The explorers, lighter and lighter with each step, climbed up Mount Shimbuz, using their trekking poles to aid in gripping the surface.

"Just think," said Gon, "this is the highest any human has ever been."

"debatable," Rer said, slipping his feet on the clouds of almost buoyant snow.

"lay off on this guy's religion, Gon," said Larsh, "don't be so disrespectful."

Gon stuck her tongue out at Larsh, but quite regretted it. She buttoned up the top of her coat.

"I know we've been to the Moon," Rer said, looking up at the enormous white hemisphere sinking in the west, through the great white arch in the sky. He pondered which of the visible craters it could have been which those chariots had visited so long ago.

"Look, sun's going down for the fifth time today. Maybe we should take a bit of a rest now," Larsh said.

"Good idea. Looks like there's a little flat spot a hundred meters away. We'll set up the tent there."

It wasn't too long before they'd set up the tent, being sure to drive the stakes into the permafrost as completely as possible, and packing it with ice.

Gon woke up first, but her scream woke up the other two pretty quickly, and then they both screamed as well. They hugged each other, waiting for the impact that never came... "we're still falling? Seems like it shouldn't be taking this long," Larsh said. The slowly tumbling tent had been falling for a good thirty seconds by now, and still no impact, and so Larsh unzipped the tent and looked outside.

"What in the name of..." Larsh saw the mountain, surrounded in storm clouds, and they were a good several miles above it.

Rer and Gon stuck their heads out of the tent as well. "Oh my god, we're not falling DOWN. We're falling UP."

For several hours the three drifted in their tumbling tent on the wind, getting higher and higher until the mountain went beyond the horizon. Without much to do, they speculated on their situation.

"We've been lifted up by the gods to join their kingdom, perhaps," Rer said. "Just as they did when the days were longer."

"There must be a physical explanation," Gon said, "I mean, the wind must have lifted us up since our weight meant nothing."

"That would mean we'd eventually fall back down," Larsh said, "and when we do, we might end up in a place where weight DOES have meaning, and that won't be fun."

"We could use the tent as a parachute," Gon said, "it might work if we start falling again."

"What if we were in the arch? And that's why we're up here, we're kept up by the same winds that keep the arch up!"

"I dunno," Gon said, "it doesn't feel all that windy." Gon peeked her head out the window and could see a white speck shining in the distance.