“Okay, okay!” Navyri shouted, kicking out a foot to try and touch the rocky wall, “This probably wasn’t my best plan.”
“Plan! WHAT PLAN! LOOK AT US, NAVYRI. WE’RE GONNA DIE FALLING OFF A CLIFF!”
“Just shut up a tick will you? I can’t focus.”
“Focus! You want to focus now? Oh, sweet Vri, please don’t let me die. It’s not my time yet! Moseke, help me! Ilaren! Pier! Pre! Someone!!! I don’t want this to be my end, pleeeeease!” Fabian threw his head back and mewled, clutching his own root with dear life, beneath them both was a vast expanse that ended into the sea side cliffs. Above them a few lightening guards sat atop strong horses, smiling down at the duo. One swung a leg over his beast and considered the thieves, kicking black pebbles over so that they dirtied Navyri’s hair.
“We have rope,” the guard offered, “Give us what you stole and we’ll pull you up. Have some mercy in your court hearing too. But you try anything funny, well…” He nodded to another guard who had a crossbow balanced on his lap.
“Oh, please,” Nav retorted, rolling her eyes as she hung from her branch, “That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. Like this isn’t the most interesting to happen to you in arcs. You’re just eating this up!”
The guards looked at each other, Fabian pausing in his prayers, “Give ‘em the bag, Navyri. This is it. The end of the line. We knew we’d get caught eventually.”
“Eventually? They haven’t gotten me yet.” Definitely, the youthful Naer looked upward, sticking her tongue out while trying to find a good foothold in the rock. Below, the water lapped in the mild breeze, and she felt her stomach clutch from the height. She reached out to try and grab at the small ledge, maybe get some leverage to make her way down, but each fistful crumbled. The stone was too layered and delicate.
They needed a new plan.
Navyri looked over at Fabian he had begun praying under his breath, “Do you trust me?” At her question, his brown eyes snapped open and he scoffed.
“Absolutely not!”
Navyri grinned, having weighed her options, “Smart man,” then she tried to look back up at the guards, gripping with dear life as she tried to wiggle the backpack from her shoulder, “Pull him up and I’ll throw you the bag, but I want to make sure you can keep your word.”
Sharing the goods with Fabian wasn’t ideal, nor was hanging from a Rharnian cliff side, but sacrifices needed to be made, “Good luck,” she whispered, just as a rope was lowered and her partner in crime gave her a look of relieved shock.
Tears began to pool in the corner of his eyes, “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Go on now, I can’t hold on forever.”
With a bit of luck, Fabian began scrambling up the rope, his body disappearing back onto land before a guard with a black eye peered down, “Well?”
“Well what?” She twisted, digging her boot into the side of the cliff, the telltale sound of wings beating the only thing to calm her fraying nerves. Navyri swallowed, “Oh, this?” She waved the bag, her branch threatening to break beneath her weight. She stopped moving; time was running out.
(You won’t let me die, will you? Not when I owe you... Right?)
“Stop playing games! Throw the bag, or you’ll get a bolt to the face.”
(You’ll teach me to fly, won’t you?)
“Three! Two!” The guard’s face was turning red from anger, “On-“
Navyri chucked the backpack as hard as she could, straight into the sky and the man reached out. But as the bag of stolen artwork began to fall back down, unseen talons dug into the leather strap and pulled it out of reach. Curio’s assistance. Shoving away from the cliff with her legs, Navyri launched herself from the stone monolith, back flipping into the open air and began to fall with nothing and no one to catch her. It was a strange feeling, exhilarating and terrifying, free falling without the promise of survival. She heard nothing but the racing wind, felt its chilly caress, the waves growing in detail and size.
Her arms stretched out to feel the space around her as Fabian shouted, the distant twang of a loosened bolt exploding into the air. One flew by her ear. The next sliced her arm and clawed into her muscle, just in time for her legs to close and the Naer to torpedo into the water. Inky black blood pooled at the surface like shimmering oil.
Pain, but life. Navyri kicked in efforts to swim, each time she tried to break the surface, the sea pinned her back down. Her muscles were tired and her lungs burned with the desire to breathe, but she had flown and escaped. Clawing her way towards he surface like a drenched cat, she was thrown against a rock, knees scrapped and body bruised from impact. Each time a wave came, it felt like full body punch.
Whatever she had done to piss U’frek off, she was regretting it now.
