The Liberators
The sun beat down on the ground as the boy's boot made another indentation in it. With a grunt of irritation at the sweat that poured from his forehead, he wiped it away and pressed on towards his goal, a cave on the horizon. "Blasted altitude sickness..." he gasped as he crouched down to breathe the thin air, looking down the mountainside that he had scaled to get close to the cave above.
"How many miles have I climbed?" he wondered aloud, his voice echoing around the high winds as he pulled his cloak tighter around himself and pulled himself to his feet once more. "Oh well, nearly there." he said to himself as he wiped the sweat from his brow and continued his vertical ascent, his eyes fixed on the ever growing hole in the distance, each step bringing him closer to the refuge from the wind that threatened to pick him from the mountain and fling him to the valley below.
He cursed, hunching down to lower his center of gavity as he pressed onwardwith admirable force of stubborn will. He closed his eyes as the wind picked up grit and flicked it at them, racing towards what he assumed was the cave, but for all he knew it was an edge that he would race off and fall to oblivion. He left his fate up to luck, or whatever deities were paying attention.
As he heard his footsteps, ragged breathing and wild heartbeat echo around him, and felt the wind's icey bite leave his form, he opened an eye and stared into darkness. He spun around, seeing the azure blue sky behind him, and hearing the howling wind. He had done it. He was in the cave. "YES!" he cheered, before collapsing to his backside and resting his back against the wall of the rocky chamber in exhaustion. He reached into an inner pocket of his cloak and produced a hip flask of water, swigging from it happily as he caught his breath.
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