I actually never even heard of the books before the show came out but one episode in and I was hooked. So here's my first entry into the fandom of Shannara.
Enjoy.
"What about the others?" Eretria shouted over the frigid winds.
"We'll send it back once we're on the other side." Cephelo did have a point. There was no way all five of them could fit. Like it or not, multiple trips would be required.
Crispin wouldn't be able to stall the demon for long, they needed to go now.
Not knowing what else to do, Eretria gripped the freezing steel bar in her hands.
"Ready?" Eretria only nodded in response. "Let's go!"
Kicking out from the edge, the two rovers shot across the chasm. It was only then Eretria got a real inkling of just how far the drop down was. She couldn't even see the bottom of the black abyss.
Landing on the other side, Eretria whirled around to throw the bar back across for their other three companions. They should have been right behind them, what was taking so long?!
Eretria just happened to see Cephelo out of the corner of her eye climbing on the rocks. She turned just in time to see him latch a hand on the zip line's rope with a knife in his spare hand. "What are you doing?"
"Saving out asses." The howling winds made hearing anything difficult, but Eretria more felt the first whack of the blade against the rope.
"You said we'd help them across!" If Cephelo destroyed that rope... the others were doomed.
"And bring a demon with them?" Cephelo scoffed. "The hell with that!" It was typical of her adoptive father. He was perfectly willing to screw over others to save his own skin.
"Eretria!" Amberele screamed from across the chasm. "Help us!"
Even from this distance, the rover girl could see the elf princess through the snow. She was far too proud to beg, at least not with words. Her face told an altogether different story.
Eretria had already stepped back up to the platform to ride the bar back across before she even realized it.
"Eretria..." It wasn't until Cephelo stopped cutting and called out to her that she even realized what she was about to do. When Eretria moved to face the elder rover, he landed one final blow with his words. "He'll never choose you."
Cephelo was right. He might be scum, he might be a selfish cheat, but that didn't make him any less smart. Where Wil and Amberele could be misled and fooled, Cephelo was not so easily duped. He had seem right through how Eretria looked at the two.
Wil would never choose her. Why would he? Some rover who'd robbed him not once, but twice? Why pick her when you had the cute, and openly receptive princess. Even Eretria had to admit the other girl was quite a catch.
But in the end... what did it matter?
If Eretria did nothing, Wil and Amberle were going to die. That demon would finish thrashing the hell out of Crispin then would turn on the other two.
The horrifying mental image was already in Eretria's mind. Crispin would already be dead, Wil and Amberle would be trapped at the edge of the cliff with the demon advancing. Wil, heroic and brave idiot that he was, would plant himself firmly between the juggernaut and Amberle. The half-elf would be butchered within seconds. Amberle would scream for the fallen Wil, then draw her sword and charge in a desperate hope to save him. She would die just as quick.
All Eretria could do was watch as both were cut down.
Eretria still remembered the way he stood up to the fury coming at the two women. None of them had any weapons that could be remotely effective and all Wil had were a couple of elfstones he didn't even believe in. But Wil didn't care, he rushed in anyway knowing full well if the magic didn't work he would die with them.
Being ready to sacrifice himself to protect someone else was simply who Wil was. Though she had yet to actually see it, Eretria could see shades of this in Amberle too. If either had been in Eretria's place they would have rode across before Cephelo could even make a peep.
They would both risk their lives to save hers.
What would Cephelo do? If she hadn't of been with him when they first reached the zip line he would have rode across alone and severed the line. Leaving her trapped on the other side with a demon. All to save his own skin. For all his talk of rovers being family and her being his daughter, Eretria knew it meant nothing. He had never backed up those words with actions, Wil did.
Eretria had reached a crossroads here. Return to her normal life as a rover with Cephelo, living day to day until your luck ran out, or try to make something of her pathetic excuse for an existence with Wil and Amberele.
Even if she was never chosen, Eretria didn't care. She could not, would not, leave them to the mercy of a demon.
"So be it." Cephelo never got a chance to dissuade her before Eretria threw herself across.
The look of relief was obvious on Amberle's face. The princess reached out to grab her just before she made it to solid ground, almost as if she didn't believe she was real. "She made it, let's go!"
Exactly like Eretria thought, Wil had his back to them with this eyes on the passage back into Pykon. He was already prepared to engage the demon with nothing but a dagger and untrustworthy elfstones.
"Come on!" Amberle insisted as Wil moved up into place on the zip line, but not before dumping the elfstones from their pouch into his hand.
"That thing's right behind us." Wil's warning was unnecessary, the growls of the approaching monster were more than enough of a hint. If the demon was here, Crispin was dead. The elf captain would have died before letting that thing get a step past him. "Push off and don't look back!"
When Wil only put one hand on the bar, Eretria was worried he was planning on staying behind. There was just barely enough room to hold all three. That worry became unfounded when he launched across with the women. One hand on the bar, the other holding onto his elfstones. "Don't stop!"
They didn't make it far before the bar stopped in place. At first Eretria thought they caught something on the rope but when she and Amberle looked behind them they found the demon had latched onto the rope with one of it's axes.
"Just... die already!" Wil's hand lit up with a blue light just before a pulse erupted forth. It was a direct hit, even knocking the creature down to one knee, but it was still moving toward them. Only now it was trying to slide down the rope toward them.
No amount of throwing herself forward would make the bar move, they were stuck in place with the demon getting closer. They needed to figure something...
Eretria's thoughts ground to a halt when she was no longer suspended in the air, but falling. Just before passing out of sight, she saw Cephelo on the other side. The rope he had been cutting now free from the wall.
The bastard cut them loose!
Someone screamed. It was hard to tell who because of the rushing air but Eretria soon discovered it was herself. The first time in her life she had done something truly selfless for someone else without promise of payment, and she was going to die right after doing it.
Eretria's last sight was Wil and Amberle desperately reaching for her, then everything went black.
A lot shorter than I normally like but I needed to get this one out before moving on to others. I also wanted to see if anyone was actually reading in this fandom before I do more. After getting some practice in OT3 in another fandom, I kinda wanted to do more. Then boom, Shannara Chronicles gives a perfect trio of protagonists for it.