[center][h1]Cats Like to Climb[/h1][/center]

[center][b]I[/b][/center]

Lorelei gasped for air. Her small, calloused hand finally reached the first of the ledges along the C-strides long Keltran walls. She grunted and tried to pull herself up, her muscles burning and screaming at her to rest. 

“Lil… Bit more…!” She said to herself, her voice turning to a squeak at the end as she felt an insect crawling onto her hand. Still, she steeled herself. The fresh Keltran air, the godlight, the music of true wildlife off in the distance, it all gave her energy. 

She tried to pull herself up onto the ledge, grunting. The packed dirt under her hand on the ledge came apart and her hand nearly slid off, but she managed to hold onto a sharp rock. She winced and wiggled her nose to try and knock the small pile of dirt off her face. Her ears twitched and turned from here to there, and her tail stiffened at an angle that made her feel more stable. She tried again.

This time, she pulled herself up and over onto the ledge, panting. She lied down there for a while, letting her exhausted muscles rest until she was good enough to sit up and do what she had come to do – She pulled out a long rope from her pack and staked it safely into one of the cracks along the wall, then dropped the rope down so that it reached the ground below, maybe about ten A-strides down.

Having done that she let out a sigh of relief and sat on the ledge. She let her legs dangle off the ledge as she took in the view of the City of the Asleep with a placid smile on her sweaty, dirty, and tired face. Quietly, she began to sing. “Climb once for your life, climb twice for your wife, climb thrice for a pie ♪”

[center][b]II[/b][/center]

Lorelei awoke with a start as usual, though this time things were different – Actual sounds reached her ears, echoing off the immense Keltran walls. Footsteps, muffled by the grass on one of the ledges above her.

“Why do you climb, Lore?”

It was the slight quiver behind the voice that helped Lorelei figure out who it was that was speaking to her out of her six adoptive sisters. Fear. The one with the ice arm.

Lore had been looking up towards the sky since she awoke, so she immediately saw when Fear peeked out over the ledge to look down at her. “I like being h-high up. It feels good, so I do it!” She said, feeling a grin seep onto her face. A small stinging sensation came from her hand then and she got to licking her earlier wound.

Fear nodded. “Me too! It’s beautiful! I’ll, uh, wait for you at the top!” Fear said, then leapt from her ledge down to the ground below, before she suddenly soared past the girl with another mighty jump up to the top of the wall. Lorelei merely looked at the trail of grass leaves and dirt that Fear left with her leap, then up towards the top of the wall, which was almost too high to even see. There was no way she’d catch up to her, just like…

“Huh.” She blinked. After a moment, she chuckled and sat up. Her muscles were a bit tense, so she stretched. Many of her joints popped.

A whisper rang out from below, faint. The only one who used that tone was Wanderer. “Would you like me to lift you up?” The reticent champion asked. Her voice was unnaturally quiet, so much so that Lorelei herself had no idea how it was even reaching her ears all those strides up the wall.

Lorelei scratched her ears, then looked down at Wanderer and nodded, a chuckle escaping her lips. “Y-yep!” 

Before she even knew what was happening, Lorelei found herself in Wanderer’s arms as they ascended at incredible speeds. Wanderer’s body felt warm and soft, yet it also felt more resilient than stone and stronger than metal. One of the champion’s arms shielded Lorelei from the breakneck winds, and the other held her close to her chest. She felt good like that, she felt safe… Involuntarily, her chest began to vibrate.

Time slowed as swirling leaves and dust danced at an entrancingly languid pace. The wind no longer howled but gently hummed and the godlight fell from the sky like golden flecks of ash. Wanderer’s long scarlet hair slowly swayed behind her as if it was a tail with a mind of its own… It felt like an eternity but then they reached the top and stood overlooking the lands of Keltra.

Fear stood beside them and smiled slightly. “I should’ve offered to carry you, I think.” She said with chagrin as Wanderer let Lorelei down and time resumed its normal pace. The strange stone they stood on top of shimmered with the radiance of the godlight and sparkling reflections of the trio stared up at them… Except the imitations did not move with them, nor follow their steps. It was as though ethereal duplicates had accompanied them, and now laid down upon the surface of the wall, content to merely observe them. Lorelei didn’t like it, and instead took in the incredible view.

“Waow! Y-You look at this every day?” She asked, coming dangerously close to the edges on more than one occasion, but always keeping her balance. The hues of red, yellow and orange were something she’d never seen before… Not to mention all the [i]life[/i], all the wind!  The forest stretched on and on, farther than the eye could see, seeming endless in its vast beauty. She never thought she’d get to see something like that. Much less without the ones she loved.

“We could go on walks through the forest.” Wanderer quietly suggested to Fear and Lorelei, as she also gazed upon the woodland realm spread out before her.

“Really?!” Lorelei turned around and ran up to Wanderer, pressing up against her and tugging on her clothes while looking up at her with wide shiny eyes. “When? Can we go now? I wanna go!” She begged, eager to see what actual wilderness looked like.

Wanderer tilted her head. “Perhaps… one hundred and fifty five thousand days from now?” She replied and Fear looked at her with shock. Lorelei on the other hand almost immediately deflated with her ears flat against her head and her tail limp and resorted to pouting up at Wanderer while she gently rubbed her head against the champion’s hip..

“Is that too long?” Wanderer’s head tilted the other way, as though her mind needed to transition to another location in order to think of another answer. “Perhaps… nine hundred and eighty five thousand, two hundred and three days from now.” She said, very subtly smiling after her answer, while Fear freaked out more.

 “That’s even longer!” Fear cried out and Lorelei whimpered.

“Hmm… we could go now, I suppose.” Wanderer added, glancing at Lorelei for confirmation while Fear merely sighed. Lorelei felt her heart jump in her chest. It took a second, but eventually she grinned and hugged Wanderer, bouncing on the spot.

“Yay! We go now! Let’s go! I wanna see the trees! I wanna chew the twigs! Oh oh, I want a pet… A pet mouse! Like the one in the trashed posters back home! A brown one! Let’s go let’s go!” Lorelei squealed, a myriad of memories of drawings of blue cats and brown mice flashing across her mind’s eye.

“I don’t know what a pet mouse is, but I think we can explore the woods for a while. Remember not to eat anything though, the body needs to stay empty for the Eternal Fire to fill it. Wanderer can watch over you, I need to stay back and watch over the others still sleeping. You have fun, and come back before it gets dark.” Fear said, looking at Lorelei with what could barely be described as stern eyes. “Don’t do anything that would get you in trouble, okay?”

Lorelei smiled sheepishly, pressed herself up against Wanderer once more and moved one of her hands to the top of her head between her ears, hoping that Wanderer would pet her, which she did. “Okay, I promise! I won’t eat anything, I just like to chew stuff!”

Fear smiled, until Wanderer moved to stand behind the little girl. The last thing Lorelei saw was Fear’s horrified expression as the world seemed to fall away, and Lorelei felt weightless. Once more she was cradled in Wanderer’s arms and together they fell backwards from the top of the wall.

Lorelei could not see Wanderer’s face, but she did see the way that unknown symbols made of black, ethereal ink danced across Wanderer’s skin, as if her very skin was one big, curved sheet of paper. The champion did not brace for impact with the ground, nor did she enact any maneuver to properly land, no… They simply fell until they were not. It was a strange, surreal experience for someone who’d spent her entire life either underground or in cramped moldy spaces.

The call of the wilderness was all around, the song of the sea and sky returning in full volume, the not too far forest beckoning them towards it. The otherworldly melody washed along them like waves washing along the nearby stoney shore. The world was still caught in some spell, or perhaps it was Lorelei and Wanderer that were captured, as runes still covered their bodies. It did not matter as their every sense was welcomed with new sensations; the caress of the warm wind, the aroma of the vibrant flowers, and the sight of something new and pure waiting for them to uncover its secrets, to transcend the barriers between the self and the world. It was almost overwhelming.

Wanderer let go of Lorelei and helped her fix her dress, and the two were then ready to begin their venture into the forest.

[hider=Summary]Lorelei climbs the Keltran wall up till the first ledge she can find, which is about 10 meters high. There, she takes a nice nap. She is awoken later by Wanderer and Fear and taken to the top of the wall, and after that Wanderer takes her out of Keltra and into Kel-Phelenia.[/hider]

[hider=Spirit]Wanderer and Wanderer gain 2 Spirit (+1 Minimum, +1 Collab)[/hider]