AN: Tiny update. Wanted to keep my word. More tomorrow.
Crossing the river would have been simple if not for the fire.
The base of the ravine opened into a wide, craggy maw of glittering water and sabotaged footing. Rocks had tumbled out of the ravine's face and crashed below to form a road of effervescent current dividing the road of sharpened stones that made traversal almost impossible. The water's stream was just deep enough to reach their chest, and fast enough that the pull would drag them away in moments. Its width had opened up significantly, and without the slightest hint of rocks large enough for purchase in between either shore.
Worse than the rest, however, was the thirty foot drop the water descended into further along. This was the end of the line. She should have known, but the forest had obscured such a narrow termination point to the gorge's floor. Waterfalls were hardly a surprise, and it barely qualified, but Merlose's men had navigated to the other side of the river regardless of risk.
"Well, this is lovely. We can't make it through that."
"How do you know?" Vines asked.
"I've been in rivers like that. It must have picked up weight further north, but there's no way we could get through that."
"We'll have to try," Snake said.
"No, you won't." When Snake protested, Lara pushed her hand against his chest, feeling real irritation rear again, with a vein of concern as its backbone. "I've been in more than stormy weather. Now, you both listen, right? That's a deathtrap, and Merlose knows it. That's probably why they crossed here and not the endless other possibilities they probably use all about this bit of the country. This is their backyard, not ours." Lara crouched to look about, and plucked a bit of brown sliver from the dry sand. "Good lord, you lot need to trust a woman's instincts once in a while. Here, take a look."
Snake held it up to the light once she'd handed him the minute splinter of wood, looking waterlogged and chewed with moss. "This is probably from a rope with walking slabs, sort of like-"
She pointed to a thick wooden post, or what was left of it, not far off, buried in the soil. It had been severely truncated by a roughshod ax chopping. Its twin, also chopped down, lay across the other side of the river. "A rope ladder, right. That's probably where they mounted the thing for stability, no less. Getting Hal across must have been absurd, using such loosely improvised gear."
"They do it all the time," Vines said. "What the locals use for the ziplines is usually not much more than glorified coat hangers. Sometimes they'll send their babies down them in backpacks, barely tied. There's just no other way to get around out here."
"I've no doubt. Probably worse if they're going into a town or city." Lara stood and looked out across the water. It seemed alluring in the stickiness of the day, but that was a different sort of trap all together. "We've got to get across. The tracks stop here. I've got an idea."
"You just said—" Vines started.
"I bloody well know what I said!" Lara snapped. She closed her eyes, counted, and let air out through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry, please, just help me. I can do this better than either of you, okay? Please."
Vines watched her, letting a moment linger, then nodded.
"He needs us," Malcolm said.
Lara smiled in spite of everything.