They arrived at the entrance to find the two torches were in their proper place. Wave pointed ahead with a wave of a hoof, guiding 'her' humans out into the cold. "It's not very warm out here," she pointed out with astute and keen observation before she stared at the entrance. "We'll be back, maybe in better times."

As if in reply to her words, the ancient tunnel collapsed with a sad rumble, giving up its struggle against time and sealing itself away from prying eyes.

“If I’d known we’d be dealing with such cold I might have requested a jacket,” Eric said with a shiver. “Upward and onward? We need to keep moving to keep our warmth up.”

“This is where I came in at… well, up there,” Tom motioned to the platforms a ways up. “Some of them are iced over, and higher up… wolves,” he remarked with a shiver. “God, I hate wolves.” Hugging Wave tighter to his chest, he looked upwards out of the ravine. “Any idea of an easier way back up, or?”

Wave looked around quietly a moment before shaking her head. "I've never been outside the temple, well, at least not for a long time. The last… time…" She paused, digging deep into her memories. "This was a river, not a canyon. Is there even a bottom?" She leaned over for a peek, looking into the black depths.

“I’m fond enough of pictures of wolves, like pictures of dragons. In person, though, I imagine they’ll end up about as good or worse. We could try following the river to the coast? Though I suppose that’s as good to try up there as down here…” Eric commented.

Wave shrugged a little. "If it was still a river, I'd already be swimming." She pointed a hoof towards the surface, where the ravine opened out. "I think I like up more than down, in this case."

As if on cue with her guidance, soft howls echoed in the distance.

“Down it is, even if we can’t see the bottom yet… rivers gotta flow somewhere, yeah?” Tom asked somewhat shakily, peering up to the top, trying to see if the wolves were at the edge once more. Spotting nothing immediately obvious, he turned to look at Eric. “Down, definitely down.”

“I don’t know about Equestria for sure, but I imagine it’s the same. In our world, people always settled where there was fresh water, so rivers would almost invariably lead to a settlement of some kind. Even if the water dried up, there would be some signs of civilization remaining. Probably. Hopefully more than just the one temple.” With that, Eric started looking for a way to climb further down safely.

And so they climbed down, dropping from shelf to shelf along the precipitously slick ice platforms, with Wave holding on for dear life. Without the power to punish would-be thieves or any water around, she had very little to offer but the occasional encouraging word. It was about half an hour later that the bottom did come into view, coming to a steep angular connection with the other side, and the bottom covered in frozen ice.

Tom stopped, looking at the frozen river, catching his breath. “So… follow the frozen river downstream, if we can figure that out? And hopefully find somewhere warm soon, that quick nap before the dragon fudged it didn’t do much for me… how are you two holding up?” he turned to Wave and Eric both, shivering just a bit, but feeling warm enough from the exertion of climbing down.

Eric was breathing hard, looking a bit winded, but nodded in agreement to the plan. “Do you happen to remember which way was downstream all those years ago, Wave? At least, relative to the temple.”

Wave's face scrunched up with thought as she considered the river one way to the other. "Put me down a moment and I can figure it out. But only a moment! That stuff looks cold. What is it anyway?"

Tom got down to a knee, shivering a bit as he felt the cold on his knee. “Ice? It’s frozen water, is that what you’re asking about?” he asked her, gently lowering her onto the ice. “The top of the water is frozen, and since I can’t really see the water flowing below it, it’s probably a bit thick. Knowing my luck, it’s the height of winter right now.” He remained kneeling, so that it’d be quick to pick Wave back up when she was done.

“You have good luck then? If this is summer, we’re in for a rough time,” Eric mused.

Wave set her hooves down on the ice and closed her eyes, feeling for the flow of her natural element. Deep within the ice, she could feel the slumbering water, and a trickle deep beneath it. "It goes that way." She pointed ahead. "You're right, it is water. Sleeping water."

Gently grabbing Wave, Tom grunted a bit as he stood back up, looking in the direction she’d pointed. “Well… looks like we’ve got our direction now, just gotta be careful not to bust our ass on the ice. Also, if we need em, I’ve got some of those ice spikes in this bag here,” he told Eric, letting out a tired yawn. “I’ll try to push for as far as I can.”

Eric followed along. “Okay, at least we have a direction. I’m not really well versed in this wilderness stuff, but I’m wondering if we should like… make a shelter for ourselves while we can all still move, and get that rest you so badly need? I could use some rest myself, and it’d be best to carry on in better shape in case something goes wrong.”

Wave looked around the narrow walkway. "Are we going to rest on the ice?" She held close to Tom, drawing warmth from him to help ignore the ever-present chill of the outside world. "Will that work?"

“Not on the ice, least I don’t think so… I’ve read fantasy books before, but they don’t really cover the stuff like this.” Tom looked around, trying to see if anything could be identified as viable shelter, or at least a place to make one. “And, we really don’t have a whole lot to work with, either. Like I said, I have great luck…” he grumbled, still scanning.

“If we had tools, we could maybe carve a niche in the wall, or build an igloo or something. But for now, let’s just walk and keep an eye out then,” Eric said, resigned to the trek.

With little choice but the plow forward, they set out along the ice, barely keeping feet stable. The snow was, somehow, proving to be a moderately more secure footing than where the ice poked free of its frozen depths. The light began to dim rapidly as the day ceased to be, an unseen alicorn somewhere sent it off to bed and left our travelers with nothing to work with.

As the last of the normal light faded away, the lantern was fumbled with once more, its light provided much needed guidance in the dark canyon. Tom was dead tired now, eyes drooping as he found that whatever Wave had done to his eyes was still in effect, able to see well beyond the distance of the lantern’s light. With a misstep, he let out a yelp as he foot slipped, landing on his back on the frozen ice and snow, groaning.

Eric moved forward to help, though unsure what to do. “Tom, are you-- No. What’s wrong? How bad is it?”

Wave squeaked at her sudden drop onto 'her' human's belly. "He's broke!" she offered as an answer to Eric. "Fix him."

“Ow… my back hurts a bit, and if I had an ego, it’d be toast,” Tom groaned in reply, blinking a few times to clear his vision. “And my ass, that hurts too. I think I’m just gonna… lay here for a few.”

“I don’t suppose your gods provided you any magical healing powers, Wave?” Eric asked, before examining their surroundings, trying to figure out somewhere they could set up a makeshift shelter. “You said you have ice spikes? Any other tools?”

Wave shook her head back and forth. "I'm a guardian, not a… healer? I guess. Neither of you two stole anything from the temple, so I'm on my own, and so are you." She pulled herself off of Tom and slid across the ice. For all her complaining, little immediately bad happened to her besides looking cross. "What can we do?"

Slowly moving into a sitting position, Tom peered at Wave. “Then how’d you do whatever it was to my eyes? You’ve got magic of some kind, yeah?” he quietly asked her, taking in a deep breath. “If you have any magic you can do that can help us make a shelter of some sort… we rest, that’s what we do. Nothing’s broken, so…” he trailed off, gently poking and prodding himself. “Yeah, nothing broken except my pride.”

“From what I know, ice can actually make a decent insolation. We can either carve a shelter, or maybe if we can cut out some ice blocks we build one. And then drag Tom inside and enjoy the relative warmth of not letting all our body heat blow away. Rest for the night and move on.”

Wave rubbed at one of her ears with a hoof. "I had that before I became a guardian. I was a siren. That had its own bag of tricks." She lifted her shoulders. "None of which involve rivers of, ice? It was ice right?" She rolled around, getting her tail under herself at a new angle as she sat up on it, supporting herself. "Maybe there's a cave?"

As she asked this, a soft rumble was heard in the distance, like thunder. The faint sound of discussion was more interesting, coming from so very far above, echoing down the valley's walls.

“A siren? That sounds interesting, if it’s similar to the ones back home… they were known to lure sailors to the water and their voices when singing could captivate others…” Thomas mused aloud, before pausing and looking up. “I… Eric, Wave, do you hear that? Those echoes sound like someone talking, I think?”

“Just as long as we’re in agreement that you aren’t going to murder us... “ Eric commented, before getting quiet to listen to the voices. “Do you think we should shout? We could use some help if they’re anyone friendly.”

Wave cleared her throat before tilting her head back and letting out a long held note. The deep audio blast made the icy snow on either side of the canyon shake and quiver, creating disconcerting avalanches that collapsed them inwards, though each was thankfully small in size, inching closer to the team but never quite reaching them.

Tom covered his ears with both hands, watching in fear and awe at the ensuing avalanches. “Holy crap, Wave… well, if whoever is up there didn’t know we were here, I’m pretty certain they know now. Let’s just hope they’re friendly?” he hopefully added on, slowly getting to his feet, looking around at the aftermath of Wave’s note.

“Likely more friendly than the wolves? Too late for regrets now, anyways,” Eric said, scanning the top of the canyon for signs of movement.

The movement didn't keep Eric waiting long. The glittering form of a gem pegasus came sailing down to peek at the group with wide and curious eyes. The stallion tilted his head at the siren and two humans before turning to depart.

Wave held out a hoof quickly. "Wait! We need your help!"

The stallion hesitated and peeked over his shoulders. "You aren't monsters waiting to eat me?"

“No, we’re not… just really tired, very sore, and could use some help… a lot of help, really,” Tom remarked, although he sounded a bit distant, staring at the pegasus. “You’re very… sparkly. That would mean… are we near the Crystal Empire?”

“No hungry monsters, just very lost and very cold people in need of a helping… hoof. Wing? Both,” Eric added.

The beige-colored pony bobbed his gem-like head, mane bobbing. "If you say so. Um, let me go get some help. I'll be right back, alright? Promise!" And off he went, zipping back up out of sight.

Wave tilted her head at her friends. "Think he'll come back?"

Tom watched the pegasus’ retreating form. “I hope to God he does… the Crystal Empire should be warm, at least warm enough to not worry about freezing our asses off. And fresh food, and a nice bed… either way, we really don’t have a choice, do we?” he asked, looking to Eric for his opinion as Tom slowly took a small step, making sure not to lose his footing. His entire body was aching, no point adding to it further.

Eric thought a moment before thinking to ask, “uh, Wave, before our future hosts return, can I ask a quick question. As a former siren, what exactly do you, you know… eat?”

Wave perked an ear. "Fish is my favorite, but I haven't had to eat in a long time." She ran her tongue over her teeth. "Think I do now that we're not in the temple? Gosh I hope not. I'm so not used to eating and pooping and things."

Before this matter could be considered too heavily, the pegasus returned, carrying a long and heavy looking rope between his hooves. "My friend said he can help pull you up." He let go of the rope, letting it fall limply between the group. "There you go!"

“I’m guessing one at a time,” Tom paused, looking at the pegasus, “Whoever you are? Thank you for helping us though, it means a lot to the three of us here.” Tom looked at the end of the rope, then to Eric and Wave. “Probably best to tie it around our waist when being pulled up, yeah?”

The pegasus gave a thumbs up, which was a curious expression for not having a thumb, but clearly moving his leg and hoof as if that was the intended effect. "No problem! We'll have you out of there in no time. Let me go help him." And he zipped back up where he came from.

“Tom first,” Eric suggested, grabbing the end of the rope and pulling it over. “Then Wave, and I’ll go last.”

“Sounds fine to me… I’ll try not to fall asleep on the way up,” he weakly joked, grinning at them both as he carefully tied the rope around his waist, then wrapping it around his hands to make sure he wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. “I’ll see you both up top, Eric, Wave.”

One by one, they were pulled to the top, finding their other rescuer was a bright white crystal pony with diamonds for eyes, and cutie mark. She was also quite strong, and easily hauled each to the top when it was their turn. They were rescued from the ravine. Surely it could only improve from there, right? Next Chapter: 7 - Sit a While and Listen Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 50 Minutes