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Prompt I

The rugged peaks of The Sceptres tower before you, icy slopes reaching so high they extend into the clouds. Many have met their end on those cliffs. It's no wonder only the Chimera bother to make their home there. No other Nightmare is as well suited for the treacherous landscape.

The journey ahead is dangerous and punishing. Before you can even begin climbing though, first you have trek through the forests sprawled out around the base of the mountain range. The woods are as quiet as the grave under the blanket of snow. The crunch of your footsteps seems echo throughout the undergrowth, while at the same time sounding muffled.

Suddenly, you see a shape move in the trees ahead. As it emerges from the trees, you recognise it to be a bear. An enormous bear. It spies you in return and rises up on its back legs.

Prompt II

You find yourself marching against an incline. The woods grow thinner, the air colder, and the path more treacherous. The undergrowth which helped you to find your footing before has become scarce, with only a few scattered brambles protruding from the rocky mountainside.

As you ascend higher, you feel the claws of the alpine wind sinking into your clothing. Most of the trees are behind you, leaving you with little protection from the gale. The path ahead is clear at least. You can begin to plan your assault up the cliffs.

Your boots puncture the snow with a distinct crunch. Around you, the mountain seems to groan. The sound is your only warning. Your feet slide out from under you, as snow and gravel rush down like a waterfall.

Prompt III

If you doubted it before, there is no question that you have reached the heart of the mountains. A sheer cliff towers before you, a vertical plane that goes up over four hundred feet, surface glossed with ice and brine. Shallow indents in the rock mark a potential climbing route, while other places are as sleek and polished as a silver mirror. As the wind buffets you from below, you can only imagine how much worse it is in the air. Even so, the only way to go is up.

Prompt V

It's impossible to tell how much time has passed. It could be days. It feels like days. The scenery from outside your shelter has been an unchanging white wall, only occasionally marked by streaks of grey or black through the sheets of hail. At last though, the storm has let up. The pale sky is as clear a blue as you've ever seen, and it seems as if you could stare into infinity.

Not that you have time for that.

Even if the weather is clear, the air is still brutally cold, freezing you down to your bones. Worse still, you feel a gnawing hunger in your belly. You depleted the last of your reserves in the snowstorm, and now you'll have to forage or hunt for your next meal.

Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: I

RP Response: Peregrine was a daredevil. And by that, he meant that he couldn't turn down a dare. So that was why he was here at the Sceptres about to risk his life. Not that he wasn't physically fit enough for the trail because he was. Extreme sports were his thing and this was just about as extreme as you could get for a non-Chimera.

Shifting his pack, he started into the trees. That was when he saw it. Something moving in the shadows. Cursing under his breath, Peregrine slid behind a fairly large tree until he could figure out what it was. A few minutes of lurking (because he was not hiding, damn it) revealed the shadow was a bear. A huge bear. Great. He snapped a couple pictures of it with his phone because who would believe this? Staying quiet, he crept around the tree and tried to avoid getting in the bear's way.

But that didn't work. The bear spotted him and went up on his hind legs. Good thing Peregrine was on the tall side. He made himself look as large as possible in order to bluff his way out of this. Luckily for him, the bear decided he wasn't worth the trouble and lumbered on to find easier prey.

Sweet.



Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: II

RP Response: Peregrine moved on, soon coming to the first incline of the mountain. It becomes harder to find his footing here; he has to be more careful picking a path. Spiked shoes were probably a really good idea. He grins to himself for thinking of wearing them as he tries to ignore the cold seeping through his clothes.

The higher he went, the more confident he got with placing his gloved hands and booted feet. And then it happened. There was a deep groaning noise and it was the only warning Peregrine received before a slide of gravel and snow sent him rushing back down the mountain.

When it finally stopped, he was partially buried beneath the debris but managed to dig his way out of it. He didn't seem to be hurt too badly which was good. Sore, but he had expected this climb to make him that way. Just maybe not this soon. Unfortunately the slide had set his progress back. A lot. With a sigh he pulled his pack out of the hole and checked it over. No rips or tears, nothing inside got crushed too badly. After taking a break, he started back up the mountain.



Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: III

RP Response: Finally he made it up to a plateau where the sheer cliff face was in front of him and the smaller mountain he'd just climbed was behind him. The wind was hitting him from all sides and he could only imagine what it would be like to fly in these winds. He heaved a sigh as he looked up at the cliff before him. Nowhere to go but up. Shoving the picks of his boots into the cliff face, he began to climb again. This was going to be a very long and very difficult climb. But he refused to give up. He was definitely going to make it to the top of this thing.



Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: IV

RP Response: The higher he climbed, the colder it got. He could barely feel his fingers anymore which he realized could be very dangerous. One wrong grip and he'd be falling and then... Splat. Peregrine did not want to go splat. But it was still light out. As long as he could see he should be fine.

He didn't even have to say it out loud. The universe heard his thoughts and sent him snow. At first just a little. Not enough for him to want to stop. But then there was more, and more. Great. A blizzard. Just what he needed. He sighed and started to look for somewhere he could camp out while the blizzard played. There. To the left, a cave. He shifted his weight and very, very carefully moved laterally to get to it. Climbing inside, he moved in a little deeper to get away from the wind and snow and pulled his pack off to try and light a little fire. Just something to warm his hands and to ward off frostbite.



Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: V

RP Response: Peregrine must have fallen asleep at some point because his fire had gone out. Unfortunately the blizzard was still raging outside his shelter. If he was smart, he would ration the supplies he had left, just in case the storm lasted longer than a day or so. Shaking off the worst of the chill that had begun to settle in his bones, Peregrine lit another fire and prayed to the Nine that this storm wouldn't last much longer. He hadn't planned on this trip taking this long, though he supposed he probably should have packed for the possibilities. Like a blizzard. With a sigh, he leaned back against a wall of the cave and watching the snow fly past the entrance.

The storm must have lasted for days. His rations were gone and hunger clawed at his stomach. But finally the blizzard relented. Peregine groaned as he stood; the cold and cramped cave made his limbs stiff but at least they all worked. No frostbite as far as he could tell. He paused at the entrance to his makeshift shelter and marveled at the clear blue sky. It was beautiful...but not what he was here for. Before he could continue on his trek, he was going to have to hunt or forage. Well. Since all he had brought in terms of a weapon was a pocket knife... Foraging it was going to be.

At least he knew which berries and herbs were edible. Greenery was few and far between but Peregrine was at least able to ease the hunger in his belly with what he found as he climbed. It was still freezing, and he could feel the cold deep inside but soon his trek would be over and he would be able to head home with a memory that few had.



Username: Strawberri Stardust
Character Name: Peregrine
Prompt: VI

RP Response: He was exhausted, starving, and cold deep down into his soul. Or that's what it felt like. Like he would never be warm again. But he had finally made it to the top. The view was breathtaking. Feeling weak in the knees at the sight (not to mention the winds were fierce this high) Peregine sat near the edge and just took in the view. The way the world looked so small from up here. This right here was definitely worth everything he had gone through to get here. He was only sad that he couldn't take pictures of it. His phone had died during the blizzard.

So maybe he wouldn't have pictures to share with people back home but he would always have this memory. All of them, even the ones that had sucked. Even the hunger that still gnawed at him. The bear, the storm, foraging for his food, and going without sleep, in the face of what he beheld now they were nothing. Hell, he was nothing in the face of this view. He grinned and chuckled to himself as he thought about that.

Of course, the only thing better than this view would be this view plus a sunset, or a sunrise. He planned to see both. He made it up here, he might as well get all the experience he possibly could out of this. He had foraged enough berries and herbs and had been lucky enough to find (read: almost get bitten by) a snake that he managed to kill with his pocket knife. He spent the day skinning and deboning that before building a fire to cook it on and keep warm with.

Sunset came soon after he had eaten and he was able to relax as he watched the colors change the sky from the palest of blues to shades of orange, pink, and eventually into purples and dark blues. He watched the stars for a while, picking out constellations that he remembered from school. Soon though, the warmth from the fire and having a fairly full belly lulled him to sleep.

The morning came and he almost missed the reversal of the show he'd gotten the night before but a stray beam of light hit him directly in the face and woke him up just in time to witness the sunrise. He felt such a profound sense of peace up here it seemed almost criminal to leave. But leave he must. He still wasn't sure how long he had been gone, and he'd only had a little over a week in his vacation from classes in order to take this hike.

Opening his bag, Peregine pulled out supplies to build himself a hang glider. Probably not the brightest idea, but it would absolutely get him to the bottom of this mountain faster than he'd gotten up there. Besides, even if no one saw him he would still look cool doing it.

As long as he didn't die. With a grin, he strapped his helmet on and took off, aiming for the farmlands below.

Username: moonlit-raven
Character Name: Amias
Prompt: 4

RP Response:
Amias had been right about it getting worse, but luckily he had made it up far enough that he was no longer climbing straight up. Still, he knew that he couldn't make it much farther, he couldn't feel his finger and toes, and the wind was starting to pick up. It brought snow with it, first his favorite kind, but then so much that he could barely see his way in front of him. He needed shelter, to get out of this, but he hadn't seen any sort of cave or nook that he could shelter in.

He'd have to dig a snow cave.

He pulled his shovel off of his pack, unfolding it and then, digging into a deep snowbank. He focused on hollowing it out, just barely getting it to be long enough for him, and then as soon as it was done, climbed into his sleeping bag and squirmed into it feet first. He kept his shovel at hand, to keep his airhole clear, but other than that, the best thing for him was going to be to relax. He would be warm enough to survive, and as long as he was careful, still could move around a little. He had food and water, and was as safe as he could be at the moment.

Username: moonlit-raven
Character Name: Amias
Prompt: 6

RP Response:
Every step of the way, every trouble he had ran into, it had been worth it for this. It felt as if he could see the whole world from here, from the woods all the way to home. He knew that he couldn't, that he was only imagining it, but the view reminded him exactly why he had bothered with this. He had come to this mountain to challenge himself, to prove to himself that he could do it, that he could follow in the footsteps of other explorers, and then, maybe one day, be considered one himself.

Maybe one day a kid might climb this mountain thinking that they were following in his footsteps. It would be nice to inspire someone like that.

For now though, he had one last challenge to face. He still had to get down.