“Fucking fuck. Shit, shit, shit.” Elia stomped around their camp, glancing furtively at the pass through which the rest of the group had disappeared with light loads after three days of acclimating. Three whole days.
It was barely anything, and definitely not enough.
Impatient, superstitious, naïve idiots.
They were impatient, because the snow had started melting. It was still halfway to her shins when they had decided to depart. They were superstitious, because despite a rumble setting off an avalanche a couple dozen feet from their base camp, they chose to see it as good fortune instead of the near-disaster it clearly was. And naïve? Naïve were they who thought that even after everything so far, everything that was happening before the real challenges, they had a lick of a chance to reach the summit in one piece.
Frey was too confident in the time-sensitiveness of this whole ordeal, and Karla too caught up in her heroics. Rye at least she could understand. She didn’t need to reach the top, only find a cure along the way before her sickness progressed.
On the other hand, Brod was with them. He was keeping an eye on the other giant; both seemed well accustomed to surviving in this place as well. And, well, Rye was as much an unstoppable force as Karla an immovable object, so she shouldn’t be worried.
But still, something was ticking her off. The whole thing reeked, but Elia was unsure which part.
Was their confidence unwarranted? Had they forgotten something critical? Was there a better path, did she smell fire or tar on the wind? Any excuse would do, and she would fling herself from a trebuchet to catch up with them if she had to.
What goes up must come down, though.
She looked up at the pass again. Everything was peaceful.
“God-fucking-dammit.”
“You’re swearing a lot today,” Nathan commented. “Didn’t you tell us not to do that?”
“Yeah, well, sometimes I feel like breaking the rules.”
“Oh no, you’re setting a bad example.” Erik ducked as Elia tossed a rock at him. “Bet your girlfriend is going to be so disappointed.”
He was sneering, sneering and being a brat. She didn’t have the energy to flip him off. At least Otis and Hannah were behaving. The former was juggling rocks, then dodging them with her [Flicker-step] boon, while the latter was busy poking holes in the dimming fire.
“If you hate being around us so much, why are you still here?” She jammed her stick deeper, sending a cloud of embers up the sky.
At her tone, Elia perked up. “I don’t… hate being around you.”
“Then why do you keep on hounding us with these Sisyphean tasks?” She gave up on her stick and stood up. “You’ve been sending us on runs while occasionally throwing the odd rock our way. Then you reward us with boons, but the next day you send us to do the same. You’re sending so many mixed messages and you haven’t even taught us anything useful.”
“I don’t know how to do this either, okay? This was Karla’s idea and she only got good enough because she was tough enough to keep up with my bullshit until she could gather a few ounces of competence. I am not teacher material; I can barely keep Quibbles from pooping inside my pockets.”
“That’s because he’s a toad.”
“He is a very well behaved one,” Nathan added. “Suspiciously well behaved.”
“He should be dead from frostbite,” Erik oh so graciously commented.
Quibbles croaked. He was indeed feeling quite fine, but only because Rye had knit a sock for him. It fit him like any human-sized sock would fit a toad. He was comfy, and among all those present that made him an exception.
Elia threw another pebble at Erik, from a sneaky underhand position. He managed to duck behind his metal round shield just in time, then emerged to give her the finger, which was when the second one ricochet off the stone wall behind and hit him in the back of the head.
“Quibbles is a mystery I don’t intend on solving, because his mystery doesn’t create any problems, only good vibes.” Unlike the mountain, which was giving her only the worst of the worst. “I just can’t bring myself to abandon you guys when I know you would all die horribly as a result. I’d have trouble sleeping for, like, a month.”
“Gee, wouldn’t want to mess with your sleep schedule,” Hannah said. “We can handle skeletons and some bad weather, we can come with you. Or we could go back on our own and let you go, and do your… lesbian stuff.”
I’m not lesbian, I think. Wait, I have a girlfriend.
Idly, she tossed a rock at Otis, intending to disrupt her balance. Instead, the Opossum-girl flickered in place, dodging the rock and catching the three she had been juggling one after another.
“Hmm, maybe you’re right. Or, well, based. Do kids still use that word these days?”
“No?”
“God, she is so dated,” Erik whispered to Nathan.
I did make a promise though. Could I keep them safe on the way up? Up…
“Does anyone remember how many people died on Mount Everest?”
“Everest?” Nathan asked. “A few hundred people have died since the twenties.”
“Eight-point-four a year, as of 2058.” Hannah blurted out. “It increased in turn with the amount of tourism, and I read in a book once that there was less chaotic weather before global warming as well.”
“Ok. Where do they die and why?”
“Not because of cracks in the glaciers, that’s for sure.” Erik scoffed. “Mom and Dad always yapped on about how you can’t get blinded by the climber’s high. But of course, with all the fucking mountaineer tourists up there, the idiots who don’t and still reach the top die on–“
“The way down.” Elia shot to her feet. “Big mountain. Veterans unshook by unusual dangers.”
She paced back and forth, glancing at the kittens every once in a while. “Need four grail-shards to safely ascend, but possible with less. Left with twelve people. Open to sharing rations; got caught out by Haeggis.”
“Little mistakes.” She thumbed her sword shaft when suddenly she froze. “Nathan, how long since they left?”
“‘Bout three, maybe four hours.” His boon [Arrows of all colors] could create exactly one arrow every hour, and he had been gathering them in his quiver on cooldown as a measure of time. “Why, do you want to run after them?”
“Not me, us.” She dug into the pile of discarded backpacks and tossed those filled with sprouting flowers. She tossed the ones she deemed safe-ish to the newbs and then filled a fifth one with jerky and other non-plant-based rations. “Light loads people, only what’s absolutely necessary.”
“What, is it time, are we finally going out for real?” Erik could barely hold the excitement from his voice.
“Light load my ass,” Hannah muttered as she slung hers across her shoulder.
“It will get lighter as time moves on. A lot lighter.” Elia tightened her clasps and belts. “They didn’t pack enough for a round trip, not for twelve.”
“Well, they could have supplies hidden further up.”
“They want the grail shards.” Elia was sure that was where their preparations had gone. “And there’ll be plenty of chances to get them on this godsforsaken mountain. We need to go and catch up to them, before someone has an ‘accident’.”
***
The air was crisp and fresh with the smell of adventure. Maybe that was just Karla’s infectious unrest. For every step they took, the louder she asked about the kinds of trials and tribulations they could face, and with every mention she seemed to want to go home that little bit more.
But whenever it became too much, she broke out in epic song in a language she likely didn’t understand, for that little bit of extra bravery. All the while, she was missing steps and threatening to slip right off the dilapidated bridge they were currently crossing.
As Sam and Rye pulled her up from a snow-covered hole in the architecture – though this time wasn’t her fault – Rye felt like throwing her off herself. Only [Threat music] and a timely reaction on Sam’s side had saved her from a dizzying fall.
Oh gods, was this how Elia felt watching me bumble around? Kill me now.
“Are you alright, Karla?” Sam asked.
The girl looked at the impossibly far ground below with a green face. “Bit my tongue.”
“Well, if that’s what it takes to learn you a lesson…” Rye turned to face the shadow that had come to loom over her. “You’re pretty sneaky for a giant.”
Frey looked between her and the slightly bloodied Karla. “I have soft feet. And you,” he nodded towards Karla, “You should take care. We cannot resuscitate you if you fall off the ledge or retrieve your items of worth.”
Rye dared another peek over the ledge.
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Anybody who falls that far is paste anyways.
Once Karla was back on her feet, they set along to crossing the unnecessarily long, crumbling bridge. It was a miracle that it was still standing. Unlike the last one, which – counter to Elia’s expectations – had not harbored a dragon, not all of the bridge's bridge-things were intact. One of the five support pillars was cracked, and another missing entirely. That wasn’t even to talk about the places where parts of the path underfoot had been blasted away by what seemed to be impacts from large objects.
Maybe it was due to a landslide, or maybe some god had had a particular grudge against someone standing right next to where she was.
Better move a bit to the side.
“So Frey,” she said, sidling up to the giant, “what kind of trials can we expect on the way forward?”
“There are many trials on Mount Gatheon,” she said, eying her for a moment before fixing her gaze back on a path winding away at the end of the bridge. “Many who failed to climb the mountain will have been hired by the gods to play at being a warden. There are nasty beasties too, the kind that settled here, and the ones that escaped from where those above held them as… pets. And then there is the climb itself of course,” she huffed. “We are still climbing the highest mountain in existence, and it is not friendly.”
“Any landmarks?”
“Yes, well, there is a castle halfway up. And the last challenge, the waterfall gate, well… you will have to climb a sheer surface, unless you are invited.” She coughed into her hands. “That will challenge me the most. I am not a young giant anymore.”
Rye was feeling spry as ever. Hooray for puppet-bodies! Now if only she could get her important bits to work, everything would be good. Sam had hinted at some incongruities before. And it was true, some parts of her body just didn’t feel right.
“When will we encounter the first trial of the mountain? Just a guess, if you would.”
Frey licked her lips. The air was dry up here. But Rye didn’t need to lick hers, not ever.
She pointed down over the side of the bridge. “See those lanterns? They mark holes where prisoners tried to escape from the depths below. It is where those enemies unwanted by the gods go; the Catacombs of the people of Xandria are only the start. If you take the wrong bend, you will never see light again. Do you see them?”
“Mhm.” What a terrible place. The gods must have a lot of enemies. Why else would there be so many holes?
“It is a good thing then, that your Elia-friend did not accompany us. She has a sense of… foreboding around her, as if the mountain rejects her presence.”
And if it had the chance, it would prove Elia’s paranoia justified ten-times over. “How much longer until we make camp?”
The giantess chuckled. “You are filled with so many questions. Not for another three hours. Until then, maybe you ought to eat something to tide you over. Ration?”
She offered her a greenly sort of object, fat melding the blend into a greasy brick.
“No thanks,” she said, nervously looking for the cause of distant jingling. “Elia made some ‘bento boxes’ for all of us.”
“She always does that when we go out adventuring,” Karla commented, rifling through her pack. “Hey. Mine is missing. This isn’t even my pack! I must have mixed it up. Can we go back miss giant? Please?”
“Miss Justice, we must ascend the mountain in haste and in one group, no exceptions.”
“I am not Justice!” she said, snatching the ration out of his hands and taking a few spiteful bites. “I am a princess, and you better get it right. Every time you don’t, you make my face hurt.”
Very princess-like manner of eating. I don’t think Elia has been the best of influences. Speaking of, there she is, jumping down onto the start of the bridge.
Rye did a double take.
Wait, why is Elia here? Oh gods, is this a test? Is she an illusion?
She brandished her pointing-wand.
“–yyye! Ryyye!” The tone of voice was right. And there was nothing else that would out her as a skin-changing beast. It would have had to copy the new blood as well, as the four of them were heaving and puffing not close behind.
With one last far jump, Elia landed right in front of them, splattering them with a heap of half-melted snow. She was wheezing and heaving. Something must have seriously got her spooked.
“Rye. Karla. Sam, you guys can’t go up the mountain.”
“Can’t?” Rye asked. Something about that made her feel she was being challenged. “I can very much so. I have magic and by our combined reservoir you should have known that I am completely topped up. Nothing bad has happened so far. You on the other hand should not be here. The gods hate you, why would you show your neck like this? It’s dangerous.”
“‘s not about me.” When she looked up at Karla, her face turned icy. “You ate the ration.”
“Yesh?” she said around a mouthful of grease. “I’m a lot stronger now, but I need to eat well too, and since I forgot my pack–”
“Not forgot. Swapped.” She turned to the giantess. “Let me guess: Haeggis seeds?”
“Not in those,” Frey answered.
“But in the ones in their packs, right?”
“What?” Karla looked down at the ration in her hand. “What!?”
The giantess held up her hands. “I know what you are thinking, but you are wrong. We did not lie, not once. We do want to better the world. This need not end in violence.”
“And if I want it to?” Elia hissed.
Rye suddenly felt great arms like oaken trunks close around her. “Then I will start with this one.”
She could only hear muffled voices through the embrace, but the one thing she did hear was a frantic trio of violins hanging in suspense. The world grew quiet, but for that high-pitched sawing sound.
Brod’s voice crashed through the silence like the ringing of a large bell.
“TRAITOR!” he screamed, a call which was picked up by Karla, too. “TRAITOR!”
Rye took that as her signal and jammed the wand into the giantess’ side, conjuring a rapidly expanding ball of piercing frost. That plan sounded great for all but one second. Then, with a metallic screech and a pop, he tore her head off, and she watched the world spin as she was thrown over his shoulder. She landed with a thud, skittering close to the edge.
Rye blinked for a few seconds as she watched the chaos unfold.
Oh, right. That’s not my real body, I just live in it.
It was an odd feeling, having her spirit yanked out like this. She could still see her stone body; it was lying right there on the ground clutching her icy wand.
And Sam is fighting the giant head-on. Oh crap, she thinks I’m dead-dead.
She popped out of her head and into her headless body.
“I’m ok! I’m–“
“Down!”
Rye sucked her spirit-head into her body like a turtle just as a crescent wave of liquid gold cut right where she was a moment ago. Sam tackled her to the ground a moment later, as the wave reversed and soared right back into the giantess’ hands. She caught it, then used it as a sort of oversized thin scimitar to block Elia and nearly toss her off the side.
On the other side, Karla and the newbies were engaging Frey’s bunch of misfits. They looked surprised, but with Karla as their center they were already recovering. A shield that must have been Erik’s was hammering in the sides of two of Frey’s group, bouncing like only an essence of ricochets could make it do.
Still, all this chaos and she couldn’t believe it had been sparked by one little moment of suspicion. What if Frey had snuck deadly seeds into their rations? Why would she do that, to what end?
An arrow bounced off of Sam’s instant-shield. It was aimed straight at her head, or where it would have been. After that, the questions didn’t matter, only that they were in danger.
“You want to fucking kill my friends,” she heard Elia cry as she pulled a ball the size of her chest out of a backpack and lit the rope hanging out of it with a blast of sputtering flame. “You want to play dirty? Then choke on this!”
The black iron ball traced an arc through the air before thunking into a heap of snow. Everyone forgot about it almost immediately, including Rye. That was, up until a violent blast knocked everyone – big and small – off their feet, followed by a wave of heat that sent slush flying everywhere. The bridge lifted half a meter into the air, or at least it felt like it as Rye finally came to a stop.
Where the round thing had been moments ago, there was now a crater spanning almost the entirety of the bridge. A handful of bricks tumbled down from the edges. Only a sliver of stone was left to connect them, and Rye noticed that she was on the wrong side.
It was her and Sam, and the dazed horde of people that probably maybe wanted them dead.
On the other side was everyone else, including some people with a very creative vocabulary.
“Where the flip did you find a bomb?” she heard Hannah yell at Elia as the ringing subsided.
“I bought it from Mahdi!” Elia yelled back.
“Why does he sell bombs?”
“They were in his catalog; he was doing a fire sale; he is a merchant! Have you never played Zelda before?”
The giantess staggered to her feet, missing her red colored… wig? “You… you are insane.”
“Rye, behind me,” Sam said, “You ok bean?”
“Yeah. Just lost my head somewhere.” She popped her ethereal head back out and shot her a wink.
Sam snorted, then raised her shield, ready to take another hammer blow. The giantess ignored her, in favor of pointing a soot-blackened hand at Elia. “This is a disaster. Whatever comes for us, it is your fault.”
“Why does everything have to be my fault?”
“We are on the mountain! Every creature in the valley heard that and by the wretched god that formed us, if they come, I will have your head!” His head was red like a cherry and just about ready to pop when he swirled to meet Rye. “And why are you still playing that damnable music!?”
The sound of leathery wings came from below. It was not her music’s fault. Not that it mattered when suddenly a creature over a dozen meters long and wide crested the bridge right where they stood. Its scales were of stone and its sharp face sat upon a serpentine head like the spiked head of a mace.
“Dragon!” someone yelled.
Shields went up everywhere around and people clutched their stoneshields, hoping that if it could stop an avalanche it could stop a fire-breath as well. Rye doubted it; in the stories what dragons belched was either described as a burning liquid that melted clothes to flesh, or a poison that ate away even the most enchanted of knightly armors.
And they were served right on the platter. However, despite all their noises and bickering, the dragon hadn’t even bothered to crane its neck.
“I think it’s not interested in a snack,” Rye said.
Sam peered after it through her visor. “It sure is flapping its wings quickly.”
On the other side, Elia was yelling, as always. “It’s running away! Fuck, fuuuck!”
Rye could barely hear what she was saying. Perhaps she didn’t want to hear; perhaps there were benefits to not being headless. Either way, Elia’s frantic jumping pointed her to the hillside. Right above and along where they had been going to, the snow stirred.
Following the movement down, she saw with horror that it was not an avalanche she had spotted, but something larger. Its head was draped over the hill’s ridge, while the rest of its body swooped down in a winding manner. Down below, the lion’s share was coiled up and around one of the bridges’ intact support pillars. It was unfathomably long and when it lazily lifted its head above the mountain ridge, Rye knew that even without eyes it could see her.
The great scaled serpent puckered up, as if puffing its cheeks. Then, air shot out, a single jet of moving ether propelled down into the valley. It hit the dragon and everything that would have been near it, pressing the legendary beast into the mountainside and squashing it like one would a house fly.
Are dragons its… prey?
Then the shockwave hit like a solid wall, knocking her clean off her feet. The ground shook and try as she might, she could not bring herself to stand. The fishbowl-knight was knocked clean off the bridge, his scream swallowed and his death silent. The Opossum bekki followed after. She didn’t see where everyone else was, or where they were going, only the snake as large as a wide river flowing down and towards their position.
If dragons were its prey, then they were simply in the way. Bad luck, end of the line. But as it turned to them and opened its maw, Rye was certain that that was not it, that this one had a grudge against small folk like them.
Then the bridge gave way and all she could do was grasp Sam’s arms holding her tight with all the strength she had left.
You have challenged: Mount Gatheon
Divine power not yet earned has been censured.
May your ascent abound with blessings and curses.