For Piella, she slept easily--especially in the cool air of the mountain. When she rose, however, she was nothing but shivers. Despite this, the way she fit her gear, she almost looked like an explorer ready to tame a range of mountains, but the moment she walked, it was the same old Piella - hobbling on her bad leg. She made her prayers that morning, thanking the Celestial Court by coming themselves, or for inspiring such people to exist. In any case, she gave thanks and headed off for breakfast.
"You have been so kind to us, thank you."
Of course, she would not hesitate to eat, but she won't overeat for fear of making herself sick on the climb.
Lung thanks each of the base camp workers in turn. He notes Piella's leg with a frown. "We hope to return soon. We promise not to overtax ourselves."
I hope this was a good idea, he thinks to himself, then tightens the straps on the Iron Scroll and checks his boots.
You set out, well-fed and thankfully decently protected from the cold. An hour's rough hike brings you to the start of the Lord Yunfang trail leading up the less-murderous side of the mountain.
The going is tough and the temperature progressively drops as you begin to hike-climb your way up the scree strewn path.
The wind howls around you, making it hard for you to hear each other.
Strapping up her gear, Piella will take what firewood they could muster and would put some with her pack to make sure if worse came to worse, they could attempt to start a fire and get warm. Given the chill winds above, she wondered whether they could. With deep thanks and respect, she said goodbye to the nomads on the side of the mountain.
As she ascended with the group and rounded the mountain, she thought to herself in silence.
"I know I've let fear consume me all of my life. Why do I walk now toward my death? I'm not sacrificial. I want the comforts of home and that quiet cage of fear in our family's store; far away from any hazard or whim of you, the Celestial Council. Even me going on this path for Old Soeji could be pardoned, as father dropped me into Soejis family and they are an influential bunch. But now that I've had all night to think about it, why do I face my death?
With the wolf in the spirit realm, we had no idea. That was reactionary, but this...we know we can die. Like stones on my feet, my body and mind want me to turn around and limp down this mountain. Why then do I press on? I know part of it is because this is a quest for you all and Old Soeji. Part of it, is because I care about Lung and Shiro, and I can't have them face this mountain alone, but larger than that, I think, is that I'm tired of being afraid.
You have given me my gifts, and I've hidden them away for fear of what could happen to me further. Will I be cursed again? Will I be kidnapped again? That fear put me into a cage, but since I've been on this journey, I've found worth in my freedom. I've tasted the delights of being able to save my friend's lives and restore them. I've talked to many people on the road about the good things we are facing and going to do for the Soejis, but really, I'm doing this, not for Soeji, but for myself and you.
Ever since the spiritual realm, I've felt different. I've felt like I wasn't afraid anymore. Like a fire was building inside, empowering me more and more, day by day. I tremble now in my boots and want to turn back, but I'm not letting it rule me. I'm not letting this terror stop me anymore. Whether that was a gift from you of the Celestial Council or my own doing, I can't say, but whatever has incited this within me, that is why I must press on. I know if I stop or turn down this mountain, I return to that cage. If I turn back, I'll never escape. I'll bring you the best celebration I can, or I'll die trying because I'm not going to submit to quitting ever again."[/i]
The gnome will trudge through the snow with her fur-lined hood pulled tight around her face and a fur-lined mask to protect her breath from the crisp air. It is not long before her breath becomes labored, but still, she will plug on forward. She keeps her sharp eyes open for hazards, places of shelter for later should they need them, and a place that the Drunken Master could be residing.
Shiro labored up the cliff face, pausing on occasion to fasten a piton as an anchor. It was slow and finger-numbing work, but He admitted he'd done better than anticipated. It was much tougher, slower work than the stair climbing of their last ascent, but in a way Shiro enjoyed it. Once he was certain of of a line's strength he called down to Lung.
The mask man had suggested it'd be easier for the monk to carry Piella, her smaller limbs and hurt leg would make following the ninja's path difficult. Once the tow of them ascended, Shiro would climb down again to retrieve their pitons and rope. They'll need those in the future.
The descent down was always frightening, but he trusted the others to anchor him well. They'd definitely proven reliable in past days.
Shiro's guidance helps you avoid pitfalls and hazards as you slowly scale the mountain. Luckily, the face you are climbing provides moments where you can walk rather than climb.
Nevertheless, the going is arduous. Piella keeps her eyes peeled for dangers, though none present themselves. The mountain alone challenges you.
You reach the end of the first ascent. Two more ascents lie before you, progressively getting steeper and steeper, the winds blowing stronger as you climb.
Relying on a small-sized gnome was a bit hazardous for an anchor, particularly because she was anything but strong. She, however, fueled by a new rising fire, would not want to be carried and would actually strive to not make the climb any harder for Lung. For the whole of the ascension so far, she had done quite well considering.
At the first ascent being finished, she looked up and pondered exactly how much more difficult and how much higher this drunken master was. Her friends couldn't see her face, but she was worried.
"Not...much...farther, I hope..." grits out Lung. He slows his breathing and calms his heart, but he remains somewhat anxious. To see the Drunken Master? Perhaps it is because his quests for truth had always been within libraries, or within a contemplative garden or pasture. Now he was out on the naked rock, exposed.
Scree rattles under one foot for a moment, disappearing down the side into oblivion.
The wind threaten to chill the bones of those that dare climb the mountain. Shiro's ascent was slow and methodical, but he was fairly confident that they were safe. The deadly gust seemed howl around them, though the ninja was unsure if that was truly the source of the noise. He shook such thoughts form his mind and focused on the cliffs before them.
He hammered another piton in, taking care to test its hold before looping his rope through it. His fingers felt numb as he did so, the cold was truly setting in.
"We're halfway, maybe little more."
Against blustering winds and biting cold, you continue to scale the second portion of Lord Yunfang.
As you clamber up over a particularly icy portion of the mountain face, the ground below Lung gives way. He quickly reaches his hand out and...
The rest of the journey up this second ascent goes without incident and at long last you reach the final ascent. You take a breather under a cleft and find the remains of a small fire and a still glowing incense stick besides the embers. Someone was here not too many hours ago.
Piella calls out to Shiro at the look ofh is cold hands moving to feel the numbness in them, "If We can, we should find a bit of shelter and warm up!
That was all she said. She was really saving her breath because the air was so thin up there. As the rest of them climbed, she hauled herself up onto the icy portion of the mountain face. Over the tumult of the wind, she almost couldn't hear the breaking apart of the mountainside. It was the quick snap of the rope between her and him that caught her attention and made her plant into the snow.
"Are you okay?"
Cautiously, she would pull tight on the rope and give him whatever additional help he could use to get up. After he gets up, she will hug him on the leg (as that's all she can reach) and will then press on.
At the cleft, Piella will sling her pack off her back and pull out the wood and tinder. Something inside of her knew she could start this fire with magic. It was natural, as natural as breathing. It had come to her after the spirit realm, and here on the freezing side of the mountain, she could aid her companions and recover their strength.
...Lung draws the Iron Scroll in a flash and punches it like an oversized dagger into a weak spot in the ice. He holds there for a moment, quaking with the effort, then agonizingly brings himself up to a squatting position, dusting off his legs. He shakes his head and begins to climb again.
After a few minutes, he finally speaks. "Well, that was not fun," he says quietly.
At the camp, Lung is introspective. "I hope we have not been too rash," he says. He casts Light on a nearby rock to illuminate their camp, and sits, thinking. Absently, he bows to Piella for the fire.
You huddle around the campfire, letting the warmth reinvigorate your frozen bodies. The incense stick slowly wafts odors of mountain flowers. As you catch your breath, a strident cry rings out. Moments later a giant plumed creature soars past your position, streaking skyward. A moment later it's gone, the echoes of its cry ringing off the rocks.
You're almost to your destination!
Shiro had prepared more mundane methods of starting a fire and was pleasantly surprised when Piella started it magically. He settled in around the fire to warm his numbed extremities when the giant bird screeched past. Started, the masked man froze in place until the sounds faded.
"Was that the Thunder Bird!? We must be careful on the next ascent, or we'll be picked off like slugs on a tree."
Having warmed himself by a fire and reflected on his mistakes earlier in the day, Shiro was more confident than ever in his ability to climb. Once again, he went first, securing rope and anchors for the others to make use of. It was colder than ever, but the signs of the master's passage sprouted hopee in the young ninja.
At Shiro's insistence, she huddles closer to the fire, using Lung's bigger frame to block out some of the wind. She doesn't want to have to attempt to kill the Thunder Bird.
"I hope it leaves us alone. Maybe we should plan on distracting it away. I can cast some sort of sparkly illusionary effect. Lung, you can cast this spell on a number of rocks, lighting them up maybe? Then throw them down the mountain. Maybe it'll go after one of those?"
"I can only cast it on one rock at a time...I fear it may attract the Thunder Bird, though..."
Despite this, he tosses a lighted pebble.
"I still wish we had gone to the ocean first," he grumbles.
He thinks while climbing. "I don't really care to kill a thunder bird, nor take its egg. I wonder if we can create a facsimile. Of course, I speak as a dou-fu eating monk..." He frowns a little at the conundrum.
Shiro considers Lung's reservations. "I'd never steal the eggs of a mated pair, but I know chickens lay plenty of unfertilized eggs. Perhaps the Thunderbird is the same."
He reached into his robe, revealing a small stick, similar in appearance to cinnamon. "I have a smoke stick, but it might not be enough to keep the bird off our trail." He cursed himself for forgetting to stock up earlier.
Warily, you climb up the final arduous ascent of Lord Yunfang. Taking care to keep eyes peeled for the Thunderbird, you manage to reach the summit without it spotting you.
Instead, the great bird wheels around the mountain at random, sometimes darting high into the clouds, other times diving back down out of sight.
A squat stone shrine sculpted into the rock awaits you at the summit, the smell of incense wafting out. The smell is the same as the one in the cave below.
Piella keeps her eyes peeled for the Thunderbird and only seems to move when it goes into the clouds. With hard work and great pain, she fights her way up the final climb.
In that moment, the scent of incense reaches her nose. Being a gnome, she does have a keen sense of smell and points in the direction. Already the warms of the fire had begun to leave her and at the height of the mountain, she is really struggling to breathe, but she is determined.
She looks around for a figure of who the person was who lit the incense. Surely they were around here somewhere? She also looks around for a giant nest. She hoped the eggs weren't so large that they couldn't carry it down the mountain, and not so small it would be fragile.
Shiro rubbed his hands together, trying to bring feeling back into them. He kept his distance from the shrine, their last experience fresh in his mind. Angry spirits were the last thing he wanted to see again.
"We've made it. How're you feeling?" the masked man said to whomever was listening.
"Better. Although I just remembered reading a passage that states, 'Most falls off of mountains occur shortly after summitting.'" Lung smiles and grimaces. "Let's try not to do that."
He sidles toward the shrine, uttering short prayers.
"I can see why," she replied to Lung. "I feel the air is so thin up here."
It was one thing to climb a mountain wearing loose-fitting clothing like in the spirit realm, but now she was piled on with many layers and furs. It felt like she was being pressed down by her own small frame.
Lung approach the shrine carefully, while whispering prayers under his breath.
Through the slightly ajar stone door, the smell of incense intensifies. You hear the voice of a man, evidently also in prayer.
"We are born as water. At death we are earth. Let me brim with life, overflowing as the sea. Let me not be as death, cold and still."
~~~
Meanwhile, Shiro and Piella do their best to shrug off the cold.
Camouflaged within the rock face of the summit, you spy the edge of a circular nest made of stone and ashen boughs.
Lung tries to remember the next part of the prayer.
The stone shrine was good cover from the wind and cold, but there was clearly a voice coming from inside. She had not heard this style of praying before. There was a rhythm to it that was pleasant and deep. Her own voice didn't go that low in chanting overtones.
"There is the nest," she will whisper over the torrent of wind to Shiro. Her voice, being just loud enough to hear, had an element of worry behind it. "I don't think we should go there until we are done with the Drunken Master. What do you think?"
Shiro also spotted the nest, but Piella mentioned it first. "I agree, last thing we want is the Master getting the wrong impression of us. We'd look like poachers if we didn't speak to him beforehand."
He walks closer to the shrine, if only to take shelter from the gale. "Let's leave introductions to Lung, I'm no monk and meeting a great master is an honor I am ill prepared for." His pack slides off, gently setting down the equipment they'd used to climb up. The weight gone, Shiro's natural nimbleness returned.
Lung listens attentively to the prayer and recognizes it as a prayer said before battles, originating in Shuishang or the Shouzi Islands, history isn't quite clear on that part.
The man is clearly focused and doesn't notice you at the door. His description matches that of the drunken master you've been looking for. A pack lies at his feet, and a small collection of fine, but decidedly empty bottles lie stacked neatly besides it.
Thinking to herself, Piella contemplates, "I half expected the Drunken Master just to be a title, not actually someone who is drunken. Oh no...I hope we didn't climb all this way to meet a man who can't even talk straight."
Piella nodded with Shiro. They would leave introductions to Lung, a fellow monk. Seeing Shiro slide off equipment, Piella unnaturally wasn't restricted in movement by hers.
Shiro watched the cliff side, trying to spot where the Thunder Bird was. He hoped they were far enough away not to draw its ire... or hunger.
Shiro's eyes strain against the winds and cold, seeking the Thunder Bird. Unfortunately it's either far above them out of sight, on the other side of the mountain face, or far below the clouds because there's no sight of it yet.
Lung clears his throat politely.
"“Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”
He bows, waiting for the Drunken Master to turn. "Of course, the learned and exalted text neglected the power of Water, which quenches our thirst in small quantities, and drowns us in larger ones."
"Please don't fight us. Please don't fight us." Piella repeats over and again in her head as she warily lingers near the doorway. Lung seemed to introduce them in his own unique way and all likely held breath awaiting what the man would do next.
The man turns his head to look at Lung, nods in agreement, and holds up his hand indicating he should wait a moment.
He turns back and finishes his silent praying, bows low, and then gets up.
"What brings a learned scholar like yourself to the top of the world? It is a time of festivities after all. I would not have thought to see anybody else on my pilgrimage."
He ponders for a moment.
"Unless you're among those undertaking the challenge and there is something you seek up here?"
He staggers towards you, motioning to the door.
"Come, let us wait outside where it's cool."
"Honored Master, yes, we apologize for disturbing you, but yes, we seek two things."
He walks to the threshold, waiting to see if the drunken master needs assistance in exiting the shrine.
"Outside? No no...it's cold out there!"
Already it was harder to breathe for the little gnome up the top of the mountain, and she felt a bit dizzy on top of everything from the exhausting and painful climb. At least she was out of the wind. In response to him, she bows to the master but doesn't move until he certainly is going outside. If so, then she would hesitantly move outside but would stay close to the building to keep at least some of the wind away from her.
Shiro cautiously stepped aside as the monks left, not wanting to disturb their conversation. He bows slightly as the master passes, but does not move from the shrine's entrance.
The master continues ambling forward, his movements obviously hindered but his voice clear.
"Two things?"
He bows to both Piella and Shiro as he crosses them.
"Not many make the climb here. These two things must be vitally important then. I can only assume one of them is related to the Thunder Bird that dwells here. As for the other, I take it it has something to do with me? Unless the shrine back there has a significance I'm unaware of."
Piella is unsure if the Master is going to fall over when he bows to her and hesitantly puts out a hand to catch him, but then he seems to manage himself.
"You are very wise," she compliments him briefly as she follows him outside with her arms tucked about her. She lets Lung continue to engage with him though. Part of her hopes he isn't a drunk who has brought them outside to fight. The cold wind whips through her spiraled hair and her lips underneath her facemask turn even another shade bluer as she shivers to keep warm.
Shiro bowed his head in deference as he mentioned their reason for visiting him. "Yes, Honored Master. I have heard you were in possession of the Dahe, which we wish to offer as tribute to the Celestials. We hope you would grant us this honor."
The master pauses in bewilderment.
"You're telling me that you scaled the entirety of Lord Yunfang just to obtain a bottle of fine alcohol? Truly you are after my own heart! It is a fine bottle to be sure, perhaps the finest in all of Yuanzi, but still."
He admires you, the cold wind blowing his unkempt hair to and fro, coating it with an icy sheen.
"Very well, very well. Though I must say I was hoping to keep it for a special occasion, I can see your needs are indeed greater than mine."
He staggers closer.
"Let's make it at least a fair trade then, yes? I shall wait here with the Dahe while you finish whatever business you have with the Thunder Bird. Let me observe those who would seek out the Dahe in so dangerous a place. Once your task is done, we shall descend the mountain together and retrieve the bottle. Does that sound fair?"
Piella nods a bit in response to the Master at his marveling of them. She moves toward him more to pay her respects--the limp being obvious now to the stranger.
"That does sound fair, but I would like to say, we will only trade it from you if you can bear to part with it. It is clear to us how you could treasure such an item."
She shivers greatly and holds her clothes tight. "We also wanted to ask what you knew about the Thunder Bird. Do you know of it? Is it violent? Peaceful? Does it have a shelter? Does it have any young? How old is it? Those sort of things..."
She wasn't trying to be deceptive. She really did want to know the answers to such questions, and they were told not to trust people so much. Therefore, she kept her true question on whether there were eggs in the nest, masked.
"I am more than willing to give it up, so long as its magnificence is upheld. If you are planning on using it during the competition, than I'm sure that will be the case."
He looks out to the nest.
"The Thunder Birds are creatures from the Spirit World. They are fiercely territorial. They don't come down from the peaks much, but when they do they're a right predator. Honestly, even if you were to slay one, another will eventually wing its way from the other world to this one, so I wouldn't feel too bad."
Shiro laughed, "I don't believe we're much of a match for the Thunder Bird. Especially not more than one, have you seen any other than the one nesting here?" If there's only one thunder bird around, then the eggs are unfertilized, Shiro reasoned to himself.
"Yes, we are," she answers the Master concerning their intended use of the Dahe. "I don't think a more honorable use could be bestowed upon it."
She wasn't paying him lip service. That was her true belief. Piella is not a monk or priest, but she was raised to worship the whole of the council, and she's never seen it as a chore.
"Then we had better play this smart rather than not..." she replies to Shiro.
She will pick up a small, lightweight pebble from the ground and will ask Lung to cast his light spell on it. Then, she will cast a bit of magic herself. Her prestidigitation spell can manipulate the object to bound and move in random directions for up to an hour. She finishes her enchantment and then keeps the stone in her pocket held there until they were to snag the egg. It is then, she will let the stone go down the side of the mountain. If the Thunder Bird does come and see an egg missing, it would more likely take off after the bouncing rock light than them.
"We don't wish to fight the Thunder Bird," says Lung. "Just take an egg. Or two," he says to the Drunken Master. "If you know where its nest is and could help us distract it..."
"Only the one. As far as I can tell at least."
He motions to the summit.
"The nest's on the other side, just up the summit. As for helping, I'm unsure. On one hand, to take part of the challenge and be a part of history is tempting, but I do believe there is value in letting others prove their own merits."
"I shall let you decide, then. If you truly seek my aid, simply say so. If you have faith in your capabilities, I shall be happy to observe from a distance."
"I think we have faith in our own abilities...to a point," she says a bit sheepishly. She does have faith in her ability, but versus something like the Thunder Bird, she is not so sure.
"In any case, we are going to try not to fight it or draw its ire."
With that, she will limp a bit closer to the building again to protect from the cold air. Her eyes scan the area for the Thunder Bird back where she saw the potential nest, and back where the Master had pointed.
The nest appears empty from your position, the number of eggs not visible from where you are. You see no sign of the Thunder Bird either. Perhaps it's dived down back below the cloud cover.
"I will go then. I'm trusting you two to keep the Thunderbird away from me." Shiro anchored himself to the nearby wall and began to climb for the nest. If he slipped, he would be battered against the stone of the mountain, but it was better than falling to his death.