"What?" Zeke stared at her back with disbelief, "You want me to-"
"Can you walk?!" She shot back.
"I can manage," He said.
"But you're going to slow us down, now will you please put your ego aside and climb?" She whispered, glaring back at him.
He sighed exasperatedly, then lowered himself to her back. She stood him with his arms locked around her shoulders, and then she moved.
She remained in the shadows, slipping between shattered stone and collapsed fencing, her steps carrying no sound. Every instinct she had screamed to run faster, but she forced herself to slow when they reached the far edge of the ridge.
There was a small fracture in the mountain wall, half-hidden by hanging roots and old ivy. She had noticed it the first time she came to this place.
It wasn't a cave, but more like a narrow vein in the rock, winding inward and downward. The air around it was a deadened, thick, swallowing sound. It smelled like something that hadn't been explored for a long time.
