[center][abbr=Ace Cadet][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190924/544c85ab5c75bc61a4bb5ce40dc0caa6.png[/img][/abbr]
[color=salmon]Word Count: 1016 (+2 exp)[/color]
[color=salmon][u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 486/90
[sub][i]Thursday Evening[/i][/sub]
[b]Location:[/b] Alpine Foothills, the Frozen Highlands[/color][/center]
Aim, shoot, secure, reel in, climb up, wait out the wind, and repeat.

It was steady going for Ace so far. The frigid temperature was no more than brisk for him, and his spiked footwear made it easier to keep from slipping on icy patches on the rock. A wealth of stamina, especially after the fulfilling detour at the village, made scrambling up outcrops with his limbs rather than his slinger a simple feat. It was just a matter of time before he reached the top, though as for how long that time would take he wasn't sure. He was maybe halfway up now, by his own rough estimation. 

At one point he stopped in a natural alcove as the cold wind roared by, looking out over the path they'd come from. He thought that with the higher vantage point he might be able to see the colorful lights of the village behind them, but the weather prevented that. The fading light and the falling snow made visibility that far out pretty low.

[color=salmon]"Nothing to do but keep on climbing I guess,"[/color] he said to himself. It was either that or go back down to wait with the coach, but he'd already come this far. Besides, it'd take too long to climb down, and though he was sure he'd be fine enough even if he leapt he didn't want to risk being dashed against the rocks by the wind.

Case in point, when next he attached the slinger's hook to the next decent hold above him, the winter gale returned much sooner than he'd expected. Wind resistance was all well and good at helping when his feet were on the ground, but when he was holding onto a chain in the middle of being reeled in and it was a different story. He was blown off of his course and hit the rock face, releasing the grappling hook and tumbling through the snow a little ways but thankfully not plummeting too far down. 

Ace sat up after the rough landing and shook the snow off of him. He was still in good shape, the only thing really bruised being his ego. Hopefully no one else had been witness to that. 

He stood and looked around to see if there were any good spots he could start climbing from again when a plume of smoke caught his eye. Or... maybe not smoke? It looked more like steam. There was a faint sulfur-y smell too, so maybe there was a geyser around. He headed towards it more out of curiosity than anything, hopping and climbing over a few icy boulders until in front of him lay a small natural hot spring! Plus three large but squat [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/114efad19c25.jpg]rodents[/url] relaxing in the warm water. Ace hadn't seen this kind of animal before, but he quickly identified them as herbivores - and pretty docile ones too, since they hardly moved at all when the hunter approached the spring. That suggested they weren't common prey animals, which in turn implied there were probably weren't a lot of predators around the area. That was great news, because now that he thought about it, if there had turned out to be anything like a Barioth prowling around the cliff it would have been able to make quick work of any of the Seekers caught separated from the others. 

Since the only real threat on the climb remained the wind and risk of falling, Ace didn't feel any need to speed up getting to the top. He was making decent progress before the little setback, and as for the rest of the crew... well, the snow muffled distant noises even when the wind wasn't howling, and he could no longer see those that had flown ahead or the building at the top of the cliff, nor the coach at the bottom or those that had stayed with it. Needless to say, it was hard to tell what exactly everyone's status was. But the Cadet doubted he was lagging behind, so he could afford to get a closer look at the capybaras to make the most of getting off course. 

He knelt by the edge of the water, and when the closest creature didn't react he reached out pat its head. Then its snout. Then scratch under its chin. The capybara seemed all too happy to let itself be pet, not even flinching away when Ace pinched a couple of its hairs to throw into the impossible creature database later. 

[color=salmon]"You guys got a whole different type of chilling going on here huh?"[/color] Ace said as a second capybara waded over to get its share of petting too. 

A soak in a hot spring sounded great (there were even jumbofruit, or something similar floating in the water and balanced on one of the rodents' heads) but it was neither the time nor place for that. Still, just the pleasant scene was plenty to reinvigorate the Cadet for continuing the climb. He waited for the next gust of wind to die down, letting the warm steam from the spring get rid of any clinging frost, then grabbed a few orange and yellow winterberries from a tree nearby before getting back to it.

It turned out that Tenna's path wasn't far from where Ace was now, so he could use the ropes that he'd had the shadow guys set up to quickly make up distance. Along the way he saw the empty, discarded luggage, and yet again ended up taking a different route up when he spotted the same kind of bag but unopened higher up on the cliff. It was back to aim, shoot, secure, reel in, climb up, wait out the wind, and repeat after that, with a small bounty of a few [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/8f8fed2c591e.png]flares[/url] and a [url=https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/68f33c59c7c7.png]portable stove[/url] in the suitcase he'd found to show for it. 

Soon enough the slinger stuck onto the lip of the cliff making up the mountain's foothills, and the shadow of the dark cathedral was visible. How were the fliers faring, Ace wondered, as he pulled himself up to the top.