My favorite level in the game :3

11. Golden Ridge

Prompt: Unfasten

Madeline has been let loose to meander on her own after her fiasco with Mr. Oshiro. Just like him, she wanted to be left alone. Sadly, once the Celestial Resort disappeared in the distance, she found the old lady in a cabin with a small wooden elevator, serving as a resting point nearby the ridge's entrance.

"Oh great, you again." Madeline struggled against a huge urge to turn around and walk away from her; she would have done so if her paralyzing anxiety wasn't stronger.

"Well, well, I didn't expect to see you up here! I'm glad you're still in one piece. I see you made it through the hotel, did you meet Mr. Oshiro?"

Madeline intended to give her the shortest of summaries to the old lady, but sooner than later she ended up rambling more than she would have liked to, earning a solid laugh from the lady.

"Oshiro is a lost soul, dear. That place is more than just a hotel to him. You can't change that. Everything we do is to feel safe. No one is exempt of that." There was again that unexpectedly wise and for some reason good-natured woman Madeline met at the foot of the mountain. Or at least the woman Madeline thought she met if she had not been so nervous about going to the mountain.

Safe. That was a nice feeling, but…

"Don't you get lonely in that little cabin?" Madeline inquired.

"I have friends, dear. I may be crazy, but I'm not a hermit."

"Sorry…I didn't mean to assume."

"When I was younger I couldn't imagine staying in one place this long. But then I found this mountain. I knew right away that it would be my home."

"What's so special about it?"

"The mountain shows you who you really are. Whether you're ready for it or not. It keeps me honest."

Madeline cringe at herself a bit on the inside upon hearing that last part. She knows she has not done that a lot recently. It was not that she was bad at dealing with her problems. She didn't even allow herself to deal with her problems at all!

Madeline got mixed feelings once she was alone again with her thoughts. That is what she wanted, right? No one to judge her and quiet.

No one to accompany her and too quiet.

Hell, what was she thinking? No, seriously. What was this train of thought?

She tried to focus on the here and now. She tried to put the whole Celestial Resort matter behind her. It was already behind her. So it was the old lady. She didn't need her. She didn't need anyone. She was all she needed.

She was all she had.

Was that comforting or terrifying?

Comforting were the clouds she found she could actually…jump on them? Madeline was so…numbed…by everything that had happened. She didn't question those clouds too much. She didn't have the energy or the mood to do that anyways.

She heard insanity was repeating something over and over again waiting for a change. A concept she was sure familiar with. But maybe so it was being fine with unfastening what she knew as possible or capable?

She was safe. She knew that. Relatively safe.

She could be grateful she didn't have it worse, right?

At some point Madeline reached high ridges of purple rocks and orange skies abounded with sporadic blizzards hitting her with all the strength the mountain could gather. Madeline could only counter it a tad using all of her own strength to simply not get pushed back nor be dragged away from the walls she held onto when wind blew deadly. Her feet were loose on the ground against the strong wind, always slipping at her every step.

The snow covered her face to the point she could not see at times. As if blindness was not bad enough when climbing a mountain, the freezing blizzards started to numb her skin and fingers. Moving so nimble as the mountain demanded more and more effort from her.

Her body became sloppy and heavy. Holding herself to the walls was much more difficult and she had to double her efforts to keep her grasp in the rocky walls where she would fall to bottomless pits otherwise. Her endeavor was such, Madeline could feel small cuts in her fingertips from the pressure she applied when clutching the rocks—Should have thought of buying gloves.

Madeline had barely managed to climb up to a platform dragging her body over the edge in a sloppy manner, like she herself was but a lifeless puppet, before laying down on the ground with her eyes lost in the yellowish and orange skies. Her strengths were so worn out her hands quivered from the strenuous task Madeline put herself into and no longer from the cold environment.

She could sit down for a while there. Give herself a break and catch her breath.

Dammit! She could take some water out of her backpack!

But the mere thought of doing that made her want to throw up. The fainting exercise she just did surely had nothing to do with that last thing.

Madeline had had her mind empty for longer than a few seconds and the accident in the Celestial Resort already popped up back in her mind. Madeline tried to distract herself focusing on the next batches of abyss and obstacles in front of her and already put her mind in working how to solve them; she was not even half way doing just that when she stood up and cleaned the cold sweat off her face.

"I deserve this," Madeline said to the air, not having the strength to care if someone listened. Unbeknownst to her, someone did in fact. The sharp chirp of a blue bird in a high ridge let her know that. Madeline sighed. "This is what I get for being useless."

She just wanted to help Mr. Oshiro. But in doing so, she did what she did best. Ruin everything. This was barely enough punishment for her stupidity.

Madeline had reached what seemed to be a small cave that served as a refugee from the freezing blizzards. She grinded her teeth seeing herself protected. If that was because of stress or for her shaking body, she couldn't tell.

But she could tell the feeling of loathing anger burning inside her heart. She clutched at said feeling, not caring it may warm her now, at the price of leaving her cold in her grave. Such grave being Mountain Celeste. But contrary to a burning hell, Madeline submitted herself to endure yet another blizzard, taking directly with no attempt of protecting herself and continued through the ridges with golden skies.

There Madeline was again. Letting loose on herself over more problems to not deal with the ones she already had. She didn't want to deal with the problems she put herself into—mindly!—to avoid the OTHER problems she ran away from in the first place.

How many problems unfastened would be enough?

She eventually reached what appeared to be a gondola at the edge of a large pit in which she could appreciate the entrance to an old structure at the other side, high up above, but before she could inspect the gondola, a voice broke her solitude.

"Madeline! Wait up!

Madeline looked up and found Theo at a higher boulder. As if she had not traveled across the freezing torture the golden ridge was, Madeline put on a friendly mask and put a smile on her face unfastening herself once more from her problems, and certainly attempted to unfasten from the cold shaking her body carried.