The ridge ended at a wall of rock.
It rose straight up in front of them, grey and cracked and slick with mist, and halfway up it, maybe thirty meters above their heads, a wide ledge jutted out from the mountainside like a balcony. Past the ledge, the rock went on climbing until it vanished into the turning clouds.
There was no other way up.
"I'll go first," Yujin said. She was already changing, the spotted fur rolling back over her shoulders, her hands spreading into wide padded paws. "I'll find the holds."
"Go," Jin said.
She went up the rock like it was a ladder. Hyunwoo put a hand on her back just before she left the ground, and his own fingers sharpened into claws, and he followed her. Echo went up beside them in short sharp bursts, his discs spinning out ahead of him to find the places where the stone was solid.
