Red haired girl

Chapter 8

Will and Bryan felt like they had been walking their whole lives. Of course they knew that wasn’t true, but their feet felt like falling of anyway. Will felt the urge to sit down, if only for a couple of minutes, but he knew that if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to get himself walking again for hours. Minutes passed by, without any change. The trees all looked the same by now.

One moment, Bryan made a quick movement with his head. Will looked at him.

“What?” he asked, when he saw Bryan looking around suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Bryan said. “I thought I heard something.” They continued walking for a while. The bushes got wilder, so Will went to walk in front of Bryan.

Suddenly, the ground disappeared from under his feet. Will screamed and tried to grab something, but there was nothing to hold on to. Fortunately Bryan had very quick reflexes, so he was able to catch Will. He pulled him back up the solid ground again. With a wildly pounding heart, Will looked down to where he almost had fallen. “Thanks,” he whispered to Bryan, when he saw a cliff. Bryan nodded, startled.

“What’s that with you and falling today? This is the second time already!” he said.

“I know,” Will answered. For a couple of minutes, they laid down a couple of meters away from the edge, trying to get their nerves back under control. Then they went back to figure out what had just happened. What they saw was a huge valley. They stood on the top of a cliff.

“It looks like the ground has fallen down here,” Bryan said amazed. Will nodded. About 150 meters beneath them the ground appeared again. Then it when up and up like a giant hill and far away – about five miles – it was as high as the cliff again. On the hill were no trees and the view was amazing. The sun, which was getting low by now, was clearly visible, shining above the hill. All in all, it looked magical.

“Hey,” Bryan said. “Look.” He pointed towards the sun. “Low,” he continued, then he pointed to Will. “High.” Will frowned for a moment, but then he realised that Bryan was talking about the exercise and was not getting crazy.

“‘Go up to the lowest point’,” Will said slowly, a smile appearing on his face. “Well, you’re right: we are quite high up here.” He looked down the cliff and the ground looked awfully far away.

“And the sun is going to its lowest point!” Bryan said excitedly. “Do you think we’ve finished this exercise?” Will looked to the sun, which now seemed to balance on the hill.

“Yes,” he said, pushing his doubts away. “Yes, I think we have.” To ban all the tension of the passed moments away and to celebrate their newest achievement, they cheered, while dancing a really weird dance. Then they looked at each other, grinning widely, but a little embarrassed as well.

            “Where would the next exercise be?” Bryan muttered, looking up in a tree. Will chuckled.

“I don’t think Owen would give us one exercise twice,” he pointed out and Bryan turned his gaze away from the leaves. “Why would he send us here?” Will continued. “I mean, it’s not like we can fly down or something to continue going west…” his voice faded away.

“But…” Bryan said slowly, his eyes twinkling. “we can climb down.” Will’s eyes widened.

“Are you nuts?!” he yelled. “Climbing down there?! We don’t even have a rope or something!” Bryan smiled.

“I know,” he said. “But I happen to know a way to climb down without tools.” Will sighed. Bryan looked determined to climb down.

“Oh, what can I do to make you change your mind?” Will muttered. Bryan shrugged.

“You could come up with a better idea,” he said. Will sighed again.

“Okay, how do you suggest to get down here?” he asked, gesturing to the cliff. Bryan laid down and looked down the cliff. Will raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not getting down that way, you know,” he said casually. Bryan gestured for him to shut up.

“Look,” he said. “There are enough rocks to hold on to. It’s just a matter of not looking down.” He stood to his feet again and started to lower himself down the cliff. Will looked nervously at him, afraid he might fall down.

“Come on, Will!” Bryan called. “It’s not that hard.”

            Even though every cell out of Will’s body told him not to do it, he started to follow Bryan. At first he laid down and shoved his legs over the edge, trying to find something to hold on to. Slowly, he started to slip. Will almost paniced, but then he felt something solid underneath his feet. He sighed in relief and climbed down a couple of meters. At one moment, he actually started to enjoy it. His hart pounded wildly, while a huge grin appeared on his face.

“This isn’t too bad!” he yelled to Bryan and he looked down to see where his companion was. This was a mistake: Will was already halfway down the cliff, but he was still about seventy meters above solid ground. He froze in his tracks. Bryan looked up, grinning, and then saw that Will looked down.

“Come on, Will! You can do it!” he yelled to encourage Will, but it didn’t work: Will didn't move.

            Finally, Bryan decided to climb up to Will to help him climbing down again. When Bryan came on Will’s level, he didn’t know what to do.

“Uh…” he said. “Come on!” Will just looked frightened at him. Bryan sighed. “First one foot, okay?” he said and Will nodded. A couple of minutes, they climbed down next to each other, step by step, until Will remembered why he had just enjoyed this and started to like it again. Bryan sighed with relief, as did Will when they reach the bottom of the cliff.

“Well, at least we got down here,” Will pointed out. Bryan nodded.

“But what if we were not supposed to climb down?” he said. “That would be… I don’t know, awful.” Will shrugged. He didn’t really care. He was glad to have solid ground underneath his feet and to still be alive.

“What next?” Will asked no one in particular.

“Is there a note somewhere around here?” Bryan asked, already searching.

            Will looked around the new scenery, while Bryan was turning rocks, hoping to find the new exercise.

“There it is,” Will said. Bryan turned around, to see Will pointing at a bush. There was a note attached to it. Bryan looked indignantly.

“Why is this one so… in sight?” he asked. “I’ve been looking all over the place!” Will laughed and grabbed the note. Bryan walked over to him.

“What does it say?” he asked curiously.

“‘Congratulations! You’ve finished a quarter of your exercise!’” Will read out lout. “A quarter?! Wasn’t this enough already?”

            The two boys sighed tiredly, while the sun started to set.