Wolf Iron

Chapter 13 / A Waterfall By Any Other Name

"You, y-you are off your trolley!"

Rodney stammered breathlessly, his back doubled over and his hands on his knees. A heaving and blurry sight of green moss and dirt filled his vision.

"You've almost gone and-" Rodney stood up and tried to calm his breathing- "tore my arm out of its socket! What was that all about?!" 

Quinn paced in front of him like a soldier of the palace without their rifle. "We've reached the woodlands, I can't believe that he followed us past all these trees."

"I'm wondering, did you by any chance escape from an Olympic Training Center?" 

Quinn shot Rodney a terse glance and crossed her arms.

"Randolph, this is serious. The fact that that man is looking for me means very bad things. I ascertained that there was no way he could possibly find me." She looked grave. "And now he knows who you are."

Rodney waited for the stampede in his heart to retire and gathered his breath back. 

"What it means, is that you-" he pointed "-are very, very unwell. You're sick in the head. I heard everything he said about you. About the mental hospital and how he's your father and-" 

"He-he said what?!" Quinn blinked her eyes in quick succession.

"He said that you had somehow gotten out of the mental hospital-" 

"No, no! He said that he was my father?!" She snorted. "That's rich!"

Bloody hell. Rodney sighed and sat down on a rock.

He had a piercing headache and his lungs felt like they had been billowed out. He hadn't been this sore since his daily Kendo sessions with his father years back. 

"Listen" he said, closing his eyes and rubbing the sweat off his temples. "I don't know what's going on with you and your dad but my mum is a police officer-"

"He's not my father, I've told you!"

Rodney scrubbed his eyes and looked back at Quinn and then at the surroundings of the forest around them. 

The Valry Thicket. God, we've almost ran all the way home. The flat wasn't far. Perhaps if I just took off running? 

He noticed Quinn standing over him, barely breathing hard, as if they hadn't just run near bloody two miles. 

No, wouldn't get far on foot away from this one.

"Randolph, everything you heard him say was a falsehood. He's a preposterous henchman and even less than that. In Edgard, he is dirt among our people. If my real father were here, he would hide that monster with his bare hands and have time to spare." 

The boy shook his head and thought of his mother. Good old Mum. Hopefully she's not working late tonight as usual. God, I really need her, he thought. He wrung his hands out and then buried his head in them.

"Randolph." He felt a warm grasp on his hands. 

He raised his head up and saw Quinn's face, kneeling before him, her hands clasped on his.

"Randolph," she said in a soft voice. "I know that this must be quite... overwhelming for you. I'm sorry for putting you in the middle of all of this." 

She looked at him with a gentle burning vigor. 

"I'm truly and deeply sorry. Neither of us asked for this." 

Rodney felt an overpowering urge to kiss her. He had always thought about his first snog and why shouldn't it be in the Valry Thicket with this girl? Maybe it could be a story he would tell to his children one day. 

"But Giles has seen you now." Quinn reconstituted her serious tone. "He's seen you and the only possible way to save you is to take you to the Eye of the Needle. To Edgard." 

Ah, there we go with the crazy again. Nevermind, future children. 

"Quinn, it's getting dark. I just want to go home. I'm tired and I have a lot of studying to do. My mum will be off the wall worried about me." 

She stood up and seemed to be at conflict with herself. Then remeasured her tone. 

"It's not far from here. I can tell from where we are that it isn't far. Do you know where a large cascade is?"

"A wot? You mean a waterfall? In the Valry? Yeah, I mean there's a watering hole very deep into the woods but you're not allowed there, it's been blocked off for ages. I only remember it as a child." 

"A-ha!" Quinn clapped her hands and smiled wide, ear to ear. "And this watering hole, it sits at the base of a tall cascade with a bluff for diving, correct?" 

"Well... yeah, but you can't get to it. It's all just cliff behind it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, what are you waffling on about?" 

"That's it, Rodney! That's where the Eye of the Needle is. It's a small crevice in the back of the cliff rock that leads to the cascade. That's it, that's where it is!" Quinn exclaimed giddily. 

Rodney sighed amid her exultations of excitement. 

I simply must be rid of her. 

"Okay." Rodney got back up and wiped his hands off on his trousers. "Okay. You want to go the Eye of the Needle? Let's go." 

"Yes? Honestly?" Quinn's eyes widened and she smiled a fantastic smile. "Wonderful, let's go at once. I've seen a shortcut to get there quite expeditiously." 

At this point, Rodney didn't know what else to do. But he knew that if she got far up enough ahead of him, he could make a clean getaway and run back home. She wouldn't know where he lived.

"All right. Lead the way."