The Ascent

"Lubbock!", despite being quite sure that my voice was only circling right back to me, I couldn't help but call out to him.

We had started up the mountain and went on for quite a while without any trouble. Soon as we entered the fog however, it was simply impossible to tell left from right. We had anticipated such a situation and prepared for it beforehand. Lubbock had a compass and we had tied a rope to keep us together. For me, hiking up a mountain wasn't much of a problem, my village was in a mountainous area and I had been climbing up and down all my life, although that place wasn't nearly as steep or rocky as this. Still, I didn't find it too troublesome. Lubbock too, surprisingly enough, seemed at ease as if he was just walking on a straight road. He moved almost too mechanically, I could tell he was good at this sort of thing.

Things went on without problem for a while and just as I was beginning to think we'd get there without any problem, Lubbock was gone. The rope was cut, my only source of navigation through that rocky climb had disappeared. I couldn't stop there though, so I kept ascending, calling out to him but there was no response. It wasn't that I had been left behind because of how fast his pace was. The rope was severed just like that, it hadn't gotten entangled in something or anything. It was as if Lubbock was swept away into some unknown place before I knew it. I began to wonder if this place really was haunted.

"Lubbock! Oi!", just as I was wondering that, I found a silhouette ahead of me in the fog. At first, I was glad I had found him, but when the figure neither replied nor seemed to be budging, I stayed in my place. I realized it wasn't Lubbock. Lubbock was shorter than me, much more slender, the figure was like that of a tall man, with a bigger build. I figured it must have been someone else, heading towards Agartha.

"Hey!", I called again, "Are you going up to Agartha?"

There was no reply and no movement and I had to squint my eyes to confirm what I was looking at wasn't simply a rock. I took a step towards the mysterious silhouette. The sound my foot made startled me, I looked down to find snow beneath my foot. I was taken aback with this sudden change, there wasn't supposed to be snow in Agartha, unless I was remembering it wrong. I looked up at the figure again but it was no longer there. I knew then, that it had to be a ghost. Well, regardless of what it was, it was gone. I looked behind me, there was nothing but rocks everywhere. Things wouldn't be as simple going up apparently.

For one, I didn't know how high up Agartha was supposed to be, I also needed to find Lubbock and if snow was involved, that changed a lot of things. Unlike the rest of the Valkyries, I was a human with no magic, even though I now had the blood of a demon in me. But demons aren't exactly fond of snowy places. From what I've heard, it makes them sleepy. As for the human part of me, I couldn't survive a snowy mountain as I was. Freezing to death wasn't my idea of fun, I simply couldn't be convinced to go on anymore. If by some stroke of misfortune, the demon inside me made me fall asleep, I'd never wake up.

Yet, thinking all that, I still chose to take a step ahead. And just as I was looking up, I spotted the same tall figure in the fog. It felt like the ghost was inviting me now. I wonder what it was that made me go on, without worrying about Lubbock or the snow, I was following that ghost to wherever it intended to take me.

Very soon, it got harder to breath, the air seemed too frozen to be taken in, it seemed like my lungs would tear if I kept breathing. I couldn't feel my feet anymore, as they dug into snow over and over again. Still, every time I looked up, the ghost seemed to be lurking up ahead, inviting me to its abode.

"Isn't it the end?", I wondered to myself. Not that I particularly cared.

As I began to lose my breathe, my vision became cloudy and I had to exert myself to keep focus. My knees finally caved in after who knows how long, and I could barely sense my limbs anymore. All I was thinking was that I couldn't pass out here of all places, because that would definitely be the end of it. Even if I didn't mind it, something inside me held me back. I was astonished to find some hope like that lingering inside me.

I pushed back against the ground with all my strength, as I tried to walk on. But then I realized that I wasn't even standing, I was lying face down on the ground. There was nothing but white snow around me. The fog was stirred by a little wind which seemed to be getting stronger by the second. A blizzard was on its way to bury me. And I thought, how kind it would be! My situation was laughable. I began to count how many hours I had been in that place.

The more I thought, the more surprised I became. Hours? It had been days! Just over a week, in fact. I remembered one by one, every scrap of ration I saved just to make it for one more day, the cave I had taken shelter in, the fire that took years to light and that was too small but it was better than nothing. I curled up beside it, just barely avoiding burning myself to death. And Lubbock!

I looked at the severed rope that was still tied around my waist, I remembered cutting it. I remembered how I had escaped Lubbock as he called after me, how I never answer him when he was calling out my name. I remembered the last drop of water I had hopelessly downed, as my lips bled. The countless cuts and bruises all over my hands and body, I remembered them all. And too soon, my overwhelming fatigue was no longer a mystery to me.