Quest of the Dark Lands

Chapter Eight

Evangeline was pondering what had happened over and over, until she finally got to the conclusion that she tended to over react to the situation when it came to death threats. But now, as they've got out of it, and were sliding along to...wait, no, Evangeline wasn't sliding, she was hanging. The hook left her dangling on the chain. She remembered what Seleina had said and grabbed on to the chain, she gently turned her head. Out of the corner of her eye, Evangeline saw, to her terror, that there was a crack running the side of the zipper. Had Evangeline not found this out before it was too late, then she'd probably would've been tumbling to her death at this very moment.

'what's going on?' asked Seleina from her behind 'are you...'she didn't really finish a complete sentence 'oh.' She steadied herself, 'it didn't hold on, did it? Wait.' She slid over, controlling the speed 'let me see if I can do a simple...no, the zipper, it's cracked.'

'cracked.' Repeated Evangeline is a strained voice

'don't worry, I'll deal with it.'

But Evangeline could hear the fear in voice, real fear.

Seleina looked at the other shore, 'good, only a handful of meters away, not too far.'

Evangeline grimaced 'my arms won't hold it for much longer,' her thin arms were grasping the chain, they were beaded with sweat, her knuckles were white from pressure. Her arms shook gently.

'Eva, you should probably exercise more.

Evageline scowled, 'no time for that now.'

'okay then.'Seleina pinned her hair behind her ears, 'how about we exchange our jackets. you'll get mine with the zipper, and I'll just, you know, climb there as I did in the jungle gym back at CHS.'

Evangelines' eyes grew wide 'you're not serious.;

'that's the only way we'll be able to manage it. I can't leave you stranded here alone to die.'

'but you're too important to lose, this is your adventure, you'll have to survive. I'm really not worth dying for.' Evangeline protested.

Seleina let go of one hand, and pulled off a sleeve. she switched, and took off her jacket. Seleina held it in her mouth, silently praying that she wouldn't fall into the swirls and depths of the Midoleam.

She took the jacket in one hand, with the hook still dangling; then tied a knot, which, if you haven't tried it before, is relatively difficult. Evangeline squeezed it tight with her knees. 'there you go.' Seleina hooked her on, 'I'm not sure whether this will succeed.' her hand holding was shaking uncontrollably.

'no...wait...'Evangeline's voice was trailing off as she slid to the other end.

The landing wasn't smooth, Evangeline's knees banged against the cliff, a prickly plant tore a gash in her jeans, leaving blood stains.

She hoisted herself off, trying to ignore the creaking of the hook. She was on the cliff. She took off the hook. Yes! Land, safety!

She tried to look up at the chain, where Seleina was still suspended, she did hope that girl could make it, but as she herself said 'who know.'

Evangeline rubbed her hands together. 'try not to fall to your death.'she yelled

A smile tugged at the corners of Seleina's mouth, 'I'll try not to.' And she descended.

If you've ever tried to get yourself from one side of a rope to another, using only your arms, then you know it's much harder than dealing with bars.

The chain swayed under Seleina's weight, she grasped the chain, or shall I say, her only life source, tightly with both hands. She stiffly lifted one hand, and then focusing her energy, she moved it in front of the other one, time seemed to slow down. Two centimeters of progress. If she slipped or made one single teeny mistake, then the result would be D-E... alright, you get it.

Evangeline held her breath as she waited on the other shore, everything was going great. As great as it is possible to be when you're stranded on a food demand chain, and with, about, a hundred ton of water rushing under you screaming 'die!', Evangeline let loose a sigh of relief, which she regretted later.

Seleina's strength was slipping away bit by bit, the only hope that kept her going was a hoarse voice yelling inside her 'c'mon, do it! Or you'll never find them.' Seleina scowled 'shut up.' she could feel her heart hammering against her ribs, every inch of her body was painful. Yes, she had to it, she only had about ten meters.

Seleina moved her hand forward, when something caught her eye. Her concentration wandered for a moment, her hand slipped from the chain.

She could feel herself falling, falling into the vast emptiness. She could vaguely hear the screams and sobs of Evangeline calling her name over and over, and she could, whether it was her imagination, hear the queen cackling.

Seleina spread her arms to slow the descent, it slowed her down by some millimeters, but she continued crashing down.

Seleina could hear the rush of water below, the howling of wind, and the cries of her friend.

Her thoughts were something like this: where am I going? Why am I asking that? I'm crashing to my death, that's where. Brain cells: low battery charge, oh no, no battery charge, I'm dumb-crashed. (machine powering off)

She plunged head first into the icy cold water. Seleina came up sputtering, almost carried off by the stream. Her hair was hanging around her shoulders, in wet blobs. She wiped away the water in her eyes, she was close to shore, good. There was a trail of blood behind her, it was from her forearm. But at least no life danger involved.

'Evangeline!' she yelled, 'I'm down here.' It felt stupid

Evangeline's sobbing paused for a moment 'w...what, wh...where?'

'yes! I'm down here,'

Evangeline bent to look below the cliff, but she had a fear of height. She staggered, failing to balance herself, and then, yes, you know it. She fell, waving her arms madly.