Tori groaned loudly as she pulled herself, with great effort, up another set of hand-and footholds. The sound of voices was definitely coming from the top of the crag, she was sure of it. Her face was set in a deep snarl, and she paused, breathing so hard it was nearly hyperventilating.

Then, hands aching and quivering with stress, she continued her climb. If she had to guess, she'd say she'd come about sixty feet off of the ground, climbing hard. Her stomach ached, trying to digest itself, and her shoulders and biceps felt like they'd been dipped in hydrochloric acid. The pain was immense. Yet she pressed on, eyes glued to the edge of the plateau, maybe twenty, fifteen feet above and closing more every minute. With another groan that sounded more like a growl, she continued her ascent. 

Ten feet.

Seven.

Five.

Each foot was an eternity, and when she finally tossed her arm over the edge and heaved herself up, she sprawled out, heedless of the rock that collided with her forehead. Her breaths were rapid and shallow, and if anything, the increased blood flow from the intense activity only made her wing hurt more. Her limbs felt like Jell-O, and she could barely keep her eyes open enough to notice that she'd been right; she wasn't alone.

She wasn't in a position to do anything about it, though. It would be minutes before she'd be able to do anything more than breathe, realizing that in the time it had taken for her to surmount the enormous stone, the sun had begun setting, painting the sky in a glorious array of fiery colors. She choked out a weak laugh at how appropriate that was.

Eventually, her breaths began to slow, and more oxygen began to flow through her, enabling her to turn her head. She did so, and locked eyes with a girl maybe her age, maybe a bit younger, with a long, unruly mane of red hair. Striving for something that suggested she wasn't basically about to die, Tori opened her mouth, letting lose with what was probably the least-fitting of all words, her wings—including the injured one—sprawling on the stone just like she was. The word was laced with deeply-buried pain that she tried desperately not to show:

"[color=orange]'Sup?[/color]"

[@SaikaAnge]