Vell woke to the light of the sun brightening everything around her. She knew the time had come. She looked at all of the xei still sleeping around her one last time and started towards the mountain. The slope would change from steep to slight often. Everything around was still covered in forest around the base of the mountain where she was. At first glance, everything seemed normal, but as she got farther up the mountain she discovered the environment was dying. Trees lacked leaves and any form of lower ground coverage disappeared. After hours Vell found herself in a field of stones. She had felt the climb so far was particularly easy, but seeing what was to come in front of her worried her greatly. The incline steepened significantly at this point. On top of it, she had never tried climbing anything other than trees. It was going to be a challenge she would have to deal with.
Vell started slowly, getting low to the mountain as she did. She came across her first boulder. She sized it up and down, looking for any kind of hole within the stone. Not finding any she resorted to more unique methods. She took a moment to let her claws become engulfed in her fire, and swiftly slammed her claws into the stone. The flames helped the claws break into the stone with some ease. Using this method she easily climbed the first boulder she came across. Hours passed of the same thing, she found the work far more exhausting than she had expected it to be. Climbing up a large slide of loose smaller rocks she felt her foot slipped and slide down to the edge of a cliff. She slammed her claws into the stone just as the flowing gravel flew off the edge pelting her on their way past. She barely held on. Pulling herself up and starting her accent again. As she climbed the stones cut and scraped her body.
A day had passed before she came across a sheer cliff. She could see the cave opening above her but saw no way to the cave. She had only one choice. Again awakening her flames she began to comb the cliff, slamming her class in with every movement. The process zapped all of her energy from her. She hadn't even made it a third of the way up when she felt her body trying to fall asleep. She hadn't slept since she left and knew now was not the time. She pushed her way through it, hardly holding on as she did. Her strikes to the stone were weaker now that she was fighting to stay awake. She could now see the edge of the cave. It was within arms reach. She gripped the edge of the cave and pulled herself up, the last of her strength being used to finish the movement. She took a large breath in, as she exhaled the dragon erupted from the depths of the cave. Its roar shook the stone she lay on. Vell knew she had to rest. She only had as long as the dragon was out.
