A/N: Another chapter! Yay! Things really pick up here, and more questions appear then answers. Hope you're ready!
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Chapter Five: A Minor Setback
The mountains surrounding Caneopa were beautiful. They were also vast, and it would have only been too easy to get lost. Thankfully, Ruthy thought to give us a map of the area.
"Are you sure we picked the right path, my Flower?" Eric asked as we steadily made our way up a sloped, narrow track.
"Honestly, not really," I admitted, glancing down at the map again. "But I'm sure those footprints in the mud at the bottom were about Alfendi's shoe size. And…"
"And they looked deliberate," Eric asked, before sighing, running a hand through his hair. "I can't help but wonder how he's leaving all these clues for us. Wouldn't Hertz notice?" he pointed out. I stopped, my eyes wide at the question.
"She… should. I mean, Al's clever, but…" I trailed off.
"But if he's under constant surveillance…" Eric hesitated a moment. "Think it's a trap?"
"I… I don't know. That was definitely his hand writing on those two notes, and I doubt he'd let the 'invisible ink' trick be known…" I reasoned.
"Unless he was hypnotized."
"Right," I sighed, starting forward again. Eric fell quiet as he walked alongside me, though he took my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. The two of us stayed quiet for a while, until we reached a large ravine.
We stood on one cliff, the other about forty meters away, spanned only by an old, rickety bridge. The drop below was many kilometers deep, with only a thin ribbon of blue snaking its way between the two cliffs.
"We have to cross that, don't we?" Eric asked.
"Probably," I sighed.
"How far behind Hertz and Alfendi do you think we are?" Eric asked.
"Probably only a few hours, Remember, the mud around that footprint was only just drying," I replied.
"That's true…" he said.
And hopefully, Al's struggling, which means they're slowed down compared to us… I thought.
"Well… If they crossed it, so can we," I said with a determined nod. Eric smiled.
"That's the spirit. Ladies first?" he asked. I chuckled, walking forward, carefully stepping onto the old wood. I felt the bridge dip as Eric joined me, only a few steps behind. I gripped the ropes tightly to keep my balance, and we carefully made our way across.
Just as we reached the middle of the bridge, everything went wrong.
"Well, well, I didn't expect you to catch up to us so soon," an all too familiar, and dreaded voice said from behind. We turned to see Roma Hertz standing behind us, just on the edge of the cliff, right in front of the bridge. I quickly looked around and spotted who I was looking for.
"Alfendi!" I cried. He slowly lifted his head, his crimson bangs falling away from his eyes, and I grew cold.
The look on his face was that of total concentration. Suddenly, I was thrown back to ten years ago.
"Eric!" I called, sprinting after him, surprised to catch up in a matter of minutes. He was just steadily walking along the road, making a beeline… towards the forest. I grabbed his arm.
"Eric, wait a minute!" I called. He hardly seemed to notice me, so I dug my feet in. "Eric, stop!" Unfortunately, he was stronger then me, and he managed to pull away. My heart was going wild in my chest, and I quickly placed myself in front of him. One look into his face made the words die on my lips.
Like Johnny, the only expressions on Eric's face was that of total concentration.
I was stunned, frozen. Alfendi simply looked at me, his gold eyes full of focus, and nothing else.
Roma Hertz had hypnotized Alfendi. All those clues were a trap.
"Flora, we have to run," Eric said, grabbing my arm. I looked at him, then over at the woman. She was moving towards one of the support ropes.
"Time to be rid of you," she said, pulling out a knife. I spun around, running towards the other end of the bridge, Eric right behind me. I could almost feel the vibrations in the bridge as Hertz sawed away at rope.
SNAP!
The bridge lurched to the side, and I nearly fell. Eric grabbed me, keeping me upright. We were ten meters from the end of the bridge.
CRUNCH!
Time seemed to slow. I looked back to see the second support post break, unable to support the weight of the bridge on it's own.
The wood planks disappeared from beneath our feet. I saw Alfendi watching us, the focus in his eyes mingled with…
"Wait!" I gasped. Eric dove forward, grabbing me around me around my waist with one arm, and the bridge with the other. I gripped his shirt, and time returned to normal speed as we swung quickly, directly towards the cliff face, hanging off the now ruined bridge. A scream ripped itself from my throat.
At the last minute, Eric twisted us around, and he slammed into the cliff at full force with a dull thud, and a cry of pain. I felt the shock of the impact through his body, and he nearly let go of the bridge. I moved my hands from his shirt to the bridge on either side of him, trying to support both of our weights.
"Eric!?" I gasped frantically. He groaned, dazed from the impact. I tried to think about to the moment of impact. His head was tucked into my hair, but his back had slammed into the wall. I had felt a crunch in his torso.
Eric's fingers slipped from the wood, and suddenly, I was fully supporting both of us. I gasped, gripping the wood tighter and swinging my legs to find footholds between the planks. My arms shook with the strain, but I was able to keep both of us up through adrenaline and sheer force of will.
"Eric, please, snap out of it," I groaned, unsure of how much longer I'd be able to hold out. He didn't answer, and I looked around frantically.
Right next to my right hand was a rope. Taking a chance, I let go of the wood and snatched it. As quickly as I could, I wrapped it around his chest, just below his arms, and tied it, before carefully moving slightly lower so I wasn't holding his entire weight.
When the rope tightened around his chest, he cried out in pain, struggling for a moment before his hands found the wooden planks. He gripped them and pulled himself up slightly, his breaths coming in shuddery gasps.
"E-Eric…" I whimpered. He looked down, his eyes glazed over with pain, but he was alert.
"F-Flora…?" he gasped.
"We have to climb up. I know you're hurt, but we need to get onto solid ground," I said, my voice a lot calmer then I actually felt. He hesitated, before nodding, reaching up first with his left arm and finding a higher hand hold.
He pulled himself up using his left arm and feet.
Then he stretched up with his right arm, pulled, and cried out again, nearly loosing his grip.
"Eric…?" I breathed.
"Ugh… my ribs… they're on fire…" he groaned. I bit my lip.
A broken rib. Maybe more then one… I thought. "What should we—" before I could finished my question, he was already moving forward, groaning whenever he had to stretch his right side, but fighting through it.
Pain at seeing him hurt mingled with admiration that he was fighting through the pain. Shaking my head, I followed him, using the ruined bridge as a ladder.
We finally reached the top. Eric crawled a little away from the edge before throwing up, having reached and pushed well beyond his pain threshold. I quickly ran over to him, kneeling next to him.
Finally getting it all out of his system, he rolled onto his back, a groan forcing it's way out. I bit my lip, carefully pushing his bangs out of his eyes.
"We have to find somewhere to set up camp so I can treat you," I said softly. He groaned once more, but didn't fight when I took his left arm and carefully pulled him to his feet. Supporting half his weight, I looked around.
We were on the other side of the Ravine. Alfendi and Hertz were gone. Nothing but trees stretched out in front of us, with the ravine at our backs.
With a sigh, I pushed forward.
"Just a minor setback…" I said softly.
"Heh," Eric puffed, wincing slightly. I sighed, noticing the sun sinking over the tops of the trees.
Tonight was going to be a long night…
…
A/N: Research on injured ribs, yay! Haha. Poor Eric. He goes through so much in these stories. It makes it interesting, though, hehe.
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he won't in City of Gold… of course… that's not outlined yet, so who knows, heh.
ONWARDS to the next chapter!