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“We don’t need to stop yet,” Talon says.
Julie growls. I don’t know what’s wrong. What’s going on?
There is silence for a moment. Then Talon speaks again. “The ledge is in front of me. I think it might be your armpit height, Michael.”
Right, so I’m fucked. I might be able to crawl, but the path is narrow and if my horns clip the rocks, it might be enough to knock me off.
Julie tries to wriggle her hand free of mine. I refuse to let go. I need her. They could leave me stranded here. For a moment my throat is thick with fear and my good eye becomes hot and then blurry.
Who the fuck am I?
Not the man I was when I found her and still had two eyes, that’s for sure.
She shuffles up the path and I follow. There is more hand lifting, like she is trying to describe something. Then she huffs out a breath as though defeated.
I have no words of encouragement, because I don’t know what to do. I should have seen that the outcrop was going to be a problem before we started climbing and planned ahead.
“If I can turn around, I can climb the rest of the way up. I don’t need the path.” And Julie will have Talon to guide her to the top. “I can stay close if you need me.”
Talon makes a strangled noise. “You can’t leave her with me…she’s holding my upper arm, but I can’t hold her hand. I can’t do anything if she slips.”
“Let’s take a moment.” The view is pretty from here. The puddle littered plains spread before us. It’s the last puddle band before it dries up on the outer reaches. I know there is another band of puddles closer to the center because that is as far as Tail and I got last time.
Maybe there are just endless bands of mountain and puddles between here and the center.
This will be the last time I see the place I have called home for the last four years, or there about. All the places I know, the areas to avoid, and those where I could move freely. The best drinking puddles, and my favorite peak for sitting on. I can’t see it from here, or maybe it is just one of the many jagged peaks reaching for the sky.
I thought taking the path would make it easier for Julie, but I was wrong. She was going to be scared either way. I should’ve done what I thought best instead of worrying about what she thought.
“Julie, you are going over my shoulder so I can climb.” I should have done that in the first place, and we’d be there by now. “Talon, are you right to climb?”
“Yes, though I might take the path.”
That’s his choice. He has two eyes and can disappear. He is in no danger.
Julie gives a little whine.
“I’ve climbed with you before. Okay?” But I can’t see her or the ledge. “I need to lift her onto the ledge.” That way, it will be easy to pick her up once I’ve turned.
“Then we need to be closer. I will get up there first,” Talon says.
“Will it take our weight?” There is no point in using the ledge as the starting point if it’s going to crumble beneath us.
“I think so.”
We inch up the path a little way and then stop. There is the scrabble of claw on stone, then Talon’s voice is above me. “Okay. It seems solid.”
That doesn’t mean anything. I’ve had rocks collapse beneath me many times. I move closer to Julie and let go of her hand to slide it around her waist. “I’m going to lift you and you are going to haul your ass up there.”
I have one chance at this, as by the time I’ve turned, I will need to be able to grab the ledge with my free hand or I will fall.
She moves, but I don’t know if it’s a nod or a head shake.
“Talon. Make sure she gets up there.”
“And cut her hands off in the process? I can’t grab her!” His frustration makes his voice tight.
I close my eye. “On three.”
