Genre: Romance
Rating: NC 17
Disclaimer : Standard disclaimers apply. The characters belong to Shalz R.
Chapter 15 : Part Three : Five Glorious Days
After about half an hour of walking through the woods they arrived at a place that Ian called Steeps, and one look at it confirmed that it was aptly named.
While the men got hauling the climbing ropes, Sonya, Evan, Lauren and Ashley stood looking up at it with upturned faces and open mouths, hoping they would be asked to stay on the foot of it. But then after three ropes had been anchored, three more were seen making for the top, and then more went up flying. The girls and Evan then exchanged looks and knew that they would have no such luck.
"C'mon, it's ready!" said Ian after he and Adrian had pulled on the ropes as strongly as possible to ensure everybody's safety.
Sonya coughed and Ian looked at her and then at everyone else.
"Uh ... Ian, " Sonya began nervously, "I don't think any of us here have any knowledge of doing that."
"I know." he answered calmly still checking the ropes, "That's why we are here." he smiled.
"C'mon, Evan you'll climb the rope nearest to mine which is in the middle. Ashley you take the one next to Adrian and Lauren go next to Tyler." The girls did as they were told even though they were not sure of it. Their only consolation probably was that they were next to their men.
"You come with me." he said gently to Sonya and picked up Evan and attached a hook on his rope to the one on his waist.
Sonya followed him.
"Take that hook and clip it onto the one on your waist." he said, handing her a hook attached to the end of a rope, pointing to the hook on the waist.
She took the hook, and while Ian hooked himself, she looked around to see that Ashley and Lauren were already hooked and preparing to climb. She tried to clip it on but it slipped out of her now very sweaty hands. She looked up the Steeps and wished she had stayed home. Ian, who had been waiting for her to finish the clipping, just took the rope from her, "Here, let me help you." She looked down and in another second she was attached to the rope.
"Now listen carefully. This rope is going to keep you from falling off. When you are tired or out of breath, you can use this to just hang a while before starting again." he had lifted up Evan and was demonstrating working with the hook for the boy. Then he lifted him higher and to give him a boost and got hold of the rope above his head. He looked at Sonya and saw that she was still quite nervous. Others had started to climb. "Sonya", she turned to look at him, "You'll be fine!" She turned her gaze to the rope in her hand and then up towards the steep and bit her lower lip. "Listen!" he continued, "If you really don't want to go then you can stay here." He looked back at Evan. "Going up!" and both of them started to climb.
She looked up at him stepping higher and it seemed to her that his smile had faded; she felt guilty for upsetting him again. She held the rope tightly and pulled at it and then lifted one foot up, she swallowed, closed her eyes, "Why do I keep getting myself into this!" she pulled herself up.
Ian saw the rope next to him, first tugged and then tightened. He looked down and saw Sonya desperately trying to climb up. He smiled at her attempts and reached down to help her. She smiled sheepishly and held his hand and he helped her up a bit, till she could do it on her own.
Little by little the company of three climbed up. The couples were faring better. Tyler hung himself for a while and looked down at Ian trying to get two learners up. "Hey" he shouted, "My student is faster than yours!"
"Very good." shouted back Ian, holding his rope with one hand and with the other supporting Evan, "Take one of mine." and laughed when he saw the euphoric color change to a dejected one as Tyler wordlessly started to climb again, making even one as nervous as Sonya break into a hearty laugh.
When they finally reached the top of the steeps, Sonya saw it had a rather flattened top, sloping down easily after a while and the opposite wall of it wasn't as high or steep as the one they had just climbed. They had plenty of space. Sonya, now, understood why Ian made them climb up with all their baggage and why he had her pack up the lunch for the day. She had been thinking that they'd have to climb back down for lunch. Whatever they wanted she could cook right there, he had said to her. When Sonya got up others had already opened their bags and spread out mats on the ground.
Evan just loved the place. He threw his bag down and immediately took off, running around the place and Ian had to order him to keep to the middle of the steep and not go too near the edges. It was barely eleven and nobody felt like a lunch at that hour.
"A light snack would be great!" Tyler said.
Sonya sat on one of mats and soon prepared a good fare of mixed fruits for the party. After they had taken the snack, they got back to their games. By lunch hour they had played many games and were having a great time. A little while before lunch Sonya had taken a break from the games to get the lunch ready. Ian made a temporary fire for her to cook and then got back with the others.
Ian or Tyler started most of the games and Evan was having the time of his life. Sonya too was enjoying a lot. Ian seemed so different to her now. She felt that she was worrying in vain about him being a rich guy with a big ego and that she need not be as careful around him as she usually was. He didn't at all seem to be the type of person, as she had first perceived him to be. He was responsible handling the camp and everyone in it, and yet he was as playful as Evan!
She couldn't help but smile looking at him playing the games, cheating at every chance he got, having fun. He could be quicker than Adrian and more mischievous than Tyler if he wanted.
Tyler gave up because of Ian cheating so much and sat down to help Sonya with cooking.
At last they all lay sprawled on the ground, tired and out of breath. Sonya handed out the lunch plates to them and Adrian didn't even sit up to eat. He had it lying down.
After lunch everyone rested for a while but soon Evan and Tyler had everybody up for more games. Adrian went looking around the place with Ashley and they could be seen walking together, out far.
The sun was planning to set in the west and while everyone was playing, Ian was standing alone at the west seemingly staring the setting sun. His hands were in the pockets of his shorts and his head was tilted to one side. Sonya walked up to him.
"Deep in thought?"
"Hmm..." he turned around to see her standing beside him. He looked startled because hadn't heard her come behind.
"Did I disturb?" She felt once again the familiar uneasiness that was always there when she was talking to him. It seemed, for an instance when he looked startled, that her first impression of him was correct. But then his face again seemed so friendly again, and the smile was so welcoming.
"Not at all! I just didn’t hear you coming up here." It seemed to him that she looked relieved and that comforted him in a small way. She had turned to look in the direction he was looking in, and he realized that it wasn't anything important that she had come up to him for; as it appeared, she came just to talk, which was important. To him. It gave him the notion that she may, at last, be feeling at ease.
"What were you looking at?"
"Just the woods at that end."
"It looks pretty dense there!"
"It is. It probably is most dense over there." he smiled turning to her and saw that she looked suddenly fascinated. Her interest appeared aroused. She looked more enthusiastic than she was at the start of the camp.
"Have you gone there?" she whispered, her voice was full of excitement and wonder.
"Yes!" he whispered back, as if he were telling her a dangerous secret, playing along her amazement.
"Would we be going there?" she turned to him. Ian felt that she looked too much like Evan did when setting up his camp and he had to suppress his smile.
"That was just what I was discussing with myself. Whether we should go there or not! What do you say? You want to go there?" he asked, pretending to be astonished. He wanted to confirm that he had not mistaken her fear for excitement, even though it was clearly written all over her face.
"I'd like to!" she smiled like a child, excitement shining in her eyes. Ian, though still playing along her astonishment, now realized that Sonya probably shared his thrill for adventure.
"Ok. I'll take you there. But you have to be careful. Very careful!" he continued to put up the pretence of the dense woods being a dangerous place. Sonya drew her breath in deeply and the grin widened and Ian had to turn his face away or his grin would have given it all away.
At sundown the group finally decided to climb down. Everybody else had started to make their way down the rope and Ian was hanging at the top with Evan on the rope already and Sonya still standing on the edge. Looking down from the steep was giving her fit. She very slowly sat down and clutching the rope tightly, tried to get her leg below the edge, but couldn't make it. Ian saw she wouldn't get down without his going up.
"You'll have to hang here by yourself for a while. Ok?" he looked at Evan, who nodded vehemently. He felt he was being thought of as a responsible person. Ian climbed back up and got hold of Sonya's rope. He stood with his back to the edge and got Sonya between his arms, her back to him, holding the rope just above her hands. "Let go the edge when I say."
"Huh!" Sonya looked at him, unsure. As if him standing so close behind her wasn't enough to strain her nerves, she was now asked to let the ground fall beneath her feet and depend on him for her life.
"Trust me. I won't let you fall."
She looked back at the rope and then stared down at the ground below. She closed her eyes and nodded weekly.
"Ok. Now. GO!" he jumped and she did too, her eyes closed as tight as she could. Another second she felt herself going down, the rope slipping from her hands, and Ian around her. She opened her eyes and in another instant she almost banged against the side of the steeps. Ian was still behind her, holding himself away, supporting his feet on the wall and saving them from hitting right into the wall. She found herself once again hanging on the rope and the edge was above her. Thankfully the baggages had been lowered by the ropes earlier. Or climbing down with the bags would be worse.
"Now slowly let the rope go and climb down. Ok?"
She swallowed, "Yes."
"Sure?"
"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you." she tried to smile.
He got hold of his own rope at the right and swung back to his place.
It took her longest to get down. But the others were only too happy. It gave them the time to stay back and enjoy the place a little more.
They started out as soon as she was down and had caught her breath. In half an hour they were back at the camp. Another few minutes and everyone had washed the dust off them and changed into clean clothes. A light snack was again taken before Ian and Adrian started to get the wood for getting the fire at night.
The evening went on laughing and singing and Tyler's pranks to get his back at Ian's cheating in the day.
The group was tired but still they stayed up as late as they could but eventually all of them dozed away.
Sonya again lay awake looking up at the sky. She could not sleep. She just lay thinking about the whole day, right when she had woken up and then the walk with Ian and the steeps and the way back.
She felt that again this night, her excitement would not let her sleep early while others were already snoozing. But tonight, she had company.
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