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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/L5r26P82/Star-Fox-Final.png[/img]

[color=5edaf6]Level:[/color] 6 (50 -> 51/60)
[color=5edaf6]Location:[/color] Sandswept Sky - Split Mountain - Redstone City -> Baur’s Reach -> High Hrothgar
[color=5edaf6]Word Count:[/color] 742 (+1 EXP)
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The trek up the mountain following the Redstone racetrack proved to be somehow comparably less taxing or eventful, though not without its difficulties. With the literal biggest of their obstacles being a giant sleeping bear in the midst of hibernation, Yellow Team barely stopped for anything else that followed, be it the odd hostile flora/fauna ambush, the tribe of polar savages they were content to ignore for time, and of course, the terrain itself. Fox lent his hand to casually gunning down the insectile swarm at the start, managed to keep up with the Thieves on every jump and climb made, albeit with marginally less ease, and if the cold bothered him at all, he hardly showed it, neglecting even to roll his sleeves down—at least until the weather picked up the higher they went. Lastly, of the of the tortured prisoner entombed in a withered tree of frozen iron, he made little, electing to close himself off from the pitiable man’s suffering and moving on, rather than entertaining any sympathetic impulse that would compel one to indulge his dying request. He wouldn’t blame anyone who had, though, but as far as he was interested, it would be over [b]for all of them[/b] when they were finished. Only the mission mattered.

Their eventual ingress into the quiet stone keep upon the cliffs bore them relief from the elements, the past hours of accumulated chill they felt dispelled by the gentle firelight within. The looks they drew from the temple’s devoted denizens highlighted an already inferrable infrequency of visitors, but that they just as soon returned to their own business despite the occasion meant they weren’t terribly worried either way. Only one among the elders saw fit to attend or address them at all, providing them just about all they needed in directions, advice, precautions, and time for the Team to decide once more if everyone still wanted to make the full trip. Those who didn’t had the option to cruise back down and wait for a call to the top. Just as well to ease their burden in numbers, but Fox, as always, wouldn’t be among them, electing to press on with the rest.

True to the attendant’s word, the mountain’s interior path failed to entirely insulate the party from the frigid atmosphere that permeated this upper region of what they could have almost forgotten was a desert. The cold and dark, thus far into their new route, happened to be the only inconveniences presented to them, remedied easily with what they already had on hand, and proceeding otherwise fortunately unmolested as they did. It got ever so slightly more interesting for them when they arrived at a wider cavern opening, ambiently lit by what could have been ever-thinning walls of ice giving way to daylight, featuring a perilously narrow zig-zag bridge likely slick with ice, and a frozen giant looming directly over it.

This presented little still to be immediately concerned about, as it posed no apparent threat in its current state, assumed threatening simply by appearances, naturally. The demand for quietude during their crossing thus made little sense to Fox. If it spent as long as it presumably had dormantly encased in ice and stone, noise wasn’t going to disturb or awaken it—doubtfully enough to make a difference, at least. It didn’t seem to stop the young psychic Raz from having questions about it regarding their objective, answered summarily by Midna with conclusive citations of precedent about the constants of the World. It would have been too easy for him to be right, besides.

[color=5edaf6]“It doesn’t matter. We’re not here for him,”[/color] Fox reminded at an appropriately measured volume. [color=5edaf6]“Our problem’s up [i]there[/i]. Let’s not lose track now.”[/color] In so saying, his own choice detractions from the course on their journey through the Sandswept Sky hadn’t escaped him, hence the emphasis on focus on the main objective. If there was a time to be single-minded—and a worse one to be distracted or sidetracked—it was on the last stretch before the main event. No one needed to get any more ideas now.

Rather than bypassing the bridge in one or two moves skipping ahead to the end, as he was certainly capable of doing, Fox matched pace with his cohorts, carefully marching along the trail a step at a time. He would prefer to be in their midst, should any (more) of them need assistance, or in critical event, rescue.