Crash

85: Epilogue

Two and a half years later- speed up

Lyra-

We faced our little fear today. Early this morning, Nathan and I took a bush plane to the river that ran through my old valley. Neither of us were very fond of planes and you all know why. He held my hand the entire time and you'll be happy to know that we did not crash.

The plane landed in a lake about a mile from the waterfall and let us out. While Nathan got everything in order, I told the pilot that we should only be a few hours. He nodded and smiled at me, agreeing to wait for us nicely. 

"C'mon babe," Nathan said and I smiled. I grabbed my hiking bag and slung it onto my back, wishing it was lighter.

We waved goodbye to the pilot and started walking. I wished we could've brought Baine but we decided to just bring him next time. This was our first time back at the place we had survived, I wanted it to be special and believe me, this is going to be special.

While we walked, Nathan jabbered about the farm happily. It was up and running well. The potatoes were doing great and the pumpkins were coming along, they'd be ready for fall and Thanksgiving. Randy was very proud of Nathan and I for smoothly running our own farm.

I grunted with afford as we picked our way through the rocks that lead to the valley.

"You okay?" Nathan held out his hand to help me up and I smiled at him.

"I'm fine babe, just tired," I said and I am freaking exhausted. Anxiety is getting to me from that plane ride...and not being here in a long time was part of it. I was still amazed by the beauty of the place I'd hadn't seen in a long while. 

Anyway, the farm. Dairy items are still consisting of my goats but Nathan was already building fences for Randy's cows. Cheecha had jumped the fence a long while ago and wandered into a neighboring farmers horse pasture.

She got knocked up and her foal was born last week... We call him Hiccup because he's a little small and that piece of her life was a 'hiccup'. We love him anyway. It was just luck that Hiccup's sire was a Cherokee Appaloosa, so Hiccup is a pure Appaloosa.

That means we can use him as a stud horse for his pretty markings and not make him a gelding. It'll all work out. 

For now, Nathan and I can maintain the farm ourselves but I've been pressuring him to get one of the boys over here because we'll be needing them. We're going to need the help as the farm progresses and stuff. I was sure we'd be having more work ping up on us soon. 

We got to a flat stretch and followed the river, Nathan happily holding my hand and taking about the county fair coming up.

Guess what? I have a degree as a veterinarian technician! I graduated about six months ago after two years of school. Now I work with Ally, who I shadowed. I was basically her assistant on farm calls and helped keep her office organized.

She said I was one of the best people she'd ever had which was great. Now I'm thinking about getting a degree as an animal nutritional scientist. That means I'd deal with animal feed like what would be healthier and make them grow to their full potential.

I would have to hold off that for a little while though. Was it always this hard to breathe up here before? Maybe it's just me or the elevation.

I grinned when we saw the top of the waterfall. I was walking the exact same path I did when I had left the crash cite. We were almost there. Nathan helped me down the rocks that I had crossed a long time ago.

The spray of water and the noise of it rushing down the rocks sounded so familiar. We made it into the valley and looked around. It was a little overgrown but otherwise, the same.