Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (12 page)

"Brooke," Daniel said. "Is this wise?"

Lara stepped up next to me. "Let Simone go first," she whispered quietly.

"All right," I said. I turned to Simone and was ready to hand her the bag of anchors, but she waved me away.

"No. You go," she said.

"But-" I looked at Daniel.

"You go," Simone said. "Use an anchor every five feet, and when you anchor yourself to belay Brooke, test everything very thoroughly."

I missed what Brooke told Daniel, but he backed away. Brooke repeated Simone's instructions, roped us up, anchored herself to the wall, and waited for me.

"On belay," I said.

"Belay on," she replied. "Take your time, Michaela. It's not a race."

I grinned.

I climbed fifteen feet before I set the first anchors. I set them in place, snapped the rope through them, then tested carefully. After that, I set anchors every five feet, or so,
occasionally using two at a time. Eventually I set a bunch of anchors, far more than I really needed, and strapped myself in carefully. I tested thoroughly then yelled down, "I'm set. Off belay."

"Belay off!"
Brooke said. "On belay."

I paused, triple checking I was ready, then yelled, "Belay on."

Brooke climbed the wall, far more quickly than I had, finally anchoring herself to my left and several feet below me. She tested her own place, then said, "Off belay." She had left my anchors in place.

"The next people can reuse your anchors," she said. "We'll remove them when we're ready to leave. Go on."

"We're not playing leapfrog?"

"No."

"Belay off. Ready?"

She nodded.

"On belay," I said.

"Belay on
."

I nodded and began climbing.

And then I got stuck. Brooke let me try to work it out for a while, but I had nowhere to go.

"Find a place to anchor," she yelled up to me. "You may need to descend a little."

I had to come down nearly ten feet before I was happy with my choices. I anchored in and waited for Brooke to join me.

"Dead end," I said.

"Yep," she said.

"There are no handholds for at least five feet," I said.

"More like eight," she said.

"There's another route there," I said, pointing to my right. "But I can't get there."

I watched as Brooke added more anchors around her. "How sure are you about your anchor at the top?"

"Pretty sure," I said.

"Willing to risk your life on it?"

"I-" I paused. "I don't know."

"You've been putting these anchors in, which we're both depending upon, but you're not sure you trust them?" she asked.

"I-" I said. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"This is the point we make Casey turn around," she said. "This is why Daniel didn't want you climbing."

"Not the overhang?"

"No. That's easy. You won't have the slightest problem with it."

"So, going to hint?"

She tightened the rope that led from her harness, through several of the anchors I had placed, through the top set of anchors, and then directly down to my harness. She pulled until it was not quite snug, then said, "Belay on."

"What am I doing?" I asked.

"Unhook from the wall," she said. "And lower yourself into my belay."

"You mean, fall?"

"I prefer you climb down until I am supporting you."

It took me a minute to do what she wanted. Soon I was hanging from the wall, the rope stretc
hed tightly between us. If I let go, due to the shape of the wall, I would hang a foot or two from the rock.

"Let go," she said.

"Oh god," I said. I let go of the wall, dropping a few more feet before the rope finished stretching. I swung lightly back and forth.

"Now," she said. "
This is a swing. It's a rare maneuver. This is the only nearby wall that requires one, and it's a small one."

"
A swing?"

"Yep. You need to get over there. Swing."

I grabbed a corner of the rock to my left and pulled myself in that direction, then thrust off with my feet, swinging towards the right and trying to run sideways along the wall. There was nothing to grab on that side, but I swung off with my feet. After that, each swing got a little wider until suddenly, far to my right, I was able to grab onto the rock and hang on.

"Good," she said. "Start climbing. Don't put in any anchors yet.

I was on the new path. I began climbing. Brooke kept the rope taut until I was nearly even with her, then let me have some slack.

"If you fall now, it will be a bad fall, Michaela," she said. "Be very careful of every hold."

"When do I start to anchor?"

"Not yet. Climb up ten feet, then you can come back towards the left. There's a nice ledge there you can slip right across."

I did that. It wasn't particularly difficult. She had me begin placing anchors. I climbed twenty feet, setting anchors, then I looked down at her. "Brooke, you're going to have to do the same thing, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"It wasn't me doing it that had Daniel nervous, was it? It was me anchoring you."

"Yes," she said. "I trust you, Michaela."

I kept climbing until Brooke yelled up to me to set extra anchors. I anchored myself in thoroughly, using my every last anchor. Brooke's chuckles rose up to me.

"Is twelve enough?" I asked.

"I normally use thirty five, but if twelve is all you have, I guess it will have to do. On belay."

I tightened the rope as much as I could, checked everything over and over, then said, "Belay on."

It took Brooke only a few swings until she had reached the new path. She climbed quickly after that. "Good job," she said when she had caught up to me. She started handing me more anchors, and I put them, one at a time, into my bag.

"What now?"

"Climb up to the overhang. Put in extra anchors. Then see if you can figure it out. Michaela, you do not want to fall off the overhang, but if you move carefully, you'll be fine."

"Do I leave anchors in it?"

"No."

I climbed to just below the overhang, using a lot of anchors in the last ten feet. I reached it and studied it.

The overhang wasn't like the overhang on a house roof. Instead, it was a significant bulge. I realized it was riddled with handholds. I checked them carefully, then I looked down at Brooke.

"You can do it," she yelled up.

I grabbed hold with my left hand, tested my hold, then began working my way away from the wall, my body hanging down from my arms.

I moved quickly after that, going from handhold to handhold like a set of monkey bars. It took only a minute or two, and I was over the bulge and pulling myself up the rest of the way. I stepped way from the edge of the cliff, panting.

The view was amazing.

"Off belay!" I yelled down.

"Belay off!" I heard Brooke say.

She gave me slack. I looked around, picked a good place to belay, anchored myself in, then yelled, "Ready!"

"On belay!" was the immediate response.

Five minutes later, Brooke climbed over the top of the rock face, climbed to her feet, and stepped towards me, and said, "Off belay."

I stood up and hugged her. "That was scary."

"I know," she said. "Isn't it great?"

"How do we get down?"

"We'll wait here for now," she said. "We go down over there." She pointed to the left. "But not yet."
She set up for a top belay.

Lara and Daniel climbed up next, Lara appearing first, Daniel a few minutes behind her.

"Brooke," Daniel said. "Can you go help your brother?"

Brooke set up a self rappel rope over towards our left. I watched as she clipped in t
hen lowered herself off the cliff.

"She doesn't need us to lower her?" I asked.

"No." Daniel showed me how it worked.

"Oh!" I said. "That sounds like fun."

"It is."

Lara and Daniel helped Brooke and Cory. Then Brooke gave Lara and me a second lesson in returning to the bottom. Cory went first, then me, the
n Lara.

The kids got their turns.
Simone asked the enforcers if they wanted to try it. The general consensus was, "Maybe next time."

* * * *

Dinner that evening was an informal barbeque. Cory was still not looking at me, so I waited until he was sitting in the grass with a plate of food. I excused myself from Lara and went to sit in the grass beside him.

"Hey," I told him.

"Hey," he responded quietly.

"Did you get any of the trout?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Good. I caught it yesterday."

"As a fox?" he asked.

"No. With a fishing pole."

We ate quietly for a minute.

"Did your parents talk to you?"

"Yes. I didn't mean that!"

"I know you didn't, Cory."

He glanced over at me, then stared at his food again.

"They said you've been hunted," Cory said. "Real hunting. Not play hunting."

"Lara play hunts me," I said. "But yes. Real hunted by wolves I didn't know."

"That's wrong," Cory said. "They shouldn't have done that."

"No, honey," I said. "They should not have. They weren't very nice wolves."

"So they let you go when they caught you?" he asked.

"They didn't catch me," I said. "If they had caught me, they would have treated me like a deer."

"But you're small," he said. "And Lara said you don't run as fast as a wolf. How did you get away?"

"I might be small, and I may not run as fast as a wolf, but I am much more clever than the kind of wolves that would hunt a fox."

He looked over at me, considering what he was going to ask next. "You got away?" I nodded. "What happened to the wolves that tried to hunt you?"

"Cory, you're twelve years old?" He nodded. "What happened is a very adult story, Cory. Maybe your parents think you're old enough to understand, but I can't decide that for them. And the stories scare me. I don't like to tell them very often. You may ask your parents to tell you, but I am not going to. Do you understand?"

"The stories scare you?"

"Yes, honey. And give me terrible nightmares."

He stared at his food. "Where were your enforcers?"

"Oh," I said. "I didn't have any enforcers. I was all by myself."

"By yourself? You mean you
sneaked away from your enforcers?"

"No,
Cory. This was before I had enforcers. Foxes don't have enforcers. I didn't have any until I met Lara, and that was only a year ago."

"I would never hunt you, Michaela. I swear."

"Pinky swear?" I asked.

"Pinky swear!" he said. We offered pinkies to each other.

"Friends now?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said.

I hugged him briefly and told him he was shaping up into a fine wolf.

* * * *

Saturday morning, Lara and I went for another paddle around the lake. When we arrived at the waterfront, Ysabella was there with her security detail. She was sitting on the dock, looking out over the lake.

The enforcers looked tense as we approached, but they didn't hinder us. When we saw Ysa
bella, I stepped out onto the dock to talk to her.

"I'll get the boats ready," Lara said.

I sat down next to Ysabella.

"Good morning," she offered.

"Good morning." We both looked out across the water. "It's peaceful."

"It is," she agreed.

"Lara and I were going for a paddle, if you would care to join us," I said.

"Oh, I couldn't," she said.

"We would love to have you," I said. "If you haven't been kayaking before, I can give you the briefing, and it's an easy paddle."

"No, I mean-" she looked uncomfortable. "Daniel would be very vexed. I'm not sure the enforcers would even let me go."

"Are we that big a threat?" I asked. I was a little perturbed. We'd been putting our lives in Brooke's hands, but Ysabella didn't trust us enough to go for a paddle?

"It's not that," she said. "I don't go anywhere my enforcers don't go."

"They would be right here, and Lara and I would be with you."

"It's a lovely offer," Ysabella said. "Thank you. Have a nice time."

I squeezed her shoulder when I got up and helped Lara with the boats.

"Michaela," Ysabella said as I began to walk away. "Treasure your freedoms."