[Jaykobell]

He wasn't interested in conversing with Kami anymore. The kid was going to leave once the storm was over, and then, Enric would go back to his little sheltered life. Maybe that kid would survive out there long enough to get to a town or something civilized, but really, if you got stuck on a snowy mountain without anything to survive in those conditions... Well, needless to the general ending was that the person would end up dead. Kami had that weird power thing that could will little animals to die, but that's all Enric knew about the kid, really. And did he care to know more? Nope.

When he heard Kami speak again, Enric readied himself for something stupid, or something cliché, or something really childish and not important. "Where do you think it would dra..." He was, indeed, about to retort with a snarky remark, but as he was speaking, Enric paused and turned around. Where did the water drain from here? If it didn't drain... this place would be flooded? The squirrel starred at the lake there, with its waterfall crashing down from the mouth above. "I... I don't know," he blurted out, genuinely taken aback by a question like that. Where? He... he had no clue. Baffled, the squirrel turned around to face Kami. "Sh... should it even matter?" His tone was snappy and disagreeable, but if you bothered to look at him, you'd see that Enric really had no idea about the lake, and that he'd never thought about it. For Kami to realize something like that, Enric most likely felt so stupid that he couldn't handle it. And thus — he had to hold face and do as if he had known all along. "It... it evaporates or... or something like that," he added quickly as he blurted out whatever explanation crossed his mind; he then crossed his little arms and frowned.

This squirrel was not very good at lying.

[Kodai]

Aha! So Enric didn't know where the water went, either. The poor Spider seemed extremely flustered that he didn't know, which made him even more upset, and so Kami figured it would probably be a good idea not to try talking about the subject with Enric directly. Instead, he decided to speak in the form of self-musings, appearing to talk more to himself than the squirrel. "Hmm... if there'ss a riverss or somethingss that goess out of the lakess... Iss wonderss where that would leadss? It'ss mysterious, like the waterfallss... Iss wonderss if they goess through tunnelss in the mountainss? And ifss there isss a riverss that flows outss from the lakess, and it goess through mountain tunnelss... Iss wonderss if it wouldss be possibless to follow itss? Maybess it would even goess all the way throughss the mountainss and end upss in the valleyss at the base? If it didss work like thatss... why, it couldss be possibless to travelss all the way throughss the mountainss without going outsidess!"

What an interesting concept, indeed.

[Jaykobell]

Even though he wasn't going to admit he hadn't known about the waterfall, Enric knew that he'd been extremely... unobservant. That lake was inside a mountain — inside a frozen mountain — and it didn't flood the entire clearing, and the lake clearly came from somewhere, beyond that huge mouth at the top of the waterfall. How did he never stop long enough to think and put two and two together...?

He was giving himself a harsh, cruel talking-to when he suddenly realized Kami was still talking. His ears twitched as the boy mused and started asking more questions than Enric could follow up with. He could, however, understand the big picture of Kami's thoughts, and he also took notice of a very specific assumption: that the lake drained outside, and that by following it out could potentially get him out. Enric didn't say anything for a while, just staring at Kami with his arms dropping by his sides and his mouth opened just a little bit. An exit... leading outside this godforsaken mountain...

Without so much as a warning, Enric leaped at Kami and latched onto his collar, his eyes staring deep into Kami's. "Is that possible?" he pressed the boy, his little paws pulling Kami's collar. "Are you fucking with me or is it possible? I could actually get out of this shithole?!" The thought of there being an exit was like a dream come true. Could there really be something? "Can you find a way out? Well, can you?!" Enric pressed, his expression becoming more and more like that of a rabid animal. Of course, only figuratively; Enric wouldn't attack Kami if the boy suddenly said that it was impossible for them to find a way out, but he certainly enjoyed the idea of there being an exit.

[Kodai]

Very abruptly Kami found himself with an extremely and aggressively excited squirrel clinging to his collar and demanding answers. Taken aback by Enric's sudden enthusiasm, it took him a few moments to collect his thoughts. "U-Um... Iss don't see whyss it wouldn'tss be possibless... I-Iss meanss, there'ss also a possibilityss that whatever riverss drainss out of itss just goess undergroundss more..." He didn't want Enric to be crushed if it turned out that his idea was wrong. Still, it was always good to have hope, right? "But there'ss still a chance, in my opinionss. We won't knowss unless we followss it, rightss? And Iss dun thinkss we have anythingss to lose, since ifss we do comess to the endss and we can't followss it anymoress, we can simply followss the trail back heress. But if it doess let outss, then we'll be abless to leavess this place." That was how he saw it, anyway, but judging from Enric's incredible reaction to the news that there could possibly be a way to get out of here, Kami was sure the Spider would be willing to see things that way as well. "We shouldss look aroundss the lakess and see if there'ss a river flowingss out of itss, first. Then we canss follow itss from theress."

[Jaykobell]

While he was half-half on the whole idea that there might be an exit that lead outside, Enric didn't want to foresee the possibility of this idea not getting him out of here. He was still kicking himself mentally for never thinking about it himself; but for now, he had to follow Kami's assumptions and hope that the kid was smarter than he looked.

Enric let go of Kami's collar and let himself drop down on the grass. "It has to lead outside, so knock on wood! If it just continues underground, we'll just have to dig our way out!" Of course, it was easier said than done... but for Pete's sake, getting out of here was the best thing he'd heard in forever! "It can't not lead outside! If it continued underground we'd have the same problem, right? It'd still flood this place!" If it continued underground, the place would eventually flood, right? If you pour water into a glass, it might reach the bottom of it, but if you pour too much, it'll overflow.

"Okay, so what do we check first and where?" Enric understood that Kami wanted to check to see if there was any opening for the water to drain out... but where were they supposed to look? "Couldn't we just... get out through the opening up there?" he asked, pointing up at the waterfall. That ought to lead them outside, right?

[Kodai]

Kami thought about Enric's remark about the water having to lead outside for a minute. "Well, Iss guess it wouldss floodss this place after yearss of building upss undergroundss, so yeah! You must be rightss; it must go outsidess." That idea would surely please the squirrel. "Oh, the waterfallss..." Kami looked up at the crashing column of water. "Well... That couldss lead outsidess, suress, but since waterss flows downss from high placess, we'd just be goingss further upss the mountainss. That'ss what you wantss to avoidss, rightss? Going outsidess and being on topss of the mountainss?" Standing, the boy began to walk along the lake shore, continuing his thoughts. "If we can findss a riverss that leads out of the lakess, we can followss it down the mountainss, and hopefullyss we'd eventually reachss the base. Even ifss we didn't getss to the base, we'd be farther downss the mountainss than we are nowss and presumablyss closer to civilizationss, so maybess there'd be less chance of usss running intoss another Spider." He looked back at Enric. "The peakss is wheress the most powerfulss Spiders would be, rightss? Since humanss can more easilyss make their wayss around the lower partss of the mountainss and wouldn't getss lost so much down theress. And they couldss get helpss more easilyss near the base than at the topss. Rightss?"

[Jaykobell]

"But if it leads up the mountain, the water wouldn't go down, right?" Enric argued, certain the waterfall couldn't be leading to the top of this mountain. The water would just freeze outside, so why or how could the water run all the way down here? Plus... why would a river suddenly flow in the frozen mountains? It couldn't even be there, right? The water would freeze before it got anywhere. "Plus, how do you expect a river to run on a frozen mountain? It couldn't even get anywhere."

Still, they had two possibilities. The water was running from top to bottom. There had to be a hole or something leading somewhere outside. Likewise, the waterfall had to come from a hotter environment than the top of the mountain. Enric walked over to the edge of the water, getting down on his knees and staring down in the water. "Even if there is a hole down there," Enric mused, narrowing his eyes, "how do you want us to get anywhere? Neither of us can breathe underwater." So even if they got inside a hole or whatever... How would was it until they got outside? Could they hold their breath that long? And how deep was this little lake?

... Not to mention... getting his fur wetter than he had to? Enric didn't fancy that, he had to admit.

[Kodai]

"Wellss, if the waterss was moving fast enoughss, it wouldn't freeze, rightss...? Even if isss just the topss is frozenss, water can still flowss underneaths..." He was pretty sure he'd heard of rivers that didn't completely freeze over in winter because the water flowed too quickly, but he wasn't much of a science person. For all he knew, those could just be urban legends, but he had no idea how the water was getting here otherwise. They were on the top of a mountain, after all – unless there was some sort of hot spring inside it, there wasn't going to be any warm place here. Kami couldn't help but share Enric's feelings about swimming, though, especially in water that flowed through the top of a mountain. Even if they avoided drowning, they'd probably end up with hypothermia. "Iss was thinkingss maybess if there wasss a riverss that let outss from the surface, we couldss follow thatss," he explained, "but Iss guess it's possibless that it wouldss just flowss into smaller and smaller tunnelss, and we wouldn'tss be able to follow thatss..." The boy looked up at the waterfall, trying to see what was up there. "If we canss find a wayss up theress, we can followss it to whereverss it goess... and ifss it goess outsidess at all, we can simplyss follow it backss here to try a differentss way." They just had to keep trying, right?