pyraxis: Daria-toren (Daria)
[personal profile] pyraxis
"Don't be impatient with me!" she snapped.

"Don't yell at me!" he hollered back.

Daria stood at the top of the cliff, breathing hard, seething with frustration. When she tried to think about knots, her mind went empty. The rope still trailed off her climbing harness and back over the edge, a heavy reminder that if it were suddenly pulled, she would go tumbling down and smash her body open like an overripe fruit on the rocks below.

Curse her stupidity.

She couldn't think of the right words to explain this predicament, and even if she could, she couldn't shout them all the way down to Jarid* below.

Silence from the bottom of the cliff. He probably thought there was nothing more to say to her until she got done with her snit.

The rigging loops which had held her rope on the way up still hung below the lip of the cliff, out of her reach. They hadn't counted on this when they planned the climb. She was supposed to just reach over and grab them, unhook herself and climb down without a rope along the other, far easier route behind her. But it wasn't so easy as it had looked from the ground. The top part was almost sheer, without a decent hold until as far down as she was tall. And she couldn't just grab the rigging loops - they dangled an arm's length out of her safe reach.

"Is there anything to tie off of?" Jarid yelled.

She looked around a little desperately. "There's a rock, 'bout as far around as two men." She set her teeth - that was a conservative estimate - but surely she could rig it somehow.

She thought of telling him, again, that she should leave the rigging loops and just climb down without rope. But it had taken him and Ean a long time to weave even a foot of rigging. She couldn't begrudge them that because of her own cowardice. She smiled ruefully. Ean wouldn't listen if she did.

Jarid had circled around to the 'easy' side of the rock. "I'm coming up!" he called.

Her stomach went sour. Expert as he was with knots from his time hauling gear in the mines, Jarid didn't actually have much climbing experience. Safer for her to start down without a rope than for him to scramble up as far as he'd need to be to throw her more rigging, surely. Better she should fall than let him take her risks for her -

But he was already climbing.

She paced the top of the rock as the sun blazed down on her bare shoulders. Her mouth was already dry, and she'd brought up no water. Tempting as hell to get down on hands and knees and cup her hands in the pool of brackish rainwater that had collected in a hollow in the rock. But the sun was already going to make her sick enough by the time she was back on the ground. Curse this body and its pale, easily burned skin. For that matter, curse the fact that if she went toren and just flew down, it would be left stranded up here instead of shifting with her.

Where was Jarid? She couldn't lean far enough over the edge to see him.

She held herself back from calling out. Too late to order him to stop. Better not to interrupt him with her fear.

Too late to ask him to bring water.

There. His tousled head appeared over a crest of rock. Two thirds of the way up, there was a flat area broad enough to shelter a tree. He hauled himself over the lip and waved to her.

The last bit was the hard part. Crouched at the edge, she couldn't see a single good hold, just a wide, v-shaped crack between two rounded boulders.

"Wait there," she called.

"Why?" Jarid sounded resentful.

Because you're not as strong as you think you are. She pressed her hand against her forehead, trying to force the blur in her head to resolve into a correctly knotted rig that would loop around the big boulder and let her both lower herself safely down, and retrieve the rope afterwards.

"I need to think," she finally said.

Jarid sat sullenly down in the shade of the tree, no doubt with the knots already worked out in his own head, but knowing he couldn't explain them from where he was.

There! Pacing back around the puddle of rainwater, she spotted two bolts anchored side by side near one of the other edges. There must be a second climbing route, and - she did a quick mental estimate - if she anchored herself there, it would be safe to lower down over the other side and rescue the rigging loops.

As safe as her knots could be without Jarid watching over her shoulder to make sure they were twined right.

Then started the long process of unhooking herself and hauling up the entire rope until it lay in a loopy mass at her feet. She could remember only two knots, the twin-moons and the stopper knot. Twice she had to undo them all and start again. It hadn't been quite so clear to her growing up, when she rarely talked, just watched people make things from the fringes of a group and then went off to figure it out her own way afterward. But now that she had to live among people again, it was becoming clear that she was just stupid. Her mind couldn't keep up with people's instructions. It would be a significant disadvantage back home, running Teiranen, that she would have to become very good at hiding and minimizing. She hoped that the other toren would appreciate a strong, silent, earnest type.

"I'm going for the rigging loops!" she called, in case Jarid were still listening. Finally, her hands dusted with a fresh coat of chalk, lowered herself over the side on her own rig. The rope stretched and bounced and pulled taut.

Elation surged in her as she fumbled to get them unhooked. "Got them!"

She scrambled back onto the top of the cliff.

"I can come down now," she called to Jarid.

Silence.

Realization penetrated. She was blocking him out. He wanted to join her up here. And now that she'd found the second set of bolts, he could. She probed her reddening shoulders. Yes, worth it.

"Throw me your belay device," she said. "I think I can belay you up."

And so she lowered the rope down through the wide V for the last part of Jarid's climb. A few minutes later they stood together at the summit, the sun and the wind in their faces, and laughed at their stupidity in not bringing up any water.

Daria on the cliff

Kin on the cliff

* Feris and Kenyn, the griff boys from Teiranen, are now Jarid and Ean respectively.

Date: 2009-09-03 07:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
:D Your dumbass adventure sounds awesome, Daria! Whoa, you guys are really high up there. Did you climb all that way? Is that [livejournal.com profile] shashigai?

I've never been that good at climbing anything because I'm not that strong, so the most I've done is really dumbass times with my friends trying to drag me up to the top of playground equipment. I think 47 mentioned that my new goal in life is to get her to climb a tree. And she's all thinking it's a good thing because she doesn't want to be so supercontrolled, but I'm thinking mostly that's a good side-effect, but the real point is to get me into a tree. I've always wanted to climb a tree, especially because my friend Eric is one of those people who you'll be walking around with him and suddenly he'll be halfway up a tree and looking all confused like he doesn't understand why everybody else isn't in the tree with him. It just sucks because all the trees nearby are pine trees so I haven't found a good one yet. Even though it's really creepy to not be a robot if I'm fronting, I'm trying to think of the good side, which is maybe I can try a bunch of stuff I'd never be able to do on my own.

Date: 2009-09-05 03:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
60 feet? Holy crap, that's... *also closes his eyes for a minute*... that's like me standing on my own head 11.4 times!

@Pyraxis: That's so awesome that you can climb trees! I'm all jealous now. I'm gonna do it as soon as I can find a good tree. :D

This is kinda random, but can I ask something to you guys or to [livejournal.com profile] shashigai? Has he ever written anything about who the people in his system are? Cause he sounds awesome but also very mysterious. I'm like, I've talked to you a little bit, and I've met some people, but I just realized I don't even know who I've been talking to some of the time. XD

Date: 2009-09-13 06:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
Oh man, I think me and 47 are lucky because we've got both, but not in the same person. So I can talk if she's all not being into people (like the last couple days :P) and she can remind me if I'm spacing out on something. Although it doesn't always work out so well, like I wrote the comment about 60 feet to Daria in the middle of 47 trying to work on knitting a sweater, and then we had to take a break in the middle of writing that to figure out how many of me were in a mile, and... yeah. But I think mostly with ADHD I'm heavy on the H and light on the D. No, wait, I mean the A.

Date: 2009-09-11 08:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
Oh! I- I should probably apologize about that. Or, I dunno how to put it. I guess... I've gotta explain that it's nothing personal against Sha. It was mostly that he touched my hand when I wasn't expecting it. That's... sort of a really big panic thing for me. :\ I'm not the greatest with kids or dogs either, but I was mostly busy trying not to freak out because he touched me. I actually did good that time. This one time my friend Kelly grabbed my arm, and I completely lost it. I should probably tell people here to please not touch my arm.

I really don't think he's a freaky kid or anything. I've seen weirder. Heck, look at me. :P

I was kind of wondering about that, though. I mean, you said he was 4 years old, right? But I don't think I even heard him talk. Can he talk? I don't see why he shouldn't grow up like anybody else. And who's Wolf?

Is Sha old enough to understand it when you talk to him? If he is, can you tell him that Jim's a dumbass who's scared of everything, even cats, and that it's just kinda normal for me to be that way? I'm worried that maybe I'm not the best person for him to be around, if he needs to be around people who don't get scared of stupid shit. :( But I'd totally like to help if you think I can.

Date: 2009-09-12 01:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
I really hope I can help... I sorta know what it's like to be a freaked-out little kid and not have many people to talk to. :\ Although geez, he's probably got it way worse than I did.

If he thinks in pictures, I wonder if he'd like it if I drew stuff for him? Today is crappy MS Paint day, after all. :P

And yeah, it's fine if people touch my other hand. It's just, like... It's not even that I'm scared of getting scratched, it's that... I'm just weird about my right arm. I don't really want to go into the details of why.

I wonder if anybody else here is good with kids? I don't think we've got any kids here. ...Dang, I just realized I'm the youngest person here. I wonder if the lizardman's any good with kids? He's gotta be, he was with 47 when she was younger. I haven't seen him around much today so I dunno if I can ask him now.

Sh-San: The lizardman will have more intelligent things to say once 47 is allowed to drink coffee again. :)

Jim: ...Okay. Probably so will I. :P

@ Pyraxis: It's cool to actually know who your boyfriend is. XD I was kinda wondering how the hell dating works with multiples. It's like, if 47 ever gets a boyfriend, that totally doesn't mean they're my boyfriend too! At least I hope not. It seems like it could get very confusing.

Date: 2009-09-12 02:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yonjuunana.livejournal.com
Hehehe, does Sha know how to play soccer? It's a game that both boys and wolfcubs would like. I have a very wolf-y little husky who loves soccer. I've actually got a video of it online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDqgFbvVsCY Maybe Sha would like watching it?

Not sure how good I am with little kids. There were a few kids I got along with really well when I was younger, mostly because I'd sit there and be sort of calm and bewildered while they'd attempt to use me as a climbing wall. I'd probably be better at figuring out things to do with a wolfcub, but then again I don't mind getting chewed on.

I am counting down the hours until I can feel better and drink coffee again. I am way too much of an addict.

Date: 2009-09-12 05:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
Okay, I just had way too much fun drawing fish for Sha. Why does he like fish? He'd totally love 47's roommate, she really likes fish too and has fish stuff all over the place.

http://jimnightmare.livejournal.com/10153.html?thread=90537#t90537

Date: 2009-09-13 06:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
Okay, cool, this is sorta what I was looking for when I was asking about his system. Now [livejournal.com profile] shashigai is something in my head other than "Pyraxis' mysterious boyfriend(s?) + Pegwey and everybody". XD

Date: 2009-09-12 01:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimnightmare.livejournal.com
I wish we had more little kids here! We could all get together and start a kindergarten in the dreaming. XD What would Sha want to learn, anyway? Does he know how to read at all?

Date: 2009-09-03 07:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yonjuunana.livejournal.com
She could remember only two knots, the twin-moons and the stopper knot. Twice she had to undo them all and start again. It hadn't been quite so clear to her growing up, when she rarely talked, just watched people make things from the fringes of a group and then went off to figure it out her own way afterward. But now that she had to live among people again, it was becoming clear that she was just stupid. Her mind couldn't keep up with people's instructions.

Hahaha, I can identify with this a whole lot. I didn't actually manage to learn how to tie my shoes the "right" way until I was nearly 20. People kept trying to teach me as a kid, I couldn't understand them, they'd get frustrated and give up. Eventually I sat down and figured out my own method of doing it, which I still use.

hiya dar

Date: 2009-09-14 07:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shashigai.livejournal.com
mini mini mini mini mini
make fi
seti sora shashiwords dar music
dni

hiya
shashi

Date: 2009-09-04 03:35 am (UTC)
liminaltime: (Alice--Rabbit)
From: [personal profile] liminaltime
This sounds like a rather grueling experience. But it looks like you folks got great (if humid-looking) views!

Date: 2009-09-14 07:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shashigai.livejournal.com
dar wolf pk
hiya

shashi dress socks
hiya
thank you domo merci gracias, danke

shashi

Date: 2009-09-22 02:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] evannumber4.livejournal.com
My name is Ev- Oh! *crouches down to look at the leaf, smiles*

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