Lisbeth adjusted the strap on her satchel and made sure her bow was secure on her back. "The Climb" wasn't an ironic name...there would be quite a lot of climbing ahead of her, and she needed to make sure she was prepared for it. It would be tough to make it the whole way, and she would need to stop frequently to rest, but she had to do this.
She was on a mission from a god.
"Let's go," she told her sister with a firm nod. She started hiking up the slope, heading up towards the more hostile part of the mountainside. It would take hours to get up closer to the volcanic part of the mountain, but that was where she needed to go in order to collect the ash Frey had asked for.
"Don't go too fast. You know I can't keep up with you." Her sister had always been the more athletic of the two. Lisbeth had always been jealous of that. It had never seemed fair that even though they were identical in every other way, Lisbeth was the only one who had inherited a sickly constitution.
"Pfft, you're gonna slow me down. I can go snake and get up there and back before you know it."
Morana was carrying the heavier backpack, sparing her sister the effort. She'd packed food, supplies, and lots of water. It was going to be hot up there, and she didn't want her sister to get dehydrated.
"So, let me get this straight...you met a demigoddess, helped her catch a blink hare, then she told you to go see Frey, you had the gall to ask Frey for a magic bow, and she agreed?" She snorted, shaking her head. "And now you're going to do this so you can use the bow to hunt down Ascended during the war. But why? Last I knew, you didn't give a shit one way or another about the Ascended..."
"You can't go up there and do it alone," Lisbeth said, already feeling slightly breathless. She took a waterskin from her sister and took a drink. "It's my quest, so I have to be the one who does it. You're just here to help...you're like my assistant."
She looked up the slope, sighing when she saw once again how far away it was. She was already developing an ache in her thighs.
"The Ascended are horrible monsters. They were made by the Voice in defiance of the Old Gods. They're violent, hostile, and a danger to all of us. Why do you think there's a war coming? Because they're too dangerous and they need to be stopped."
She hung her head, focusing just on breathing and hiking for a moment. Her sister was right. When she'd been younger, she hadn't hated the Ascended so much. But she'd become much more devout when her father died and her sister had left. With no one else around, she had turned to the gods and their teachings, and they had become her life. When she wasn't training with the army, she was studying or praying. She hadn't known what to do with her life, and she felt she had found her purpose. Even Frey had agreed.
Morana shrugged. "I guess so. Just seems like they should leave us alone." She didn't have much of an opinion one way or the other about the Ascended. But if they were going to wage war, then so be it. Morana herself would fight, not for the glory of the Old Gods, but just to keep herself and her loved ones--or loved one, since the only person she loved was her sister--safe from the invaders.
"Does it matter what kind of ash we find?" She looked around the slopes. It was frigid this far down the mountain, away from the volcano. But it would get much warmer as they got further up. Still, it didn't seem like they should have to climb all the way up to the top. There was sure to be ash further down.
"Hey, since I'm helping, do you think Frey will give me something too?"
"I want to get as close to the top as we can manage," Lisbeth replied. "This is a quest. It wouldn't do to half-ass it. Besides, the better ash up top might make for a stronger magic bow."
"And no, I don't think Frey will give you anything. You need to go get your own quest." She rolled her eyes at her sister. It had been that way when they were kids, too. Morana had always been lazy, and would try to take credit for Lisbeth's hard work. If Lisbeth spent hours cleaning their room, Morana would tell their father that she had done most of it herself, and Dad had always believed her, no matter how much Lisbeth protested.
She tried to cut her sister some slack, though. Morana had volunteered without hesitation to come help her with her quest. They continued hiking up the slope together, and Morana never objected when Lisbeth frequently asked to stop and take a break. She didn't think she would have been able to make this climb on her own. It was good to have help, though, especially from her sister. She hoped they could use the time to reconnect after their years apart.
"Well, I'll ask her anyway." Morana shrugged. "Worst that can happen is she says no, maybe curses me for my impudence."
Her sister gave her a shocked and offended look. Morana chuckled. She didn't actually want to get on the gods' bad sides, but it was fun to get under her sister's skin.
They continued hiking up the slopes until the heat of the volcano started to melt the snow and leave the mountainside covered in hard, dark rock. They passed by a few fissures, keeping their distance from the smoke and steam that wafted out of them.
"There's some ash," she said, pointing to the ash-covered rocks besides one of the fissures. "Is this high enough?"
Lisbeth looked at the ashy rocks. She was already sweating and out of breath. When she wiped her arm across her forehead, it left behind an ashy streak. Technically, she could finish the quest here. Just scrape some ash off the rocks and be done with it.
She shook her head. It didn't feel questy enough.
"I don't want Frey to accuse me of taking the easy way out."
She scanned the slopes, looking further up the mountainside. Up a ways above them, there was a rocky ledge hanging over a fissure in the rock. She could see sparks of hot ash popping up from the fissure, carried on the hot winds.
She pointed at the ledge. "There."
"There?" Morana gave her sister an incredulous look.
She shook her head. "You want to climb up there. Onto the precarious ledge. Overtop of the burning fissure. Risking almost certain death. To get some ash."
Lisbeth nodded.
Morana sighed, rolling her eyes. "All right. The precarious ledge it is, then."
They hiked their way up to the fissure. There was only a narrow foothold leading across the mountainside to the ledge. Not too narrow to walk across, but they would have to shuffle along with their backs to the wall.
Morana took off her backpack and placed it on the ground. She took another long drink from her waterskin.
"You sure? Still time to go down the mountain and get the easy ash."
"I'm sure," Lisbeth said.
She dropped her backpack on the ground next to Morana's. She took a deep breath, then immediately regretted it when her lungs protested the inhaled smoke and she started hacking and coughing.
It took a minute before she cleared her lungs and she could breathe easily again. She waved away her sister's concern. "I'm fine. I can do this."
She headed over to the edge, pressing her back against the wall. "Wait here. I'll be right back."
"Pfft," Morana snorted. "Like that's going to happen."
There was no way she was going to let her sister cross that narrow path by herself. She stepped up behind Lisbeth, her back pressed against the rock. She took Lisbeth's hand as they started shuffling towards the ledge. She didn't know if she could support her sister's weight on such a precarious perch if Lisbeth slipped, but she sure as damn hell intended to try.
"Take it slow," she said. "Careful."
When Lisbeth's balance wavered a bit, Morana put an arm across her chest, pushing Lisbeth back against the wall. She waited a few moments until Lisbeth was safe again.
"This better be a damn good bow," she said. "Fucking risking your life for it."
Lisbeth squeaked when she felt herself slipping, then let out a sigh of relief when her sister helped her regain her balance.
"It's not just about the bow," she said, once she had regained her footing. "It's about fulfilling the desires of a god. Doing her bidding. Sure, I'm going to be rewarded for it. But I've have done it without the promise of a reward. Because Frey asked me to."
She saw the dubious look on her sister's face.
"Look, I know you don't get it. You never were as studious as I was. But the Old Gods are special. They're important. In ways people don't really appreciate these days. Plenty of people pay homage to them, offer their respects at the shrines. But then they go about their day, not really giving it a second thought. No one stops to really consider what we owe the gods...our very existence."
She reached the ledge, feeling the tension release from her muscles when she was standing on solid ground again. She leaned down, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket. She scooped up as much as as she could, then folded the handkerchief over it and tucked it back into her pocket. She was sure that this ash would suit Frey's request. She had worked hard to get this far. It had to be enough.
"All right. Let's go."
Morana took her sister's hand as they headed back across the narrow path. They wavered a bit, and she tensed up when a piece of rock broke off under her feet. The rock tumbled down into the fissure, letting out a sharp hiss when it landed in the lava below.
"Better be a damn good bow," she muttered.
Once they were back on safe and solid ground, she waited for Lisbeth to rest. She looked around at the desolate landscape. It was a harsh place, and she hoped never to have to return here again. She was willing to risk the dangers of the Climb for her sister's sake, but if not for the god asking them to be here, she couldn't imagine why anyone would be foolish enough to risk their lives coming up to such a godsforsaken place.
"All right," she said when Lisbeth looked like she had recovered enough. She hoisted her pack onto her back. "Let's go."
Lisbeth trudged down the rocky slopes, sweat pouring from her brow. The climb back down was supposed to be the easy part, but she was so worn out that each step felt like she was dragging the entire mountain along with her. They had to stop even more often for her to rest, and she started to worry that they wouldn't make it back down before nightfall.
She started to grow tired yet again when they were reaching the snow-covered parts of the mountain. But she decided to try to push through, ignoring her exhaustion and trying not to let Morana notice how tired she was. She'd never been very good at keeping things from her sister, and she already caught Morana giving her some worried glances.
Still, she forced herself to trudge along. Until she planted her foot on an unexpected patch of ice. Her feet went out from under her and she started tumbling down the mountain, limbs flailing, kicking up snow and ice all around her.
She screamed, trying to find a hand or foothold to grab onto, but she was too out of control, and she couldn't even tell which was was up or down.
"Gods fucking hell!"
Morana raced after her sister, but the slopes were too slippery, and she simply couldn't run at full speed. She saw her sister tumbling further and further away.
Grumbling and setting her jaw, she dove forward, throwing her arms in front of her and landing belly-down on the snow. She slid down the slope, keeping her arms and legs tight together, making herself as streamlined as possible. Compared to Lisbeth's tumbling form, she was able to pick up more speed, and catch up to Lisbeth before disaster struck. She grabbed for whatever she could find, catching hold of Lisbeth's belt. She yanked hard on it, twisting around so she could brace her heels against the ground. Snow flew up all around them as they skidded to a halt.
When they finally stopped moving, both of them sweaty, out of breath, and covered head to toe in snow, Morana looked at her sister and said, "It had better be a damn good bow."
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