bruises on him. But he stood his ground, deflecting the attacks until Jack Frost exhaled a mighty cold breath far across the icy lake, turning into a thick mist. The mist hit James fully in the chest, a powerfully cold aura suddenly sinking into his bones like water in a sunken ship. "H-h-hhaaaaaaaaah!" The pirahna plant smiled, its grin as wide as its bulbous head, whitened lips streaking from end to end. "Yeeeeees...my dear little lizard. You're cold-blooded aren't you? You shouldn't be outside in the cold, otherwise you'll...freeze to death." "Hhhhaaaa! ...nnnnnngh! G-...g-g-g-g-g...." "Hmmm? Now what? Do you want to shiver out your last words, little lizard?" "G-G-G-...C-c-cold...n-n-no!" He tried to speak, but the thoughts froze in his synapses. He could feel the deadening weight of his arms and legs crumble to the floor, begging him to sleep, to lie down onto the cold welcoming icy floor. He wanted to rest. His body demanded it, the soporific effect of the cold dead misty breath of the frozen plant making his eyes turn heavy. He could see Koopin and Fridrik in the distance, turning blurry as he made his eyes widen to twitching point. "G-...go." "What?" "G-go." "Why are you trying to stay awake? Go to sleep...it's past your bedtime." "GO!" "TAKE THIS!" Koopin shook him from his senses with his outburst reply, as Fridrik whammed Koopin's shell hard across the floor with koopa inside. Jack Frost was slow to react, and it soon felt the weight of the shell pound into the back of its large head with a mighty KLONK. Seeing it temporarily distracted, James struggled to get up before firing up his blade, burning it purely with his own fire. He charged straight towards the Frost Pirahna, skating across towards the plant before slicing straight for the root. With one mighty burning swing, his blades cut through halfway into the thick dirt-frozen stem of the plant, which shrieked with earth-shattering pain at its assault. James wasted no time, opening up his scissorblades laced with nano-fuelled fire before cutting straight through. The head of Jack Frost fell from the decapitated stem, its horrendous scream breaking the ice above them, vile perilous cracks splintering across the roof.

When the pirahna plant's head fell onto the permanently-frozen floor, it shattered like a priceless vase, a million miserable pieces of plant matter. The stem twitched and struggled like a headless chicken, leaves spasming desperately for what life they had left before they soon fell in turn, wilting into the ground. The influence of the creature had now disappeared, as the icicles soon fell from the cavern roof, much to their dismay. "LOOK OUT!" James hurried towards his friends and grabbed both of them towards the rockslide exit, with Fridrik guiding them cautiously and James helping them evade. Thick stalactites shattered or toppled over onto the ice floor, never breaking through, but simply swinging down like ungainly clubs, daring to crush them beneath darkening shadows of black ice. Some of them would completely shatter, hollow on the inside, but the raptor had no time to see their contents within until they were safe. After what felt like 10 minutes of an endless barrage of ice, the three climbers hiding in the rockslide as a shield against ice shards, the chaos soon cleared. The rumbling cracks had ceased, the cavern roof now bare and empty of any icicles at all. In the middle of the floor, among dozens of thick cracked lengths and broken fragments, were five other bumpties, woozy and moaning as they slowly woke up. Fridrik slowly walked forwards, looking around at the chaos, but seeing none of them were badly hurt. Koopin's eyes widened with disbelief. "They...they were all kidnapped by that thing." "Damn," said FG, "like some kind of personal storage...what was he gonna do, eat them?" "I-i don't know...but somehow we did it. ...th-that was way too dangerous." "Heh, yeah...next time something like this happens, you can stay in town." "Heheh, how about we wish there won't BE a next time?" "Fine by me." "FINRIK!"

Fridrik hurried along the ice as he examined each climber, seeing they were fine, but none of them being his son. "FINRIK! WHERE ARE YOU?!" "P-papa!" From the back of the cave, in the remnants of one smaller icicle, was a young bumpty, possibly just turned adult. He was weak, but he waved his flipper excitably towards the rescuers, his father skating towards him with panic. "FINRIK!" "PAPA!" Grabbing him tightly, Fridrik embraced his son to his body, shaking both from relief and from the cold, beaks nuzzling against each other's shoulders warmly. "Ohhh...oh my son I'm so glad you're okay." "I...I did it papa." "Hmm?" "I...f-found a new place nobody ever found before...like I said I would...right?" "...h-hah...hhha ha ha...yes. You did Finrik. You did." As they continued hugging each other ever tighter, James and Koopin watched from a distance, a warmth surging in both of their hearts. James was even more happy, feeling he was on the way to his own redemption through such sights. Koopin was just relieved, but also rather surprised at himself. "I...I can't believe we managed to do this." "Heh, yeah?" "I...I never rescued anyone before. It's...hohhhh you have no idea how happy I am that this is over." "Hahahaha, why?" "Cuz now I can get back to travelling and not end up in dangerous situations!" "HAH, course. ...um...sorry about this." "Hey hey no need to be sorry, we just saved the missing climbers! I just...um..." "Hey." He patted Koopin's shoulder in support, seeing his mind was in a muddle and deciding to let him relax. "You did something good, nothing to it. You're a good guy Koopin, you could have stayed at the inn." "I-i...wanted to but...it felt wrong, even if it was dangerous in these conditions, to just let you go alone." "Heh...well, listen, don't fret about what ifs alright? Come on, let's help these guys back home so we can continue our tour of the Mushroom Kingdom eh?" "Uh...o-okay." After Fridrik rejoined the two with his son, the three of them helped gather the climbers together to navigate down Shiver Mountain with them. They were weak from their imprisonment, but still able to scale downwards due to their experience and climbing gear combined. Thankfully their captor never thought to dispose of their climbing gear before trapping them in ice. From what they could gather, it appeared that the Frost Pirahna had become imbued with some sort of strange magical power from an unknown source, and had learnt how to wield the powers of water and ice.

It had only appeared a few weeks ago, causing blizzards when climbers nearby would apparently pester it with their climbing activities, deciding instead to trap them in icicles to be eaten later. Thankfully, according to the climbers, it was planning to eat them next week due to its naturally-slow digestion cycle, and that they were immensely grateful for the rescue. A few hours later of careful navigation, they soon reached the base of the mountain, hailing the town of Shiver City to be greeted with a hero's welcome. The populace cheered with joy, and the mayor thanked James, Koopin and Fridrik profusely for their bravery. Fridrik shrugged it off to return home with his son. James took it all humbly while struggling not to allow his ego to inflate itself with praise. Koopin was just simply overwhelmed, not even knowing what to say. The climbers were taken to the infirmary to be healed up properly, as the mayor threw a humble feast for the three heroes, including Fridrik's son Finrik, to thank them for aiding his town. He called it humble, but to the raptor it was quite an amazing feast of Mousse Cake and what was known as a "Meteor Meal", composed of fried mushrooms and rejuvenating sauces said to come from Starborn Valley. After the revitalizing feast, in which James and Koopin spoke of their planned travel together across the Mushroom Kingdom to both the mayor and Fridrik, they returned to the Toad House inn to rest. The day's events having taken their toll on them, they decided to sleep early for a good start tomorrow morning. Koopin was raring to go by the light of the midnight sun's dawn, already planning out his route in an effort to distract himself from other stranger thoughts of his. Occasionally he would look over at James, wondering why he had such a strong urge to save people without even thinking. A stranger in a strange land, who didn't seem particularly noble, and was quite rough around the edges. But he seemed strong, experienced, talented with strange magic, wielded a strange weapon, and above all, kind-hearted. Or at least protective of others. Koopin's own feelings tossed and turned slightly, tugging between immature awe and mature rationality, as well as something else that he deemed too soon to even consider. But eventually he quieted both of them down as he made his route clear. Having technically climbed up Shiver Mountain regardless, he was ready to make his way down towards the southeast region of the Mushroom Kingdom. Somewhere that he would be much happier to be in.