"Do we want to go straight for High Hrothgar from here?"

"I think so? We were talking about a shrine of Azura, dunno if that's still worthwhile after yesterday..."

Hum... "Maybe, maybe not. And it'd be kinda out of our way - the path to Windhelm and all splits about halfway to High Hrothgar, and I think the actual shrine to Azura I know about is both abandoned and a good bit north of Windhelm."

"Straight to the mountain, then."

"Or as straight as we can when we have to go around the mountain first..."

"What, like you've never walked up a vertical cliff face just for the hell of it?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"Would you like it to be?"

"Sounds mad, so... Yes!"

"Then consider yourself so challenged Glint, Cat of Sheogorath."

Giggle! "You're on."

"We'll need to find a cliff, first."

"There's plenty; the Throat of the World is tall."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Across the river, then...

Through the outlying farms and watchposts.

"Is that it?" Elerki asks, pointing to a lumbering mass rising to the southeast.

"Yep." The mountain range dominates the entire skyline to the east, rising sharply as it juts south until the final peaks soar above the clouds - and then the range tumbles down quickly to meet the highlands of Skyrim's south. "The best road's around to the north, past old Valtheim - we can also cut back by Helgen but that road's more dangerous. Or," sharp grin, "We can go straight up the side."

"Not Helgen."

"But I wanna see you try climbing."

"I already said I would, didn't I?"

"Let's go straight up the side."

Running straight up a cliff face is no mean feat - if there's too long of a gap between when you leave the last tiny ledge and when you slide to the next you'll stop indexing your position to the ground you're trying to stand on and instead fall - it's honestly more luck than skill, since a keen eye and quick steps only go so far.

Luckily, mad luck's rather Glint's thing.

Unluckily, Sheogorath is the god of mad endeavors, not successful endeavors.

Well, y'know, Elerki and Gytha would have had to follow her up after that. So maybe it's for the best.

...And at least she's got healing magic and did not get so high up she immediately went splat.

However.

Ow.

"Are you okay??"

"Yeah. Just embarrassed." And low on magicka but that'll regenerate.