Chapter 66 The Mountain Tail (part 2)

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"So cold!!" Lily shriveled up as we climbed the mountain.

"Here, some extra clothes. I see that only dwarves with no problems with the cold air hear. "Sarielle lent us a coat. We knew the mountain would be cold beforehand, but I never thought it would be so soon. The temperature was changing as we walked further up.

"Watch out. After this, the path grew narrow. Ensure the horse stays on track and not let anything spook it." Jona said. Sarielle looked again at his handbook and decided to step down from the horses and hold it instead. Lhorne and Mattheus follow their example soon after looking at the cliffside.

The path was easily over 5 meters wide, but staying on top of the horses while looking at the chasm wasn't good for their mental health, so everyone except the tailfolk was getting off their horses. Lily was still comfortably sitting on her horses and even looked towards the cliff without fear.

"Jona, are dwarves fine with humans?" Lily tried to make a small talk

"Yeah. We don't really like them, but we don't hate them like you guys do."

"We don't kidnap dwarves due to their physical size. It felt wrong, you know." Mattheus chimed in. "Though they have a powerful body and legs, their child-look face and size made us uneasy to mistreat them."

"What!?" Jona glared at him

"Nevermind." Mattheus looked away at once.

"Stop. Draw your weapons." Lhorne said. He pointed towards the cliff, and about ten goats were climbing the cliff. They looked like goats, except it has some nasty teeth like sharks. After seeing those teeth, I didn't need to ask why we needed to be wary of some random goats.

"Lhorne, I thank you for the advice. But remember everyone. No matter what you do, please don't shout or make loud noises. And that means no explosion spells either." Jona said calmly. If she said no explosions, that sealed most of my fire spells!

"Cannibal Goats," Jona whispered. "Watch out for its teeth."

Lhorne took the first hit. His arrow flew and hit it square in the head. Looking at their dead friends, they hastened their pace and charged toward us. Lily and Nora drew their sabers while Lhorne killed another two goats and left the frontlines, taking a few steps backward.

Now that the goats had stable footing, they behaved more like tigers or cheetahs, and while showing their sharp teeth, they scrambled and lunged at us. Lily was unfazed even when the goat sprang her from her blind spot. When a goat pounced, she sidestepped and decapitated it. Another two goats tried to take advantage to seize her while she was busy, but she simply rolled back and countered their lunge with a slash. Taking an eye and a leg of those two goats. Nora and Mattheus charged in after seeing a chance to strike. Their swords cut their heads off cleanly. It was good that they were still sharp even when we were out of real combat for so long.

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As we looked back, Alith and Sana took on two goats together, while Jona and Sarielle took one of those goats, each on their own. Lhorne managed to slip in another arrow to the eye of the goat as it tried to pounce Sana, and everything was over.

"Good work, everyone," Lily replied.

"Whew. I got nervous there. Those goats killed a handmaiden twenty years ago." Sarielle murmured some words from the guidebook he had.

"Alright. Let us move on after collecting their horns." Jona said

"Why?" Sarielle asked

"So we can sell them, of course!" Jona smiled as she was already butchering one of them

"We are not some hunters. Let us move on. The smell might attract some other predators. I heard there were snow leopards around these mountains." Sarielle advised.

"Nobody would eat these goats' meat except bugs. They were dark, smelly, slimy, and disgusting." Jona laughed. When I looked into the flesh of these goats, they were darkish brown instead of fresh red, and their blood was brown like water from sewers.

We continued on the mountain pass. No more beasts were hindering our way. The terrain was rugged and uneven. The path sometimes grew as narrow as 2 meters while sometimes as wide as ten meters. Moreover, since we were climbing up, we got tired quickly. Even our horses had already slowed down from the mountain trek.

We marched on, nevertheless. We no longer think about the way or how to present ourselves to the dwarven king. We just followed Jona as she continued to walk while sometimes skipping her steps. The mountain path proved to be no big deal for her, but for us, it was torturous.

"It is getting harder to breathe…." Lily, who had it the easiest since she was on horseback, suddenly grew anxious and asked Jona, "Jona, how about you?"

"Huh? So, it is really getting harder to breathe? The curse of the mountain in the guidebook is real? I thought it was because I am not used to mountain climbing." Sarielle, who had high pride, didn't whine the entire way, but his breathing was ragged. "Jona, are you bringing us to some cursed spot?"

"Oh, that's called mountain sickness. It will be gone after a night's rest." Jona whistled carefreely. "The resting spot is close by. I suggest resting there even though the sun hasn't set."

"But we will be late if we do that," Lhorne said. His sense of duty was still overpowering his exhaustion.

"Lily, we should rest. We would be in trouble if we didn't find any more resting spots."

"Here is the resting spot," Jona muttered. We found a shallow cave at the side. There was some pot and firewood stored here but no water.

"Should have brought more waters…." Lhorne complained as his water canteen turned empty. Others also said the same. Their breathing grew ragged, and their horses were restless.

"You had it easy, Alith!" Mattheus whined.

"We should keep walking on horseback…." Sarielle also whined, but he was reprimanded by Jona.

"No, I don't know about tailfolk, but I certainly have no confidence riding a horse here. There might be landslides, or if something spooks the horse, I could die with it when it jumped off the cliff. So I suggest traversing on foot in these mountains."

"Maybe we should also walk on foot starting tomorrow," Lily muttered while showing off her skills. She quickly filled all of the party's water canteen with water magic.

"Thank you. Lord Lily!" Sarielle politely accepted his canteen, and we rested for today. We were too tired to talk and slept immediately after spreading our sleeping bags.

I could not sleep, and thus, I was left watching the moon in the clear night sky.