Jump

Jump

Fictober19:  Day 3

Prompt:  “Now?  Now you listen to me?”  

Fandom:  Enderal

Warnings:  Desperate actions in survival situations, panic, jump

Wordcount : 815 

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Since they hit the ground, this job had been nothing but a pain in the ass. Nothing and no one were where they were supposed to be.  The travel was harder.  The weather was wetter.  The bandits were thicker.  The loot was lacking.  

They had been on this mountain trail since before dawn and had climbed to near the tree line by daybreak.  The only positive thing, at least in Ket’s assessment, was the sun filtering through the clouds, onto the mountainside.  The path kept the sunlight partly on their backs; warm in contrast to the chill air.  Ostian was always hot.  Ket hated the heat.  This was pleasant.  

And despite all the hells they had endured during the past two days, Tharaêl was surprisingly calm.  He was not attempting conversation, which was not at all unusual, but wasn’t fuming and cursing to himself, either.  He was just quiet.  This was just a bit unnerving.  Maybe he’s bottling up all his frustrations and anger, preparing to unleash a tirade of his malcontent on her, she considered.  After all, it was she who suggested it would be fun to go on a job together.  It will surely be a holy torrent of curses and criticisms, worthy of immortality through poems and song!  She suppressed a giggle at this thought.  He would vent, she would calm, he would apologize for being an ass… they would get through it, just like they had everything else to this point.

Then she heard it… or did she?  A crack from high up the mountain that seemed out of place.  She nearly dismissed it… then she heard the low boom.  Then she felt the rumble.  No...it can’t be.  She loved the mountains.  She’d read everything she could get her hands on about them.  She’d read about avalanches.  She’d even seen one – from a distance, on the mountain face across the valley from where she and Jespar were trekking.  She’d heard that same boom, then watched the whole mountainside heave and spill.  It was so fast.  The destruction was absolute.  He told her all he knew about them… “They move faster than a black myrad on fire and they’ll bury you deeper than the trees are tall” he’d said.  “If one is above you, your only hope is a large and very strong rock shelter, because you’ll never outrun it.”

She stopped in her tracks and glanced up the mountain to where the rumble emanated.  “Thar…” she breathed.  He rounded on her at full alert; whether he felt the rumble too or just sensed her panic, she didn’t know and didn’t care. There would be precious-little time for explanations.  

He followed her gaze, squinting against the daylight and snow.  He saw what she was focused on, but he couldn’t make sense of what the eyes were seeing – and it was so far above them, it seemed like not much of a threat.  “The snow is… falling?”  

“Avalanche.  The snowpack broke loose.  We need to find shelter…now!”  She always made mental notes of the nearest shelters as she traveled – places to hide, places hiding things can mount an ambush… but there was nothing here! They were exposed on this mountain edge with nothing but the rumbling slope on one side and a sheer drop on the other.  

Tharaêl came rapidly to the same conclusion.  “We run, then!”

She glanced up at the thundering wall of white bearing down on them – it was growing wider and gods it was moving fast!  “No – no time” she hissed as she pushed frantically past him to the edge of the drop-off.  “There!”  She pointed at a ledge.  “We have to jump.”

“It’s nearly ten arms lengths down – we won’t survive it.”  

He was right.  Other options… maybe she could use a warding shield against the avalanche; but even if it held against the impact, she couldn’t hold it forever, and then they’d be buried.  No, there was nothing here nor in any eventuality she could draw from that would save them.  This was the only option.  

And maybe a warding spell couldn’t save them from the avalanche, but it might cushion the fall.  

She conjured sparkling balls of light in each hand.  “Just stay close and hold on tight!” she shouted to him above the din and wind of the advancing wall.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her, leaving her arms free to cast the spells.

His head tucked close to her ear, as she cast the spells, he shouted “All those times I said I wanted to jump, and now you listen to me?”  

They dropped off the edge of the cliff just as the mass of snow and waste pounded onto the path and launched off the ledge above them.