The mountains were as treacherous as the villagers had warned. Most told Mau to turn back; that at this time of year it was nearly impassable to get through due to the endless snow and high chances of constant avalanches shifting the mountain passes almost seemingly at random on a daily occurrence.

The biting chill of frost-laced winds stabbed Mau down to the bone even through the thick fur-lined clothes she had procured just for this trip, and she clutched her fur-cloak tightly to her chest in a vain effort to keep warm. The thick pelt was something of a prize she had earned for herself after several days of tracking a lone wolf to their den in the wild and hunting it down, The plush grey fur would have been perfect for colder climate if not for the fact that the mountain itself seemed as though it were actively trying to kill Mau as she trudged along the narrow pass, small fur-boots sinking deep into the snow and leaving a trail of light footprints in her wake. She was pretty sure she was the only person even daring to climb the mountain in this deadly weather. Mau's breath puffed and hung visibly in the air as her hands trembled in her gloves, but she soldiered on, reaching a point where she had to keep her back pressed to the mountain stone while she inched across a thin snowy precipice.

Even the slightest slip would send Mau plummeting into the ravine below, and it took her a concerted effort to simply not look down as she edged across the tiny footpath, shuffling inch by inch until she reached the other side and was able to plant her feet soundly on the other side.

"Phew..." The kitten breathed a sigh of relief. The people in the village at the foot of the mountain must have thought she was insane; traveling alone and wanting to climb the Giants' Steps at this time of year, especially at her young-seeming age. But the Hero had climbed and crossed many mountains in their time, and one treacherous mountain pass was like all the others if one was well equipped and prepared for the dangers and threats of heavy snowfall, rocks, and treacherous passages, and Mau had made sure to stuff her pack with enough climbing gear, food, rope, and warm clothes for two people, just to be on the safe side.

The snow was beginning to come down heavily, and soon enough Mau couldn't see several feet past her nose. This made the trek exceptionally dangerous as she would barely have any time to react in the event of a falling rock, or worse, a frost troll lurching down the path to give her a friendly greeting. Though in the event of the latter happening, she at least knew the firebolt spell to fend for herself, but even that was risky as the heat and sound of the spell going off could cause a freak avalanche and leave her trapped high on the mountain with no means to turn back or go forward. That would be bad.

Eventually Mau hit another issue, but thankfully it was one she had prepared for. Part of the pass must have crumbled away entirely in a previous storm, leaving her with a rather large gap of open air between where she stood and where she wanted to be. Puffing irritably, she unslung the pair of climbing hooks she had stowed in loops at her belt and geared up to cross.

Hammering a piton firmly into the stone wall, she tied a rope to the stake and tied the other end to her belt in the event of a slip, misstep, or fall, to prevent a sheer and fast trip back down the mountain. There was a reason she had come this far, and she wasn't going to let a little thing like the lack of a path deter her from her goal as she rammed one of her climbing hooks into the icy stone wall. Once it was firmly in the rock she found herself a foothold and rammed her second hook into place. It was slow going, especially burdened by her heavy pack. Her breath burned coldly in her lungs, and she was starting to sweat under all the fur as she inched across the gap, using every ounce of her upper body strength to hold on to one hook while the other found a new purchase in the mountain.

Half way across the gap she hammered another piton in and roped herself on before proceeding to inch further across. Until a particularly chill wind gusted by, strong enough to shove Mau. Time seemed to slow. Her grip slipped. With a mewl, she lost hold on one of her hooks, where it was embedded in the mountain. Her footing went next, and the kitten started to fall...

❧

"Mother, it's time for me to go."

The words were harder to say than Mau had expected. It had been just a month since she single-handedly wiped out the goblin den, and since then, things had changed drastically. Though the townsfolk were bewildered at first, word and rumors quickly spread amongst them that little Mau was responsible for chasing off the goblins, even though Mother and Thrain had done everything they possibly could to keep the truth from spreading, it spread anyway, and even in some places blew out of proportion.

Mother paused, going stock still as soon as she heard those dreaded, fateful, words. Only her tail flicked occasionally to show that she wasn't a statue as she stared intently at her daughter.

"What do you plan to do?" Mother eventually asked, her throat tight and dry.

Mau scrunched her eyes shut and remained silent for a beat. She had no intent to lie to the woman anymore.

"Northeast." Mau said after a beat. "There's a mountain range."

"The Giant's Steps." Mother said, nodding. "What's there?"

"There's a tribe that lives in the plains inside the mountain range; a tribe of riders and raiders." Mau said.

"... You're going to wipe out a tribe of raiders, next?" Mother asked, incredulous. Mau shook her head.

"I'm going to live among them," she said. "I need to train, grow stronger, build myself up from the ground up, if I'm going to fight the Demon Lord. It's... Not going to be easy. I remember all my skills and abilities from before but. This body is new, young, still has room to grow and learn, I..."

Mau's throat tightened as the realization set in. She really was saying goodbye. And she had no idea if she would ever see the woman again for the rest of their lives. She bit her lip hard.

Mother nodded quietly.

"I'll do everything to help you prepare. ... I know Thrain will likely help you, too." The woman mumbled glumly.

The next moment passed in silence as Mau wrapped her arms around Mother's waist tightly, she clung close and refused to let go. It surprised Mother, but she rested a hand tenderly on Mau's head, making her ears splay gently as they embraced.

"I never thought my little kitten would be leaving so soon..." Mother whispered. "But I believe in you. And I'll pray to all the gods that they watch your every step."

❧

The gods must have been watching.

It was on pure reflex alone that Mau's hands snapped to the rock wall and found a hold. Though the rest of her body followed shortly after, she slammed into the cliffside with a grunt as the wind was knocked from her lungs, legs dangling perilously in the air for a moment before she found a place to plant one foot- and then a place for her other. She must have fallen eight or nine feet before getting lucky and catching back on. Her breath came in quick, shivery, huffs as adrenaline flooded her system. She trembled both from the cold and from the fact that she came a hair's breadth from death, and scrunched her eyes shut tightly. Even with the rope at her belt, she didn't feel confident that it would have held her weight if she had fallen more than the distance she had. She didn't want to test it, either as she gripped the rope in one hand and started to pull herself up, one hand clutching the line while her other hand searched for a new handhold on the rock face. It was slow going making her way back up, but eventually, with a fair bit of strain and exertion, she reached where her climbing hooks were embedded in the cliff, and gripped them tightly.

Once again, she resumed her course to cross the gap, though it was much slower going as she busily tried to catch her breath and slow the rapid hammering beat of her heart. Eventually she reached the other side and planted her feet on solid rock once more. Immediately she collapsed to her knees, panting and shaking, hands planting deep in the snow, sweat dripped off her brow and her breath puffed hard and fast.

That made the third time this mountain has tried to kill her, on the way up. But once she recovered from the adrenaline rush and finally caught her breath she managed to push herself back up to her feet and gathered her gear.

"Cripes..." Mau huffed as she trudged her way down the path. It wasn't much longer before the snow fall was oppressive, the wind howled and every step became a struggle against the stabbing chill and fierce gusts that came hard enough to shove the kitten back several paces. This was becoming impossible, and if Mau didn't take shelter soon, the elements would be the end of her.

Thankfully, the mountains were littered with various caves, and it wasn't much longer before Mau was able to duck into one and out of the oppressive snow. She shivered as she shuffled into the darker reaches of the cave, a dark craggy space in the rock face that stretched in a long, thin, corridor into deeper darkness. Mau waited until her eyes adjusted to the dark before she drew her short sword in shivering fingers. As much as she wanted to rest, she couldn't just stop and let her guard down. She had to make sure the cave was clear before she settled down to relax, and began inching down the cramped path.

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Though she didn't hear anything other than the soft shriek of the wind blowing outside the cave, she pressed on, listening intently for any sound of life or movement deeper inside. At least the cave was warmer than the pass outside, so she had that going for her, but it felt like an hour had passed in no time at all, and the cave continued to stretch on. Briefly, Mau considered lighting a torch for just a little extra warmth. She could see just fine with her night vision, but she was chilled to her core as she sluggishly crept down the tight path.

It was two hours into her dark trek before Mau wearily considered giving up and taking a rest. But then her ears twitched. The wind outside hadn't stopped, if anything, it only sounded louder the further she went into the cave now, and she could see a faint light at the end of the tunnel in the distance.

Mau caught the luckiest of lucky streaks. The cave cut clean through the mountain to the other side, and as she emerged, shielding her eyes from the light of the setting sun, she stared down at a great and vast stretch of plains surrounded on all sides by the Giant's Steps mountain range.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She had made it.

With the cave thusly explored, Mau made her camp in the cave mouth overlooking the snowy plains below. Setting out the next day she descended the mountain, the path down being far easier than the one she had taken up, she reached the plains by nightfall and rested until the next morning in another cave closer to the foot of the mountain.

Now came the difficult part; finding the people she was looking for.

The Mongara people of the snowy plains lived as riders, nomadic and constantly on the move in the wide open lands ensconced within the Giant's Steps mountain range during the winter, during the summer they would leave via the opening in the mountains to the east and raid the surrounding countryside before returning to their cold lair for the winter months once again. They could have been anywhere and Mau had her search cut out for her.

In fact, a week had passed once she had descended the mountain, before she found any traces of life other than herself in the plains. But the hoof prints of horses were a sure sign of hope that she was getting closer to the people she sought. It was a day later that the gods smiled on Mau and her search; or perhaps they were screwing with her, she always found it hard to tell, knowing that the lot of them were usually keeping an eye on her progress from up above. Sometimes it felt like they were rolling dice to make her life harder or easier just for fun.

She had been busily tracking a fresh set of hoof prints so intently that she almost smacked face-first into the horse's ass, where the beast was drinking from an unfrozen section of a creek. Now where there was a horse, there was sure to be a rider close by. Mau hid herself in the brush and waited. Sure enough a man in heavy furs and hide clothes emerged from the trees nearby, returning to his steed. Slung over his shoulder was a large bow and quiver of arrows, and in his arms he carried a young doe that he had been hunting. Rather than approach though, Mau waited for the man to load his quarry onto the back of his horse, climb on, and ride off into the distance before she moved from her hiding space and followed their trail. She tracked him for the better part of the day, heading farther and farther away from her basic camp at the foot of the mountain and deeper into the snow-drifts and icy plains.

It was when the trail suddenly went cold that Mau furrowed her brow. She was an experienced and expert tracker, and still couldn't pick up where the trail had vanished off to. It was only then that she realized she was surrounded.

It was this realization that saved her from an arrow to the skull; she heard it coming before she saw it. And as her ears twitched, Mau jerked her head aside. The arrow whizzed by her cheek, close enough to whip through her dark hair. Lifting her fingers to her cheek, she pulled them away slick and bloody from the cut on her face from the razor sharp arrowhead that had just barely grazed her. That would certainly leave a mark. But it also seemed that her split second reaction to being shot at either impressed her attackers or made them curious, as several figures stood up from the snow drifts surrounding her, all wearing similar clothes of heavy fur and hide. Mau raised both hands in a signal of non-aggression and surrender.

"You're a long way from home." One of the men said. He was older, with greying hairs tugged back in to a short tail and a dark beard streaked with grey. Clearly he was the leader. And Mau nodded to his assessment before he spoke again: "What brings a little kitten like you out to our plains, hmm?"

Mau's eyes drifted from each figure to the next; the hunting party consisted equally of men and woman, some younger some older.

"You do." Mau answered. "I came here to live among you and your people." Honesty was likely the best recourse here, and she had no reason to lie about her intentions, either.

But her answer was met with amused laughter as every member of the hunting party had clearly found her reply to be amusing.

"You came to live among us?" The leader of the hunters scoffed. "You're out of your mind and your league. What makes you think you have what it takes to be amongst my people?"

"I climbed the mountain." She said, indicating the highest peak to the south. "I tracked you down, didn't I?" She also pointed out. "I even survived your ambush."

This hushed the hunters for a moment as they seemed to consider the situation.

"And what's stopping us from just killing you here and now?" The leader asked.

"You won't." Mau retorted. "Because I'd be more valuable as an asset, and you know it. I tracked your people once. I could do it again leading a band of your enemies next time, if I survive." She said. "All I want to do is learn your way of life."

A hush fell over the hunters as they whispered quietly amongst themselves and their leader, before he nodded.

"Prove yourself, then." He decided before curling his fingers to his lips and whistled sharply.

"Suvdaa." He said, and there was silence for a beat longer before a girl roughly Mau's age pushed to the fore of the group of hunters. Her dark hair was cut short with two long locks framing her tanned face under the bear skin hood and cloak that she wore. She stared at Mau with cold blue eyes, and the two faced off.

"If you can defeat my daughter in combat we will welcome you amongst us." The hunter said.

The girl said nothing, she stared at Mau like a wolf ready to pounce, as the hunting party formed a circle around the pair and they squared off.

"Rules?" Mau asked.

"None." The hunter leader said.

Mau nodded and adopted a fighting stance. The Hero had been a capable martial artist in several lives, and Mau remembered each of them, and the skills she had learned and honed through all of them, as easily as she breathed. A contest of strength and hand to hand conbat

The girl shifted her footing imperceptibly, hands still held low to her sides as they circled one another, waiting for the other to make the first strike.

The hunters began to chant, a low and throaty lyrical language as they sang a song of battle and strength.

Mau lunged, moving like a flash she crossed the distance between herself and the other girl in an instant, her hands moving in a well practiced flurry of swift and decisive blows. She intended to end the fight as swiftly as it began with three consecutive jabs and a roundhouse kick to the torso.

There was just one problem. The girl, Suvdaa, matched her blow for blow. Her punches were parried aside before the girl brought her leg up to deflect the kick wholesale.

That was not something Mau had expected. Though she didn't hesitate to follow through with the momentum of her kick to swing her other leg up, leaping into a second kick that swung her whole body into the blow like a pendulum.

In the next breath, Mau choked as she was slammed to the ground, the wind knocked from her lungs in part from a swift strike to chest as her second kick was turned aside, the blow intending to drop her downwards in the same motion.

. o O ( Why am I on the ground...? ) Mau wondered, stunned.

She didn't have too much time to think on the matter, though, as a boot slammed into the ground where her head was just a second ago as she rolled herself aside and quickly stumbled to her feet.

It did not work out as Mau intended, as she pushed herself up. She been an incredible brawler in her past lives... How had she just been so easily turned aside and brought low like that? It vexed her, but she didn't let it agitate her, keeping her head cool even as she adjusted her stance into one more suited for defense. If she couldn't break the other girl's defense, she'd wait for an attack to come, turn it aside, and counter it with a swift and brutal reprisal. That was her new plan.

Her new plan failed as well, when the girl stepped into range once more. Mau and Suvdaa met blow for blow, several snake-like strikes swatted aside at first, but for each swift blow Mau managed to deflect, another swept in hard and punished her defense with crushing force.

"Ah...!" She breathed as she soon found her hands batted aside just as a crushing kick to the knee off-balanced her.

"Guh!" Mau sputtered when the next impact was an open palm to her throat.

She crumpled in an instant.

Coughing was a good sign. It meant her windpipe wasn't crushed. But it did not feel pleasant in the least as she rolled around in abject pain, vision blurring as she struggled to breathe. Mau spent a beat on hands and knees struggling to regain both her breath and composure while Suvdaa waited politely for her get up and give up.

"Are you done?" The girl asked.

But Mau was not going to give up. She struggled to her feet, wiping blood from the corner of her lip as she brought her fists back up into stance once more.

"No... You wanna give up now or after I put you down?" Mau retorted, hoarsely.

There were no more words after that as Mau and Suvdaa met once again. The clash was quick, brutal, and over before Mau understood what happened. She managed to parry several of the girl's swift blows with her forearms, but every blow was just as crushing and defense punishing as before; and just like their last meeting, Mau's arms were batted away.

Time slowed to a crawl. Intellectually, Mau knew what was going to happen next as Suvdaa's back foot lifted from the ground. She also knew, instinctively, that there was no chance of getting her defense back up in time to stop what was coming.

Suvdaa's leg snapped out with the force and speed of a gunshot, coming faster and faster with each passing millisecond until time had once again resumed its normal flow.

"Ah..." Mau whispered, understanding.

There was nothing she could do to stop it at all, as Suvdaa's foot slammed into her temple.

To her credit, Mau lost consciousness on her feet, as Suvdaa followed her high kick up by leaping upon her, twirling in midair and coiling her legs around Mau's neck in a sleeper hold that brought them both to the snowy ground.

Too concussed to even fight it, Mau's blurred vision quickly went grey, then dark as she went limp in the girl's choking grasp.

"Enough." The hunter declared. As soon as he so much as said the word, Suvdaa released the unconscious catgirl and rose to her feet.

There was a long moment of tense silence, before the hunters gathered their belongings, their prey, saddled up, and rode off.