"At least you're young, my friend. I'm nearly twice your age, so this trip is that much harder for me!"
"Strange," Boyce began. "this thing, Fate! It made us friends through your hardship, kept us as friend through my own, and now we're going to a place where we will engage in battle… and maybe die, together."
Lloyd gave him a strange look of disgust and shook his head.
"If I didn't know you better, I'd swear that you were still reading
Djenaud Smarte." he said to Boyce.
"Knock, knock …" Boyce smiled and then gave Lloyd a pat on the back.
"Who'll go first?"
"I will have to go first. I've done more climbing." answered Lloyd.
"Watch where I put my hands and feet and climb up the same way."
Boyce nodded in silence and Lloyd gave him a concerned looks as if to calm him.
They began to climb the escarpment which was almost a straight vertical rise of brittle rock. Several times Lloyd lost his footing on the rocks that flaked off with every inch that they climbed.
They had set for themselves two goals, the first being a wide lege about half-way up, and the second was the flat summit itself, where they were to sleep when the evening came.
By late afternoon, after a slow and painful climb that almost claimed them both, they reached the ledge and took off their packs.