Considering how cold it is I am seriously tempted to turn around and go back into the cave. The only thing that stops me from doing exactly that is my worries about our food situation. Even some type of vegetable that I could use to make stew would help stretch out the food.

Kechara can eat them since she has the teeth of an omnivore, in fact a pure meat diet isn't a good idea. The same goes for me, just eating meat all the time is not healthy, but finding vegetables in all this snow won't be easy. Wandering around the mountain in a snow storm isn't exactly a wise idea either, especially since I don't know the area very well.

The only other option is to go somewhere the snow doesn't reach, such as a cave. The question then becomes do I want to explore it now or wait until we are almost out of food and I have no choice? Waiting till I have no choice is obviously a bad idea, so I will split the difference and go once we are down to half the current food supply.

Which means today I can just play with Kechara, so since she isn't paying attention to me I prepare a snowball. The snowball hits her just right and knocks her into a pile of snow, as I am laughing she glares at me. For the next few hours I keep throwing snowballs at her as she attempts to dodge them.

By lunch time she has gotten pretty good at dodging, although she still falls for a feint every time. Through these games she is learning, and she is also getting better about how she moves her body. Control is the most important thing she can learn right now, she needs to overcome the typical clumsiness of the young.

The fact that we both have tons of fun playing these games is just a bonus. In fact, playing with her these past few days is probably the most fun I have had since I came to this world. Realizing that just makes me all the more determined to find a way to take her off this mountain with me when I leave.

After eating lunch I keep her inside with me to play some games to help her develop her mind. She is quite smart, she even manages to learn how to play tic tac toe with me. I keep coming up with new games to make sure she doesn't get bored and lose interest.

When I switch back to a previous game she remembers it completely, and it even gets to the point that she can figure out when I am cheating. The glare she gives me when she first figures it out is absolutely hilarious and when I fall over laughing she is quick to pounce on me and turn it into wrestling.

The next four days are all the same, with us just playing all day long while outside the snow keeps piling up. During those four days Kechara doubles in size again and now she is about the size of a pony. She has finally developed four lumps on her back which should be the first sign of her wings growing in.

Core Upgrade Progress: 47%

Unfortunately, with her growth has come an increase in appetite and now we are down to half of the food remaining. So now it is time to go check out that cave and see if I can find another food source. So after breakfast I have Kechara climb onto my back and hold onto me.

Having her on my back feels like a slightly heavy backpack, enough to know she is there but not enough to cause me any real problems. To make sure she knows to hold on I jump around and climb the walls until I am sure she is not going to have any problems. Then I head out into the snow and make my way down the slope, it isn't snowing currently but the snow is a couple of feet deep.

The glare off the snow is fairly intense, making me squint to see where I am going. It isn't as bad once I reach the bottom of the slope and turn onto the path, headed back the way I came from. The snow is piled up on the path as well making me take it slow to be sure of my footing.

Kechara is twisting her head back and forth trying to look at everything at once. Seeing as she has no concept of the danger involved this is just a fun new experience for her. As I move I worry constantly that she is going to see something interesting and try to go running off for a closer look.

When I reach the start of the ledge I remind her to hold on tight as I turn sideways and start shuffling along the ledge. Luckily the snow isn't as deep on the ledge, but in places it is covering ice so I have to be extremely careful. Kechara keeps craning her head around to look down which worries me even more.

Once I have crossed two hundred feet of the ledge I stop and start moving straight up. I reach as high as I can and dig my claws into the stone and then pull myself up. Once I am as high as I can go I kick my feet into the stone until my claws dig in then I reach up and repeat the process.

Finally after what seems like an hour my hand encounters a ledge instead of more cliff. Grabbing the ledge I pull myself up until I can see into the cave, which looks like just an ordinary cave. As I pull myself up and into the cave I find myself hoping that I haven't just wasted all that time and effort.

Once I catch my breath I climb to my feet and Kechara hops down from my back to start sniffing around in the cave. As I move further into the cave and my eyes adjust to the darkness I can see that the cave doesn't end. It turns into a tunnel that leads down, from here I can't see how far it goes.

It is a long straight slope that looks too regular to be a natural creation. As I start following the tunnel I draw Blitz and caution Kechara to stay behind me and not to wander off. The odd thing is the tunnel is round, if it was man-made it would be square, but the walls are smoothe.

Water could make a tunnel like this, but it wouldn't be straight, and there would be bumps in the walls and floor. The only thing I can think of is that a different race made this tunnel, and that means it has to lead somewhere.

After following the tunnel for a half an hour I come to a wall blocking the tunnel. It isn't a wall of stone, it is a wall of darkness. Reaching out my hand I can see my hand pass through the wall, which should mean I can walk through it. Since I haven't seen any side passages this is the only way to go, so taking a deep breath I step through the wall.