The climbing trail on Mount Atmos was not written on any map.
Not because no one had ever climbed it, but because no one felt the need to record it. The mountain was only 700 meters tall, too rocky and steep to attract anyone without a specific reason for passing through.
Old volcanic rock filled its trail from bottom to peak, the edges sharp and uneven, and in some places the trail simply disappeared behind large boulders.
The small-framed figure moved among those rocks like someone who knew every gap by heart.
The grey hoodie was still on, its cap covering the head and part of the face, a cloth mask covering from the nose downward. Their feet made no sound when landing on stone, no gravel shifted, no branch snapped underfoot.
Occasionally the figure stopped behind a tree with a thick trunk, their body still for several seconds, only sensing the flow of air around them. There were no sounds or smells that seemed out of place. Their feet moved again.
A hand reached into the pocket of their coat, fingers feeling around a small cloth pouch inside before tossing it aside carelessly. "Only 200 Virel." Their head gave a small shake. "Dressed that lavishly ... she should have been carrying more money."
The warm spring pool was already visible through the large trees ahead, no bigger than half a rice field plot, but its steam could be felt from ten steps away. A thin mist floated on its surface, contrasting with the cold air at that altitude that made breath appear as white vapor.
The figure stopped at the edge, checking the surroundings once more. Dark, quiet, only the sound of water flowing gently from a crack in the rock on the north side of the pool.
Their shoulders dropped, the tension releasing in one long exhaled breath.
The cloth mask came off first, placed on a flat stone at the edge of the pool. Then the hoodie came down, bright green hair falling to the shoulders, disheveled from a full day of travel.
The woman's skin was as white as bone, her body standing only 160 centimeters tall with two small but still firm breasts. Her head gave one shake and her hair moved aside from her face, revealing ears that were pointed at the tips, longer than human ears with an angle that tilted slightly upward.
Her feet entered the water first, her toes touching the smooth stone bottom, and a small sound left her mouth as the warmth rose to her ankles, to her calves, to her waist, then to her shoulders. Her body was fully submerged, her head tilting back toward the sky, her eyes closing.
"Ahh ... so comfortable. This is the best place to rest after working all day," she murmured, feeling the warm water against her skin.
For several minutes she only floated with light movements of her hands. Her lips formed a hum with no lyrics, the tone rising and falling in an uneven pattern. Her hands washed her arms, her neck and, her face. Her bright green hair was wet and some of it stuck to her cheeks.
She swam slowly to the other side of the pool, then turned back. The woman then stood at the center of the pool rinsing her hair with both hands, her body fully relaxed for the first time since that morning.
Everything was calm and quiet until from the right corner of the pool, from behind the thicker mist near the large boulder, that sound came out.
"Huaam."
The woman stopped moving.
Her head turned slowly toward the sound, her eyes narrowing as they searched for its source among the mist and shadows of the rocks. Between two large boulders jutting into the pool, a head surfaced above the water, silver hair wet and pressed to the forehead, eyes still half-closed blinking slowly in her direction.
"Hi." Ash raised his hand slightly above the water surface.
The woman stared at him for three seconds without moving.
"You pervert!" Her voice came out sharp.
Both her hands raised in front of her body, elbows slightly bent, her left fingers closing into a position like holding a bow. "Since when have you been there?"
Ash yawned once more before answering. "I'm not sure." His shoulders lifted slightly under the water. "Maybe a few hours."
The woman furrowed her brow. Her eyes swept the edge of the pool, searching for a bag or supplies that would show how long the man had been there, and found them on a tree trunk to the west. A small bag and a set of clothes hanging from a low branch, facing directly toward the pool.
Blue light appeared between the fingers of her left hand, slowly forming into a lengthening line, then curving, a transparent blue crystal bow forming fully in her grip.
Her right hand drew back the glowing bowstring until the blue light extended following the pull, forming an arrow of pure energy whose tip vibrated and made the water surface around her vibrate faintly.
Ash's eyes narrowed, this was something he had never seen before.
The woman released her arrow.
Ash's eyes went wide watching the blue flash of light streak toward him.
BOOM!
The blue light struck the large boulder behind Ash, and the rock the size of his body shattered into fragments flying in every direction. The shockwave from the explosion pushed the pool water outward in all directions in a circular wall twice the height of the woman's body, then crashed back down to the surface with a loud sound that filled the entire pool.
"What? He dodged it ... from this distance?" The woman furrowed her brow further.
"What are you doing?" Ash was still there, his head tilted with a graze on his cheek. His purple blood was visible for a moment before slowly closing over as his skin sealed shut.
The woman caught a glimpse of it. "His blood ... it's not red? and the wound closed on its own?"
Ash moved into the water, submerging himself completely. Suddenly a large wave came from beneath the surface, pushing the elf woman backward at a speed that gave her no time to think.
The woman crouched low, her gaze sharp, her left palm opening outward. A half-circle frosted wall appeared from her palm, transparent like glass, and the wave of water split to the left and right as it struck it.
Suddenly a pair of hands wrapped around her from behind before the protective wall disappeared. Two large muscular arms encircled outside her shoulders, the woman's arms locked at her sides.
"WAA! LET ME GO!" The woman tried pushing forward, to the left, twisting her body, but the arms locking her gave her no room to move at all, the pressure too strong to fight against with physical strength.
"Why did you suddenly attack me?" Ash asked at the woman's ear.
Then both of them asked at nearly the same moment.
"Who are you really?"
The man turned toward the right side of the woman's head, toward the pointed ear emerging from behind her wet green hair. His voice came out quieter. "Elf? are you lost here, elfgirl?"
The woman snorted. "Girl?" Her tone shifted from sharp to something colder. "My age is far beyond yours, you know. Show a little respect."
Her hand, trapped between her own arms and Ash's arms, moved, her fingers finding the skin of Ash's arm and pressing her full palm against it.
Ash's body immediately convulsed hard, as if struck by electricity, and the arms that had been locking her weakened. The woman pushed outward, sliding forward two steps in the water, and turned to face Ash.
Both her hands swung upward, her palms open toward the water's surface.
The thin warm vapor floating on the pool's surface moved as if summoned, rising and expanding, swirling between them until thick mist formed in seconds, filling the space between them with a white layer that blocked all sight.
Her feet were already moving toward the edge of the pool before the mist had spread. Her body came out of the water in one efficient movement, her feet landing on the pool's edge in two steps and the first large enough tree was immediately climbed.
Her hands grabbed a branch, her feet pushed off the trunk, her body rising until she reached the third branch that was thick enough to stand on.
Below, the mist slowly thinned.
Ash stood at the center of the pool, his head turning left and right, his eyes scanning the now-empty pool edge. His hands were still slightly trembling from the shock earlier. The pool returned to quiet except for the sound of water from the crack in the rock on the north side and one large boulder that was no longer whole.
Above the branch, in darkness thick enough to conceal her bright green hair, the elf woman sat with one leg hanging down. Her hands opened a thin wallet that had somehow been in her grip without being known when, her fingers pulling its contents out one by one onto her palm.
An identification card. Silver Ash, resident of Pinedale Village, Midreach region.
Several notes of money that she held toward the moonlight to check the denominations. 500,000 Eron, her lips moved calculating the exchange rate, and her eyes narrowed toward the pool below. "About 50 Virel."
Her voice barely came out, only for herself. "Tch, just a poor farmer from Midreach."
Her hand closed the wallet, her eyes not leaving the figure still standing in the pool below. "But what's with that blood color and the regeneration?" Her brow furrowed slightly. "He's not an ordinary human."
Below, Ash looked up toward the night sky above the pool, then back to the water's surface.
The woman was nowhere to be found.
***