Young Writers Society

Either Evaline was slow, or this woman was crazy fast. Possibly a bit of both. Still, when the woman veered off and started to head towards a cliff while beckoning for her to follow, she thought she was insane. Why on earth was she heading towards a cliff?

Even if Evaline didn't make it in time, she knew that she would be okay. But if she had an option to stay alive naturally, she would much rather than that route. It seemed that the stampede was running at a faster rate than she was, and she knew it was a matter of time before they would catch up to her before she reached the mountain.

The cliff, however, was closer. And the woman seemed to have some semblance of a plan since she refused to believe that she was stupid enough to run there only to get trapped. If this was the case, then Evaline had no one else to blame but herself.

Because she followed the woman, running towards the cliff as fast as she could. She watched as the woman got there first and seemed to trapeze her way up like a strong, agile animal, and then she reached her hand down for her to grab.

Evaline glanced back again. The horned rhino-like creatures were getting closer now, and she could make out their fierce empty eyes staring right at her.

Panicking, Evaline gave the sprint all her energy, reaching out with one hand to grab the woman's hand, but seeing that she was too tall, even for her. Knowing she was maybe thirty seconds away from her doom, Evaline jumped to reach for her.

The instant she felt the woman's hand in hers, Jerica clenched her hand around it and yanked her upright as hard as she could. It hurt every bit as badly as Jerica had expected.

Her entire left arm and shoulder felt like it was on fire from the way it got yanked on as well as the additional weight added. Her right shoulder had a stab of pain at trying to propel the woman over her head while hanging sideways off a cliff herself. And her chest and shoulders burned at being caught in between.

Still, she got the woman high enough that her knees were by Jerica's shoulders, even though neither of them were anywhere close to the top yet. Jerica ripped her arm away from the woman and twisted towards the cliff as close as she could get, grabbing at the fabric of the woman's waist to keep her from falling as she rolled her shoulder forward so it'd be a bigger place to stand on. She tried her best not to tremble from the weight bearing down on her left arm, leaving them at a sloping angle. "CLIMB!"

Was this woman superhuman? Was super strength a real power? Evaline was sure that that was just a joke that was common for kids to say before they developed their own power.

Still, the woman somehow heaved her up until she stood on her shoulder, and Evaline barely had time to react before she yelled at her to climb.

Evaline looked over her shoulder and saw the animals coming closer. If they grazed against the cliff, they were just barely tall enough. They had to get higher.

She looked up, noting that there were rocks scaling the cliffs, but they were just barely jutting out. It wasn't that high up. Maybe one step away, and she'd be able to reach the top.

Evaline was many things, but she was not a climber. Still, she had to try.

Gritting her teeth, she reached for a thin rock that jutted out and then tried to place her footing on a thin divot a foot above the woman's head, but her foot slipped and she accidentally kicked the woman's head.

She flashed her an apologetic look (which, in the heat of the moment, she was sure came out looking like a glare), and then tried again, keeping her foot steady.

She had one try, and she wasn't going to mess this one up.

In one big swoop, she propelled herself forward and reached for the top of the cliff. Thankfully she was fairly tall, and she just made it, her hands scraping the surface of the rock. She grunted loudly as she pulled herself herself forward, her arms shaking from lifting her own weight. She wasn't the strongest person, but she was still stronger than she looked, and could just barely do one pull-up by herself. It came in handy in this instance.

As she made it up, she lifted her dangled legs out form the edge and took a few shallow deep breaths, a bead of sweat rolling down her face as she eyed the animals coming closer now. Maybe ten seconds away now.

She had to help her up, but after exhausting her own muscles, she doubted she could do so without a tool. Frantically looking around, she noticed that there was a rock jutting up between the other rocks in front of her, and she placed her foot against it to use as leverage.

She leaned over the edge and extended both her arms, wordlessly offering her help in the midst of chaos.

Jerica grunted, muttering curses as the woman kicked her in the head. No good deed ever went unpunished. Finally, the woman got a grasp on something overhead and hauled her own weight off Jerica. The instant she didn't need Jerica to hold on to her, Jerica clawed onto the side of the cliff with her right hand, clinging to the rock for dear life, body trembling.

You're pushing it.

She was always pushing it. Constantly on the brink of disaster, flirting with death. And now here she was. Flirting far, far harder than she meant to be. The rhinos were almost to her now. She tried to pull herself, but her arms were trembling from the exertion.

She got herself pulled further up with her right hand, but couldn't find a higher place to put her left hand. She looked up desperately and saw the woman reaching down to give her a boost. She looked back at the rhinos. She didn't like having to trust this stranger. But she wasn't going to get out of the way in time otherwise.

Jerica twisted, getting her left foot on the branch she was holding and leaping upward, yanking herself up with her right hand as well, both hands momentarily in the air before she clenched on to both of the woman's arms. She kicked her feet, trying to get a footing to help her get to the top of the cliff, hoping to the gods that the woman didn't drop her.

Evaline almost dropped her.

If it wasn't for the rock she was pushing against, she might have, and maybe even went down tumbling with her since she was practically made out of bricks.

But with shaky arms, Evaline helped heave her up, using her foot to push against the rock as she pulled and leaned back. She closed her eyes and grunted loudly as the felt her body shake from the over-exertion, and by the time she opened her eyes again, she could see that she lifted the woman up enough so that she could reach for the top of the cliff herself, right in time for the rhinos to brush past the cliff, just barely grazing her legs if she had dangled them in the air.

Jerica's stomach lurched as she realized that the woman did not, in fact, know what she was doing. Still, she managed to recover in time. Jerica was grateful to get near enough to the top that she could be back in charge of her own safety. She scrambled to the top at the nick of time.

Jerica poked her head over the edge to see the rhinos thunder past, then she looked around wildly to make sure there weren't any on this level to be worried about. Then she fell flat on her back and panted, chest heaving as she screwed her eyes shut against the bright sunlight. "What the literal fuck?"

By the time the woman was able to heave herself up, Evaline laid on the rocky surface, taking deep breaths with tightly closed eyes as she felt the sweat accumulate on her chest and back. Her heart was racing, probably from the exercise and the anxiety.

She heard a thud as the woman lay down next to her, but she sat up so that she didn't feel vulnerable laying next to her.

"I don't know. I don't know," she said quickly with an airy breath, peering over the cliff and still seeing the stampede ran by. It sounded so loud, like what she imagined thunder would sound like.

She closed her eyes to calm her heart, trying to start over. Trying not to lose her cool.

"You... you don't know where we are, either?" she asked with a steady breath. "Or why... who... what is going on?"

Jerica kept her eyes closed, panting for breath. Wherever they were, it seemed that they were in the same boat -- no idea where they were, or why they were here, or how to get away. She let out a breath, "Seems that someone wants us both dead."

Evaline almost wanted to laugh from the irony, but she was too tired to do more besides let out a faint puff of air through her nose.

"They'd have to try harder than that," she said softly with a stubbornness in her voice as she looked around their new surroundings.

It appeared they had reached a small flat rock plateau, but tufts of grass still poked out. If they wanted to leave, they'd have to wait for the stampede to go away and then get back down.

"Listen. I don't know who you are or what exactly is going on, but..." She looked over at her, and they both looked tired. "Thank you. For helping."

Jerica groaned and pushed herself up to a sitting position, crisscrossing her legs as she looked the woman over. She wished she wouldn't challenge the universe. It seemed like every single time Jerica got cocky about something, the universe would come back with someone even worse, to knock her back on her ass. She didn't want to know what came after a herd of rhinos.

"Yeah, you too," Jerica muttered, looking around as the ground still rumbled beneath them. "And, I'd be ready -- I have no doubt that they will try harder. They wouldn't have gone to all this trouble to get us both here to give up that easily... we should probably figure out what enemy we have in common..." She tried to think about who had both the proper motivation and the opportunity to do something like this to her. "Femola?"

Evaline felt on edge that she was having a conversation with a stranger on top of a plateau near a stampede, but there was nothing she could do but wait it out. And plus, the woman was right. They kept referring this enemy as "they" but she had no idea who "they" were. She had a vague idea, though.

But she didn't know who Femola was. The name didn't even sound familiar.

"No," she said simply, then thought about it. She was afraid giving her guess would reveal who she was, so she chose her next answer carefully.

"The military?"

"Whose military?" Jerica sighed, rubbing her face. "People don't just send their military after you if you didn't piss them off... maybe it was a noble..." Most of them didn't like her, but especially -- "Are you on Lord Fillmore's shitlist too?"

It was clear that the woman was fishing for answers and Evaline had no idea who she was referencing. Maybe she really, truly, didn't know who Evaline was because she was from a faraway land. Maybe from another regional sector, or maybe even the ungoverned lands. It was strange listening her speak of the government and military like she knew all about it, though. There was only one government in unity... right?

"Good to know we're both on his shitlist," she said blankly, deciding it was just easier to go with her lies.

"Oh, yeah, real consoling," Jerica grumbled, pressing her palms against her eyes. Maybe the woman was just stupid. It was that, or she was being intentionally dense. "Helps us a lot."

How would Fillmore have managed something like this? And why couldn't she remember anything? Usually, it only took her a minute or two to remember exactly what she'd done that led to getting hit in the head hard enough she blacked out. She didn't have the first idea.

Maybe she'd been drugged?

But, Fillmore couldn't have gotten to her in the Palace. He might have been able to pay off a few guards, but most of the military was far too scared of her to even consider a plan like that, for fear of it being a test of their loyalty. Plus, unless he'd hired a very good assassin, then they wouldn't have been able to make it into her room without waking her up.

"None of this makes sense," she groaned. "Follow the dragon's path... It's not even a good threat. Threats are supposed to leave you afraid, not confused."

Evaline was only half paying attention to the woman's ramble, thinking about the different possibilities on how she got here and why. Her thoughts were interrupted when the words "follow the dragon's path" finally sunk in.

"Follow the dragon's path," she repeated with a quiet voice, then suddenly reached in her pocket to pull out the map. She quickly unfolded it, her eyes searching the legend until she came across the dragon's head. At least, she thought it was a dragon. It had been a while since she saw a fantasy depiction of it.

"Where did you hear that? 'Follow the dragon's path'?" she asked with sudden urgency in her voice, giving her a long look before her eyes looked down to follow the red line that indicated the dragon's path.