Paradiso

Part II - Cocytus

"We have plenty of time," Doelle sighed. Though the words were meant to reassure his teammates, the delivery could not have been less comforting. Why put in the effort, he figured, they're all useless anyway.

From where they stood, cliffs upon cliffs below the human research lab they were meant to get to, but cliffs upon cliffs upon cliffs above where they had started, what he'd said seemed simultaneously impossible and just maybe true. Midday; that was the time they had to make it up there for. With the sun just beginning to rise at their backs now, perhaps they would succeed. Then again, it had taken them a whole night to get to this point; who knew how much longer they'd take now.

These sorry excuses for guardian angels... Doelle knew he ought to be more lenient with them; he knew what it was like to be new to the profession, after all. Still though, even a few centuries ago when he had found himself in that same position, he would have scaled this mountain much faster than them. They were slowing him down. I knew I would have been better off continuing solo. That, for the most part, was how he had served his time as a guardian angel so far. However, he had now been saddled with these new recruits. A "team." Some team these fools were.

The climb, up until this point, had been manageable, though slow. It would have been much faster to fly up, but they had had to travel in human disguise, so that was off the table. To be fair, the extra time it took to climb was worth not causing widespread panic about "the quickly coming Rapture" or "angels walking on Earth again" or some other ridiculous human misunderstanding of the Afterlives. It really was tempting, though; the mountain was not only steep, but snowy. It wasn't so much the cold (though for some certain lesser angels behind Doelle, it seemed to be; Faeus' teeth clacked and Mireille grumbled about her numb fingers. At least Zanda wasn't complaining. Unfortunately, she was the slowest of all of them. She was still at least six feet below the small ledge they had paused on), but the slippery sheen it gave the rock they clung to. Again, not much of a problem for Doelle—he'd managed worse conditions before—but it did mean they had to be particularly cautious in their ascent.

Just as Zanda had almost made it up to them, her hand slipped. A shrill "eep!" escaped her as she fell. Doelle's icy blue eyes snapped to her, alert, peering over the edge. He was both relieved and annoyed to see the little nervous angel frozen in fear back down where she had just climbed up from—relieved that he wouldn't have to go all the way down the mountain to get her, annoyed that he would have to go down to get her again at all. He sighed exasperatedly. "Stay there," he said. "I'm coming."

With practised skill and poise, he made his way down the small slope. He was graceful as a bird in flight, even in his human form. Though in his true form his hair was icy whitish blue, it was now whitish-blond; it's long length wasn't shortened, however, and it streamed behind him as he found his way down. Long tan limbs stepped with precision, not stumbling for a moment as he drew closer to the other angel.

Zanda looked up at him, warm-brown eyes deer-like in their terror. She had a tendency to freeze up like this; it really made Doelle wonder how in Heaven she had ever been accepted as a guardian angel.

He slid down to her, offering his hand. He kept himself from speaking; he was fairly sure he would say something unnecessarily sharp if he did.

She shakily raised her hand to take his, but froze again with a gasp. Her eyes looked past Doelle at the mountain behind him. Her lip quivered. "S... sir..."

What, has she only now just realised how much she's been holding us back? How much ground we have left to cover? "What?!" he snapped. "What is it now?"

"A... a-avalanche!!"

As soon as he made sense of her stuttering, Doelle's heart dropped. He whipped around to look behind him. A tidal wave of snow thundered down the cliffside right to them. Though a degree of fear filled him, as it raged closer every instant all he could do was sigh. "We are never going to make it."