Hey everyone, At last here is chapter 11 of Live By The Snow. I hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 11- A Visitor

Your feet are numb as you stop in front of the cliff, and the cold has nipped at your nose for the past 3 hours. You left the already abandoned castle this morning to hunt, once you realized that you had run out of food. This was the last cliff you needed to scale to get you onto the peak, and then you needed to make it across the trench that guarded the castle like a moat. How you made it in the first place, you'll never know.

Quickly tightening your haul to your back, you begin the climb. You inch up, carefully finding the correct holds and doing your best to avoid the rocks slippery with fresh ice and snow.

Place was dryer when I left, you think to yourself as you check your holds. It could've snowed here after you left, or there could have been an avalanche. You wouldn't be surprised if there was, you can hear the mountain at night. It groaned and moaned, sometimes howled in aching pain. It was alive, there was no doubting it. It was living, breathing even, and it felt the cold. You wonder what it's like to be a mountain, to be tall enough to see everything but never having it close enough in its grasp. To be alone for eternity, cold winds and snow snapping at you with no promise of stopping. Perhaps, however, there might one day be a time when cold is the warming sun on your face, and the wind is nothing but a gentle breeze. Snow becomes a shower of rain. But would those things matter when you're still alone, taunted by company you can never hope to reach?

You're shocked out of your daydream when your foot slips on a wet rock, causing you to fall several feet down the cliff before catching onto another hold. Your kill slides off your back, and falls the last few feet into the powdered snow. You sigh, looking down at the heap of meat below you. You'll have to get it.

You push yourself off the cliff with widespread arms. The wind whistles at you as you fall back. Landing on a pillow of snow, it huffs at you, releasing a burp of flurries. You grab your stupid sack of meat, brushing it off a bit before strapping it back onto your back.

"Great," you mutter as you gaze up at the cliff. You'd have to climb it again, this time with the damned thing laughing at you.

Your hands grab at the snow, scrambling to pull yourself up so you won't fall again. Once you've hauled yourself over, you look up at the last challenge for you to get over so you can be finished with this stupid mountain. The hop, climb and crawl to the castle, over a precarious drop that would enjoy swallowing you up. Anna said there used to be a staircase that led up to the top. But it had been destroyed; an avalanche had happened over the pit a year ago and took out the stairs. All that was left of it were several pillars you were very happy to have.

But now, those happy little pillars were gone, replaced by a new staircase. One, you knew, could have only been made by a single person who you would have to meet up with.

"Let's get this over with," you sigh.

Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you all like it. I know it seems like a short chapter but this chapter was done around the run to Christmas, Christmas and New Year period so there was not much time for it to be written. Due to other commitments neither myself or My Co-Writer Weesie Hills are unsure as to when chapter 12 will be released. Also we'd like to give a quick thank you to anyone who has made suggestions to us both about this fiction they are much appreciated.

As always feel free to review, follow, favourite and suggest.