The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Over the Cliff

Roci found herself flying, er, falling quickly ... free falling after having run over the side of the cliff.

She wanted to scream or squeal, make any noise, make some sound, but what happened next happened so quickly she didn't have time to peep, bark, meow, howl or even whinny.

Equally unexpectedly to finding herself free falling, she suddenly stopped falling. What's more, she bounced back up.

Roci's favorite sweatshirt was Navy Blue in color with an oversized hood. When she ran hard the hood flapped behind her like the mane of a horse. All the while the strings that pulled the hood tightly would fly freely and sometimes snap her in the face or tickle her on her nose and eyelids. Her hood had a cushy horn on it that couldn't be seen unless she had pulled her hood up over her head. She never, ever, pulled her hood over her head when other people were around. The horn was that of a unicorn. Not a real unicorn, of course.

When Roci jumped, um, found herself suddenly flying over the edge of the cliff her hood puffed up like a mini-parachute. With wind in her hood the horn then popped up pointing in the direction she had just come from ... above. The horn was made of a stiff sort of fabric and could appear to be solid though it was soft. It had a glossy swirling silver covering with a pinch of sparkle that glistened in the evening moonlight.

As she went flying over the side of the cliff Roci's horn got caught in the fork between two small tree limbs. Looking at the tree against the evening moonlight, the tips of the many branches resembled the spiny fingers of a witch or perhaps a gremlin. Lots of knobs and crooks and uneven bends that went every which way in an unpredictable manner. Roci found herself suspended like a fish on a string! Or more like an old boot that had been fished out of a river. Equal to her surprise that she was no longer falling, she was also very thankful. She had no time nor thought to utter a prayer. She was, however, grateful that she had zipped up the front of her hoodie or the sweatshirt could have been pulled off completely and she would have left it dangling behind as if it were on a clothesline while she continued on downward.

She bounced. Then bounced again ... and again.

One bounce, two bounces, three, four .... Nobody really counts at times like these. The bounces became nearly imperceptible, though she knew they hadn't quite stopped altogether.

Crack. Crickle. Craaackle ....

"Uh, oh!" thought Roci. "This isn't good."

As the tree limb crackled and popped she sensed herself starting to be slowly lowered. Slowly. Sloooooowwwly.

CRACK! The tree limb snapped.

"OOOwhoop! Huh?" She started to fall again ... but ...

The tree that had caught Roci's unicorn horn had given way to her weight and lowered her slowly till she fell ... about three inches! Roci felt as though she were taking a step down when there was no step to go down. Her legs buckled but did not give way completely.

"Uh? Really? That's it? I am not going to fall anymore. That tree! That scary, frightening, terrifying, 1000-clawed, stringy finger-y, tree that I hate with every bone in my body ..." she hesitated before finishing, "that tree saved me?!?!"

She shuddered.

After straightening her legs to stand fully upright Roci found herself now standing on the bank of the small river that caught the flow from the waterfall she came over. The river flowed toward her left. She reckoned correctly that to get back to where she had just fallen from she would have to climb, or go to the right in the opposite direction that the river flowed.

The moon peeked over the cliff that Roci had just come over. In the moonlight she could see some rather lanky figures walking awkwardly along the edge.

"I wonder ...." she said out loud. Then started climbing.