Kaye leaned against the rock wall once she was safely on the other side. Her legs shook, muscles screaming with the effort to climb the mountain. Her fingers were bloody and numb. Cold wind blew, and the Obsidian was watching her, making sure she didn't try to climb back across the pass. She couldn’t if she wanted to.

She crept slowly around the ledge until he was out of sight before her legs gave out and she slid into a ball, tucking into her wet cloak against the wind.

It was growing dark by the time Kaye uncurled herself. The wind was colder now, but she could tell by the light on the cliffs across the valley that the sun hadn't set. If she was on this side of the mountain come full-dark she would freeze. At least the other side would catch the last warm rays before the cold night crept in.

With a grunt, Kaye continued around the ledge until she was surprised to see the sun. It was an opening to the other side. She let herself rest a moment, but even with this lucky find Kaye was only halfway over. There were sure to be precipitous climbs down before she reached level ground. With that thought in mind, and the darkness in the valley growing deeper, Kaye crept around the sharp peak.

The light was stronger as she made her way around, and her view of the west grew. There were no more mountains. There were large hills to the north and south, their tops covered with trees, and straight ahead was a valley of trees extending out to the largest body of water she had ever seen. Sunlight blended the horizon so it seemed the sky bled into the earth, turning it blue. Kaye wanted to get to that water and take a long drink, but she still had a mountainside to deal with, and this side was windier.

Lowering herself to sit on the ledge, she felt for footholds. It was much slower going down blind than it had been pulling herself up, and the sun was setting at her back, cooling the air and clouding the sky. As dark came on it began to rain—more of a misty sprinkle than rain—and Kaye’s frozen, bloody fingers slipped. She exhaled in pain as she landed on her broken wings. She could go no further this time.

Tucking into her cloak and trying to gather warm energy through chattering teeth and painful muscles, Kaye fell asleep on the mountain.

It was all pain when she woke before dawn. Everything hurt. Her fingers were swollen and numb from the cold, and she whimpered as she bent them to get the blood flowing. Her nose burned with cold, her stomach complained with hunger, and her poor, broken wings were inflamed. Her body ached. Loneliness and betrayal ran even deeper than the pain, and Kaye wanted to sleep forever. She tucked the cape around her and didn’t get up until the sun was high in the sky.

As the slight warmth seeped into Kaye’s cold body, she forced herself to make a plan for continuing. She had nothing to eat or drink—she would have to reach the forest soon. The clouds had moved off, leaving the valley before her bright and green. She leaned to look at the climb she still had to make. The tree line was higher on this side; the climb shouldn’t be that bad.

She was wrong. Last night’s rain made the going treacherous with partially frozen water in all the good footholds. More than once her feet or fingers slipped and she scrambled to find purchase so she wouldn’t fall. Eventually the puddles warmed and melted, and when she looked down and found the trees only a short distance away, she said a prayer to Aleda, took her chances, and jumped. Her feet hit the slick ground of ferns and mosses, pitched her backwards, and slid her downhill until a giant red cedar stopped her fall. She lay where she fell for a long time before venturing to get up, careful of her footing on the wet ground.

Even on tree-filled ground Kaye moved slow. The slope was steep and wet, and often what looked like solid ground was a rotting tree that collapsed under her weight. By the time she stopped for a break she was muddy, wet, hungry and tired, but it was noticeably warmer on this side of the mountain. Not warm enough to leave behind her cloak, but she did lift it off her shoulders often to ease the pain in her wings.

The mountain also leveled off quicker than the other side. Already it was not so steep, and she didn’t have to use small trees and brush as she made her way, but it was slippery. Showers came and went all day, and it smelled damp and mossy, as if the soil never dried even on the hottest summer days. It was no surprise when a misty rain interrupted her break.

As she pushed on, the mist became a steady rain, turning damp dirt to mud and making it a chore to cross washed-out areas of mountainside. She was following the setting sun by the time she reached the level ground of the valley, which was marshy with run-off. Even after the rain stopped there was no dry ground, and no dry wood for a fire. She didn't recognize the plants here, with the exception of a tangle of blackberries growing where a cedar had come down, but the bush looked to be well picked over by animals already. She didn’t recognize anything else that was edible. It was going to be a cold, wet, hungry night.