The Sound of Their Presence

Chapter Ten: Acting On The Dare

Cheyenne's POV:

    Shane explains the safety equipment and cables to me, as we stand at the bottom of Devil's hill. Nearly midnight, the dark isn't as comforting as usual.  It is getting colder, and there is no moonlight to ease my eyes.

    Once we are both hooked into the proper cables and clips, we begin our climb, embarking on our dangerous feat. I have never been rock climbing, and I find it much easier than expected, even on such a steep, crumbling, height of a hill.

     "Holy-" Shane looks to his right, being my left, and sees that I am several yards above him. "And the student becomes the master!" Shane looks startled, apalled even, as I smile back down at him.

    "The boots help," I wink, thouroughly thankful that I was wearing a thick pair of knee high combat boots, laced up tight.

    "Are you sure this is your first time rock climbing?" Shane asks, out of breath. I find this semi amusing, since I haven't had a change in respiration rate, nor heart rate.

    "Yeah, why?"

    "Well, you keep finding the foot and hand holds like you were born on this hill," He sighs, removing one hand to wipe a sheen of sweat from his forehead, with great care not to plummet the hundred some feet to the ground and rocks below. "You are really good at this for a newbie."

    He quickens his climbing, as I wait for him to catch up. "So I suppose I will have to wait for the 'proffesional' to catch up often," I tease with an air of relaxation.

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     At the top of the so called hill, I am first to climb over the top rocks, away from the edge of the waiting chaos. I start to shiver, but I ignore the growing tension in my muscles to help Shane up the remainder of the few feet he has to climb.

     We sit at the top for awhile, joking and shivering.

     At some point, Shane randomly claims, "I think Lilith is pregnant."

    "Why?"

     "She has gained a lot more weight in the past month and a half. I almost told you while we were playing truth or  dare, earlier, but she could have heard."

    "So have you always been an only child?"

      "Yeah, but Tina is almost like a younger sister to me."

     "How would you feel about getting another sibling?"

    I feel my muscles tense and begin to quiver. I fall, into the cold, rocky, dust covered soil. My spine racks, skin stretching over my elongating bones. I writhe on the ground in the kind of pain that only comes with the shift. The transformation feels as if it lasts more than a few minutes. It is a minute, an hour, a year, or even millions. The pain is accompanied by intense, relentless shivering. I shake, my eyes snapping open as I try to hold in the screams that attempt to come through my lips, which seem to have decided that my lungs should not be permitted to suck in the oxygen I so desperately need.

      At my next sharp intake of breath, Shane grasps my hand firmly, as my heart speeds faster and faster, until it seems like it should fail me. I look into his eyes, understanding that he wished to help me. I look into Shane's eyes, as they are filled with worry, concern, and yet he wishes to console me, comfort me.

    I gasp again, awarded with Shane cursing under his breath, "I didn't think about how it would be too cold, d*mn it!" His warm breath covers my face for a second, like a lantern in the fog of a life time of pain. Shane attempts to sooth me, and lays his thicker leather jacket over me. Even when adding his jacket to mine, it is too feeble an attempt to save me from the cold.

    "Pull off as many layers of mine as you can, before I shift," I seethe, barely audible.

    "What? Surely you don't mean-"

    "I don't want them damaged when I shift, you fool!!!!" I regret the cold, cruel words the second they leave my mouth.

    Shane looks slightly hurt, but while still grasping my hands in one of his, he pulls one boot after the other off of my freezing feet. He pulls me out of the leather jacket that is practically made for me. He then grasps the hem of the red dress I had been stupid enough to wear rockclimbing, as my hoof yanks away from his hand.

     I winnie, trying to use the foreign words of a human tongue that my vocal chords have already lost the ability to create. Shane just appears dumbfounded and astounded, as I stumble backwards, tripping over the rocky hilltop. I think this hill seems so much smaller while in this cursed form! Then I completely fall off of Devil's hill, backwards. I ow thouroughly understand where it's name came from.

    I fall into a deep darkness, before I even reach completion of plummeting to the low earth, so far below.

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