Gary was small enough to fit through a hole in the stick wall. Jerry would climb the wall to the top with powerful claws and Gary would make sure the coast was clear. All the while, Charlie was pretending to laugh and making the most annoying sound. Gary got out the hole and flew up through the hole at the top of the cave. He was going to find just the right person to help the others escape. 

Gary made it out the hole on top and looked at the glacier. It was indeed a glacier and he had thought nothing else of it every other time he had flown over it. This time he knew it was a prison and his friends were counting on him.

Gary flew straight to Barry the Badgers house. Flapping and abruptly landing, making quite a ruckus, Barry came out the door on the ready for a fight.

“Oh, it’s you. Do you have Charlie have a trick to play on me,” he asked as he turned his back to Gary?

“Barry, we need your help. Charlie is trapped,’ Gary explained.

“What did he fall in the watering hole, rock fall on his leg, paragliding accident, what is it this time, Gary,” Barry asked a little angry.

“Listen, Barry, I know we haven’t been nice to you or treated you with any amount of respect but Charlie has been captured,” Gary said.

“Don’t tell me, you found the glacier,” Interrupted Barry. 

“How did you know,” said Gary curiously.

“I have seen smoke coming from that area for the last couple of years but figured it was campers. I went to investigate last summer, I climbed to the top of the glacier where the mountain meets the ice. That is where the smoke comes out. It butts upright to the tree line which makes it deceptive from the sky, but from the ground, there were no campers and the smell is not just wood burning, whoever you found, they are cooking meat,” Barry explained.

“Sheep meat,” said Gary in a  low voice. “So you will help me,” Gary asked calmly.

“No, you and Charlie have your adventure,” Barry said with a half smile.

“You will let Charlie and Jerry die,” Gary asked loudly?

“Jerry is there too,” asked Barry with worry?

“Yes, we all went up to explore the people Charlie found up there a couple of days ago. They have not been friendly,” Gary was talking but Barry was rummaging through a closet. 

“Let me grab a few more things from my room,” Barry said as he walked through an opening.

Gary fell silent, a little confused, and then started again, “so, you will help us?”

“I am helping Jerry, Charlie is just a beneficiary,” Barry stated flatly.

CHAPTER 8 - TO THE GLACIER

Barry picks up a pack that he had packed very quickly, a slotted belt with pouches and metal tools arranged quite neatly, tools Gary had never seen before. Barry slid a trench coat over his pack and belt and tied it loosely with a fabric belt. With a look of puzzlement, Barry notices Gary looking at him. “Yes, it was me that broke into your bakery and stole your doughnuts,” Barry admitted.

“I filed a police report, they found rabbit fur,” Gary said, a little upset. 

Barry just gave a faint smile with a little laugh. “We all got secrets, Gary.”

They had drawn up a map before leaving and Barry studied it, folded it neatly and put it in a pocket inside his trench coat. 

Barry’s house was on the other side of the river from Charlies, maybe an hour's hike. Off they set Gary flying and Barry running. They made it to the river then to the stream and finally to the glacier. 

Gary carrying some rope, food and water, made his way to the top of the glacier on his way to meet Barry at the base of the glacier. He dropped the food, water and a note that said “HELP IS ON ITS WAY” with the rope down the hole he flew out of. He felt it hit the bottom and let go of the rope. 

Gary and Barry met at the base of the glacier about the same time a little ways off from the entrance. Barry was already there and had a weird contraption on his head. “What is on your head,” asked Gary? “Night vision goggles, we are going into a dark cavern and we need to see,” Barry stated. Gary had never heard of such a thing. 

They snuck closer to the entrance and hidden in the thick of the brush they could see two shaggy looking men, not fit and pale, in what would appear to be pillow cases down to their ankles of white cloth rubbed in dirt. Hygiene did not appear to be a priority for this group of people. 

Now to get in...