Annwn looked at him, her face contorting into a mask of rage. “Never! I’m getting Xavier back!”
“He’s dead. Nothing could survive the creek. Just look at it!”
She looked, and saw a turgid mass of shed foliage so thick that she was surprised the water could move at all. His argument convinced her. With a sob, she turned around and climbed.
An oscillating whine sliced pitifully through the hammering rain, sloshing creek and lashing wind, telling the world its woe. Annwn looked Wildwind straight in the eye and said, “I’m getting him!” She stepped down the gooey hillside.
Wildwind grabbed her arm.
Screaming with rage and wrenching her whole body, she yanked her frail limb free from his powerful grasp. Surprisingly, her forceful escape pulled Wildwind off balance. He fell down the steep slope where a bend in the stream had undermined the hill.
With a grunt, Wildwind had firm hold of the sled’s rear axle, which stuck out over the edge of the hill about chest height to Annwn. Tires and structural rail grinding through the sopping muddy soil, the cart slipped over the edge. Ropes that had been tied around a circuleaf tree pulled taut and abruptly stopped the sled’s plummet. Wildwind hung below, hard breaths erupting in steam from his nose, feet dangling four meters above a creek gone mad, a wet. hell of flame-colored leaves.
Annwn, confused by the unfortunate turn of events, fell to her knees, mouth agape. She didn’t know whether she should be fearing for Wildwind’s life, or wishing he would fall, or racing after the crying puppy, or trying to help someone who attempted to hold her against her will.
Mixing with the rain, hail fell, pattering through the trees, becoming a cascade of white popcorn bouncing in haphazard trajectories throughout the wood.
The tree supporting the cart slowly tore from the softened ground. Wildwind dropped lower.
“The cart! We need to retie the cart!” Miranda rushed toward the collapsing tree, her feet slipping constantly on leaves and mud.
“I’m dropping some weight!” Wildwind, with one hand, quickly popped the buckles of the backpack. Annwn tried to yell “No!” but the w'ords stuck in her throat. Falling like a stone, the bag of food sank into the savage creek.
Kwazar grabbed an exposed root and reached over the dangling sled. “Climb up a little ways and I can get your hand!”
The showering ice hurt Annwn’s head, pain barely felt as she watched Wildwind slowly pull himself up the sled, straining for each structural support. Fear and cold whitened his face. The circuleaf tree tore from the ground at an increasing rate. Kwazar stretched farther, trying to get as close to Wildwind as possible.
Miranda reached the tortured tree. The sled had two leads. She began to untie the line that had more slack and hadn’t been pulled taut. Her cold fingers slowly fumbled with the simple knot.
The root Kwazar held popped loose and he looked at his failing purchase with a shocked expression. The handhold stopped yanking outward, finding grip somewhere under the soil. Appearing relieved, he turned back to Wildwind, discovering that the extra length gave him the reach he needed, at least temporarily.
“Now, Wildwind. Do it now!”
With both arms, Wildwind yanked himself upward and grabbed Kwazar’s free hand.
Miranda, having freed the cart’s second line, turned toward a firmly braced tree to secure the sled. The lead ripped from her hand, slicing neatly through palm and fingers. Roots from the falling circuleaf tree lashed across her legs, knocking her over.
With the piercing crack and pop of snapping branches, the cart and tree crashed into the flooding creek. The sled sank from sight, sucked under the churning debris almost immediately.
Kwazar wasn’t strong enough to hold Wildwind, not even for a few seconds. Clenching his teeth, he swung Wildwind into the side of the hill. Wildwind wrapped his arms around thick exposed roots, holding still as he caught his breath, hail bouncing from his shoulders.
Flopping onto the slick mud, Miranda’s squirmed in pain.
Annwn heard Xavier whine again. Miranda, looking directly at Annwn, begged for her help. Wildwind, clinging to the roots below, awaited a hand to help him up the ledge. Kwazar, arm twisted from yanking Wildwind to safety, lay on the ground, groaning, rubbing his biceps and shoulder. Unsure, Annwn stood and slowly walked up the hill, toward Miranda. She slipped on the muddy terrain and plunged toward the creek.
Miranda screamed.
Annwn, unnaturally calm, watched the dense circuleaf trees rush past her, the hail skipping everywhere, lightning flickering from all sides, and the edge that Xavier had fallen over race up…
She landed next to Xavier, crashing onto a clump of purple-brown thick-leafed plants. Growing on a bump in the steep slope, the vegetation was the only thing that kept her and Xavier from falling into the leaf-filled torrent rushing just a meter below.
With a happy yip, Xavier climbed through the leaves and licked her face. She gave him a smile and pat, but otherwise paid him no attention, for she fixated on the plant which had stopped her fall.
Dying stalks protruded from the crumpled leaves, their tips covered in fat pods. She grabbed one of the pods with a shaking hand and broke the fruit open between thumb and forefinger. Hard, black seeds fell out, becoming lost among the leaves of the parent plant. Her stomach churned nervously as she watched the tiny seeds fade into shadow.
Flowers.
The realization swept over her with an unnatural mix of relief and foreboding.
Animals running faster than any she had seen before, chasing plants that responded to seasons which were as uncannily swift. The corpse of an animal that didn’t move fast enough, was just a few hours too late. Autumn foliage falling as one, denuding a forest overnight. Spring flowers blooming at once, choking the air with their poisonous spoor.
Bode’s yellow death.
Walking around a large clump of dripping trees, Miranda found Annwn first, her palm still bleeding. “You’re OK!”
Annwn immediately felt sorry for her friend’s painful wound. “Oh, your hand! Let me help.” She tore a length of fabric from her cloak’s fringe.
“Are you hurt?” Miranda asked, looking Annwn up and down.
“No,” she replied, rinsing the makeshift bandage in the rushing creek. “The plant cushioned me. What’s important is your hand.”
Miranda calmly looked at her wound. “I think it’s slowing down.” She reeled and abruptly sat down. “Oh, a dizzy spell.”
“You should have stayed put.” Annwn gently grabbed Miranda's hand. She removed large debris from the crimson gash. The line had bit deep, yet probably not so deep that—“Wiggle your fingers.”
“It hurts.”
“Do it anyway.”
She tried, weakly. Her fingers worked properly.
“Good. You’ll be fine, once your palm heals. This’ll sting a little.” Wringing her cloak over the wound, she used the purest water she could find.
Miranda winced silently as the water dribbled over her cut.
After twisting as much liquid from the bandage as her strength allowed, Annwn carefully wrapped her friend’s injured extremity. “We’ll only keep this on for a little while. We need to air the cut.”
Miranda silently watched.
Annwn said, “I’m so sorry! I overreacted to Wildwind, didn’t I?”
Miranda gave her a curious look, but said nothing. She didn’t seem very happy.
Uncomfortable, Annwn changed the subject, “Where are the others?”
“Kwazar’s still helping Wildwind.” After a short pause, she blurted, “We’ve lost the sled. How can we survive?” She looked apprehensive.
Annwn wasn’t in the mood to think about such problems. “We’ll manage.”
“How? What will we eat?” she asked, looking confused. A few tears dribbled down her wet, dirty cheek.