█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ THE FIRE ITSELF was pulsating ; a garish ember that seemed to churn in rhythm with the flames– struggling to penetrate the mountain’s wintry air. Gray perched as close as he dared to feel its radiating warmth, jutting out numbed hands for possible defrosting.
This mountain surged high against the vacant HORIZON, with sheer rock striking down from its headdress of ice ; only the base was mollified by the virescence of pine blankets. Mists were shrouding in the verdant valleys, each bald mountaintop shone like a jewel, and far aloft in the heavens were the white streamers of morn.
This mountain is where time stops. The rock does not care for minutes or hours, it doesn’t care for days and hardly for years. A mountain only regards the eons. In the rocky trails Lyon and Gray could forget about EVERYTHING, they could just move in a place where yesterday was inconsequential and tomorrow, irrelevant. Here, with unforgiving wind &&. snow for company, their university was merely one building in millions many kilometres away and it was just the two of them– just them, against the world.
It was that CAGED BEAR feeling they had to hike out of their bones before they could resume their studious life. And without a word passing between them, their hearts knew this mountain to be a sacred place that could still their cluttering minds.
❝ I thought I’d want t’ show ya th’ scenery up ‘ere one day. ❞ Gray proffered his partner an affectionate glance before his cunning gaze shifted to meander over the flickering fire, ❝ I was worried about yer legs, Lyon. But that… that didn’t stop you. You did it —– and we are up ‘ere now. ❞
( You fuckin’ did it, princess. And I’m proud. )
