57 – Ancient Structure

Jonny couldn’t feel his legs anymore. They had been hurting for a little while, but now the pain was gone. He knew that was probably not a good thing, but they were still moving, and that was all he really cared about.

He had managed to see the cloud hawk actually arrive at its nest, or at least what he thought was its nest. It was high at the top of a mountain peak, of course, but it was the closest mountain peak to him. A doable hike in the four hour time limit.

That was what he thought at the time, anyway. Then, he reached the mountain.

He had thought it was lucky that they didn’t encounter any other magic beasts on the way there. He thought it might have been that the storm had them all hunkered down, but once he got back above the treeline on this new mountain, he learned the truth. There was just nothing there. Nothing but rock, snow, more rocks, and more snow. He would have been surprised if even the gravity goats bothered with this area.

The rough terrain kept other beasts out, which was good, because his mana was so depleted he doubted he could have fought very well, but it was also bad, because it kept him out too. There was no obvious route to the top. He found himself doubling back every few minutes after taking what he thought was a good path, only for it to taper off into an almost sheer cliff upward.

If he was alone, he could have gotten up no problem. There were not truly vertical cliffs, and he was more than strong enough to haul himself up the steep slopes if he wanted to. It was a completely different story with Igrette in tow. He was actually glad he didn’t have the wolf pelt anymore, because it would have limited him so much more if he insisted on continuing to use it.

But, despite everything, he kept climbing. He climbed until all he could see of the forest was a vague darkness beneath the snow-covered leaves, and then kept going. The mountain got steeper, the snow got deeper, and Igrette felt heavier and heavier in his arms, but he barely slowed.

And now, finally, he was getting close. He could feel the mana getting denser with every step. The mana well was directly above him. It wasn’t much further.

“Igrette, wake up,” he said. “We’re almost there!”

She did not respond. She had not responded to anything he said since she passed out. The only reason he even knew she was alive was that he could faintly feel her mana moving within her. He hadn’t noticed it initially, but as he hiked, and needed something to distract him from his exhaustion, he had focused on his mana sense. Her mana was faintly concentrated around her wound. There was barely any of it left, but it was trying to heal her. She was still there.

“Just a few more minutes,” he said. “It’s not much further!”

He tried to stay upbeat, but his voice was hoarse. He was starving, and thirsty, and his head was swimming, but he knew he couldn’t stop. His goal was too close, and every second was precious.

He paused a moment to look at the path above him, or lack thereof. The snow was so deep in most places that it came up to his shoulders, but over it, he saw that the slope continued upward, getting steeper and steeper until it became a stony cliff face. To either side, the snow sloped up more gently, but it wrapped around in a way that he couldn’t see if which path, if any, would take up to the top.

Since he had no way of telling, he chose at random, marching to the left, trying to keep Igrette’s head from dragging through the snow with one hand. The path seemed promising at first, but quickly narrowed until the snow was only a few feet wide, and he stopped. There was a cliff going up to his right, and a cliff going down to his left, and he didn’t know how much more solid ground he actually had ahead of him.

He gritted his teeth and turned around, this time trying the right path. It seemed more promising at first, but it wasn’t long before he encountered the same issue, and had to stop again.

For the first time in a while, he stopped moving entirely. He wasn’t sure what to do. This was as close as he had ever gotten, and the last place he remembered seeing a potential alternate route was almost ten minutes back. Everything else up until then had been obvious dead ends, or more cliffs.

“Fuck!” he shouted.

The only response was the sound of the wind. He cursed a few more times, then turned to head back. Standing around wasn’t going to help. He needed to get to the top, and complaining was a waste of time.

He took a step forward, heading back down the way he came, but his foot slipped. He was so tired he didn’t even notice properly until he was already halfway off the ledge, and by then, it was too late to save himself. It was not a sheer, ninety degree cliff, but there was no way to stop himself before he hit the ground fifty feet below. All he could do was put a hand on the back of Igrette’s head to brace her neck, and use what little mana he had been able to inhale over the past few minutes to brace his body.

The landing hurt. Even as empowered as his body was, the impact bruised his heels, and sent a jolt through his entire body. He didn’t pay his own pain any attention, though, instead focusing all his attention of Igrette. If she noticed the fall, she gave no sign, and if it hurt her, he couldn’t tell. Her mana was still working, and that was all that mattered.

He let himself have ten seconds of rest. Ten seconds to gather himself and force back the pain in his feet. Then, he stood back up, and took in his surroundings. He was not in a place he had been before. Aside from the spot he had landed, the snow was completely undisturbed. But, there was a path going upward to his left, so after making sure there was nothing else he was missing, he started trudging right back up.

He made it two steps on throbbing feet before he tripped over a rock and nearly dropped Igrette. He cursed, then righted himself and took one more step before tripping on another rock. This repeated three times more before he stopped. Random rocks under the snow weren’t unusual. Five evenly spaced rocks in a row right at tripping height was strange.

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With his foot, he felt around the rock he had just tripped over. It was long, and smooth and flat, and it seemed to go straight up before turning perfectly level.

Almost like a stair…

His eyes widened, and he turned around and felt ahead with his foot until he found another identical “rock.”