Ch. 49: Thirteenth Mountain

"Adrian! Behind you!"

"Got it! Hold on tight!" 

"Jump! Now!"

"Are you insane!?"

BOOM!

'ADRIAN!' Nothing came out of her mouth, but Rosy still shouted.

...

Going back to earlier that day.

"You're joking, right?" Adrian asked Rosy, looking at the obstacle in front of them. He'd asked this a lot in the last week, since his ankle had healed. So far, he'd asked it when she'd lead him through piranha infested rapids in a hollowed-out tree, when they'd jumped out of the tree, desperately hanging onto a jutting out rock before climbing up the cliffside that it was jutting out from, and when they'd skipped straight through mountain 11 via a really, really long tunnel that'd felt like it would never end. Now was arguable the worst "You're joking, right?" yet.

"Nope." Rosy answered him, looking at the obstacle in front of them. This was a running joke between the two of them.

Since they'd crossed past mountain 11, the second highest mountain besides the one that held Gryvus at the top, they'd been able to see the mountain that marked the end of their journey. Luckily for them, it seemed that mountain 12 would be smooth sailing. But mountain 13 really wasn't an actual mountain. It'd clearly been made by the gryphons as some sort of testing ground.

On top of that, it was the home of two different types of chimeras. The gryphons were clearly breeding them there to keep out intruders who, like Rosy and Adrian, managed to find their way through the rest of the mountains. The side closest to the duo was a rough rock wall that extended so high that it was slightly higher than the mountain that they were currently standing on.

Nesting in crevices near the top of the wall were possibly hundreds of large creatures with lion bodies and eagle wings. These were what the mythology in Adrian's country generally referred to as gryphons. In order to get through the thirteenth mountain, they'd need to go through not only the nest of 'lion-eagles,' but also (according to Rosy) a nest of large snake-panther creatures at the very top.

Apparently, she'd been weakened by one of these snake-panthers' bites during her first journey through, and that was what had allowed the people up at Gryvus to throw her off the mountain. She'd had injuries so grievous that she'd been forced to stay at the base of the mountain and recover for over a month before she made the decision to leave, rather than attack again.

After they got to the wall, the first part of the climb up had been mostly smooth sailing. What the wall lacked in footholds, Rosy made up for in skill, and she could use their bond to draw Adrian's focus to the strongest hand-and-footholds that she could find with ease. As a result of that, their progress was pretty swift and easy. Then, they got to the nest.

"..." Rosy told him through their bond. Since they still couldn't share words so much as sentiments, he just barely managed to understand. She was telling him to be as quiet as possible. Too much noise and they'd disturb the gryphon nest, which would probably get them killed since their ability to dodge was almost nonexistent while they were climbing.

"Huh?" Adrian'd grabbed onto a handhold, but he pulled his hand back, puzzled. It had felt like his hand had been pecked by something. He found another handhold and pulled himself up to be level with the handhold that his hand had been pecked on. 

His eyes met with those of a cute little bird with a lion's body. It was a baby lion-eagle. Adrian had mistaken his den for a handhold. Curious, the baby chirped cutely "Skree!"

The panic from Rosy made Adrian feel like he'd been electrocuted. He almost fell right off of the wall. 'Run!' This message came through loud and clear, but he couldn't follow her advice. He'd gotten experience free-climbing during their time in the mountains, but he still wasn't too good at it without help. When she realized that, she stopped her scampering and looked back down at him in a panic.

"Adrian! Behind you!" She shouted. Adrian looked where she wanted him to. There was a huge lion-eagle coming right at him. Apparently, it had heard its baby screech, and was  not happy to see a human so close to it. 

Adrian did the only thing he could do. He jumped towards the first hold that he could find. A gryphon hole. "Got it!" He yelled. Unfortunately, the entire nest had noticed them by now. Rosy was being attacked as well, and her handhold wasn't a gryphon hole. "Hold on tight!" He shouted at her, beginning his climb towards her. 

More things started to go wrong from there.

"Jump! Now!" Rosy shouted at him, seeing something below him. Adrian didn't have the time to look. He knew that he might have been making the same mistake that he'd made before, when he'd broken his ankle, but he still hesitated.

"Are you insane!?" He screamed back. If he jumped from where he was, he knew that he'd die. Just then, the gryphon-creature in the hole that he was climbing out of literally exploded out of it, slamming into the rocks beside Adrian in an attempt to shake him free. With an earth-shattering BOOM! the rock that Adrian reached for crumbled beneath him, causing Adrian to fall. The flock of gryphons below him would do nothing to stop it.

'ADRIAN!' In all of the time that they'd been together, they'd not been able to share a single word or thought through their blood bond. Just ideas and feelings, vague and formless. But this time, Rosy's thoughts flowed freely between them, her silent scream conveying so much more between them than anything that she could have said with her mouth. Unfortunately, Adrian was too busy falling to hear anything. Through the dense flock of gryphons attacking the both of them, Rosy watched Adrian fall.