“No. They actually bend into a circle and stay in the skin. They won’t dissolve either. Splinters can, but quills won’t. They can stay in a tiger’s body their whole lives. It’s what makes some become man-eaters. With an impairment like that, they can’t hunt fast prey anymore. I’ve even come across a couple of tigers who had died from starvation because they’d been injured by porcupines.”
“Well, the common sense thing would be not to eat porcupines then.”
Kishan grinned. “But they’re delicious.”
“Ugh.” I sucked in a breath. “Ow!”
“Almost got it. There. It’s out now.”
“Thanks.”
He cleaned the worst of my scrapes with alcohol wipes and then bandaged up what he could.
“I think you’ll heal here quicker than normal, but not as fast as I do. We should rest.”
“We’ll rest when we get down.”
He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Kells, it took us days to get up here. It will take days to get back down.”
“No it won’t. I have a shortcut. When the ravens cleared my mind, I saw what the Scarf could do. We just need to walk out onto a branch.”
I could tell Kishan was wary, but he followed me anyway. We made our way to the edge of a long branch.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Watch.”
I held the Scarf on top of my palms and said, “A two person parachute, please.”
The Scarf twisted, snapped taut and lengthened, and then folded itself over and over. From all four corners, threads pulled out and stretched. They wove and twisted together, forming belts, risers, and ropes. Finally, the Scarf stopped moving. It had become a double-harnessed large backpack.
He stared at it incredulously. “What did you do, Kelsey?”
“You’ll see. Put it on.”
“You said parachute. You think we’re going to parachute out of here?”
“Yep.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Ah, come on. Tigers aren’t afraid of heights, are they?”
“This isn’t about heights. This is about being extremely high up in a tree and hurtling our bodies into oblivion based on a strange fabric that you now claim is a parachute.”
“It is, and it will work.”
“Kelsey.”
“Have faith, like the Ocean Teacher said. The Scarf does other cool stuff too. I’ll tell you about it on the way back. Kishan, trust me.”
“I trust you; I just don’t trust the fabric.”
“Well, I’m going to jump, so are you coming with me or not?”
“Did anyone ever tell you you’re stubborn? Were you this stubborn with Ren?”
“Ren had to deal with stubbornness and sarcasm, so consider yourself lucky.”
“Yeah, but at least he got some kissing for his effort.”
“You got a few kisses yourself.”
“Not voluntary ones.”
“True, you stole them.”
“Stolen kisses are better than none.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Are you just starting an argument with me to chicken out?”
“No. I’m not chickening out. Fine. If you insist on doing this, please explain to me how it works.”
“Easy. We strap ourselves in, jump, clear the tree, and pull the ripcord. At least I hope that’s how it works,” I mumbled softly.
“Kelsey.”
“Don’t worry. It’s the way we’re supposed to get down. I know we’ll make it.”
“Right.”
He strapped himself in while I put our regular backpack on backward against my chest. Then I approached Kishan.
“Umm . . . you’re too tall for me. Maybe I can stand on a taller branch.”
I looked around for something to stand on, but Kishan wrapped his hands around my waist and picked me up. He snuggled me next to his chest while I strapped myself into the other part of the Scarf’s harness.
“Er . . . thanks. Okay, so what you need to do is carry me, run, and leap off the branch. Can you manage that?”
“I’m sure I can handle it,” he responded dryly. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
He squeezed me close.
“One . . . two . . . three!”
Kishan ran five steps and hurled his body into the void.
22
Exit
The wind screamed around us as we plummeted freefall through the sky, spinning like Dorothy’s house in the tornado. Kishan was able to stabilize us in a face-down position. He took hold of my wrists and drew our arms out in an arc. Not a moment after we stabilized, we heard a screech overhead. An iron bird was on our tail.
Kishan lifted my left arm in the air, and we dramatically veered to the right and picked up speed. The bird followed. He lifted our right arms, and we swung left. The bird was on top of us.
Kishan screamed, “Hold on, Kells!”
He pulled our arms back to our sides and tilted our heads down. We burst forward like a bullet. The bird folded its wings