Opening her phone’s camera, she focused on the ledge, before zooming the camera in further… and then further… and further again.
And…
Her breath caught in her throat.
A-ha!
Showing on her phone’s screen, half obscured amongst some small rocks, was the slightly blurry image of a chain with what looked like a small silver circle attached to it. It was dirty and tarnished, but it was definitely a necklace.
Chloe supposed that itcouldbe some other missing piece of jewelry, given that the original photo wasn’t exactly in high resolution, but really, what were the odds of that? They had to assume that it was the correct one.
She scooted back a little, looking up to see Ethan standing at the edge of the gorge and looking down like he didn’t have a care in the world. She supposed it was easy to be confident when you could fly, but still – the gorge was too narrow for him to fly in!
Getting to her feet, she dusted herself off and started thinking about what they could do next.
“Let’s see what else is in that bag,” she said, and Ethan opened it up.
Besides the food and water, it turned out to mostly be basic survival gear – a flashlight, a compass, that kind of thing.
There were, however, also several ropes and some large metal clips. Chloe shivered as she looked at them.
Rappelling down sheer rock faces wasnother idea of a good time! Pretty much the opposite, in fact!
But suddenly, she found that she wanted to try.
Her whole life had been tied up in vet work. And she didn’t regret that, not for one second. But ithadled to a pretty regimented way of living. She’d never taken any risks, at leastnot until she’d decided to start her own business – and that had been a very different kind of risk, anyway.
And besides,she thought,taking that risk turned out pretty well for me! So risks do sometimes pay off.
She found that she wanted to take this risk as well. With Ethan at her side, she felt safe.
Apparently reading her mind – or at least the way she was staring at the ropes with great intensity – Ethan spoke up, concern in his voice.
“You don’t have to go down there if you don’t want to. I’m happy to go by myself.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to do this. It would mean a lot to me – we’re in this together, aren’t we?”
We’re mates, after all,Chloe thought, the cold shiver that had been running through her suddenly turning to a warm fizzle of excitement.
Ethan looked at her for a long moment, before nodding. “If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“It is,” she said, grateful that he wasn’t trying to talk her out of it.
“I’ll be right beneath you,” he said. “If you fall, I’ll catch you.” His eyes locked with hers, his gaze intense. “But you won’t fall.”
His belief in her touched her in ways she had never thought possible, opening new reserves of confidence she’d never realized she had.
He’s right. I won’t fall.
But,she thought with a smile,I’m still glad he’ll be there, though!
Ethan got to work looping one of the ropes around a sturdy-looking tree, and Chloe tried very hard not to think about how this area had been subject to a landslide that could have disturbed the tree’s roots. The pegasus seemed to have a sixthsense about these things – she could only hope that it would know whether or not it was safe.
“Okay,” Chloe said with a shaky exhale. Now that it was actually happening, the nerves were hitting her full force.
Peering carefully over the edge, she could see that the drop wasn’t quite so sheer as she’d thought – at this point it was more like a steep slope leading down to the ledge, rather than a cliff face. Steep slopes, she could do.
Just don’t think about how it drops off below there. You’re not going down to the bottom, so it doesn’t matter.
