My hip still ached when we walked back to the statue’s upper arm, but now it was more of an annoyance than a true hindrance. We stopped where the tulip shaped sleeve split and started to fall towards the ground. Since there wasn’t anything in reach on the statue’s shoulder to hook Breck’s lasso in place we had to go the next best way down. Which meant climbing sideways along the dress’s off-the-shoulder sleeve until we reached the back of the dress.
We didn’t loop the lasso back around us. I knew I didn’t have a chance of staying in place if Breck slipped and fell while I didn’t want to risk throwing her off balance if my foot slipped. Still, we didn’t throw all precaution to the wind. Breck would go first since she was the better climber and I would stick close to her in case something unexpected happened.
Breck glanced back at me before she began to climb, lasso secure on her hip, eyes gleaming.
“Ready?”
I gestured to the sleeve. “Just go.”
Her mouth twitched up into a smile before she turned back to consider her climbing path one last time. It was interesting watching her new mood. Her excitement didn’t fade, but it did sharpen into an intense focus as Breck took in what she had to work with.
There were plenty of ledges to place hands and feet because of the large carved vines that made up the dress, but those ledges were also round and smooth and didn’t have good spots to grip them because of that.
Breck sat down and pulled off her shoes. “Take yours off too. You get a better grip with your toes than the smooth leather. Try to keep your hips close to the statue.”
I did as she said while she stuffed her shoes in her belt. Once my shoes were stuffed out of the way too Breck began the climb. She checked every foot and handhold before she placed her weight fully on it. Once the spot was secure she’d move smoothly, confidently to the next. Like she advised me, she kept her hips close to the statue so that she had to keep her head turned to keep from grazing her nose on the stone. It seemed like her hands helped keep her balance while her footholds were mainly what were keeping her on the statue.
When it was my turn to follow her I did my best to focus on the statue and not the enormous drop below us. The stone was cool under my feet and I immediately hated the bumps the vines created despite the fact that they were what was allowing us to climb down. The vines pressed into my stomach and hips—making it feel like I needed to lean away from them while also disrupting my sense of balance.
I followed Breck’s advice and kept my hips as close to the stone as I could. Even if it was uncomfortable, I wasn’t dumb enough to shift my whole weight away from the statue so that it could peel me from my perch.
I quickly learned that my original plan wouldn’t work as well. Breck had longer arms and legs than I did and no matter how much I might want to, I couldn’t reach all the spots she went for. Luckily, the vines weren’t a random mess, so finding a different spot to grip wasn’t typically that difficult. My heart still rose a bit in my chest each time I had to test one, however.
I fell into a routine as we climbed sideways and slightly down. I hated every time I had to fish for a step downward. I couldn’t see past the vine I was standing on and my hands couldn’t balance me as well because I had to rest them on the same vine as my other foot or press them into the outward bump of the vine above. Often Breck would lead us along a vine that curved gently down on its own so that we didn’t have too take too many of those unknown steps.
Once we reached the statue’s back, Breck led me over to one of the carved suncrest flowers. We sat and rested on it for a good half hour before she thought it would be a good idea to start downward. I ignored her glance to my hip when she had insisted on the long rest, especially because my entire body felt tired and strained from the climb. Enough that the throb from my hip was nearly lost among the rest. By the time the break ended, the strain had faded and I was ready to go again.
Rather than take the direct path down the back of the dress Breck continued to lead me along the vine we were on to where the vines wove together in the middle of the dress like a fishtail braid. The shattered edge of the statue stopped three or four feet away from where the vines wove together. I did my best to ignore the open air, but I was extra careful every time I stepped down on a vine on that side of the statue.
From there we were able to carefully step from side to side and see where we were going instead of blindly feeling for each new step. Our pace increased and I resorted to scooting from one vine to another. Breck could stretch and easily reach each descending vine, but my legs left a gap. A small one, but enough that it felt smarter to give up some dignity in exchange for extra length. I still had to be careful not to overbalance on the vines, but overall my new sitting technique felt safer than standing.
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We took another break halfway down the statue’s back. Breck copied me and sat on a vine, propping herself with a foot braced against the other side.
“Not too bad right?”
I frowned at her. “You’re going to jinx us.”
Breck shrugged. “Might be interesting.”
I rolled my eyes.
A short while later we started down again. I kept waiting for one of us to slip or something else to go wrong, but nothing did. All the vines held, even those mostly turned to rubble. There were a handful of times when we did have to step blindly down to the next row of vines because the other side had completely shattered, but we were careful to make sure we had our footing before we pressed on.
The rest of the statue was as pristine and sturdy as its face, if you ignored the shattered half. Which, really, just made that shattered half even odder and more ominous. What kind of force would it have taken to shatter such a sturdy stone? What kind of statue was this that its pristine integrity lasted despite massive damage for untold years?
I put the questions into the back of my mind for a time later when I might have the resources to answer them. For now my focus had to be on narrow ledges, balance, foot and handholds. Everything else could come later.
As soon as we reached the flat part of the statue’s dress I took a moment to stare back up to the golden crown of hair. Part of me was surprised that we had managed to make our way down the huge statue, another part acknowledged that it probably wouldn’t have happened without Breck—not that I would ever tell her that—and the last part was more than ready to return to the clearing and sleep. My head was starting to feel heavy and pound from the lack of sleep.
Breck wasn’t quite ready for the adventure to be over. She nodded at me before slipping quietly over to the ruined side of the statue. I followed more slowly behind her as she eyed the fallen tree and the impaled blob-like body. After a minute of observation, Breck dropped over the edge of the statue and onto the grass. When I saw where she was headed my eyes flew wide but I stopped myself from calling out to her. On the off chance the corpse gorger was still alive I didn’t want to give away my position.
With a silent curse, I tried to carefully climb down after her, but that was when my foot slipped and I fell. Jarring my hip. I gasped out in pain before glancing over at the tree. It didn’t look like the corpse gorger had reacted.
Reduced to limping after Breck, I found her hovering just a foot away from the tips the tree, hand on her knife. I didn’t want a closer look at the abomination, but not confirming if it was dead alive myself didn’t sit right.
Brown-gray flesh slumped in a vague circle. Mouths, circular and full of jagged teeth, split the flesh like unnatural lesions. There was nothing else to identify whatever creature might have been stupid enough to try to eat a shamble man, no other features despite its seeming reaction to sound.
An abomination through and through.
Breck darted forward and poked it before darting back again. I whipped my head around to glare at her, holding my hands wide in question. Was she trying to get herself killed?
Breck grinned back at me before pointing at me and gesturing towards the creature. I shook my head. She frowned slightly and gestured more insistently. I considered the creature. It still hadn’t reacted to Breck’s poke and surely it would have noticed us by now if it was alive.
Breck started walking towards me like she was going to drag me to the abomination if I didn’t poke it myself. So I rolled my eyes again and got it over with.
It felt as wet and slimy as it sounded.
I jumped back away from the corpse gorger, but it didn’t so much as flinch from my poke. I was doubly grateful for the large section of tree trunk sticking out of one of its open mouths. Just by looking at the thing I knew it wasn’t something we would have been able to fight.
Breck and I pulled out our prayer needles and pricked our marks. Breck pricked the back of her neck, but I had noticed that her swirling, looping mark continued down her spine and disappeared under her tunic.
We each let three drops of blood fall on the ground before murmuring, “Please accept my small offering.”
One heartbeat, two, and then the blood flaked away. We both relaxed a fraction. I silently vowed to be extra careful around the goddess’s trees from now on. Her justice might be biased, but it was swift when She felt slighted and I had no desire to be on the wrong side of it. She could have just as easily blamed me and the rest of the group for the tree’s demise.
With our fledging skills at traveling through the shadow paths, Breck and I opted not to use the broken tree’s shadow. Its connection to the other two might have remained, but I didn’t want to risk the fact that traveling through a broken tree would likely be more difficult than a whole one, so we sank into the shadow of a tree on the edge of clearing instead.
I relaxed more as soon as I was away from the clearing with the unnatural statue and the abomination. The goddess’s attention felt entirely too close there.
Making the path to one of the remaining bicolored trees took longer from a normal pine tree, but I leaned on my experience from the first time I shadow walked. I hadn’t missed the fact that I had essentially bypassed using the trees’ connection the first time I made a path between them. So I added detail after detail of the yellow and green tree I had mainly practiced with in the clearing until I felt the path form. Then it was a simple matter to limp my way on top of the second shadow and step out of it.
I ended up near the tip of the tree’s shadow, closer to the camp. Wren blinked at me from where she had been talking to Chirp by the tents.
Then she ruined the silence. “Gimley’s back!”