God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Mountain of ice, part 8

Unlike D'Argen in his little corner, Thar had a lot more area around him to explore. Which also meant that D'Argen would have to go to him, instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, D'Argen did not have the energy to scale the ice wall sideways until he reached the other. Even more unfortunately, he had to try anyway because the two could not talk at this distance without yelling and Thar was already straining his mahee.

Not even a quarter of the way through scaling the wall, D'Argen was steaming with anger. Too many times did the crack under his foot become larger or a small ledge appeared much closer to him than he needed. He started stabbing his hooks much harder into the wall of ice and some of the cracks he created spidered up and down. Every time, he froze to stare and wait. Every time, the ice remained together.

By the time he was halfway through, he was sweating so much that his gloves were soaked in it and his hands were slipping on the handles of the climbing hooks. Another three steps sideways and if it were not for the leather straps around his wrists, he would have fallen.

Or Thar would have caught him.

The idiot.

D'Argen started swearing under his breath with every movement, pushing his body. He changed the swears into a spell multiple times to strengthen his arms, but either the magic wore off too fast or he was too tired and needed the help again much sooner.

He needed to take a break, but he was finally close enough to hear Thar's voice as he said, "Almost."

"Stop using your mahee, your fucking idiot," D'Argen swore to the ice in front of his nose. Thar did not respond to that one but he did not create an additional ledge for D'Argen again until the runner's foot slipped.

"Take my hand," Thar said and it sounded so close. D'Argen was startled to see Thar leaning against the wall, one of his hands covered up to the wrist in ice as an anchor in the wall while the other reached out for him.

D'Argen rolled his eyes and pointedly ignored the hand in order to stab the climbing hook into the wall of ice one more time. Thar winced and D'Argen decided it would be better for his own sanity to ignore the other as he shifted to the side. Once he was almost over the ledge, he finally looked at Thar and said, "Help me down, will you?"

Thar immediately wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled, taking most of his weight. D'Argen was so tired and his limbs were all numb from either pain or strain, but he held himself together long enough for Thar to take them a few steps away from the edge. Then, he let his good leg buckle under him. Thar slowly lowered him to the ground so he was sitting but D'Argen let him go completely until he was lying down.

The cold was horrible. He was sweating so much but the cold was absolutely horrible for his lungs and mouth. Even his eyes were dry and he could not stop blinking to try to get them wet. After a moment, the air around him started warming up. D'Argen closed his eyes so he would not roll them and let Thar take care of him.

"May I touch you?" Thar asked.

D'Argen scoffed and attempted to wave a hand in the air in a 'go ahead' gesture. He was not sure if it translated properly. Thar hesitated only for a moment before he started touching D'Argen's body. First, he focused on his leg. Both of them knew that D'Argen's ribs were more fragile but D'Argen could hold his breath and run. He could not, however, run on a broken leg, no matter how much his mahee helped him.

"Your hip is not fully in alignment," Thar said once his cold hands had prodded around the painful bump of his hip enough.

"No wonder it hurts so much," D'Argen muttered in reply.

"You should not have been—"

"Shut up and just set it," D'Argen interrupted and somehow found the strength to lift one arm in front of his face. Without thinking too much about it, he bit into the thick leather of his bracer and waited. He could not help but tense up even if he knew it would hurt less if he was relaxed. Thar's cold hands were like ice teeth tearing at his skin. He pushed suddenly and through the pain, those hands turned into a cold balm to wash away the burn of bone grinding against bone.