Chapter 62: Freehold
The next day was uneventful and peaceful. They made good time throughout the day, without any run-in with bandits along the way, and by evening, they had covered slightly more ground than the previous day—about ninety-six miles.
The terrain here had begun to change. More green. More lush. And less rocky earth to be seen around.
By the next morning, their path shifted dramatically. They left the greens behind and started a steep climb up a large mountain that had loomed on the horizon for miles. The climb was dangerous, as the path up the mountain was extremely narrow. Zephyr could even see the sheer drop of the cliff when he looked out the other window. Any little mistake would prove fatal as they skirted the very edge.
And to make matters worse, after climbing nearly halfway up the large mountain, a heavy fog descended on them, limiting visibility drastically.
Zephyr and Rita were especially tense, sitting rigidly in their seats, careful not to make excessive movements. Veronica, on the other hand, remained unnervingly calm as they ascended through the limited visibility. She had navigated the treacherous path countless times, and the perilous ascent, even shrouded in fog, no longer moved her.
The further they progressed, the more uncanny the fog became. It began to limit even their visibility of each other as they sat in the cabin.
Zephyr gripped the seat and the window frame to ground himself, refusing to ask for help and give Veronica the pleasure of watching him get flustered. She watched with amusement in her eyes as Zephyr gripped the seat tighter as the fog filled the cabin. Rita instinctively reached out to Veronica, and as her current guardian, Veronica allowed it, squeezing her hand for reassurance.
"Just relax... both of you. There’s no danger. This is simply an illusion array meant to divert anyone who finds their way up here back to the ground." She explained. "The only time you should be scared is if you’re caught in this fog with malicious intentions." She added.
’How can you tell who has malicious intentions though?’ Zephyr would’ve asked. But his mind was currently preoccupied with hanging on for dear life. It felt as if he were floating in the clouds, as his body had lost all sense of bearing and direction. If it weren’t for the seat he gripped tightly and the sound of Veronica’s voice, he wouldn’t have known where up or down was.