Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7592481" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 281The ground was too hard for digging, so they buried Elias under a cairn of piled rocks.  By the time they were finished the sun had risen fully and it was time to get moving again.  They shared out the fallen soldier’s gear, the sailors dividing his armor and weapons between them.The climb up into the mountain pass was long and arduous.  There were numerous places where the route was steep enough to require using both hands and feet to ascend, and they had ample reason to make use of the coils of rope that Rodan had brought along.  They were wary of threats, especially after the mysterious death of Elias, but nothing materialized out of the rocks to challenge their progress.  The clouds thickened above them, growing steadily darker as the day progressed, but mercifully it did not rain.  From all the loose rocks dislodged as they climbed, it seemed like rockslides could be a hazard here.It took them a good chunk of the day to make their way to the summit, at least six hours of climbing after they left their camp in the canyon below.  The jungle stretched out behind them, a vast expanse of green that culminated in a faint blue haze on the distant horizon.  They took a brief pause for lunch, but only a few other breaks, since they had the shared motivation of not being caught in the mountains by nightfall.It looked as though they still had quite a long way to go when they reached a crest to find a deep cleft in the rocks ahead.  The cleft passed between two peaks that rose up hundreds of feet to each side, leaving the interior deep in shadow.  Alert to something that might be hiding in that darkness, Rodan led them forward.The cleft quickly narrowed from maybe twenty feet across at the opening to ten feet, then even further until they were forced to walk single file.  It was all but impossible to speak since the wind blasted through the gap with a dull shriek, tugging at their clothes.  The sky remained a thin line of blue far above them, except occasionally where a boulder had fallen from above and gotten wedged into the cleft.  At one point they had to duck to creep under one such slab that had almost managed to block the route completely.  They negotiated the obstacle carefully, looked around to confirm that there was nothing waiting to ambush them, then continued forward.The narrow passage continued for several hundred feet before it widened again and deposited them on a broad stone shelf.  Even with the overcast skies the transition left them blinking against the intensity of the light.  But as they recovered, their attention was drawn to the remarkable view that stretched out ahead of them.The valley was broad, miles across at least, the far side just a vague haze in the distance.  It looked like the mountains surrounded it on all sides, the pale gray peaks forming a sharp backdrop to the jungle that filled the interior.  It extended for as far as they could see, but in the center of the valley, sticking out from that green expanse, was what they had come to find.“Savek Vor, I presume,” Glori said.It was difficult to make out details from their current vantage.  Wisps of fog hung low over the valley, even at the height of the day, and at places it was difficult to tell where the jungle ended and the city began.  The uneven lines of the structures they could see confirmed that the place was in ruins.  But they could clearly make out a number of monumental buildings that were still mostly intact, rising above the level of the surrounding jungle.“It looks like a big place,” Xeeta said.  “Spread out.”  She cast a meaningful look over at the sailors, who were staring at the city in a mix of trepidation and wonder.“Lot of ground to cover before we even get there,” Glori said.“We might be able to get to the base of the range before nightfall,” Rodan said.  He’d gone over to the edge of the protruding shelf to scout the best route down.  This side of the range looked shallower and less steep than the route they’d spent the day navigating, but it was still a considerable drop to the tops of the trees that filled the floor of the valley.“We’ll let’s get going, then,” Bredan said.</blockquote>

Verification