The next day, we walked through the mountains. Well, not really walked, more like tried to walk. It was more like climbing. We tried lots of tiny little steep flat bits that could have been paths but ended up in a steep cliff face or a hole or once in the middle of a giant herd of sheep. There were so many I was in danger of being stampeded. Luckily Ben held me up above his head. We couldn’t even get past them, there were so many. We didn’t see any herders or anything like that, so it was kind of mysterious.
We finally saw a climbable cliff face at around noon. Ben took Hiawatha and me on his back and started to climb. I would almost say he was better than me. Almost. I would have climbed myself, but since he offered I thought it would be rude not to accept. When we got to the top, there was a really steep path, or whatever it was going up. We decided to follow it. After trudging up an almost vertical path (that’s what it seemed like) for hours on end, we finally saw a little flat space. There were a few shrubs growing there but other than that it was empty. We all plopped down on the ground and sat there, panting. Suddenly, out of the blue heavy fog and mist came on us. We could barely see anything. Suddenly, icy winds came from the North, chilling me to the bone. Well, uhm, fluff. Even my lovely soft fur couldn’t protect me. Annoying.
“We can’t stay here. We’ll find our death in this miserably cold if we don’t get shelter soon!” Hiawatha yelled over the wind. We slowly got up and started trudging onwards towards slowly; feeling our way and holding on to each other to make sure none of us fell down the mountain. We inched our way up along something that seemed to be a smooth path going up. Strange, who would put a path up here in the mountains? Even stranger still, there seemed to be steps leading up. We couldn’t do anything but follow them, and I don’t even know if the others knew they were steps. Suddenly, we broke through and arrived in a warm, slightly damp…room. It was very strange. There were walls and a ceiling made up of what looked like rain drop brick, and the floor of the smoothest thunder cloud slabs. Or that’s what it looked like. I had no idea where we were. I looked down, and sure enough, there were stair going up from the top of the mountain where we were.
“What’s this?” Hiawatha asked, looking around. We slowly stepped up and walked around inside.
“This is amazing! What I would give to get some of that flooring in my cave!” Ben said excitedly.
“Really? Well, thank you. I’ll tell our craftsmen you like their work.” A voice behind us said. We turned around and saw an old man with a grey beard and a staff, who had apparently come out of a hallway we had overlooked. With him were a group of more old men and a couple of armed guards.
“Uhm…well…sorry to bother you here, but well we got stuck in a storm and happened to walk up your beautiful stairs and come in here! Good thing too, it’s not pretty down there.” Ben said.
“That’s the sixth time this week travelers have come in here by accident. I’m telling you, we have to move those stairs!” one of the old men said to no one in particular.
“I am king Elroi, ruler of the Land of the Clouds. You have entered my domain without asking permission, and so I have no choice but to banish you. I know it will be sad for you, but where would we be if we let every passing vagabond in? The banishment will take place tomorrow evening, and you will be banished at the northern border. The banishment will last for two weeks. Until tomorrow night, you may roam my kingdom freely. Dismissed.” The man who had spoken first said. We kind of stood around awkwardly, not knowing what to do.
