The air held a crisp chill to it; what little vegetation there was this high up in the mountain was brittle and gave way with a soft crunch underneath the huntress' boots. The refreshing autumn air tasted of frost and cold, a dead give away that winter was about to be upon the world despite the lack of snowfall. Had she been the sedentary sort--living in a city somewhere, maybe a small town, focused on home life--she might have been concerned about the upcoming holidays and the ensuing family gatherings that would clog up the schedule; however, as she would readily admit, she wasn't one for sitting idle. It was a lifestyle she had learned early into her teenage years, and one that she would likely carry for the rest of her life; she stopped in town for supplies every now and again, perhaps catch up on the news if it interested her enough, but for the most part she was nomadic and living on her own. She preferred it, to be honest--in nature, there was comfort in even the most arduous of surroundings and situation--in the cities and the towns, there was nothing for her. As the wind picked up, she pulled her hood over her head to keep the chill away.
As opposed to the heavier armor she might have worn in combat or on dangerous jobs, the huntress was wearing woolen and fur garments supplemented by leather gauntlets, boots, and breastplate; a leather bracelet with a spiral pattern was worn on her left wrist. She took a breath and exhaled, watching the breath come out in a small cloud of condensation. She stopped as she came to where the mountain split. It was a curious sight, staring at what had once been the inside of a previously unified piece of tectonic earth; as many prior to her had before, she silently wondered what could have caused it to split as it currently stood. While many pictures would have the average person believe that the split was even throughout its length, it varied quite a bit--towards the ends, it was quite large, while the middle narrowed and widened at random intervals. Where the young woman stood, the split was about twenty meters. It would have been easy enough to jump across with a running start and climb back up--she had done similar before--but something inside was urging her to be cautious. The nagging feeling persuaded her to flick her left wrist; her bow, Valkyrja, materialized in her hand almost instantaneously. She put her right hand on the drawstring and took a breath, a crystalline arrow forming between her fingers as she drew it back and took aim at the rock wall in front of her. An instant later, she let the arrow loose and watched it anchor itself into the rock face; a magical line formed from where she stood to the arrow head.
Letting go of the weapon in her hand, it dematerialized as she leaned down to give the line a testing pluck--seeing that it was taut and firm as usual, she tentatively put her foot on it. Finding her balance, she put her other foot in front of her before starting to walk across the makeshift tightrope she had made. The wall in front of her was much higher than where she had been standing--a sizeable climb--so the decision to walk across and climb instead of jumping across was an effort to conserve energy instead of needlessly waste it. Although twenty meters was not a far walk, it was painfully slow balancing across the magical line; it was fragile to most any kind of sharp or jarring movement, causing her to move with care instead of dashing across it.
'Stabil, Karin...' she thought to herself. The huntress was not afraid of heights--she loved them--but the precarious nature of her endeavor left her with a small sense of doubt. The drop to the ground below was considerable; hundreds of meters, for sure. She was about halfway through the walk; the cry of an eagle caught her off guard. Her feet slipped; immediately, her hands grabbed a hold of the line and hung on.
"Lort!"
Her exclamation (meaning "shit" in her mother tongue) was quite loud, ruining any silence that might have previously been on going...it also just so happened that the chasm she was traversing housed one of many entrances the Black Sails "guild" utilized around the mountain down below...however, not knowing that, the young woman was fairly certain she would be stuck holding on to her own tightrope for a while...
As opposed to the heavier armor she might have worn in combat or on dangerous jobs, the huntress was wearing woolen and fur garments supplemented by leather gauntlets, boots, and breastplate; a leather bracelet with a spiral pattern was worn on her left wrist. She took a breath and exhaled, watching the breath come out in a small cloud of condensation. She stopped as she came to where the mountain split. It was a curious sight, staring at what had once been the inside of a previously unified piece of tectonic earth; as many prior to her had before, she silently wondered what could have caused it to split as it currently stood. While many pictures would have the average person believe that the split was even throughout its length, it varied quite a bit--towards the ends, it was quite large, while the middle narrowed and widened at random intervals. Where the young woman stood, the split was about twenty meters. It would have been easy enough to jump across with a running start and climb back up--she had done similar before--but something inside was urging her to be cautious. The nagging feeling persuaded her to flick her left wrist; her bow, Valkyrja, materialized in her hand almost instantaneously. She put her right hand on the drawstring and took a breath, a crystalline arrow forming between her fingers as she drew it back and took aim at the rock wall in front of her. An instant later, she let the arrow loose and watched it anchor itself into the rock face; a magical line formed from where she stood to the arrow head.
Letting go of the weapon in her hand, it dematerialized as she leaned down to give the line a testing pluck--seeing that it was taut and firm as usual, she tentatively put her foot on it. Finding her balance, she put her other foot in front of her before starting to walk across the makeshift tightrope she had made. The wall in front of her was much higher than where she had been standing--a sizeable climb--so the decision to walk across and climb instead of jumping across was an effort to conserve energy instead of needlessly waste it. Although twenty meters was not a far walk, it was painfully slow balancing across the magical line; it was fragile to most any kind of sharp or jarring movement, causing her to move with care instead of dashing across it.
'Stabil, Karin...' she thought to herself. The huntress was not afraid of heights--she loved them--but the precarious nature of her endeavor left her with a small sense of doubt. The drop to the ground below was considerable; hundreds of meters, for sure. She was about halfway through the walk; the cry of an eagle caught her off guard. Her feet slipped; immediately, her hands grabbed a hold of the line and hung on.
"Lort!"
Her exclamation (meaning "shit" in her mother tongue) was quite loud, ruining any silence that might have previously been on going...it also just so happened that the chasm she was traversing housed one of many entrances the Black Sails "guild" utilized around the mountain down below...however, not knowing that, the young woman was fairly certain she would be stuck holding on to her own tightrope for a while...