Indi fiddled with the edge of her shirt. When was the last time she had even climbed? Um. Best not to think about that either. She climbed the stairs to her house all the time. Did that count? These rocks kind of looked like stairs. Very slippery stairs. Except for the edges, most of the edges looked solid.

As Indi’s mind chased itself in circles her body decided it had had enough and she moved forward to the rock as if on auto pilot. She let her mind distract itself while some small part that wasn’t afraid took over. It was a puzzle, logical, one move and then the next. Easy. Hand over hand she climbed focusing only on what was in front of her.

The next thing she knew she was at the rope not entirely sure how she’d done it. Unfortunately, seeing the rope ruined her trance like state and she felt a stab of fear go through her again as she realised how high up she was. She could feel herself about to panic when suddenly Cat was beside her.

“I don’t think I can do this,” Indi said gripping the rock she was holding that much tighter. Her feet felt very unstable and she was afraid to reach out for the rope.

“Can you get up a bit more?” Cat asked. “So I can tie the rope around you.”

“Um.”

“Put your hand here.” Cat touched an edge a little above Indi’s height. Then she sidestepped out to the side, moving out of Indi’s way.

Cat made it look so easy and graceful that Indi got a small boost of confidence from watching, until she happened to glance down. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled herself in closer to the wall, which had the unfortunate side effect of increasing the weight on her arms.

“Don’t look down. Lean back, hips in, reach up,” Cat instructed with complete calm.

“You’re doing great Indi,” Amanda yelled up from below.

“Oh flame this!” Indi mumbled closing her eyes.

“Hand here.” Cat said more forcefully and tapped the handhold where she wanted Indi to place her hand again.

“My feet aren’t solid,” Indi complained.

“Your feet are fine.” Cat replied, a hint of impatience showing. “Here, put your foot on my foot.”

Cat moved so her left foot was near Indi’s right.

Indi glanced down again. The ground was very far away and Cat’s foot did not look solid either. “Nope,” was all Indi replied.

“Fine, just move your hand up. You can grab the rope if you want.”

Indi glanced up. She knew if she grabbed the rope she would swing off balance. She looked back over at the hand hold. It looked okay. Her feet felt wobbly though. She didn’t want to look down to get a better stance but she was getting tired. She knew she had to move. Worried Cat was going to get grumpy with her for taking so long she said, “okay, just give me a sec.”

Cat remained quiet.

Indi took a deep breath and made the move. Her hand grabbed rock but her fingers were slippery. She couldn’t get a hold. In a panic she reached up blindly for the rope. She managed to grab it and in her rush she shifted her weight enough that one foot came loose. She could feel herself start to fall and she knew her second hand wouldn’t hold where it was so she threw it up for the rope as well.

She might have ended up completely hanging on the rope by her arms. And while it wasn’t a vertical wall, it was steep enough that she wasn’t sure she could have held herself like that.

Luckily Cat was quick enough to grab a decent hold on the rope just above Indi’s hands with one of her own hands and swing herself in behind Indi, the other hand going around Indi’s waist and a one leg going beneath Indi’s butt.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Indi winced as they hit the wall hard and Cat gave a grunt followed by a quick suck in of air that indicated she’d hurt something.

“Up!” Cat commanded. “Can you climb up the rope, get back onto the wall?”

Indi nodded, not entirely sure she could but knowing she had no other choice.

“Foot on my knee,” Cat told her.

Indi did exactly that. She scrambled for purchase.

Once Cat was sure Indi was solid she moved off the rope, the stretch of which was making it harder for Indi to climb up, and back on to the wall.

Indi placed one hand over the other and kept her feet almost parallel to the wall. She found it surprisingly easy.

She would have just kept going like that except Cat called up “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop there, I’ll tie you in.

Indi did, hoping Cat wouldn’t take too long to get up. She didn’t have anything to worry about though. Cat was there in a second. Not quite as fast as she had been earlier but fast enough. The rock was starting to get a bit steeper though.

Indi waited while Cat looped the end of the rope around her. Tying it took the longest as Cat didn’t seem completely sure what she was doing. It took her two attempts before she said “Yeah, that should be good.”

“Should be?” Indi asked.

Cat nodded, but she had a wide-eyed look about her that said she was was a little uncertain. She glanced up at Kass.

Indi followed her eye line.

Kass gave them the thumbs up.

“Just make sure you keep a hold of the rope.” Cat replied with a poor attempt at a reassuring smile.

Indi nodded and continued with her climbing hand over hand on the rock as Kass pulled the rope up as she went.

She was at the top almost as fast as it took Cat to climb back down.

“You trying to give me a heart attack there?” Amanda asked as Cat touched down.

“That was easy,” Cat replied with a smile now that she was down and Indi was almost safely over the top edge.

Amanda didn’t say anything in reply but she did notice that Cat was much sweatier that she had been on her ascent.

Cat took a moment to pack away the sunscreen into Kass’s backpack and then slung the bag on to her back and tightened the straps.

“Do you want to rest a moment before we try that?” Amanda asked.

Cat nodded and took a seat on a rock. She didn’t even make a snarky remark about never needing to rest.

Indi climbed over the edge with some help from Kass.

“Oh my gosh, that was terrifying!” she exclaimed, a large smile crossing her face, as she took in large gulps of air. “I nearly died!”

Kass gave a soft laugh.

“Wow this space is really tiny!” Indi exclaimed. She wasn’t sure how they were going to fit three people in the little enclave. She felt like her and Kass only just fit.

“Yeah, it’ll be a squeeze.” Kass agreed. “Okay, so, if you slide down through there.” Kass indicated a tunnel near the back of the enclave with her eyes. “but be really careful because half the floor is missing and the rest has kind of a slant.”

Indi wasn’t sure if she should go feet first or head first but head first felt more controllable so that was what she did. The tunnel wasn’t big enough for her to sit up right completely in but she could bend her upper body forward just enough to see where she was going. She noted that it was a lot lighter up here now too. That was definitely daylight coming through from up ahead somewhere. She inched her way down into the tunnel slowly and suddenly saw what Kass had been warning her about.

“What do you mean half the floor is gone? There’s no floor at all!” she cried out.

Right up ahead the floor fell away into a dark pit. Further on a few metres there was solid floor again where the tunnel looked like it turned upward again but between here and there there was nothing. “What the flame Kass?” she called again.

“One side has a slight slant with an edge to it, put your back on that side and feet against the other. You should be able to bridge. And use your shield.” Kass called back.

Indi hesitated. “There’s no way Amanda’s going to get through here with a broken leg,” she called back, half in an attempt to stall. She knew now she was up here and daylight was so close that there was no going back. Still, the dark pit into the unknown scared her.

“We’ll figure it out. We’ve got the rope, and hopefully you can help too, or I can.”

“Can you help me across this?” Indi asked meekly.

Kass stuck her head down into the tunnel so Indi could see her face. “You don’t want to trust my telekinesis unless you really have to. Trust me.”

Indi didn’t reply. She just stared down into the blackness wondering how deep it went.

“You never climb the walls as a kid?” Kass asked.

“Sure.”

“Well it’s just like that.”

“It’s been awhile,” Indi pouted enunciating every word slowly.

Kass didn’t reply. Just watched, unsure how to help without risking throwing Indi into a wall with her powers.

The silence was help enough though. To Indi it felt like quiet expectation, as if Kass knew Indi could and would do it, she just had to wait.

And so it was her own impatience that got her moving more than anything else. With a sigh Indi pushed her feet against one wall and her back against the other. And like that she stepped and slid until much like her initial climb earlier she was on the other side faster than she expected to be.

She turned back to see Kass smiling at her before disappearing back up the tunnel to let the rope down for the others.