“Ifyou can find the way in.”
“Precisely.”
“If. That’s not exactly confidence inspiring.”
He laughed. “I spent a lot of time with a distant cousin tribe of the Oraku. They eventually succumbed to the lure of technology, but the elders had many fascinating tales, and I have a very good memory.”
“So you’re leading us up, and thenintoa mountain based on stories?”
“Yep.”
Maria shook her head with a chuckle. “Well, it’s crazy, but you haven’t steered me wrong yet.”
“And I intend to maintain that winning streak.”
“But if we get up there and can’t find this tunnel, promise me we’re not going to try to summit this thing. That’s a long way up, and while I like to visit snow, I don’t want to live in it. Not to mention, that looks like areallytough climb, even with my new runes.”
“Fair enough,” he replied. “You have my word. Now, as for the climb itself, hang on a second.”
He trotted away across some very rocky ground, scanning at his feet. He stopped abruptly, a smile on his lips, and carefully pulled a few leaves from a tiny shrub that sported a few clusters of small violet flowers.
“What’ve you got there? You’re supposed to bring me the flowers, not the leaves. You do realize that, right?”
“This is better. Ornax leaf. Forgotten by most in favor of man-made concoctions. But this is a very potent plant. It is quite bitter, but it provides a significant boost to your rune energy. It will help with the climb.” He took three small leaves and lay them on top of each other, then carefully folded them over before rolling them into a ball. “There are tiny hair-like spines on the underside. If you don’t fold them first, they can be quite painful. But rolled up like this, they are safe to chew. They break down easily, it’s just that first prick that hurts.”
“Like nettles back home,” Maria noted, taking the offering and popping it in her mouth. “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. This is horrible.”
“Just chew.”
“Do I swallow it?”
“If you want to get the most from it, yes,” he said, offering her some water to wash it down.
Maria managed to force it down, shuddering from the terrible taste. “You better not have been messing with me, because that was freaking nasty.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Then how long does it take until—” She froze in place, a flush rising to her cheeks. A moment later her Infala began to faintly glow. All of her runes did. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed, bouncing on her toes like a hyper ferret ready to play. “This is amazing!”
“I told you.”
“Why didn’t we use this sooner?”
“Because it only grows in very rocky terrain. And because too much of it can be hard on the body. There is a high, but a nasty low follows if you are not careful. This, however, is a small enough amount that the aftereffects should be negligible, while still being adequate to help you with the climb.”
“Wow. Okay,” she said, still jittery with energy. “Whatever. Works for me.”
“Good.”
“Come on, let’s get moving. I need to put this energy to use!”
He looked up at the long climb ahead of them. “Don’t worry. You will.”
True to his word, it was a long and arduous climb, and by the end of the day when the Ornax leaf had worn off, Maria found herself utterly spent, falling sound asleep with no energy for any sort of sexy-time shenanigans. She’d pushed harder than she would have thought possible, and it finally caught up with her.
The next day was more of the same, the lovers climbing steadily, though slowly at times, the Llamalians easily keeping up, their strong muscles allowing them to scale the rocky terrain much more gracefully than their bipedal companions. Maria moved a little slower even with the use of the Ornax leaf due to simple fatigue, but Zepharos noted her state and stopped their ascent early for the day, claiming his leg was cramping so as not to make her self-conscious about any self-imposed performance goals.
The extra rest did them both a world of good, and the following morning saw them off with renewed vigor. Best of all, it was only a few hours into their early morning climb when Zepharos recognized a trio of towering rocks, jutting at an unlikely angle, just as he’d heard described.
