The Brave & the Bold

“So you want to know about your grandfather, old Snowy?” the tough Texan asked.

“I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me about him for the past couple weeks, but you’re usually off exploring some lost South American temple or fighting an ancient Asian dragon. Now I plan on getting some answers before you leave for another one of your lengthy trips,” Kyle Rayner replied.

“You’ve got powers, kid. Why don’t you just come along with us sometime?” Buck Wargo offered. “We could use a guy like you, especially since Guy is always busy.”

“I’ve already told you I don’t have enough free time for something like that. All I want is some straight answers about my grandfather.”

“Fine,” Buck said, satisfied that the young man had pleaded enough over the past few months.

He walked over to one of the empty booths in the corner of the bar inside the New York branch (and home office) of the Warrior’s Bar and Grill Franchise. He sat down and gestured for Kyle to take the seat across from him.

Kyle sat and looked at Buck waiting for the older man to start.

Buck took a few seconds for a dramatic pause before starting.

“I first met your grandfather when I was fresh out of Texas State in ‘58. My father was just starting his oil business, and it was pretty clear I wouldn’t have to work a regular job for the foreseeable future. I wanted to travel around the world and live a life of adventure. I’d read enough National Geographic and Explorer Magazines that the life of an explorer seemed pretty appealing. One of the most famous of the current explorers was Roderick Rayner. He had been made famous due to his expeditions to the Arctic and other mountainous snowy regions. He was living here in New York at the time, so I approached him about joining his crew. I knew that he was a minimalist who only had a few regular hands. Unfortunately, most of them had either been severely injured or killed on his expeditions. He didn’t have anyone to work with and I thought he’d jump at the chance to get a big dumb strong Texan to act as a pack mule.”

“So what happened?” Kyle asked impatiently.

“I’m getting to that, just settle down.” Buck continued, “At first he turned me down, but about a week later I got a call from him seeing if my offer to work for him was still open. He had a job offer from some rich Asian bigwigs that wanted him to locate an ancient mountain temple in Nepal. He was shorthanded and saw the advantages of having a strong back with him to carry extra supplies. Next thing I know, we’re flying to Sikkim.”

“Sikkim?” Kyle said confused.

“Why are we going to Sikkim if the mountain‘s in Nepal?” the young Buck Wargo said to his leader, Roderick, matter of factly, as if he were more qualified to make expeditionary decisions.

The explorer Roderick, nicknamed “Snowy” for his constant arctic expeditions and the clear white hair on his head, which hid the fact that he was barely 30, glared at the young Texan slightly annoyed at choosing the young man as a member of his crew. “Oh well, he was the only person available,” he thought to himself. “As I briefed you before, the mountain we’ll be climbing is Kanchenjunga, speculated to be the second highest mountain in the world. It’s located in Northeastern Nepal along the Nepal-Sikkim border. There aren’t any private airstrips we can land on which are close to Kanchenjunga, but there are strips in Sikkim. It’s just a short drive across the border and to the base of Kanchenjunga.”

“Couldn’t we just parachute into Nepal near the base and meet the plane later after the expedition?”

“Absolutely not,” Rayner replied, shocked at the suggestion. “The snowfall this time of year and the rough terrain would make it impossible to safely land anywhere near the base. We have a better chance of completely losing track of each other and dying due to lack of supplies, than making it to the base safely by walking. Besides, the drive won’t be too long. It should just take us a day or two to reach the base from Sikkim. Once we’re at the base, we’ll be able to resupply, take on new hands, as well as a guide, and begin the trek up Kanchenjunga.”

“Okay, so you were flying to Sikkim where you were going to be driven to a town near the base of Kanchenjunga. What was so special about the temple you were after?” Kyle asked intrigued by the story.

“The Asian financiers said something about how the temple was a lost piece of their heritage that they wanted back. Old Snowy was the most qualified explorer available, and they paid him part of his fee in advance, plus a bonus for any relics he acquired in the temple. They were shelling out a lot of money for a mountain climbing expedition and even offered to help us get clearance to climb Kanchenjunga. Climbing Kanchenjunga wasn’t authorized yet so we were violating a few laws about foreigners climbing it, but they were able to make the local law look the other way. I figured that there was something really valuable in the temple that made the money they’d already spent look like pocket change. Your grandfather didn’t really care since he had been looking to settle down and saw the trek up Kanchenjunga as one last big payoff. His wife was pregnant with your Uncle Zachary, so he needed the money, regardless of what it took.”

“Wasn’t he worried something might happen to him?”

“If you knew Snowy, you’d know that he wasn’t all that worried about anything,” replied Buck as he twirled his long mustache with his right index finger.

“I don’t care if your men are afraid, we need a guide to get up that mountain,” an angry Roderick Rayner yelled at a frightened Nepali.

The man said something in Nepali, which neither Snowy nor Buck understood, and quietly slipped away.

“Guess that’s one more guide to add to the rejected list,” Buck said, stating the obvious. “I don’t even see why we need one of these locals for help, what with the directions our patrons gave us. Also, we’ve already found a pair of sherpas to help us. We’ll be fine.”

Roderick grabbed Buck’s thick fur vest, one of the few warm comforts in their present location and scowled, “Only the locals have had the chance to properly scale this mountain. The directions I was given aren’t accurate enough to get us to our destination. We’ll need someone to at least take us part of the way if we’re going to succeed.”

“Sorry, Snowy,” Buck replied. “Just trying to get you to loosen up. Nothing like grabbing a raging bull’s horns to get him to calm down a bit. Didn’t mean any harm by it.”

“I know,” Snowy replied, “It’s just I can’t afford to fail before we’ve even begun. I’ve told you about how much I need the money, but you don’t realize that the success of an expedition can make or break one’s career. Regardless of how many things I’ve done before, this trek could decide whether history records me as a pioneer or a failure. I won’t let the lack of a guide ruin my careful preparation for this. I’ve never turned down or failed at any expedition I was offered and I don’t intend to start now.” Snowy let out a sigh, thinking for a moment. “Our problem seems to stem from our inability to speak the local dialect. Normally, there would be someone who speaks Tibetan, or Chinese, or Hindi, or one of the other dozen of so common languages, which can be found in this region, but, aside from the sherpas, they all seem to speak Nepali. I guess for now we’ll just try the other side of the village. Someone’s bound to speak a language other than Nepali somewhere.”

Roderick motioned for the two sherpas, provided by the Asian financers and Buck Wargo to follow him to the eastern side of the village.

They had only taken a few steps towards the other side, when a man in yak skins approached them, greeting them with a wave.

“Perhaps I can help you gentlemen,” the stranger said in English.

Shocked and wide-eyed, Roderick looked the apparently Chinese man in the face. His tinted face suggested that he was only part Chinese, but his attitude suggested an air of familiarity as if he were expecting the party of four.

“I am sorry I was late, but your financers thought a guide who spoke English might be valuable to you.”

“I told them I’d find my own guide, a local,” Roderick replied suspicious of the man’s story.

“Yes, but how fortunate were you in that endeavor?” the man asked looking around for any signs of a guide interested in the party. “Let’s not waste any more time standing out here in the cold,” the man continued. “I already have accommodations prepared as well as someone who might provide us extra assistance.”

“Wait a sec, pard’ner,” Buck said, grabbing the Chinese guide’s arm, “What’s your name?”

“Fei-Hong,” the guide replied.

Fei-Hong led the four men to a large hut made of animal fur.

As each man walked in, they noticed a man already inside sitting. He looked at the group and seemed happy to see them.

“Glad to see a few fellow Americans on this side of the Pacific,” the man said standing and walking to greet Buck and Roderick. “The name is Speed Saunders. I was hoping you could use an extra hand on your trek up Kanchenjunga.” He reached for the men’s hands to shake.

“Speed Saunders?” Kyle said, wondering why the name sounded familiar.

“He’s another explorer, but he’s not nearly as famous as your grandfather was. He did a lot of exploring after World War II. He was hoping to be the first man to climb Kanchenjunga, but ran into difficulties when he couldn’t find a crew or authorization from the Nepal government to climb. Our guide had met him the day before we arrived and thought he’d be useful.”

“So what happened?”

“You grandfather had heard of Speed and said he’d always wanted to work with him. They shook hands on it and the next day, after gathering enough food and fuel, he headed up.”

The group trekked up the mountain with the Chinese guide in the lead.

Buck looked over his shoulder at the Nepal security checkpoint they had to pass in order to go up the mountain. “Why do you suppose they don’t want people climbing this mountain?” Buck asked intrigued by any form of security. “You’d think that this place would want the tourism.”

Fei-Hong was the one to answer Buck’s query. “There are legends about monsters living on this mountain. I wouldn’t be too worried. It‘s just local superstition. The checkpoint is just to keep strangers from being stupid enough to climb up here.”

“Lucky us,” Buck said quietly.

The group of six trekked a mile before they broke for a rest. One of the sherpas pulled out his tent roll and set up a camp, while the other gathered a few sparse pieces of firewood for a small fire to heat ice and replenish the water supply. The other four members gathered planning their next walk.

“How much longer to Alpha Point on my directions?” Roderick asked the guide, Fei-Hong, showing the short map and written instructions provided by the Asian sponsors.

The guide pulled out a small hand-drawn map and compared it to the directions. “Point Alpha isn’t far. We should be there by tomorrow. We just have to take a path through this ravine,” he said pointing at a short path between two large blocks of ice.

“Too dangerous,” Speed interjected. “We should go around. If we go through the ravine and there’s any sort of disturbance, then we’re liable to be buried under 30 feet of snow. At least if we go around it’ll be safer and only take us an extra day.”

“Well, Mister Rayner,” the guide said, “It’s you choice on our route. Do you want to get there quicker or safer?”

“We’ll take the guide’s route,” Snowy replied. He looked at Speed’s face and saw the look of disappointment due to his rejected suggestion. “Speed, don’t feel so bad. Mountain expeditions like this have a very low chance of avalanche. The guide’s route is safe.”

“I suppose, Roderick,” Speed replied looking down defeated. “It’s just something about that ravine that makes me uneasy. I really think it would be safer to go around.”

“Suggestion noted. We’ll find out soon enough.” Turning his attention to Fei-Hong, Rayner said, “We’ll be taking your directions. We leave at first light.”

That night Buck dreamt of what could happen the next day as they were passing through the ravine. Oddly enough, the rumors about monsters and Speed’s uneasy feeling about the ravine only compounded his thoughts that something bad would happen the next day. He decided he’d mention it to Snowy in the morning when they set off.

The next day, as the sherpas were packing up camp, Buck approached Snowy with his suspicious.

“It’s reasonable to be worried, Wargo. You’ve probably never been in an area covered with snow before, but don’t let silly superstitions frighten you. We’ll be fine.”

Roderick turned to walk away, but stopped. He took off his pack and rummaged through it looking for something. After a few seconds, he seemed to find it. He pulled out a pair of revolvers and a machete.

“I had brought these for protection in case we ran into trouble. You can never be too prepared for something like this. Besides if it puts your mind at ease, you can have these.”

He handed Buck one of the revolvers and a small box of rounds as well as the sharp machete. Snowy tucked his revolver and a few extra rounds into his warm weather jacket, and Buck did the same, making sure to slide the machete, sword-like, into his animal skin belt, which he had acquired in the village.

His fears temporarily allayed, he went to help the sherpas pack.

The six men set off quickly and reached the ravine at mid-day. Buck noticed that the ice on both sides of the ravine looked a lot like two fingers slowing closing together.

As they passed through the ice ravine, Buck was too busy looking at the area above him that he accidentally tripped and fell. Startled, the entire group halted.

“What’s wrong?” Roderick asked.

“Just tripped over something,” Buck replied as he brushed away at the snow covering the object that had tripped him.” Probably just a piece of wood, or ice or ...”

Buck froze as he saw a human hand, frozen and blue, looking like it was grasping at something. Buck quickly backed away with his arms and legs in unison as the rest of the group gathered.

“What did you find?” Speed asked.

“A human hand, probably with a body attached to it. Looks like you were right about this ravine being a deathtrap,” Buck said.

Roderick looked over the hand in the snow and began brushing away, hoping to see the rest of the body. All he found was a frozen stump where the rest of the elbow would be.

He picked up the arm saying, “No avalanche did this. It looks almost,” he said examining the appendage, “like it was chewed off.” He quickly dropped the arm.

A low grumbling filled the ravine as all six men stood on edge.

Speed whipped out a pistol that was secreted away somewhere in his overcoat, only saying, “I knew we shouldn’t have come through here.”

Buck and Snowy followed suit as the sherpas pull out ice picks, their only means of defense. Oddly, Fei-Hong only looked around unfazed by the inevitable danger.

Tiny footsteps trudging in the snow were heard all around. The group looked around but didn’t see anyone of anything.

After a few moments, Buck thought he saw movement to his left and fired one of his revolver rounds into the white earth.

The snow kicked up, but nothing else was shown. Immediately after the shot was fired, low whispers could be heard, but the language was difficult to tell.

A white burst of snow sprang up from the ground and leaped at Speed. He fired his pistol, hitting the small close target. He had barely a second before another leaped for him. Another shot was fired and the two dead creatures, which looked like small apes lay dead.

The whispers became growls as dozens of tiny apes appeared out of the snow.

“Yetis,” one of the sherpas yelled as he began to swing away at the beasts.

To Be Continued...

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