I didn’t look at her, still clinging to the rocks. “I need motivation.”
“Okay…” She sounded confused, and I almost laughed.
“Promise me that if I get through this that you will tie me up and have your wicked ways with me.”
She paused, “Zayden, I don’t think that the badlands are a good place to try and-”
“It doesn’t have to be now. It can be whenever we’re able to be in a nice bed and have the time we would need.” I looked over at her, begging her to give me something. “I just need something to push me forward. Something to think about when it gets harder.”
Whatever she saw in my eyes had her nod her head. “I promise.”
Something inside of me shifted. I suddenly had the urge to get this over with. I did as she asked and climbed up to the rope. She amazed me as I clung to the rocks with both hands and she used one hand, the other clutching the claw that was embedded into the rocks, to tie off a knot on my harness and away we went.
It was very hard. One of the hardest things I have ever done in my whole life. When we were halfway, I was sweating so much that I realized why Rykon dirtied his hands. The damn dirt was to keep your fingers from slipping. The good thing was there was no shortage of dirt on a rocky mountainside and I would just feel around for more.
The other part that was distracting was that with how high up we were, every time the wind blew, it would sound like a woman screaming for her life. The first time it happened, I almost let go in fright. I now know why it was dubbed shrieking mountain.
There were some pleasant moments. Emerald kept to her word and was with me each step of the way. When I lost footing, she told me it was ok and to try another spot. She would scout out spots ahead of where I was and guide me to places that were easier to hold on to. She coached me every step of the way.
Every once in a while, I would say something lewd or sexual and instead of calling me out or putting me back in my place, she would joke with me. It was almost like we were in our own bubble of time and she seemed… freer.
I tried to keep an eye on Emerald, knowing that this was the second time climbing this damn thing and she must be hurting more than me, no matter how strong or trained she was. It was the weirdest thing though, because she didn’t even seem winded. She even reached some places I knew were strenuous with ease. I noticed that her skin looked like it was vibrating. Not only that, but whenever a cloud covered the sun it seemed like her skin had a faint glow to it, but that couldn’t be right. The heights and altitude must be playing tricks on me.
I took a chance to look up, seeing two tiny heads peeking over the top. We were almost there. I had this renewed excitement that we were finally going to be done with this. I could hear them trying to say something, but I couldn’t tell what.
Emerald kept looking up, trying to figure it out too, when I heard a snap and felt a rumble underneath my hands. My fingers had gotten sweaty again, and I didn’t get more dirt, as I was so excited at seeing the guys at the top. I could feel my fingers sliding until I couldn’t hold on anymore. As soon as I let go of the rock, I grabbed onto the rope, expecting to be jerked to a stop but I kept falling. I looked up and saw that the snap from earlier was the rope breaking far above my head and I was now falling to my death.
There was a split second my eyes connected with Emerald’s, her dark brown orbs were blown wide and for once I saw true fear flood them, consuming her face in panic. I thought I wanted her to be more human, to show emotions like fear, but when I was faced with it, I decided I didn’t like it marring her beautiful stoicism.
I could feel gravity take me down, the wind around me rushing in my ears and my hair flying up around my head. I closed my eyes, knowing that I was falling to my death, and I accepted my fate.
Then I heard the guys screaming in devastation from the top and I couldn’t help but open my eyes, thinking they were all mourning me and I kinda wanted to see it before I went. I was vain like that, but it shocked me when my eyes connected with the dark orbs I thought I said goodbye to.
I saw Emerald free falling towards me, determination set hard in her eyes as she grabbed the end of the frayed rope, wrapped it around her arm and quickly slammed her other arm with her iron claw into the side of the rocks. The iron claw was still sliding down the rock side as she gritted her teeth and bellowed out in exertion. Her face pulled in pain as she refused to let go of the rope that I desperately clung onto.
We jerked to a stop when her claw caught onto a large piece of solid rock that stuck out about a foot out, both of us grunting at the yanking of that stop. It took a few seconds before Emerald called out to me, “Zayden?! Are you ok?”
I shook my head. I was not ok, but I did a mental check, seeing if I felt any pain anywhere. When I found none I called back, “No I’m not ok, but if you are talking physically, then yes.”
I could hear her puff out a breath, grateful that I was physically ok. “Good. Then I’m going to need you to start climbing your way up to me. Slowly.”
I took a deep breath, my heart rapidly pumping, when I reminded myself about that tied up sex we talked about, and I felt the little guy stir back to life. If my dick can still get up, I guess so can I. I looked up and Emerald was about fifteen feet above me, eyes watching me like a hawk, hand clenched around the rope like she could stay that way forever. I sucked up how scared I was, how I almost died, how for once I knew I wasn’t ready to die. No matter how many times my father has beaten me, no matter how much blood I have spilled on his floor, praying for it all to end, I wasn’t ready to die.
My shaky arms took the first step in grasping the rocky side above my head, and I kept repeating to myself.I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.Each time, my arm or leg moved up. My muscles were fatigued and in pain but I kept working my way up, telling myself it was a shorter distance than when I started on the ground to get the rope in the first place, so I knew I could do it.
I felt a hand grasp my shoulder, and I saw Emerald, her eyes shining with pride so bright that I almost fell down again. Her pride gave me strength as I puffed out my chest and heaved between breaths. “It was nothing.”
She puffed out her own disbelieving breath, but her illuminating smile never left her face. “Let’s go.” Her tone made it seem like it was a hop skip, but I knew we had fallen quite a bit and I didn’t know if we were going to have enough strength to do this.
She climbed right next to me, but she only had one claw and I realized she had to let go of one of them to grab the rope. I was about to apologize when I looked down at her arm that had the rope still wrapped around it and it was bleeding where the rope dug into her skin. “Emerald.” She saw where I was looking and brushed it off.
“It’s nothing. It looks worse than it is.”
I didn’t say anything to that because it was useless when she was like this, but it made me feel worse and thankful at the same time. A combination of feelings that were very new to me.
I was slowing down, not paying attention to how far up we had gotten, but my arms and legs were giving up. I heard a thud above our heads and we both looked up. We were still about thirty feet away from the top, but there was a rope with a loop tied around it, the guys at the top yelling at us to get it in.
Emerald quickly grabbed it. I finally let out a breath of relief, thinking she would get herself pulled up when she wrapped it around me and tugged on it. I was immediately pulled up, going up ten times faster than I was.
