Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dekana's work must have caught the villagers' attention because he was invited out to go harvesting at a nearby glacier. He'd never been to a glacier before and now that the villagers were warming up to him it seemed, perhaps this trip could be useful!

He hadn't seen his group for a while now but then again doing things as a group had never really sat well with the stubbornly independent shadow panther. Their loss! Dekana did, however, expect a guide when he arrived at the place he was told to go but there was nobody around – not a soul. Their invitation it seemed had been a combination of 'bring us stuff' and 'you're allowed up there just don't die.'

So much for progress, Dekana thought as he climbed the cliffs onto the glacial plateau and began exploring. It was a rather beautiful place all crystalline and cold. The river that ran through the center of the field he was one was swift, narrow, and when he touched it to gauge his interest in swimming (he remember someone says glacial water was good for you) he yelped at the sharp cold.

He could see his breath as he walked but, surprisingly, it wasn't an uncomfortable cold, not after the villagers gave him some sort of potion they said would keep frost bite at bay. They'd also told him to find something called malachite ore.... big pretty blue-green crystal structures growing out of rock faces up here on the glacier. It must not be hard to obtain as they'd forgotten to send him in with any sort of tools... again.

The first time he'd gone up to the plateau he'd found a rather pleasant fishing spot and then some of the best honey one could taste... he tried to go in search of that same fishing spot but it eluded him. He wasn't sure if it was a trick of the area or if he was navigationally challenged. Maybe it was a little bit of both? He wanted that honey at least!

Determined to find it, set himself to wandering aimlessly to and fro across the glacier's field, climbing up onto ledges where bits of vegetation grew and even ducking into an ice cave that fairly hummed in crystalline sounds from the water rushing through beneath the surface. It was a hauntingly beautiful cave that drew him in deeper and deeper.

The walls were slick with moisture and where rock poked out it was festooned with mineral growths, lumpy and strange or somehow glowing if he touched it. Nothing quite matched the description he'd been given, however, and now that he was in the cave he'd completely forgotten about the honey and no wayward ponds or vegetation were present to distract him – Dekana had found a mineral vein which meant, possibly, he was close to finding the elusive malachite ore!

After some time wandering down a lengthy corridor, lit in scintilating blue hues from the sunlight that made its way through the ice-bound ceiling, he came to a dead end. It would have been the end had the wall, bare of ice, not been positively covered in blue-green crystals growing into each other and jutting out nearly the length of his arm.

Taking his collection bag from his pocket, he carefully tried to break a spike of ore off the wall and it came easily, snapping at the base. Strange, he though, but he did not question it. He filled the bag, thinking that perhaps it was the amount the villagers were looking for. If not, they could come back up here themselves.... he'd found an exposed vein. And he didn't fancy falling off again either!