Trust Me

Below me, the rock face dropped off for a few hundred feet before ending at a rocky bottom. It wouldn't be a pleasant landing if I fell, I knew that much. This side of the rock was much more jagged, though, meaning that once Adri was over, he could try and rock-climb his way down. But there was yet another problem. The trickling of water wasn't from a stream or a river; it was the thin sheet of water running down the side of the cliff, leaving the rocks slippery and covered in slimy green algae. The algae absorbed too much of the water for me to hope to get a drink from it, leaving me still without a hope for hydration.

I glanced up to tell Adri all that I'd discovered, but he was already sitting at the top of the cliff, staring down at me in horror. No, he wasn't staring at me, he was staring at the rope. I looked at the rope to see what he was looking at only to see where the sawing sound had come from. The sharp tip of the cliff had frayed the rope, leaving me hanging by a few threads. I panicked and tried to climb back up the cliff, but my fingers slipped on a patch of algae, sending me falling backwards.

Snap!

The sudden jolt of my fall was enough to snap the few remaining fibers, leaving me rolling down the side of the cliff. I was bouncing across the jagged surface, my body limp as I waited to die. I felt a bit like a rag doll in a washing machine as I rolled and tumbled, the rocks cutting and crushing me. I could feel the angle of the cliff start to decline before I landed on my stomach on the rocky ground below. I slid for several feet, skinning my chin as it scraped along the rock, and for a moment I just laid there, wondering if I was still alive.

"Winnie!" Adri cried.

I grimaced but forced myself to roll over to show him that I was still conscious -- though I was in such pain, I wished I had been killed in the fall. "Be careful," I said. I tried to yell, but it seemed to come out as more of a croak.

Adri started to quickly climb down the side of the cliff almost expertly, and I wondered where he'd practiced rock climbing. Evidently he'd done it many times before, as he was at my side in a few mere minutes. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just peachy." I grumbled, slowly getting to my feet. I was bruised and bleeding, but by some miracle nothing seemed to be broken.

"There's a small pool a few yards away, I saw it from the top of the cliff. Do you think you can make it?" Adri asked, wrapping one arm around me to steady me.

I swatted him away. "I can walk. I'm not broken, just sore."

He paused and stared at me with a horrified expression for a few moments, before seeming to decide that I was telling the truth. "Okay. In that case, get a move on. I’m thirsty.”

I grimaced but followed after him wordlessly. My muscles ached in complaint and I wanted to find some reason to blame Adri for it, but I knew that it was because of him that I wasn’t more injured. If he hadn’t been leverage as I climbed about a dozen yards down the cliff, I would have probably just fallen from the very top and gone soaring to the bottom rather than simply tumbling down the surface of the rock. I didn’t tell him this, of course, but I was quite grateful to have him. Especially now that he knew the whereabouts of a definite water source.

We walked along for a few minutes in silence, each driven by thirst, until we finally came across a small pool. It wasn’t much, but to our thirsty eyes, it was the most beautiful thing we’d ever seen.

The pool wasn’t large; it must have been only about 50 feet in diameter, but it looked deep. There was no gradual wading to the bottom. It looked more like a random hole to the center of the Earth that was filled with water. It was ominous, yet because it signified an end to the thirst, it was also magnificent.

Adri dropped everything from his arms and ran towards the water instantly, not pausing to even look at the water before he dunked his face into it, slurping the water eagerly. I stood back for a moment, waiting to make sure there wasn’t any kind of sea monster or vicious fish in the water. After several minutes of gulping down water and splashing it across his face, he finally laid back on the rock and stared happily up at the canopy of trees overhead, wiping the back of his hand across his water-beaded chin to try and dry his face.

“Good water?” I asked.

He leapt to his feet and stared at me in confusion for a moment, as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Oh. Uh, yeah. It tastes clean enough.”

I knelt to the ground and tried to gulp as much water as I could while still looking relatively graceful, knowing that I was being filmed. I eventually gave up on trying to look graceful and imitated Adri’s earlier habit of dunking my head into the water.

He laughed as I finally drew away from the water. “Nice, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Best water I’ve ever had. But I might be a bit biased,” I said, panting to catch my breath after drinking without breathing for so long.

“I’m going to go see if I can find anything to hunt here. I’m starving,” Adri muttered. “While I’m gone, you should consider soaking in the pool to keep your cuts clean. Plus, the cold water would probably help relax your muscles. Not to be too harsh, but we can’t afford for you to be stiff tomorrow and slow us down.” Adri said.

I wanted to be offended, but I knew it was true. “Okay. Just…call out before you come back to the pool, in case I’m still naked. We still have that ‘clothing at all times’ rule, remember?”

He chuckled. “Will do.” He said before tearing off into the woods, his hand resting on the handle of his machete as if he couldn’t wait to start hunting.

I watched the space where he’d disappeared into the trees, waiting a few moments to make sure he wasn’t coming back. When I was satisfied that I was alone, I hurriedly peeled off my clothes and tossed them in a messy pile on the ground before sitting down on the edge of the water. I stuck the tip of my big toe in the cold water, shivering slightly but enjoying the refreshing sensation. I slowly immersed all my toes, then my entire foot, then my whole calf. I kept lowering myself in the water until I had finally slid off the edge of the rock and I was immersed in the water, the cold still waves licking up to my neck. I gasped in a deep breath and then dunked my head under the surface. It had been a long day, and I had earned a swim.