ahold of yourself. You don’t know where you are. You aren’t sure if you believe the Queen or not. At the moment, all you need to do is find a way out of here.
He kept on walking and noticed that it was getting hotter with each step. He assumed that was not supposed to be the case if he was in the Frostland. The only explanation he could think of was that this was the boiler room, and it meant that he was back to square one in terms of an escape. He wiped his brow and went down the stairs to the bottom, where he saw a door.
“Wow, okay!” he exclaimed, touching the handle. It was so hot that he had to step away and nurse his hand. Not only were the walls hot, but so was the door that could have led to his freedom. “What is this place?”
There was no way he could get out of that door if he couldn’t even open it. At the same time, he was curious as to why this was hidden from people. If it was just a boiler room, why did someone need a secret passage for it? There had to be something else behind that door. He couldn’t open it, so whatever was kept there had to be dangerous or valuable. He stared at the door for a second and wondered if he should go back up. There was a path to his left, but he didn’t know where it could lead.
“On the other hand, I get to stay in a boring prison and have to be bait. I have to wait around for someone to save me,” he spoke his thoughts out loud. When he weighed his options this way, he realized that leaving was the better choice. “All right, let’s see where this leads now.”
He started to move to the left and noticed that things were getting cooler. Whatever world this was, the temperature kept changing drastically. This couldn’t be the Frostland. Judging from what Olivia had said, the Frostland was always snowing and cold. Even if they did have heat, it wouldn’t constantly change like this.
There’s one room with a hot door, and this hallway is cold. I wonder if this means I’m closer to seeing what’s outside. Once I figure that part out, then I’ll be able to figure out how to get home. I just hope Olivia is okay.
Once again, his mind went back to Olivia. It was funny—when she first joined his team, he had no idea what kind of person she would be. He never expected her to be his sole confidant about parallel universe exploration. Not only that, she was actually the one who had made it to another world without much effort. Regardless of whether the Queen or the Brotherhood were telling the truth, he knew that she was special. Deep down, their relationship felt like it could be growing into something more than friends, and he hoped more than anything that he wasn’t reading the signs wrong. Again.
~ ~ ~
Olivia was glad when the group stopped in the latest town, a small place known as Kojan. She had no idea where all the names for these towns came from, but made a mental note to at least remember them. Once they saved Donnie, together they could try to figure out the patterns between them. Kojan was a lot smaller than Thymasa, but it featured several small shops, and an inn that was big enough for all of them. Unlike Thymasa, people were walking around everywhere. They didn’t seem to be worried about the snow that was falling.
“Don’t they ever go inside?” Olivia asked.
“No, the people of Kojan tend to spend their days outside. The night falls sooner here than anywhere else,” Jei explained. “Since they don’t get much sun, they try to make use of what they get. Once the sun goes down, they go inside.”
“Is there a reason why this area doesn’t get much sun?”
“If there is, I haven’t found it yet. Anyway, we should probably stay here for the night. The sun is about to go down.”
They spent a while in one of the shops, checking out everything that was there. Olivia admired all of the things that were made of ice and snow. There were fountains that had water pouring out of them, cherubs made of sculpted ice, and all kinds of lovely animals carved in large blocks of ice. She could not understand their value