“Focus,” Dorrin commanded, snapping her from her growing panic. “You can do this. I will followyourlead. Just be decisive when you move so I can match you. Indecisiveness is the enemy. Okay?”
“Yeah, I guess,” she replied, a little shocked to be taking the lead. “You sure about this?”
“Trust me.”
She did, actually. Despite his gruff nature, he’d proven himself utterly competent at pretty much everything thrown their way. If he said for her to go first, there was a reason. In this case, it was because he had faster reflexes than she did, and if his pylon moved to a different level, he would be quickerat adjusting and hopefully keeping their connecting cable slack enough to move to the next.
“Here goes,” she said, stepping out onto the first of many wobbly poles.
It sank, but only a little. Right beside her, his did the same.
Okay, we can do this. Again, she urged herself.
They moved forward, pained at how slow the progress was but managing to adapt to the varying heights in their poles. The elites, Ziana noticed, were moving much faster and opening up a bigger lead. Dorrin caught her being distracted.
“Ignore them.”
“They’re pulling ahead.”
“Because they know which poles move the least.”
“That’s cheating.”
“But none can prove it. And even if they could, none would dare. But we are still ahead of the pack. Focus only on the task at hand. That is all that matters. You can do this. I’m right here beside you.”
She shook her head, snapping herself out of her distraction and refocusing her mind on what lay directly in front of her. “Okay, here we go.”
It was slow going, but they made it to the far side soon enough, jumping down to the soft dismount area having not fallen once.
“We did it! Holy sh?—”
Ziana’s words were abruptly cut off as Dorrin once again surged into a run, pulling the cable a little too hard and knocking her off her feet.
“Hey!”
He glared at her, dragging her to her feet in a rush as he headed down the path toward the trees. “That was but the first obstacle. Focus. The race is not over. Nowrun!”
She managed to keep up as he surged ahead, so pissed off that she actually pulled in front of him for a few strides. “Icanrun if you don’t go pulling me off my feet!”
He didn’t even turn to look at her, keeping his pace and forcing her to move faster. “We couldn’t wait for you to sightsee.”
“Just tell me when you’re going to do that, is all I ask.Asshole.”
“Stop talking, woman. You are losing your breath,” he hissed, giving the cable a little tug.
Her annoyance surged, but she knew he was right. He might have had the lungs of a marathon runner, but she could definitelynotcarry on a conversation and run, at least, not at these speeds. So Ziana did the difficult thing. She shut up and ran, the angry ball in her belly pushing her to match his pace out of sheer frustration more than anything else.
“Water obstacle,” he called to her as they emerged from the slalom course of trees and rocks. It was a natural pool, though not a terribly big one. She saw the elites up ahead, already running, leaving their wet footprints in their wake.
“Woah,” was all she could manage as she took in the sheer drop they abruptly faced.
It was taller than a two-story building, but not by too much. Even so, she was not particularly fond of heights, especially not jumping off of them. She froze in place, the cable tight between them. He turned and took a step back.
“The water is deep enough,” was all he said, then quickly picked her up in his arms and jumped.
“Waaaaaaaiiiiit!” she cried out, her words cut off by the rush of water up her nose as she impacted the surface, plunging deep as her partner’s greater mass pulled her down with him.
She felt panic, her lungs screaming for air even though she’d only been submerged a moment. But this wasn’t logical, rationalthought. This was visceral. This was survival on the most core, animal level. Her hands spun in a flurry as she tried to swim to the surface, the light seeming so far away. Suddenly she felt a shove from below as her body was forced up to the surface in a rush. She sucked in massive gulps of air, an enormous arm wrapping around her body and dragging her to shore.
