[center][h3]The Chalk Prince, the Prisoner, and Frisk[/h3]
[@Majoras End] [@XoXKieroBombXoX][/center]

In quite the contrast to Albedo, Frisk seemed very happy to see the festering, malign pustule once more, even in a crippled and practically helpless state. Under these circumstances, with both the rawness of disaster and the inhospitable environment of Dragonspine looming overhead, perhaps any face -figuratively speaking- was welcome. The three spoke briefly, with the Prisoner relating the reality of his current circumstances. Despite his admission to being good for just about nothing in this form, the Prisoner seemed determined to be a burden on Frisk and Albedo’s already arduous climb. Maybe he saw no qualms with keeping their company, but the alchemist looked none too pleased. For what he meaned to accomplish on these frigid slopes, the Prisoner would only get in the way. Still, he wasn’t so inept that he couldn’t stomach a slight change of plans. When it came to accomplishing his goals, anything could change.

He considered the idea of carrying the Prisoner in a sack. The strange being mentioned that the camp now lay at a distance, prompting Albedo to give a curious look at the half-buried wreckage of the camp just a few meters away, not for at all from the singular ledge that Frisk managed to clamber atop with his help. Maybe it seemed a long way for someone so small, but the alchemist could see a worn rucksack that he could -and would probably have to- pull from the snow with relative ease. Not ideal, but it would have to do. Before he could make his way over, however, Frisk bent down to offer something to the Prisoner: a bright pink heart, so cheerful and innocent as to be completely at odds with the misfit trio’s bleak surroundings. He watched with furrowed brows, his expression betraying the intrigue one might expect of any empirical mind, as the Friend Heart popped against the Prisoner’s head.

He then tensed in surprise at the sudden burst of light from the Prisoner’s being, which in an instant both cleansed Galeem’s influence from his spirit, and fully restored him to a pristine state. As it turned out, this meant fashioning a brand new body for him from nothing, which the feculent snotwad naturally couldn’t infest fast enough. In a flash the Prisoner was his ‘normal’ self again, fully ambulatory and fighting-fit. As he strove to collect himself mentally, Albedo blinked a couple times in muted surprise. “Well,” he said after a moment. “How delightful.” The alchemist glanced up at Frisk. “Good thinking. I’ll have to remember that for next time.”

Yet the good news didn’t stop there. After a few moments that Frisk and Albedo spent climbing up the ledges toward the top of the cliff, the Prisoner followed in a hurry, demonstrating both an impressive jump height and an unfamiliar item newly returned to his possession. He offered it to Frisk, saying that it could fix her broken ankle. Given the hard road ahead and the pain such an injury would cause, she’d be a fool to refuse. Once the draught worked its healing magic and Albedo verified the effects, he seemed to perk up, and with a neutral expression reached out his hand for Frisk to pass it to him. “If you don’t mind. I suffered some…rather severe, internal wounds back there.”  After briefly inspecting its contents, the alchemist helped himself to two drinks of its remedial contents. While he did not visibly change, he gave a sigh of relief as he returned the flask to the Prisoner. “Much better. I am grateful. Please forgive my brusque manner; all told, I’ve spent far more time on Dragonspine than among the world’s peoples.” He then turned to the cliff face to resume his climb. “Now then. Onwards and upwards.”

Once atop the cliff, the journey continued. While the lower levels of the Dragonspine featured helpful stairs here and there carved into the stone of the mountain to aid in traversal, the higher reaches offered no such niceties. It got rockier, rougher, and more steeply sloped, and in short order any semblance of an actual path upward disappeared. Its absence left the trio to make their up way up snow drifts and stony cliff faces. Patches of a hardy, thick-stemmed, blue-white grass poked through the snow to suggest where firm footing could be found beneath the powder, and as the dark of night descended over the [url=https://i.imgur.com/qo8PgCV.png]winter-bound mountain[/url], it became easier to notice the light of pretty little flowers growing among the grass. Their bells shone a soft, almost melancholy blue light across the snow, but it did not reach far. It wouldn’t be long before visibility became an issue.

Still, it would have been a peaceful nighttime trek, if not for the monsters that followed the advent of dusk. Least of the trio’s worries were the [url=https://i.imgur.com/G3AgAMm.png]bats[/url], which offered Frisk, Albedo, and the Prisoner only a taste of combat, especially compared to the Draugr from before. [url=https://i.imgur.com/b8WCj03.png]Li’l Brrs[/url], meanwhile, just slid around obliviously, threatening to freeze anyone who touched them solid but lacking direction. The sudden appearance of [url=https://i.imgur.com/gQKCbqp.png]ice elementals[/url] did come as a cause for concern though, forcing the three to expend some effort to put them down. The most worrisome [url=https://i.imgur.com/US6CSnl.png]creatures[/url], however, kept their distance, watching with bright red eyes from the snowy shadows and vanishing into the white if approached. The wolf-demons Freki and Geri were still stalking the group when they chanced upon a large cave opening among the rocks. Albedo sighed. “Without Teba to guide us, our chances of finding more camps are low. Perhaps we should explore in here.” He glanced at Frisk. “Could be that Melony’s Pokemon thought the same.” Movement in his peripherals caught his attention, and he looked over the see one of the wolf demons disappear behind a snow drift, much closer than he’d seen them before. “Or we could attend to our…unwanted guests.” Tensing himself for action, he left the decision of where to go to his comrades.