"Come on Ernest, give me your hand!"
The wind clawed at their clothing. The screaming wind was like a ravenous bird. Each new gust attempted to remove the two climbers from the mountain side. Ernest could hear his muscles groaning under the strain. His finger tips dug into the rock face. Jaw clenched tight, he growled at the wind. Three indomitable finger tips were all that kept him from falling thousands of feet down. And they were slipping.
"Your hand Ernest!"
"I am not agreeing to this!"
"You're slipping. Just give me your other hand and let me pull you up. Then you can tell me about the Twins later."
"I don't want to talk about the Twins Reader! Graah-"
The wind buffeted him again. That is to say it nearly pulled him off the rocks then slammed him repeatedly back into them. Not a pleasant experience.
"Scowl all you want Reader. I can hang here indefinitely. Besides I think the wind is dying down."
The wind responded by bashing him into the rock again. Another digit slipped away, leaving a groove in the rock. Ernest grimaced after taking a peek down again.
"Twins and your hand. Or falling to death. Your choice Ernest."
Ernest grunted and attempted to lift himself with just the two digits. The strain was apparent in his face. Oops second finger gone. Now just the one digit.
"Ernest-"
"Alright! Alright! I'll tell you about the Twins."
"You promise?"
"Don't take your hand back! Pull me up!"
"You're not lying right?"
"HAND! NOW!"
The wind blew. Reader's hand eased down. Ernest snatched just as the rock crumbled. He swung across the cliff face till he could grab a solid ledge to pull himself up on. He crawled onto the small outcropping, collapsing on his back and sputtering in relief. The wind picked up again, forcing the pair to wait.
They had been climbing all morning. The dew slick rocks had to be faced after the mountain trails petered out into dead ends. Ernest couldn't recall when, but Reader somehow got ahead and made it to a safe ledge. Then the wind became a monster all of its own. Ernest was blown off, but had managed to catch himself as he fell. Laboriously he tried to climb back up only for the rock face to fail. The stone was so cleanly split that the smooth surface gave him no options within arm's reach. To make matters worse his footholds also fell away, leaving him at the mercy of Reader's bargaining.
Earlier in their argument, Ernest made sure to express his feelings that it felt like a trap.
The wind finally died down. In its place was a thick fog. The noonday sun became a ghostly light. The empty mountain air was thin and cold. Ernest took a few slow breaths then began climbing again.
"Ernest wait, you said you were going to talk about the Twins! Ernest!? Wait up."
He didn't reply. All his focus seemed to be making progress up the mountain.
"Ernest you're not mad right? Ernest?"
His figure slowly dissipated in the thickening fog.
Fog? We're pretty high up... Not fog. Clouds. Are we almost to the summit? If so this is a pretty straight forward trip. I wonder what could be so interesting up there.
Let's hope it's not another monster.
Reader made it into the clouds, then through them. The only thing visible was the rock directly in front of the face. Hands reaching out tentatively, searching for firm holds. It started to get brighter. The cloud cover thinned out.
Almost there.
Then it was blinding.
Ernest was standing there, dusting himself off. Reader struggled over the last of the edge.
"Hey Ernest you said-"
"Yes Reader. I said I would talk about the Twins. But. I didn't say that I would talk about them today. For now, don't talk about them. Don't ask about them. Don't think about them. If you think you see them, yell for me and don't look."
"That's real cheap."
"I could say the same for that cliff-hanger bargaining."
The discussion had taken most of Reader's attention. But now that disappointment diverted the eyes, they feasted upon an unexpected scenery.
Is this.. the summit?
Before them a sea of clouds blanketing the world below. It was true that they stood on a craggy top, but it was only one amongst hundreds of islands that scattered toward the horizon. This peak was not barren rock.
Is this a jungle up here?
The quiet chirping of insects and strange bird calls were heard. A constant dripping sound of falling water striking stone undernoted the unearthly echoes. Ernest was walking towards the thick vegetation before them. Wide leaf plants casting shadows over the jungle like floor. Tall trees creating a shimmering canopy full of light dancing in shadows. It was like being under a faceted gem.
Reader dived into the strange green sea of life to catch up with Ernest who forged ahead.
They pass pools of water. Step over fallen trees. Cross vine covered bridges. And stalk through the strange jungle. It's life seeming to always be just out of sight. Or in plain sight.
After a while the lack of talking got uncomfortable.
"Ernest..."
"Hmm?"
"I-... I'm sorry about the whole cliff thing. I'm just curious. About the Twins and all. I mean they are the only other things that looked like real people that I've seen so far. And you're so against talking about them so it's weird."
Ernest didn't say anything.
"I mean are they players? We can't be the only ones right? Are there other ones?"
He stopped suddenly and held out a hand for Reader to stop speaking. Ernest was looking around trying to listen. There were no animal noises. Just as the silence became notable the normal jungle noise started again.
"What's wrong Ernest?"
"Strange. Felt like we were being followed."
"Followed? It's not another monster is it?"
"Let's hope not Reader. Let's hope not."
The climb had exhausted both. Ernest more than Reader. He was brooding deep.
"Ernest?"
"Are there other players."
"What?"
"I am not sure if he is a player. But I've met a vampire."
"What?"
"Do you have something in your ears Reader?"
"N-No. This is just - a vampire? Really?"
"After all this time together, does a vampire really sound so improbable?"
"How do you know he's a vampire?"
"That's just the thing. I don't."
Reader had a dumbstruck confused expression. Ernest kept trudging on through the brush.
"How can you call him a vampire, but he's not a vampire?"
"He is an odd ... 'person'," Ernest states, turning around and making quotation marks with his hands while saying 'person'. "A self-proclaimed vampire."
Ernest seemed genuinely frustrated at trying to explain what he meant. They found a clearing with the sun blazing through. Sitting on a large root, they paused for a break. Despite the air being thin, the presence of so much dense vegetation made the air humid. The mountain climb followed by the jungle trek left the pair worn out and hungry.
With nothing to eat, Reader chewed on Ernest's words.
A self-proclaimed vampire? Here? Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?
"I met that vampire a long time ago. Long before you came around. Strange that I haven't seen much of him lately. The first time we met... He was particularly ravished. But since I was the only other person he saw in a long time, he restrained himself. He considered it uncivilized to fall to the 'hunger' or the 'thirst' or whatever it is. Those were some really crazy days. The sessions were long and difficult to understand. Once we were stuck in an assignment for a very long time. Don't know how long. There was no way to keep time with the sun gone. We were sent there before, but that was the only time it seemed in which we were sent without anything to do. We resorted to eating the ink."
Ernest paused for a moment then continued.
"The vampire is a strange person. We would walk in broad daylight and he wouldn't suffer. You would think he would burn to a crisp right? That's the general belief of vampires. Sunlight. Garlic. Stakes to the heart. Cut off the head. Feed the head - garlic of course. Burn it. Burn all of it. Guzzle blood like water. Feast on people during the night. Sleep in a casket..."
Ernest got up, stretched, and started to walk. Reader scrambled to keep pace.
"Lies. Lies he said. Or mistruths to be exact. We had little to talk about, and he was always more interested in talking. So he would talk about himself - or vampire-self to be exact. He would talk about how the myths and legends were not really accurate. He would explain misconceptions and truth bending... Especially on ways to kill a vampire."
"What? Ernest. Why would a vampire tell you how to kill it?"
"I asked him the same thing Reader. He explained with morbid satisfaction that if I ever had to kill him to save my life, it would only be fair if I was properly armed. Joint survival does strange things to people. We became something akin to friends. It was a lot better than the alternatives."
"Alternatives? Like what?"
Ernest stopped moving. With a deliberate slowness he turned his head with solemn words.
"We could have been enemies."
Did his eyes just glow? Heh eh.. heh;;; I must be seeing things. Shiver. Now that I think about it, it is a good thing Ernest isn't my enemy. Even though he did drag me into this mess! Internal fist shake. Ah well, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be here, just a little. Huh that's a lot of light up ahead.
They had reached a massive clearing. Reader realized that what they had climbed was not a mountain per say, but a plateau. Somewhere deep on its covered surface they had arrived at 'this place'. A series of wood plank bridges that reached over to some unknown. The clouds blocked sight to its end, but made it painfully obvious that a fall would be fatal.
And for all I know, forever.
"Reader, you're going to understand that these assignments at times deal with trust. At other times they are competitive. There were a lot of times the vampire and I could have been at each other's throat. Instead we chose to trust each other. Sometimes, both of us would be there, but only one of us could 'go'."
"What are you trying to get at Ernest?"
"This is one of those times where you're going to have to trust me and go alone."
"?! Why !?"
Ernest pointed at a worn out sign standing watch over the bridge.
"It has your name written all over it."
