Liiza revealed how her idea to make Khan tame an Aduns wasn't completely legal. However, a quibble could make him avoid eventual punishments and troubles.
"What do I need to do to tame an Aduns?" Khan eventually asked while his gaze moved toward the dark mountain at his side.
The dark sky hid the nests seen during the flight. They were at some point in the upper half of the mountain. High-pitched screeches echoed from time to time, but Khan couldn't see any winged figure above him.
"Climb the mountain and reach the nests," Liiza explained.
Khan couldn't help but shoot a confused glance toward Liiza. Her question about the cold suddenly made sense now.
"I don't have the proper equipment with me," Khan complained without mentioning that he had no idea how to climb mountains. "I don't have food either. How am I supposed to reach the nests?"
"That's your problem," Liiza replied in a plain tone. "The Aduns won't accept you if they don't see your struggles. The mountain is a test."
Khan hesitated. His eyes moved between Liiza and the mountain. He knew that his body had surpassed normal human standards already, but the journey could kill him anyway. He wasn't immune to cold and exhaustion.
"I might die," Khan commented.
"Then you have to understand how strong your desire to remain here is," Liiza continued. "Humans can't bring their vehicles here since their noise scares the animals. I believe your army won't let someone who can't use rides stay on the planet."
Liiza clearly knew a lot about the Global Army and its relationship with the Niqols. Khan started to wonder whether she was an important figure inside her species, but his thoughts soon returned to the main issue.
'I might die if I try to climb the mountain,' Khan thought, 'But I will have to return on Earth if I don't acquire a ride.'
Thinking about Earth made him recall the empty feelings that devoured his insides. Khan suddenly realized that his mind had never lingered on those memories after teleporting on Nitis. His arrival on the planet had made him forget about the issues that troubled him.
'Coming here has actually helped for a short while,' Khan sighed in his mind before jumping off the eagle.
"How do I know that the Aduns won't reject me like the Udu?" Khan asked without looking at Liiza.
The alien felt surprised by Khan's sudden change. He had been unable to stop looking at her before, but he seemed to care only about the mountain now.
"The Aduns aren't cowards," Liiza explained. "They respect strength, which is why you need to surpass this test. Also, you have a high chance to tame one of them even if you don't belong to my species."
"Why is that?" Khan asked.
"You survived the Nak," Liiza explained while lowering her gaze when Khan turned to look at her. "I felt your pain. They will too."
The Niqols eventually raised her gaze again and found Khan still staring at her. Cold winds blew through their hair and made them flutter, but neither of them seemed to care.
"I'm Khan, by the way," Khan eventually announced while revealing a faint smile. "Let's fly together if I get an Aduns."
Khan turned toward the mountain without waiting for the Niqols' reaction. He stepped toward the steep rocky surface and started to climb the tall structure.
Liiza showed a complicated expression after that offer. She revealed a faint smile that Khan couldn't see, and she inspected him while he made his way through the steep surface.
It was clear that Khan knew nothing about climbing mountains. He limited himself to rely on his physical strength to drag his body upward without caring about proper footholds or studying the path ahead.
He would jump on a rock as long as it felt stable. His steps were even light, so they never caused a landslide. Khan was nimble among that cold and unfriendly environment. He had trained his legs to be the strongest and swiftest parts of his body.
'I basically asked her out,' Khan thought while jumping from rock to rock. 'She even seems important here. Damn my hormones.'
Khan knew that he had to behave appropriately on Nitis, but he couldn't hold back in front of the seemingly deadly quest. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure whether he could flirt with someone properly so soon after Martha's events.
However, Khan couldn't control his tastes, and the quest made him forsake part of his restraint. He even ignored the possible repercussions that his actions could have on the Global Army since Liiza didn't seem the type to rat him out.
Khan didn't notice the emptiness inside him anymore when he started the climb. He didn't even realize that the feeling had stopped affecting his mind. The mission on a foreign world and the faint anticipation surging inside his mind made him ignore everything that didn't involve his current quest.
After all, he would get the chance to fly again if he succeeded. Anyone would be excited about that.
The sound of flapping wings eventually reached his ears. Khan saw Liiza and her Aduns leaving in the distance. They had left him alone in the middle of the mountain chain, which only intensified the danger sensed by his mind.
Khan continued to climb for a bit before stopping on a relatively large platform that came out from the mountain's surface. His phone quickly appeared in his hands, and his fingers tapped on its screen until he found instructions that could help him.
'Prepare your equipment carefully,' Khan read on the phone, 'Study the path thoroughly, partner up with experienced climbers, set your pace according to your endurance. Well, I'm doomed.'
Khan couldn't help but laugh when he realized that he had gone against every advice. He was alone, in an unknown environment, and without any gear. He could have won a prize for the least prepared climber in every alien world.
'Maybe this wasn't meant to happen,' Khan sighed when he reviewed the issue thoroughly. 'I bet I can still contact someone on Nitis and get back to the teleport since my phone works.'
Khan tried to find ways out of that option, but risking his life only to remain on Nitis seemed a bit too much. The army would find other suitable planets since the issue wasn't his fault. He would have only lost some time if he retreated now.
Yet, something peculiar eventually appeared in his vision. Khan noticed a relatively large path on the side of the mountain. The route was clearly artificial, and it seemed connected to the base of the structure. He couldn't see it because it started from behind his landing spot.
'Did Liiza leave me at some distance from the passage on purpose?' Khan wondered while scratching his head.
Khan didn't know anything about the Niqols' customs and personality. He would have already claimed that Liiza liked him if she were a human. However, the differences between their species made Khan hold back from coming up with possible delusions.
'Was she testing me?' Khan wondered while straightening his position and jumping from rock to rock until he landed on the path. 'Did she want to see if I would have given up before finding the path?'
His surroundings appeared clear. Khan couldn't see anyone, and even his senses didn't pick any odd trace of mana. He was completely alone with the cold wind, so his thoughts about Liiza slowly vanished.
Khan started marching toward the upward path that led him around the mountain. The wind grew stronger as he reached higher spots, but his body was able to fend it off, and his uniform managed to help him ignore the cold.
Mana flowed through his body whenever the cold tried to seep past his skin. Khan happily realized that he could endure that unfriendly environment easily, even if his situation worsened as he kept climbing.
The path grew narrower, the winds continued to intensify, and the temperature never stopped dropping. Khan felt forced to sit and meditate from time to time to disperse the cold, but the harshness of the situation didn't make him decide to turn back.
Hours passed, but Khan struggled to notice the flow of time due to the constant darkness covering Nitis. Still, his endurance was inhuman, and he barely grew tired even after walking for half a day.
A series of cavities eventually appeared in his vision. The high-pitched screeches even grew louder. Khan knew that he was getting closer to his destination, but a new series of problems arrived in that part of his journey.
Large amounts of grey snow would fall on the path every once in a while and forced Khan to crouch near the wall to avoid falling. Some rocks were too slippery to be suitable handholds, so he had to put his full strength on his legs and push his back on the uneven surface of the mountain to remain on the track.
Cuts inevitably appeared on his back during the process. Khan couldn't risk falling from that height when the snow engulfed him, so he had to ignore the sharp rocks that pierced his uniform and skin during the small avalanches.
Khan noticed that the Aduns had something to do with the avalanches after experiencing a few of them. Their loudest screeches always preceded them. They seemed to do that on purpose since they had noticed the boy climbing the path.
The avalanches started to happen more often as Khan kept climbing. Aduns even flew at high speed next to the path to distract him and generate gales that could make him lose his balance. They never attacked him directly, but they didn't help him either.
'Damned birds!' Khan found himself cursing multiple times.
His senses had become able to predict the arrival of those creatures after experiencing their methods a few times. They even flew so close to the path that Khan could attack them without leaving it if he wanted. Yet, he held back from hurting the animals that could allow him to remain on Nitis.
The path eventually opened in a relatively large area that featured multiple cavities. Clear signs of nests filled those holes in the side of the mountain, but Khan had to get closer to them to inspect their insides.
Still, a series of Aduns flew out of the holes as soon as he became too close. The winds generated by the flapping of their wings pushed Khan backward and made him fall from the area.
Panic built inside Khan as his hands shot toward the side of the mountain. Cuts opened on his palms as they slid on the rocks, but Khan didn't dare to pull them back.
His fingers eventually landed on an almost dry and stable rock, which allowed him to stop his fall. Pain filled every inch of Khan's body, but he activated the mental barrier to cut everything away and gain a detached approach to his issue.
Khan inspected his surroundings and decided to descend to return to the path rather than risking climbing back on the flat area. He lost an entire hour of march, but his feet eventually stepped on the safe road again.
The mental barrier vanished once Khan resumed his march toward the nests. His body hurt in every spot, and his uniform was in pieces. Multiple cuts had opened on his torso, arms, and legs, but they were only superficial injuries that didn't hinder his walk.
The Aduns that had made him fall began to hover above him. Their screeches seemed to mock his efforts, but Khan didn't mind them. He had invested too much in that task to fall prey to those taunts.
Khan eventually returned to the flat area and crouched when approaching the nests. The Aduns followed his movements and continued to fly in a circle above him without ever falling silent. Faint tremors started to spread through the mountain at that point, and Khan quickly jumped inside one of the caves when he sensed them.
His quick reaction made him able to dodge the massive avalanche that covered the entire flat area and the caves. Meters of grey snow covered the entrances and made him unable to see anything. Only darkness filled his vision, but he didn't lose track of his position.
Khan sat inside the dark cave and meditated for a few minutes to stabilize his condition before approaching the snow that blocked the entrance. He started to dig through that soft grey material with his fingers, and cold inevitably seeped past his skin.
Khan forced the mana to flow through his body and disperse part of the cold trying to affect his joints while he dug through the snow. He made sure to have the side of the mountain behind him during the process, and cold wind eventually hit his hand when it came out of greyness.
Climbing through the snow was hard, but Khan used the mountain's surface to pull his body past the layer of greyness that covered the flat area. His foothold was unstable, but he became able to inspect the site once he came out in the open.
The Aduns in the sky had disappeared by then. Khan couldn't even hear their screeches anymore. Yet, a silent white figure gently descended at some distance from him and landed on the snow without falling inside it.
Khan couldn't help but remain in a daze at the sight of the white Aduns. The creature felt like a stranger in that dark world. It was just like him.
****
Author's notes: I only feel slight discomfort on my arm for now. Hopefully it will stay like this.
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