Beth slept fitfully through the night waking almost every hour to the unnerving feeling that somebody was watching her. The others seemed similarly fitful in their sleep. Even Pauline who normally slept soundly through the night was awaken and glancing around a number of times when Beth woke. She wasn’t sure if Nate had gotten himself any sleep at all. He appeared to be awake whenever she woke up. Eventually as the sun rose and Beth realised the other two were awake and that sleep seemed like it would continue to allude them. It was quickly agreed they would pack up and get started on their journey again.

They packed up slowly, not as a by-product of starting early but as a consequence of the lack of sleep the three had achieved. It didn’t help that Beth still felt as though she was being watched by someone or something and occasionally would look up frantically sure she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. From the actions of the other two it was clear this wasn’t a response unique to her.

As they continued their journey they kept an eye out for more Kapoals. Though the meat they had received from the original creature was plentiful it wouldn’t keep well and as such having a further supply of the food was critical. They travelled in an uneasy silence all tired from the night before and generally unnerved by the mountain.

Factually Beth knew it was the rumours she’d heard about the mountain that was probably causing the paranoia they all felt but that didn’t explain the figure in black that seemed to be following them or the occasional whispers she heard in familiar voices. Usually the voice was the same low growl that could have just as easily been the rustling of leaves, if there were any leaves to rustle. But sometimes it was a slightly more familiar voice, not one she could 100% place but something that could have been one of the old ladies from the village or a bartender she worked for in Newcastle. Familiar but unplaceable and always coming from just far enough away that it couldn’t be tracked.

It was a while before they actually spotted any more Kapoal, though they thought they had seen many movements that turned out to just be rocks. Eventually they had stopped pointing them out for fear they were wrong again and were just making idiots of themselves. Something moved fairly close to Beth and looking at the others she confirmed they seemed to have seen it too. This in itself wasn’t evidence but it was something so they slowed down and Nate removed his weapons. While not the cleanest kill their strategy from the previous encounter had proved successful so they resolved to approach in the same manner.

Sure enough there was a Kapoal close by. Things went smoother this time. Nate focused more on getting the blades into key positions than driving them particularly deep and Beth was more use to dodging the creature and so was better able to kite the creature to keep it distracted so Nate could properly take it out.

It was killed without too much trouble. And Pauline quickly pulled out the cooking slab while Nate and Beth got on with peeling the creature for it’s tender meats. They settled down and even after coking the dinner left the slab activated. It worked by sucking the ambient heat in and using that to concentrate the heat for cooking. This had the benefit of meaning while activated the area around it was cooler as though it was a block of ice. The three sat around it. Despite it being only early afternoon they decided to stop and attempt to get some sleep. They hadn’t heard of any particularly aggressive night hunters meaning they shouldn’t be drastically increasing their danger by doing such a thing.

As they sat, cool for the first time in a while and feeling relatively safe they began to chat again. They wanted to distract themselves and so when Nate suggested they shared their most embarrassing memories the others quickly agreed. Soon they were laughing carelessly their laughter bouncing across the sparse mountain but they didn’t care. This opened the gateway and due to them already being fairly tired anyway everything appeared much funnier than it should have been. Beth was so distracted by the laughter and paying attention to the others she didn’t see anything moving out the corner of her eyes or hear the whispers beckoning her away from the group. Instead she was firmly in the moment and from how much fun the others were having it appeared they were as well. The three slept soundly for several hours having laughed themselves to sleep. Even Nate got a restful couple of hours, his normal restlessness not rearing it’s ugly head.

They awoke as it was getting relatively dark, but feeling full of energy they continued to climb regardless. The ice finally truly broken Pauline had moved to the front of the group next to Nate and was chatting amicably with him while they walked. Nate for his part reciprocated in full having gotten much more comfortable with Pauline once she became more comfortable with him and didn’t feel so anxious. He no longer kept his blade drawn, and though Beth was sure he could draw them at a moments notice, he wasn’t scanning the horizon in the same way he had been previously. Beth took it upon herself to remain at the rear and kept her half-staff drawn taking over the role of chief lookout.

It was fortunate they had taken a break because the journey had gotten steeper and more involved. They hadn’t quite committed to breaking out the ropes they brought but they were much slower as there path became more direct and overgrown. Previously the path had been winding around the mountain travelling almost the circumference of the mountain while heading inwards. Now it was much more direct. Interestingly the plats that did manage to take root in this area were extremely weak and fragile. At one point Beth had slipped and grabbed one for stability and it came clean out of the ground with next to no force. It’s roots were barely a couple of centimetres deep. The plants were all uniform in they complete lack of pigment and looked as though they had been bleached white.

The momentum of the break carried the trio deep into the night and it wasn’t until the sun was showing signs of rising again that they decided to make camp again for the night. It had been a while since they had last seen a kapoal and due to the terrain it seemed unlikely they would come across another before reaching the peak. Fortunately they did seem only one day from both reaching the peak and then climbing back down to roughly the same level on the other side. They weren’t climbing directly over the mountain and down the other side as that was where the crack between it and the neighbouring mountain sat.

Beth had briefly entertained the idea of attempting to get across the chasm between the pair cutting out a huge chunk from their journey. However the look of disdain that Pauline pulled at the suggestion had put a damper on that idea. It was fully extinguished when she brought up the same idea to Nate, who she hoped would be up for it due to being much less risk averse than Pauline but he pulled the exact same expression and asked her if she was sure she wasn’t some stupid tourist.

As they began their final approach towards the peak Beth began to notice tiny black lines across teh white of the underfoot rock. Rare at first the number increased quickly as though there were hundreds, no thousands of black worms tattooed to the earth. Pauline didn’t look at all surprised and described it as the corrupt that had slowly began to take over the what was commonly seen as the top of the mountain; a signifier they were more or less at the top. But they didn’t look like corruption to Beth. They looked like cracks.