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Chris was in his room, slowly drifting away over a video game, when his sister Selena entered; Without knocking of course. The beagle girl looked surprisingly similar to him, both sharing the same type of sporty figure, but with a few key differences she was sure to stress at every opportunity: she was slightly taller, had brown instead of dark-green eyes and was 24 instead of 23. This had become one bad habit alongside many others, but besides their occasional bickering, she was as ok-ish as a big sister could get. In their peaceful moments, they even had the mystical sort of connection usually only twins would share.

Now seemed to be one of the better times, as she excitedly announced they would make "the" trip. "Who is 'we'? And what the hell are you referring to?" he asked, but was met with a disappointed look. "'We', my dearest brother, means both of us, Jack, and Luna. And I am amazed every time to see the effects of your screen time unfold. We talked about it just two weeks ago and you didn't bother to keep it in mind apparently."

"The hiking tour?" "The hiking tour indeed. We leave at 8am tomorrow. And I won't wait for you." She was already leaving as he called after her, "A little earlier would have been nice." But she was gone. Her usual time management had struck again, she had planned it all through and now it was too late to complain. So if he wanted on this trip, it was her plan or nothing. Their parents wouldn't give the van soon again and neither of them was willing to effort their own car yet.

It came to no surprise that she had invited her boyfriend Jack and Luna, the neighbours' daughter and common old friend, both around the same age. Lunas father, head of marketing of a global logistics company, and her mother, CEO of another important... something, were travelling the world on a regular basis, so she practically lived with Selena and Chris during these periods and had become a part of the family over the many years.

Jack on the other hand had remained a myth so far. Selena had told countless stories, but Chris never had never got to meet him in person.

The next morning started as expected. An early alarm clock interrupted his dreamless sleep at 6am and when he came downstairsfor a breakfast, his sister was already strolling through the house and gatheredthe rest of her stuff. "There you are. Finally. Thought you'd never wake up." she greeted him. "Because I am done packing already. Preparation is key after all. Besides, what is all of this?"

He looked at an ever growing collection of different tinypouches, bags and boxes, "What do you need all of that for?" "You didn't assume, I would make this whole trip just to dump all of my precious time intorunning up and down some mountains, did you? You know me better." He definitely did. Judging from the presumable contents of these containers, she planned to spend a remarkable portion of the two weeks out in the city to drink all night and participate only in as many reasonable activities as she needed to have a cover-up for their parents to not risk their generosity.But he was fine with it. They had never shared the same excitement for climbing and it would be considerably more enjoyable without her making a fussall day.

"You should be more grateful anyway," she continued and nudged him playfully, maybe a bit rougher than necessary, "cause you would never have managed to pull this off yourself." True but painful nonetheless.

But finally the doorbell announced Luna's arrival. The golden retriever was smaller than Christopher,but with a certain spark of light-heartedness. To his content, either she didn't know about his sisters plans, or intended to stick to the original onejudging by the moderate size of her luggage. As it was quite common to have her around, Selenasaved up the exuberant greeting for Jack, who arrived soon after. While they acted as if they hadn't seen each other just yesterday, Chris inspected him. He was her regulartype, a buffed, tall doberman with an odd, obsessively modern style of clothing just like his sister, but he seemed nice, a refreshing deviation from the usual, so Chriswelcomed him friendly, too. Quickwork was done of the remaining payloadand soon they were ready to go.

The ride took about twelve hours, long enough to require regular exchanges of the driver, which brought the precious privilege to choose the music, whatever music one's heart desired sadly, as a compensation. But it also meant a chance to get to know the 'new' member of the group. Time passed quickly over endless conversations until they reached their destination, a tourism-crowded yet small town in a lush valley. While driving through the presumable centre, Selena kept watching for the most appealing location for her upcoming nightlife, almost crashing the car and scaring some pedestrians to death. But finally they more or less safely, Luna nervously clenching the backseat, arrived at the holiday flat in the town's rim.

The house laid a little up the hill and in turn provided a decent view on the area while keeping a close enough distance to the action for future activities. It was nothing special with two bunk beds stuffed into a tiny room, a decently equipped kitchen and a minimalistic bathroom, all connected by a surprisingly luxurious living-dining room combo. But it was perfect.

Although tiredness had become a common issue among the friends, a whole lot of unpacking remained and when they were finally done about an hour later, everyone was more than glad to call it a day and get ready to sleep.

"A little warm-up tour tomorrow, before we face the real challenges?" Jack asked as they had settled down. Selena vividly complained before her brother bluntly interrupted her, "I see your point, sis, but I actually like the idea." "Please, Luna. Stop this madness," she theatrically begged her friend, but to no avail. "It's what we came for, right?" the golden retriever noted. Baffled and defeated Selena ultimately had to give in, "I love democracy..." she weakly exhaled before sleep finally claimed her.

During the next few days they would tackle longer and longer tours, that proved to be quite a challenge for Jack, who had never done this sort of thing before. He surely had his fun and was athletic, but definitely not used to the consistent stress. Selena started to struggle, too, so when they returned on the fourth day of exercise, she announced to do nothing more for the rest of the week as soon as she collapsed on the sofa, "You two, do whatever you want, but we'll take a break. Where's the fun in ruining yourself anyway?" Her brother shrug his shoulders. He had been pushing unusually during the last few days and his look told her, that he was definitely up to something.

A little memory crawled up inside her, long forgotten and buried as deep as possible, but it was there. "It's Death Rock, isn't it?" she asked with a knowing smile, which he returned avidly, "You still hope to get me up there? Never. Bite me. Oh god, this explains a lot." Jack and Luna gave each other a bewildered look. "Join me tomorrow on my brave journey and I will leave you alone with it for the rest of your life," Chris offered genuinely, but she waved him off and cuddled against Jack instead. "Nope, give in to your madness, but leave me out of this," she stated from her comfortable place.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Jack asked as he began tickling her ears. Chris started explaining, "We used to come here as children with out parents. A lot. And every time we passed named crag, a nickname _she_had come up with by the way, she used to jeer, that, unlike her, I would never make it up there. And so far she had failed to prove her point." "I was young, a stupid pup, who had no idea, what she was talking about. Can't you just forget about it?", she grunted before huddling closer to her boyfriend. Her brother wouldn't like her decision, but she had better things to do at the moment than to argue with him, like giving in to her boyfriend's attention.

Chris seemed to realize the lost ground he stood on, as he turned to the other two again. "So, who's in? Jack? Luna?" "You guys have tortured me long enough for now. I'm out," the doberman admitted jokingly. "I'm actually interested in what scares off the mighty Selena," Luna smiled, "but; I won't risk my life for the little game of yours. If it's as dangerous as she says, we'll blow it off immediately." "Sure thing." "Great, so... ready for supper?" Without complains, dinner was ready soon after and as it turned late, Chris and Luna left early to catch enough sleep. "You're really determined about this..." his sister commented, a remark he reluctantly ignored.

"A strange way to show your mutual affection..." Jack noted after the maniacs had left. "Yeah, we are like that sometimes. But you miss a lot without a sibling. Even he has his benefits from time to time," she laughed ironically and moved closer to him around the small dining table. He leaned into her soft neck fur, something he for some reason found very comfortable although he had to bend down quite a bit, before breaking the content silence,

"What is this thing between them by the way?" Despite his relaxed voice, she startled and nearly knocked him off her shoulder as she reacted with a slightly exaggerated "What!?" and gave him a quizzical look. "I just know them for one day, but he is substantially more polite when she's around, not that he wouldn't be otherwise, and she can't quite hide her... subtle looks, definitely some uncertainty in there." "You must be wrong. She is family. We're very close, but not... in that sense." He arched a brow while his knowing look made her giggle. "Oh, I am very serious about this," he added and leaned in for a kiss. "Guess, we'll see tomorrow," she responded mysteriously.

The next morning, way too early for most purposes, Luna found them hurdled together on the couch with the TV running as they apparently hadn't made it into the bedroom. It put a little restrain on preparations, especially the aluminium climbing gear, but Chis and she finally started their day. After a few hours the goal came into sight.

"It doesn't look that bad after all," Luna said, "A little more than the usual, but... definitely doable." "See? I told her every time, but one obviously shouldn't attempt it alone and our parents were always a little... reluctant towards heights," he responded with a surprising excitement while unpacking the various hooks, karabiners and ropes, "so thanks for coming I guess. You've done this before?" "A few times actually," she responded slightly huffy while arranging her own equipment, or rather what she had borrowed from Selena as she did not expect to need her own during the trip, "Would have been more than a little stupid to agree yesterday, wouldn't it?" "My sincerest apologies. I didn't mean to..." "Never mind. Just messing with you," she chuckled. His dilemma was quite adorable.

Luna was the first one to get up the trail, Chris belaying her on the first stage before they swapped tasks and he could catch up. Stage after stage the climbing partners managed to conquer, a mix between actual climbing passages and just very steep paths, and it didn't take long for him to notice, that it took her significantly less time for nearly each section. So as they took a break on a comfortable ledge before the final few sections he remarked,

"What exactly did you mean by 'A few times'? You're pretty much flying up that mountain. Do you even care what this is doing to my ego?" She took the compliment with a mock bow, yet unable to retain a certain flattered blush. "This might have been a little understatement," she finally admitted, "pretty much grew up with it, until my parents got their new jobs and we moved away. Just needed a short refresher. I didn't realise I had missed it so much." her mind sent her through the memories of countless summers with her old friends for a moment, before she pulled herself together again and continued, "But hey, maybe it helps you, that I can't keep up this pace any more. I maybe got carried away a little. You're more sustaining at least." He actually looked a little less frustrated by now so they continued their journey.

But right on the last part she slipped. The rope snapped taught and Luna was dangling in mid air. While it had happened to both of them before (less to Chris than to her as he gladly noted), she had chosen the probably worst spot to make a mistake as she just crossed a section between two bluffs, the full-height yawning abyss right below her. He immediately regretted his thought as he noted the difference. She clung to the rope, even refusing to let go as she swung against the rock face, eyes pressed shut and her tail clenched between the legs. The helmet took the lion's share of the impact, but besides the trembling and occasional whimpers, Luna stayed completely still until she had lost all of her momentum. "Hey, you alright?" he called down to her as he had gone first this time, "HEY!" He finally caught her attention for a second. "Just a few more metres, come on!" he tried again.

Finally she gasped, "Gimme a minute. It's nothing." "Ok? Just tell me when I am supposed to come and rescue you. Can't pull you up until you remove the intermediate belays." But after a nerve-racking while, she eventually relaxed. Still shaky, but with a sense of the former elegance, she steadily overcame the remaining steps and took just a little help as he offered his hand for the last half metre.

"Had your fun down there?" he greeted her as the Golden Retriever exhaustedly took a seat near the edge. "Ah, get lost." she countered substantially relieved. "What happened there, besides the obvious of course?" "Just a bad memory. Similar situation, but it took them way too long to get me out. Doesn't matter anyway... Nothing to bother you." He shrugged and responded, "All I need to know is that you are alright and we can get down in one piece later on. But first..." Chris stood up and walked the last metres up to the very top, "look at that!"

She joined him and immediately understood what he was so excited about. From up here, without any treetops in the way, the valley opened up beneath them. The other side they had climbed surely had its view, too, but the rock had blocked most of what uncovered right now. A few lonely, hackly clouds hung over the silver line of the river, that pervaded the landscape like a vein, splitting and reuniting countless times and bringing life to the lush slopes of the valley, streaming downhill with trees and bushes. And in-between everything lay the medium sized town, haphazardly scattered on the edges, yet dense in the centre.

The beagle used the moment to take photos and send a good few to his sister as proof. But he kept the winner's selfie of both of them to prevent her from her usual... interpretations. "Get back alive. Then I might be impressed" came as a reply besides some pictures of down town. "It's a pity that the others didn't want to." Luna commented. "Nah. My sister is way less enthusiastic about it than I am and is not really able to enjoy it and Jack, as vibrant as he is, I don't think he's into this sort of thing, either." "You're judging her too hard." "Am I thought?" "You're definitely a bit too childish about your competition," she smiled, "but I do agree that it's probably good to give 'em a little room. I mean... we just got to know Jack and we're already locking him in with us for two weeks straight away." "But it's a comfortable prison at least, don't you think?" he nudged her playfully. "It sure is." she responded amused while taking her revenge, "but I'm starving. Where did you hide the backpack?"

He sat down on a stone nearby and reached behind it, taking out one of the bottles of water in the same move before patting the seat next to him invitingly. "Thank you for coming again. This trail has always been some sort of 'little-boy-dream' to and it's really nice to have someone to share this moment with," he said as she followed the invitation and looked for some refresher herself. "It's just a little distracting that you apparently had the urge of wiping the mountain clean along the way," he teased and pointed at the various stains and particles of dirt she had collected in her fur and clothes while sticking tightly to the cliff. "You don't look much better, sweetheart," she returned the compliment and removed a particularly obvious mark on his cheek to prove her point, slowly tracing the edge of a light brown patch in his fur.

Her hand tickled on the touch. Chris seemed to feel similar and started smiling before gathering his mind again and returning to normal, "I like it up here. It's lonely. No business to attend to, no nasty company, present one excepted naturally, simply being... free, loose of the world's trouble, brining some distance between you and expectations if only for a brief, admirable moment..." He fell into silence for a moment, leaned back against on the ground and looked up in the sky with a carefree smile. "Sorry, I got carried away a little. But do you know what I mean?" he added and gave her a little smirk. "I wouldn't put it as... dramatic, but... yeah, it's definitely something," she replied after a pause, half through the slice of bread she had started on, before taking about the same position next to him, "I'm just not as bitter about my current situation. Of course, the world is going down, a little bit every day, but it's not that bad after all... Besides," holding her arms above her head to inspect the scratches and bruises, "this is causing enough trouble on it's own." "But at least it's they are my fault in this case. I climb, I hurt myself and that's it."

"Are you alright?" She sat upright again to look down at the beagle. Eyes kept close he slowly replied, "just a little melancholic..." "And why is that?" she asked curiously, maybe a bit bewildered too. He scoffed, taking a moment to consider whether to tell her."This might sound a bit weird, but... earlier, don't ask me why for I have no answer, I had the feeling that we had more than just a friendship. But as ridiculous as this is, it reminded me that I might never find someone in that regard. I mean... 23 years old and Selena is the closest I ever came to a girl. But as I said, nothing to worry about." His answer gave her a painful sting.

"Would it be that off, though?" "Me finding a girlfriend?" "That we... you know..." Chris' eyes snapped open. He looked up and tried very hard to sense out the humour in this statement, but failed to find any. "So you're serious about this?" She gave him an insecure shrug and could nearly see the gears in his head working double-time as he tried to process it. "I love the idea, I love you, Luna, you're like a sister to me, but exactly that's the point. I've considered it before, but it's just... wrong." "But I am not. I love you, too, but all you're afraid of is that we are _too_close? How's that even possible? I mean..." "What if it doesn't work out? It might break apart sooner or later and I just don't want to lose you because of some... experiment..." "So you prefer this stupid game of secret looks, silly politeness and the constant need to hold back your desires over simply giving us a chance? And even if we realise that it doesn't work for us, so what? We can still be friends," she laid down next him, head on his chest hearing his heart racing, "I highly doubt that we end up in one of those hollywood-ish break-ups where dramatic yelling becomes our only form of communication."

He stayed silent for a moment. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her and felt his doubts diminish as he felt her content humming. "I hope you're right," he finally sighed. Suddenly Luna inched upwards and planted a short kiss on his lips. His heart skipped a few beats, a wave of heat rushed through his body and incinerated the remaining uncertainty in the process. He embraced her closer and repeated the experience but stretched it out and melted away, passionately enjoying closeness and the relieve that it meant until their lips slowly separated again.

"Now that it's official, I can finally tell you, how well the climbing harness suits you," she smiled while regaining breath. "So what now?" he asked flattered. "Let's just enjoy the moment, shall we?" she replied smoothly and laid back-down on his stomach, head on his chest again and closed her eyes. "I'm afraid this moment might get uncomfortable over time," he noted and grit his teeth while the uneven rock surface engraved then extra weight into his back. "Just a little longer, ok?" she demanded quietly and he was dearly willing to give in.

A good while later, unsure if they even had taken a nap in the meantime, Chris gently pushed against her back and sat upright again. "I'm sorry we can't wait for the sunset but we have to get back home before nightfall. You know the risk," he explained. "But it's just early afternoon," she moaned plaintively but stood up and took a good stretch before repacking their backpack. "Means we still have time left for today," he said. The descend was way quicker and soon they reached their heavy backpacks they had left at the cliff's base again. "Do we really have to head back?" Luna asked with slight discontent but he replied, "Technically not, but I definitely need a shower and it would be nice to get rid of the equipment. Though we can take our time to return."

About aAfter about an hour, the house came into sightand once Chris sat down on the small couch, clean and normally dressed again, he found a note on the coffee table stating that the others wouldn't return anytime soon, "anytime soon" being the most precise approximation Selena was willing to give in her obvious spidery handwriting. So without a time of creation it was basically worthless besides the obvious: they were missing. Great. But as Luna was still occupying the bathroom, he took out his headphones, moved down a story to the very inviting, definitely more comfortable carpet and switched on some music.

He must have fallen asleep againsomewhere in between, because he suddenly woke up from a warm breeze tickling his ear. He tiredly looked up and lookeddirectly into Lunas light blue eyes, close enough for him to see the slight variations in colour in her iris as she sat behind his head, bending down over him. It was asspectacular as it was unsettling. "How long have you been watching me?" he asked sluggishly. "Dunno, just a momentor so..." "Ok, let me rephrase my question. _Why_are you watching me? Is this gonnabecome a new hobby? Do I have to keep a garlic bulband my silvercross necklace around?" "I'm not the feral animal here." she countered and gave him a gentle tap on the snout,

"Is it comfortable down there?" "Try itfor yourself. You're shortenough to fit on the couch, but..." She pressed his mouth shut immediately and put up a very unconvincingly objurgatory look, but followed his offer, laying besides him.At some point she apparently got bored and rolled over to the more convenient spot next to her. "Hi," she whispered into his ear and wrapped her arms around Chris' neck while he grasped for air, "You promised that we would have time later on." "So you wanna do something?" She snickered. "What is it?" he asked. "Could you please not sound as disappointed?" "You could never disappoint me," he responded before taking off his headphones, embracing her firmly and giving her a tender kiss.

When Jack and Selena arrived around midnight, it had started raining. Clouds covered the sky, thick droplets washed away every detail and turnedthe ground into a single dirty mile. Selena's mood was respectively ruined as they stumbled through the entrance, everything below the hips sprinkled with brown, muddy dots and all of her former styling reduced to a drenched mess.A set of wet, dirtyimprintsmarked every of their steps while a puddle formed beneath them. "Why!?" she exclaimed, "Why today?" Jack shrugged, obviously amused by her hysteria.

He suddenly nudged her slightly and pointed over to the others. Chris and Luna had moved up a story on the couch again, now more or less leaning against each other in a relaxed embrace and reading, or rather looking at, one of Chris' books as they apparently spent more time softly discussing about it than making actual progress. "Told you," Jack commented while Selena's jaw dropped to the floor,

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" "The good old times when I liked you?" she snickered and leaned against him while he tried very hard to look insulted. "We are not old enough for that," the doberman finallywhisperedand gave her a short hug, "we'll have enough time to argue when we have out own home, kids are running around and we spend most of our time sitting in armchairs and watching the world as we knew it pass away." "Sounds great to me," Selena smiledand gave him a kiss.

"Would you please stop flooding the hallway?" came Chris voice from the couch, "welcome back by the way." "Missed you, too," Selenacalled back. "Glad to see me in one piece? It was tough but me pulled off the impossible. We defeated Death-Rock." "My hero," she replied, "but at what cost? You two have missed a lot today." "Totally worth it" "It looks that way," Selena smiled and headed for their shared room.

When she was gone, the beagle looked up towards Jack and said, "Sometimes I wish you would putyour plan into action soon and get her out of our house. She's annoying." "You heard that?" the other one replied surprised while Luna nudged him reproachfully, "you, too. So behave." "You don't have a sibling. You have no idea," he smiled, but startled as he saw her intense stare. "I have Sel and you." "Ok then... I guess we'll have to revisit our arrangement, dear sister."

She laughed and hit him until he embraced her tightly and fixed her arms in turn. Jack watched the scene with growing amusement, "I might do you the favour. But only to protect her from her brother." "I don't care aboutthe reasons, just do it," thebeaglereplied, "and now, get moving before you damage the floor." "You try to give me orders?" "Apparently?" Jack laughed, but followed Selena. "You are the worst," Luna grunted and cuddled closer to him. He kissed her and looked into his book again, "I know. Next page?" "Definitely."