Ander - Part 1: Subchapter 21
21
They had only been running on for a short while when Kiana tapped Ander on the shoulder. "Do you hear that?"
"Loud rumbling dead ahead? Yeah, I hear it. Sounds like we've nearly reached the river."
Kiana rested her head against Ander's shoulder, a smile on her face. She could feel her heart growing lighter with each step he took. Once they crossed the river, she would be safe. She would be back with her friends and family, and nothing would be able to come after her.
Ander suddenly stopped. "Oh no, this isn't good..."
Kiana raised her head to ask the obvious question, but the sight that greeted her made that completely unnecessary.
The pretty little stream she had washed her hands in just this morning was now a raging torrent of muddy brown water, roaring like thunder.
Ander slowly approached. The leaves on the ground, once dry and crackly, were now slick and silent.
"Be careful, Ander," Kiana said. "This is where those 'biter' things are buried."
"Don't worry, I know where they are." Apparently he was telling the truth, because his zigzag route led them right up to the edge of the embankment without incident. Ander looked for a long time, and so did Kiana. She could remember how she had to scramble her way out of there, pulling herself up with the help of some roots. The water was so high now, it was actually splashing up against their legs, not that it made much of a difference in this downpour.
Kiana watched as a massive tree branch came floating down the river, although 'floating' might be too relaxed a word. It was speeding down the river, tumbling end over end in the roiling currents. It smashed up against a rock and the sheer mass of water pushing up from behind shoved it right over the top in a spray of brown and white.
"Well, this certainly complicates things..." Ander said.
Kiana suddenly had a vision of them being buffeted this way and that in the unforgiving waters, their bodies broken and battered against every rock and boulder she knew lay at the bottom, but were now hidden by the murk. "Do you have to lean over like this?" she said, perhaps a bit too panicky for her own liking, but it got her point across.
Ander stepped back, then slowly scanned the opposite bank from left to right, a frown on his face. "I'm going to have to put you down for a little while. You don't mind getting a bit muddy, do you?"
"Are you joking? After everything I've been through today, a little mud hardly seems worth noticing."
"Hah, I didn't think so." Ander crouched down and Kiana carefully lowered herself to the ground. After all that time stuck in the same position, it was actually nice to get a chance to stretch her limbs a little, but this place made her uneasy. It felt like a single careless sweep of her tail would cause another one of those biters to burst out of the dirt, so she curled it around her body, just to be safe.
That's when her eye happened upon something she almost dismissed as a pile of leaves, lying just a few feet away.
Her satchel!
She eagerly, but carefully, leaned over and snatched it by the strap. She pulled it in close and, feeling just a tiny bit silly, hugged it to her chest, a little piece of home.
"Is that the one?" Ander said. At first, Kiana thought he was asking about her bag, but he was looking at a spot on the ground, just beyond where it had lain.
She didn't see anything other than the carpet of leaves, occasionally twitching in the rain, but then there were the chains, and the hungry tips of iron teeth jutting out of the ground: the biter, reset in the exact same spot, once slick with her blood, now waiting patiently for its next victim. The very sight of it made her stomach turn.
"Yes, that's the one," Kiana said, her voice filled with venom.
Ander opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it again. For a moment it looked like he was going to give it a second try, but then he turned back to the river, awkwardly scratching his neck.
She could tell he wanted to make her feel better, but didn't know how. The funny thing is, his intent alone was already enough to make her forget all about that evil trap, and he didn't even know it. He was so easy to read in some ways, but a complete mystery in others. It was here, in this moment, sitting by the edge of this raging river, watching Ander's back turn slightly as his gaze drifted back and forth across the water, that she came to realize she was beginning to see him as more than just her saviour. She was beginning to see him as a friend.
"What are you doing?" she asked as he started to unwind the rope they had used to scale the wall.
"One way or another, we have to cross this."
"With a rope?" Kiana tried to imagine them swinging across, but with the elevation they're at right now being level with the other side, they'd just end up in the water. Even if they climbed up a tree to get the required height, they'd still need to snag a branch on the opposite bank, and even if they did (which would be a miracle by itself) they wouldn't be able to test its sturdiness until they actually jumped. Needless to say, Kiana wasn't very keen on that, especially once you consider Ander's weight. Spanning a tightrope presents the same problems. Namely: securing the rope, and the horrific death that would follow if the branch broke.
"See that stump on the other side?" Ander said, pointing.
"Yes..." Kiana said, already not liking where this was going.
"Here's what we'll do. I'll throw the rope and snag that stump. That'll be our anchor point. You get on my back, I tie us together, and then we jump in the water. The -"
"What!?" Kiana said, all her warm feelings shattered into a thousand pieces in the face of such lunacy.
"We jump in the water."
"Are you crazy? Just look at that thing! We'd be sucked down and drowned in minutes! You can't fight a current that strong!"
"Who said anything about fighting it?"
"You can't - What?"
"Think about it," Ander said. "With one end of the rope anchored to the other side, and the other end tied around us, the current will push us up to the other side in an arc. Easy."
"And what if it pulls us under?"
"I could find a log or something to help us float, but even if we do go under it can't take more than twenty seconds for us to get pushed up against the opposite bank. I assume you can hold your breath for twenty seconds?"
"Well, yes. But..."
"Come on, Kiana. I've gotten us this far. Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I do. It's just that, well... I'm not a very good swimmer, that's all."
"Kiana..." Ander came forward and kneeled by her side. For a moment it looked like he was going to put his hand over hers, but he didn't. She was surprised to find herself slightly disappointed by this. "As long as you're with me, I promise you, I won't let anything bad happen to you. Do you believe me?"
"I do," she said, and Ander smiled, perhaps the first true smile she's ever seen from him, and she couldn't keep from smiling back.
And what's this? Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she might be seeing his hand creep closer to hers, but she didn't want to look directly. She could feel her heart speed up in her chest, could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, all in anticipation of the moment when she would feel his touch, not to treat her wound, or to help her over a wall, or to carry her to safety, but just to touch. That and nothing else.
Ander's smile suddenly disappeared and his ears pricked up. He looked to the woods, his peaceful expression now replaced with something bestial, like an animal smelling danger.
"Ander?"
He growled, not at her, but the transformation she saw in his face was terrifying. His lips peeled back, revealing two rows of wicked teeth, a thin rope of saliva hanging from the corner of his mouth. His shoulders hunched and the fur on his back stood up in untidy spikes, making him look like some beast out of a child's nightmare.
She twisted her body around, wondering what on earth could make him react this way, but all she could see were the trees, looking down at them in contempt.
But then, out of the shadows... laughter.
Laughter she's heard before.
He emerged from the darkness, black against black, his eyes like glowing coals of malice in the night. "You have a way with words, Ander. But you really shouldn't be making promises you can't keep..."
It was -
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