“Hm...Let me see...” Aria touched her hand to her chin, her pointy ears turning this way and that as she looked around. Slowly she extended her arm along the path of the river. “That way, I think. Sun is good guide, yes?”
“True enough.” Jack tightened the straps on his pack. “Shall we be off, then?”
“Yes. Should be easy from here.” Aria pointed off into the distance. A line of mountains was just barely visible through the light morning fog. “If we have to cross those, will be harder. But hope not.”
“Right. Well then. Let's get moving.”
Jack started walking along beside the river. Aria was close behind. In a much better mood, Jack started to whistle a cheerful tune. Hopefully, the worst was behind them.
- 5 -
A week had passed since Jack Squier and Aria Me'lia had left their camp at the riverside. Considering the rough time they'd had since they first set out, the last seven days had been spent in relative peace. Peace, of course, being a
very
relative term on this planet they found themselves stranded on. The unlikely pair had covered a lot of ground in that week, moving from the river-fed grasslands to a strange combination of rocky ground and towering trees. If there was one thing to be said for this planet, it was that it didn't lack for trees.
As they had continued walking, Aria expressed a fervent hope that they wouldn't reach the mountains before they found the crash site for her ship. On the fifth day, Jack privately began to think that this hope was a foolish one. The mountains continued to loom closer, and there was still no sign of anything that might foreshadow a starship crash. Jack noticed that Aria was getting more and more nervous as the ground started to slope up. She would look around more and more, as though trying to find a way out of their current path, and her fur bristled with what Jack was beginning to recognize as an Ailian nonverbal cue for fear.
On the seventh day, it became apparent that either they were going to have to go around the mountains or they were going to have to climb over them.
******
“Mountains...Did not want to be at mountains...”
Jack turned his attention away from his meal. The firelight illuminated Aria's face, and he could see her staring at her food, which seemed largely untouched. The fur on her neck was bristling, and her ears were laid flat.
“Well, it was always a possibility,” Jack pointed out. He took another bite. “I mean, you said you didn't know how far we'd have to go, only that you had an idea of what direction we needed to go.” He shrugged. “If it's that big of a deal, we can go around them, can't we?”
For a moment Aria looked as though she wanted to agree, but then she reluctantly shook her head. “No. Not go around. Lose sense of direction, get lost...Not good. Need to climb over. Stay on track.”
“Then I guess that's what we'll have to do,” Jack said with no real enthusiasm. “I don't want to climb, but it's not a big deal. It'll be tiring, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it as long as I've got you with me.”
Aria growled. “Is true, I suppose...”
Jack stared at her. “I don't get it, what's the big deal?” He looked at her, trying to figure out why she'd be so against the idea. After running through a series of possibilities, something occurred to him. It seemed kind of ridiculous, but... “You're scared of heights, aren't you?”
“Shut up!” Aria roared at him, her eyes blazing as she graced him with a look of pure rage.
“That's it, isn't it?” Jack pressed her, a grin starting to spread across his face. “You're scared of heights!” He laughed, amused by the idea. “Who would have thought that the big, strong warrior would be scared of a little thing like-”
Aria stood up to her full height, clenching her fists, staring down at Jack and shaking with anger. “I said shut up!” Her old personality seemed to have returned in full force, and she had an expression very close to murderous wrath on her face. The look was was enough to make Jack feel some of the familiar fear return to him.
He held his hands up. “Okay, okay...,” he said, in as soothing a voice as he could manage. “I get it. I won't say anything more about it.”
Aria sat back down slowly. She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes. “If I need to, I will do it. I do not like, but I will do.” She stabbed her fork into her food furiously, taking a bite. She frowned, chewing thoughtfully. “Do not have ropes. Will be dangerous.”
“Yeah...,” Jack agreed. He looked through the trees, trying to see if he could get a glimpse of the mountains in the moonlight, but either it was too dark or the trees where they camped were too thick. “Still, there'll probably be some handholds for us to use. And I've been rock climbing before. Heck, I think it's fun. This'll probably be like a vacation compared to hiking!”
“I wish I look forward to it like you...”
******
They got their start early the next morning. Although Aria was no more enthused about what they had to do, she seemed to have resigned herself to their fate. Jack tried to cheer her up as they hiked through the trees, but whatever he said didn't seem to have any effect on her. She looked just as upset about the idea of climbing over the mountains.
When finally they broke through the woods, Jack was surprised by how tall the mountain range was. He tilted his head all the way back, trying to see the top, but the summit was concealed from their view by a layer of low-flying, thick white clouds. The mountains were not bare rock like one might expect to see, but were covered with the greens and purples of plant life. As far as Jack could see, it didn't look like trees, but more like high shrubs and grasses.
Aria was relieved to see that they wouldn't have to climb sheer walls, at least not at first. The bottoms of the mountains were grass and rock slopes; they were steep, but they appeared to be manageable. Her fur smoothed a little as her anxiety lessened.
“Right, Jack,” Aria said. She adjusted the sling on her heavy rifle, strapping it over her shoulder and securing it to her pack with a clip to leave her hands free. “We begin, yes? You first.”
The human mimicked Aria, strapping his rifle out of the way in the same fashion. “Me first? Why me?”
Aria waved her hand at him. “Smaller. Find paths easier. Also. I able to catch you if you fall. You not be able to catch me. You fall, we safe. I fall, we both fall. Make sense, yes?”
Jack stroked his chin. “I guess that makes sense.” He shrugged. “Alright, we'll do it your way.” Jack faced the cliff, considering. Slightly to their left, he saw a natural path carved between two rocks, lined with grass poking up between coarse gravel. He pointed to that. “Let's start off that way. Looks like it'll have decent traction, so long as we watch our footing.”
The Ailian nodded, taking a deep breath to steel herself. Jack led the way, starting the climb. The morning was still cool, and for the first few minutes of climbing he didn't sweat. The slope was gradual, though not quite what one would call easy. They found themselves not talking very much, conserving their breath for the climb.
When they were five hundred meters or so above where they had begun, Jack started to notice the wildlife waking up from overnight. He looked around, seeing a variety of birds flying around the mountain. All of them were very colorful, decorated in feathers of bright reds, blues, and greens. They seemed similar to parrots, except with long, straight beaks instead of the short curved ones of those more familiar birds. The birds flew about on two pairs of wings, filling the air with shrill caws and trills. Jack thought they looked to be the size of just regular birds, but as he watched them one flew closer and closer, and he suddenly realized that they were nearly as big as he was.
“Damn...,” Jack said, stopping his climb to watch in fascination. “Aria, are you seeing this? You ever seen birds this huge before?”
Aria took her eyes away from their path to look. Her eyes widened in surprise. “No. Is amazing...” She watched the bird fly very close past them, the fur on her head rustling in the wash from its wings. The bird glanced at them as it went by, but seemed to pay them little mind. “Lucky it not seem hungry right now...” Jack watched in some amusement as Aria licked her lips. “But...Hmm...I wonder what it taste like...”
“Maybe we can try bringing one down when we get to a resting place,” Jack suggested. He waved to her. “Come on. Looks like the serious climbing is about to begin.”
Following the direction Jack indicated, Aria's ears flattened to her head as she saw what was before them. They had about another three hundred or so meters of sloping ground, and then the mountain took a sharp jump upwards. While not exactly a sheer cliff, it was very steep. Grey rock, crisscrossed with thick mottled purple vines, went up for at least three kilometers.
“Not looking forward to this...,” Aria growled, her tail bushing out.
“I'll find the path,” Jack reminded her. “I'll try not to lead us on a bad one. We have to do this, remember?” Turning away from her he continued climbing, going up.
Before long they reached the rock wall. At Aria's insistence, Jack spent some time seeing if he could pick a way around, but after trying several promising paths that ended up dead ends, he reported that they would have to climb.
“Very well...” Aria shivered a little, and Jack could see the shadows of fear on her face. “If we must, we must...”
Nodding, Jack took the first step. As much as Aria he wasn't looking forward to making the climb without ropes, or even chalk to dust his hands with, but there was nothing for it. He surveyed the rock in front of him, and a few feet above his head he saw a suitable handhold. Reaching for it, he grabbed it and pulled himself up. His foot found a hold as well, and he started climbing. Looking down, he saw Aria hesitate for a few moments and then follow him. She had an advantage over him: her tough claws served as makeshift crampons, giving her something she could fall back on should she not be able to find a good hand- or foothold right away.
Jack was definitely starting to sweat, now. The sun was higher in the sky, and he was exerting himself far more than before. He had to frequently wipe his hands on his fatigue jacket to keep them from getting too slick. He reflected that as annoying as the sweat was, at least it helped to keep him cool. With a random thought, Jack wondered how Aria was feeling. She was covered in fur, and if the Ailian body worked anything like Earth felines, she probably didn't sweat. Casually, Jack glanced down, looking at Aria.
Surprised, he saw that it looked like she did sweat, at least a little bit. Her orange fur was slightly matted where it showed. Jack stifled a childish giggle as he saw that she was also panting, kind of like how a dog would. She noticed him staring and growled, then looked down behind her and squeaked in terror, quickly looking back up with her eyes wide.
“Come on, Aria,” Jack called. “I think I see a ledge a few meters above us. Just a few more minutes of climbing and then we can take a rest.”
“A-Alright.”
Jack continued his climb, his arms and legs aching from the effort. He was starting to see the benefit of Aria's pushiness. In just two weeks of almost nonstop traveling across the planet, he was already feeling as though he was in better shape. He was sure that if he'd had to do this from the beginning, he wouldn't have been able to climb this high.
With one final reach, Jack's hand found the ledge he'd been aiming for. Hauling himself up, he rolled onto the relatively flat ground, breathing hard. A minute or so later Aria's hand appeared, scrabbling around for purchase on the ledge, and she climbed up beside him. As soon as she was up, she scrambled as far away from the edge as she could, pressing her back tight against the mountainside. Jack moved to sit next to her, and he took a long drink from his canteen.
“See? That wasn't so bad, was it?” Jack lightly elbowed Aria in the side.
The taller female looked down at him, gritting her teeth. “Shut...up...,” she gasped out between pants. “Is not funny. Not like climbing.”
“You're doing okay. Besides...” Jack crawled to the edge, gazing over. “Look at how high we've climbed already. I bet we're halfway up this mountain already.” Indeed, Jack was surprised how high they'd gone. From where they'd begun ascending the rock wall it looked as though they'd covered slightly over a kilometer. The trees down below, as tall as they appeared from the ground, looked like little more than fuzzy toothpicks.
At his suggestion that she look, Aria shook her head emphatically. “Not look. If I look, I be sick.” She rested her head back against the rock, laying a hand across her face. “Not want to climb anymore...”
“Well, we can't go back down,” Jack pointed out. “That's suicide without ropes. All we can do is keep going up.” He left unsaid the uncomfortable thought that they would still have to go down the other side of the mountain. Jack would rather not think about that right now. He crawled back over to Aria. “Come on. Let's eat something, rest for an hour or so, and then we'll get back to it.”
“Alright,” Aria agreed, giving a sigh.
“Besides, whenever you get back home and make a report about all this, do you really want to have to tell your superiors that you couldn't do the same thing as a weak, puny human?”
At least this time Aria managed a weak smile, and even a small laugh. “Is true, I not want to have to say that,” she said. “Though this human not that weak or puny.”
“Wow, that might be the nicest thing you've said to me.”
******
When they were both ready, they continued the climb. Jack could still feel a little soreness, but the rest they'd taken had allowed him to recover significantly. The vines were also starting to grow more numerous, giving them additional handholds. Both of them were astounded at how strong the vines were; they were able to support even Aria's weight with no problems. Experimentally, Jack borrowed Aria's knife and tried to cut through one of them. He got barely a quarter of the way through the vine before he had to give up, lest the knife grow too dull to be of any use. That was a shame. Jack had been thinking of trying to cut a few lengths to take along with them for use as ropes.