Olympus: It's Not Just a Game

Chapter 40

Jacob wiped the sweat trickling down has forehead with the back of one hand. Then he took another dangerous step sideways across the cliff face. The pitted, grainy red sandstone was inches from his nose. It loomed over him, blocking out the sky. The pebbles that skittered out from under his feet fell hundreds of yards before landing in the rubble far below. Noah's gangly body blocked the view in the direction they were going, but the view behind them was spectacular.

Great plates of unearthly red stone jutted up like the back of a stegosaurus. They were crawling across one such slab as they worked their way up Mount Olympus.

The Mountain itself was guarded on the East and West by sheer, unscalable cliffs. Only this long, red, jagged ridge of sandstone provided access to Olympus: if you could call this access. A person would have to be half fly, Jacob thought, to follow this path.

It hadn't been so hard at first. Their climb had begun with gentle, grassy hills that led up to broken blocks of stone. They had laughed and skipped like mountain goats as they picked their way over the red, pillow-shaped boulders. But the stones got larger and more vertical as they gained altitude, and they were still thousands of feet below the tops of the great granite cliffs of Olympus.

Jacob missed a step, and felt his feet kick wildly into open space. He clung desperately to the finger holds in the sheer face of stone. "Karl!" he squealed.

"Hang on, boy!" Karl cried harshly. He was too far away to help.

Noah was closer. He reached out one arm and pressed Jacob in against the cliff. One foot, and then the other, managed to find a toehold. "That was close," Noah observed.

"Do we have to go this way?" Jacob gasped. He fought back a wave of nausea. He had never been afraid of heights, but this was different.

"See that cliff?" asked Karl. Jacob nodded. "That dragon is out there, and he's got Nancy."

"But isn't there another way? " Jacob asked.

"Only one way to Olympus," Karl snapped back. "This is it. They call it the Guardian of the Gods."

"Karl, this has gone too far. You've got to give up. Why don't you just come home, apologize to Dad, and get it over with?"

"No way," Karl answered, grimly. "I'd rather fall off this cliff."

Jacob looked down, turned pale green, and closed his eyes tightly. "You're sick, Karl."

"Yeah? Well you're a wimp, Jacob." Karl felt a geyser of contempt building up within him. It had been building up there ever since Nancy had told Jacob about forgiveness. "You'd rather go to your sweet Jesus than face your own problems. You're a weakling, Jacob, and I'm surprised you've made it this far. Why don't you just pull off your helmet and leave me alone!"

"I won't leave you until you forgive me," Jacob answered.

"If I started forgiving you now for every nasty thing you've done or said, we'd be here for weeks, pal." Karl spat out his contempt. "What do you care, anyway? I thought your God had forgiven you. What do you need me for?"

"Karl, you're my brother!"

"Like, I'm gagging here, Jacob."

Noah sighed, and changed the subject. "Maybe we should just keep climbing, guys," he said. "That dragon can go a long way on those wings, even though he is lugging my sister."

"And we're going after them," Karl replied grimly. "So stop talking and start walking."

The way was heartbreakingly difficult, but not impossible. Olympus was not for weaklings or cowards, but one did not have to be a dragon to reach the cliff tops. The red sandstone slabs finally gave way to the dark embrace of the pine forest at the cliff tops. Karl teetered recklessly on the edge, and kicked a stone. He watched it fall endlessly down. Noah watched it hit, and instinctively counted off the seconds until a tiny "plink" echoed back up to them. "Eight thousand feet," he noted. "We're up a mile and a half."

"Look at the foothills down there," Karl said. He waved at the broken green stair steps that led up from the wine-dark sea. "Remember climbing those?"

"Sure do." Noah took a deep breath. "Plenty of oxygen, so far."

"There won't be, further up," Karl replied. "Come on. We've only just begun."

The Mountain above the Cliffs was not bare rock, but it was practically vertical. Trees clung with desperate roots to the frighteningly steep slope. The pine trees were well over fifty feet tall, but Jacob could reach out from the side of the Mountain and touch their upper branches with one hand. Each step dislodged small stones that bounced down the slope, off the cliffs, and into the void below. Every once in a while they came to a wound in the earth where a huge pine had simply toppled off the slope altogether.

"We'd better get to flatter ground before nightfall," Noah grunted. "Imagine trying to sleep on this?"

Jacob tried to keep up, but his strength was giving out. Noah's long, lanky form was designed for this kind of hand over hand climbing, and Karl had always had the strength of an ox. But Jacob was hurting. Noah noticed first. "Hey, Karl, let's take a rest."

"No time," Karl growled. "That dragon isn't going to stay put. This is no place for babies."

Noah eyeballed Karl, then glanced back at Jacob. He could see the smaller boy was in trouble. Then he heard a sound of falling water, coming from the right. "Then let's head over that way," he urged. "I think I hear a stream. I'm thirsty." Karl was thirsty too, so he grudgingly agreed to work sideways across the Mountain.

They couldn't have made a better choice. The stream had carved out a deep gully in the side of the Mountain, and the water carved stones formed a much better stairway than the crumbling earth slope. The water was to die for. It came down in great cascades of ice cold snowmelt, thundering and gurgling down to be cliffs below. "Good trout stream, huh?" Noah joked.

"Trout?" Jacob was far too tired to catch the twinkle in Noah's eye.

"Flying fish, maybe," Karl grinned. Now Jacob caught on, and grinned back, despite his weariness. He had never been so tired in his life, but he had made it, and Karl was joking with him the way he used to when they were both little boys.

They pushed on, and the stream they followed became an ever deeper gorge. The sun lit the tops of the stone walls, but their path led through darkness. The ice cold water gurgled through stone channels coated with wet moss moss, and for a few moments Noah thought they would have to turn around and find a less slippery route.

Karl refused to give up on hours of effort so easily. He took a rope in his teeth, and risked everything to push past the steep, slimy wall that blocked their path. Jacob cupped his hands so that Karl could get a foothold, and even let him use his shoulders as a stepstool. It worked. Cold, wet, and smeared green from head to foot, Karl finally reached secure footing above them. "I made it!" he called. "Grab the rope and climb up!"

Noah went up the slippery rock face and over hand, walking up the slimy boulders like a fly. Jacob tried to do the same, but his legs went out from under him and he spun crazily in midair. Noah and Karl had to haul him up bodily, flopping and thrashing on the slick stone like a fish on a line.

Noah looked at the two brothers and shook his head. "I'm glad somebody around here knows how to keep clean," he said smugly. That was too much for the Hubers. Jacob looked at Karl and raised a significant eyebrow. Karl looked back, and grinned. They pounced, and shoved slimy moss down Noah's shirt and up his pants legs until he was as green as either of them.

Noah ruefully wiped the moss off his clothing. "You guys are so juvenile," he complained. Karl hooted, and high-fived his brother. Jacob glowed with pleasure at Karl's acceptance. He looked apologetically at Noah, who grinned back at him, and winked.

They climbed on.