I will burn

V. To the top!

It was a foggy morning by the bottom of the goal mountain. We finally got there and the landscape was beautiful, with the mysterious touch of fog and early autumn morning gloominess.

,, Wake up, Dorian" I woke him up.

He finally woke up after a minute. He yawned and sat up next to me.

,, Ready to climb a mountain?" He asked with his signature warm smile.

,, I don't really have a choice. do I?" I said.

,, It'll be fine, I promise" He messed with my hair.

,, Come on" He got up and took his backpack, and I followed.

,, Where are thou going?" He went along the mountain. ,, Come on, this way" He said, even though there was one over here leading up right in front of us.

,, But there's one right here" I pointed it out, but he kept walking, so I was left with no choice but to follow.

,, Are thou sure were going the correct way" I rubbed my eyes from exhaustion.

What has gotten into him? By this time we could've been up the mountain. The sun was already up on the horizon. ,, Ay" He answered shortly. ,, This is it" He changed his direction up onto a path up the mountain. ,, What was all that for? We walked for hours" I turned his shoulder so he would face me. ,, That path isn't safe" His forehead creased to convey fear.

,, What do thou mean not safe?!" I massaged my inner brows and snapped. He looked shocked. ,, A cult controls that side of the mountain" He explained calmly. I was annoyed. ,, Alright, and how do thou know that?" I tried to find out.

,, I just do" He answered seriously. I was done with his gibberish. ,, What do thou mean thou just know? Just tell me for God's sake!"

,, Because they killed my fecking brother" He said a tad irritated.

I stared at him in shocked confusion.

,, One time, when we came back one day, to see the village wiped out, I took that other path with my brother. We didn't think much of it but there was something odd about that path. It seemed like we kept going in a loop. It wasn't until the blue hour that my brother went insane. We spotted a strange building in the mountain with weird symbols all over it and he heard whispers coming out of there so he went there. I was gonna follow him inside but the door shut closed and wouldn't open. There were weird figures inside and I saw them take him. I never saw him again. That's also the reason why me and my family became immortal, so that we would never have to deal with grief ever again" He explained.

I was left with a shocked expression frozen on my face. I was expecting anything but that. ,, But that was a long time ago. I already sort of moved on" He tried to make the story less bizarre. ,, I'm sorry" I figured was a decent response, as far as I could go. He turned around again and continued walking.

I had no idea what to say the entire way there, which took about 3 hours, thankfully Dorian had more than enough to discuss.

I was pretty grateful he had this talent of always having something to talk about.

,, And here we are" Dorian announced when we were finally at the very top of the mountain, there was a long rough land on top, but there wasn't a lot of space.

I could see everything. The whole country probably. I stood up, shaky from the strong wind, and inhaled the air filled with peace.

,, I never knew Helkis was so beautiful" I said out of breath. ,, Look, that's Pheathon right there!" Dorian pointed at a small, but visible spot in the distance. ,, Indeed" I chuckled. ,, Told thee this was amazing! We can see everything from up here" He exclaimed. ,, It would probably take us another 2 days to get there" He also added. ,, We should probably put on some extra layers" I acknowledged and reached into my backpack, Dorian did the same. ,, True"