The sky was just starting to grow light in the morning, when Lance and the others woke Lisa and I up. The smells of breakfast were strong in the air, and I for one could feel my stomach crying for food.
Breakfast was eaten quickly, almost so fast it made my sleepy mind spin, and the order to move on came quick on it's heels. When we were all mounted and ready to ride, Lance took the reins from Lisa and I, handed them to Terry, and rode away towards the south without a word. Lisa nearly vocalized her objections, but a sharp rap to her ribs silenced any objection she may have had to being led.
Our small column moved steadily southward, following the trail of the larger group of women as they moved towards their unknown destination. For the most part, we traveled in silence while the miles, and geography of the land passed with monotonous similarity, from one to day to the next. Finally, almost two weeks later, we began to notice the effects of the long, slow, accent the land was taking, and from time to time began to change our course, as we followed the larger party of women.
Eventually we began to have to travel in single file, as the mountains we were moving into closed in closely, and the rise of our trail became more sharply noticeable. Not to mention the temperature at night began falling to levels none of us had ever experienced before.
Lisa and I began to wonder if we would ever be warm again, and the men even seemed to be getting worried about the ever increasing bite to the weather. We were encamped for the night under a outcropping of bare rock, and were bedding down in a communal, group bed to try and stay warm. The grumbling about the cold had become the only topic of discussion, as had been the case now for the last week.
Finally, Jack suggested that we turn back, saying, "We are ill equipped to go on if these conditions are to continue. I see no percentage in following this group of women any further, and doubt that they really know where they are going."
Lance and Terry argued that it made no sense that the women ahead of us should press on themselves if there were any doubt in their minds as to where they were going.
Jason and Joe simply listened to the conversation for the time being, and appeared to only be interested in staying warm for the night; tomorrow would bring what it would bring.
Lisa and I, snuggled into the center of the group, shared Mary, as she consumed the product of our mummeries, and listened to the grumbling conversation as the night progressed. Later, when the men had grown silently into their own thoughts, Lisa and I began to talk to them. Sometimes scolding, and sometimes praising; we were aware that the spirit of our five men was as low ever, so we sought to raise them by any means at our disposal.
Lisa became fairly animated about the issue, telling the men, "I don't know where the rest of them are going, but what Jason and Joe said makes sense. If they had no idea of where this trail would lead, can you imagine they'd still be following it?" Lisa's eyes flashed with the old spirit, and her voice had taken on the same quality as when she'd made her parting speech in the tower prison. "I don't know if we'll survive to find out where they're going, but I'll be damned if one of you will ever enjoy my willing participation in sex ever again if you turn back now!"
Every mouth, including mine, was agape at her closing comment. None of us made any response to her last declaration at first, and I had no thought of saying anything more until she rapped me with her elbow, and asked, "Are you with me?"
"Yes!" I gasped as I tried to get my breath back.
Our course was decided. We would continue our path, to the end; whatever that turned out to be. Once all the men had agreed to press onward in haste, only slowing if we overtook the group we were following, Lisa smiled at me, winked, then said to the men, "One at a time, please. The one thing I do know, is that if we are to survive this, right now we need heat."
It's amazing how much heat, five men and two woman can make.
Two days passed as we pressed on, following the trail the women before us were on. There were times during that two days when I had to wonder quite seriously if the decision we'd made was leading to our demise. There seemed as if there was to be no end to the biting cold of these mountains, just as there seemed to be no end to the trail we were on.
The cold did end however, almost as abruptly as it had begun when we finally began the long decent down the southern side of the barrier mountains. For our small band, the warmth of lower elevations was cause for celebration, having just survived the mountain crossing we were ill equipped to have undertaken.
As we descended from the heights, I kept looking back at the mountains we had just come through, and wondered if we would ever get home again. From the south side, the clouds were higher than they were in the north, and we could see the peaks reaching into them. Impressive, awesome, jagged, impenitraitable, aloof and silent were just a few of the words we used to describe those spires to each other during our decent.
With the small army of women in front of us, and the barrier mountains to the rear, we were all too aware of our aloneness, and each in our unspoken thoughts was filled with both the wonder of this beautiful land south of the mountains, and the fear which comes with the unknown. None of the men spoke of their feelings, and neither did Lisa or me, but I'm sure we all felt the same way. I did notice however that the men became much more gentle with us when they came to us for service.