Suddenly I felt a thin arm encircle my neck.
And something I hadn’t been expecting:
Soft breasts mashing into my back.
A sensation I hadn’t felt in a long, long time – not since Katie would spoon me in bed in the mornings. Something I’d missed without realizing it.
I felt another sensation I’d never had, though: the shaft of a spear knocking into my shoulder.
I looked over and got a great view of the spearhead. It was some sort of volcanic glass, chipped down to a wickedly sharp point.
I had to give her props: she might have been crazy, but she could make a damn good spearhead. If she hadn’t bought it off the internet at CrazySurvivalistChick.com.
“What the fuck?! Leave it!” I yelled at her over my shoulder.
She didn’t answer.
I grabbed the wooden shaft of the spear –
“Maka no palaka nakwai!” she yelled as she jerked it away from me.
“Leave it!” I yelled, and pantomimed with both my arms like I was hugging a tree. “You need both arms to hang on!”
She looked reluctantly at the spear… then let it fall to the snow and latched both arms around my neck.
Progress.
I started up the wall.
I had expected her to be light, but she weighed even less than I’d thought.
Of course, I was still lugging 90 or more pounds up the fuckin’ side of a cliff.
Without any backup. No ropes, no harness, nothin’.
If we fell, it was all over.
…and then the wolves showed up.
We were a good 20 feet up the wall when I heard the snarls approaching.
I didn’t look down. I didn’t want to see what the hell was down there.
She was smart enough not to look down, either. She just hung on for dear life.
The animals were jumping beneath us now. I could hear their teeth clicking as their jaws snapped shut on thin air.
Please, just hang on…
I got us to the opening of the cave. This was the most delicate part of the climb, because I wasn’t going to be able to bodily carry her up over the edge – she would have to crawl up over me first.
The rappelling rope was hanging down right beside me. To make absolutely sure I was safe, I poked my left arm through and wrapped the rope around my forearm and hand five or six times.
If I got knocked loose off the cliff, at least I wouldn’t fall.
Not right away, anyhow.
“Go on,” I said to her.
No answer.
I pointed up into the cave with my hand wrapped in rope. “Go – climb over me and get up there!”
She hesitated, then began to pull herself up onto my shoulders. I helped her out by grabbing her furs and shoving her upwards.
She managed to grab ahold of the rock ledge and hoist herself up, planting her feet on my shoulders for the extra push –
And suddenly my ice axe slipped.
I tipped backwards –
She screamed –
But the rope around my arm yanked and held.
The spikes of my crampons were just barely still hanging onto the crack in the rock face.
Up on the ledge, she lay flat on the ground and extended her hand – her blue, hypothermia-wracked hand – down to me, straining to reach me.
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” I yelled as I dangled backwards, held in place only by the crampons and rope. I felt like a cartoon character teetering backwards over an abyss, balancing on the tips of their toes.
She babbled in her language and strained her hand out to me even harder.
Fuck… not like I couldn’t use the help…
I knew she couldn’t pull me in, but I could at least use the help to right myself so I could use my axes again.
I let go of my ice axe in my non-roped right hand. It swung like a pendulum from the leash around my wrist.
Then I extended my freezing cold hand to hers and grasped her fingers –
Her warm, almost feverishly hot blue fingers.
What the FUCK?
Not only were her hands a good twenty degrees warmer than my cold hands, she was strong. Really fucking strong, especially for a woman her size.
She pulled me in close enough with no problem until I could grab the ledge of the cave opening with my fingertips. Then, as I hauled myself up over the edge, she grabbed me under one of my arms and helped hoist me up.
Once I was safe inside the cave, I unwound the rope from around my arm and grabbed one of her bare hands with mine.
It was small and slender and soft – and her skin was so hot it felt like she was running a 105-degree fever.
Yet she’d been exposed to the cold air and snow this entire time.
“How the hell are you warm?” I asked in shock as I held her hand.
She took her hand away from me and pulled down her balaclava –
And suddenly I could see her face.
It wasn’t just her hands that were blue.
Her face, neck, and every inch of exposed skin was the exact same color –
And she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen.
Her features were delicate – soft and feminine. She had huge eyes that were bright green like emeralds. Her high cheekbones and slender nose contrasted with her sensual lips.
Another thing about her was striking: her long, thick, lustrous hair was white as snow. But it wasn’t from age. Her face was young and her skin was smooth, like a woman in her early 20’s.
She also had long, pointed ears that protruded from the snowy white mane of hair.
She looked like an elf out of Lord Of The Rings – just blue.
I stared at her in shock.
She looked back at me in distrust –
And then peered past me to the fire in the back of the cave.
Her face immediately lit up with surprise and joy, and suddenly she was scrambling past me on all fours.
I watched her go in shock and amazement – and then realized exactly what it was she was after:
The venison
