The path from the twentieth mountain to the twenty-first felt like the longest road I had ever walked. My body was tired, aching from every trial I had faced. My spirit was heavier still, weighed down with the voices of the guardians, their demands, their tests and their truths. Yet I walked on, guided by Jasmine’s steady paws and the warmth of her presence at my side. Oh! How I enjoyed her company!The wind was sharp against my face, carrying with it the cold sting of the last trial. Even now, my arms remembered the chill of Syrenthia’s frozen embrace; the ice that had seeped deep into my skin when I held my sister’s statue. I could still feel the ache in my bones from keeping my tears inside. I had wanted to cry. I had wanted to scream. But I had endured, because breaking was not an option. Not when Thompson’s essence still waited for me, locked away beyond this final mountain.The ground shifted beneath my boots as we climbed, stones crunching, dirt giving way to gravel. I leaned
The climb from the nineteenth mountain had left my bones aching. I could still feel the weight of bone and dust clinging to my skin, echoes of Calgorr’s skeletal warriors in the silence that followed me. My hands bore small cuts from the blade I had fought with, and though Jasmine padded softly by my side, her paws were steady as always, even though she seemed quieter than usual, as if sensing that the next trial would test something deeper than my body.As we climbed, there was a change in the weather as the air grew colder. I had gotten used to strange shifts in weather; the thirteenth mountain had blistering heat, the sixteenth had storms that threatened to break the earth apart but this cold was different. It didn’t sting the skin. It seeped inward, creeping into the chest as if trying to freeze the heart itself before I even reached the summit.I tugged the scarf tighter around my neck, though I knew it wouldn’t help much. Jasmine pressed against my leg and gave a soft whine.“I
The days blurred together after I left the mountain of shadows. My body ached, but not in the way that broken bones or pulled muscles ache. It was deeper, buried in my chest and stitched into the seams of my thoughts. The whispers of Lethra still lingered in my ears, curling like smoke in the back of my skull, reminding me of the fragility of my own courage. Yet, step by step, I pressed forward, and Jasmine pressed with me.Her pawsteps padded gently against the uneven earth, steadying, guiding and grounding me. I clung to the soft leather of her harness as though it were the only real thing in the world. The air grew colder as we made our way, sharper, with the dry bite of stone dust.I could feel that this was no ordinary mountain. The climb toward the nineteenth felt heavy, as though the ground itself resisted us, as though something old and watchful stirred beneath its surface. The peaks around me whispered with the wind, but the silence that followed each gust felt unnatural. Jas
My ordeal with the custodian of the seventeenth mountain left me shattered. But as I journeyed towards the eighteenth mountain, the burdens lifted.For the first time in this journey, I became hopeful because I was getting closer to approaching the twenty-first mountain, which meant the end of my journey and stress. I then remembered Riverside Pack. The pack that had become home to me. I thought of Drey and Tessy and I realised how much I had missed them. The reason I embarked on this journey was to restore the pack to what it was when I got there. So, this became my focus as I encountered every trial I faced on each mountain. By the time I reached the foot of the mountain, the world had cooled. My feet throbbed with every step, but Jasmine kept me moving. The ground changed beneath me, from rough stone to damp earth, and I knew another climb awaited me. The sixteenth and seventeenth mountains had drained me, tested me in ways that cut bone-deep. Yet now, as I lifted my face to the b
The ground beneath my boots felt different as I made my way toward the seventeenth mountain. Each step seemed to echo, not outward into the open world, but inward, bouncing inside me like a sound caught between bones. The path was harsher here, filled with broken rock and sharp gravel. My cane caught against them often, and Jasmine tugged me gently to safer ground, her soft panting reminding me that I wasn’t walking alone.After the torment of sleepless nights with Thamriel, I thought I would collapse on the way here. My body begged me to surrender, but somehow, the weight of what still lay ahead kept me moving. I was no longer just climbing mountains. Each trial stripped something away from me, leaving me ‘naked’ but also, strangely, cleaner.The air grew heavier as we approached. It wasn’t just the usual silence of these cursed peaks. It was denser, like unseen eyes pressed against my skin, watching and measuring. My chest tightened, and I caught myself clutching Jasmine’s fur more
The days between the fifteenth mountain and the sixteenth stretched into something strange, a rhythm I could never quite trust. My body moved, my feet carried me forward, but it was as if time itself was bending around me. The fifteenth mountain had nearly broken me; the fire that licked at my skin, and the confession that ripped out of my throat like a jagged blade. For days after, I still felt the burn between my toes, even though the flames had died. My body and my heart remembered.Jasmine walked steadily at my side, her paws a soft and constant sound against the stone. I leaned into her warmth when the path grew narrow, and when the winds grew sharp, she pressed her body close, grounding me. Blindness had long since become my shadow, so it was not new. But on this journey, it felt different. My eyes may not have seen the world, but my skin, my ears, my nose, my heart had learned to notice every little change. The way the wind carried the sharp scent of pine. The way the air thin