“Anything worth doing starts with falling,” he said cheerfully. “Don’t worry about the wall—that’s an entirely different lesson. Start with getting to that branch of the tree.” He pointed.
She took a step back and lowered her center of gravity. “Ready.”
He stepped aside.
Without so much as a fortifying breath, she raced forward, taking the protruding tree roots like stair steps. She leapt for one of the lowest branches—and missed it by inches.
Instead of falling, her hands grabbed two other branches and hoisted herself into place. Rather than pause, she sprang immediately to the second branch, and then the third, and then the fourth and final—
Not quite.Nowshe was falling. Not with a screech and ungainly flailing, but the controlled descent of someone who had tussled with gravity on countless prior occasions. She did not land with her back over a tree root, but on all fours in a patch of grass to the side.
She was in that position for less than a blink. She sprang up and spun about, then sprinted forward to try it again.
On the seventh try, she made it.
On the twentieth try, she’d made it four times in a row. She beamed down at him from the branch parallel to the stone wall.
“Perfect,” he told her. “Stupendous. Now do it using thewrongbranches.”
“What?”
“This tree is perfect for breaching that wall. Most environments you find yourself in will not be so obliging. You’ll have to make it all the way up anyway. Try it with one ‘wrong’ branch at a time until you can get to the top exclusively using the very worst choices.”
“Show me howyoudo it.”
“No.”
She glared down at him from the tall branch.
He gave her an unapologetic shrug. “If you’re chasing a criminal or fleeing a villain, there won’t be a helpful mentor conveniently located to scout the best surfaces and demonstrate the proper path. You just have to try. You’ll either make it…or not.”
She nodded once and leapt nimbly to the ground, her lips set in a stubborn line. Graham knew that look well. His mother had always said he’d worn a very similar expression while learning a difficult and daring new trick for the circus.
Kunigunde gave a running start and made it to the second branch before it cracked beneath her feet, sending her to the ground.
“Don’t hesitate,” he called out. “It would’ve held for a split second, but not for any longer.”
She tried again and again, her touch-points faster with each new attempt. Occasionally, a hand flung out for balance, and she would start over, even if she hadn’t fallen.
When she finally made it to the top using exclusively terrible branches for purchase, Graham let out a war whoop. “You did it! I knew you could!”
She stared at him as though she couldn’t quite credit she had actually beaten the course. “You thought I could all along?”
“You doubted it?”
Her expression was incredulous.
Oh. She hadn’t doubtedherself. She’d assumedGrahamhad doubted her. That he was standing aside for sport, expecting to watch her fail.
Exactly what kind of support had she received from her siblings? None at all?
“Anyone can see that you have the athletic build and necessary mental fortitude to learn any skill you please,” he told her. “The question was neverifyou would make it to the top, butwhen. Now that we have the answer…”
“…I do it again?” she guessed.
“Until you can make it three times in a row,” he confirmed. “After, we can practice jumping onto narrow surfaces without falling.”
She climbed down with good cheer and sprinted back up the tree, not stopping until she’d managed it five times in a row without the slightest wobble in her balance. She beamed down at him from the tall branch.
