It was very cold, the chillness seeping into the skin, stinging like a thousand needles. Mia was breathless, struck in snow, her ice goggles and the hooded gear still on. Except for one of her hands and her face, her body was shrouded by sheets of snow. The heavy layers of clothing couldn't stand against it. Soon, hypothermia set in and clattering of her teeth sounded like a typewriter. Shouting for help was impossible as her lungs wouldn't take much air to produce voice, at least not a louder one. 

Looking around her showed she was still inside the tent her father and her brother shoved her into, before the disaster struck their point. Except, the fully functioning tent had dents now and the white mass filled in through it.

"Trans... Trans..." Her feeble tone called her brother. He never liked the pet name she gave him, saying it was how they called the transistor in their electronic lab. "Daddy... you guys out there? I'm stuck!"

'Am I not audible or is that all just in my head? Why wouldn't anyone come?' Her shivering intensified. In the next few seconds, an unbearable agonizing pain shot through her legs, making her shriek. The reason was obvious to her. With the rapid descend in body temperature, muscle cramps were anticipated. However, the pain in the leg told her it was Trench's foot. Crying in misery, she expected it to turn numb real quick and fortunately, it did. The tears chilled her face evermore.

"Trans... Why are you not coming?' Mia searched in-between the chatter. "I'm dying here..."

As the word dying escaped her mouth or her thought, a thousand bolts of fire hit her suddenly, in the name of a panic attack.

She started to move, trying to free herself from the weighing snow, gasping for air. Tons of lectures on survival had been given for years, yet at that moment she did what she shouldn't have done.

'I won't die... I won't... Not here. Not today... Mithran, you bastard... You told me you'll protect me from anything and everything. You left me to die here... Daddy... You're not gonna find me?' she kept rambling in her head while she kept working on the restricting sheets around her, in vain.

"Panic... And you'll die the next minute..." Her father's voice barked in her head and she stopped.

A commotion happened nearby. She could hear heavy breaths and someone tore off the sides of the tent and opened it...

An engine roared to life, pulling Mia away from her memory and she fought hard not to look back. With the huge earphones on, the rotating blades still deafened her. A thumps-up sign from all the four inside the red giant lifted them up in the air.

She needed to refresh her thoughts and keep it clear. The only person who could lift up her solemn spirit was her own flesh and blood.

'Ishaan would have loved this...' the mother's thought caressed her child she left behind a couple of thousands of kilometers away.

Upon understanding Mia's departure, "Mamma, I gonna go to you," The toddler clutched on to her legs, wailing, uncontrollable tears rolling down his cheeks. He reminded her of her when she was his age.

"Maama will bring you sweets, honey pie. Stay with grandma till that." Messing his hair amused her somehow, as much as playing with Ishaan's father's mane did. Pecking his cheeks was her last memory of Ishaan.

Even when he screamed calling her without break, she couldn't turn to see him. If she did, she knew she wouldn't

From the day he was born he had never left her sight until then. But she had a purpose, a duty to carry out for her family.

"Thinking of your boy?" The headset came to life and cracked in her ears.

Her companion, who had joined her from New Delhi, was looking at her intently from across her seat. Wrinkles coated the person's face. Mia remembered seeing her for the first time in the traumatic airplane ride from Kathmandu to Lukla, thirteen years ago and she even called her a psycho. The woman was a bit younger then.

The same woman who said, "It'd be a good death dying at the foot of my life's passion," and earned Mia's annoyance became a good friend in that venture.

Mia nodded as a reply, smile and pride indulging a glow in her gloomy face. Her mobile wallpaper displayed Mia, Ishaan and her husband Arjun - a candid picture taken when they were having a great time in their front yard, washing their car and drenching themselves in the path.

"Kat, this is him," Mia shared her delight.

"He's like Arjun..." Mrs. Kathleen L. Parker exclaimed.

Kat was one of the oldest visitors to Mount Everest. Thirty years of experience in climbing made her a powerful ally by Mia's side. Kat always knew what she was doing. Dhruv had an unshakable trust in her skills. Kathleen's story was briefed by Mia's father when they were back home the same year they met Kathleen.

Kat was a survivor of 1996 avalanche. Kathleen was then married to an Englishman - Henry Afton who was also a climber. Mrs. and Mr. Afton were on their usual adventure series with another couple, on that year. Being young and reckless, the four close friends didn't want to go back to base camp even after completing their expedition on the range. Though they couldn't able to summit that year, they just wanted to have fun.

Sherpas - a set of tribal people in Nepal, exquisite mountaineers, accompanied anyone who had to trek on the mountain. Sherpa Tenzing was the first to reach the peak of the Earth. He was the guide to Mr. Hillary. The tradition followed to the date. In the eagerness to test if they could survive without their escort, Kat and her little mates left Camp 2 at the nightfall without notice.

As they explored the divergent paths, rocks and crevices, the disaster happened. The devilish avalanche was merciless to anything that stood In its way. Kathleen and her husband were in the middle of the torrent, surveying a hiding cleft under the rock and a chunk of snow. To escape the calamity, a quick decision was made to slide into the narrow opening which will lead to an underlying cave of sort. It was not easy to crawl into the fissure with layers after layers of insulation. 

Removing the top layer, Henry had Kathleen creep in first. After pushing down their gear, he followed but he was half caught in the snowslide. Kat had to pull him, battling with the speed snow but it was too late to maintain his body temperature after it. He died there after eighteen hours to Kat's dismay. Kat was rescued after six days.

"... but more like Rock-Jock Rider." She said after looking closely for a long minute.

The fellow climbers called Dhruv Abhimanyu as Rock-Jock Rider. Mia's father was a proud mountaineer for as long as she could remember. The summers were always without Dhruv at home. His second residential address pointed to Mount Everest. Trekking was only allowed during the Indian summer. Mid-March was the time he would pack his gear and returned back at the beginning of June. Neighbors of the towering mountain range were also visited yet they couldn't enthrall him. He kept bouncing back to his cozy tall abode no matter wherever he went.

The stories of his adventures captivated Mia even when she was a toddler. Back then when he loaded his rucksack for his vacation, she would stand by his side with teary eyes, pouting. However, his absence never bothered her as she knew she would get tons of stories when he returned. Maybe that was why she wanted to be like him too. And maybe that was why she wouldn't ponder about her husband's absence as well.

Suddenly a male voice popped in the earphone, "The temperature falls too quickly. Mornings are chilly, Mrs. Tej. And we're landing... Hold on."

The jiggling ended as the Helicopter touched the helipad. As her feet hit the snowy ground, she missed the balance and fell.