Frank always enjoyed climbing as a child on everything, which got him into trouble all the time growing up. Everyone just considered it to be a phase he would grow out of until the fateful day. It was a cold and brisk morning in the Harvest month with a several inches of fresh snow covering the fields. Most people were in bed except for a few Traken herders. The Traken were a cross between a goat and a wombat, thick skinned with curly white fur, they would eat almost anything that their wide clawed feet could dig up. They were great at handling rocky terrain and at digging through the snow to reach tubers. A Traken was the only domesticated animal that could handle the harsh winters this far north.

Frank hated the pudgy animals and they seemed to hate him right back. His family wove the fur from the Traken but did not raise any themselves. They also ran a small farm to, as many of the families did, to help supplement the food they traded for. The villages that dotted the North could not afford permanent portals and there was nothing to entice a high-level mage to live there to support performing teleports. Once the snows set in only trappers and adventurers that braved the monster-infested tundra ventured from the villages. Either they gathered their furs to trade with the summer caravans or for those trappers with massive inventories they would make their own way to the southern towns of the Empire of Tassan to trade the beautiful furs they collected as loot.

On this cold winter morning, Frank was out to see a particular herder in the upper fields. Sara would have been out since the sun crested the eastern hills. He had one of his mother favorite dishes, Haljar Stew, in his inventory, hot from the stove. Sara was sure to love it. He had tried to court her for the last year, but she apparently could not make up her mind about Frank or Justin, who was the son of a retired adventurer. Justin was one of the best hunters in the village and at the age of seventeen, he was already level ten. Frank by comparison was only at level four and that was only because of the group hunts the farmers engaged in each fall to clear the area around the wintering pastures before the snows set in.

As he reached the upper pasture, he didn’t see Sara, but did hear several Traken blatting in distress. He pulled a spear out of his inventory and cautiously walked toward the edge of the field. He walked up next to the Traken which edged sideways revealing a fissure where ice had bridged a gap in the cliff. Down in the fissure be could see a motionless Sara lying on a ledge of rock and ice some forty feet below. Her hair was covering her face, but the ice was covered with blood. Frank put the spear back in his inventory and took an ice pick out as he looked at the sides of the fissure. It never occurred to him to go for help. Sara could easily bleed out before help arrived or freeze for that matter. The first twenty feet looked doable, the walls of the fissure were within four feet of each other, but then it widened out. At that point, the cliff walls were smooth with few handholds. He quickly climbed down half way. The last twenty feet took half an hour to make it to her ledge.

When he reached her, he left most of his weight on a foothold and the ice pick wedged in a crack as he touched her leg, which was still warm. What he could see did not look good, she had lost a lot of blood and the ledge she was lying on was mostly ice and was heavily cracked. He was afraid to put any weight on the ledge. After looking everything over, he pulled a rope out of his inventory and tied one end around the base of his ice pick, which had a flared end to the handle for this purpose. Then while maintaining his toeholds he put as much weight on the rope as possible and it looked like his pick was firmly wedged in the crack. Next keeping as much of his weight off the ledge as possible he places one toe on the edge next to the cliff face. The ice creaked but otherwise held as he reached a loop of the rope around Sara’s shoulder gentle lifting her enough to wrap the loop around her under her arm pits. It was difficult, since she was pure dead weight, but slowly to the sound of the creaking ice, he wrapped the rope around her and tied it off.

Now with that done he placed both feet on the ledge and waited a minute before reaching down to slowly pick Sara up and place her over his right shoulder with her legs hanging down his front and her head gentle bumping against his back. As he firmly settled her weight on his shoulder, the ledge gave a sharp crack and lurched under his feet. He desperately grabbed the rope and scrambled to get a toehold when the entire ledge broke lose. Without Sara’s weight on his shoulder, he was sure he could have made it, but instead he lost the one toehold he had and was dangling with both their weights on the rope. When pebbles hit his head, he looked up in shock as he saw the pick break free. As he began to fall he desperately grabbed at the slick cliff face as it slides past and then it happened. His hand seems to suddenly stick to the cliff face and he screamed with the force suddenly place on his right arm until his feet slammed into the cliff and arrested his fall. He looked at his hands and feet on the icy cliff face. They did not rest on any crevasses or toehold. There didn’t appear to be anything holding them there, but as he moved his hand on the cliff, he could easily pull himself up now. It felt like he was just crawling along a floor. There was a small flashing notification in the lower left of his field of vision, but for now, he ignored it as he felt his mana draining.

He was only familiar with the sensation because of his work one summer with the village healer, who could drain mana from another person to assist with difficult healings. At the time, his mother was sick with a bad fever and the healer had needed a volunteer to help supply the needed mana. The drain did not seem as intense as the healing, but there was sure to be a connection between it and his sticking to the cliff. He quickly began to ascend the cliff after looking around. Even though the fall seemed to last a long time he was only sixty feet further down taking him to the middle of the 200-foot cliff face. It would have been better to go down except for the fast running icy water filling the ravine below. Instead, he started climbing by sliding his hands and feet up along the cliff. After he passed the broken ledge where Sara’s body had rested, he continued moving sideways to the fissure. As he started up the fissure his head started to pound, but he made it to the top and pulled both over the edge onto the snow above.

As he rested on his back, he pulled Sara on top of himself to keep her out of the snow. It was not a good sign that her natural healing had not revived her by now. He waited ten minutes to regenerate his stamina before picking her back up over his shoulder and walking into town to the healer. It would take about an hour to get to town versus forty-five minutes to his parent’s place, but since she was still unconscious, he wanted to get her to the healer as fast as possible. It was a long hour as he tried to juggle his speed versus his stamina to keep at the optimal pace. He was bone tired as he trudged up to the healer’s cottage and pounded on the front door as he yells out for Jessica the healer. The door opened and he almost collapsed inside as the healer grabbed him and pulled Sara off his shoulder.

“Hurry and shut the door.” she said as she placed Sara on a cot and placed her hands on Sara’s head while her hands glowed with a soft golden light. “What happened?”

“I went to see her in the upper pasture and found her down a fissure on a ledge. I am guessing the fissure had an ice bridge over it when it collapsed.”

“Sara should know better than to walk near the edge like that.” Jessica said as she continued to hold Sara’s head.

“I know.” I say glumly. “How is she?”

“She has a bad concussion and a broken spine, which you’re carrying didn’t help.”

I could feel the blood drain out of my face as I whispered. “I couldn’t leave her on the ledge, it collapsed and then I didn’t think leaving her in the snow would be a good idea.”

Jessica frowned saying. “It sounds like you did the right thing, now get over here. I need some more mana.”

I knelt next to Sara as Jessica rested one hand on Sara’s head and one on my shoulder. I felt a burning sensation as Jessica started to draw mana from me. A notification asks if I wanted to allow Jessica to draw mana, which I accepted. It was the last thing I remember. As I woke up, I realize I am slumped over Sara cot as Jessica is now kneeling on the other side of the cot softly talking to Sara.

As I raise my head, I smile as Sara turns to look at me saying. “Hello sleepy head.”

“Hi.” I say turning to Jessica. “So, how is she?”

“She should be fine, but I want her to stay here overnight.”

“Great.” I say as I turn back to Sara drinking in her face. “What happened?”

“One of the young Traken walked on the ice bridge and partially fell through and I was stupid enough to go after it. I misjudged how far the ice bridge extended and fell through myself and that’s all I remember until I woke up here.”

I sigh and say. “Yes, that really is stupid.”

“Hey.” She says as I smile down at her. “Can you let my parents know what happened so they can send some up to the pasture to watch the other Traken?”

“Yes, I will stop by your parent’s place.”

I look at Jessica and ask. “Can she eat some food?”

“That should be no problem. In fact, I bet she is starving after all that healing.”

“Great then this is for both of you.” I say removing two large bowls of stew from my inventory along with spoons. “I can pick up the empties tomorrow when I stop by to walk you home.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Sara says blushing.

“Sure, I do, my mother would kill me if I didn’t get the spoons and bowls back.”

Jessica snorts a laugh at my behavior and Sara says. “You are impossible, get out of here, but leave the stew.”

I am about to open the door when Sara says. “Hey, thanks for saving me.”

I smile all serious for a change. “Any time. Take care Jessica.”

I open the door and after shutting it I stand in the doorway for a while shivering, but not because of the cold, as I realize how close we both came to dying. I start to slowing walk back to Sara’s parents place as I finally open the small icon gently throbbing at the edge of my vision.

Congratulations, you have unlocked a hidden ability Wall Walker. This ability allows the user to cling and climb on any surface, even ones normally not climbable, at 50% of normal movement speed. Speed increases by 20% per skill tier past Basic. This ability costs five mana per minute. The ability will function through any equipped articles of clothing on the hands or feet. Five times the users strength is required to forcibly remove the user from a surface.

100 XP awarded. 25 Fame awarded.

Interesting ability and somewhat useful up here with all the cliffs around the area. With my intelligence at sixteen I had eighty mana and could use the ability for eight minutes before dipping below 50% mana and passing out. If I level it up, I will be able to move faster on walls than the ground. I think I will increase my constitution when I next level up, since I burn stamina at the same time while climbing.

I continue to make my way to Sara’s parents place. After I arrive, I knock on the door and announce myself. Sara’s mother answers the door holding it open just a crack. She really didn’t like me hanging out with Sara. I could tell she much preferred Justin.

“Sara is not here.” She said as she started to close the door.

“I know misses Whitmore. Sara is at the healer’s and needs to stay overnight. She fell through an ice bridge and was badly injured, but the healer said she would make a full recovery. I was stopping by to tell you, so you know the upper pastures need to be watched.” I say as she stops closing the door and jerks it open.

“How… how did she fall through an ice bridge? She was hanging around with you when it happened wasn’t she? You were the reason she fell, weren’t you?” She was practically yelling as she poked my chest.

Despite wanting to stay civil to her mother, I found myself pissed at her accusation.

I pushed her back yelling. “I came up to visit your daughter and bring her some food when I found her lying on a ledge forty feet down a fissure. After I got her out, I took her to the healer and gave mana to the healer to help heal her. While I didn’t expect thanks from you, I will not stand still while you lay accusations on me. Good day.”

I turned and walked away leaving her sputtering behind me as I cursed under my breath. I was even madder after think of why I went down the cliff in the first place to save Sara. Typically dying while not pleasant wasn’t too big of a worry unless of course you were level one. If you die while level one it will be your final death. Sara’s parents were never letting her level, so she was still level one, which was stupid. When I made it back to my parents I was still in a foul mood, but I stopped to tell my parents the same thing I told miss Whitmore before heading to my room to cool down.

As I lay on my bed in my room I thought about how stupid it was to climb down the cliff to save Sara. It was a miracle I managed not to get us both killed. I should of either run to my parent’s, Sara’s, or the village to get help. In hind sight there is no way I could have carried her out without my ability. I lay there shivering until I fell into a troubled sleep.