The Book of Trials || ONC 2019

Chapter Fifteen

Before I could breathe, the deadwood had snapped and my feet were cradled only by vast, empty air.

The cart tipped, Birdy protesting loudly, and we tumbled downward, my legs crashing onto the mountainside and forcing me into a roll down the ravine. The world blurred and spun so fast my limbs couldn't keep up; sounds so explosive and painful shot at me from all angles and every inch of my body screamed with the impact of the rocks and the bushes and the sticks against my body over and over and over.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more, it all ended with a bolt like lightning to my side, shooting jolts of pain throughout the rest of my body and causing black spots to splatter my vision. I must have hit a tree.

And then the crashing continued—the shattering of wood and the crunching of leaves and the yells from everyone else—until they stopped as well, farther down the ravine.

I tried to move but was stopped by the pain that returned to my side and I curled in on myself. I had definitely bruised a few ribs—probably pretty badly. The stinging on the rest of my body continued even as I trudged up to a standing position, surveying the area through the lingering spots in my vision. The parts of my skin that I could see were covered in dirt and cuts and my clothes were even worse off, ripped and torn in multiple places like tattered rags hanging from a scarecrow.

The road from which we fell was now close to a hundred paces up the mountain and nearly out of sight. A trail of wreckage strung down the rockslide where we'd tumbled and it branched off to where I was standing. Going farther, a few pieces of cracked wood scattered the mountainside as the path led down to the broken cart, which was almost at the bottom of the ravine.

I staggered down the decline toward the others, my body protesting but my mind driving me onward through the spiking, paralyzing pain. More than once I stumbled to my knees only to roll back up and keep running again until I saw every crack and splinter of the shattered cart and its surroundings, covered in dirt and leaves and debris. The cart had taken a lot of damage. Birdy's reins had been cut, I assumed by Evyne, and the horse was nowhere to be found.

Someone sucked in a breath suddenly and I moved to the back of the cart to see Atlas curled up against the tipped vehicle. He was turned the other way, tense and still, not in much better shape than me. I inched forward and almost instantly noticed his arm, stuck under the side of the wagon. He braced it with his other hand and arched his body around it, his expression pinched and covered in a thin layer of sweat. He didn't look up at me.

"Atlas." I crouched down and nearly touched him, but pulled away before I could meet his skin. My voice cracked. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head shortly, further tensing at the movement, and I sprang to my feet, understanding what was necessary of the situation. He was definitely hurt, much more than myself. I couldn't let my paranoid mind take over my thoughts. I had to do something to help.

"Evyne!" I called, running from the fallen cart into the surrounding forest. "Lefeli!"

I skidded to a stop when I came upon both Evyne and Lefeli rolled in a pile over each other, both clearly unconscious but otherwise unharmed. I swore so loud I thought it could work as a call to the nearest town thirty miles away, then I continued the action in an undertone as I raced back to Atlas and circled the cart in a panicked fury. I racked my brain for any possible solution, every dead end in my mind sending me further into frustration. Think... think...

After attempting too many times to move the cart off Atlas with my bare hands, I slipped and fell on a rock, my elbow landing hard before skidding off. The spikes of pain that followed were instantly paled by the idea that struck me in that moment.