[Silver]

"Ber! Berrr! Ber Berrr! Ber!" One by one the swarm of Bergmite started shaking and grumbling. "Ber! Berr! Berr!" The sound of them all calling out at once was making Amie's ears ring, since she was the closest to them. It was getting hard to think and she was really starting to worry that she'd be attacked by all of them at once!

Keo watched carefully. They didn't seem like they were going to attack, but he tried to formulate a plan to get her out of there, anyway. The last thing he wanted was for all of them turn from confused and curious to really angry.

[Silver]

Quark was pretty confused by all of the moving around. He couldn't pick an individual out of the crowd with how small they were and how much they were moving. He flew in circles trying to think of what to do. Sometimes flying made him feel better, but it didn't seem to be helping.

"What's going on?" Quark asked, the sound of many Bergmite calls and feet ringing in his sensitive ears.

"They're surrounding her, but they're not attacking," Keo said. He jumped down into the pile himself and deftly hopped around various Bergmite to get to Amie. It was tough going but he was just small enough to slip by mostly unnoticed.

[Silver]

Once again Keo couldn't help but to think that he was the only thing keeping these two idiots safe out here. The way his coat blended into the snow and ice made it almost impossible for the Bergmite to follow him, if they even wanted to. They were acting pretty weirdly, he thought, but they were sort of a strange bunch to begin with.

"I'll be right there," he called out to Amie, loudly enough so that Quark could hear him, too. He wasn't too worried about giving away his position, because before they could turn around he was already gone again. He was much faster than the tanky little icicles.

[Silver]

Keo slid to a stop just in time not to knock Amie over. She took a step backwards, but nearly got stabbed in the tail by another Bergmite. They were slowly surrounding her, and no matter which way she tried to move, there was another one. She squeezed into as small of a place as she could manage and sat down gently to take up less room.

"I think I'm stuck," she said to Keo, sounding rather defeated. "I wonder why they're not attacking..." she said aloud. Since they hadn't said much so far, she didn't feel like she had to hide her thoughts from them. They were going to do whatever they were going to do, and she didn't have much to do about it.

[Silver]

"Yea, I'm not sure," Keo said, looking around and catching his breath. They were all forming a tighter and tighter circle around the two of them, but they were making no more to attack or even really investigate them.

"Berr, Ber, Beeerg." They kept chanting that way, almost as if they were singing some kind of weird song.

"I think they're trying to communicate," Quark said, flying in close over Amie's head. He used her voice earlier to grab her position and flew over again to confirm that he was right. "I'm just not sure... what," he admitted. The sounds were too melodic to be random, but that didn't mean he could make sense of them, either.

[Silver]

Now that he had a pretty good idea where she was, Quark held his breath and landed on Amie's head. When he wasn't immediately ice beamed, he breathed out a long sigh of relief. This was all very stressful and he hoped they'd be done with it all soon.

"Do you think they want us for something?" Keo asked. He pawed at one of the Bergmite, but it didn't seem to respond in any meaningful way.

"Maybe they want to eat us," Amie said, oddly cheerfully considering the subject matter. Keo shot her a dirty look, and Quark's worried frown deepened with the thought.

[Silver]

"I don't think so," Quark said. Still shivering from the cold and the thought of being eaten. He knew these mountains would be the death of him! But perhaps not right that moment, since he got an interesting feeling from the chanting.

"Look at how they're moving," Keo said, craning his neck to see over the crowd. The Bergmite were all starting to swirl around and form some kind of shape in the snow. Maybe it was a sign of some kind. Keo really wished they would just talk and get it over with.

"Oh! What if they want to show us something!" Amie said cheerfully. That was a much better idea than her last one, but she said it in the exact same tone.

[Silver]

"Okay buddy, show us the way," Amie said, bending down so that she was eye level with one of them. Quark nearly tumbled off the top of her head, but he managed to brace himself against her ears just in time.

For once, it seemed like the Bergmite understood her. The one she had addressed turned around and started waddling through the crowd which parted to make room for it. Amie looked at Keo, shrugged, then started to follow it. Slowly the sea of ice types parted and they were able to walk through unharmed. Keo was still pretty suspicious, so he watched those around him very carefully without doing anything to directly anger them.

[Silver]

Suddenly, the Bermite stopped, then it wiggled its way back into the line along with the others. It watched on expectantly as though the trio of adventurers was about to do something exciting.

"Should we do something?" Amie whispered. Keo wanted to crack a joke about how he didn't know she even could whisper, but he bit his tongue. Now was not the time. He'd have to remember it for later.

"I think they want you to go forward," Quark said, hoping he wouldn't regret making that suggestion. This whole thing was really weirding him out, even more than usual, which was saying a lot.

[Silver]

"Okay, here we go," Amie said. As soon as she said that and took a step forward, the snow under her feet began to tremble.

Amie and Keo jumped back instinctively, and poor Quark tumbled to the ground. "Ugh, what happened?" he asked, trying to straighten himself up again.

Before they got the chance to answer, a huge mass shook off tons of snow, nearly burying them in it. Amie quickly pulled Quark out of the snow and Keo jumped up so that he'd end up on top of it. After all of that, they were standing in front of the largest Avalugg any of them had ever seen. They all looked at each other like they had no idea what to do next.

To their great surprise, the Avalugg bowed to them, and there it was: the broken antler. It was wedged in the cracks in his ice. Keo and Amie shared another silent look as if to say 'are you seeing this shit?'.

[Wild Pet Found]