With the three of them tied to the line, they began to make their way down the rock. For Liska, it didn’t seem too difficult. She had grown up on the sides of mountains after all, and climbing was almost as natural as flying. But Lug was struggling and nearly slipped more than once. It was a relief when the broken section of rock turned out to be only twenty metres high and they set foot on solid ground again.

‘Is this the bottom of the mountain?’ Lug asked, eyes shining with hope. ‘That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps this journey won’t be so hard after all.’

Liska laughed. ‘We’ve hardly started! Haven’t you seen how high the mountains are? This isn’t even halfway.’

The next section did have a much better path however. It led them under some overhanging rocks and into a world of tumbledown boulders which was dotted with twisted, half-dead trees. Their way led in amongst the stony mess and looked like some kind of mind-bending maze.

‘I’m not too sure of the route through,’ said Elowen. ‘Not with this mist covering everything.’

‘Why doesn’t Liska fly up and spot the way?’ Lug suggested.

Liska waved her arms through the thick fog that surrounded them. ‘What do you think this is, genius? If I fly up, all I’m going to see is white fluff. And I might never find my way back to you either.’

‘Oh.’ Lug pouted. And then his face lit up. ‘But then we’d have to go back home, wouldn’t we?’

‘No,’ said Elowen. ‘Then we’d probably stay lost on the mountain and starve. Or this Thresher person would find us and slice us into sausages.’

Liska shook her head at Lug before returning to the problem of getting down the mountain.

‘Perhaps we should leave a sign in case we double back on ourselves?’ Elowen suggested.

Liska nodded and made a simple arrow on the pathway out of some rocks and a twig.

She worried for a moment that the hunter on their trail might use it to find them, but then figured it was more important that they didn’t get lost. Besides, Lug was probably leaving a trail clear enough for anyone to follow with all his scuffing and slipping.

Keeping themselves tied together with the rope, they plunged into the misty maze.

*

The narrow path wound in between boulders the size of houses, around stacks of stones that looked as though they had been purposefully piled. It reminded Liska of something Elowen had said back in the stairwell.

‘Is this the place you called the Kitten Kingdom?’ she asked.

‘Kittimew,’ corrected Elowen. ‘Yes, I believe they used to live somewhere around here.’

‘What exactly are they?’ Lug asked from the back of the line. ‘Are they as cute as they sound? Do they have pink button noses and fluffy-wuffy ears?’