Journey To The Heights

It’s cold. Far far too cold for a hike like this… She had made sure to pack everything that she could for such a trip, but even then, the thought of actually going was making her have second thoughts about it all. She shivered for a moment before hefting her bag onto her back once more. With a small sigh escaping her lips, the feline quietly makes her way up that path… What would she find at the top of that snow-covered peak? Only she and a few others would know…
Nevertheless, she quietly makes her way along that path without a single sound escaping her, the cold air flowing through her white coat of fluff. She squints her eyes for a moment to keep the cold air from drying her eyes out after a moment or two… She had to go through with this. She just had to, or else she just wouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror when she got back home… With a shiver, she continued on that path, the stone under her paws feeling as cold as ice.
Trees. That is what was waiting for her along that path. She just had to get through these woods, and then she could make her way up that mountain… Each branch above her was just swaying in the wind, threatening to snap off and come tumbling down at any moment… She blinks for a moment… What in the world was… She was seeing things. No, no, this wasn’t real. She needed to hurry along and get up to that summit as fast as she can. So, with a newfound pep in her step, she trudges through that ever-green forest without a word, stopping only for a moment to sip at her water.
In no time, thankfully, she was free from that verdant prison of a forest, and soon was back on the path towards the summit once again. The chill was starting to nip at her white fluff… She braces herself against the biting temperature that the wind was bringing her way… Always so cold, and always so present… What was she looking for, even…? The people back in town were always so distant, weren’t they? Maybe if she tried to get with people, she could… no, that wouldn’t work, would it…? She lets out a sigh, only for it to be drowned out by the whistling of the wind ahead of her.
Something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention once again… Just like at the forest, too… She turns her head towards her right and sees the wilted expanse that slowly just becomes more and more covered in snow… She shakes her head… She was seeing things again, and this was getting bothersome. Besides, she knew what was there… Him. She shivers for a moment before continuing to trudge on once again. She certainly didn’t want to deal with him at any point in the future. No, not at all.
Thankfully, now she was getting somewhere. The cold stone under her paws was getting colder and colder by the moment, and soon enough, the stone gives way to a soft “crunch crunch crunch”... Snow. She looks up from her spot on the side of that pile of snow and rock. Still a ways to go, unfortunately, but she needed to get there as soon as possible… And judging by all the things she was seeing as of late, she needed to get there sooner rather than later.
She trudges along through the snow as quietly as she could, the sound of the snow crunching underfoot being one of her only companions, aside from the howling wind that seemed to be ever-present beside her. At least things were peaceful, for the most part. Though, she huddles up against her bag for a moment or two after a particularly biting gust of wind… Well, it certainly wasn’t something that she wanted to feel, but she was going this way anyway, right? She lets out a small huff into the open air, her breath instantly crystalizing and forming into a puff of frost.
She blinks for a moment at the sight of that…
“Hm…” For a moment, a small smile forms at the edges of her face before being swallowed up by yet another gust of frigidity. She puffs once or twice more before continuing on with her march up those snow-covered slopes. At least her breath could tell it was getting cold, if nothing else… For now, though, she looks towards the sky… It was getting dark, and she needed to rest if she was going to get back up towards that peak. She makes her way towards one of the outcroppings that were jutting out from the stone face of that mountain, and plants her rump there for the moment…
She unzips her bag, fiddles with a few of the things inside, and quietly lights up a small cooking fire before placing a small pot in the snow, pulling out some of that white crystalline fluff, and places it on top of the fire… It should be warm soon. For now, she could just wait and try to warm herself up, too… Before long, though, her eyes start to drift close… She shudders for a moment and shakes herself awake. If she died out here in the cold, she wouldn’t hear the end of it from-...
She rubs her face at that thought before turning to look at her pot. Well, the ice-turned-water was boiling, at the very least. She reaches into her bag for a wooden spoon, and a packet of instant soup. After tearing it open and dumping its contents into the pot, she stirs it up before storing the plastic away for her trip down…
The sound of crunching snow meets her ears again, but she knew better. She wasn’t going to be fooled again… Not this time. She simply concentrates on eating her soup for the time being, and no trick of the mind would stop-
“Hey, you alright over there?”
Her fur stands on end at the sound of that. That certainly didn’t sound like a figment of her imagination… She looks blinks for a moment, stuffs a spoon full of that delicious tincture into her mouth, and looks around. There, close by. The light from someone’s lantern. She shakes her head at the sight of it, and resolves to keep eating. She needed to get rid of all of these distractions in one way or another.
She sips up the rest of her soup for the moment before quietly packing up her things. She needed to get out of there as soon as she could, or else someone was going to fi-
A hand shoots out from around the nearby corner, and grips the side of the stone outcropping. Before it can do anything else, she hefts her bag onto her back, and bolts out from that alcove, back into the snow that was keeping her chill ever-present… There was no way that she wanted to deal with anyone right now, especially with something that she had to do alone.
Before long, though, the snow under her paws becomes harder and harder, more packed with each step she takes until she could feel every little ice crystal under her. She could see it - The summit. Nothing else above it for as far as she could see, and judging from the clouds around here, or rather, the lack thereof, she was getting as close as she could get. She could almost taste the ozone in the air… Almost, at the very least. For now, though, she needed to take those steps towards the top, and judging from the bags under her eyes, that feline was getting more tired by the second.
Another sound, from her left and her right. She didn’t want to deal with this at all, certainly not from him. Especially not from him. No, she was going to do this on her own. She needed to do this on her own. How else was she going to look at herself in the mirror if she couldn’t even do this…? She shakes her head to get rid of those sounds coming from her side, and keeps going up that path. She was going to get up there even if it killed her.
She lets out a tired sigh before flopping onto her stomach. She had made it to the top, and no one could tell her what she could and couldn’t do. She blinks for a moment at the sights around her: clouds and clouds as far as the eye could see. Is this what mountain climbers feel when they finally get to the top? She could get used to this sort of thing, if nothing else… She lets out a small sigh before setting up her camp once again. She could go home in the morning, and there would probably be people cheering her on once she got there.
“Heheheh…”