Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Freya)

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

It seemed Freya was a lot faster at getting ready then Rory was, which almost made her laugh. She held it back though, in case he started to wonder why she was laughing at him again. She had to stop stealing looks at him though, otherwise she'd just give up the entire idea of leaving and force him to stay as well. But, it was impossible.

His comment about her coat though made her laugh. "At least it's not red." She grinned. That was always true, red stuck out a lot more then brown did out here, even if it was a sea of white. There were still spots where rocks lay uncovered, and brown would blend in rather well in those spots. "Besides, maybe I don't want to see the intimidation in your eyes?" She smiled a little softer this time.

Finally, the tent was completely empty, every packed and ready to go. All that was left was to actually leave the tent. And that seemed like the hardest thing of all. Slowly she nodded, her resolve almost breaking at the idea. "Ready as I'll ever be." That wasn't saying much. Slowly she returned to where Rory was, snatching one last kiss, this time intentionally raising her own body temperature right before leaving the tent.

It was a good thing she'd thought about warming herself before leaving it, because if she hadn't she would have been back in the tent faster then physically possible. She still flinched at the sudden cold, but quickly raised her body temperature even more, negating the cold affects.

[Rory Ashe]

Rory glanced down at his coat, she was right, it could be a worse color. Though he prefered white right now, brown was probably the next best thing. It didn't matter too much though, they were going to be in a building if they could find it, not much snow to disappear into there. He smiled softly as she spoke, "Maybe ye don't... But it's not you I'm tryin' to intimidate." He said with another soft smile.

Now that he was completely ready, he took a moment to glance around the tent. There wasn't a single thing in it other than Freya and Rory now, and the memories of last night. He let out a sigh, turning back to Freya, just in time to see her meeting him with a kiss. Again, he couldn't help but smile, watching her leave, then slipping on a new mask and his hood.

Once out of the tent, the difference between how warm Freya had made it in there and how cold it was outside hit him. He simply sucked it up though and began tearing down the tent. After a few moments he had it in pieces and slipped it back into it's bag. Handing the bag to Freya, "If ye don't mind, lass." He said, turning his back to her so that she could strap it on him again.

"If I read the map right last night, if we head that way a few hundred yards..." He said, pointing in front of him, "We should be back on trail. Jus' keep an eye out fer that cliff that I decided to dive off of and we'll know where we are." He said, half joking, mostly because he knew that soon there would be no more joking. "And today... Let's just walk the whole way, eh?" He asked with a laugh, after all, they didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya waited patiently as Rory started to tear down the tent, reaching out to warm him a little as well. She pulled a hood over her head, to block some of the wind battering against her head so she didn't have to have her body temperature quite so high.

With a small smile, she quickly took the bag from him when offered, easily strapping it back onto his bag. Unlike yesterday, her fingers weren't numb. "Yeah, best to stick to the trail. She chuckled a little, after their adventure off trail, it probably was the best idea. She grinned at his next comment though, as if to say he was ruining her fun. "Aww, alright... It'll be boring walking though." At least they wouldn't risk causing an avalanche.... again...

[Rory Ashe]

It only took a moment until he could feel that Freya had strapped everything down. He turned back around slightly, "Aye... But at least boring keeps you alive." He said with a laugh. He intentionally said "you alive", because as they both knew, an avalanche nothing on this mountain could officially kill him. Even though the risk of them dying was probably a bit less now, he cared about whether Freya made it or not far more than he cared about himself.

Rory gave one last glance at Freya before he began walking the way he pointed. There was no turning back now, and all thoughts of staying with Freya in the tent were gone. Just as well, because he could almost feel his willpower coming back as well as clear thought. In the tent, the only thing on his mind was Freya, and he probably would have never left if it hadn't been for her.

After several minutes of walking Rory could see the outline of the cliff he had fallen off of. It was largely covered with snow from the avalanche now, but he recognized it none-the-less. "There's our cliff... Should be a straight up shot from there." He paused for a moment, looking at the snow on the cliff in the distance. Because there had been an avalanche there, the chances of there being another were greatly increased, "Stay as close as ye can, again lass and step only where I step."

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya rolled her eyes a little. Sure, her dying was far worse them him because she wouldn't come back, but Rory dying was still hard. "Yeah..." She didn't bother coming up with a witty remark, she didn't need to or want to in this weather.

With a sigh, she shook her head, slowly training behind Rory as he lead the way. She still felt tortured from forcing them to endure this weather, but they had to. Besides, it wasn't like they wouldn't have some alone time later....

"Don't go falling off it again." was the wittiest she could come up with in this weather. Sure, she didn't expect him to go falling off, but it was funny how he'd called it 'our cliff'. She sighed a little when he told her what she already knew, slowly nodding. "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you the whole way."

[Rory Ashe]

Rory had to laugh a bit as they got closer to the cliff, "But it was so fun the first time..." He said sarcastically, which was about as much as he could say between the climbing and the extreme cold. After a few moments they were just above the cliff and began heading straight up again. Since they had been traveling around the mountain and not up, he forgot how incredibly steep it was. He continued to glance back at Freya every few moments, keeping an eye on her. He would not let anything like getting seperated from her, happen again.

After what felt like a couple hours of climbing, the cliff had gone from incredibly steep to an almost vertical ascent. Eventually it was steep enough that Rory had to bring out his climbing picks, one for each hand, and dig the front of his boots in every step. He stopped for a moment and turned back to Freya, pulling out a small rope and attaching one end to the back of his pack and tossing the other to her. "Hook that onto the front of yer belt." He said, breathing a little heavy from the climb.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Today Freya wasn't struggling as much as she had with the climbing, but that wasn't saying it was at all easy. The climb had left Freya near breathless, she didn't bother responding to what he said, instead she just smiled one of those times he'd look back to check on her. It was a little annoying that he was keeping such a close eye on her, but it was understandable. She wasn't about to let him out of her sight either after all!

They climbed in silence for a long time, but they'd finally came to a stop. Great, true climbing now. With a small nod, she caught the end of the rope, quickly hooking it to her belt. "Okay, ready."

[Rory Ashe]

Rory hadn't realized how much he truly cared about Freya until yesterday. When he got seperated from her and didn't know whether she was alive or dead, it was truly torture, and almost hurt him on a physical level. He would never let that happen again, so in dangerous times like these, he was going to keep her as close as possible and make sure he would take any damage long before she did.

Once she was done tying on, Rory tugged on the rope a few times on his end and pulled her a little as well, then nodded. "Alright, if ye start to have trouble climbing, just fall back until the rope is tight and use it fer support. An don't worry 'bout slippin', I'll be there if ye do." With one more good tug on both ends of their rope, he turned back toward the mountain and began climbing again.

Though there was no storm, the wind seemed to get stronger and stronger as they climbed toward the top. If it weren't for the picks in his hand and the spikes on Rory's boots, he would probably have been knocked over by now. Not to mention their climbing speed had slowed to a crawl with Rory having to pull himself up with the picks nearly every step.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Normally Freya would have laughed a little when he felt his tugging, causing her to be tugged along with it. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be able to keep up." Hopefully. She'd at least try to. At least she wouldn't have to worry about falling if she did slip, seeing as Rory was more then capable of carrying her weight.

She wouldn't try to fall though. As they started to climb, it was easier then she'd expected at first, but after only a few moments her confidence vanished. She quickly started to fall behind, half having to rely on Rory, but the other half far to determined to just give up and let him pull her.

[Rory Ashe]

Rory could feel the weight on the rope start to tighten as the mountain got steeper, though he didn't mind. He could very easily carry both of their weight. Really it made him feel better to feel the rope tighten every now and then because it meant she was back there, and he couldn't really look back right now.

Minutes seemed to take hours, and they were high enough up now that the clouds had blocked any vision except what was about ten feet away. Rory swung his pick forward to hook it into the mountain-side again and there was a loud metallic clang. He immediately froze, glancing back at Freya. Then he swung the pick hard against the mountain, the clang was even louder and the pick stuck into a metal door, causing a wall of snow to slide off. Rory leaned back, using the pick to hold him, and he could see the outline of a building... They were on it's door step!

"It's frozen shut... I need a hand, lass." He said, holding himself up with one hand with the pick that was stuck into the door, and using his other to grab the rope and lift up to help Freya climb up beside him. He knew she'd be able to thaw it way faster and quieter than it would take for him to try to open it.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

She hated having to rely on him to help pull her up, if she could have she would have preferred not to. It made her feel weak, like she wasn't capable of doing it herself.

The clang of his pick hitting metal was loud enough to reach Freya, and almost made her freeze. Metal? He hit it again, this time as if trying to make sure he'd really heard it. She smiled a little. Was this really it? "No problem." She grinned a little more as he pulled on the rope, helping her catch up to where he was. Carefully she reached out, her fingers brushing against the steel. The ice thawing at her touch...

[Rory Ashe]

As Rory watched Freya touch the door, he slid his gloves off slightly and blew into his own hands, trying to warm them up. Then the ice slowly began to drip off of the door, and the snow around it began melting slightly. "Alright, watch out." He said, immediately slamming foot into the metal double doors, knocking them open, and jumping inside.

There was nothing though except a long, very dark, hallway. At the end it looked like there was some light, this was definitely what they were looking for. Rory turned to help Freya in, then began sliding off his pack and heavy jackets until he was down to just his sweater and white camo pants. He was taking them off partly because it was really warm inside the hallway, and so that he could move easier.

Then, reaching into his pack on the ground he pulled out a small LED flashlight, and what looked like leather straps. He wrapped the straps around him, revealing that they were gun holsters. One on his though, two on either side of his chest, and a small wrap around his other leg that held a few knives. He glanced at Freya with a sheepish smile, "I always come prepared." He said with a wink.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya moved away a little when Rory kick in the door. He was in then and helping her up. With a sigh she untied the rope from her belt and slipping off her own pack. If things got bad it would only get in her way after all.

Taking a few moments to catch her breath, she watched as Rory started to arm himself for battle, or so it seemed. Would he really need that many weapons? Well.. His power was physical, so it made sense. "Yeah, I can see." She grinned a little. It made her feel a little bad that she didn't have much preparation for what might happen. "We ready then?"

[Rory Ashe]

"Yep, we're ready... Oh wait!" He said, turning back and digging in his pack. He pulled out four small black packages and a small remote. Tucking them into his pockets he glanced at Freya, "... Plan B..." He said with a wink. He wasn't sure if she'd recognize that they were explosives, but she would soon learn that it was just Rory's style. He never left a place without a nice big explosion. Besides, you never know when a precision charge could come in handy.

With that, Rory turned and began down the hall, switching on his LED flashlight. As the got further down the hall and deeper into the darkness, the light on the other end became apparent that it was another room. "Great... Tall deserted mountain, creepy tunnel, and eery silence... I've seen how this movie ends." He said quietly so only he and Freya could hear. After all, no telling who could be nearby to hear.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

"Plan B?" Freya slowly blinked. Now what was he up to now? Whatever it was... it wasn't going to be good. She did know Rory after all, most of this kind of stuff he did was bad. "Should I be worried?" She smiled a little, leaning forward to softly kiss him before they moved towards where the hall lead. "You better be careful." She knew he wouldn't. He didn't have that fear of dying like most people.

With a sigh she relucantly followed, nervous about what was waiting for them. She tried not to laugh at his comment, cracking a wide smile instead. "We'll just have to change the ending then, won't we?" She kept her voice down as well, barely a whisper.