The warmth was back. Aleph wasn't going to let it go now. GHHH, navigation was so hard. Aleph just grit their teeth. Dug their claws into determination. They were going to find out what on earth that light was! NO AMOUNT OF PESKY, FRIGID WIND WAS GOING TO STOP THAT GOAL!! Aleph was to be INVINCIBLE, stubborn and mighty as a fortress. What kind of fortress got blown over by a little chilly wind?!

NOT THIS ONE!

Okay. Actually you know what?

I retract that statement.

The light's visibility was at its strongest yet, seemingly attached to an indiscernible - but massive - silhouette. It stopped moving away, the blurred shadow stilling...

But, some storms were just too great for fortresses to withstand. In the blink of an eye, Aleph was swept up by a powerful blast of cold and practically carried back to the exit. All progress had disappointingly been reset.

... or, plenty gained? The feline'd seen but a glimpse of what lay in this vigorous blizzard; a later, more strategic endeavor might prove more fruitful.

@Alrik

"NO--!"

But not even the simplest, most obstinate denials could falsify reality.

With several 'oof's and many 'AGH's, Aleph found themself wound up all the way back at square one. Their head was thrumming, eyes watery from the impact of wind and frost having battered them relentlessly. Their little toesies felt numb.

Aleph's tail lashed. The only quick movement they felt capable of making at that moment. It was so hard to even just breathe out there. They were heaving. Sore. Tired. In need of warmth... warmth...

A cold, dense mind hardly has many good ideas. Aleph stared into the face of what they knew to be DANGER, and yet they still felt some mind-boggling form of a siren's call. The temptation, was it not too great for an adventurer? Time to gather breath and heat once more... wasn't that all they needed?

Where else were they going to get any heat in this darn room?

Aleph retreated, but not for long. One last push. ONE LAST PUSH! And a push it would have to be. And if the push didn't work this time, then so be it. THE NEXT TIME! But Aleph would keep pushing.

Because that is what Aleph does.

'Are ya ready? No. GOOD!'

And then the idiot went diving right back into the freeze at top speed.

Recovered, steeled by a dense brain, the pallas cat powered through the cold. Through skill - from the first venture - or pure luck, Aleph shoved back to where the floor faded into slick ice.

The firelight shuddered back into view, just as strong as it had been before the wind threw the cat back. It threatened to do as much again.

-
If Aleph wishes to keep going towards the light, they must roll a 15 or higher to combat the wind and cold, and keep a grip on the icy ground.

@Alrik

THIS WAS IT! The light! The warmth! It was in sight! Aleph wasn't stopping now, no way, even if they had to charge straight through a pigeonhole and come out the other end unharmed. It was SPEEDRUN TIME, BABY!

The adrenaline kicked up, the ice, the wind, the slippery slidey rush of it all!

It made the pallas cat really feel like they could do... ANYTHING!!!

It was really unfortunate that the laws of reality said they couldn't.

In the end, it was currently all too great for any Gembound to bear. The cold was biting into the cat slipping and sliding on the ice. It was only inevitable that a twisting gale would send them careening back to the start - but not yet.

The howling wind grew louder, a tell-tale sign of the blizzard coming at Aleph; but, rather than their being flung back into the snow, footsteps pounded closer. The once far-off silhouette hardened into something vaguely humanoid, with an immense span of something spread behind it.

Its immense size warded off any wind, for the moment, and warmth bloomed at the cat's side. Looking over would reveal the shape of a lantern, smelling faintly of wood and attached to a pole some ten feet long.

Mere seconds passed before a voice urged Aleph, simultaneously clear and a deep susurrus: "go. It's not safe here, not yet."

-
Aleph is safe from the wind for as long as ??? is shielding them.

@Alrik

Aleph had expected something stupid like another strong gust or some mind-numbing pain to send Aleph on a mobius strip of doom-- that was to say, back to the beginning. Back to a failure, although not necessarily a defeat, that they would have to accept less their body decide that their soul wasn't a fitting owner and caretaker anymore.

But... that didn't... happen.

Warmth. Warmth happened. Light and uh, refuge from what should've been a pesky storm? Aleph desperately tried to orient themself, to see what the heck this thing was. It spoke, Aleph heard it! That was the last thing they had expected there. "Uh-- uh," they tried to sputter out some form of intelligible sentence, or even a single word that made sense, but all their senses were failing them currently. 'Come on Aleph, just GET IT TOGETHER ALREADY!' And thus, it was done.

"Y-- wh-- who? You uh, w-wha?" Well. It was as done as it could be. Aleph could only really marvel in a bewildered stupor, not really knowing where to put their paws or where they might even go if they could figure out how moving worked again.

Maybe it was the stupidity bravery. Maybe it was the freeze. It was probably the freeze. Okay, it was definitely the freeze.

((OOC: "err4555555 5" a special message, just for you Navy))

"Y-- wh-- who? You uh, w-wha?" Beat. A long silence - save for the winds gusting around - as if the silhouette were considering the wellness and safety of the feline.

The light drew up and away, and the silhouette shuffled back into a blurry mass. It stepped slightly to the side, allowing the cat to feel at least half of the blizzard's strength. That was enough to send Aleph away and into more gentler weather.

"Azigh," came the now-sourceless whisper, echoing from where Aleph had been.

-
Aleph has been knocked back towards the start, and may be unable to locate ??? again in this thread.

(thank you very much for this message)
@Alrik

Whatever -- whoever it was was now moving aside. Huh? Why? What?

Aleph finally registered, perhaps with the help of a very, very cold gust shooting icy talons into their pelt, that it was time to go.

So they went, stumbling, confused, away from the scene they'd been knocked back from so many times over. Only an echo of a word remained in their head as the trundled away. 'Azigh...' It sounded like nonsense.

Everything sounded like nonsense right now.

- exit -