Change in Life

Chapter 35. Pushing On

The fire all around him howled victoriously. The waters that pummeled his wedged branch cried mournfully for their involvement. And the burnt mangle of sticks groaned agonizingly, buying what time they could from the sacrifice. But held tightly in their grips, all the distraught fox could do was stare down while drops of blood beaded from his paw that blended easily into the thickening smoke coiling up to soak up his horror.

It's okay...

The branch lurched violently when another mass of debris collided and he was thrust another foot over the edge. The warming mists collected on his gaping face. His eyes searched vainly through the smoke and dwindling flames, ignoring the brutal sting trying to gouge them out.

'Blake!' Astrid cried from the shore, dunking herself in the water briefly against the flames that flickered behind her. 'Get out of there!'

He couldn't move. Why should he... He had just lost everything in one night. His home. Beryl. Jade. What reason was there to get off his branch? Contemplation of the friendly dark kind willed him to stay, travel with the debris and be with her. To be with everyone who had died because of him. He wanted to stand before them and answer for his failed self-righteous acts.

Live, Blake...

Fighting against his shattered mind, his heart put out all he had and his forepaws pushed at the fork his gut was trapped in. His legs kicked in free air and embers. The branch creaked at his struggle. He felt the sinking feeling in his stomach of himself dropping slightly as an anchor slipped. He pushed and wriggled frantically, then his body came loose with his front legs holding his weight long enough for him to lie across the branch and swing his legs up behind him.

Everything will be alright...

As pressure was reduced from the fork, the current pushed it unwillingly. Blake bounded from burnt branches and smouldering sticks towards the shore, aiming for the squirrel who had stayed for him. The anchors released their holdings on the riverbed and Blake felt himself stumble at the sudden lurch that jerked onward. The first clump of intermingled branches tore themselves away from the initial bunch that pushed them over edge. It didn't stop flowing over once it started. Momentum took hold while the fox balanced himself, still a few meters from the shore. He had to make the jump completely. There was no lead way for the current to carry him. He leapt to the last protruding log then forced his body up and over the fleeing stack. He flew over pummeling water as though he soared from the other side. He landed with half his body still in the water. Astrid was quick to grab his stretched out paw for what effect it had as Blake's hind end drifted over the falls. He grit his teeth as the squirrel planted her back paws on the cracks in the riverbed. It wasn't much, but it gave him enough time to find a footing against the cliff and push himself up.

Looking into the sickly orange sun hidden behind the veil of blooming smoke, Blake lay with his head barely above the water with Astrid holding on around his neck. The fire front had passed, leaving scolding desolation of a once beautiful vibrant world. It had taken its triumph along with Jade's gift to him and relented its roar at Blake's stricken confusion, now mocking him mildly with chuckling, cracks and groans from the cremation of the woods. His eyes squinted against the terrible heat of burning trees that had managed to stay lit and the smoke that billowed from the ruins. The deeper water next to him continued to carry charred debris over the falls. With each blackened remains of the woods that joined the many other losses, he wondered if Jade was being struck over and over by them. He could picture her broken body being relentlessly pinned to the riverbed. Would there be anything left by the time he got to her? Would he ever be ready to face such a sight?