Edited by KitWulf                                          26-5-2021

*

"This should be it."

Azura watched the small clearing just outside of the city of Norbury. Killian had sent her directions to the place they could park the car and leave their belongings safe from prying eyes. At least, that's what he had promised. She had to take his word for it and said a small prayer he wasn't setting them up.

From here on they would have to shift and continue the rest of their journey as snow leopards. 'Head North and the way would show itself', Killian had told them, as if they had parts in a bad movie. Azura had tried to get better directions and asked if there was no other way, but Killian had sworn that it was the only way for now.

They were a two days drive away from Greenwood now and the scenery had dramatically changed during the ride. The weather was much colder here and resembled Pleyvale. They were again surrounded by tall mountains but these were much rockier and steeper than the ones she was used to at their home. Doing the math, they were technically a six-hour drive away from the green-eyed home base.

Being back in a place where the air was almost laced with ice felt amazing. No matter how much she loved the woods at Greenwood, now that she'd spent some time in the snow and mountains, she did prefer this type of terrain. It was much more suited for a snow leopard and less for wolves so it only made sense. There was no snow yet where they stood now, but Azura could smell it in the air. It wouldn't be long before the white substance would cover this area as well.

Taking out her phone, Azura started typing a long message. Lucas glanced over and had to stifle a laugh as he read Rose's name in the recipient box.

"Sending your last regards to our friends?" She glared at Lucas and let out a sneer before continuing her message on the phone. Once she was done she put it away and glared at him again.

"In case you haven't realized it yet, we are supposed to leave everything behind here. Once we leave the car, there's no way to contact anyone we know. It's just too difficult to bring stuff with us once we've shifted. We're going into a lion's den, Lucas, without any form of communication with us. You do realize that don't you? Better to update people we know that we won't be able to contact them for a couple of days before they become concerned. After a week, they have every right to get worried."

"I know, Azu." He stepped closer to her, leaving only a couple of centimeters between them. "I'm very much aware of the risks that we are taking with doing this. If it was up to me, we wouldn't even be doing this. Especially after everything we've learned from Sloan. But I also understand this is the only time and chance we have to do this and I know what it means to you. There's no way I will let you go alone."

She let the built-up frustration flow free as she exhaled sharply. It wasn't the time to start picking fights and she knew he meant well. Cracking jokes was his way of coping. That or he would find a bar and drink till he would almost fall off his stool. The latter had not happened a lot but there had been days they'd both raised a glass and had a bit too much to drink. The only problem she experienced was that Lucas could handle his liquor a lot better than her.

"Look, I've contacted everyone about where we are and our plans. I'm almost ready to go." She softly pushed him out of the way and headed to the back of the car where she started rummaging through their luggage. The notebook she had been given rested between the rest of the luggage, carefully wrapped so it wouldn't be damaged. She had not read it yet, just stared at it from time to time but couldn't force herself to open it. She knew the contents, that was what mattered. Details could wait.

"Good. So before we shift, just to be clear; they don't know about the Phoenix. We have to keep it that way. We are here for you and to talk about uniting our two kinds. Both our species are slowly losing numbers and maybe getting them together will ensure our survival for the long term. Don't pick a fight, whatever happens!"

They had been discussing their plan and what to do the whole day yesterday. After much debate, the plan was that they had none other than to keep civil, polite, and not give the blue-eyes any reason to start a war. Other than that, Lucas had made it pretty clear the Phoenix was to remain between them. Something the Phoenix itself had agreed upon.

It was difficult shifting her focus from one thing to the other. When they had left Pleyvale her priority was this meeting. Going to Greenwood was just something in between and she had planned it so that they could come up with an idea of what to do with the blue-eyed snow leopards with the help of Andreas and Sloan. Now things had completely shifted around and this whole thing had been snowed under completely by everything that had happened in Greenwood. Her priorities were messed up. She had to save a world, to put it dramatically, or in the words of the Phoenix, had to set the world on fire. She wasn't the savior, just the vessel, and the Phoenix wasn't a savior either; it was just here to do one thing and she couldn't fight it. It was the Phoenix's priority to fight and kill those creatures that weren't here yet and it was her priority to learn about the community she originated from and to get the two snow leopard shifters together. They collided. The timespan should be fine, but still, the priorities collided in her head.

It wasn't as if the Phoenix was objecting to this but she could feel that it wasn't completely on board with it either and it was getting stronger. Compared to a month ago when she first fused with the Phoenix, it had become much more of its own identity within her. Azura felt a cold shiver run down her spine as it dawned on her it had indeed only been a month. It felt as if that had been a lifetime ago. She took one last glance at her phone before turning it off and placing it with the rest of her stuff on the backseat of the car.

"Lucas?" As she stepped out of the car's back seat, she looked around but didn't immediately see him. She looked around and finally saw him kneeling at the edge of the parking lot. She called out again, a bit louder this time, and this time he did hear her. He smiled at her and got up as she headed towards him. "What were you doing?" She couldn't hide the slight amusement in her voice after seeing him sit there.

"Well, since you seemed a little lost in your own little world I thought it was best to inspect our surroundings a bit." He gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Killian was right when he said this place was just outside their borders. I can't seem to find any clue or smell of a snow leopard shifter anywhere. So far everything he has told us seems to check out."

"Yeah, I know. It's what he promised us. So...ready to go?" She took his hand and walked back to the car.

"Yes, I am. So to summarize this whole thing; we go into their territory, get found, don't bring any stuff with us, let ourselves be surprised, hide the Phoenix, and don't start a war. Seriously, I love this plan of ours." She couldn't help but chuckle at his summary and as they reached the car she started undressing.

Lucas just stared at her with a goofy grin on his face until she flicked her finger before his eyes getting his attention from her body to her face.

"Hey! Eyes up here! And you'd better get undressed yourself as well, mister. I'm not waiting up for you."

She turned around and took her necklace with the ring off. She would have to leave it behind as well and it would be the first time parting with the ring for so long her entire life. She carefully placed it away in her bag and put the rest of her clothes there as well. Lucas had undressed rather quickly and tossed his stuff past Azura into the car. He shifted straight away to withstand the cold much better. The cracking of bones and shifting body sounds never sounded pleasant but it was part of a painless process done so many times, the body could handle it.

"Really? You're not even embarrassed you're letting me lock up the car and hide the key?" The big snow leopard growled softly and stretched his long bulky body before laying down and cleaning his front paws.

She could feel the cold wind caress her naked skin but it didn't affect her whatsoever anymore. If needed, she could run around nude all day in the snow and not get sick or get any form of frostbite. Kneeling next to Lucas, she petted his head and scratched him behind the ears. It had an immediate effect on the big cat as he softly started to purr and squeezed his eyes shut slowly. When she stopped and got up, he lifted his head, obviously not liking that she had stopped. Azura smiled as she saw his reaction but proceeded to lock up the car without any signs that she would pet him again. After hiding the key in a crook above the car's left front wheel, Azura wasted no time shifting as well. Lucas got up and he softly gave her an acknowledging headbutt and a quick lick to her face.

This was it. As soon as they left the parking spot, there was no telling what would happen.

*

One of the perks of walking around as a snow leopard was the instincts she got with it. She knew where North was. She had no idea how she knew, but her senses were telling her where to go. She remembered watching a tv-show once where they'd tried to explain it and they believed it had something to do with the magnetism of the earth and how cats and other animals could feel it. Judging by the pace Lucas was keeping, he could feel it too. He was taking the lead as they made their way without seeing, hearing, or smelling anything out of the ordinary.

It was almost two hours since they left and they were slowly making their way up towards the big mountains. The many trees that had been around where they started were all gone, now it was mostly rocky terrain with some small shrubbery that was able to withstand the harsh conditions this area had to endure during winter. The ground was slowly elevating upwards and the higher they got, the more rocks and the less plantlife there were. It wasn't long before they passed the first glistening patches of snow.

Azura stopped at the first big one, admiring the white powder which seemed more like ice than actual powder snow. Lucas had stopped and turned around as she leaned down and touched the icy snow with her whiskers and nose. The cool touch awakened a feeling of home inside of her. A sudden surge of happiness jolted right through her, her bushy tail flicked from left to right and the tip trembled in happy anticipation before she let herself fall over on her side and started to roll from left to right on top of the snow. She had no idea what came over her, but the sight of snow and ice simply triggered something in her and she had to do it. It just made her so happy and comfortable after not seeing any since they left home.

It wasn't long before Lucas was next to her snarling for her to get up. He was not amused with her short little break and she couldn't help but wonder why he seemed so unaffected by the sight of snow after not seeing any for a while. It resonated 'home' to her, yet he didn't seem to feel it. Azura wondered if she could blame this on instinct difference between them or that her mind was just working differently right now. With a loud huff, she got up, shaking her body to get the flakes of ice and snow out of her fur. Finally, she started moving again, leading this time.

Although they were getting to higher grounds, it was as if the mountains were growing with them. The cliffs around them were getting higher and steeper and they were keeping to the low areas of the mountains they were now crossing. Snow and ice were now a much more common sight and seeing an area without it had become scarce and rare. Until now, they were able to stick to the more easy ways and slowly ascending paths. They had to climb or jump up a couple of times but it hadn't been too dangerous.

Once they started to reach more snow, Azura had to resist diving in again. The pull was so strong as if she'd never seen snow in her whole life. She had no idea where the urge came from but it made her tingle with excitement and anticipation and was quite hard to ignore. The soft cold touch underneath her paws would have to do because she really didn't want to aggravate Lucas any further. It had cost her quite a lot of trouble and time 'apologizing' to him after going crazy over some snow the first time.

Azura was leading with Lucas not far behind. They were trailing along a bottom of a big chasm but it was getting more narrow the longer they continued. She knew she was going the right way though and she knew they would have to scale one of the steep rocky walls that they'd been following for so long now. It was nothing like she had ever done and seen and the mere sight of it made her tremble a bit with anticipation. Azura suddenly stopped and raised her head in the air. She sniffed the air a couple of times and scrunched up her nose and slightly opened her mouth letting the air run past all her smelling buds in mouth and nose. Her ears twitched from side to side and her whiskers were pointing forward indicating she was on to something. She suddenly snapped her head to the right and up to the top of the chasm. It was a good sixty meters up but she knew this was the place. The tip of her tail was twitching with excitement as Lucas walked up next to her and brushed his body against hers. He followed her gaze up to the top and back again, examining every rock and plateau on the side of the wall.

After examining it from a distance, Azura walked up close and inspected the wall. From far away, it was difficult to see the depth the rock wall had and now she could easily spot many ledges, rocks, and small plateaus she could leap on to make her way up. Without hesitating any longer, Azura made her first leap.

It was easier than expected. She let her body guide her up. The ledges were small and she used her tail as a balance to keep herself steady and her claws raked against the rocks as she used them for extra grip. Beneath her, she could hear Lucas had started his climb as well, but by the huffs he let out at times, he wasn't having such an easy climb as she was. He'd always been the better climber when they were at the climbing hall, but now she was outclassing him with ease. She dared to look back once she was on a plateau she could easily stand on and waited for Lucas to catch up.

They were ascending fast and were already halfway up when the wind started to pick up. Azura flattened herself against the rock side as the wind blew through her fur. It was a chilling cold wind that held a menacing cold sting to it. As she looked back, she saw Lucas was doing the same thing and he had curled his tail around his body. They had to continue, but the wind was unpredictable and turbulent because of the chasm and the walls. It could cause a sudden burst in completely the opposite direction, making the leaps and hops going up much more dangerous and challenging.

Azura yelped at Lucas to make sure he was ok and he yelped back in response. She released herself from the wall and made the next leap before slowly climbing up a few places, keeping her center of gravity as low as possible. As she stood up on her hind legs to reach for the next rock a strong gust of mind made her lose her balance.

She had to shift her weight, replaced her right back leg, and felt the rock beneath it give way and crumble. With all her strength left in her left leg, she pushed herself off making an uncoordinated leap to the next ledge.

Her front paws reached it, scratched the rocks, and for a short moment, she hung on the edge desperately trying to find footing for her hind legs. Her grip slipped and her heart skipped a beat as she fell. Azura cursed the person who said that cats always land on their feet as she crashed down on a lower level plateau on her back. The fall was only one and a half meters. It was not enough to correct herself to land on her paws safely but also not high enough to cause any physical damage. The damage to her ego on the other hand...

Azura kept still for a moment trying to get her heart rate under control and to process what just happened. The realization that she could have plummeted all the way down just now started to dawn on her. Slowly she got back on all fours and internally felt grateful the moment Lucas jumped down onto the same platform she was. It was big enough for the two of them and he probably got the scare of his life as well by her slipping up. He gently nudged her body with his head as if making sure nothing was broken and after making sure she was physically alright, he began to softly purr making her start to relax almost straight away. Another strong pull of the wind brought some snow down that must have been coming from the top. The winds were growing stronger and they had to keep moving. There was no way she wanted to spend the night up here and if they would have to if they waited any longer; the wind preventing them from climbing up. Lucas seemed to feel her tensing up again and judging by the look he gave her, he also knew the reason why.

It wasn't far now. Only fifteen meters to go, but it would be the most difficult part of the entire climb. Again in the front, Azura started to climb again. This time she was more careful though. Feeling the wind properly and making sure it was safe to make a leap or jump when needed. There was more snow falling over the edge of the chasm as the wind up there seemed to have turned. It made for another challenge but eventually, she reached the top as did Lucas.