The long Climb
Alongside a small river that is coming down a slope, a trail leads upward. How high it goes can't be made out, as it vanishes between some big rocks. The only thing one can say for sure, is that the path continues past the rocks. Because how can a path be formed if it only leads to some rocks - it has to end at someplace less hard, right? With the Storm having gone by, it should be okay again to dream of nice things.
A gush of wind goes up the slope and gets tangled up halfway to the rocks, inside some leaves. A single tree stands there besides the path, contributing some of its roots as steps for the otherwise earth-made track. Above all stands the night sky, whose stars already start to get overshadowed by a dark blue.
Looking east, one can make out the first rays of orange that reach the highest of the rocks. And apparently, they have already interrupted the peaceful slumber of some birds, as their songs echo through the stones towards the tree.
"Already? Didn't I just barely fall asleep?"
A figure hurdled beneath the tree starts to move. It slowly gets up, until it finally sits upright. But when it stretches its arms upwards, it twitches and slumps down again.
"Ack!... Looks like my back isn't going to stop hurting anytime soon. You could have really foretold some nice places to stay during the night, Master. The ones with actual beds would have been nice. Well, at least I can find some ingredients around here. Like... Yum, an apple. Again. Well, it's not, as if I would have the time to cook anyways - I already need to get going."
With that he gets up, after doing some more stretches, picking an apple from the tree he walks towards the rocks while eating it. By the rocks he finishes the apple, throws the rest away and starts to jog through.
"Heh, now I'm actually between a rock and a hard place."
He snickers a little to himself, but as if to punish him for his bad joke, the rocks suddenly start shaking. The man immediately starts to look for a save spot, where he can hide himself from diverse falling debris. And through the stones echoes a dulled voice, that sounds as if trees are ripped out of the ground and cracking rocks.
"AHH, AAHHH, TCHHHHOOOO!"
A big tremor goes through the rocks around the man and he has to dodge several falling stones.
"DAMN SUN... ALWAYS TINGLING MY NOSE! YOU BETTER WATCH OUT OR I'LL GO UP AND GET YOU!"
An angry voice can be heard, but inside the rocks it is difficult to make out where it is coming from. But what the man definitely feels, is the ever-present cursed mists getting riled up, over the creatures' anger.
Before it can have any effect, the rocks to the man's left start moving again. Upwards, this time. They go way above the man's head and vanish behind the other stones to the right. With this the man finally understands that he has been walking between the legs of a giant rock creature. Somewhat disgruntled the man starts to whisper.
„This is where going upwards gets me? Do you hate me Master? Wasn't there any- oh no. I really should stop complaining."
Thanks to the rocks moving, the only path up, that wasn't a cliff has been revealed - along with the creatures' face, that is right beside it.
After standing still for a while and the creature not starting to move again, the man slowly steps towards the path up. With every step he has to be careful not to kick any of the debris that is still lying around, so he won't wake up the creature that already seems to be in a foul mood.
Like this he creeps closer and closer. At this point the creature would just have to open its eyes and it would stare straight at the man. But he has to come closer still if he wants to go up, and so, closer he goes.
The distance is now so small he can hear the creature's breath, which is like a little gust of wind whispering in a cave. It feels much too small for a big creature like this but then again: Does it even need to breath, or is this just the wind blowing through the creature's cracks?
As such thoughts go through the man's head, he suddenly feels another vibration and sees a big, plump hand coming towards him. The man sees that he will quite literally be caught between a rock and a hard place this time around and starts running. All whilst trying as much as he can to sound like nothing more than falling rubble.
He barely manages to escape the hand that is now scratching the cheek of the creature.
"GRRRR... THE SUN IS ALWAYS... SO ITCHY..."
With those words the creature's hand has placed itself in front of the head and the man can finally loose some tension. He has been using the scratching and mumbling as cover to gain some distance between himself and the giant. And after he turns behind a corner, he lets out a little laugh.
"Heh, looks like he's sleeping like a rock after all."
But he immediately looks around for another punishment for his joke.
"Learn your lesson already: Don't joke if you're not ready to die." he rebuked himself.
After he feels safe enough, he changes from walking to jogging again and continues upwards - until it has become too hot during midday and he stops for a bit.
"What is this? It feels like I'm melting! If I didn't know any better, I'd say I'm in a hot spring! But then again - what would I give for a hot spring right now, my feet are killing me!"
And like that the river before him starts steaming.
"What!? You mean it? Fate is for once on my side!?"
And then a crack opens beneath the river and lava gushes out, immediately evaporating the remaining water.
"Weeell, I guess, thank you fate. At least you tried."
More lava comes out and replaces the water river - which now overflows. Before he can get his long overdue - and last - hot bath, the man jumps away from the path, which immediately vanishes beneath the lava. But he has no time to stop, as he can suddenly hear an explosion, closer than he likes it.
Along with lava, the explosion has hurled several big rocks into the air, some of which are also flying in the mans direction. Trying to gain some distance, he runs upwards, as lava at least can't flow in that direction. He barely manages to escape the falling rocks that crush the ground where the man has stood before.
"It's like I'm walking on coals here! These are definitely going to leave a mark!... But for once master is pointing me at the right direction at least."
Once again reciting the prophecy in his head, he resumes running upwards and climbs to a higher position so he won't run into another lava-river. From there he looks back again and sees the culprit who is responsible for his dilemma.
"Is he... singing?"
Before him, where the eruption has been, sits another giant in the middle of a lake made of of lava. Seemingly washing his body– and generally having a good time.
"He's bathing! While I'm trying my best here, not to be turned to ashes, he is having a hot bath!... And is that...?"
The magma-giant has just noticed some deer who are panicking because of the lava. And as to amuse himself, he splashes some lava in their direction. The deer who had thought they have at least a temporary save spot, now have to run even further away.
The magma-giant lets out a deep and vicious laughter that echoes throughout the mountain range.
"That's it. I'm gonna make a glacier out of you."
He is about to move downwards towards the lava pool, when he remembers his master's words again. He lets out a deep sigh.
"I can't deal with every evil along the way. Stopping at every turn only lets the darkness catch up to me. If I don't fulfil my mission, every other deed I do will be meaningless... Sorry deer, looks like you're on your own."
He has a pained look on his face, but he forces himself not to look back again. The cursed mist is already getting active in these lands - to a big part probably thanks to the giants. There is no telling when and where the next Strom would hit. He has no time to spare, at this point he might even run out of it if he's unlucky.
And as if to spite him even more, the mountain starts to get colder and colder. He climbs a while longer and the river starts freezing. He can see a few birds herded together trying to warm each other.
"Oh, did you fly too high? That's weird... why would you do that? Unless-"
He starts to hear giant footsteps in the distance, followed by a noise that sounds somewhat like cold wind going through a deserted house in winter. But the man is quite sure it is supposed to be a whistle.
"I shouldn't have made that glacier-joke, huh?"
With a quick gesture he picks up the birds, stuffs them into his coat and hides behind a stone. Some of the birds let out a little tweet but they are generally too weak for anything more than that. As soon as the man is hidden, he draws a circle and some signs on the floor. Just as he is finished, they immediately start to glimmer a little, but ice is already spreading and glimmering everywhere, so it luckily doesn't stand out.
The man lays sideways inside the circle and tries to cover his arms and legs with his coat. The ice spreads even further, but when it reaches the circle it stops. The giant comes closer and closer and the air gets even colder. If the ice had broken through the circle it would probably already have frozen the man's arms, legs and face to the ground.
Luckily the birds seem to understand the situation and keep quiet as they hear the footsteps and strange whistle. The man doesn't dare to look how close the giant has already gotten, so he won't give himself away. When he almost considered whether he should make a run for it, the steps turn into another direction and walk away.
The man stays put as he is, so the birds won't start twittering and ruin the entire plan. Only when he doesn't hear any steps and the air doesn't hurt his throat anymore, does he stand up.
Though the birds have warmed up considerably, they still seem weak, so he takes them to the river and releases them there. But one of the birds, unfortunately hasn't made it. His lifeless body almost falls on the ground when the man opens his coat a bit. The man catches it, but it is too late. He can only watch as it takes its last breath with an almost inaudible tweet and closes its eyes.
Still looking at the body in his hand he sits down besides the other birds, who slowly start to spread their wings again. He watches them for a while and places the bird in their middle. Some go towards it and look if they can wake him up, but eventually give up.
Another bird hops towards the man's foot and starts picking on it, then looks him in the eyes for a moment and turns around. It spreads its wings and flies away. The others follow him down the mountain.
"I hope in bird culture that is considered a 'Thank you'. And, hopefully, they are luckier on the way down than up here."
The river's splashing sounds are interrupted by a grumbling noise, that seems to originate from the man's stomach.
"Ah. In a way it would be a waste if I just left the bird here, right?"
The man asks into the air. "I mean, that's how life goes. When you die you become nutrients for someone else, so they may live. At this point I'm really not helping anyone by letting it rot here. It's not like I wanted it to die... Sooo... Thank you for the meal?"
So, the man stands up and starts to look for some firewood and tries his best to recall that one time he has been taught how to pluck the feathers of a bird.
"I don't suppose you could quit it with your jokes, mountain. Could you? I didn't even make any circle-of-life-jokes or gone-like-a-candle-in-the-wind-jokes - even though I could have. I learned my lesson, I stayed appropriate. So why are you still throwing stuff at me?"
The man is staring up the mountain, his face covered in mud and grass, his expression rather grim. In front of him there is a literal tornado. No save passage can be seen around it and it also doesn't look like it plans on going anywhere anytime soon.
Right now, it seems to be absorbed in its own little game: juggling giant rocks, throwing them far away from time to time. For a moment the man has the idea to cling to one of the rocks and just hope for the best. If he is lucky, he could get thrown all the way up the mountain. He could also get crushed on any number of occasions. He half-jokingly considers his odds. In the end he decides against it, but considering his expression, it might have been a close call.
Just this once going against his instructions of always going up, he goes a part of the way down again.
There he sets up another rune circle, this time it shines in a fiery red and is bigger than the others he made before. He also adds some powders he carries with him. After he is finished, he quickly makes his way back up again and hides in a deep hole he has found before.
Waiting for something, he stares upwards and tenses up his muscles. Suddenly the mountain shakes, and an explosion can be heard. From the direction of the rune circle some clumps of earth fly over the hole, just to turn around mid-air and fly the other direction again. Along with some giant rocks.
After those follows a seemingly flustered tornado. Seeing his chance, the man jumps out of the hole and sprints up the path as fast as he can. The man has hoped he could get past the open fields before the tornado notices him and hide between the rocks. But although it is almost deafening by itself, the tornado can somehow still hear the man's steps and turns around halfway to the rune circle.
The man notices the tornado coming back and runs even faster, trying to get to the rocks before the tornado reaches him. But when he almost reaches them, he can feel his feet getting lighter and the wind blowing against him. Then he gets pulled off the ground and thrown into the air.
He flies further and further upwards and the man can hear a sinister laugh coming from all around him, as if it were the winds themselves that are laughing. Then the upward wind stops and for a short moment he is suspended in mid-air, but he can't see anything because of the dark fogs around him.
But he has seen worse "fogs" so these don't scare him too much. Because of that he is able to keep his composure and evade a few boulders that are thrown at him. Then a large rock comes flying and he sees his chance.
"Defend!"
The spell he casts forms a bubble around him and absorbs the impact of the boulder. And the man uses the impulse of the rock to catapult himself out of the tornado and lets out a relieved sigh. It seems he has somewhat managed to keep his sense of direction, as he is flying towards the mountain top and not away from it.
Or he has just got lucky. But either way his relief is short-lived. Behind him the tornado freezes for just a moment to look at him in awe, but then spontaneously expands faster than the man flies. The man has already prepared for the tornado to reach him, when he suddenly gets struck by lightning. Or rather, he should have been struck by it - but before he can finish his thought he has already landed, or rather crashed, at the feet of a very large bearded man.
"I don't believe it! A mortal came all the way up here! Haha! Have you lost your mind, or did you actually come to challenge the titans? Ha! That still would mean you lost your mind! But where are my manners. My name is Zeus, the god of Thunder. Though you've already had a live demonstration of my skill with lightning so who am I telling this, right?"
Zeus almost can't contain his laughter while introducing himself, but the man also notices a strange expression on Zeus' face, when he talks about challenging the titans.
"Thank you… very much for saving me back there… I can't tell you enough… how much I appreciate it."
The man is lying on the ground as he says this. He would have liked to get up, but the path up along with the "live demonstration" of the lightning has become more than he could handle.
"Don't mention it. That was the first time I saw that expression on Statos' face so let's say we're even."
The man doesn't really understand how that can be considered an equivalent exchange, but he doesn't have the strength to talk back either, so he just nods and repeats a short "Thanks".
Understanding that he is too exhausted to speak, Zeus breathes in to start talking himself, but before he can say, something, he is interrupted.
"... and my name's Luxu. Nice to meet you."
"Greetings Luxu, Conqueror of the Mountain... And Stormrider. Not a god, but still some awesome titles wouldn't you say?"
After that Luxu falls asleep from exhaustion.
Magic runes - Notes:
Runes give way to more complex magic. They make it possible to set up traps beforehand and prepare other kinds of helpful mechanisms. Their biggest disadvantage however would be the long time they need, before they are usable. This basically makes them useless in actual combat. Luxu still wants to depend on them as much as possible, as they can hardly be detected by Cursed Mists. That means he needs to plan ahead if he wants to fight inside the Mists, like the time he used the runes to freeze the fire.
If one used normal magic in such mists, the magic would go straight through them as the Mists themselves are untouchable. But the mists would follow the will, or rather the thoughts contained inside the spell directly to its source. So, any spell would be nothing more than a beacon for the surrounding Mists. With runes, there is no direct connection between spell and caster, which makes it a much more usable method of self-defence.