It occurred to me that there was no reason for us to go to Rock Flames's office. We could have just met there on the ground floor because that's where we went. The elevator doors opened and Rock Flames went to call the taxi which was waiting on the road.
"We will go to Mount Drake by a taxi." Rock Flames explained. We followed him into the cab and took the back seat while he sat on the front beside the driver. The taxi driver didn't seem happy to have his destination as Mount Drake. The mountain had active landslides and boulders falling often and he wouldn't want his precious vehicle to get crushed below any of them.
As he drove, he asked us various ranges of questions; from why do you want to go to Mount Drake to are you nuts?! He was a talkative one but I didn't let him bother me. Raining heavily outside, I watched the beautiful scenery, slowly changing to a mountainous region. That's when I thought that I should have brought an umbrella with me.
I shared the thought and Rock Flames replied with a smiled that he had two umbrellas. Thankfully, Oliver was not as careless as I was.
One hour had passed by. The rain had subsided, leaving the roads with water. I hadn't noticed at first but we had reached our destination. I had my window open and looked out of it to the front to see a huge mountain facing us. It was almost barren with no trees on it. It felt like a lava mountain but wasn't, which was a relief. It stretched high up to make me stretch my neck to watch the peak. There weren't any people there and nor were there any good roads. We had to cross the mountain.
Rock Flames paid the driver which I was relieved about. But the mountain in front of us didn't let me relax. Oliver had a pale face just like mine. But only Rock Flames looked enthusiastic, like he really needed to find the warriors. We took our shoulder bags and stood right at the starting point. "There better be strong warriors out there." Oliver said. "I don't want my back to break just for no reason."
We began our journey upward. The starting wasn't bad as it was not that steep below. We walked the little inclined path for some time. Our heavy backpacks didn't do us much good but we still managed to walk for an hour straight.
After that, my legs seemed to become weaker and I observed Oliver with the same feeling. Rock Flames though was still fresh and going on, ahead of us. He frequently used to stop and wave his hands to us, encouraging us to keep going. We had two weeks and Day 1 didn't seem that good so far.
We rested on some rocks nearby for some time. Water supply was not a problem for us as we had brought 3 tanks – all three which were carried by Rock Flames. In the journey up, we found trees sometimes which were rare in that mountain. Beside us, as we walked, I could see some rocks rolling down on their own which scared the thought of a rock from above coming to crush us.
As we took another halt, I watched Oliver sitting on a rock, a phone with him, looking at a girl on the photo. I didn't want to ask him who she was but she was surely dear to him. I sat beside him and getting alert, he slid his phone into his pocket.
Rock Flames grabbed his backpack and gestured us to get up and start moving again. I was now bored of the same routine. We had somehow passed our time till lunchtime. We had our lunch quickly but most of our time went in travelling. Having Rock Flames with us, we couldn't take much rest.
That's when Rock Flames made a noise. We hadn't noticed but we were nearing the peak. I could see the peak and brought my hopes up again. We travelled with all our hearts. The point had arrived when the mountain was the steepest. We needed to be more careful now.