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Chapter 35

I'd like to take a moment here, and give myself a pat on the back for an ending like that. 'I let go'. I mean, you can't just set down the book right then and be fine, right? And I think it's a dead giveaway when there's another chapter. The obviously means the character doesn't die. That's why part 2s are useful.
Where are we? Right, I'm hurtling off the side of a mountain... Unloved, unwanted, abandoned...
I close my eyes. I'm going to die. It's undeniable. My heart is pulsing like it's racing time itself, trying to fulfill a life time's heart beats in the few seconds I have left.
I never thought much about death. Why would I need to? I always knew it was coming- No one lives forever. But I guess I always pictured it as heroic, dramatic, memorable... Not like this.
I fall...
And someone catches me.
My eyes are closed, and I cry out in agony as I feel the firm grip tighten around my wrist. It's Death, I know it, trying to snatch me away. Maybe I've already hit the path below... I'm already dead.
"No!"
I scream as if being tortured. Death's cold fingers are holding firmly on my right forearm now, but slipping, slowly slipping.
"Give me your hand!" Death cries. "Why would I want to do that?!" I shout back, still with my eyes closed, convinced I'm dead or dying.
"My hands are slipping!" Says Death... Who's starting to sound strangely familiar. But I don't care- Isn't it good if Death's grip is slipping?
"I don't care!"
"Just open your eyes, Ash, will you?!"
My eyes snap open like I'm just now waking up from sleep, and I find myself staring right into Death's face. Death has blue eyes and black wolf ears.
"Oh my God, Stone!" I shout, suddenly realizing what I've got myself into.
Glancing down, almost against my will, the earth below seems to shrink, thrusting me higher and higher into the atmosphere. I feel bile rise in my mouth, and swallow it down, grimacing, forcing myself to turn away from the five hundred foot drop. One slip up=Ash pancake.
"Just give me your other hand!" Stone says desperately, lying flat on is stomach on the path, both of his hands clenched around my arm, but slowly, very slowly, slipping, and I begin to slide.
"Your hand!"
It sounds so simple, just to lift my left hand, which dangles uselessly at my side, but I can't. I paralyzed with fear, unable to move a muscle.
"Ash! My hands are slipping! Your hand!" Sweat is plastering Stone's crazy jet black hair to his face, his face strained.
"I- I can't..." I manage, my eyes sliding back to the view below me- A breathtakingly beautiful one, that I was about to become part of.
"What do you mean, you can't! Just give me your hand!" I see the desperation in his eyes, now unfrozen. I stare into them, and, again, receive the same falling sensation as before, like I could just tumble forever and ever into their icy depths.
Ash...
My mother. What happened to her? Where did she go?
Ash...
I grit my teeth in pain, and close my eyes, tight, as terrible images that aren't my memories flash past my consciousness.
My mother stirring something that smokes purple in a pot. She looks up at something I can't see, and her eyes grow wide. She swallows, and grabs the knife that was always strapped to her thigh. The lantern she keeps next to her suddenly clatters to the ground, and darkness is in the cave. Then she screams.
"Ash!"
My eyes snap open again. They meet Stone's, which are sparkling in the dull, foggy light, not from condensation.
"Please..."
Suddenly, I find strength I've never had, and I fling my left arm up- And Stone catches me.
Without pausing, he puts his feet back under him, and begins to pull me up and over the edge. When my upper body is clear, he gives one final great heave with a grunt, and I go flying, up and over, landing on Stone and sending us both tumbling over the path, over and over, until he finally relinquishes his grasp on my arm, and I flop down beside him on my back. We lay there a moment, side by side, our chests rising and falling rapidly, as we take in great heaves of breath. Then he turns to me, still panting slightly, deep blue eyes like the ocean, and for once, they're not frozen up.
"I-I-"
"I thought you left me..." I breath, turning back away before I get lost again in his eyes.
"Why would I do that?" He says, frowning, genuinely confused.
I think for a moment, my heart finally starting to slow back to it's normal pace, and face him again. "Remember when you told me to stay away?"
"That was just..." He begins, then furrows his brow, and it's another couple moments before he speaks. "It's complicated."
I stare at him in disbelief. "Complicated? Stone, if it's so complicated, why do you keep saving my butt?"
"I- We should get moving," He says shortly, not meeting my eyes, and he gets to his feet, purposely turning away.
"Stone!" I exclaim incredulously, also standing. "Stone!"
But he's intent on ignoring me, and I eventually give up trying to get him back on subject. One of these days...
"Where were you, then?" I finally say defeatedly.
"Hmm? Oh that? Hunting," He pulls a dead hare out of nowhere. "I thought maybe breakfast should be special." Yeah, that was a very special breakfast for me, considering I almost died, but I don't say that.
We decide we should eat up the hare in the day, so we don't ration ourselves to the extreme. I make Stone do the butchering- And take the time to gather firewood. He starts a small fire with his flint, and we use the small pan Pine packed for us to fry up the meat. Reluctantly, we use up some of our precious water to make rabbit stew, though we barely use enough to moisten the meat. We use the left over paper bag from the apples to store half of the cooked meat, and hope it doesn't go bad before lunch.
I watch as the water sizzles and bubbles, and the fresh meat begins to crisp over. I know why Stone went hunting- We barely have any food left. Our water skin is more than half-empty. We have only one partially eaten loaf of bread left. The apples are gone. Almost a little desperate, I open up Stone's pack and rummage through it. The bread, the water skin... And small package of cheese. That's all.
That's the rest of today, and then three more days after that, with three meals a day... Eleven meals, and it might take us an extra day or so to reach the top, for all we know... Maybe we can skip lunch...
"Pass the cheese, please." Stone says, startling me.
"We shouldn't be wasting our food on fancy meals..." I say, but pass him the cheese anyways, albeit reluctantly. My stomach growls at the smell of the frying meat. Our meals over the past few days have lacked essential nutrients. Bread and fruit don't stick with you, and I'm starving for actual food.
"Where did you find a rabbit on the mountain, anyways?" I say, just to give my mouth something to do, so I don't lean over and chomp up the meat while they're still frying.
"Well, obviously it's a mountain rabbit." Stone says matter-of-factly, grinning mysteriously, and I laugh a little, not because it's funny, which it's not, but just because I need to laugh.
"But seriously?" I say, still laughing a little. His expression darkens a little, and he shrugs. "Nicked it..."
"What?"
He sighs, and then finishes quickly "It was just lying there... On some family's bag..." I gasp in horror.
"You stole?! Stone, they need that food as much as we do-"
"No, they don't!" He says, as if trying to justify stealing. "They don't! I checked, believe me- In that bag they've got an entire forest's worth of meat just waiting to be fried up! I'm serious!" He adds as I lean in menacingly.
"They'll be better than fine... Our need is greater than their's anyways..." He shrugs, poking at the cooking meat absently to see if it's cooked enough, and searing his finger.
"It was wrong, Stone." I say stubbornly, but secretly I'm thanking him. I know it's wrong to steal, but I'm on the point of starving from lack of nutrients.
"Come off it, you can't pretend you're not glad..." He says, which silences me, because it's the complete truth. Sometimes I wonder if he can read minds.
When the hunger gnawing at our insides grows to great to ignore, we decide the meat is cooked enough, even if it's still a little raw on the inside. It's good enough.
I almost melt when I take a hulking bite of my still-hot breakfast. Stone fried the meat with a slice or two of cheese, which added more flavor than you would have expected. I wouldn't care what he added, I'm so stared. Three days living off bread and fruit? Ouch.
I still can't believe Stone stole. From some innocent family, none the less! I watch him distrustfully out of the corner of my eye as I become lost in rabbit-world. It seems I'll never know the real Stone.
When we finish, we pack up and start to walk again. I've suggested skipping lunch for today to Stone, and he agreed, though that increases that chance that the meat will spoil.
The fog isn't normal fog- It means we're high up enough that low clouds are starting to intersect us. And, after we pass through the cloud, I look up, and feel a slight twinge of panic when I see I still can't make out the peak.