the ultimate mountain [chaizaela]

[tovaana]

Chai

She struck the ground in front of her with the walking stick, making a small indent in the ground and ultimately a trail of dots behind her as they trekked to the top of one of the smaller mountains nearby. They were going to start with this one, working their way to larger mountains during the coming seven-days. They were almost to the top, she could sense it- the way the air was getting lighter, the way her lungs burned and her legs moved by command alone – adrenalin the main component to the way she moved. This was the feeling she loved, the way she could tell they were cresting to the top of the mountainous hill, and trees became more scarce, but not so high that animals ceased their noises. She could also hear her companion’s breathing behind her, but he did not complain – his own pride bending to let Chai choose the pace, though he liked to savor hikes more than she did. The blonde did let herself stop and enjoy the views, but there was nothing more delicious than feeling the burn of pushing her body to its limits.

“You keeping up back there?” She asked breathily, smiling and feeling her lungs burn at the frivolous use of air.

She heard the snort. “I could pass you, but I’m enjoying the view from back here.”

She grinned, her back still to him – she thought about offering to switch so she could have the same pleasure, but she also didn’t like the idea of someone blocking her view to outside, or feeling like someone was in her way. No, she preferred being in the front, let him appreciate her from behind. Not that she imagined he really saw too much, not with their larger packs on their back, tools that allowed them to live holdless for at least a seven-day, as well as tools that helped them maneuver rocks, ice and other difficult terrain if they came upon it. They’d done this hill countless times, it was an easy first hill that took less than a day – but had a hot spring at the top that made for a fun and relaxing first day. They’d spend the night under the stars, as long as there were stars – unfortunately it seemed like there was a 50/50 chance they’d see the stars tonight.

Chai twisted as best she could to look over her shoulder and toss him a wink, a slightly delayed reaction – but conversations while hiking usually had lulls in it when the lungs were busy keeping the body breathing and less interested in exhausting itself with talk. But Chai loved talking, she loved having company – it was why she kept Seldoco around. He was handsome to boot, in his own rugged way, even if his nose was on the larger side, it seemed to fit him rather than stick out awkwardly. He was always open to her adventures, and the sex wasn’t bad either. She had noticed that other men had eventually sort of distanced themselves from her – and suddenly it was just him and her, but it didn’t stop her flirting with others, and she’d rather not think of the implications of them being paired such in other’s minds.

Her hand without the walking stick reached out and brushed against the smooth bark of a white trunked tree – unique and beautiful in the mountains, its leaves shuddered delightfully in the breeze, creating a unique sound that made her insides swell with pleasure. Her walking stick started to drag as they made the last stretch and the ground started to level. It wasn’t like she thought the walking stick was of any use, but it gave her a sense of marking the distance in the journey, the length of ground she conquered.

Her stride quickened and she heard Sel sigh and quicken as well. They were so close! She almost felt giddy, definitely light headed from the almost non-stop trek up the hill. The stick fell from her hand and she shrugged off her pack, feeling almost invincible as the weight fell away – almost like she could fly! She almost ran, except that her legs seemed to wobble as she hopped on large rocks that jutted out from the mountain top. She felt Seldoco’s presence behind her, holding her as she nearly slipped from a rock, and she only giggled – and her giggles seemed like they couldn’t stop, the giddiness taking over. Her hands lifted as if she could touch the sky and let out a loud, “Wooooo!!!” Seldoco laughed and let his own shout of triumph join with hers.

“Come on down now, I think your legs are going to give out – and this rock isn’t likely to catch you.”

She laughed and pushed his intentions to help her to safety off, even if they sounded slightly teasing. “I’m fine, please don’t sound like my brother. I don’t bring you to keep me safe.” She said, glancing back at him with a slight glare and took a few steps away from him and closer to the edge that made her heart skip in the thrill. That was another thing she’d noticed. Over the time they had spent together, he seemed to be more and more protective, and she didn’t understand it. She’d liked him better when he’d been as reckless as her, taking chances like she did and now… it was as if age was making him more responsible and boring. Still, he followed her, and wasn’t as overbearing as Zel was.

He rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. “Fine, I was just thinking we could go swimming.” He said, an old familiar mischief in his eyes that she liked much more than the growing protectiveness.

She hummed, her eyebrows lifting in anticipation of the hot springs on her sore body… and just being with Seldoco. It was another thing she enjoyed – being able to enjoy Sel without him worrying about what others thought about how they acted. Chaizaela could also be herself in every sense of herself, in just being herself – and in intimacy. “Very tempting, but I think you’ll have to try harder. I was thinking I’d rather fly.” Her arms lifted like a birds and she went on her tiptoes, and she pretended like she hadn’t heard Sel’s sharp intake of breath.

He came up behind her and she could feel his warmth that contrasted with the winter breeze that tugged on her sweat damp shirt. His face came close to the side of hers and her heart started to accelerate the way it did when he was close to her. Then suddenly he scooped her up and she squeaked in protest, but he was practically bounding off the rocks, laughing between kisses to try and subdue her as he took her to the hot spring. Chai did not like being contained in any sense, and Seldoco knew how she hated to be picked up, even if she was smaller than he was.

It wasn’t long that she gave in, as they took each other’s clothes off- wading and splashing in the warm spring – and ultimately enjoying one another with no thought of the world around them.

[tovaana]

Chai

“Ah, tired already?”

Chai shot him a look, her chest rising and falling – and she closed her mouth as if to hide the way the elevation was pressing against her chest. But she didn’t feel like she was able to get enough oxygen through her nose, so she opened her mouth with a retort.

“No, just enjoying the view.” Her voice came out breathless, but she continued anyways, “Isn’t that why you enjoy these treks anyways?”

He smiled at her, a too knowing look in his eyes, but his gaze drifted out to the cloudy day, making everything more monochrome – but it didn’t change how majestic everything was. He took a deep breath and let it out, he was not as out of breath as Chaizaela was yet, and nodded rather too solemnly for Chai’s liking. There was a thoughtful side of Seldoco that made her uncomfortable if she let him get in that head space.

“Alright, I bet there’s a prettier spot up ahead.” She said, subconsciously wanting to interrupt the serene look on his face. She started moving and glanced back, but he hadn’t followed her, but was still looking out across the mountain ranges. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I beat you to the top.” Her voice sounded hoarse as she called back over to him, the snow crunching under her boots and her breath coming out in translucent clouds.

It had snowed, especially as they gained elevation the snow no longer melted in the sunlight – but gleamed off of it, if the sun ever did break through the wall of clouds above. There had been no response behind her, but eventually there was the crunching of snow behind her and she smiled absently, her chest aching.

“See, I caught up, no problem.” She only smiled lightly to herself, focusing on the next step and getting oxygen to her lungs without breathing too rapidly.

They’d found a cave, or more like, slabs of stone leaning on one another and leaving just enough room for the two hikers and a fire to keep them warm. The next day was rougher, having to use their hooks and knives to hike up steeper inclines and ice. They made it though, and when they finally made it to the top, Chai felt herself tremble with joy – so happy that tears pricked the corners of her eyes and chilled – threatening to frost right then and there. She wasn’t strong enough to celebrate as they had on their first hill, but Seldoco cut down a tree and made a fire to warm their extremities and warm their food. While both knew a little of trapping and hunting, there was little life on the mountain, not even any sign of long-footed rodents or the like. They’d brought provisions anyways, since their focus wasn’t living off the land as they’d done sometimes in the past – but to conquer mountains.

There were stars that night, and the two figures laid side-by-side, gazing up wondrously by their fire they had let sizzle to coals.

“It’s beautiful.” She appreciated the wonder of the outdoors, but didn't think of it beyond that, not like Seldoco did. 

Seldoco hummed in assent, then a moment later his head moving slightly to look at Chai. “Yes, you are.”

Chai grinned, but didn’t look back at him. She was always torn whether to goad him on or not, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze and didn’t think goading him on would help. Instead she found the red star in the sky and then glanced at the others and voiced a thought she’d had once to distract him. “If the Red Star is the source of our infirmity on Pern… does that make the other stars good? But what do they do, but glitter and watch us. It seems like since there is just one Red Star, that the other stars should be able to outnumber the red… or maybe they’re inflicted like we are.” Chai really didn’t care one way or the other, but she knew it was something Seldoco liked to think about – things they couldn’t be sure about, just wonder about. To Chai they were just thoughts, and with the carpet of brilliant stars she didn’t mind humoring her friend, especially if it would get him to stop looking like he was seeing straight into her soul.

He sighed and she felt him shift to look up at the sky and she felt herself relax as he looked away.

“I imagine that the stars are just lights, incapable of thought or wanting to help us.”

That was unlike him. His words brushed off her wondering and made her feel uncomfortable. What was wrong with him? Couldn’t they just have fun?

“Well, that’s boring of you.”

She said simply, pouting a little up at the sky, ignoring the feeling like a worm was making its way through a red fruit.

Then he twisted suddenly onto his side, propped up by an elbow and very close to her. She smiled up at him, but her smile faded at the serious look on his face.

“Chai…”

She swallowed, her stomach churning, what did he want to talk about? Their talks were never enjoyable. He wanted to talk about the future and in that future he’d use words like ‘we’ and ‘us’ and created a picture that made her feel like he wanted to put her in a box, like the one her mother was crammed into, a box that was labeled by Pernese holds standards and considered ‘normal’. She shifted upward toward him and moved her cold lips against his, twisted to press herself up against him, the hand not propping herself up working around his waist.

He was tense at first, resisting her, surely still thinking about what he wanted to say to her. She almost felt giddy when he relaxed and then tightened he rolled on top of her and she fought him, giggling as they moved. Chai did not like being pinned down, so she always did her best to come out on top – and she did in the end, sitting on top of him practically panting and smiling down smugly at Seldoco who had his eyes closed at the moment.

Without opening his eyes, his arms tugged her down to lay next to him, bringing the furs up around them to trap in their heat against the bitter mountain winter air.

“Chai…”

“Shhhh…. Sleep.” She put a finger to his lips and let it trail down his rough face from not shaving during their excursion. She sighed, closed her eyes and curled up against him, determined to fall asleep before he tried talking again.

He sighed, relaxing again, but this time in defeat.

[tovaana]

Chai;

It had taken a couple more days of hiking through snow and ice until they reached the very top. They were hooked onto ropes that was secured to a rock- Seldoco standing off to the side and behind Chai as they gazed over their home in the valley below. They’d been standing there for some time, both tired and getting used to the elevation while they awed over their feat. His gloved hands held loosely to her waist under her backpack and over her coat.

“This…” She breathed, her eyes watering as she got emotional. She felt like she could do anything, like everything she could see was hers for the taking. The sun was going down, and the scattered clouds split the sunset under their gaze, as the two backpackers were well above the line of clouds. The colors that painted the sky were of music and paintings, and yet: she couldn’t imagine a harper or artist being able to capture such a breathtaking moment. “This is victory.” She said, taking a breath that seemed to lack what her lungs needed, but was on the bottom of her list of worries.

“Hmmm.” Seldoco hummed thoughtfully and Chaizaela ignored the feeling in her stomach. Ever since she’d hushed him to sleep at the first stop up the mountain, he had been quiet and more thoughtful than usual. Why, why did he have to ruin this moment? She wouldn’t let him, she couldn’t – this was hers. He was there with her, and they had helped each other in tricky spots, but this was hers. She had climbed that mountain and gotten to the top.

“Chai, I have something for you.”

Chai glanced back at him breathlessly, smiling – “for me? You shouldn’t have.” She teased, trying to keep it light, though the thumping of her heart seemed to get louder as her body sensed something more to his words.

She wasn’t sure where he’d pulled the bracelet from, but suddenly it was dangling in front of her… it was nothing fancy, in fact – as she had spent time in the Smith Hall and her father was nothing short of the Master Smith – she could tell it wasn’t perfect, but it was still beautiful. He didn’t say anything, just let it dangle in front of her and she didn’t want to take it – not if it meant what she feared that it meant. The setting sun caught hold of the stones that were polished and wrapped in thin delicate wire and dangled from a delicate (yet not perfect) woven bracelet. Chai dared to touch the stones – so many of them that they crowded each other.

Seldoco cleared his throat. “I uh, had some help… I mean, Zel helped me make it.” He paused, and Chai tried to not think of the hours that it must have taken him with his big fingers and thin wire. He cleared his throat again, something he did sometimes when he was nervous – which made her nervous. “Each… uhm, each stone I found on our journeys… adventures. I pocketed them… usually when something meaningful happened.” Chai didn’t speak, but let her hand fall away from the far too meaningful piece of jewelry. He continued on, a little hurriedly, like he knew he might lose her. “This gem,” his hand moved carefully from around her waist and touched a blue and green stone, the colors patchy. “Is from our first adventure – to the waterfall… do you remember? You jumped from the top, and I thought you were crazy… and I don’t think I was wrong.” He grinned, trying to lighten the mood, and Chai offered a small smile. She did remember the adventure, but she… couldn’t remember him, not really. She had thought he was handsome, but they’d gone with other guys – she’d flirted and treated them all the same. The fact that he remembered it with such detail… and emotion…

“This is from the first time we hiked alone together, this is from… no wait, this one is from when we hiked our hill for the first time… this… uh, is from the first time we… yeah. And, this…” He kept naming off moments that she also remembered, but she didn't remember them in the light or...color. Her heart beat filled her ears and her panicking mind tuned out the various stones and their meanings.

“Chai…” She was still just staring at the bracelet, wordless. “Chai.” His voice was trying to catch her full attention. No. Don’t look at him. He touched her cheek and she looked at him. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Going on adventures and… whatever else we decide to do.” He knew better than to mention anything about settling down, but maybe with time…

[tovaana]

Chai

“Oh, uh hey.” She practically ran into her mother, still fully garbed in her winter hiking gear, filthy and stinking of earth and sweat. Her eyes were wide, as were her mother’s, face smudged with obvious dirt – but she was also a shade darker, both from the sun and a layer of filth.

“Oh my.” Was the woman’s first quiet reaction and remark and then, “Hello dear.” Her mother was trying to hide her frown as she looked over her daughter and swallowed, relief in her eyes. She gave Chai a hug and clung onto her a moment, Chai not quite reciprocating the endearing gesture. Chai was too… frazzled, too much in shock, too… she felt like she was dying in the inside, like a wild animal that had been thrown into a cage, or a wild runner caught and preparing to be tamed. But she still noticed the way her mother was a bit clingier, something Chai really didn’t need at that moment, not after the proposal. She took a step back as soon as her mother let go. “Welcome home, we missed you.” She was being sincere, yet the undertones of disappointment in her daughter for leaving for so long and accomplishing… well, nothing of importance, not in her mother’s eyes. Not to a mother who understood the joy of children and a faithful husband.

Chai offered a shaken smile, but she kept looking around, like a rabbit keeping an eye out for predators. She fingered a bracelet around her wrist, but tore her fingers away from it when it made her feel like she was suffocating. She started to pace, but didn’t unload anything from her back, not even when she felt herself start to sweat in the warmth of their home.

“Chai-la, what’s wrong?”

Her daughter just shook her head. “Nothing… it’s nothing.”

“Did you hear about Zel and Liza? Is that upsetting you?”

Chai froze and looked at her mother, blinking, trying to process what she had said that had nothing to do with her current trauma. “Zel? Liza? Are they okay?” She asked, her voice small.

Her mother’s brows creased. “Yes, of course. I just thought you’d heard, that they were Searched. Isn’t that what’s upsetting you?”

“They – what?”

“Let’s get your gear off, I’ll make you some klah.”

“Zel and Liza were… Searched? They’re gone? To Telgar Weyr?”

Her mother started preparing klah, since Chai had resisted letting her mother take her gear off. “No…” Hiralia started, a little sad. “That would have been nice… they’ve gone to Mavros Weyr.”

“Huh?” Her voice was on the edge of hysterical. “Where? What? They left… without me?” Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. What an adventure, to be…Searched. By a dragon rider? To be a dragon rider!!? Her breath caught, the cogs turning and she fingered the bracelet on her wrist. Wings. A dragon could give her wings. All those memories of Liza trying to build her wings, and here was an opportunity… why had Liza left without her? She of all people knew how badly Chaizaela had wanted to be in the air. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she also would need to be Searched if she wanted to be a dragon candidate, but in the state that she was in – she just wanted to leave and be as far from Telgar as she could get before…. Before… She swallowed.

“I need a dragon.”

“What’s that Chai-la?”

“I… I have to go. I have to get out of here.”

Her mother froze her preparation of klah and looked hard at Chaizaela, recognizing that ‘something’ in her daughter when she did something (usually drastic) without asking and not heeding any consequences that she laid out for her. There was something that the mother knew was bothering her daughter, but Chai had never been one to divulge her inner thoughts.

But she didn’t bolt, the cogs in her mind turning like the inventions her sister made.

“Chai…” She froze at Hiralia’s tone for a moment in her frantic state and glanced back at her mother whose eyes were sad. “Just… please tell me when you leave.” The usually insensitive teenager couldn’t miss the obvious message there, how sad her miscommunication made her mother. Chai just nodded once before sweeping away to the office and writing out a dozen of the same little notes.

“Quakie! Quakie!” The urgency in her voice and mind brought her little aloof green just as she entered her room. “This is important. I need to you get this to H’ril.”

It took eight of the twelve notes until a brown flit popped in front of Chai will a simple message scrawled across it. ‘I got a half a dozen of your messages, please don’t litter my weyr with more, I’ll be there tomorrow!’

Tomorrow? Tomorrow? She groaned, burying her head in her hands. She wanted to go now. Her bracelet made a soft noise of pebbles bumping against each other – and her wrist felt heavy… weighed down. She remembered the panicked feeling she got when Seldoco had clasped the jewelry on her – it had felt like she was wearing a ball and chain. What had she said to him? She couldn’t remember…she remembered a lot of silence… she’d been stunned and it had made for an awkward couple of days down the mountain. When they’d gotten close, she had started to run, leaving Seldoco behind – she had heard him call out and follow her for a bit, but he wasn’t there when she’d gotten home and nearly run into her mother.

At some point her mother had come in and eased her backpack off and helped her out of her cold clothes and into clean ones, as if she were a child again. And perhaps, Chai hadn’t quite grown up like she liked to believe she had in those turns of adventures.