Ritzy barely had time to turn around after celebrating a successful landing before Mognog came flying, his eyeflames drawing green lines through the air. Ritzy hurriedly caught him, nearly fumbling it and dropping him in the process. But, in the end, Ritzy had to let go of Mognog intentionally since Gerhart didn’t waste any time and started throwing the bags at once.

Mognog was miffed by the rough handling, but he didn’t say anything. He had heard and seen the same things that had prompted Gerhart’s urgency. He was almost a little thankful that Gerhart had sent him across the river first, before the bags.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about how it would go for Gerhart, so he waited anxiously until Ritzy caught the last bag and put it down on the ground next to the other two before lifting him.

Gerhart had already started climbing up the tree with movements similar to Ritzy’s, just a little more awkward due to his larger frame and bulkier build. But he still made it to the top, despite the swaying tree’s creaking protests.

Gerhart swallowed nervously as it felt like he could sense the tree’s instability. But he told himself that it was just the trunk being soft and not the root system giving way to the coursing river rapidly eroding the soft ground around it.

He gently stepped out on the same branch Ritzy had used. His foot inched forward at a snail’s pace as he carefully sensed the branch’s load-bearing capacity. He had to hurry since even if he told himself the tree would last, he knew it wouldn’t hold out forever, especially with his weight on it.

But he weighed more than Ritzy, so he couldn’t just flit around atop the sloped and flexible branches. He had to be careful.

“Gerry! Jump!”

However, Gerhart didn’t have time to be careful.

Ritzy saw it happen before Gerhart could notice it.

The river pulled away a large chunk of dirt right above where the tree was rooted to the ground. It exposed a large part of the tree’s roots and removed some of what was tying the tree down and keeping it steady under Gerhart’s moving weight.

Just that alone wouldn’t have been quite enough to make the tree lose its footing. But Ritzy saw that another chunk below the tree was about to experience the same thing. The already vulnerable tree wouldn’t be able to stay upright when more than half of the roots in its immediate surroundings were getting pulled away by the river. And it was doubly true when Gerhart was trying to balance on the tree canopy.

Gerhart didn’t hesitate.

As soon as he heard Ritzy’s voice, his delicate carefulness vanished like it was there, and he pushed down on the branch with his feet. The branch bent, and Gerhart felt all the strength in his legs disappear. It was like he was kicking into empty air.

However, before his legs could fully straighten due to the lack of support provided by the far too-soft branch, the branch’s flexibility hit its limit. It couldn’t bend any further. Even if it could, the tree trunk was right behind it.

Finally having something to push off against below his feet, Gerhart straightened his legs fully. He even stretched his feet and pushed off with his toes to get as much of a boost forward as he could.

Right then, the chunk of dirt couldn’t resist the water’s pull anymore and got swept away by the river in a muddy cloud that scattered and dispersed in the river’s violent currents.

That was all that took for the tree to lose its footing. And when Gerhart pushed off, the tree fell forward toward the river where the ground supporting it had been swept away.

With a creaking sound of the roots digging into the ground on the other side of the tree snapping, the tree tilted, its canopy flipping open like a skirt caught in a naughty gust.

The branches threatened to hold onto and drag Gerhart with them into a watery doom of torrential destruction, only exacerbated by the tree’s collapse and splash into the river.

Ritzy didn’t look on, stunned as Gerhart couldn’t escape the branches.

He tossed Mognog to the side without a thought and dashed forward, throwing himself after Gerhart’s outstretched arms.

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Thankfully, the tree was tall enough to cross most of the river, and Gerhart’s upper body landed on the other side.

However, the branches and leaves were still trapping Gerhart’s legs in a viney embrace.

The branches hadn’t been very intimidating when they were one by one. But when pushed together by the tree’s fall, they made a formidable opponent.

Ritzy clung onto Gerhart’s wrists, and Gerhart held Ritzy’s forearms tight enough to leave bruises. But he needed to do that much, or they would lose each other due to the lack of grip offered by their wet skin.

Ritzy dug his heels into the traitorously soft ground and leaned back with all his might.

“C’mon!”

Ritzy shouted through clenched teeth to motivate himself and as a prayer to the tree so that it would let go of Gerhart.

However, what Ritzy got in response was not the answer he wanted. The tree did let go, but not of Gerhart. The bottom of its trunk decided it had nothing keeping it to the ground anymore and decided to follow the stream of the ever-widening river.

Ritzy and Gerhart both felt hopelessness fill them as the trunk splashed and sank deeper into the water before it started to slant, the bottom taking the lead down the river. The top of the tree was still attached to solid ground, even if it was on the opposite of the river from where it had grown.

But it wouldn’t be for long.

With the tree blocking the river’s advance like a dam, the water on one side was quickly rising and threatening to tear away the canopy and its branches anchoring to Ritzy’s side of the river.

Gerhart was about to loosen his grip before he dragged Ritzy with him to a joint death since it was clear Ritzy wasn’t going to let go. Ever. However, even if Ritzy didn’t let go, he wouldn’t be able to hold onto Gerhart since Gerhart was doing most of the heavy lifting.

Ritzy’s main purpose was to serve as something for Gerhart to hold onto that wasn’t soft mud. But based on the deep tracks Ritzy’s feet had put in the ground, it wasn’t going very well, and even if they continued holding on, Ritzy would sooner or later have nothing left to stand on. He would end up in the water right next to Gerhart and the tree.

But only temporarily. They would both get smashed into pieces as the violent currents threw them against each other, the tree trunk, and the riverbed, which would be made of something sturdier than the soft mud, something that wasn’t as easily swept away by the river.

“No! Don’t you dare let go!”

Ritzy noticed how Gerhart was no longer holding onto his arms with desperate fervor and shouted desperately through teeth clenched so hard they were about to shatter.

Ritzy wouldn’t let Gerhart let go. He wouldn’t tolerate the death of another one of his friends. He only had two, to begin with, and if Gerhart let go, he would only have the corpse of one. Unlike with Talia, there wouldn’t even be the possibility of resurrection.

Ritzy refused to let that happen, and he dug his nails into Gerhart’s arms, drawing blood.

Gerhart could naturally tell what Ritzy was thinking despite the desperate and intense situation since the adrenaline made his thoughts rush around inside his head faster than usual. He could clearly see the tears welling up in the corners of Ritzy’s eyes, even through the raindrops ever falling from the grey skies. It was as if his brain had gone into overdrive in a desperate attempt to find a way out.

All of his senses were enhanced. He could see Ritzy’s face as if he was holding it in his hands. He could hear the rushing of his blood through his veins, struggling to drown out the roaring river. He could smell the leaves, the grass, the mud.

And Gerhart sensed how Ritzy’s nails pierced and dug into his skin, leaving bloody trails in his arms. But that wasn’t the only thing he sensed.

Gerhart felt how the water, which had struggled to get past the tree playing at being a dam, had started to get through the canopy. At first, the cold water rising up his feet and legs was uncomfortable. It was like the cold kiss of death giving him an appetizer of what was soon to come.

But he quickly realized something.

The turbulent water swept in between the branches and bent them away from him.

The water forced the branches to untangle and let go of Gerhart.

He didn’t notice it at first, but once the first couple of branches got loose, the rest followed like a pack of sheep.

Gerhart reaffirmed his grip on Ritzy’s arms and tried to pull himself up out of the water.

But he quickly realized that the adrenaline suppressing the fatigue in his arms had already started to fade. His arms were losing strength, and he couldn’t even lift himself an inch up out of the water.

He could only wait until he was completely free from the branches and the river had swept away the tree so that he could crawl his way out of the river before it rampaged through the forest with even more vigor.

It felt like a never-ending struggle except for if he let go or Ritzy lost his footing.

But Gerhart held on with a dead man’s grip.

And before he knew it, despite the feeling it would never end, the river finally got the stubborn tree free from the river bank.

The river and the surging water exploded forth with an overwhelming advantage as the dam made by the tree burst and pushed the tree downstream.

The water level instantly dipped. But not before Gerhart got a taste of how powerful the stream was without the tree canopy’s branches shielding him from the brunt of it. He instantly realized he had at most two moments before the water continued surging and grabbed hold of his legs.

With a final spurt of energy from both Ritzy and Gerhart, they pulled Gerhart ashore.