𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐫 - Flynn Rider X Reader

VI. A Deal

You've never fallen from so high.

Or for so long.

As soon as you make the leap off the cliff, everything goes silent. The thumping of horse hooves behind you disappears, and the calls for you to get away from the cliff recede. You are suddenly weightless. For a moment you feel like you're flying rather than falling. But only for a moment.

You pick up speed upon your descent and the wind picks up, rushing around you. Your stomach flips and your mind becomes light between your ears.

The descent is a blur.

Then you're brought back by the plunge.

Sea water crashes at your feet then rushes in around you, engulfing you in cold darkness. Holding your breath, you kick towards the surface, desperate for air.

A deep breath.

The feeling of the sun in your eyes.

Cool air floods your lungs, and you cough up the water that's invaded upon your impact.

Sea water ripples around you as you swim towards the grassy banks between sharp rocks where the waves crash and pull back out with the tide. It pushes you towards the shore.

You claw at the ground beneath you and push yourself out of the water and up onto your back, then lay there breathing heavily for another moment as your eyes slip closed.

You see stars in the middle of the day behind your eyelids.

—

Flower, gleam and glow.

Let your power shine. 

You pull the trigger. The bolt tears through the air with a bang.

Make the clock re-

—

Tracking Rider isn't difficult, likely because he isn't aware he's being tracked so carefully as he is, by you. He's probably more concerned with outrunning you and the palace guards, which, seeing as you'd passed out cold straight after surfacing from your jump and lost significant sunlight, you'll admit favors him.

If he can run forever, that is.

You doubt that.

When you recover, you almost instantly find boot prints in the sandy grass, then a trail through the forest of tall, winding trees nearby. You're increasingly cautious though, seeing as you've never been to this part of the woods. You've got nothing to guide you home in case you lose the thief's trail, and nothing to ensure you'll survive a night if it comes down to it.

And Maximus. You've lost Maximus.

To regain at least some sense of security, you carve little lines into the bark of the trees you pass as you go deeper into the woods so as to not get too lost with your dagger, which is still secured against your hip between you and your belt for most of the trip.

What feels like hours pass as you continuously lose, re-find, and follow the thief's trail, and the forest grows darker as the sky becomes overcast. The trees seem to grow taller. You feel smaller. You are no longer safe. You are alone.

Though not for much longer.

The tracks lead you directly into a cliff wall that rises straight up far into the sky, one that you doubt can be easily scaled alone. You imagine climbing it safely would require ridiculous endurance, endurance that you don't think even the thief has. So where could he have gone?