He woke up the next morning, drenched in sweat and out of breath. The wyrmfolk was looking at him with tired eyes, she was waiting for him to wake up fully revitalized even if he was going through a bad night. It was acceptable for Bast to see his sleep so agitated since the dreadful images of Mevelin's death were still haunting her along with the many other friends she had lost.
In the morning, they parted ways with a last goodbye. Fifteen men accompanied Arthur, and all of them were apt, being separated from Ardgal did put a toll on Loke, who grew reluctant to help Arthur. Being separated from his leader made it much worse.
The entire group grew colder, distant to the boy who walked a dozen meters in front of the troop. He was the first to discover the balding area of the mountain. The more they advanced, the fewer trees they came across. Soon they became a bunch of black dots crawling their way to the top.
When he sunk his feet in the crunchy white blanket covering the top of the mountain, Arthur almost became ecstatic. The white incomprehension that made him wander day and night turned out to be snow.
Too bad it had freezing temperatures. The thick clouds that were expelled from their mouth vanished into thin air above their head. Thankfully now that they were closer to the summit, the mountain itself shielded them from the dangerous winds.
The clouds that usually merged broke down like leaves during winter.
Once the sun peeked at them from the side of the slope, Arthur felt a burning sensation all over his face. Just like when he frowned or sneezed, he couldn't get rid of an annoying ache. The sole part of his face exposed was the one irritated by a sunburn, another enemy he never thought of before.
He could hear the distant remarks in his back, he wished for the vicious tongues to be cut off before they could finish their slander. First was Loke, who seemed almost afraid to make his comment.
"She's leaving us with the defective. What a shame. Another mission like this one and we're good to brave any danger without her."
To what another, who seemingly agreed with him replied. "With a little bit of luck, he'll bend the knee before dawn and we'll be able to come back earlier than we expect."
Now, Arthur had a glimpse of poisonous speech and casual talk that seeped into his mind like venom spread through his circulatory system. He wanted to add a pinch of salt to their conversation since he was close to them. His eyebrows pinched the skin atop his nose as he bit his lower lip.
Thankfully a high-pitched voice stopped blood from boiling out of Arthur's ears.
"Don't be so harsh guys, your words can hurt him, it's rare to be able to count our recruiter among the group, plus with Bast away, we have insurance, she'll find his name and shackle his family. Don't you dare talk anymore, I fear avalanches much more than harsh temperatures. Until we find a flat surface, you lads better watch your steps."
The three guild mates next to her shrugged, it was their usual plan.
Loke gave her a bewildered smile as if the one that could permanently be seen thanks to his translucent skin wasn't enough. "Focus on the mission and let the others pluck the feathers off the bird, got that."
Arthur couldn't afford to look back and start a brawl. His only weapon was hundreds of kilometres away and his skill with or without one was neigh inexistent. Instead, he clenched his fist and turned toward the ghost that walked over the light coat of snow and asked with a voice full of doubt.
"Am I defective... ?"
He saw Lancelot's lips moving, he saw his Adam's apple go up and down, the gap between the two buckles on his shoulders, the ones holding his cape, broaden a little. Yet no sound exited the ghost's mouth.
Arthur's eyes were wide open, he asked no open question, yet the reply was too long for the boy to read on the ghost's lips.
The sudden increase in stride surprised the thieves. They were far from being about to enter the rabbit hole, the dark area that now visibly cut the mountain's steepest side in half so soon, but the cold entered their socks, passed through the tiniest openings of their cloaks, and threatened every single of their frail joints.
Though he had no more energy to deplete, his legs continued to advance, to push the empty shell he was and the dead weight he considered his group like forward. His ascension was a tremendous task compared to the one he wanted to accomplish once the treasure was acquired.
'Never will they compare me to the tyrant they call a king. Never will they tell me who to be, never shall I bend to the ill will of this world.' He thought, living a couple more breaths like a madman before falling face-first in the snow.
He woke up to a warm sensation, the stones that were placed next to a small campfire near a bright door to nowhere almost burnt the side of his leg.
They were a dozen meters inside a bottomless pit of darkness, the cave was several meters large and high, and there was enough space for the golden griffin to fly without any hindrance.
"You're back in time thankfully, that'll spare me from the effort." Loke's words echoed in the giant tunnel, he was sitting next to Jaya who hurried to check his condition. She brushed her curly hair behind her ear and spoke with a sad tone that held a little bit of unprecedented spite.
"You've passed out because of hypothermia. If you were this cold, you should've told us."
The fire nearby was weak, the flames weren't bigger than the army of fingers gathered around the emanated heat. That's when Arthur noticed how hard it was to breathe. The white clouds that formed thanks to their breath were nowhere to be seen, the height they were was the most probable reason for the lack of oxygen in the cave.
Arthur stood up and waved his arms to create wind, the immovable, lukewarm temperature in the cave was the same everywhere. He judged the walls bearing the peak of the mountain thick enough to keep a steady temperature despite the terrible weather outside, and strong enough to bear the tip of the mountain that stood another kilometre higher.
"Found anything yet?" He asked as casually as possible to the group while staring at the engulfing darkness that stood at the opposite side of the bright exit.
One of the thieves with a crooked back and nine fingers replied. "No, we were about to part ways. We'll relay each other after each expedition with three groups of five, you're free to choose when to participate, but Jaya said you had to rest first. You barely slept a few minutes."
She moved forward with a stunned look. "No, I did not say sleep, I said faint. He's going to die on our hands!"
A sudden gust of wind struck the mountain as if the sky itself decided to cage the thieves in the hole as if the clouds materialised in solid matter to obstruct the light.
"Fuck." They sighed in unison, a way for them to shrug off many disasters that fell upon their shoulders.
Arthur approached the fire and grabbed one of the many burning sticks, uncaring of the heat and their flabbergasted faces.
"No, I won't die." His second run for it was a success as well. They looked at the shivering torch disappearing into nothingness.
They exchanged gaze and a few words.
"Was it me or his hair...?"
"It was white! White!"
Jaya saw the situation escalating, but she couldn't resolve herself to stop them, she had seen something too, however following the convergence point of their conversation meant distrusting their chief, to losing confidence in her order.
The snowflakes that stuck to the boy's hair when he fell now dripped on his neck with what remained of his hair's concealer.
Just a minute later as planned, a group of five detached from the rest and ventured forth with food supplies and spare wood for the torches, leaving behind their heaviest warm clothes to use their stamina at its best.
Jaya was part of the team, she wanted to ensure the so-called Lance's safety. Loke chose to stay with the rest of the team, he was to execute plan B if things went wrong.
A few minutes down the tunnel, the group stumbled upon the boy whose fire died faster than he expected. He surged from nowhere and was glad to not see the orc's face among the scouting team.
Three of them took a deep breath, they were about to ask something until Jaya shooed them away with a whistle. "Let's go deeper first." She said to Arthur and the rest of the group, that both understood it differently, thus the boy was silently forgiven.
All around them, a black rock, a sort of shiny coal resembling the inside of a throat, the few irregularities were vestiges of time's erosion.
Conical shapes descended from the top of the cavern, and even though the air was too dry to breathe, a few drops of water coiled around the spikes before falling on the travelers.
After half an hour, Arthur stopped and put his torch down, he spat on the ground and observed the liquid move, they were on a slight slope, in an endless tunnel going down. The light that accompanied them was slightly darker, it had hints of blue all over, the thief with a crooked back pointed at it and spoke.
"There's gas in this cave, sulfur maybe, it affects the fire, the deeper we go the riskier it is."
One of the five raised his hand and volunteered to warn the others at the entrance of the cavern. Since the majority agreed with him, all of those who also wanted to hear more about the next step against 'Lance', the man vanished toward their entry point.
Arthur's heart was beating hard. He was excited, eager to have the due of his silent suffering. But he was afraid of the infinity of darkness in front of him, he was scared of the echo of their steps, of failure, of the consequences it would have.
The last strand of trust holding the small team together was that he had been right. There was an unexplored cavern at the top of the mountain, one devoid of animal corpses, certainly devoid of predators as well.
Their current issue grew with time. Three hours in, their torch stock grew thin and they came to a halt.
One scrapped the ground, gathering as much dirt and rock as he could to mark the place they managed to reach before turning back.
"No moss, no grass, no bats, no birds, no rodents... Not a single insect we can feed on. Lance, we have to go back." Jaya said, lowering her shoulders.
However, the voice that replied was dead serious, with a tinge of strain.
"Has anyone seen a second path until now?"
Not any positive reply led to many more questions when they discovered the corpse of their friend supposedly back with the rest of the group hours ago lying lifeless in the middle of the path.