By the time they decided to stop, Sunny was on the verge of fainting. After hours and hours of traversing the rough mountain slope, his body was almost at its limit. However, to everyone's surprise, Shifty seemed to be doing even worse than him. The roguish slave's eyes were muddy and unfocused, aimlessly wandering around. His breath was ragged and shallow, as though something was exerting pressure on his lungs. He looked feverish and unwell. As soon as Hero found a suitable place for a camp, Shifty simply collapsed on the ground. The most unnerving part about all of this was the lack of angry cursing that they had already gotten used to. The slave lay silent and motionless, with only movements of his chest betraying that he was still alive. Several moments later, he uncorked his flagon with a shaky hand and greedily drank a few large gulps. "Conserve your water," Hero said, a hint of concern somehow finding its way into his usually stoic voice. Disregarding these words, Shifty drank more,emptying the flagon completely.

 Scholar didn't look much better than him. The arduous climb took a heavy toll on the older slave. Despite the unbearable cold, he was sweaty, with bloodshot eyes and a grim expression on his face. Being the weakest of the three, Sunny had somehow managed to endure the best. "Can't we just melt the snow once there's no more water?" Hero gave Scholar a complicated look. "There might come a time when we won't be able to make a fire, as to not attract unwanted attention." No one commented, knowing perfectly well whose attention they had to avoid. The memory of Mountain King's horror was still fresh in their minds. Luckily, today Hero had managed to find a natural alcove in the mountain wall, perched precariously behind a narrow ledge. The fire was well hidden by the rocks, allowing them to enjoy its warmth without the fear of being noticed. No one was in the mood to talk, so they just roasted slices of oxen meat above the flames and ate in silence.

By the time the skies had turned completely black, Shifty and Scholar were already asleep, lost in the thrall of their own nightmares. Hero took out his sword and moved to the edge of the rock outcropping. "Try to rest, as well. I'll take the first watch." Sunny gave him a nod and lay down near the fire, dead tired. Falling asleep inside a dream was a new experience for him, but, unexpectedly, it turned out to be quite mundane. As soon as his head touched the ground, his consciousness slipped into darkness. After what felt like only a second, someone had gently shaken him awake. Groggy and disoriented, Sunny blinked a few times, finally noticing Hero hovering above him. "These two didn't look too well, so it's better to give them some time to recover. Don't let the flames go out and wake us up once the sun starts to rise. Or if... if the beast appears." Sunny silently rose and changed places with Hero, who added a couple of logs into the fire and was soon fast asleep.

For a few hours he was on his own

The skies were black, with dim stars and a sharp crescent of the newborn moon. However, its light was not enough to pierce the darkness that enveloped the mountain. Only Sunny's eyes seemed to be able to do SO. He sat quietly, looking down the way they came. Despite the fact that they had managed to climb quite high during the previous day, he could still see the distant ribbon of the road. He could even trace it back to the stone platform where the fight with the tyrant had taken place. The tiny dots littering the stones were the dead bodies of the slaves. As he was watching them, a dark figure slowly crawled on the platform from beneath the cliff. It stayed motionless for a while and then moved forward, scraping its claws against the ground. Every time a claw hit one of the bodies, the tyrant would grab and bring it to its maw. The wind brought the muffled sounds of crunching bones to Sunny's ears. He flinched, accidentally pushing a small rock off the ledge. It fell, hit the slope and then rolled down, causing a few more to follow. The noise of these falling rocks sounded like thunder in the silent night. Far below, the tyrant suddenly turned its head, looking directly at Sunny. Sunny froze, petrified. He was scared to make even the tiniest sound. For a while, he even forgot to breathe. The tyrant was staring directly at him, not doing anything. A few torturous seconds passed, each feeling like an eternity. Then the tyrant calmly turned away and continued to devour dead slaves, as though he had not seen Sunny at all. 'It's blind, Sunny suddenly understood. He inhaled, watching Mountain King with widened eyes. It was true. The creature could not see. Looking back at everything that had happened earlier, he grew more and more certain of his guess. Those milky, expressionless eyes. Come to think of it, he never saw the tyrant moving them at all. And back when Sunny was pushing the wagon off the cliff, the tyrant only reacted after the wagon's had started to fall, scraping loudly against the rocks. Of course! It was all making sense now. *** At the break of dawn, Sunny had woken the others up. Hero had hoped that a full night's rest would do Shifty and Scholar some good, but his hopes were crushed. Somehow, the two slaves looked even worse than before. It was as though yesterday's climb had overstrained Scholar too much. However, Shifty's condition could not be explained by simple overexertion. He was deadly pale and shaky, with half-conscious eyes and a lost look on his face. "What's wrong with him?" Scholar, who himself was not doing very well, helplessly shook his head. "It might be the mountain sickness. It affects different people differently."

Fils voice sounded raspy and weak. "I'm fine, assholes. Get out of my face." Shifty had trouble forming full sentences, but still insisted that he was alright. Hero frowned and then took most of the supplies the defiant slave was supposed to carry before adding them to his own load. After hesitating a little, he gave some to Sunny, too. "Did anything happen while we were asleep?" Sunny stared at him for a few seconds. "The monster ate the dead." The young soldier's frown deepened. "How do you know?" "I heard it." Hero moved to the edge and looked down, trying to make out the distant stone platform. After a minute or so, he clenched his jaw, showing signs of uncertainty for the first time. "Then we'll have to move faster. If the creature is finished with all the bodies, it will come for us next. We need to find that old path before nightfall." Frightened and dejected, they set out again and continued to climb. Sunny was slowly dying under the weight of the added load. Thankfully, Shifty and Scholar had already drunk most of the water, lightening it a little. 'This is hell, he thought. They climbed higher, and higher, and higher. The sun was climbing with them, slowly approaching the zenith. There was no talking, no laughs, only strained breathing. Each of the four survivors was concentrated on his own steps and footing. However, Shifty was falling farther and farther behind. His strength was abandoning him. And then, at some point, Sunny heard a desperate scream. Turning around, he only had time to see a panic-stricken face. Then Shifty fell backward, his foot slipping on an ice-covered rock. He hit the ground hard and rolled down, still trying to grab onto something.

But it was too late.

Frozen in place and powerless, they could only watch as his body tumbled down the slope, leaving bloody marks on the rocks. With each second, Shifty looked less like a man and more like a rag doll. A handful of moments later, he finally came to a halt, hitting the top of a large, protruding stone in a pile of broken flesh. Shifty was dead.

The three of them stood motionless, looking down in uneasy silence. What happened to Shifty didn't come as a shock, but it was still a hard thing to digest. An ominous feeling settled in their hearts seeing the broken body of their companion, it was too easy to imagine one of them sharing the same fate. No one knew what to say. After a minute or so, Scholar finally sighed. "It's a good thing that you took most of the supplies he had been carrying." 'A bit heartless, but not wrong, Sunny thought, giving the older slave a careful look. Scholar frowned, realizing that his mask of a kind-hearted gentleman had slipped for a second, and hurriedly added in a somber tone: "May you rest in peace, my friend." 'Wow. What a performance.' Actually, Sunny had not believed in his benevolent act for a second. Every kid from the outskirts knew that people who acted kind for no reason were the ones to be most wary of. They were either fools or monsters. Scholar didn't seem like a fool, so Sunny became cautious of him from the moment they met. He got this far by being a mistrustful cynic, and there was no reason to change now. "We have to go." Hero said, casting one last look down. His voice was even, but Sunny could feel a well of emotion behind it. He just couldn't tell what that emotion was. Scholar sighed and turned away, too. Sunny stared at the bloodied rocks for a few more seconds. 'Why do I feel so guilty?' he thought, bewildered by this unexpected reaction. 'He got what he deserved.' A little unsettled, Sunny turned around and followed his two remaining companions. Just like that, they left Shifty behind and continued to climb. At this altitude, traversing the mountain was getting harder and harder. The wind was slamming into them with enough force to throw a person off-balance if they were not careful, making every step seem like a gamble. The air was becoming too thin to breathe. Due to the lack of oxygen, Sunny was starting to feel dizzy and nauseated. It was as though they were all slowly suffocating. Altitude sickness was not something one could overcome with effort. It was subtle and overbearing at the same time, affecting the strong and the weak with no regard to their fitness and endurance. If his luck was bad, an elite athlete could succumb to it faster than a random passerby. It was just a question of your body's innate aptitude and adaptability. Lucky ones were able to get over it after experiencing mild symptoms. The others were sometimes crippled for days or weeks, suffering from all kinds of torturous side effects. Some even died. As though all that wasn't bad enough, it was getting colder, too. The warm clothes and fur weren't enough to keep the chill at bay anymore. Sunny felt simultaneously feverish and freezing, cursing every decision he had made in his life to end up here, on the endless icy slope. This mountain was not a place for humans. And yet they had to go on. A few hours passed. Despite everything, the three survivors continued to struggle forward, slowly moving higher and higher. Wherever that old path Scholar had talked about was, by now, it couldn't have been far. At least that's what Sunny was hoping for. But at some point, he started to doubt if the path even existed. Maybe the older slave lied. Maybe the path was long ago destroyed by ravages of time. Maybe they had already missed it without even noticing. Just as he was about to fall into despair, they finally found it. It was weathered and narrow, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. The path wasn't paved, but rather cut from the black rock by some unknown tool or magic, winding its way up the mountain like a tail of a sleeping dragon. Here and there, it was hidden beneath the snow. But most importantly, it was flat. Sunny had never been that happy to see something flat in his life. Without saying a word, Scholar dropped his rucksack and sat down. He was deathly pale, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Despite that, there was a slight grin on his face. "Told you." Hero gave him a nod and looked around. A few seconds later, he turned back to the triumphant slave: "Stand up. It's not time to rest yet." Scholar blinked a few times, then glanced at him with pleading eyes. "Just... just give me a few minutes." The young soldier was going to retort, but Sunny suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. Hero turned to face him. "What is it?"

It's gone."

"What is gone?"

Sunny gestured down, back the way they came. "Shifty's body. It's gone." Hero stared at him for a few moments, clearly failing to understand what Sunny was trying to say. 'Oh, right. They don't know that Shifty's name is Shifty. Ahem. Awkward.' He wanted to explain, but both Scholar and Hero seemed to have grasped his meaning. Simultaneously, they moved to the edge of the stone path and looked down, trying to spot the place where Shifty had met his end. Indeed, the splattering of blood could still be seen on the jagged rocks, but the corpse itself was nowhere to be found. Scholar flinched back and crawled as far away from the edge as he could. The young soldier also backed away, instinctively grabbing the handle of his sword. The three of them exchanged tense looks, clearly understanding the implication of Shifty's disappearance. "It's the monster," Scholar said, even paler than before. "It's following us." Hero gritted his teeth. "You are right. And if it is that close, we will inevitably be forced to fight it soon." The idea of fighting the tyrant was as frightening as it was preposterous. He might as well have said that they will all be dead soon. The truth of it was painfully clear to both Sunny and Scholar. But the older slave, surprisingly, did not look panicked. Instead, he lowered his gaze and quietly said: "Not necessarily." Hero and Sunny turned to him, all ears. The young soldier raised an eyebrow. 

"Explain?"

'Here it comes'

Scholar

  The beast had traced us this far in just a day. That means that there are two most probable possibilities. Either it is smart enough to realize where we are going, or it is following the scent of blood." After a bit of thinking, Hero nodded, agreeing with this logic. The older slave smiled slightly and continued. "Whether it is one or another, we can throw him off our trail and buy some time." "How do we do that?" Despite the urgency in Hero's voice, Scholar hesitated and remained silent. "Why are you not answering? Speak!" The older slave sighed again and slowly, as though against his will, answered. Sunny was waiting for this moment for a while now. "We'll just have to... make the boy bleed. Drag him down the path, then leave him there as bait and go up instead. His sacrifice will save our lives." 'Right on time.'

If Sunny wasn't mad - and scared witless, of course - he would have smiled. His judgment, it seems, was eerily on point. Affirmation was always nice... but not in the situation where being right also meant potentially being used as monster bait. He remembered the words Scholar had spoken back when Shifty was campaigning to have Sunny killed - "Don't be too hasty, my friend. The boy might prove useful later on." These words, which had sounded benevolent then, now turned out to hide a much more sinister meaning. 'What a bastard!' Now it all depended on whether or not Hero would decide to follow through with Scholar's plan. The young soldier blinked, astonished. "What do you mean, make him bleed?" Scholar shook his head. "It's simple, really. If the monster knows where we are going, we have no choice but to abandon our plans to reach the mountain pass and go over the peak of the mountain instead. If the monster is following the scent of blood, we have to use one of us as bait to mislead it." He paused. "Only by leaving a bleeding man further down the path can we reliably avoid the pursuit no matter how it is tracking us." Hero stood motionless, his eyes jumping between Scholar and Sunny. After a few seconds, he asked: "How can you bring yourself to propose something so vile?" The older slave masterfully pretended to look aggrieved and somber. "Of course, it pains me! But if we do nothing, all three of us will die. This way, at least, the boy's death will save two lives. The gods will reward him for his sacrifice!" 'Gee, what a silver tongue. I'm almost convinced myself. The young soldier opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating.

Sunny was silently watching the other two survivors, measuring his chances of coming on top in a fight. Scholar was already halfway to being a corpse, so overpowering him would not be a problem. Hero, however... Hero presented an obstacle

Right now, that obstacle was looking down, avoiding Sunny's gaze. His hand was resting on the sword handle. As always, the young slave had no idea about what was going on inside Hero's perfectly shaped head. The uncertainty was making him nervous. Finally, after some time had passed, the soldier spoke: "I have only one question." Both Sunny and Scholar stared at him while holding their breaths. "Yes?" "You said that one of us must be sacrificed to save the other two. Why him? From what I see, you are far closer to the grave." 'A great question! I was just about to ask it myself. Sunny turned to the older slave, trying very hard to suppress a mocking grin. But to his dismay, Scholar had an answer ready. "Before the first attack, he was already bleeding because of your senior's whip.

During the attack, he was drenched in the blood of a fellow slave. His cloak, too, was soaked in it when the previous owner died. The boy already reeks of blood. Keeping him alive will put us in danger. That's why he is the best choice." The grin died before reaching Sunny's face. 'Curse you and your big brain!' Scholar's reasoning was appallingly solid. Hero listened, his expression growing darker with each word. Finally, he looked at Sunny, a dangerous light shining in his eyes. "That is true." Sunny felt his mouth getting dry. Cold sweat was running down his spine. He tensed, ready to act... But at that moment, Hero smiled. "Your logic is almost unassailable," he said, unsheathing the sword. "However, you failed to account for one thing." Scholar raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his own nervousness.

"What might that be"

  The young soldier turned to face him, the smile disappearing from his face. Now, he was radiating thick, practically palpable killing intent. "It's that I know who you are, Your Grace. I also know what you've done, and how you ended up a slave. Just one of the revolting crimes you have committed would be enough to make me want to kill you. So if there is someone among us who deserves to be sacrificed... it's you." Scholar's eyes widened. "But... but the smell of blood!" "Don't worry about it. I'll make you bleed enough to overpower whatever residual scent the boy carries." It all happened so fast that Sunny barely had time to react. Hero lunged forward with a speed that seemed almost inhuman. A moment later, Scholar was shrieking on the ground, his leg broken with one strike from the flat side of the young soldier's sword. Not giving him an opportunity to recover, Hero stomped on his other leg, and a sickening sound of shattering bones could be clearly heard. The shriek turned into a sobbing howl. Just like that, Scholar was done for. The brutality of Hero's actions was in such stark contrast with his usually graceful demeanor that Sunny felt blood turning to ice in his veins. This was... scary. The soldier gave him a calm look and said in a placid tone: "Wait for me here." Then he grabbed the older slave and dragged him down the path, soon disappearing behind a rock outcropping. After a few minutes, terrible screams could be heard echoing through the wind. Sunny was left alone, trembling. 'Crap! This is... this is too much!' He still couldn't believe how sudden Scholar's demise came to be. And how ruthless it was. Some time later, Hero was back, acting as though nothing had happened. But it was exactly that normalcy that unnerved Sunny the most. After sorting through the contents of Scholar's rucksack and throwing most of the firewood out, the young soldier put it over his shoulder and nonchalantly turned to the young slave: "Let's go. We need to hurry." Not knowing what to say, Sunny gave him a nod and headed forward. Now there were only two of them left. It was sort of stupid, but Sunny suddenly felt lonesome. Walking on the stone path was much easier than scaling the mountain wall. He even had time for unnecessary thoughts. A strange feeling of melancholy descended on Sunny... somehow, he began to feel that the end of this nightmare, whatever it might be, was not far off now. They walked in silence for some time before Hero spoke.

"Don't feel guilty about what happened. It's not your fault. The decision was mine, and mine alone." The young soldier was a few steps ahead, so Sunny couldn't see his face. "Besides, if you knew this man's sins... actually, it's better that you don't. Just trust me when I say that killing him was an act of justice." 'I wonder which one of us feels guilty. These people... always trying to rationalize their actions, always desperate to maintain an illusion of righteousness even while doing most foul things. Sunny hated the hypocrisy. Not getting an answer, Hero chuckled. "You don't like to talk, do you? Well, fair enough. Silence is gold." They didn't speak again after that, each preoccupied with their own thoughts. The sun was setting, painting the world into a million shades of crimson. This high up, the air was clean and crisp, pierced by streams of scarlet light. Below them, a sea of maroon clouds was slowly rolling past the mountain. The stars and the moon had begun to reveal themselves in the vermillion sky. It was quite beautiful. However, Sunny could only think about how cold it was going to be once the sun fully disappears. Before that happened, Hero had found them a shelter. Not far from the path, hidden behind some tall rocks, was a narrow crevice that extended into the slope of the mountain. Happy to be safe from the piercing wind, they explored the crevice and ended up in a small, well-concealed cave. Sunny made a move to unbundle some firewood, but Hero stopped him with a shake of his head. "Today we will camp without making a fire. The beast is too close." Camping without the warm flames to keep them company was not going to be pleasant, but at least they weren't going to freeze to death inside the cave. In any case, the alternative was too frightening.

Sunny sat down, putting his back against the cave's wall. Hero settled opposite of him, looking downcast and thoughtful. He was obviously in a strange mood. If nothing else, it was apparent from the fact that today, for the first time, the young soldier had failed to care for his sword after making camp. Soon, the sun was gone, and their small cave became completely dark. Sunny, of course, could still see perfectly well; Hero, on the other hand, was now completely blind. In the darkness, his handsome face looked noble and, for some reason, sorrowful. Sunny studied it, not willing to fall asleep. After a while, Hero suddenly spoke in a quiet voice: "You know, it's strange. Usually, I can feel someone's presence even in absolute darkness. But with you, there's nothing. It's like you are just one of the shadows." With only silence to answer him, he smiled.

 "Are you asleep?"

The question echoed in the darkness. Sunny, who had never spoken with Hero unless there was an urgent need to, and even then only using a few words at best, felt like there was a strange intimacy between them now. That's why he decided to talk. Maybe the darkness gave him courage. Besides, there was an occasion. "Why? Are you waiting for me to fall asleep before you kill me? Or will you do it in the morning?"