The next few days were exhausting. The temperatures had plummeted; the wind scratched at the parts of their faces that weren't covered; their cheeks were chapped; their eyes were dry. The snow had finally stopped, but it was up to their knees. Despite having two or three pairs of socks on their feet, their toes were numb. The cold seeped into their joints, making every step a challenge.
Samara and Leela were talking again. Neither of them brought up what Samara had said, they had just started talking as if everything was normal. That's how it always seemed to go with them, ever since they were kids. They would be angry for a while and then go on as if nothing had happened.
They trudged through the snow, their pant legs soaking wet from the knees down. Every breath of cold air stabbed at their throat.
"Would you just leave that thing? It's slowing you down." Leela complained about Rufus' guitar as he struggled to climb up a small shelf of the mountainside.
"Not a chance." Rufus grunted. Samara reached down, grabbing his wrist so he wouldn't fall. She helped him up without saying a word. She too wished he would leave the guitar behind but also understood why he didn't want to.
"Why are you even still here?" Leela asked. "I don't mean that in a rude way or anything," she added, "but if you don't want the reward anymore, why don't you go back to Port Thunder?"
During their night in the cave, Rufus had come to the realization he was in over his head. Danteous was no longer a reward he wanted to pursue. It was too dangerous. Rufus had never collected a reward that wasn't human and he wasn't about to start with the son of Cyril. Not only that, but he didn't want any conflicts with Samara or Leela.
"You obviously still carry a torch for him," he had said to Samara and before she could reply, he turned to Leela and said, "and he's your brother. The guilt would eat me up."
"Trust me, there are no feelings of affection, I don't give a shit if you kill him." Leela had refused to look either of them in the eye when she said that.
Rufus chuckled. "You're full of shit."
It had been a few days since their time in the cave. They hadn't brought up Danteous or the reward since then.
Leela made a good point now. Why had Rufus stuck around?
"What and let you three have all the fun?" Rufus grinned, slapping away some snow that had collected on his knees during the climb up. "No way. Besides, you're my friends now ... I can't turn my back on you guys."
Leela didn't seem to understand that. The only friend she had ever really had was Samara. She had built up a wall around herself and refused to let anyone else in, other than Kalahari (and Danteous before he left).
Leela frowned in response to Rufus, but didn't say anything else.
They trudged on, sluggish through the deep snow. If the terrain had been clear, they might have made it to the top and halfway down the other side of the mountain by now, Samara thought bitterly. Stupid snow, slowing us down. Snow in June. Ridiculous.
As if hearing her thoughts, the sun peeked through the clouds. The snow sparkled, the brilliant white blinding their eyes. They squinted against it.
Samara averted her gaze to the north where Bear Cliff towered over the other mountain tops. She knew Cyril's clan was somewhere in those peaks. Maybe even Cyril himself. She wondered if there were any scouts this far west. So far, they hadn't been attacked by anyone else. They had heard wolves in the distance and owls from the trees. But nothing else.
No sign of Danteous either, but she knew he was somewhere out there. Leela had mentioned several times that he was spying on them still and to keep the orb talk to a minimum.
They also agreed that any magic use (no matter how small) was too much.
That meant no magical fires, so they had to keep feeding the fire to stay warm through the night. Like a normal human.
When the sun started to set, they stopped for the night. They found another cave to camp out in, away from the biting wind.
"Don't you think it was too easy?" Leela asked once they were settled in around the fire.
"What?" Samara asked, warming her hands.
"That fight the other night. We were outnumbered. It was our first real fight. They should have kicked our asses."
"He probably sent them to test us," Samara said. "See how powerful we are."
Leela nodded in agreement. "He was probably out there, watching us."
That sent a chill along Samara's spine. Was Cyril watching them now? Did that mean he saw Danteous protect Leela? What might he do to him?
"But Danteous implied Cyril has no reason to be interested in us. Cyril doesn't know we know about the orb."
Leela looked up from the fire. "You can't trust anything he says. Besides, even if Cyril doesn't know we know about the orb, he probably does know by now that you interfered with Danteous collecting Richard. I bet he's pissed about that. Probably sent his goons to see how we fight before he attacks us himself."
"Maybe...." Samara brought her knees up and hugged them to her chest. Why would Cyril care though? They were young. Not powerful. He could wipe them out in one shot, she was sure. So why would he need to test them?
On the third night they found shelter beside a giant fallen evergreen. The trunk was so thick that even sideways, it came to Rufus' shoulder, blocking most of the wind. They spread the tarp on the ground over the snow, so it wouldn't soak their sleeping bags, and settled in for the night. Rufus and Leela tried to build a fire but couldn't find any wood that was dry enough. Since they didn't want to risk using magic, they had to do without. At least the sky was clear now, so they weren't in total darkness. The lights of the moon and stars lit up the sky. The sparkling snow made the mountain look like a winter wonderland.
They ate a feast of protein bars, jerky, raisins, and shared their last avocado. Their water bottles had frozen so they ate snow for hydration. Rufus sat off by himself for a few minutes to smoke his last cigarette, taking his time to savor the moment.
After a while, Kit lay in her sleeping bag. She was shivering, her teeth chattering. The poor girl hadn't complained much, but Samara could tell she was miserable. In fact, that's how Samara knew it was so—Kit had barely said a word these last few days. The little girl must have hated the cold as much as Samara did.
"Come here." Samara sat next to Kit. She pulled her into her arms and cuddled with her, hoping to warm her up with her own body heat. Samara took one of the emergency blankets and wrapped it around them, the foil sheet crinkling loudly until they were settled.
Rufus looked at Leela and held out his arms. "You want to—?"
"Not a chance."
Rufus shrugged, then snuggled into his own bag. Samara laughed at his attempt, the first genuine laugh she had had in a while.
"You need your bandages changed?" Leela asked Samara, trying to change the subject.
"I think I'm okay for now, we can do it in the morning." The cuts on Samara's arm and thigh were deep enough they had to use butterfly closures on both of them. The cut on her cheek was shallow. She had a regular band-aid over it. Walking had been difficult at first, but the cold eventually numbed her so she barely felt the cut on her leg anymore.
"I'm fine too." Rufus raised his arm to show his wrist that had been bandaged. He had managed to sprain it trying to wield the sword.
"Glad to hear it," Leela said with only a hint of sarcasm to her tone. She started to sit in her sleeping bag and said, "I'll take first watch."
"No, it's okay. I've got it this time," Samara said quietly, trying not to wake Kit.
"You sure?"
"You're exhausted, Leela. Get some sleep."
"So are you."
"Or you know, I could...." Rufus offered, looking at Leela carefully. She narrowed her eyes. "Come on, you have to trust me by now. I could have shot you all dead during that fight."
"That is true," Leela said carefully, thinking. "Still, I can't take a chance. You can help Samara though."
Rufus rolled his eyes and looked at Samara. "Sorry, I tried."
"It's okay. I don't think I can get comfortable enough to sleep right now anyway."
Rufus smiled at the sleeping girl in Samara's arms. "Poor kid is exhausted."
"It's Kit...." The girl mumbled in her sleep, making the others laugh softly. Even Leela cracked a smile before she snuggled into her sleeping bag and closed her eyes.
Samara sat there, looking at the stars while listening to Kit breathing. The girl had finally stopped shivering.
"You know, if you want to go ahead and sleep, she'd never know," Rufus whispered, side-eyeing Leela with caution.
Samara smiled. "Thanks. I really don't think I can sleep right now though, so you may as well try."
"All right. Let me know if you need anything." Rufus yawned and closed his eyes.
"Thanks, Rufus." He gave her a thumbs up with his eyes still closed.
Samara went back to watching the stars, thinking of how nice it would be to take a hot bubble bath and then crawl into her soft, warm bed back in Midland. And a cup of hot coffee, oh how she missed it. She closed her eyes and imagined the aroma of a freshly brewed pot.
Kit coughed in her sleep, startling Samara out of her fantasy. She looked down at the girl to make sure she was okay. Kit snuggled against her and went back to snoring.
Suddenly, a shadow moved across the moon, too quickly to be a cloud. Samara's breath caught in her throat at first and then she remembered Danteous and Saigon. It was probably just them. She looked at the moon and her eyes widened in fear. It wasn't Saigon that had crossed over it. How did she know? Because there were two dragons and the moon wasn't full so she knew Danteous wasn't the second dragon.
What do I do? If she yelled and woke the others, she would alert the dragons that they were down there. It didn't look like the dragons had noticed them yet. There were a lot of trees here; maybe if Samara just stayed still they would continue to go unnoticed. Holding her breath, she watched the dragons circle the peaks of the mountains as if looking for something ... or someone.
Samara shrank against the fallen tree, keeping her head down so the moonlight wouldn't gleam off her eyes. Good thing they hadn't been able to build a fire....
Finally, the dragons flew off, back in the direction of Bear Cliff where they had presumably come from. Letting out her breath, Samara shivered, but not from the cold. Suddenly everything became too real for her. They were really going to go up against those flying beasts? Had those dragons been looking for them? Or were they looking for someone or something else? Danteous and Saigon perhaps?
How were they—a small group of Conjurers—going to beat a clan of dragons? Especially if Cyril completed his orb—it would be impossible. She decided in that moment that destroying the orb would be their best shot at defeating them—they had to succeed in finding it and destroying it.
At all costs.
***
As the next morning progressed, they noticed the trees were shorter and becoming more sparse. The terrain became rocky beneath the snow. The air became thinner. Mid morning, they made it to the tree line: where the harsh environmental conditions couldn't sustain most plant life.
By late afternoon, they made it to the top of the mountain.
Finally. The worst of this treacherous trek was over. It could only get better from here. Samara hoped, anyway.
The four stopped to admire the view from the peak. Clouds swirled around them like a soft airy ocean. The wind slapped at their faces, but that wasn't the most breathtaking. What took their breath away was the sky going on for miles, the snow-covered mountain tops every way they turned, the valley below that had been spared from the snow. The grass was green down there. The rivers in the valley sparkled while the rivers up here were crusting with ice.
It was majestical. And terrifying. They were out in the open, nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to hide. Samara searched the skies and all around, feeling vulnerable up here. The quicker they began their descent the better.
Leela must have felt the same way because she adjusted the bags she was carrying while keeping a wary eye on the sky. "Come on," she said to the rest of the group. Of course, Samara had told her about what she had seen the night before so they were all anxious and keeping an extra close eye on the sky.
However, before Leela could take another step, a snowball hit Rufus in the back of the head.
"Hey!" Rufus grabbed a handful of snow and formed a larger ball, throwing it at a giggling Kit. Kit yelled as the frozen ball smacked her in the neck. She tossed her bags to the ground and worked quickly to make another snowball before Rufus could.
"Guys, we don't have time for this—" Smack! Rufus threw one at Leela, hitting her right in the face.
Eyes widened, Samara covered her mouth in shock, waiting for the wrath. Leela grit her teeth, brushed the snow from her face, and dropped her bags to the ground. She gathered a ball the size of a large cantaloupe and grunted in anger as she tossed it at a running-away Rufus.
So much for being inconspicuous. Samara glanced around again, making sure they were alone before she dropped her bags and joined in the fun. A few minutes of play couldn't hurt, right?
The four of them chased one another on the mountain top, throwing snowballs and dodging them until they were all broken into a fit of giggles (even Leela). They hid behind boulders, using them as shields. There were no teams, everyone was fair game.
After a few minutes, Kit stopped to cough and catch her breath. "I don't feel so good," she huffed.
"You're just ... trying ... to bluff." Rufus was huffing too.
The four of them were all suddenly aware of how short of breath they were. Samara's head filled with water and she swayed, dizzy. They hadn't considered the air was different up here. Having a snowball fight at an elevation they weren't used to when they were weak with hunger and wary from travel probably wasn't the best idea....
Kit was the first to fall. Her legs became too weak to hold her up and she dropped as if someone had kicked her legs out from under her.
"Kit!" Samara ran to her side.
"I'm so sleepy, Samara...." Kit closed her eyes as Leela and Rufus came up to them to see what had happened. Rufus didn't get a chance to say anything before the sickness caught up with him. He turned around to vomit.
Before she could do anything, Samara felt her eyes drooping too. She felt like she was being smothered....
==========
If you're liking this story, hit the vote button! Leave a comment or share 😁
Image: unknown from Pinterest. Depiction of Kit.