Children of Night and Snow

55. Lava Fields

"It's so quiet up here," I broke the silence in which we were walking for what seemed like hours now. We left the cave this morning after spending four days hiding there while Demi nursed Connor and Lucia back to health with our help. The two were now back on their feet and if it weren't for fresh scars, I'd never guess they nearly died out there in the mountain pass almost a week ago. Our healing abilities were indeed remarkable. Just like all our other abilities. And yet for most of my life, I couldn't access any of them. Even now I was still discovering things about myself which I had no idea about. And still, if I actually returned back to Moonvalley, I'd likely be absolutely terrifying to them. Just like Duskfall people were to me, when I first arrived.

"Yeah, nothing lives in these parts," Nolan replied. He was holding my hand, his gloved fingers entwined with mine. Snow crunching beneath our boots was the only sound around. There was no wildlife, no wind, nothing. It was an eerie feeling, yet I tried to make the best of it knowing full well there were more hardships ahead of us and an even ground for once was a nice change of pace.

"What's that?" Lucia asked and pointed somewhere ahead of us. Her and Demi walked side by side, refusing to move even an inch apart from each other after her injury and I could see that Demi was still shaken by it. I couldn't imagine how she must have felt when Lucia laid at her feet, blood oozing out of her neck and life slowly leaving her unconscious body. It was a sight I wouldn't easily forget, but Demi was her mate.

"That would be the lava fields," Az was the one to respond first. I looked towards the horizon where something akin to a city skyline was taking shape. Except it was pitch black and it looked like one of those places where villains in the books live. On the permanently night sky they were barely visible if it weren't for our wolf vision.

"What are those?" Now it was my turn to ask. Especially since it seemed like nobody else would.

"Remnants of volcanic activity. Lava that burst out of the ground and cooled off too fast, creating this. The rocks are really sharp so even with the boots, watch your step," Aaron explained with the lava fields closer and closer. So much for an even ground.

We reached the lava fields about an hour later and the landscape changed drastically from almost pure white into pitch black. Aaron wasn't wrong when he told us to watch our step. The place was uneven and full of very sharp edges, not just on the ground but all around us as well. The land we walked through looked menacing, dangerous. I could only imagine how easy it would have been to succumb to madness here if we got lost. We even ended up holding onto each other just to make sure we didn't lose each other in the darkness with all of us being dressed all in black as well. The black rocks were growing taller and taller as we went from small boulders to tall and sharp spires looking like skyscrapers all the way to massive mountains which now towered high up above us offering seemingly no option to cross them.

"Okay and how exactly are we supposed to cross that?" Demi looked rather intimidated for a second as she looked up the steep wall of black rock.

"That is the part you won't like very much," Nolan smirked next to me. I gave him an incredulous look. If Demi wasn't going to like it, I highly doubted I was going to feel any different.

"We climb," Az shrugged like it was nothing.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Devan mimicked his sister's face for a second and he looked the mountain up and down.

"I swear to Gods, that godsdamned city better be worth all this madness," Demi hissed while Lucia was clearly trying to calm her down by holding her hand and gently stroking her.

"It doesn't matter now. We don't have a choice," Connor chimed in. He sounded just about as excited as we all felt which meant not at all. But he was right. We didn't have a choice. And judging by lack of literally anything around us, we had to climb this thing today because there was no viable spot to make a camp and not freeze to death overnight. There were no trees to cut branches from and make fire, no viable shelter either. Even with our leathers and naturally high body heat sleeping through the night in this wilderness without any kind of shelter was not viable.

"Relax, we aren't by far the first people who are doing this, there is a trail nearby. Well, not a trail per say, just a rope and stuff which we can use to get up and across," Aaron explained, but we hardly relaxed at that.

"You know you'll have to be expert climbers if you even wanna think of joining Midnight City army, right?" he added when he saw our sour faces.

"Well, frankly that's the problem of future Lucia not me," Lucia remarked dryly and if I weren't in the same boat as her, I'd probably laugh. In the dark I could see Aaron roll his eyes, but he said nothing else and instead led us toward the thing he called a trail, which it really wasn't. It wasn't a rope either. Probably because it got overused and was no longer safe or purely because it was more practical, there was now a chain instead. Three of them in fact. Three rows of sturdy chains leading all the way to the top and possibly beyond. There were small dents in the rock as well, likely used to step on while making the journey. It looked as intimidating as I imagined.

"Let's get this over with," I mumbled and grabbed one of the chains. The twins grabbed the other two and it was clear the three of us were going to go first. I was not a bad climber back at school, but back then it was also just an annoying exercise, a means to earn a somewhat solid grade without putting too much effort in purely because I was one of those who could do it decently without much effort. That said I was not twice the size of my fourteen year old self and I was about to climb a whole mountain, not a small plastic wall in the gym. Still, I figured I'd try to apply the little experience I had.

Out of my backpack, I pulled a rope we each packed and tied it around my waist. Then I tied the other end to one of the carabiners I had packed as well. It took me a bit to figure out which was the most sturdy one and ultimately I knew none would actually stop my fall should it come to it, but they could slow it down enough for me to regain my footing. I clipped the carabiner as high up as I could and began to climb. Only then I realized all seven of my friends were looking at me with odd curiosity. Was this not how they planned on doing it?

Next thing I knew, they all followed my suit one by one creating their own safety line and then they followed me up keeping safe distance from one another. I stopped looking down about halfway through afraid the height would make me sick. Especially knowing what was down beneath us. If any of us fell, impact with the sharp rocks beneath would be impossible to survive even for us. No amount of protective metal sewn into our leathers or supernatural abilities could ease that fall.

The closer I was to the top, the more aware I became of my exhaustion. My arms were burning and I was stiff as a board. My foot slipped once or twice on the way too, not helping my anxiety at all. I felt like crying with relief when I finally reached the peak and pulled myself up on a steady ground. I sat there for a moment, eyes closed and breathing heavy. My hands were shaking and I felt so very tired. Behind me I could hear all the others join me one by one.

"Freya, open your eyes. You'll want to see this," Nolan whispered in my ear and I obeyed reluctantly.

"Wow..." I was speechless. I accepted his hand to help me stand up and when I did, my eyes landed on a breathtaking view beneath. In the distance on the ground all around us, various cities shined with thousands of little golden flickering lights into the eternal night, as if mirroring the clear sky full of stars above them. So very different from the wasteland behind us, this place was full of life.

***

Extra chapter? Out of nowhere? Why do you ask? Let's just say it's my gift to you for my bday. So enjoy! :)

-Manon