Curioso and Annette lay quietly, relaxed in the completion of their inventory of love's softest parts, as the storm clouds gathered above the plateau. As the wind increased, the tent poles began to voice their protest. Annette peered out from the warm encirclement of Curioso's arms, her eyes dark, "He's angry, Chere. He'll blow us off of this mountain before we have a chance to see morning..."

Grudgingly, Curioso left her side to peer out of the tent. It seemed stable for the moment, he told her, though it appeared Tirseng had needed to make a midnight excursion into the icy wind to save his. He saw the faint light through the tent fabric, the silouhettes framed within it, and wondered if he should go see what was going on. Just then, a tug at his foot, and a dusky sing-song voice he hadn't heard in quiet some time whispered, "Oh, Chere?". "Forgive me, my friend" smiled Curioso, giving one last look to the other tent, then he returned to his own.

The two lie together, surrounded by the howl and the dark, for a few moments more before Annette pulls back to peer up at Curioso.
"You know," she pauses as a particularly violent wind shakes the tent, "this brother of yours makes me glad to be an only child...What are we going to do?"
"Well," he says, tucking her head beneath his chin again, "I think we should do as the good Mallory suggested and run for our lives..."
"What?" Annette sat upright "We can't leave him to do this! Mallory said there were other travelers coming, surely they won't be expecting this! We have to at least warn them?"
"Chere," he motioned her to the tent flap, and pointed at the other tent. "Let's see what Tirseng has to say about that."

Through the icy wind, struggled the sherpa. He managed to crawl to their tent, and pull himself inside. Blushing slightly at Annette, he handed Curioso the tin of tea, and muttered to him, "The things I have heard tonight, dear friend, you will scarcely believe. Let me tell you of our guard..."