After they had been riding for a while, they reached the foothills of a massive steppe. Othello couldn't see the cloud-shrouded summit, but he hung on, determined to wear out the tigress. She threw a furtive glance at him and growled as she jumped over another gaping river chasm.

They were headed straight up in the direction of the steepest incline, and he could see the beginnings of ice forming over the rocks. As he adjusted his grip to hold on to the increasingly hot and sweaty fur more tightly, he saw steam beginning to escape from her nostrils.

As the ground began to turn white he noticed her huge claws turning red and starting to melt right through the rock hard ice. As he turned towards the direction they were headed anew, he noticed there was nowhere left to go, they were headed for a wall. Suddenly she jumped abruptly and pounced vertically upwards.

They flew a few meters into the sky directly parallel to the cliff. As they reached the peak of their climb, She dug both her front claws into the facade and pulled herself up. As he held on, her body was tense and completely stiff. He almost had to reach around her neck as she slowly freed one paw and slowly began to climb higher, scaling the cliff almost as fast as she had run.

Othello didn't dare look down, but all he could see above them was the fog of clouds covering the mountain tops. They finally seemed to reach the edge of the cliff they'd been scaling. The temperature was clearly sub arctic but the tigress' body was still steaming.


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"Know thyself"
-Split Infinity