appear to know it, there’s something about focusing on who you’re speaking to that helps to make sure you’re using the correct language.
Super weird. But isn’t everything about this situation?
I hear rustling further into the forest at the same time that the smaller man looks over my head. His eyes widen, but he grabs my arm as he stands, already backing up and heading toward the edge of the woods. His other hand presses to my lips, and I give him a raspberry on his fingers as I try to back up from him.
His grip on my arm is unrelenting though, and I don’t get far. When he crouches down and snags my bag, I follow him easily. I don’t want to lose that. Gesturing at me to hurry, I glance back at Kaneer just as he spins around and heads our way.
When I turn back, I realize that I’ve already lost ground, and I do my best to zigzag through the low-lying bushes and small branches to catch up to Pascel. The ground is uneven with the occasional rock and downed limbs, and I’m already breathing hard in the muggy heat. My stomach drops as powerful arms wrap around my middle, jerking me into the air in mid-movement. Then my speed doubles.
Carrying me practically under his arm like a football, we pass the smaller man within moments, and I am impressed with how quickly we reach the edge with the drop-off into the gorge. As soon as we pause, I realize that the noises we made traveling at high speed through all the brush in the forest covered up the sounds of us being followed. Hoots and strange hollers echo behind us, making me wonder just how many of those animals there are?
With a deep growl that does funny things to my body, I’m slid down onto the ground where he crouches slightly to look me in the face. “Climb onto my back and hang on tight.”
I’m about to argue when to the left of him I spot one of the large bigfoot creatures—even bigger than the one he took down earlier—coming out of the forest. It’s a deep chestnut brown and I notice another right behind it that almost looks red. But that’s not even what catches my attention. It’s the strange snarls and noises that they’re making. In fact, I practically feel like I could understand them, but with how pissed off they look, I’m not waiting around to have a discussion.
They’re probably mad at him for choking and killing the other one earlier. After all, that one didn’t want to kill me. In fact, he was more interested in getting frisky…
I don’t wait for another invitation, practically scaling his back myself. He straightens and throws my bag at Pascel, who’s already standing with his back to the gorge at the edge of the drop-off. When my bag hits his chest, for a moment I think it knocked him off the edge of the cliff, and I let out a startled gasp. But before I can worry about it, I realize I have too much to worry about for myself! Because Kaneer immediately swings around and jumps off the edge of the cliff himself.
Fuck! My stomach can’t take any more. It’s abandoned me.
When I stood at the ledge earlier, walking along the perimeter to the valley below, there were places I estimated it was between one to two hundred feet. Although the cliff’s rocks may be made of entirely different elements than Earth, they looked like loose shale with different layers of strata showing in a rainbow of red to purple. If you'd asked me how long it’d take to work your way down, I’d guess at least half an hour.
Now, I’d say we’re down the distance within twenty seconds. I get a first person view of the incredible three-inch-long nails that appear to have morphed right out of Kaneer’s hands and feet. Normally when you’d say nails, you think of wimpy human nails like mine. I’m forever breaking one, but these must be like metal because they gouge into the rock surface like a steel blade.
It’s loud as we drop and then catch, drop and then catch, over and over down the side of the cliff. Looking back up, I see more than one creature peering over the edge before they quickly disappear. Will they come down after us?
Based on the way both of the men stop and look back up once we hit the flatter