Monti wrapped up his meeting and came into the tunnel. He was overjoyed when he saw Arvin waiting for him.

“Arvin!” He called before he came over and embraced him.

“Monti, it is so good to see you friend.”

“It is good to see you also. How was your latest job down south?”

“Tiring. There was a big area to cover, but I was successful and there were no casualties, aside from my airship.”

“Your airship? That is a casualty indeed, how badly is it damaged?”

“Nothing beyond repair. I got some help along the way and I managed to get her here safely.”

“Along with yourself, I see.”

“Indeed. I have missed you, Monti.”

“And I missed you too. Nothing is new here, aside from a few daring rescues that you missed out upon.”

“But you managed fine without me?

“We did,” Monti said before they embraced once more. Monti’s main role was as a leader of a rescue team. He often worked with George and Breanna, who made up the rest of Arvin’s close friends. They were all skilled aeronauts, and they spent as much as they could together, when they were together.

“How are Breanna and George, are they well? Were they at the briefing?”

“No, but we’re meeting up later for dinner and I think that we can squeeze you on the end.”

“I will be coming if you can squeeze me on the end or not,” Arvin said as he put his arm around Monti and they walked back through the tunnels.

That evening, after just two hours had passed, Arvin and Monti descended down the tunnels and towards the large, expansive cavern that harboured the lake with the thermal spring. To most, this open space at the base of the mountain was known simply as the thermal lake. Many people used it to relax, swim and wash in. The water of the lake was warm and bubbling, like a mild-tempered jacuzzi. The lake itself was deep, and while it had sloping sides that allowed people to stand up at its edges, the heat grew more intense the further into the centre you went and the deeper you descended. The pipes had been connected to a deep part of the lake to allow the water to stay hot right up to the peak.

Arvin felt the warmth from the thermal lake rise and become absorbed into his skin as they entered the cavern from above To reach the lake at the bottom, previous occupants of Ansora had carved a staircase out of stone that wound its way down the edge of the cavern. Off this stone staircase were the workshops, restaurants and relaxation venues of Ansora. The heat from the lake filled the cavern and it would often make people feel calm or relaxed. Arvin knew this feeling well as his father’s workshop was halfway down the cavern, where he used to help out as a young boy.

“This is it,” Monti said as they came to the entrance of the White Ivy. The restaurant was one of Monti’s favourites and it had been named after the white ivy that grew beside the thermal lake. Many wondrous plants grew down there, that often you couldn’t find outside in the area the surrounded them. The restaurant was cosy, with curved walls, wooden beams and hand-sculpted carvings in the wooden coverings across the walls. It was as though the owner had wanted to open a restaurant, but he had only known what pubs looked like. As such, if you had added tankards of ale onto the menu and a good old roast dinner, most would have preferred to call it a pub over a restaurant. Either way, it was a good place to meet.

Looking forward to the night ahead, and feeling both relieved and excited to have Arvin back, Monti ordered two bottles of red wine. As the White Ivy was a restaurant, it had to pretend to be sophisticated and serve wine rather than ale. Before Monti was subjected to trying to make small talk with his good friend to pass some time, Brenna and George found them at the table.

“Brenna. George. You made it,” Monti said as they joined him.

“We have indeed. Arvin, it’s so good to see you.”

“And you George,” Arvin said as he stood up and hugged him. “It’s been an age.”

“It has.”

“Breanna, how are you?” Arvin asked as he kissed her on both cheeks.

“Very well thank you Arvin, and I can see that you made it back in one piece.”

“I have indeed.”

“Come and sit, we have wine,” Monti said and they all took their seats around the table. George and Brenna both had dark skin and black hair and, although they looked nothing alike, most people thought that they were siblings. On the contrary, a little over a year ago they had moved in together and their job working in one of the rescue teams under Monti meant that they had started developing into something more than friends.

“Has Matthew told you what his next reckless stunt is going to be Monti?” Breanna asked as they were handed the menus. Matthew and Monti were twins and, like all siblings, one was the trouble maker whilst the other spent all their time getting them out of the trouble.

“He did mention that he wanted to jump into lake Casada in the valley for his latest daredevil stunt.”

“And what height record does he want to set this time?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll be something absurd.”

“Have you tried talking him out of it?”

“Not yet. I don’t want to cry wolf too soon otherwise, my words won’t mean anything to him.”

“Your words will mean something. Even if he acts like he doesn’t hear them, he’s your brother and he will be taking them on board.”

“I know, but he’s always about to jump off one cliff or another. With the number of close calls that he’s had, I would have thought that he’d learnt by now.”

“He has always taken risks too far.”

“He’s reckless and I would just wish that I could make him see some sense before he kills himself.”

“He may be reckless, but he’s not stupid. He knows when he’s pushing the limit and when it’s serious.”

“But that doesn’t stop him. I don’t want to be called out to work to find Matthew,” Monti said before he paused for a moment. He didn’t like thinking about what could happen, to anyone but especially to someone so dear to his heart.

“We all have to take risks in life Monti, and we never want to find anyone like that.”

“I know, but the thought of one so close to me ending up like that.”

“And that’s why you’re a good rescuer Monti,” George said in an effort to reassure his friend. “Because it’s so personal to you, and to all of us that the very worst can happen, it spurs us on.”

“Remember my grandfather who died in an avalanche during the sheep herding three years ago?” Breanna asked.

“Yes,” They replied

“Every time that I see snow that’s ready to go, it makes my heart skip a beat. I worry for my sisters when they go out herding the sheep in the mountains every year, but I wouldn’t want it to be any different. Fear of what may happen, keeps us focused,” Breanna said and everyone agreed. There was a short intermission in the conversation as the food was ordered and wine was brought out.

“In other news. Arvin, how did the job go?” George asked as he finished pouring the wine.

“It went well. I travelled south, by quite a long way, and successfully evacuated all the people in the areas where it was going to flood.”

“Cheers to that!”

“Cheers!” They called and toasted together.

“My airship does need some repairs after my crash though.”

“You crashed Arvin?” Breanna asked.

“Yes. I was caught in a bad storm and my whole airship went down over Auksand.”

“Auksand?”

“Yes, I crashed landed inside of it and I met this girl, Talia.”

“Talia?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, you’re on the hunt then Arvin? Getting yourself a city girl?”

“Shut up Monti.”

“So you do like her?”

“What does she taste like?”

“George that’s disgusting. Why would you think like that?”

“Did you end up in her bed?”

“Yes, but only because I was injured.”

“Then that’s all my questions answered.”

“Here, have some more wine,” Arvin said as he didn’t fancy continuing this line of conversation. He had other things to ask them about, and besides he did like Talia and given the chance, he would have liked to have ended up in Talia’s bed. He finished pouring Monti and George some wine, but Brenna wouldn’t let the subject go so easily.

“Do you like her?”

“She’s nice. Curious, if a bit scared. But that’s what city people are like when they’re never been out in the open air properly.”

“I know. I met a nice man in Saoulhul once, but that was a long time ago and he was rather dull as it turned out.”

“I did not know this,” George said, and given the details of this man, he would have had him hanging by his ankles over the edge of his airship.

“It doesn’t matter now, it was a long time ago.”

“Will you go to see her again?” Monti pressed Arvin.

“I hope to. Although I didn’t make a good impression in Auksand and I don’t think that they’ll let me back in.”

“Why?”

“Her father’s a policeman.”

“A policeman? Arvin, you’re playing with fire, you have to be careful.”

“I know.”

“Why do you think that they won’t they let you back in?”

“While I was there I looked around, in the way that I normally do, but people quickly became wary of me.”

“Wary?” George asked as their food was served. “Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“They said that I had MA and that I was spreading it.”

“What’s MA?”

“Mountain air. They think of it as a disease, that causes people to act without caution and leads them to becoming reckless. They are scared of it and they believe that it will kill people. It threatens their society and their entire way of living.”

“They’re really taking it seriously then?”

“Yes.”

“They really have gone loopy,” George said. He’d never had a high opinion of cities, and this only confirmed for him that any man who digs a hole in the ground for himself and refuses to leave it, has only dug himself a grave.

“Loopy or not, they arrested both myself and Talia. I was then forced to leave the city and Talia’s father told me that I would never see his daughter again. He warned me that if I was ever to return, I would not receive a warm welcome.”

“It sounds like you didn’t receive a warm welcome this time.”

“No. I did not. When I left, they were quarantining some of the tiers and they were talking about issuing a stay at home order until the police figured out what to do.”

“So they’re going to lock people away because of MA?”

“Yes. They’re afraid of people becoming reckless, which only adds salt to the wound, as they are trying to live without risk.”

“But you can’t be afraid of risk. It is integral to life and if even you choose to do nothing, there is still risk,” Monti told them.

“I agree. It’s like trying to live without death. You can’t have one without the other. People die, things go wrong: but that’s how we learn, change and develop. And each time life goes on, it has to,” George added.

“It does. Time keeps on ticking, and there’s nothing that we can do to stop it.”

“Life is really dark if you stop to think about it. I like what you said before Breanna about fear keeping us focused. It is not always fear, but you have to learn to adapt to what’s around you and deal with it there and then. You can’t plan for everything, and if you did, you would miss out on so many opportunities.”

“Here, here!” Monti cheered, forgetting that he had was a wine glass in his hand and not a tankard of ale. “Although my brother would benefit from a little forward planning.”

“Yes, well you have to plan a bit. Planning everything and not shifting from it, is as bad as making no plans at all.”

“And both equally as dangerous as one another.”

“I remember the couple that we rescued, they were on a glacier without any gear. No crampons, no rope, no walking boots and only a thin waterproof layer. Planning is essential to safety, and although risk is important, a lack of planning results in being reckless.”

“It’s like a scale. No planning and most risk on one side, and having an overbearing plan and being completely safe on the other. On one side is someone waiting to fall into a grave, while on the other is someone digging their own.”

“You’ve always had positive analogies don’t you George?”

“Of course I do my dear,” George replied to Breanna.

“To planning!” Monti cheered as he was now on his fifth glass of wine.

“To planning!” They all cheered. Soon, the conversation became broken and muddled as the wine went to their heads. Not long after, they were asked to leave and they carefully staggered up the stone staircase.