A White-Knuckle Climb

[yutzen]

(another from the archives, and the first story with the main group, introducing its leader as well as one of the enforcers. Prompt provided by Make Up A Criminal on Cohost)

Smuggler who takes the scenic route.

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"Now for the prettiest part!"

"Prettiest" was not the first word that came to Askalim's mind when it came to this stretch of their road. "Intimidating" would be closer, "terrifying" closer still - not that he'd ever admit it - and "completely and utterly insane" would top the list, despite being several words. And yet what choice did he have but to follow his boss, as the cowled simply grabbed onto raw stone and left their ledge to crawl along the wall.

Crawling along the walls was no place for a badger - and Askalim was close enough to one to be concerned - and such walls being almost two miles tall was not helping. But such were the Hollow-Lands: One of the largest, and most open caverns in the entire Subterraneum, dotted with stalactites and stalagmites alike into which whole cities could be carved. A colossal compartment of blanched limestone, soaked and dripping, whose surfaces reflected the blue glimmer of the sweet bulbs that clung to ceiling and walls alike. Such lighting carried far enough to see most of the plunge that awaited him if he stepped off this uppermost ledge for just one moment, but it didn't reach the very bottom. For that, he only had the dull, menacing roar of the rampaging river below, one that swerved between stalagmites with such fury he knew no one would ever find him if he fell inside. He had to hold the ledge with his claws to so much as peer over it...

"Enjoying the view? Now come on, we're on a schedule, Kal!" The voice of his boss snapped his attention away. Her bright yellow eyes shined from inside the cowl, and the teeth within her snout glinted in the light of a nearby bulb as Ziv-Ziri offered the biggest, most encouraging grin she could manage. "These extracts aren't gonna get to Ishiss all by themselves, you know?" she added, as if it'd help, grasping the next outcropping with her gloved claws.

Extracts, right. If any of the patrols that crawled the cities and the bridges between them saw even one of the flasks in their packs, they might as well dive into the dark themselves. And yet, as "Kal" reached out to try and sink his claws as deep as they'd go into bare limestone, he hesitated still. "Boss, why here of all places...? Are there no tunnels around this, no passages? No secret bridges, somewhere near the river? Even just some passage by the water, instead of this high up!?"

"Now, now, you know we'd be just as dead if we fell into it down there, as we'd do up here." He gulped at the thought; she was right on that; "the Dimashub never returns even one bone of those it swallows", as the saying went in just about every nation it crossed. "And besides", she added as she latched onto a patch of thick moss, "those are roads people look at. Even the tunnels! And you don't have any amazing sights in those either, am I right? Here we get to look at everything else; even if they saw us, we'd see them coming!"

"And then what!?", Askalim blurted out almost outraged, as growing panic he didn't want to acknowledge gripped his throat. He had a deathgrip on a jutting rock right where the ground came to an end, despite not even stepping off it yet. "Just fall off anyways trying to crawl away!? Zi, I'm a Toskar, this doesn't come natural to me like it does to you!" His free hand pointed one accusatory claw at his boss, before motioning to his own body - athletic, though heavyset, and with stripes of white and bluish-black hair that stood on end from fear. "I'm made for snow and glacier, and maybe cap-climbing, b-but not for this! You've got sixty pounds less, and if you fall off you can just fl-"

He clamped his fanged mouth shut on the spot, as a different kind of panic filled his eyes. Ziv-Ziri simply stared back with a sardonic smile, as she took the next "step" towards a further outcropping... spreading great chiropteran wings from the back of her cloak, showing off twists and tatters of bone and skin whose sight made sure he'd regret finishing that sentence.

And yet, the smile did not fall, and she did not look away nor keep going. She simply let her expression warm a little more: "We're already in this little enterprise together, Kal, aren't we? Either of us falls, the other's done for, don't make me outline the ways how." Still in place, she twisted her body closer to him, and outstretched one mangled wing towards her cohort. "Still, if you're so afraid" she lilted, bringing a twitch of unspoken objection from him at the word 'afraid', "I can guide you. One falls, both fall, but a bit more literal, what do you think?"

Askalim stared at the offered wing, one single functional claw nearing his own hand... and he sighed. "Fine. I was just being cautious, is all" he said as he reached out, let it guide his unused hand towards a different rock, and stepped off the ledge into the outcroppings of the wall.

The distance they needed to cover would be just a few minutes' stroll on foot, but when missing your step meant spending those minutes falling to your death, "bat" and "badger" alike needed to take their time. Ziv-Ziri took each step with utter casualness, with her wing acting as a tether to her trembling partner-in-crime, holding his hand and guiding it to the safest grasps she'd used. "Easy, step by step, and remember to use your nails when you step in 'cause they're bigger than mine!" She was almost laughing as she practically dragged him along, finding joy in the crossing, in the breeze that made her cloak flutter, and in the sights... He wondered if she enjoyed those as someone who once flew, reaching such dizzying heights as the closest she'd have to it. And here all he saw was-

He made the mistake of looking down. Towards the distant ground, so far away and eager to meet him at speed. At the jutting stalagmites, lunging from the dark like the teeth of a beast that wanted to devour him. At the lightless depths that roared with desire to watch him plummet screaming into them so their rapids could swallow him whole.

A rattled, high-pitched scream tore through his clenched teeth as he clung to the wall like a startled cat, his claws digging into the limestone so tightly the nails were gouging in. He rambled with actual terror in an attempt not to simply scream. "I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this I CAN'T DO THIS GET ME DOWN PLEASE!". And yet he could not tear his eyes off the abyss, even as his claws sent pebbles tumbling down with their deathgrip on the wall. Not until Zi herself reached out, grabbed his chin with the guiding wing, and forced him to look right at her eyes.

"Kal, I will get you down, but first, I have to get you across. I know you can do this 'cause I know you. You wouldn't be here if you couldn't! So please, stop looking down, and look at where you're going. You hear me?" She spoke firmly, with an even tone, and without her usual smile, and simply refused to move further until he'd looked back at her, and nodded. Only then did she smile again, quietly this time, and led her claw back to his hand so that she could guide him properly.

Askalim did not look down again, no matter how much the void yearned for it. Only at the outcroppings, the dents on the wall, the cracks he could slip his nails into until his hold was firm enough to keep going. He trembled still, practically hugging the wall as he went, and each step more of a kick into the wall that aimed to embed his footclaws into the wall even just one millimeter - one millimeter away from the fall was still further away. It'd do for him. He started catching on to which spots worked for him, little by little, and catching up to the boss until she hardly needed to stretch her wing to reach him. She had no words to congratulate him, only a flash of her smile each time.

Before he could realize it, the other side came into his limited, wall-bound view. An actual ledge, jutting out of the wall and big enough for them to stand on, leading down a narrow path. He let out a held breath, and started to hurry, going from rock to rock until he almost bumped into Ziv-Ziri on the way; she took it in good humor, as she always did, and simply quickened her step with practiced ease until she was crawling on the moss right next to the ledge, reaching out with her other wing and easily bridging herself into the ledge...

Her, but not him. Because there was nothing in the way of outcroppings he could safely hold onto, nothing he could see: Just a thick, encovering layer of black moss that might hold her, but wouldn't hold his own weight, even without his pack of goods. The final stretch, just a few feet, and yet it may as well be a yawning chasm, and once again he stood at its edge, on uneasy footing, unable to take one more step...

And yet, as he stared at the black patch, already trembling in place, he saw two crooked wingtips breach into view. He glanced towards the ledge, and saw Zi lying on her belly, clinging to the ledge and overlooking it, stretching both her wings right into his reach. "Just this last bit, come on! I said "one falls, both fall" and I meant it, as I always do!"

Kal stared, and gave her a nod as he reached for both with one claw, the other still holding onto the last rock. He dug his feet into their crevice, making sure there'd be enough to spring from, and steeled himself with deep breaths... and counting to three, he leapt. Pulling tightly on her wings, and pushing himself off the wall, he threw himself towards the ledge to cover the distance that remained, landing with his heavy gut right against the edge; rather than bouncing off, with quick reflexes he slammed both claws onto the ground and practically launched himself upwards to pull his bulk away from the abyss. And with a thud, he made it. Actual ground at last.

Askalim scrambled further away from the ledge, to make absolutely sure, and rolled onto his back, panting and wheezing, staring at the ceiling... the very close ceiling, covered in dark mosses of many colors that hid the limestone's white, and with one large, ripe sweet bulb that bathed him in its light, hanging so close he could almost touch it... and as he found out once a batty figure loomed over him grinning, leaning right against it, so close he could indeed touch it once he dared to get back up. "See", she giggled, "that wasn't so bad, was it~?"

He screwed his eyes shut, and groaned his answer: "Boss, with all due respect, please shut the hell up."
"Greeheeheeheehee~! Come on, that was an experience!" She sat right next to his prone body, leaning in. "Now you get to brag about it! And besides, the tunnels would've been worse, 'cause "it's just two of us" is a disadvantage there. Here, it's a plus!"
"Guess getting jumped would've been an awful time, especially since I don't have my axe anymore..." The "badger" opened his eyes once more, finding the view of the ceiling so much more peaceful than a few minutes ago.
"Speaking ooooof", she began with joking tone, "does this bit make us a little more even about you saving my hide that one time~?"
Kal rolled his eyes with a snort, letting her laugh it up. "Like hell it does, this route was your idea." At the look in her eyes, however, he grimaced, and sighed. "Alright, fine, I'll cut you some slack. Bah, with negotiation like that it's a real wonder you ever left the Consortium".

Ziv-Ziri simply shrugged, as she got back up. "Hey, I stick to their principles way more than they do. Still think they're sticking to a bad deal, when they could be listening to the basics: 'Everyone wants something'. And back in Ishiss, the Ifchi sure want these!" She raised her pack triumphantly, patting the side... before she placed one foot upon her cohort, and rolled his startled form over onto his gut, making sure he'd be looking at the ledge. "Now come on, catch your breath, enjoy the sights! We can spare a little time, big guy!"

Askalim's grumble died in his throat, as his sight was brought to the great pillars of limestone that lined the Hollow Lands, plunging through mist above and darkness below. At the shimmering dots of sweet-bulbs just like the one above him lighting up the landscape, with the shadows of bridges criss-crossing the titanic chasm hardly visible in the distance. Maybe this place was pretty, after all, at least when it wasn't trying to kill him.