Chapter 114: 115: Mountain Road

Fresh clutches herself, wrapping her arms tightly around her body and shudders. The shaking of her form is triggered by the cold wind which rushes past them all. The surprisingly frigid gale tosses her dirty, matted hair back against her neck as it surges all around the mountain path. The current strangely twists and turns as it passes them in an odd spiraling motion, as if they were at the center of a whirlpool. As if one body of wind was crashing and cascading down the surface of the mountain, as yet another stream seemed to be rising upwards against it. The two colliding forces surround them on all sides with the moving flow, as both winds appear to be in a constant stalemate with their counterpart.

“J- j- Jubileeeee~” shudders Fresh. “It’s cooold~”

“No shit, dumb-ass. It’s a mountain,” says Jubilee, turning back around to face her, just so that she can see them roll their eyes. Jubilee points back down behind them, down the trail that they’ve been following upwards. “We haven’t even walked up for an hour. There’s still a while to go.”

“Do we have to get to the top?” asks Fresh, worried about the answer as she sticks her hands under her arms.

Basil chimes in, shaking her head. “No, the city is near the lower middle. If we keep up the pace, we should get there before nightfall,” she says, nodding. “It’s an easy road.” Fresh notices that she seems somewhat more reserved in displaying her discomfort with the cold, opting to stand strangely stiff, rather than to huddle together like she herself has. “Which we should strive to do. It gets cold at night here.”

“It gets cold at night everywhere!” complains Fresh as they keep on walking up the fairly wide mountain-road. There is a sheer cliff wall to their left and the right leads towards a steep drop, that Fresh hasn’t been brave enough to try and look over.

“Yeah, no shit? That’s what night is,” says Jubilee, shaking their head. “Honestly…”

Shamrock says nothing, but Fresh feels particularly bad for him. Surely his metal armor must be the worst thing that any of them are wearing in this environment? At least their fabric did a little to keep them warm, but surely the metal has to be painful to wear in this cold? But if he is suffering, he doesn't make it seen in the least, as he simply keeps on walking. Fresh purses her lips, wishing that she could do something to help her friends, but there is nothing that she can think of except to keep up with them, so that they could get there as fast as possible.

She wonders if maybe they should have gone to the desert? Oh well. That ship has certainly sailed now. She’s sure it will be fine. They just needed some warmer clothes and they could in all likelihood just buy those once they got there. Or maybe Jubilee will make her some?

Fresh gasps, realizing something rather abruptly. “Jubilee!”

“What?”

“You never made me that blanket, like you promised!” says Fresh, clenching her fists. Jubilee sighs and waves her off.

“I was working on it.”

“A blanket?” asks Basil.

Jubilee shakes their head. “Don’t ask. Besides, goo-brain, you wouldn’t have it with you now anyways.”

Fresh relents, realizing that Jubilee has a point and the four of them continue onwards silently, opting not to speak anymore. Not out of discontent with any of each other, but simply because keeping their mouths closed feels like a more sensible thing to do in the cold. Currently, the temperature is still bearable enough in just their cloth outfits, for now. It reminds Fresh of her first night here, when she had to sleep inside of the dungeon. But if this is the temperature here during the day, then how cold would it get at night? They really did have to hurry, it could be dangerous for them to be here in the dark.

“Keep an eye out,” says Jubilee, breaking the silence.

“F- for what?” shivers Fresh.

“Monsters,” says Shamrock, saying the first thing he has said in hours.

Basil nods, quietly agreeing as Jubilee goes on. “The mountain is a higher level zone. Most of the wild monsters near the city have been taken care of, but there are still the odd ones skulking around, the greasy fucks.”

“W- what kinds of monsters?” asks Fresh curiously.

Jubilee thinks out loud. “Outside of the city? Minotaurs. Harpies. Maybe a few wolves up further when the plateau comes.”

“W- wolves?” asks Fresh, looking around them, but there is nothing here save for them and the tightly wound mountain path.

“Don’t forget the Gryphons. Don’t go near any giant nests if you see them,” explains Basil. “They’ll eat you right up.”

“Dragons,” says Shamrock, his breastplate heaving in excitement.

“Dragons?!” shouts Fresh, now clearly distraught.

“Settle down, dumb-ass,” says Jubilee. “The only dragons left on this mountain are inside of the dungeon. The rest got picked off decades ago by bored adventurers. Probably.”

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“Probably,” agrees Basil.

“Probably,” says Shamrock, nodding once.

Fresh is sure that this doesn’t make her feel better. Picking up the pace, she walks a step closer to Jubilee as they continue on for another few hours.

Soon, the road begins to tighten further and further, constricting together so tightly that they have to walk in single file, much to Fresh’s horror as she does her best to stare straight ahead, walking with slow, careful steps so that she doesn’t look down towards the right, where she can feel the void below them looming with a hunger that only she seems to notice. Her friends seem preoccupied simply with walking and ignoring the cold.

Soon, the path comes to an abrupt stop as they round the next bend. A long, brickwork bridge extends out over a sizable gap, connecting the two stone faces. From here, Fresh can see that the ground on the other side seems to be different than on this side. While behind them lies a rocky waste, the area over the bridge is surprisingly lush and green appearing. Wild grasses grow out from everywhere, swaying in the mountain winds together with thickly budding butter-yellow flowers that dot out from the many stones.

“Don’t look down if you’re afraid of heights,” says Jubilee, walking on ahead as the first to move over the bridge, that, in all fairness, seems to be well-made and robust. Walking as the second person in line, Fresh extends out a hand to hold onto the stable railing as she crosses on shaking legs. It’s not that she’s scared of heights, she’s just scared of falling is all. Though, she supposes that if she dies then she’ll just return to the fountain but… that would have its own problems. She doubts that she could ever get back here again without her friends.

The wind blows, tossing her hair over her face as she stands in the middle of the long bridge. She knows that she shouldn’t, but Fresh turns her head anyways, unable to resist and looks out at what lies below.

Her eyes go wide as the blood leaves the rest of her face, her legs, long since numb from the cold, shake beneath the suddenly very heavy weight of her upper body. Fresh’s fingers grip the railing tighter as she stares out at what lies beyond. At what they left behind. The warm air of her chest leaves her lungs, as she looks out over the distance, as she looks out over the vast world that lays stretched out before herself. The wind of the mountain howls at her back, whistling as it sheers along the rock and the bridge with its icy presence, as it tussles her hair, pushing it past her bewildered face as she sees the boundless sight of the expanse below. It stretches on and on and on, seemingly forever; a sea of green.

She sees the forest that they journeyed through for weeks. She sees sparse dots on the landscape, villages as far as she can tell and even some smaller cities by the looks of things. A few odd towers dot the world here and there. But most of all, she sees the vastness of it all, as it stretches on towards the horizon. There’s so much. There’s so much to do and to see and she’s only experienced so little of it.

“- ey!” yells a voice from the side and Fresh snaps out of her call to adventure, turning towards Jubilee. “Either jump off and get it over with or hurry up!” yells her friend and Fresh laughs, quickly rushing over the bridge and apologizing to Basil and the man behind her, both of who were still waiting to cross. Her body is still exhausted and worn and deeply cold, but her spirit feels brighter now than before.

She smiles as she reaches Jubilee, as she smells the scent of fresh flowers in the air, as her boots touch the soft grass on this side of the chasm. This time. This place. This is going to be it. This is going to be her shot to make it right. All of it. She messed up a lot in the northern city, she made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of time and effort. But this time, she knows what she has to do.

Fresh smiles, feeling a brand new excitement thrashing around in her chest as she stares out at the world around herself. She’s going to get it right this time. No matter what it takes. She’s going to build that life that she has been yearning for, together here in this new place with her friends.

Beaming, she watches as they all catch up. The girl begins walking a little quicker than the rest of them as she feels a deep excitement growing inside of herself, as she wonders what this new city is like? She hopes that Jubilee’s statements are true about the people here and that they’re less treacherous. She can hardly wait.

Giddily, she bends down and picks one of the large flowers. She’s going to dry this one and give it to Jubilee later, to make up for the one they had to leave behind.

Razmatazz

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