"I guess this is what that statue gave me." Oliver looked at his hand, the shield that saved the two of them disappeared.
"Well it did actually save us." Colton replied. Oliver turned to look at him.
"Yeah, it did. Good thing I managed to help." After a short moment, Oliver quickly turned to the others and rushed to heal them.
The pathway returned to silence, all the groups that were once standing, were now gone.
Walking around, Colton saw Calliope grabbing knowledge books on the ground, quickly sending them to her storage.
"Well done, I thought I could beat them back." She laughed.
"Gotta pick fights you can win Cal." Calliope looked up at him.
"Don't call me that." Colton chuckled after hearing her response. Even from the start of their time in the military, she preferred to be called by her full name or rank.
Once she grabbed the rest of the books, she walked towards a pile of rope Colton had untied from the book.
"This may be useful later on, I appreciate you keeping it clean rather than simply destroying it." She thanked Colton, wrapping the rope to rest on her waist.
While the others wandered around, fully healed. The book above them began to glow in purple, blinding all of them. And in an instant, they were sent to the new book world.
The familiar bliss and relaxation flew through Colton once more. He could never get used to the feeling of it.
In a minute, the feelings suddenly vanished and his body was sent falling, slamming into the hard ground beneath him.
His eyes slowly began to see what was around him. A cold wind brushed his back before he even got up.
Looking around, Colton found himself on a small rocky platform, attached to the side of a massive mountain. Next to him was the edge of the platform, from where he was, all he could see were clouds on the way down. With no ground in sight. Colton almost felt dizzy and nauseous, soon realizing he was too high off the ground that they even reached above the clouds.
The rest of the group started to get up as well, fully healed but slowly realizing their new situation.
"This was not what i expected." Quill spoke, looking around with confusion.
Looking around, Colton saw a small pile of used hooks and worn rope resting in the center of the platform.
"Seems we were not the only ones that used this place." Calliope stepped forward in front of Colton. She started tying the hooks to the ropes she brought earlier.
Marcus stood next to her, but her expression was more fearful than happy.
"I think I'm gonna puke from this…" She held onto her stomach, nauseous just from looking down. While she walked away, Celestine simply stood close to the edge, even moving inches closer, unafraid that she could just fall off any second now.
"The view looks really beautiful, I must say." She spoke, out of everyone, she had the most happy reaction to where they were.
The twins were the last to get up, immediately they were both confused on where they were. But their confusion quickly turned to horror. Oliver hastily stood from the ground, clutching his staff tight and shaking.
Clarissa though was more calm, although confused and frightened on where they were, she moved to Calliope, ready to do any order she says despite her fears.
"Where are we, where are we!?" Oliver struggled to speak. His eyes continued darting all around him before Clarissa lightly hit him on the back of the head.
"Relax brother, relax. At the very least, we are not falling." Clarissa tried calming down Oliver, seemingly working as he slowly stopped panicking.
In the distance, Colton could see faint glimpses of other mountains. The same size as the one he was on.
"Looks like this place is frequented a lot." Celestine commented. She was now standing away from the ledge and now next to the face of the mountain, her hand was holding onto ropes tied and hooked onto the mountain itself.
"From the looks of it, these seem to be used frequently." She continued. She spoke with confidence, seemingly already learning on these subjects a long time ago, becoming second knowledge to her.
Calliope walked next to her, looking at the ropes. All went up the mountain, up to something out of their sight.
"Ah no, we're gonna climb now?" Marcus asked.
"Scared?" Quill laughed, mocking him for his fearful tone.
"No it's not that-" Marcus couldn't finish his sentence, the fear in his mind managed to take hold for a brief moment.
They all moved closer to the ropes, waiting for Calliope to give an order on what to do.
"We have no other option than to climb, given the knowledge book we gained before offering decent aid in climbing, this should not be too much of a hassle. Simply tie yourselves to the ropes and use these hooks to climb upwards. Bind it to your hands first to ensure it stays on." After speaking, she began to hand out the hooks to everyone.
With their new climbing gear, the team bound themselves to the ropes and began to climb.
Colton slammed the hooks into the rocks of the wall, slowly pulling himself upwards. His waist was wrapped in ropes, fastened and hopefully safe. Strapped to the ropes hanging from above.
The team began their journey upwards, slowly moving upwards with their hooks.
"Have you not climbed heights before Marcus?" Celestine asked, concerned while looking at Marcus, who was slower than the rest, lagging behind.
"No, just not used to this." He replied. He started to climb faster, trying to get back to the group. He periodically stopped as his fear began to rise, unsure whether he could do it or not.
The team continued climbing for a while, but the top of the mountain was still not in sight. Colton tried his best to suppress his fears, only looking up and at his hooks. The winds began to blow stronger, causing the ropes to start swaying.
Compared to the others, Celestine and Quill both moved up with little issue, slowly going farther from the group in the climb.
"Hey Colton, did they do this a bunch in your kingdom army?" Marcus asked, hoping a conversation could help ease his fears.
"Not places this high. Just smaller mountains at most, the rest are just trees and hills." Colton quickly replied, still looking upwards.
"You know what, maybe I should have taken those mountain recon jobs. Because this is horrifying to me." Marcus responded, chuckling to himself.
"This is what happens when you live in a flat kingdom." He added.
The group continued to climb. As they went on, Colton noticed more nails that attached the rope to the mountain.
The rocks and terrain became more jagged and less flat as they moved farther upward. The ropes were no longer stuck to the wall in a straight line, now placed in different patterns, meant to avoid the larger rocks.
The sight of it all brought more fear to Colton, his climbing slowed.
"Scared as well huh?" Marcus spoke, they were now side by side in the climb.
"Yeah, I'm not used to this kind of thing."
"That makes two of us. Bah, how tall is this mountain?" Marcus slammed his hooks harder against the stone in frustration.
Colton and the team soon found themselves traversing more jagged rocks, only seeing a few safe paths leading up.
On the climb, Colton noticed that Oliver was starting to slow down. Breathing faster than normal while trying to pull himself up.
"Hey Colton, ever tried-" Marcus stopped abruptly and let out a yell as his body fell back.
He now dangled upside down, the hooks tied to his hands hung beneath him, swaying violently with the wind, making it hard for anyone to try and get near him.
"Agh, uhh. What should I do? I feel like I'm gonna fall off this thing!" Marcus yelled out, fearing for his life as he began trying to pull himself back up. But his body and hooks swayed violently against the mountain.
Aa he dangled around, the rope tied around his waist began to undo itself. All Marcus could do now is hold on the rope as tight as he could.
While the team looked around in desperation, Celestine rapidly descended back down on her rope, reaching to his level.
The ropes were tightly anchored into the mountain, unable to move closer to him.
With no other choice, Celestine began breaking off the nails on her own rope. As more began to fall, her rope swayed with the wind.
"Keep holding." Celestine began moving closer to Marcus, inching her way to him.
Once she got close enough, she grabbed Marcus by the collar and pulled him back up.
"Hold on the main rope, I'll get those hooks." She went further down, the hooks flew around as the wind only grew stronger.
But with a few attempts, she grabbed both hooks. Once she returned to Marcus she slammed the hooks next to him.
After a brief moment, she began tightening the rope around Marcus' waist.
"Be more careful." With that she returned to climbing.
The team looked at her in shock, before quickly returning to their main task at hand, reaching the top.