The blistering cold hit Alton in the face as soon as he passed through the portal. The winds at this altitude desperately tried to pull his furry cloak from his shoulders. The small clearing where the portal was centered was covered with thick snow. The nearby trees had icicles hanging from their branches and mounds of snow around their trunks. Looking out at the surrounding mountain ranges, this appeared to be only mountain with snow on it, though it was by far not the tallest one. The trees on the surrounding mountains had a nice thick layer of green leaves, while the trees here seemed dead and frozen.

His team members appeared moments later as the portal flashes, their faces pinched as the cold air hit their faces. First through the portal was Al-thai, a giant of a man who moved like a shadow and did not appear to notice the cold. Tess was perched on his right shoulder and appeared with him. Bundled as she was, it was almost impossible to see her wings. Next through the portal was Captain Valerien, [describe captain]. Last came Jovil, a stocky dwarf with symbols of Fharlanghn emblazoned on his shield and armor.

Each of them came through and headed straight forward to Gerod, nodding or smiling at Alton as they passed. The sight of his friends and colleagues warmed Alton's heart, they have been like family to him since they saved him and Tess. Gerod was a short distance away, crouched in front of a small fire. He had been on the road for weeks traveling from headquarters to this distant mountain top to set the destination for the portal. The importance of this mission required that they travel quickly and nothing is quicker than by portal.

"You better hurry up boss, Gerod looks ready to leave," said Quiggley from above Alton's right shoulder, "and I am freezing my tail off.

"Silence," mumbled Alton, "They don't want to hear you complain. And you don't even have a tail, you are made of smoke." But he still picks up his pace and heads over to the fire to get his report from Gerod.

The captain and Gerod were already speaking when Alton worked his way around his friends’ legs to get to the fire. "...must be in one of the many caves further up the mountain. There are many dangerous creatures around the peak, so I could not scout more. But it must be near the peak. The portal will be reopened at dusk in three days. If you are not here when it opens, you will have a really long way to get back to the capital," said Gerod. “There are others who search for it as well, but our need is great so you must get it first.”

Captain Valerien was nodding his head in understanding, “We shall be here with the axe, just make sure that the portal is open.”

When their brief discussion was complete Gerod rose from his crouched position, gathered his things, and walked through the portal. A quick flash and he was gone and the portal was closed and they were alone with the howling wind and the biting cold.

Alton tugged at his thick furry cloak, trying to fight off the shivering that was already working its way through his body. “Do you think you could do something about this cold?” he asked to Quiggley.

“Not without burning your clothes, and you said I mustn’t do that,” he replied as he flew around Alton’s head, trailing wisps of smoke behind him.

The captain and Jovil were talking strategy as Tess took to the skies and Al-thai to the shadows to scout the surrounds and look for a path forward. Alton stopped listening shortly after they began, it was hard to stay focused on such things and besides he wasn’t big on the whole fighting thing. Alton only came along because Quiggley refused to help without him. Quiggley was quite powerful though, and Alton knows he could be important.

After a couple of moments, Tess semi-gracefully fell from the sky and immediately bundled her wings back in her cloak. Her beak shivering so quickly that she couldn’t speak for a couple of moments. “There are a couple of paths that lead up the mountain,” Al-thai said.

As he spoke, Alton jumped a little at the suddenness of his appearance. How someone so big can appear out of nowhere is a wonder all its own. “None look to difficult to climb though.”

“We better hurry if we plan on getting far before dusk, and I would not want to be wandering around a cliff in the dark,” said Valerien.

Finally being able to speak, Tess says, “I saw some weird pillars up on a cliff up the mountain. They definitely were not natural, maybe we should check there first.” Her speech was a little difficult to follow because of the chattering of her beak, but Alton could figure it out and it seemed the others could as well for they were nodding their agreement.

With Tess perched on his shoulder, Al-thai leads them through the snow covered woods toward one of the less difficult paths. With the snow being up to his chest, Alton decided to let the captain break the snow and make a trail. Being less than half the height of your companions can be a challenge sometimes, but it all works out because he can remain inconspicuous whenever there is danger. The path was mostly clear and after a short time, the mountain pass opened up into a large level area, though it was still covered with trees.

“This must be the first plateau, I saw several of them going up to the top. There was some smoke over that direction,” Tess stated.

Jovil looked over at her, “Don’t you think that would have been good to know? Could you tell what caused it?”

“No… but it was probably just some campers or natives or something. It definitely looked like it belonged to a small camp. Oh! We can ask them if they have seen the axe.”

Valerien just kind of smirked at her, “I think it would be best if we tried to see who lives at the camp before we decide to go asking them questions.”