It was not a good day to be climbing a mountain, but Marko, Janek, and Jutka had found themselves with no other option. Passage to their destination was accessible only by the mountain pass, and there was only so long they had before it was time to make it. They had delayed as long as possible, but when the weather showed no sign of improving, Janek decided it was time to move onwards. They would take it slow, he said, but they needed to make some progress or they would miss their deadline. As he was the most experienced among them with regards to mountainous terrain, Jutka and Marko trusted his judgment even if their guts were squirming at the idea of being so high up when the wind was trying its best to push them to and fro. They broke down camp and entered into the pass, keeping as close to the cliff wall on their left as they possibly could and going single-file. At Janek’s suggestion, each had attached a section of rope to their armor. If any one of them slipped a step and went over the edge of the long cliff to their right, the others would be able to brace and hopefully pull them back up. It was not a perfect system. It was possible, after all, that whoever fell would bring the others down with them. Yet they each had knives to try and cut the rope if it came to that. They would just have to hold out hope that it wouldn’t. Janek took the lead, as he normally did. Neither Jutka nor Marko complained about this. Janek was the biggest of them, and his bulk did help somewhat to shield the others from the cutting wind as they gradually climbed their way up the mountain path. Marko was in the middle. He was smaller than Jutka and Janek, and would not serve well as an anchor if any of them were to take a tumble. Jutka might not be the biggest Felvarg in the world, but she was still better suited to the job. They had all bundled up as best they could for the trek, wrapped in furs to protect them from the cold. The base of the mountains and beginning of the passage were mostly just rocky, not too steep, but the higher one went around the switchbacks the colder it got. They would have to camp several times along the way, and this time of year it was not unheard of for snow to come out of nowhere. With wind, freezing temperatures would prove deadly for the unprepared. One might think that an established path like this might be set up with railings or other safety measures to make it more traversable, but the general attitude in Ulfrheim was that if you couldn’t climb a mountain, you probably shouldn’t be anywhere near one. Nevermind that it was often required to get from one place to another. There were plenty of warnings about the dangers, but no one had taken it upon themselves yet to make the way much easier beyond carving out the narrow path that had been carved. In some places it was in fact so narrow that Marko, Janek, and Jutka had to take extra care with their steps, even walking single-file as they were. Then there would be random steep inclines, and as their journey went on, even massive boulders that had only the barest indent of stairs cut into the rock. None of the three spoke overmuch along the way, half because they were focusing on where they were going and half because the wind made it incredibly difficult to hear one another. Only when absolutely necessary to give directions did Janek raise his voice to call out to the others. Marko’s teeth started chattering before long. He was bundled up pretty tightly, but found himself wishing he had some extra layers nonetheless. Jutka had a carefully stoic look on her face. She wasn’t above complaining when other Felvargs were making her life difficult, but hazards of nature and difficulty of terrain like this were just challenges to overcome. Privately, she kept telling herself that she’d been through worse. And Janek lived in the mountains all the time, including in winter. She wasn’t about to complain to a Felvarg who had traversed much, much worse than she ever had. It was difficult to find a stopping point. Where the trail broadened the wind was still able to bite, and this went on for some time. Janek had used the pass before, and urged them to keep up their spirits until they reached a safer area he knew to be approaching soon. How soon? Not soon enough, maybe, but getting there even after dark would be better than settling for a place too exposed just for rest’s sake. They would all rest easier knowing they weren’t going to roll off the cliffside in their sleep. So even footsore and buffeted by wind, the three Felvargs made their way onwards. Marko’s teeth were chattering and he kept his head low, eyes squinted shut as tight as he dared while still enabling him to see the path. Janek resisted the temptation to look back and check on the other two. He knew they were working hard to brave the journey bravely, and right now the best thing any of them could do for the others was to focus on where they were walking. Chained together like this, selfishness had a somewhat different meaning. Worry could only make things worse. The sun was low between the mountain peaks by the time they finally found a suitable location. It was just a little nook in the rock, barely fitting to be called a cave, but it would do. They set up small stones to help keep them away from the edge and then arranged their bedrolls, a canvas tarp staked down into the rock at an angle to provide coverage overhead. All three hunkered down together like rabbits in the nest, and finally they slept.Word count: 1015