Long time no see again, oops. I'm not particularly good at writing action, so I put this off for a bit, but then I finally got around to deciding what I wanted to happen in this chapter :D Hopefully I built the tension up well in this. In case you couldn't tell, I haven't properly planned this story out or anything (which is what seems to be making it work for me, frankly). I'm only going off the rough ideas I have in my head...that is, the start, climax and finale of this story. What's keeping me going is the closer we get to Icicle Mountain's peak, the closer we get to the climax, which I just can't wait to write! But first, filler and action chapters. And character development and relationship build-up and such. I want the growth of this all to be nice and gradual. Hopefully, those of you still reading are willing to watch things grow in this story too. Enjoy reading!

(10th chapter, eh? I don't think I've ever gotten this far with a fic. Hooray!)

"Help! Help!" the girl wails, clearly panicked.

Her father turns to her, concerned."What's wrong? Did something happen? Where's-"

"I don't know where he's gone! I haven't found him after ages!"

"You listen. And that's enough."

They echo endlessly in my head, those five words that I said to my companion a night or two ago. Words I delivered straight from my heart.

She hadn't been able to respond immediately, taking some time to compose herself before staring back at me in bewilderment. She didn't seem to be able to process it at first.

She lectures me so much about my own unhealthy desire for perfection when deep down she houses one of her own. She can be pretty blind sometimes. As bad as I feel for saying it, there's a reason I'm the lead climber.

Honestly, I'd kind of blurted it out, not really expecting those to be the words I returned to Nana. I don't really know what I was trying to say to her at that point. It hadn't gone very well either, and I shudder at the thought of our exchange last night. What I'd wanted to deliver calmly and composedly had instead conjured a snowstorm of emotions that tumbled out of my mouth all at once, stabbing both of us along their descent in ways I'd never intended. I'd never wanted to hurt Nana.

"I was just jumping to conclusions too quickly," she'd laughed nervously when I tried to properly repent for my foolish words. "I misunderstood you."

"I just want you to know I'm not upset with you or anything. If I said anything that sounded like that, it's- it's not what I meant," I replied.

But she just nodded casually in return, reiterating her point. "I know that now, so it's okay, silly. It's not that deep."

Is it shallow either, though?

We've resumed our journey up Icicle Mountain, progressing at what I feel is a slug's speed. The summit is still so far away, still dithering away from our grasp. But I know we can't let that thought damage our morale or slow us any further. Time is ticking, and stomachs at home will be grumbling.

Any energy that I might have had for today seems to have been drained from last night, even though I managed to get to sleep. Like my morale's been sucked out of me or something. It isn't that I have no motivation, I just...feel tired. Fatigued and confused. The antics of Nitpickers and Topis aren't making the situation any better, and it's a bother enough to have to hold Nana back from pounding the poor things more than once, as much as she desires to crush them to pulps. Her recklessness is going to be the death of us, if anything.

She'll be the death of me.

The ice beneath my foot starts to crack the moment I leap onto its ridge. I hear its trembling crescendo with my panic- no, I can't be like this. Move faster. My life isn't the only one bound to these ropes. It's this kind of pressure, the kind of fast thinking you have to have built up if you want to survive. I manage to evade the fall of the ice swiftly enough to stab my ice axe into the wall, hanging on for dear life. Only then do I allow myself to exhale.

"Popo? Are you okay?" Nana calls out to me from beneath, not too far away. She chuckles nervously. "That was a close one."

The sound of her voice washes relief over me. "Yeah, I'm alright," I holler back. "We should probably- oh, seriously?"

I narrowly miss (yet another) Nitpicker's bite, managing to duck in time before it can decapitate me. Its screeches pierce through my ears as it starts to back away from where Nana and I are rooted in the mountain wall, preparing to attack again. If we stay put, it won't miss.

Instinct prompts me to continue my climb up the ice, only significantly faster than before – we leap from ledge to ledge, hacking into the frigid solid with the knives embedded underneath our boots. The rope binding us from waist to waist lashes about with our jumps like a whip, cracking and smashing against the ice. Every slash breaks the ice a little more. But it doesn't break our hope of success – success in overcoming one out of many more ice walls to come, success in survival, success in union. Motivation has returned to us once more.

"Screeeeeee!" Its shriek echoes across the mountains, a cacophony of its imaginary friends joining in. It's snapping, clawing at the ice we're on now, scratching at the slippery surface with its claws in the hopes of halting our climb, slicing the thin strings that weave our belay rope together. It yearns to cut our journey short. Agh, but that piercing cry is the only thing ringing throughout my ears, bouncing back and forth between them endlessly, so irritably-

"Begone, wretched creature!"

My head whips around at the sound of my partner's voice. Nana's shouts now compete with those of the Nitpicker's. Yet she continues to follow after my steps, perfectly as if she were in my own boots – if you don't count the multitasking.

"What are you-"

"I'm fighting it off, dammit! Just keep going before we become this thing's dinner!"

This she yells back at me axe clutched in one hand; the other aggressively fires flurries of frost and ice in waves against the beast, attempting to chill it with every shot inflicted. Her mallet precariously hangs off her back where it's strapped around her body, similarly to my own, but as helpful as it probably would be for us to simply pummel it with the thing...our position makes for some slight impracticalities. It's fortunate that the next flatland is within reach, and it's what pushes me to continue climbing whilst Nana furiously battles the Nitpicker. We climb and climb and fight and fight, stepping and hopping and ascending.

Before I know it, the Nitpicker squawks again, this time with evident pain in its cry. I turn to see an icicle jabbed into its stomach, a knife crafted from Nana's own hand. She continues to scorch the wound, showering her flurries from earlier at its injury as it helplessly wails. Finally, the creature loses its distance from us, weakly floating further beneath us.

It's going to plan until we encounter the final stretch of the wall, smooth and flat. Quite literally so. Its climbable ledges and safe ice are non-existent: any ice we could dig our heels into would only resist the impact. We'd face the counter-attack of collapse as we slipped off away from the mountain and away from the hope we strived for. Then our ropes and strings would slip, too, and we'd lose our bond. That's why now we have to tie the knot with all we now have to make the final leap up and away.

"Climb up closer to me, Nana." I turn back to her, stuck underneath where I'm planted into the ice.

She stares back blankly. "Wh-"

"Just do it, I'll explain in a second!"

Nana wastes no time in bothering to question any further before she hops up next to me, pausing her attacks on the creature as she turns her gaze towards me. I open my mouth to tell her my plan – not without a little hesitation as to what she may think of me afterwards – looking her back in the eye. Though, if I know her as well as I'm sure I do, she won't be too opposed to my idea. I take a sharp breath in.

"I'm going to toss you up, but you have to jump too or you won't get up high enough."

"...what?"

Frankly, I don't have much of an idea of how it's going to work either.

I'm working based on the limited knowledge I have of advanced climbing techniques, the ones we don't learn until we reach adulthood; the ones that are the riskiest, the most dangerous. They call it a belay, from what I've caught of the older climbing students' conversations – tensing up the rope between you and your partner to prevent an otherwise deathly fall. What I have in mind is slightly different, and I'm not one to take risks so easily. But I'd rather make an attempt at survival than give in to a grisly demise at the hands of the pathetically-named Nitpicker. A deceiving name for such a monster.

But even Nana eyes me with suspicion, eyebrow raised in confusion. "Explain how that's going to work, Mr Smart."

I sigh. Unfortunately, our current position isn't going to make this any easier. With caution, I sidle towards my partner, edging along the ice awkwardly. As I reach a comfortable closeness to her body, with my feet rooted into the last remnants of safe ice, I start to move to put my arms around- wait, maybe I should…

"Uh, is it okay if I- you know, uh..."

There's a short silence between us until Nana snaps out of her little daze. A faint flush of red crosses her cheeks before she replies, "Oh, yeah, go ahead. It's fine." I can't stop myself from hesitating before I fully wrap my arms around her, a gesture I'm all too familiar with. It doesn't make it any less awkward. Or nerving, for that matter, as the cries of the Nitpicker start to crescendo again, approaching the pair of us.

I alter my grasp on her a little for ease, making sure she's comfortable. "I'm going to throw you as high as I can, okay?"

Her puzzled expression from earlier hasn't vanished. "What about you?"

"The rope will lift me up if I use enough force and strength," I reassure, tapping on our roped belts and hooks connecting us. "I should be able to land up there and pull you up."

She doesn't reply immediately. Her bemused face, I notice, has changed into one with more concern. Apprehension might be the right word for it. I probably sound like I'm stating the obvious, but deciphering Nana's feelings isn't too foreign to me at this point.

I lean us both into the vague indents of the wall, making more room for us to interact. Only then can I properly observe her: she returns my gaze, but her eyes are lower than usual, she seems smaller than usual. Perhaps words won't be my best remedy for this. Not like usual.

We make eye contact at last (after I stare at Nana long enough for her to notice). It's just a gaze we're exchanging, the kinds of looks we can trade as written letters without really writing. We're both silent.

I read her letter. Her eyes write of uncertainty and confusion, her brows detailing her apprehension. Or rather, apprehension is an understatement. Eyelids lowered, somewhat unmotivated, though their energy hasn't dissipated into the air. She's a little hopeful. But her posture and stance speak of inferiority and weakness, the feelings of them, even, rather than the being. Her lips are pursed, shut and tightened, as she ponders over how to reply.

In response, I smile. It's small, but I shorten the distance between us a little bit more, so I can get a closer look at her. I smile.

Nana waits for a little, though the tension in her body loosens. Then, she grins back lightly, nodding.

"On the count of three, okay?" I say.

She snickers a little, her face brightened up again. "Yes, Captain."

We both take deep breaths in. My grip around my partner tenses as I prepare to launch her up.

"One."

Nana shuts her eyes.

"Two."

I bend down.

"Three."

She soars up as if she actually were flying, majestic, astounding, phenomenal. In the air, she raises her arm, ice dagger in hand. It plummets into the hard ice, and I can almost hear the branches of cracks stemming from her strike, empowered by nothing but her stubborn will and brute force. Though I've never been one to underestimate Nana's strength, the scene unravelling before me is undoubtedly bewildering. I've never seen such beauty in all the climbing we've done together, not until a move like this one.

In the nick of time, I'm yanked up by Nana's movements – even higher than she had been! It's difficult not to yell as I helplessly look over the deathly drop just to the side of where Nana now stands. It's also hard to not appreciate the view I've now gained of almost the whole of our region, surrounding peaks the size of baby icicles in comparison to Icicle Mountain; the snow capping them like sprinkled stardust, and-

the depths of a cavern mouth, opening their way unto me.