"I'm sorry," I repeated under my breath.
"Sleep well," he said as I hugged Louie, letting the exhaustion take me.
I opened my eyes to Louie breathing on my face.
"Hello, sleepyhead," he said and jumped over me again and again until I started petting him. "It's a big day today!"
"Yes, it is," I said as I pulled myself up, feeling my leg muscles ache as if I'd done the most intense workout the day before--which of course, I kinda had--but I knew today's would be even more intense. "Where's our little friend?"
"He went out while ye were sleeping," Rory replied and then yawned so loud I thought the cave would collapse. "Came back after a while with a dead rabbit. Or at least it looked like a rabbit."
"Was he still hungry?" I asked as I stretched my limbs.
"No, it was for us," the dwarf said with a smile on his face. "It was a gift."
"Awwww," Louie said. "Maybe we should leave him some more food."
"I've got a better idea," I said and removed one of my old swords from my inventory. "Give a man a fish..."
"Is fish some kind of cool word ye stupid young'uns use for swords, nowadays?"
"No," I replied, trying to keep a straight face. "It's a saying. 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.'"
"First off, lad, unless that fish is a fucking shark, no man's belly will be filled by one fish," Rory retorted. "And who the hell eats fish anyway? Ye need to hunt if ye want to bring food to the table. Fishing is a hobby."
"I know a lot of people who would disagree with you, old man."
"What are they going do about it?" Rory said, taking out his pipe. "Hit me with their rods?"
"How are you feeling, Leo?" I asked, not paying any more attention to what Rory was mumbling about.
"Better," he said and smiled slightly. "Once Rory and Louie woke up, I slept again for a while."
"Great. So, are we ready to go?" I placed my sword that would be the cave owner's gift on the ground.
"Goodbye!" Louie shouted and barked down the corridor toward where our host was hiding.
Even though he didn't come out to wave us goodbye, he did peek around the corner as we were moving out. I could only hope the sword would find a good use here.
I haven't disturbed the evolution of his kind and thus altered the future of the realm, right?
The winds became colder and stronger, the higher up the spiraling paths of the Palm we climbed. Luckily, we didn't encounter any monsters or other humanoids on our way up, but that didn't mean that our travels were easy.
Louie didn't have the same constitution as Rory and me, so we often had to carry him. Having him sit on the back of my neck actually turned out to be more enjoyable than not, since he was keeping me warm.
Rory didn't seem to mind either way. Louie's weight was close to nothing for him and whenever he was getting a bit cold, he would simply take out a small keg of his whiskey from his inventory, take a couple sips, and then resume walking while smoking his pipe.
By the time we reached the base of the palm's fingers, snow was falling and the path was becoming harder to find as the ground was covered. The positive about this, of course, was that we'd be able to see the tracks of any creatures that were around here recently. On the downside, predators would be able to track our three sets of footsteps with relative ease.
Louie was doing his best to help me up the mountain by trying to take my mind off the road. We had heated discussions over the process of stealing--or as he liked to refer to it, "saving"--the dogs, and what kind of equipment we'd need. But by the fourth hour of our ascent, our discussions were the only heated thing we had.
The cold was so strong that I couldn't breathe in deeply since my nose and neck hurt. Had I known we'd be traveling in such harsh conditions, I would've brought a jacket. If only I'd listened to my grandmother's advice whenever she'd visited me.
What I did have were multiple sets of leather armor. Even if they added no additional bonus to my stats, throwing them on top of my normal armor at least provided some warmth.
I had no idea how we were going to manage to climb down again without having to rest at the top. On the other hand, it was either that or backtrack right now and quit. And that was no choice at all. I could only hope the place where the flower bloomed had some kind of caretaker who lived in a nice cozy cabin with a fireplace.
As if anything went my way ever.
By the time we'd reached the middle of the mountain's pinky finger, the falling snow had turned into a snowstorm and it was piled high enough around us to cover Rory. The path was completely hidden, so we had to walk as close to the cliff as possible.
Every now and then, Louie would blast the snow with one of his wind spells to clear the way while Leo kept his MP full in case we encountered an enemy ahead of us or if one had followed us from behind.
My body had reached its limits and was now moving on autopilot, putting one foot in front of the other. I was struggling to keep myself from just falling onto the soft snow and taking a long nap.
The summit of the index finger, the first one we'd be able to reach since the thumb proved to be nothing but jagged rocks, was now within
