“Well, that sure as shit doesn’t look good.”
Neither Ritzy nor Gerhart could disagree with Mognog. He had just said something first because their fatigue had numbed them, and they didn’t feel like expressing their thoughts and feelings about what was in front of them.
The sound of the rushing river also made it feel like trying to say anything would be futile, which Mognog had partly proven since he half-shouted his observation of the obvious.
From how the river was coursing forward and splashing against the trees, Ritzy and the others could tell that the excessive downpour the last couple of days had helped the river grow beyond what the furrow snaking through the land was used to.
Parts of the ground where the water swept by was broken away by the river and made part of the aquatic stampede. Ritzy instinctively took a step back as it felt like the ground beneath his feet would give away for the raging river.
“Wait, no. This could actually be pretty good.”
Mognog’s half-excited voice was enough to make RItzy and Gerhart look away from the river and at him instead, clearly asking for an explanation. They couldn’t understand how this impassable hurdle obstructing their path could be good in any way other than for giving them a different fate. Instead of dying to Baron Michmond and his men, they would instead be smashed to two pieces of pulp by the river and its partner, the rocky riverbed.
“Look, I know what you’re thinking. Obviously, this river is in the way, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to go around it. But, if we cross it, so too do our pursuers have to.”
“But the ones coming after us will be in a better state than us. They’ll be stronger and more fit to cross the river. Mognog, we can barely stand without falling asleep.”
Gerhart spoke with a demanding voice. He was too tired, wet, hungry, and cold to deal with Mognog speaking in riddles.
“That’s true. But the rain is still not showing any signs of letting up. The river will only grow more furious, which will make it more difficult to cross with each passing moment. The slower our pursuers are, the harder a time they will have to catch up with us.”
“...okay. That doesn’t mean much if we can’t cross it.”
“That’s true….”
Mognog looked thoughtfully at the river. Based on what he could see from the forest, the river had only been about a meter wide before the rain had flooded the forest with so much water the river had started overflowing to at least one and a half times its width in the smaller places.
Ritzy and Gerhart could have jumped if the stream had been in its original state. But now, it was a little too wide, especially considering how tired the two youngsters were.
“Do you think you could climb up a tree and leap over?”
The river had encroached on the tree trunks closest to where the stream had passed by before the rain, so Mognog’s idea wasn’t too farfetched.
It was just that the trees weren’t that big, and their trunks were mostly smooth. Their umbrella-like branches only started growing at the very top of the trees. The branches also didn’t look stable enough to support a lot of weight.
So, it wasn’t only a question of whether Ritzy and Gerhart could climb up the couple of meters they needed. It was also whether the tree could handle them and their weight.
Gerhart looked at one of the trees closest to the river as he calculated how they would need to climb and jump to reach the other side. Thankfully, the ground was soft from all the rain, so they didn’t have to think too much about the landing. They only needed to worry about how grassy and muddy they would get if they crashed too hard.
But if they didn’t get muddy when landing, it would be because they had jumped too short and landed in the river, where all the mud was swept away by a raging river. So, in that case, being a little dirty would be a lot better.
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“I think I can do it.”
Eventually, Gerhart nodded and began approaching the tree to see how slippery it would be when soaked to beneath the bark.
“What about you, kiddo?”
Mognog moved the flames in his eyesockets, which were magically unaffected by the rain and looked at Ritzy, who was still looking at the river in a daze. Mognog’s words snapped Ritzy out of the daze, and he grinned.
“Are you kidding me? The other kids back in town used to call me monkey boy. Of course, I can climb a silly little tree.”
Mognog had a feeling that Ritzy’s nickname didn’t solely come about because he was good at climbing trees, at least based on what he had picked up from how Ritzy and Gerhart talked about the town they came from and its inhabitants.
But he didn’t say anything or rebut Ritzy’s boastful claim. There was no need to, and there was nothing to gain by doing it.
Ritzy walked up next to Gerhart and touched the tree. He smiled.
“Oh, yeah. This will be a piece of cake.”
Ritzy put Mognog on the ground and took off his bag. Since it was already soaked, it didn’t matter that he put it on the wet ground. He then took off his shoes to reveal a pair of blistered, bloody, and bruised feet.
“Shit, kiddo. You should have said something about that. That’s not good.”
Mognog looked at Ritzy with concerned eyeflames. But Ritzy just shrugged.
“This isn’t even a big deal. No need to make a fuss. Besides, if we take it easy, we die.”
“I know. Bud, kiddo, we could have taken a few minutes to make a compress, a bandage, or even just mashed a few of the plants around here and alleviate your pain.”
“There’s no need to waste time on something like this. It doesn’t even hurt that much.”
Ritzy ignored Mognog’s attempts at caring for him and stood up. He reflexively wiped his wet hands on his even wetter pants without thinking too much about what he was doing. It was just a habit of wiping sweaty palms before climbing something.
But when everything was soaking wet, no matter how much he wiped, Ritzy wouldn’t get his palms any drier.
He walked up to the tree and put his hands on the back of it. It was thin enough to let Ritzy grab his hands and hold on to the tree while still leaving enough room on the other side to lean back and put his feet against the trunk.
“I’ll jump over real quick and catch our stuff.”
There wasn’t really a need for Ritzy to catch their bags since the things inside should be able to handle the short trip through the air and the impact on the soft ground. But since there was Bone Chalk and Flesh-Melting Liquid in one of the bags, Ritzy wanted to be careful. Of course, there was also Mognog, who they had to treat with the minimum respect he deserved.
They couldn’t just lob him over and let him land on a pile of soft, grassy mud.
There was also another reason that neither Ritzy nor Gerhart wanted to think too much about.
What would happen if they threw their stuff over in advance, and it turned out afterward that the tree and its branches weren’t enough to support them across? The answer was obvious. They would be stranded on one side of the river without any of their gear and without Mognog.
That would be like willingly lowering their already dismal chances of survival on their own.
“Alright.”
Gerhart nodded and looked at Ritzy, who scampered up the tree with movements that belied his fatigue while leaving bloody footprints behind that melted away in the dripping rain.
The tree began swaying gently even before Ritzy reached the top, but it wasn’t so bad he couldn’t continue.
He climbed up above the canopy and stood up to rest his hands and shoulders while enjoying the view. Looking at all the trees from above made him feel like he was in the middle of a giant field of flowers. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see too far due to the rain clouding the view, so he refocused on the branches below him.
It was relatively stable as long as he stood in the center of the branches sprouting from the tree trunk. But the branches weren’t very hardy and began caving under his weight after only a single step.
Ritzy gulped and looked down at the ground on the other side of the river. It was some distance away, and if the ground wasn’t as soft as it looked, he could easily break a bone or two in his arms or legs.
But he didn’t let that stop him.
Ritzy took another step forward and used the branch springing back to launch himself across the river.
Ritzy felt as free as a bird for a split second at the peak of his jump before gravity grabbed a tight hold over him and dragged him back to the ground with almost vengeful speed.
Ritzy hit the ground and instantly rolled over to diver the force of the impact. He stood up at once and shot his hands into the air in celebration.
“Wohoo! That was kinda fun!”
Jumping from that high up had been a thrill, even more so since he was jumping over a raging river that could swallow him whole.
Ritzy turned around with a grin, only for that grin to freeze.