Catarina's Fortune

Part V

 It took them the entire day to reach Peril Peak. Catarina ran out of the last of her dried fruit, and she was shivering with hunger and cold. Even Frankfurt's teeth were chattering as he led her to the jagged base of the peak. "I'm afraid," he said, looking up at it, "that we will have no choice but to climb it."

"But that's impossible!" Catarina cried. The mountainside was treacherously sheer and slick with dark ice.

"Not all the way up, foolish human," Frankfurt said scornfully. "Just enough until we find an opening. A tunnel or a cave."

Catarina didn't find this soothing in the least. If she didn't freeze to death, she would most certainly fall to her death.

"I," Frankfurt said with great dignity, "will ride in your satchel."

The satchel was nearly empty now that all the food had been consumed. Catarina reluctantly tucked him inside and groped for a handhold in the mountain face. Her fingers stung with the chill as she pulled herself up, Frankfurt swinging against her side, and braced her feet against a slippery crevice in the stone. She continued this way, cranny by cranny, narrow ledge by narrow ledge, arms aching and fingers burning with cold, up the sheer side of the mountain until, at last, she found a dark, jagged crack—just large enough to fit a human body—leading into the mountain's side.

Clinging to the outcropping just beneath the opening, Catarina swallowed nervously.

"What are you waiting for?" Frankfurt meowed, his whiskers bristling with flakes of snow. "Go on."

She stared up at the narrow slit of darkness, shadow seeping out from the black stone. It was impossible to see what lay beyond. Squeezing through it would be like entering the mouth of a giant beast.

"Go on! Go inside. I'm freezing out here!" Frankfurt cried.

Mustering all her courage, Catarina clambered up onto the outcropping and wriggled through the opening in the mountain's face. It was almost too dark to see inside, and it smelled dank and thick. Damp stone pressed in on her from all sides. Distantly, she could hear the sound of water dripping.

It was a tunnel.

"Ack!" Frankfurt hissed. "I feel like I'm going to suffocate!"

Catarina managed to let him out of the satchel, even though it was a struggle because she could hardly move in the cramped space.

"Follow me." Frankfurt's paw steps were silent in the darkness, but she followed the glint of his yellow eyes. She trailed after him down the tunnel. It began to widen as they delved deeper into the mountain, the stone slick underfoot. Catarina focused on not slipping and falling. The air was still, and all noises, even her own breathing, were muted by the thick layers of stone.

Ahead of her, Frankfurt suddenly stopped walking. A flicker of light shone up ahead. It took Catarina a moment to realize it was a wax candle, resting on a ledge in the tunnel wall. A few feet beyond it, there was another one, and then another. Their flames dipped wildly, emitted a faint glow and casting twisting shadows on the black stone. Frankfurt hissed, vocalizing the sudden, fearful thought that had just seized Catarina.

Someone else was here.

Catarina balked. She began to retreat, but Frankfurt pinned her in place with a glare. His eyes glinted with a hard, cold determination. "We've come too far to turn around now."

As much as she hated to admit it, Catarina knew he was right. She'd endured too much to give up at this point, and who knew if there was another way into Peril Peak? They might have to scale its very top before they found another tunnel. Heart skittering to and fro, she cautiously continued forward, creeping along behind Frankfurt. But he stopped again after a few paces and said nonchalantly, "I think it'd be wise for me to stay behind you. Just in case something... happens." The fact that all his hair was standing on end belied his casual tone.