The air was thin and biting at the mountain’s peak, each gust of wind laced with ice that nipped at exposed skin. Clouds loomed close enough to touch, shrouding the jagged rocks in a ghostly mist that blurred the boundary between sky and earth. In the quiet stillness, only the sound of the wind howling through narrow crevices and the distant, haunting call of an eagle disturbed the silence. Snow clung to the cliffside in patches, though here and there dark stone broke through, jagged and slick from years of relentless weathering. The sky above was a deep, stormy gray, promising more snow before nightfall, while the sun fought a losing battle to cast even a faint glow across the desolate scene.