We headed up the mountain. The mountain was snow-capped and at least a mile high. I had a strange feeling that this would be a difficult climb. The path twisted around the mountain, so it wasn't the steepest path. Though it wasn't steep, that didn't mean that it was easy to get anywhere up it. We were stopped by quite a few enemies, which we had to run from because we were not in a good enough condition to fight them. The temperature wasn't the warmest, but it wasn't freezing. I knew that if we made it to the top it would be extremely cold, colder than what it was now. We made our way up and sometimes down the mountain. Entering a few caves, we couldn't rest because the monsters would not leave us alone. It wasn't until we neared the top that I noticed that we were above the low stratus clouds. It was extremely cold as I thought.

"We have to get to the top quickly. If we stay still to long, we will slowly die." I said. Everyone agreed, Fred shivering, but River being fine. He was lucky to have a fire dragon in him. Fred wasn't as lucky as metal loses heat faster than many things. We headed up to the peak. After running from and avoiding enemies we were extremely close to the peak. The sun had fallen from the sky and I was getting slightly dizzy from the cold and how high up we were.

There was a random sign by a small cave that read "If you rest here you will recover." We headed into the cave and rested for the night. River started a small fire with the pieces of wood that were laying in a pile. Everyone warm with the fire, we fell asleep. When the sun had risen, we exited the cave after putting out the remains of the fire, feeling a lot healthier and warmer. We then headed up and onto the peak. There was a teenage girl there. She had the figure of a model and had long black hair. Though there was a random piece of yellow sticking out of her hair, it didn't affect how she looked. Her arms were well-built. She obviously works out. She emanated a strange aura from her, like being near a well-trained fighter. I had a feeling that this is who we were looking for.

"Hello?" I said cautiously. I wasn't sure how she would react. I didn't know if she would attack or turn around, or all three. There were many ways this could go, and few involved a good ending.

"Hello." She responded. She turned around quickly and I was shocked to see that her eyes were an unnatural golden-yellow color. She seemed to be about five feet two inches tall. She looked straight at us, her eyes examining us. She seemed to be wondering if we would be a good opponent to fight. I had a very bad feeling about that at the moment.

"I'm guessing that she is the one we were looking for." River said.

"Likely." I responded.

"What?" She wondered. She didn't know what we were thinking either, which put everyone here, including her, at some disadvantage.

"We are the group of people with dragons within our spirits. I am guessing you do as well." I said.

"Yes, I do. You want me to join you?" She wondered. She said it more as a statement as if knowing what I would say.

"Yeah." I answered.

I turned around and said this quietly to the others "I have a feeling that she won't join us unless we defeat her." Fred whispered back to me.

"I don't know why she would, but since we don't know her, she might." Fred said.

I turned around and said "You won't join us yet though, will you."

"No, you are going to have to fight me first. I'm not going to join jut anyone, they have to be strong." She said.

I looked at them with a face that said "Ugh." We got into a fighting stance and I pulled out my knife, which was really more of a sword due to it being made for somebody who is much taller and bigger than me, somebody like the mugger I got it from.

"Don't take her lightly. I have a bad feeling about this." I said, nervous about how well she could fight. SHe didn't look cold, so she had been training for a long time on the mountain. She charged and punched me in the stomach. It felt like I got hit by a train, or ran straight into one.

"Oof!" I grunted. I fell onto one knee and slowly got back up. We all attacked her, and she punched me once more, this time in the chest. Everything spun around at a quick pace and was getting faster. It felt like I was getting sick at the swirling background. I stood up because I knew I could just fight on.

"You're tougher than I thought." She admitted. I quickly vomited up whatever I had eaten. I couldn't remember what I had eaten at that time. My body shivered with cold and pain. I was freezing, I felt sick, and I knew I couldn't go on for much longer. Screaming, I charged and slashed at her. I hit her on top of the head with the blade, and she grunted sightly.

"That stings!" She yelled with a smile. She knew that we were not going down without a fight, so she decided to give it her all as well. She charged and punched me in the face. I was out cold. It wasn't until a little later that I woke up. River and Fred were standing over her while she was on the ground, defeated. I woke up and everyone saw that I was awake because I squirmed a little.

"You were right, we couldn't take her lightly. She may be pretty, but when we saw you out cold we knew we had to be smart and hit her as hard as we could." Fred said.

"Yeah. He ended up nearly making me sick with his smell." She said.

"Yeah, I haven't taken a bath in a while." River admitted.

"Imagine staying in a cave for the night with him." Fred joked.

"That must have been terrible." She responded with a short laugh.

"Anyway, it looks like we won." Fred cheered, taking a deep breath. He was obviously tired.

"Yeah. I will keep my promise. From here on out I will join you." She said. I slowly stood up, but collapsed to one knee.

"Urgh." I grunted.

"I think you went a little overboard." River said.

"Yeah, sorry." She said. She held out her hand to help me up. I could barely hear what she said because my ears had started to freeze shut.

"This doesn't look good." Lumen said.

"What gave you that impression?" I responded.

"Hello?" River wondered, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Oof." I grunted as I fell to the ground.

"Uuah!?" grunted Fred. I saw the others shout something, but my ears had finally frozen shut. Darkness covered my vision as my near frostbitten body took a deep breath. I exhaled and took another deep breath. I saw nothing but blackness for a short time as I felt warmer hands pick me up. It was shortly after then blackness completely swallowed me for a second time.

/

Sorry this took so long, I have been working on my other fictions, and this one is not high priority. Anyway, enjoy!