The night had been cold, but fortunately the ash kept going south.

We spent the next two days climbing and reached the top of the ridge just as the suns set on the mountains behind us. They were blurred by the plume of ash behind us.

“Let’s find a place for the night. We should get up early tomorrow, to find a good place for observing the pass.” I looked at the others.

“ We need a spot for observing while not being observed in turn.” Caroline nodded.

“Then let’s find some place to hole up.” Loraline took a swig of water.

We found a small crevice which protected against the wind and view. The next morning we headed out about two hours before dawn.

Carefully we searched the terrain for a good hiding spot. The terrain up here was cracked and we found a place behind a few small rock protrusions, even with some protection from above from a overhanging piece of rock.

There was a spot between the rock protrusions where the pass was easy to observe. I could see the side road leading to the entrance of the dwarven settlement as well.

At two places people and carts had settled down for the night. The lower one was next to a large wooden house. We hadn’t visited any of them as the road from the dwarven settlement was lower in the pass.

“I take the first watch.” I got myself a blanket.

“I will came too.” Caroline settled down on the blanket beside me.

“We change the watches once in a while. At least we get some rest after all the running the last week.” Milly started to set up the camp.

“We will probably need the rest. The way across will be hard. I think we will need two or three days before we’re out of view from the road again.” I furrowed my brows assessing the pass below.

“I put the magic mirror out for watching as well. So we can check it out from time to time. The view angle isn’t that wide, but we can put it in a direction where protrusions block your view.” Milly got the mirror out of her backpack

“Target it to the top of the pass. We should use the things we have.” I gave Milly a wide smile.

Then we started to watch the pass. Nothing interesting happened until noon. There were travelers on the road in both directions.

The side road to the dwarves wasn’t used all day. There were a few people herding goats in the meadows around the pass road.

Above the tree line the area was mostly covered with grass. In more secluded placed there were a few patches of trees sprinkled in. We were at an altitude where even the grass was gone.

Below us was a stretch of rock face was followed by a ramp of scree. It would take at least a day to reach the meadows. Another day or two to reach the crevice where the entrance to the dwarven settlement was. I wondered how much the locals knew about the entrance.

“There are only few spots to hide on our way. We should keep an eye on them, because they would be perfect for monitoring the pass or even to prepare an ambush.” I looked at Caroline.

“On the long run we will notice them, as they would need supplies once in a while.” She grinned with a nod.

“We don’t have that much time unfortunately. I wonder if there are dwarven tunnels below the pass.” I propped my head on my elbow.

“Nobody knows. Everybody knows about the dwarves in the east. The entrance you mentioned is at least no common knowledge. I suppose government knows where it is.” She shrugged.

“It’s well hidden, but there is even a road.” I shook my head.

“The road ends near the gorge, as far as I know.” She shrugged.

After about one to two hours Loraline came to take over my watch.

Back at the camp I looked at the mirror from time to time, but real eyesight worked better, at least for me.

“The potential hideouts across the pass are mostly small patches of trees or shrubbery.” Tilly rubbed her chin.

“Nothing fancy, and we can’t make normal camps as well.” I crossed my arms below my chest.

My chest still feels out of place after all the time. It had gotten better over time, but these mounds were still irritating. At least I didn’t have too much time to think about the situation in general. Stories are well and good, but in real life it was quite disconcerting.

“Hey Lilly!” Tilly waved in front of my face.

“Was distracted, sorry.” I blushed a bit.

“Oh. I hope nothing important?” Tilly looked at me with wide eyes.

“Well I wouldn’t say it was not important, but I’m glad you derailed that train of thought.” I chuckled.

“Oh. Want to talk?” She tilted her head.

“Nah. We’ve more than enough on our plate at the moment.” I shook my head.

“You can always come and talk, Lilly.” She smiled at me.

“I know, Tilly. We should have plenty of time for that in the coming winter.” I smiled back.

“Just don’t try to swallow things up. It’s a bad in the long run.” She gave me a concerned look.

“I know that as well.” I raised an eyebrow in slight annoyance.

“Right now probably isn’t the best time for it. You might as well use your knowledge from time to time though.” Milly hugged me from behind.

“Well. Yes. Of course.” I looked over my shoulder at Milly.

“Any ideas regarding the pass yet?” She let me go and sat down beside me.

“We should try to get some place to hole up further down as we probably need a whole day to reach the alpine meadows below.” I stared at my feet.

“We would have to climb down in the night, for the area ahead is clearly visible from anyone below.” Milly sighed.

“I don’t know if we should try the hiding spots, because I would place at least leave some outposts at some of them if I had to monitor the area.” I furrowed my brows.

“How much sense does make to wait longer? Do we have a viable alternative?” She pulled her feet to her but and slung her arms around her legs.

“Let’s watch the road tonight and send out two of us to find a reachable resting place further down. We all have night vision. It should be easy to get to there if they could make it down and up again in a single night. They can cover more area without carrying supplies and we should make it with supplies in a whole night to get there.” I rubbed my nose.

“Who is going down?” She looked at me expectantly.

“I’d want you to go with Tilly. I stay here with the rest and watch the pass.” I looked at Tilly.

“Sure. I can do that.” She nodded at me.

“Then let’s get some rest.” Milly got back to he feet.

The rest of the day passed without anything interesting happening as well. Eventually the start came out.

“Okay. We’re scouting for another place to hole up.” Milly was fully armed and armored.

“I take the bag of holding with for provisions.” Tilly was ready to go as well.

“Good luck and stay safe.” I waved with a smile.

“We will.” Milly furrowed her brows.

Then the carefully left downwards.

“I hope they find a good place.” Caroline looked after them.

“We have to take what we get. We can try tomorrow night and may the day after. As long as they get back I’m fine.” I shrugged

“That’s the most important thing, and hopefully they won’t stir up trouble.” She looked up at the sky.

“They will be careful. I expect them to be back before dawn.” I went over to the lookout post.

We all settled down there together and watching the pass below.

The ash cloud was still to the west, so we didn’t have any problems with ash.

After about half an hour I noticed someone walking across the meadows below.

“There is someone out at night.” I pointed at the walking figure.

“Ah. There!” Caroline found the person first.

“Then let’s see what he is up to.” Loraline saw him as well now.

After a while I could see that he was heading to one of the potential hideouts. He entered the patch of trees and left it a few minutes later only to head towards a lonely hut, which was ducking between two small rocky outcroppings a few kilometers away.

Half an hour later about half a dozen men left the patch of trees.

The procedure continued with other potential hiding spots across the pass.

“Question is if the places are empty now or only with a reduced number of people.” Caroline looked at me a bit after midnight.

“There shouldn’t be many left, as the places are not suitable to hide armies without larger hidden caves.” I kept looking at the pass.

“Then how can that help us?” Loraline stayed focused on the pass.

“We should be able to defeat a smaller group without raising an alarm.” I tried to keep track of the small groups.

They all were headed to the wooden roadhouse and all vanished inside as soon as they arrived. I’ve lost track of the messenger at some point.

“So they’re gathering their forces.” I furrowed my brows.

“Which is good, as we don’t want to confront them.” Caroline smiled at me.

“I want to know why they changed their setup.” I shot back a wry smile.

Just before it started to dawn we heard footsteps and heavy panting from below.

“We’re back!” Milly came around the protrusion to the north.

“And we’ve found a place for a few nights.” Tilly was close behind her.

“The hiding spots in the open area all have posts, but they drew off most of them.” I waved them over.

Caroline was at the lookout while Loraline had decided to get some sleep a while ago. What would I give for a normal sleep cycle? It couldn’t be helped though.

They quickly regained their breath and sat down beside me.

“It’s a crevice just atop one of the scree ramps. It’s open to the sky, like here and it’s not leading anywhere.” Tilly gestured while looking at me with glee.

“We found that crevice from above and it took some time to get to the entrance. We should make it there in a night, even without night vision.” Milly laid an arm around Tilly.

“That’s good news, we have to wait what those men who left are up to.” I fetched something to eat and we had an early breakfast.

“Then we wait for day?” Milly tilted her head looking at me.

“We do. Let’s get some sleep over the day and keep an eye on the men who gathered by the road house.” I followed up with a more detailed description of what happened the night.

Tilly and Milly went sleeping soon. I opted to stay up with Caroline until one of the others woke up.

A larger group of men left the roadhouse later in the morning. They were heading northwest and started to go up the mountain westward a few kilometers to the north.

As Loraline woke up Caroline and I both got some sleep as well.

I woke up in the midst of the afternoon. Nothing interesting had happened and after having a late breakfast I spent some time at the lookout.

“We should try to reach the crevice tonight. With fewer posts the chances being spotted are reduced. We can’t use lights so we have to see how far we can get without.” I looked at the darkening sky.

“No objections here.” Milly nodded.

“Then we head out when the stars come out.” Loraline pressed her lips together.

“We’re going to help you as good as we can to cope with the darkness.” Tilly gave her a soothing smile.

“Most of the way should be easy enough. There no trees to dim the starlight.” Milly smiled.

We started our decent as early as we could and reached the crevice before dawn. It wasn’t really spacious, but it would do for a day or maybe two.

“We will try to get to that patch of trees the next night and take care of anything we find there.” I pointed at a patch of fir trees ahead.

“Then we set up watches.” Milly nodded at me.

“We have to use the fact that many of them are gone at least for a few days. They will cross the ridge today and it won’t be too easy to call them back without magic, and they have to walk back as well.” I started to set up our camp.

“I don’t think the situation will significantly improve.” Tilly nodded.

We slept the day and as soon as the stars came out we headed out to the patch of fir trees. It was still on this side of the pass, but from there we could try reach the other side in a night, maybe a bit more.

It was near dawn when we reached our destination. The trees were in a shallow dip.

“Let’s go scouting.” I looked at Caroline.

“Take care.” Milly frowned a bit.

“We won’t try anything.” I smiled at her.

“Wait! I put the sensor of the mirror on your helmet. We can see and hear what happens to you just in case.” she beamed at me.

“That’s a good idea!” I beamed back at her.

She touched my helmet with the mirror.

“Well it’s dark, but at least we could hear what happens.” She sat down in the grass. Tilly and Loraline followed suit.

“We won’t talk much though. I’ll raise my dagger in front of my head as a sign that we’re going to attack. Let’s go.” I nodded at Caroline.

She nodded back. After we dropped our backpacks we started to sneak towards the trees.

Caroline went ahead trying to use any cover the terrain offered totally ignoring the shortest way into the patch of trees. I followed her as good as I could. We went to the ground as we got closer and crept forward slowly and cautiously.

Finally we reached the first trees. We continued in the shadows of the fir trees. There was a dip in the terrain ahead, which was the only part which I couldn’t see. There was no one I could see under the trees.

I changed my focus upward, because fir trees with their branches down to the ground were easy to climb. Still I didn’t notice anyone, but the branches gave plenty of cover. I checked the lower branches for signs of people using them to climb up the tree as well.

Caroline carefully checked out the whole place from the outside inward. We noticed no posts around the place.

“No posts.” Caroline whispered right into my ear after we made it back to area we entered.

“A dip in the center of the area. No one to see on the ground.” I whispered back.

“Let’s check out the dip then. Lead the way.” She grinned.

I started to move towards the center of the area. Caroline was following me closely.

The branches of the larger trees were low on the ground near the dip. I robbed beneath them and after a while we reached a rim. Below was a tarpaulin spanned across a small crack in the ground. After a few moments I heard someone breathing below.

I settled myself down on the ground, checking for dry twigs below me. Caroline settled down a few meters to my left.

I decided to wait. Since Milly could watch us and would get worried we could as well stay and try to get some information what this was all about.

There was a spot which looked like it was used quite often recently. That was probably the entrance to this hideout.

I hoped the others found themselves a place hole up.

Slowly the suns started to illuminate the world again. I looked around again, but there was still no one to see outside.

After a while I noticed three familiar pairs of legs at the edge of the trees. The other crept under the first trees and hid under the lowest branches as well. They managed to vanish completely out of my view after a while.

Well. At least they were not out in the open. With the carelessness of whoever was sleeping below it was probably the best they could do.

Then someone stirred below followed by a yawn.

“Get up Valros. It’s morning.” It was clearly the voice of a man.

“Mmmmm!” Someone else wasn’t up to get up.

“Get up! We have to man the watch post soon!” The first voice sounded annoyed.

“We’re waiting here for nothing, Oeras.” Valros finally grumbled.

“We’ve order to watch out for travelers off the roads, so we watch out for that bunch of gals the Legatus wants to have. It’s that simple.” Oeras bellowed at his comrade

“Sure, but we’re not going to see anyone. Wanna bet?” Valros chuckled.

“I don’t bet. You know that. Now let’s have some breakfast.” Oeras was rummaging with some stuff.

They ate in silence for a few minutes.

“Our order didn’t include a time to leave. I hate the snow in these mountains.” Valros started talking again.

“You joined the army, thus you have to follow the orders. You’re getting paid for this.” Oeras answered after a few moments.

“It’s just boring here. We’re sitting around, twiddling our thumbs. At least it’s not raining again.” Valros grumbled back

“It won’t help you anyway, so stop whining!” Oeras spat.

“What do you think about that black cloud to the west?” Valros changed the topic.

“They said the ash poisons the soil. The mountains had been peaceful for an eternity.” Oeras sounded concerned.

“At least we have plenty of provisions here. The others didn’t take much with them.” Valros yawned.

“You’ll get the usual rations, nothing more!” Oeras cracked with his joints.

“Ah. You’re no fun. We could at least have a decent time for being trussed up in the midst of nowhere.” Valros groaned.

“In the case you’ve read the contract signed, you would know that you could be deployed everywhere. Be glad you’re not sent to the war in the south.”

“It would be less boring though. I wonder how these gals are supposed to survive the Claws anyway.”

“The magician said they’re alive and probably to the west.”

“The same one who lost them for months.” Valros chuckled.

“You’re incorigible. I’ll take the first watch.” Someone rummaged under the tarpaulin.

A few moments later an Arhithrean soldier climbed out at the well used point and left for the edge of the woods.

He started to circle around the edge but stayed under the trees. It was only a matter of time till he’d find the others.

It was probably more important to take the one outside out quietly without him being able to raise an alarm of some sort. I pulled my dagger from my sheath and held it in front of my helmet.

Then I looked at Caroline and nodded at the entrance to the den below. She started to crawl towards the point where Oeras left.

She carefully sneaked a peek under the tarpaulin and then waved me over. The whole thing was about three meters wide and seven meters long. I carefully went over to the entrance as well.

The other man was about fifteen meters away most of the time, but had probably his focus to the outside.

As I reached the entrance Caroline took another look under the tarpaulin. The other soldier was on the far side and had turned his back to the entrance.

There were plenty of chests lined up to the left wall. Caroline then dove into the den and hid herself behind the chests. The man at the other side didn’t react.

I waited for the other soldier to reach the others. I heard the whirring of an arrow, and then the man fell down with a thud. As I say Milly and Tilly jump towards him I sled down in the den as well.

As I advanced towards the soldier, he seemed to have heard something and got to his feet.

“What??” He drew his sword.

“You may surrender. Now.” I gave him a cold stare.

“Why should I surrender to a mere girl?” He shook his head while ogling my chest.

“Cause you want to walk away alive?” I stopped just out of the reach of his sword.

“Pah! I don’t need a sword for both of you!” He dropped his sword and jumped at me.

“Your choice.” I stepped back.

He stumbled forward, so I stepped beside him burying my knee into his groin following up with my elbow on his neck as he had doubled over, adding my full body weight. There was sick cracking sound. Then he fell forward.

“He’s dead.” Caroline knelt down beside him.

“I offered him to surrender.” I shrugged.

I could have maybe spared him, but I had no idea how dangerous he was. Using his hubris against him was a sure way to end the fight quickly. With all those others around us we couldn’t risk an alarm. At all.

“Let’s carry him out. We can bury him under a few rocks.” Caroline looked at me.

I nodded. We had to bury both of them, since Loraline’s arrows were just deadly on short range.

“Let’s look at their provisions. We can definitely use more provisions.” Milly took a last look at the simple grave.

“Let’s see what they have down there.” Loraline nodded.

We climbed down into the hideout and started to assess what we found.

“This is enough to restock completely.” Loraline looked at Milly.

“Let’s have a closer look.” Milly started to open a chest.

“I’m up to watch out.” Caroline looked at me.

“We wouldn’t want to end like them.” I nodded at her.

“Then you and Tilly get some sleep while we check out what they have in store.” Milly started to check the contents of the chest.

“We’re going to refill the backpacks as soon as we have an overview.” Loraline opened another chest.

“Wake me up in about three hours. I take over the watch then.” I nodded at Milly.

Tilly and I got ready to sleep and huddled ourselves together under the blankets.

I woke up later because someone was massaging my feet. It took some time to wake up, but as someone started tickling my feet I was awake quickly.

Milly was sitting at my feet giving me a salacious smile.

“Wake up, Lilly.” She chuckled.

“Everything okay?” I started to get get ready for the day.

“Nothing happened. Your okay too?” She caressed my left calf.

“We’re making progress.” I looked her in the eyes.

“Just asking.” She tilted her head.

“It had be be quick. We had no idea how they could raise an alarm. And I don’t want to go back there!” I stared at Milly.

“Nobody wants to go back there.” Milly laid an arm around my shoulder.

“They would happily gone after us if they were ordered to.” I frowned.

“Still killing people isn’t a good thing.” She looked me in the eyes.

“That’s right. I offered him to surrender.” I shrugged.

“You did.” She looked down at her feet.

“Then let’s get Caroline some rest as well.” I got to my feet.

I got outside and found Caroline still skirting the copse.

“Nothing interesting.” She shook her head.

“Get some sleep then. The next night will be long.” I smiled.

I started to circle the place under the trees as well. There was even a convenient path around the area.

I checked out the area towards the east again.

Should we still try to talk with the dwarves? They lived to the east and we may get some advice which path would be the best. I didn’t want to cross to the south flank of the mountains, but the way to the north was longer and there was settled land to cross.

Asking the dwarves for the way sounded good for the way ahead. We needed to find something to hole up for the winter as well, but that’s still a month or two ahead. The winter would come sooner in the mountains though.

The terrain we had to cross was mostly open meadow. The street wouldn’t be a problem as there was no one traveling at night. We could even follow the side road on the last leg.

The day passed without any incidents. I got some more sleep and as the stars came out we headed out again.

We had filled up our backpacks back to the brim, which made them distinctly heavier, but leaving food behind with the winter coming was stupid. I liked the idea that our enemies would help us over the winter as well.

We crossed the pass road after five hours without encountering anything. The heavy backpacks slowed us down noticeably. Later in the night we were going steadily uphill, which was more taxing. We continued with only short breaks until the stars started to fade away.

“We won’t make it to the gorge until dawn.” Milly swigged some water.

“There is no safe place to hide ahead. Actually it’s the nearest spot to get out of view.” I drank some water as well.

“Then we give all we have to reach the gorge.” Tilly groaned.

“We can rest when we’re in the gorge.” Caroline nodded.

“Let’s use the time before the suns come out as good as we can.” I got to my feet.

“My legs are killing me.” Tilly got up as well.

With new energy we continued our way along the road. How easy it was to just rolling along the road with the carriage.

I never thought I would come here again.

Then the suns came up. Fortunately it was a bit cloudy, but it didn’t rain. Maybe we would get some rain later the day. For now it was nice as it wouldn’t get too warm.

“Look! There are armed and armored riders behind us on the main road!” Loraline cried out pointing back.

“How many?” I stopped to turn back.

They were far away for now, but horses could make much more speed on roads. At least it wasn’t a well maintained one.

“Sixty three.” Tilly looked at me tilting her head.

“Too many. Hurry. We have reach the gorge and maybe we get some help from the dwarves.” I turned and went ahead.

“We should reach the gorge in about half an hour. It wasn’t far from there.” Milly came to my side.

“We probably reach the dwarves gate before they reach us. Question is if they let us in. They were quite wary towards travelers.” I looked back over the shoulder.

The riders were going at a trot at least. The would catch up sooner or later.

“We should try to get some pointers for the way ahead though.” She pressed her lips together.

We continued in silence to save our breath.

As we reached the gorge Milly went to the rock face facing the direction we came from and touched it with the mirror.

“I can see the road leading here in the mirror now.” She came back panting.

“Let’s find that gate.” I smiled at her.

We continued up the gorge for another maybe quarter of an hour.

“This is the place.” Tilly pointed the rock face to our right.

We stopped and turned to the wall. There were faint traces of cart tracks on the rocky ground.

“Hail! Please open your gates for us!” Milly shouted at the rock face.

“Would it be good to inform them who is on our tails?” I looked at Milly.

“Let’s try to talk to them first. Take the mirror to keep an eye on our back.” She handed me the mirror.

“Hail ye dwarves!” Milly tried again and walked up to place where the gate had to be.

They had hidden the entrance quite well. All looked like a natural rock face.

“Hey lassie. What do you want? Do you have a permit to enter?” A dark voice rumbled from a small crack in the rock face above.

“We don’t have a permit. There are soldiers from the empire on our tails.” Milly looked up to the point where the voice came from.

“Without permit I can’t let ya in lass.” The voice boomed back.

“They’re too many for us to fight!” Milly propped her hands on her hips.

“Besides, how do you know of the gate? And what scum is following you? I need more details to give you some advice to leave them behind.” The dwarf yelled.

“There are sixty three, all are cavalry and most in metal armor.” Milly yelled back.

“There I thought it was a threat! You nearly had me!” The dwarf hollered back.

“We’re only five and lack the necessary fortifications. How is the way up the gorge? Can we get rid of them further in?” Milly rolled her eyes.

“It’s a dead end.” The dwarf called back after a few moments.

“At least for the cavalry. Nimble infantry can leave the gorge about half an hour from here!” The dwarf laughed.

“How?” Milly’s eyes nearly rolled out of her sockets.

“Well. I’d say you’re in a tough spot. As I said I can’t let you in. There is a narrow crack in the right flank of the gorge. We usually don’t use that path, cause we’re, well, too sturdy. You might squeeze through, but it’s some time since I was a lad who could squeeze through.”

“That sounds promising!” Milly cried back.

“You’re not out of trouble though.

There is another way round the mountain to get to the exit of that crevice, but you get at least two or three days head start. Obviously you shouldn’t use that way yourselves.

There is a path you can follow east and there are a few tracks to go down into human territory as well.

The path east will end near the lost city of Alkhaz Zhur. The city is partially above ground, as humans and dwarves lived there together in olden times. Then came the treason of the human scum!

Ah. I digress.

In the nights undead walk the ruins of the city. Starting early you could cross the city before the suns set. Failing to leave the city before nightfall will probably your end, since the ghouls will kill anyone in the city at night. There’s a small keep a few days east. That’s the last point I would stay for a night. Don’t stop until there are no buildings around you.

Down the valley is a large keep of the empire to keep those ghouls contained in the city. Entering the subterranean parts is madness.

I don’t advice going further up into the mountains because it’s dwarven territory and we don’t like trespassers in that area these days, just for you to know.“

“This sucks!” Milly turned to me.

“It does. The riders just came into view in the mirror. Let’s go out of here. We can decide where to go next later.” I furrowed my brows.

“Then farewell!” Milly yelled as we started further into the gorge.

“Farewell lassies! Sorry I can’t let ya in, but I’ve got me orders.”

“This is a death trap!” Milly fumed as we continued up the gorge.

“We’re not dead yet, Milly, but it doesn’t look good at the moment.” I clenched my jaw.

We walked silently for a few minutes. Everyone was exhausted and it seemed we won’t get much rest for a while.

“Let’s get out of this gorge first. Then we try to find a place to rest. We should switch to walk with the suns out later on.” I looked at the others.

It was still early in the morning. After a while we found a narrow crack in the southern rock face.

“Is this the right one?” Milly looked at me.

“Let’s have a look. Have a small break, I’m back in a few.” I put down my backpack.

The entrance was narrow, we would have to put off the backpacks to squeeze through, but it looked well. The crack continued for a few minutes, widening after a few meters and going slightly upwards. I returned to the others.

“Looks like the right one.” I looked at Milly.

“The riders will reach the gorge soon.” She put away her mirror.

“My mana started going up recently!” Tilly smiled at me.

“Then let’s hope it gives you a second wind.” I forced a smile back at her.

We entered the crack and squeezed through the first few meters. After that it widened to a meter to two. Nothing for the claustrophobic.

Ten minutes later it started to rain.

“This is a good and maybe a bad thing.” Loraline sighed.

“Well tracking by normal means will be difficult.” Caroline looked at her.

“This crack can fill up with water. We’ve no idea how much it will be. We can’t go back, so we have to follow this crack upwards as fast as we could! No rest for the wicked!” I groaned.

My legs ached for an ample rest, but today was one of the worst for a long time. I hoped it would work out somehow.

The elves told us to avoid leaving the claws. The dwarves don’t want us to enter their territory. An imperial posse was on our tails and crossing a city full of undead seemed like the the best choice we had.

I refocused on the track ahead as the ground began to get wet and slippery. We passed a small waterfall coming down from the rim of the gorge.

Let’s hope this doesn’t end in a flash flood.

Slowly the sole of the gorge filled with water as the rain got worse. The water went up to our knees, which made walking a torture, my boots were filled up with water and I was totally soaked from the water splashing down the flanks of the gorge.

Finally we reached a small almost circular valley with a small lake in the middle. There was another larger gorge at the other side. This was the only way to continue.

There was a ledge at the east side under a rocky protrusion.

“Let’s make camp and wait for the rain to stop.” I pointed at the ledge.

“I take the first watch!” Tilly looked at me.

“The others get dry and some sleep. Wake me up if you’re too tired.” I nodded at her.

We put on dryer clothes and hung the wet ones on a line we spanned between two pitons we quickly hammered in.

As I cuddled with Milly under some blankets I finally got warm and mostly dry. I fell asleep quickly.