Phouka stepped up and tried to pull it, too. It seemed that it got easier and easier to see, and then Phouka turned to the sound of beating wings in the cave.

"You are tresspassers," hissed a luminously pale elf with black eyes and a pixie's wings, diamond tipped- just like Winter's. "Thieves!"

Phouka stepped forward and held his hands out.

"We will not steal," he said. "Let us bargain, guardian of the cave..."