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It’s freezing, Rona hates this place, it’s an isolated island in the middle of nowhere. The only thing on this island is snow, cultists that want the end of the world, and icy ruins that want to kill her. She is cold and miserable. She's lucky that she has her adventuring party with her; Aloth, the pale slender elf mage; Eder the stocky blond human from Dyrwood; Rekke, the charming red-headed man that her crew rescued from drowning alone in the ocean; and Fassina, the woman whom Rona had rescued from her boring day job, and awful employer.
The crew was stuck on this island, they had to help prevent the end of the world… again. Rona and her crew stand in front of an icy cliff face.
“Are you sure we need to climb this captain?” Eder asks with his country drawl
“I think so. Not anywhere else we can go” Rona responds looking at Eder briefly before turning back to the cliff face.
“I hate to say this, watcher,” Aloth turns to Rona “I don’t think many of us are going to be physically capable of climbing this.”
“Yes, captain, I think only I and Eder would be able to climb this.” Rekke tilts his head in an almost dog-like manner, despite only barely learning the language his Aedyran is almost perfect.
“Well, unfortunately, we need to get up there, and climbing looks like the only option.”
“Ac, I agree with the captain.” Fassina stands in her normal position, her arms crossed and her body slouched.
“I’ll climb up first and bring a rope with me, I’ll tie it up there and then we can get up.” Rona looks up, this is no small cliff, that cliff face is at least 40 feet tall. It’s snowing hard, and the cliff is almost entirely made of ice. It’s a bad idea but it’s the best one they have at the moment.
“Captain, maybe I should climb up? No offense or anything, but you are pretty fragile.”
“I’m not fragile! I’m delicate.” Rona huffs, hoping that her companion can sense her glare even with her lack of eyes. “But really, I’ll climb it this time, the last time we had to climb something you did it, it’s my turn.”
Rona takes a rope from her pack and wraps it around her waist. She puts her bare hands on the icy cliff instantly recoiling from the intense cold that burns her hands.
“Captain, if you are not able to-”
“Hush Fassina, i can do it”
Rona takes a breath and puts her hands back against the wall without recoiling. Her hands are going to be numb after this. She puts her feet on the wall searching for grooves and bumps to use to support her. She climbs, her hands already numb.
At least I have a built-in helmet.
Rona breathes out in amusement at herself. It is almost like she has a built-in helmet, how does she even see through it, she thinks to herself. The shell covering the top half of her face and the back of her head is extremely hard and completely solid, but she can see straight through it.
Rona continues to climb. What is the point of her stopping the god of the end, ok well, for one, if she fails the world will end. But she can say the same thing about her main objective too. How did chasing gods that want to destroy the world became her pastime?
Rona glances down at her group.
Oh, she's very high up. Looking down fills Rona with vertigo, she's probably just a bit more than halfway up.
When she looks down she can see Eder from below, when he notices her looking down he puts his hands around his mouth and shouts “You’re doin’ great watcher!”
She keeps climbing, moving one arm up at a time finding a stable place to put her hand, then raises a foot doing the same, then the other hand, then the other foot, pushing up her whole body. She puts her hand up again finding a stable rock and puts her foot up, she thinks she found a good spot, but as she puts her weight on the foot, realizes, wearing a long coat while climbing was a bad idea, her foot catches on the end of her frock coat, causing her to slip, she reaches out flailing, typing to find something she can grab to stop her decent, but that's difficult when all you have to grab is ice.
“WATCHER!”
“RONA”
“CAPTAIN”
Her companions all scream at once causing a cacophonic chorus of names she has been called.
Her mind supplies more, names that the others would have never heard her be called.
“Cursed child”
“Wretched thing”
“Chosen of Bereth”
Time seems to slow down, she's no longer falling.
She's sitting at her childhood dining table eating with her parents; her mother, a beautiful tall woman with caramel skin, dark eyes, and thick black hair pulled into an elaborate bun; and her father a tall well-built man with tanned skin, freckles, deep green eyes, and brown hair cut in an elegant short style; and herself, who looks like neither. She's tall and boxy for a child, she has purple skin with visible dark veins and marks all down her body, and a purple shell covering her face.
Her parents were so surprised when she was born, she was supposed to be a perfectly normal child, but instead, she was chosen to be a champion by the god of death.
She sits at the table silently, not wanting to be reprimanded. Now and again glancing out of the dining room window at the sea. Her parents owned a shipping company, so they moved to the Deadfire archipelago.
“Rona, darling.” her mother looks over at her, her tone was pleasant, but rona didn't trust it.
“Yes, Mother?”
“I heard you went to the docks this morning.”
Oh no.
“Child” her father looks at her, his eyes cold, “we told you to stay in the house.”
Rona keeps her mouth closed, at this point it would just cause her more trouble.
“Go to your room, you will stay there this time, do you understand?”
Rona nods silently and stands up.
“One more thing.'' Rona turns her head to her father. “I’m getting rid of your boats, I told you the consequences of disobeying.”
She nods again, she knows that if she were physically able to cry she would be crying right now. She runs to her room.
She opens the door and runs in, she runs to her toy box and drags it over to her height shelf, and climbs on top. Her father wasn’t bluffing. All of her model ships were gone.
“One day she wouldn’t have to listen to her parents, and maybe one day she could even save the world,” She thinks to herself, “she wouldn’t have any need for her model ships when she has one of her own. And one day, she would be a better parent than either of her own.”
Right, she's falling. It’s funny, how many of her goals she has achieved.
She’s saved the world.
She's a captain of a ship.
And she never has to listen to her parents ever again.
But… she hasn’t accomplished that last goal, nit if she dies here. Her daughter Vela still needs her.
But she's falling, she's going to hit the ground hard, and Vela will be left alone.
If Rona could close her eyes she would, but she doesn't have eyelids. So instead she braces herself against the inevitable impact
Only, there is no impact. not really, she lands on something soft. Rona glasses down and sees she landed on a barrier made of air; Aloth, with one hand holding his grimoire open and the other arm out creating the barrier; and Fassina, with her staff held in two hands helping to create the barrier.
“Captain! Are you alright!” Rekke’s eyes are blown wide, he reaches his hand out toward her. She puts her hand in his and he helps her off the barrier.
“Well, that was an adventure.”
“Watcher, this is why I do the climin’ round’ here.” Eder looks Rona up and down checking to make sure she's alright.
“Indeed, I say we never let you go first again.” Aloth huffs.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Rona chuckles “Let's go back to the ship, I need to see Vela.”
The crew walks away from the cliff of death fully intact, hoping to tackle that adventure another day.