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Chapter 37

So here I am. Falling to my death from the side of a mountain whose size is beyond recognition, it's height above comprehension. For the second time this day.
I'm weightless. I'm free. I'm plummeting to my doom.
It's quick, very quick. A split second, if you will. One second, I'm soaring through the air, my heart pounding a mile a minute, and I'm going to die. I didn't jump far enough, I didn't go high enough. Those excuses fill my head, but I know the truth. I could never have jumped this, even if I hadn't messed up like I did. Twenty five feet- More, now, I fly across it's length, losing heigh and momentum rapidly, the wind drumming in my ears, is beyond the state of being athletic. It's impossible.
I close my eyes.
I hit hard stone, and the breath is knocked out of me.
I roll.
Opening my eyes, I find I've landed in a crumpled heap on the other side of the gap. Oh. My. God.
"Stone!" I call, just for the joy of not being dead, which is a great feeling, actually, though it seems to only happen when you've just almost died. Almost.
Then my blood runs cold, and all joy and adulation for myself leave in a heartbeat.
"Stone!" I scream, a terrible, bone-chilling sound, one of being lose and alone. I'm all alone. Me and the wolf-boy are separated by the uncrossable gap I just crossed.
"Ash!" He looks panicked, and even, just maybe, sad. No, desperate. He's pacing like an agitated dog back and forth across the mouth of the abyss, searching for a way, anyway, to get across. To get to me.
"J-Just jump!" I say desperately, suddenly wishing I hadn't jumped in the first place. I'd rather die with Stone, trapped, but together, than carry on alone.
He gives me a withering look. We both know that if I, with my light cat bones, and agile, wiry strength, could just barely make the leap, he can't. But he looks desperately across it, and begins to back away. My heart rises suddenly to my throat, and I feel like I'm going to pass out. I realize what it must have been like to watch me make the jump.
I want, with every fiber of my being, to scream, 'No!'. But, hating myself, I don't. If Stone doesn't make the jump, then he will definitely die from starvation or dehydration, if some Beast doesn't catch him off guard first. But if he jumps, even if he dies, he has a chance. And if he doesn't make it... At least it's quick.
Silent sobs shake my body as I move over to the wall of the mountain to give him a clear runway... If he makes it. No, when he makes it. Tears well in my eyes, then overflow, and slowly drip down on either side of my nose. He won't make it. I hate thinking it, but it's undeniable. Besides having much more muscle mass than me, he's also weighed down by his pack and swords. I should have told him to toss them across- But I know, deep down, he would never have relinquished the swords to anybody. And here I never discovered his secret.
I sniffle quietly, but try to hide the tears. Stone's eyes meet mine from across the abyss, and I know deep down it will be the last time I ever sink into their endless blue depths... He knows it to, I see it in his eyes.
He closes them for a moment, as if saying a silent prayer, or contemplating what he's doing. I want to scream. I want to hurdle back over the gap, fall into his arms, hold him tight, as I watch him tense up, and set his eyes on the abyss.
I'm sobbing, now, but I make sure not to cry out, but to keep it all to myself. Stone's chest rises and falls, and I'm sure his heart is beating just as fast as mine, as he reopens his eyes and sprints forward. I watch the muscles in his calves, taught and straining, trying to milk every ounce of speed and momentum possible out of the thirty foot stretch, his arms pumping. He reaches the edge in a heartbeat.
"I need you." I whisper between sobs, quietly enough so I'm the only one who can hear. I close my eyes.