Peter, Kat and a few others were in the rescue team, left in the soaring chopper thirty hours ago. Without a permit and deteriorated body condition, the strict authorities in the base camp wouldn't let Mia in. She was under supervision.

As the helicopter pilot mentioned, the temperature fell rapidly and raised only with the sun. No matter how cold it was, the base camp was never vacant. Midnight snacks, soup and tea were served around the campfire. Laughter always erupted the valley. Sometimes there would be an orchestra.

"There has to be another reason to trigger an avalanche?" Mia's father teased once during a bonfire.

As June approached fast, the drastic change in the weather was as expected. There seemed to be no possibility for the clear weather window. With Arjun out there, she just couldn't sit in a tent waiting for the message from the safeguards. It had been six days already. Executing the plan was not the hard part, the timing was. A few master coins had been tricked and she hoped it worked out following her strategy.

In blind confidence, she left the tent. On her way around the camp, not a single soul paid any attention until she came across one Mr. Rajan Vasudevan. With prying small eyes under his spectacles and stern face, he would pass for a government official in any corner of the world. Features of a Nepali man was inscribed on every inch of his body.

"Stop looking at me, you idiot. This is all because of you." She grunted under her breath but smiled at him like he was one of her favorite men. 

She never liked him. The feelings must have been mutual, he usually snarled like a monkey at her. He had his reasons to do so. The young Mia could be considered as a prankish child. With the frisky nature, Mia once threw a cracker into Mr. Rajan's overall and the other one stuck in his hood. Tiny busters they were, harmless and did nothing but just startled him.

His complaint had stacks after stacks that Dhruv had a deep sleep for a few hours of lecture. Scarcely did she be available for Mr. Rajan after that incident. Though her innocuous pranks around him didn't stop and she was about to pull the biggest one of all.

Walking past the men cheering and drinking, she reached the neck of the valley after a few minutes and waited. It was this place through which the climbers came into the base camp, like an invisible portal. Though the opposite side of the entry point was where her attention was.

A magnificent view of the night sky attracted her as always. The clusters of stars coating the onyx spread across the valley were mesmerizing. An efficient artist spray-painted the litters of sparkles on the sable swart that glowed on its own. Aurora Borealis might be the only other phenomenon that could be compared to the excellence in front of her. Nothing else in the World had the rights to stand even beside it.

As time passed, anxiety crept in. 'Aren't they gonna show up today of all days? Ohh, please... I need you now. Don't do this to me...' she prayed. Her body was ice-cold. The breath vapor served as a distraction as she was observing and experimenting with it. 'How would the smoke come out if I don't inhale one? Why have I never thought about it? What'll I tell Ishaan if he asked me the same question?'

That was when she saw it - a few little green lights on the western ridge, moving towards her. Like the fireflies, they danced in the dark, except they were too slow to be one. Elated, she wanted to jump but stayed quiet so as not to attract any kind of adverse attention.

Holding the torch by her side and taking a few deep breaths, she started to climb the soft slopes of the ridge. Dhruv was the one brought her to those slant in the past and entertained her with the ravishing beauty of the night, showing the main component of her present game plan.

Upon analyzing the distance between the place where she stood and the flickering lights, she made an attempt to reach the area behind them. Only if she managed to make it, she could proceed with her plan, she knew and she took resolute steps towards it. The silence was the key but the lusters were eyeing her with the half-circle she crossed around them.

Switching on the light was off-limit. However, it was too creepy to be followed by the modest amount of little luminescences in the middle of the night, at the doorstep of the wild. The pumping adrenaline heated her mortal part, gushing the once frozen blood through the veins.

Closing the distance with each cautious and gentle steps - without making any noise, she decided 'now or never'. Taking a deep breath, she squawked continuously by turning on and off the torch. The eyes turned round as if in horror and a mass of grunt kicked-off from them. The flashes revealed a short, brown tribe of mammals, running wildly towards the base camp.

A satisfaction spread across her face. Quickly she ran behind the horde, down the heaping snow, through the gateway and into the camp. With the Himalayan gorals charging at their tent in fear, the people around the campfire scattered in all directions.

That was her chance to disappear from the quarantine tent next to Mr. Rajan Vasudevan. Gathering the already organized gear which included a huge rope, she set out, hoping she could get past the scrunched face official without notice.

Her anticipation paid off when the goral crew bounced back to whence they came, sweeping through the camp one more time. Successfully slipping through the sides, she set out to search for her missing husband. If not for the baggage, she wouldn't have to work hard to escape the place.

The helmet-mounted torch was kept in sleeping mode until she had reached a good range.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" A calm voice came from the dark.

She didn't even flinch from that sound, proving she was expecting it.

"You're late!" She accused, staring hard into the black night and got snorting as her reply.

Corners of her mouth turned up halfway and pulled back to its original state as she kept moving, the man's footsteps followed her heel, in the dark.

"I doubt if you've got the same skills as before. Being inactive and all..." The man talked again.

"You're talking too much, Sherpa Norbu!" She called to the back, grinning in the dark. The expected companion cheered her up. It didn't last for long though.

"Remember what your father will say to this?" His intended to stop her from climbing, let alone go search in the white wilderness.

How could she forget? Not only this, but every word that her father ever said were also carved deep inside her, for good. "Talents are hidden inside oneself, like the energy in physics terms. It can only be transformed, neither created nor destroyed. As for the skills... Well, it's a whole new institution..." Dhruv had lectured her several times when she skipped her workouts or even theory classes. The tennis club was an easy way to keep up her stamina and build strength.

Sherpa Norbu was her father's best friend for nearly thirty years. Accompanying both the old men to the summit had been fun. In the name of talent, they both showed off too often for Mia's liking, yet she loved them all the same.

Norbu must have surpassed her, he turned on his headlight before her face, looking intently with his scary little eyes. Crumpled paper replaced his once smooth skin, black marks visible in high quality. Even great people did age. Her thought should have left through her blooming eyes, he chuckled a little. His creepy look never startled her anyway.

"Your skills are rusty. You want to die out there?" His concerned look almost made her chortle.

Norbu was a friendly man but not the one to pity a climber for their inability. "Amateurs die out there. Why would I consider anyone who wanted to die?" He would throw it straight on their faces. He couldn't be ruder than that.

"I've you... I hope you don't let me die." She acted all cheeky as she did years ago when she was immature before the disaster happened. It felt like she had walked back in time where she was carefree, ludicrous and a trouble maker.

Dejected, he shook his head and turned around. "What if I didn't find you at the right time? What if I didn't come?"

"Am I an amateur to die out there?... I made you come here..."

"I can understand that much..." He might catch on she had guessed when she planned to provoke Norbu. "I can't believe a junior Abhimanyu will do this to me again. You're your father's daughter after all...!" Mia didn't understand the meaning behind it but she didn't want to enquire.

"You bet..." They were on the go with Sherpa Norbu as the lead.

"Where's your ladder by the way?"

Mia moved a bit faster and toucher the back of his rucksack which held the foldable ladder, shinning in her headlight. "Here!" She exclaimed. He shook his head again, his silver hair ruffling in the wind. "Let's stay at the foot of the football ground tonight," Mia added.

"It's 'shall we' with a question mark." One could not expect leniency from him when it came to climbing.

Sharing a thousand other things, the rest of the night flew away.