“Well that sucks, we dug it out for nothing.” Ortana sighed.

  “We? I did all the work.” Arvena corrected.

  Either way, it didn't seem like they were tress anytime soon. The dragon was even wedged between the ice walls, so it wasn’t like he could move away from the other dragon carcasses anyway. The team was as stuck as they were before, but now they also had a dragon to care for, they were pissed.

  “Maybe we do something here,” Skendus initiated, “If the dead dragons make it feel weak, then we just o help it crawl away from here. We only try, because I don’t see another way out for us.”

  “That could take hours, and besides, how do we know that there aren't dead dragons ourn?” Arvena tered.

  “Me and Tim will scout the area,” He answered, and then he looked at Tim. “It’s time we put our Atomic Shifting into use, eh? Only this time we won't use it to try and flee, we're getting our friends out of here.”

  There was no reason to refuse his pn, especially si wasn't dangerous whatsoever to follow it. Tim and Skendus were to shift their bodies into a ghostly form, just so they could explore their surroundings properly, it was absolutely safe for them.

  Atomic Shifting was an ability that Tim attained whe Skendus, and it was throughout that period where Tim explored the nds as a spider. It was a traumatizing experience for him overall, but at least now he could shift into a ghost, without leaving his body behind, so the trauma he endured was worthwhile. The Punished Brothers from within that set of underground tuhat Skendus had previously lived in, had been very useful, they gifted the both of them with this ability, though not in the same day, as Skendus was blessed a very long time ago.

  Anyway, the two of them shifted immediately, through a thought alone, and became airborne, and absolutely invisible. The girls could not see them. The boys could float through the iow, which was a very effective way to find their way around this mad pce.

  The two of them floated in separate dires so they could cover a wider area, but they didn’t worry about getting lost, because they could sehe souls that their friends possessed. It was very easy to locate them for the sed time.

  While they explored, the two of them discovered some really weird things. For example, dragons were not the only thing that were frozen in time, there were other creatures as well from the clear looks of it.

  Skendus saw a bunch of these big, hairy, prehistoric-looking creatures whose species he did nhere were tens of them spread all across the icy byrinth, and he figured that they too had been unlucky enough, and got caught in a blizzard at some point of time. Their bodies were very well preserved in the ice, although likely thousands of years old by now, he was fasated, but this wasn't nearly a great discovery. It was terrifying!

  What Tim discovered wasn't aer, it was far weirder in parison. He found a bunch of humans, who too were trapped in ice just like everything else around here was!

  “Oh damn!” He thought, upon spotting them. “The gods are definitely punishing us, because what the hell is this? I'm being taunted with the bodies of humans, humans that I urge to shapeshift to? Cruel…”

  The humans seemed like cavemen, but he was still sad on their behalf, he was sad that they died this way. Though he was sad, he was also very fused, because this forest became all the more mysterious than it already was!

  Not only did this byrinth of ice seemingly appear out of thin air, but it also tained untouched, well preserved bodies of several species! It did not make any sense, because a blizzard wouldn't be able to move ice around like that, and this begged the question of who moved the ice to begin with!

  Either a god was messing with them, or the forest was really angry that the team killed one of its yetis. The tter wasn't a bad theory, but then again, it didn't expin the sudden appearance of the ice!

  Tim was nowhere close to uanding what was going on, but he didn’t have time to ask questiht now, as tempting as it may be. He already located a pce where dead dragons weren't present, and it was close enough to the team, so he started figuring out ath they would have to take in order to get here. This part may take a while, but he didn’t feel cold while he was in this ghostly form, so he had some time to explore his surroundings.

  Anyway, all in the meantime while they waited for the boys, Arvena put in some effort to keep the dragon warm. Now it wasn’t easy to keep a twenty-foot beast warm, but she had to try heless, because this poor boy was weak, and had started to shiver. Even a big, tremendously scary beast deserved some passion, and if she didn't show some passion now when the universe has presented her with a grand possibility to be kind, then she may never be as selfless again in her entire life.

  Arvehe big guy warm, by lighting a very low-heat fire on her palms, and running it across his dry scales. She wasn't tributing much like this, but if she used a hotter fireball then she might hurt the dragon, and it retty stupid to hurt their main, and potentially only way out of here. The dragon was vulnerable, but he seemed to trust the few goblins around him pletely.

  “I didn't peg you as a dragohusiast,” Ortana expressed, sincerely. “I haven't seen any dragons before we bounced into your realm, so I barely uand what they are, but didn't we eat the st dragon we saw? He was really delicious.”

  “That was a cockatrice dragon, they're basically spooky chis, and are edible, even other dragohem, they do not matter. Also, big dragons are not edible as far as I uand, so quit talking about stuff like that, because yoing to scare Geie.” She argued.

  “Geie?” Ortaed.

  “Yes, short fothatar Ice Veins.” She added, “Now shush.”

  After she warmed Geie up by a couple degrees, she then started carefully melting the ice around him, so he'd feel more fortable. This dragon had to recover, and she wao help him recover to the best of her abilities!

  Anyway, about ten mier, Tim appeared right in front of them, out of thin air. He had a smile on his face, so odds were that he brought some good news for the gang to hear.

  “I found a spot that doesn't have any dragons in them, just humans.” He said, and then squatted near one of the dragon's eyes. “Will that do big guy? Dead humans shouldn't be able to bother yht?”

  The dragon lifted its head, and then shook it in cooperation. This was good, they could start making their way towards that dragon-less spht now!

  Skendus re-appeared as well, just moments ter, and seded Tim's route, he said. “That pce full of dead humans is the closest, good spot around. Let's go.”