Rose, Talon, and Willow looked up from the base of the ice cliff following Daks slow but steady ascent up the mountain’s side. Daks swung the glowing ice axe tethered to his left hand into the frozen wall. It easily slid into the ice for a secure handle – an iron took would never stick into the hardened ice. Daks then dislodged his left toe-pick from rock face and slammed the pick back in the wall – only just a little higher. He followed with his right hand and right foot. And then the whole process repeated over and over. The lanky youth progressed slow but steady. Using the principle of at least three secure limbs at all times, Daks adroitly scaled the icy facade. The others looked helplessly from below. Willow wanted to offer words of encouragement but she resisted the urge for fear her voice echoing from below might disrupt Dak’s attention.
The mountainside offered no breaks from start to finish. There were no crags for Daks to take a respite, but at the same time, the lack of protruding rocks also benefitted the ascent. While horizontal ledges did provide juts for Daks to stand upon, such rock formations also meant horizontal ledges impeding Daks’ vertical journey. Under this scenario, he would need to traverse horizontally along the wall to find passable perpendicular paths. Such process drained valuable energy.
The pre-dawn cold air faded with the rising sun, which shone directly upon the ice face during the morning hours. Through the increasing temperatures, Daks continued his climb, but his heavily wrapped body began to shown signs of overhearing: large drops sweat rained down upon his three companions. The heat finally subsided for a moment as a drifting cloud cloaked the mountaintop – and Daks. No longer could the others track his progress from below.
“Wonder how he is doing?” whispered a nervous Willow, who spoke more for personal comfort than anything else.
“No need to worry about Daks,” retorted a confident Talon, “he looked great inching his way up the ice. Nothing is going to stop him.”
After a few tense minutes, Daks voice echoed down the ice face, “I’m here. I’m at the top. It’s fantastic. Wow, I wish you could see it.”
“Great to hear from you,” spoke Rose in her normal voice hoping the ice would bounce the sound efficiently up the mountain, “but just make sure to get what you came for – no need to make a return trip.”
“All done, Rose, the ice is collected and secured in the vial Talon gave to me. I beginning my descent; I will be with you in no time.”
A few moments after Daks spoke, the cloud obscuring Daks drifted away with the same arbitrariness that it arrived. The onlookers below could once again see the sun shimmering of the ice peak. Shielding their eyes from the sun, the three travelers at the base of the mountain cliff looked up to track the descent of their companion. They saw Daks’ coat fluttering to the ground. Frightened, and resisting the urge to scream up the mountain, they turned their collective attention toward finding their friend and ascertaining his well-being. Willow spotted him first, “There he is,” she said pointing upwards, “He is fine. I guess he just wanted a cooler trip back down.” Everyone exhaled, although no one dared mention the momentary sense of dread from seeing Daks’ coat without his body in it. The climber remained perilously high on the wall. Any fall from his current distance meant a certain death.
Their sense of relief proved short-lived.
Daks’ dislodged his left ice axe from the frozen wall. Just as he began to swing the ice axe: Crack! Crack! Two loud snaps rang from Dak’s direction. Following the events with their eyes, the others saw the toe pick on Daks’ right crampon swinging from the wall. His right foot dangled uselessly next to the ice wall. With only one hand and one foot secured to the ice wall, Daks flailed his left arm trying to reconnect his left ice axe, but not avail. With each anxious swing and miss, another more anxiety-ridden swing ensued. Clank. Clank. The ice pick bounced uselessly off the facing. Clank. Finally after a dozen attempts, the group heard the most beautiful sound: thud. Daks’ left ice axe sank securely into the wall. He, once again, had three anchor points. With three limbs secured to the sheer ice wall, the climber attempted to regain his composure; he breathed heavily as the huge drops of sweat streamed down his forehead.
Crack. A large clump of ice in front of Daks’ dangling right foot dislodged from the wall and fell downward. The broken patch of ice revealed the dark grey rock of the mountain’s side – the ice clump sheered from the wall. For the moment, Daks was safe. Both his axes and his left foot were still anchored. Trying to secure his right toe pick, Daks swung his foot forward hoping to wedge the pick into a rock crevice just as it had wedged into the ice. His toe slammed into the wall … it held for only a moment … and then dangled uselessly. Rocks crumbs rained below. Again, Daks thrust his foot forward, and again, the same response. He could not lodge his right toe pick in the rock wall.
Thinking quickly, Daks turned his foot parallel to the wall and instead of trying to claw his foot into the wall, decided to secure an ice spike from the sole of his crampon into a crevice. He slid his foot up and down the wall desperately scraping for anything to provide a grip, but the sheer cliff lacked any useable cleft. Desperation fell upon Daks. Hanging precariously from the ice wall with his foot flopping below him, Daks froze on the wall. Panic began to paralyze his mind.
A voice called from below, “Move horizontally – to your left.” Rose motioned with her arms to march the direction of her words. Becoming flustered amidst the life-and-death situation, Daks failed to recognize the most logical means for escape: move sideways. By moving horizontally, he could a find a more stable ice patch on which to descend.
Seizing the advice with robotic receptivity, Daks prepped for the traverse. It required relying upon only two points of contact. At this point, however, he had two options – one, of which, involved free falling to the ground. Daks looked to his left trying to find a place to secure the axe pick in his left hand. With his right foot dangling futilely, he pulled his left ice axe from the wall, lunged a small distance to his left, and slammed the axe pick back into the ice. Just as the axe’s point grabbed hold, another crack. More ice near his right foot loosed from the rock face and tumbled downward. Crack! Crack! A cascade effect ensued. Break lines in the ice formed around Dak’s left foot; the spider web cracks moved up along his legs and finally halted at his midsection. For the moment, the cracked ice still clung to the rock face. The ice continued to loosen from the wall as Daks’ weight pulled it from the rock. Some of the cracked ice around his left leg crumbled and fell to the ground. Crack! His left foot gave way and now dangled just like his right foot. Daks now had two points of contact. His entire body weight was being held by ice axes, which meant his glowing ice axes were now required to support two times more weight than when his legs were attached. The added pressure on his arms only exacerbated an already perilous situation. Daks knew in minute – or even seconds – the ice to which Daks desperately clung would loosen completely and give way.
“Jump!” screamed Rose, “Jump to the left!” Talon and Willow had no idea what she meant but Daks did. He pulled up with his arms and crouched with his legs – as best he could under the circumstance – like a cat preparing to leap. And then, he yanked his body with all his might from his current perch toward his left. Flying a body-width to his left and a body-length downward, Daks cleared the iceless patch and flung his axes into the ice with all his might. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. They stuck. He jabbed his feet forward. Both toe picks settled smoothly into the ice. Daks was safe. He looked to his right and saw grey rock. The ice that provided a base for his leap now tumbled toward the ground. The ice smacked upon the ground and shattered into oblivious.
That could have been Talon, thought Talon. My friend almost died. What are we doing? All this ‘destroying glowing weapons’ sounded great until this very moment. I never realized we might actually die on this trip. Thank the Creator that Daks is still alive.
Relieved, Daks breathed heavily, just short of hyperventilating. Enormous drops of sweat ran down his forehead.
His
sudden repositioning exerted a significant amount of force upon the ice – much more than moving one limb at a time. Crack. Daks’ jump caused duress upon the ice, and the ice was not going to hold him much longer. Daks, once again, crouched like a cat to make another desperate leap; just as he leapt, the force from his jump caused the entire patch upon which he was residing to loosen from mountain’s rocky side. The power from his jump, instead of propelling his body sideways, pulled the large clump directly in front of him from the rock face. Daks tumbled awkwardly away from the rock. For an instant, he began to free fall toward the ground. Daks desperately swung his hammers toward the wall trying to secure them into the ice – just as he done just moments ago. The hammer in his left hand amazingly hit the ice and stuck deep into the frozen wall, but the glowing ice-hammer in his right clanged uselessly off the rock face. Daks’ jump had not jumped far enough to reach the ice with both axes. He was now dangling by just one point of contact – the left ice axe. His left hand began to loosen its grip on the axe’s handle, and his hand slid down the handle. Unable to halt the slide, his hand slid off the axe’s handle. His body slid downward during the process and then jerked to stop. The leatherworker dangled in mid-air. Daks was hanging on to the leather strap looped around his wrist and attached the handle.
Daks grabbed around the leather strap and began to pull his body upwards in effort to re-grip the handle. The force of his weight coupled with the pull upward was too much force pulling against the already precariously secure ice patch. Crack! Gravity slowly pulled Daks away from the wall. Then, the large clump of ice that was supporting his entire weight dislodged from the rock wall and flipped backwards away from the wall. Both the ice clump and Daks fell helplessly toward the ground. The ice hammer still pierced the ice sheet as both caromed toward the ground – bouncing intermittently against the wall. The plummeting climber tried to dislodge his hands from ice axe that tethered him to the ice patch, but he could not free his hand from the climbing tool. The leather strap wrapped and twisting around Daks hand. The tool, which just seconds prior prevented his fall, now prevented him from escaping the downward plunge of the ice patch. The ice and its unwitting passenger sped toward the unforgiving ground. The sheet of ice dove toward its rocky destination that would shatter the frozen liquid. Daks, likewise, plummeted toward a similar fate. He wildly slung his free hand but no avail. The once-confident youth free fell from the mountainside; an impact from such height meant certain death. Daks’ body tumbled, twisted, and turned. He fell. His body thudded occasionally off a couple of small jut outs. Nothing, however, slowed his decent.
Talon looked upon his friend helplessly. Rose, expressionless, stared upward. Willow eyes widened. Following his fall with their eyes, the three fellow travelers heard an unforgettable soft thud as Daks’ body bounced off ground.
Talon and Rose rushed to the crumpled body.
“Daks! Daks! Daks!” screamed a stunned Talon. Rose rushed to his side, and seeing the condition of his body spontaneously burst into tears. A deep cut ran along his side – from armpit to navel. A bloodied ice axe still strapped to his hand revealed the gouge’s source. During the fall, the axe sliced its owner’s body, splaying the innards from his body. Blood steadily streamed from the wound. His once reddish face now appeared ghostly grey, and his eyes, which just moments ago were full of life, gazed blankly towards the sky. Daks softly coughed; blood oozed from his mouth and nose. While neither Talon nor Rose ever witnessed a person’s death prior to this moment, they still knew Dak’s breathed his final breaths. His battered body could not survive much longer. Talon crouched beside his fallen friend to soothe him during his final moments.
Willow callously pushed the sun-sculptor aside.
“Back away!” Willow screamed at the others. Both instinctively obeyed. Unbeknownst to Talon or Rose, the moment Daks began to fall, Willow threw off her pack, thrust it open, and snatched a vial from its contents. As Daks lay dying on the ground, she opened the vial and poured the goopy liquid into her hands. While rubbing the liquid into her hands, she rushed to Daks. Seeing the other two crowding around the body, she demanded their removal. Falling down beside the dying young man, Willow placed her hands upon his wounded side. As soon as her hand touched his body, a faint glow emanated from her outstretched hands. The blood running from Daks body immediately halted. Then, amazingly, the skin along his sliced side and stomach began to pull together, and as it did, the once gaping wound gradually disappeared. His skin, in essence, re-stitched itself. Within seconds, the gash across his body vanished. His wound evaporated. The color of life slowly filled his face. The grey tone faded as his reddish hue returned. Daks gasped for air in an effort to refill his lungs. In between gasps, he coughed to clear the blood and bile that had filled his mouth and throat. His body, which just moments before appeared on the cusp of death, now revealed the signs of returning life. Looking beleaguered from the ordeal, Daks’ previously glazed eyes looked to Willow in absolute disbelief. Talon and Rose, likewise, looked at the girl in utter amazement. Their friend, who only seconds ago, looked more dead than alive, teemed with life.
Daks sat up. He spat out more blood and asked, “What just happened to me?”
Only one person could answer, but she said nothing. Daks looked past Willow toward Talon and Rose hoping to get an answer, but they only offered stunned silence. Talon, apparently unable to express his thoughts in words, slowly pointed at Willow. Rose spoke softly, “She did something. You were almost dead, and she … did something.”
Feeling more rejuvenated, Daks rose from his sitting position and stood up. Looking helplessly at Willow, he asked her, “What did you do to me? I was so cold, and then … then I wasn’t.”
The three faces staring blankly at Willow demanding an answer. Willow responded, “I am a weaver. Sometimes people refer to me as a healer, but that term is not quite correct.” She motioned toward the brother and sister. “Like you are a sun-sculptor and can form the light, I also have a unique ability. I am a flesh-weaver. With special roots, branches, and leaves I am able to make a substance that allows me to restore. Although, I must say, I have never restored wounds so grave.”
“Wow,” said Rose, “I guess you never get sick.”
Willow laughed softly, “It does not work quite like that. My mother and I still get sick.” The mention of her mother saddened the younger girl. I am scared, thought the ashen-colored girl. I wish my mother were here. She would tell me everything is going to be fine. I need to hear those words, right now.
Daks, now completely healed except for his tattered clothes still moist with blood, playfully quipped, “Well, despite a few hiccups on the descent, I am pleased to report that I was able to collect ice from the top of Five-Point Peak.” He held up the glass container given to him by Talon, and there inside, was a lump of melting ice. Daks handed to container to Talon who carefully secured it in his own bag.
“Well, now what?” asked Daks playfully.
The other three looked towards Talon. He was still rearranging things in pack, which was taking longer than expected because he was still stunned by the near loss of his friend. Sensing the others peering looks, Talon refocused his thoughts and met their gaze. “Well,” he said, “We need to rearrange some things in our packs because, as you most likely remember, we used one bag to make the ice climbing tools, which means we have one less than before. So, let’s get everything packed somewhere and get off this forsaken mountain.”
“Forsaken?” asked Rose, “It is not the greatest place in Centage, but forsaken?”
A steely Talon responded, “Our friend nearly died; our companion’s secrets brings more questions than answers; these three substances we are gathering seem more like graduation tests than a jaunt through the countryside; and if the first test is any example, our next two challenges will bring great unpleasantness upon us all. Oh, and after that, we begin trying to destroy the Protectorate’s significant glowing arsenal. So do forgive me if I seem a bit jaded
right now.” Talon did not wait for a response; he returned to packing.
“Oh, those things,” said Rose. In an excessively calm voice, she continued, “No need to worry big brother, I got plans.” Returning to her normal voice, she gently chided her brother, “Trouble prowls around every corner, but today is a day to celebrate. Daks was seconds from the netherworld, and now he is with us again. Willow has a special power – like us. And these ‘tests’ as you call them, now number two rather than one, and while they may get more difficult, we are not the same people who left our village three weeks ago. And if we accomplished the first one, then we can accomplish the next two. So smile, Talon, and don’t let the worries of tomorrow cloud this sunny day; tomorrow always has worries but today is not always sunny.”
Talon ignored her comments and continued prepping for their descent into the valley. With laughs and joy and giggles and smiles, the other three also readied for the trek down the mountain. Daks quietly put the glowing ice axe and glowing crampons into his bag. I might need these later, he thought. I want to ready should when that moment comes. Besides, I don’t trust Talon or the two girls to show the courage necessary to benefit from such formidable tools.
12 fishing