Gwen squinted, shading her eyes for good measure even though it was a cloudy day. This would be a lot easier if the wind would stop for a moment or three. After long seconds of fruitless searching, she asked, “You’re sure?”
“Yeah! It’s right there!” Yozan pointed confidently up into the tree. “See it?”
Gwen crouched beside him, straining her eyes and screwing up her face in concentration as she struggled to pick out a gray shape amongst the shifting mass of branches and leaves.
Yozan waited an admirably long time for her to find what he could see so clearly. The most she could admit to was something just barely catching her eye near the top of the tree.
“I… think so,” Gwen hedged, pushing herself up. Whether or not she could see the squirrel from the ground wasn’t important. If it really was in the tree like Yozan said, she could find it once she got up there. “I’ll get him down.”
He trotted after her as she approached the trunk, “Is it true you’re really good at catching squirrels?” He hadn’t balked much when she’d objected to him trying to chase the squirrel down from the tree, and she had the sneaking suspicion he’d only sought her out after a few unsuccessful attempts of his own.
Gwen replied with a modest smile and a shrug. It wasn’t exactly a heroic talent, no, but it was a talent nonetheless.
Yozan, fittingly, looked equally amused and impressed by the idea of the Warrior of Light chasing squirrels.
Standing at the trunk and looking up didn’t reveal much more than peering from a distance had. Gwen bought a little time while she searched the branches, “Why are you after this squirrel, again?”
“It stole a necklace from Auriana’s display,” Yozan said, putting hands on his hips and frowning up at the branches. “I volunteered to get it back.”
Is that what she was raising hells about a few bells ago? The poor creature had no idea how grave of a mistake it had made. Rowena and her employees didn’t take kindly to thieves.
Gwen hummed vaguely, zeroing in on the hint of stillness that had caught her eye earlier. She tilted her head one way then the other, then took a few steps to one side for a better look.
Sure enough, it proved to be a little, bushy-tailed ball of gray huddled close to the trunk of the tree, clutching something metallic and generally necklace-shaped.
Gwen gave Yozan a reassuring smile. “Hopefully returning the necklace will spare the poor thing Rowena’s wrath.”
He nodded enthusiastically, and she wasn’t sure if he was more excited about protecting the little squirrel or watching her chase it.
Gwen circled the base of the tree a few times, trying to find the quickest, safest path of ascent. It didn’t look to be an intimidating climb, despite the wind. Most of the branches looked sturdy enough to support her weight, and it was far from the tallest tree she’d ever climbed. There were no neighboring trees close enough for the furry little thief to try and flee to, so the chase wasn’t likely to be too risky, either.
It seemed the crux of the climb would be just finding a way to get started, as the trunk had been stripped of branches. The closest one was a little more than ten fulms up.
On her third pass Yozan stuck up a hand to volunteer. “I can get a ladder!”
Gwen shook her head and waved a hand, No, not necessary.
Once she found a suitable starting place she took a moment to measure her breaths and gather her rocus. She hadn’t been doing many lancer drills these past few moons, but she was far from out of practice. It was just a manner of setting her feet, crouching low, gathering her energy and…
Gwen launched herself up like an arrow from a bow, an encouraging whoop from Yozan chasing after her a second later.
The moment her hands wrapped around the first branch she was all but back in the Twelveswood chasing squirrels for the Wailers, years of practice and experience flooding back in a wave of nostalgia. She pulled herself up by her arms until she could hook an ankle over another branch and lever herself up to grab a new handhold.
She scarcely had to think about climbing as she rose through the branches, her body moving on its own as if her hands themselves knew where to reach and her feet knew the sturdiest places to stand. She absently wondered what creature someone might compare her to if they saw her climbing. I guess I’m something of a squirrel too, aren’t I? But I’m hunting squirrels, so more like a cat, maybe? Or an opo-opo?
The squirrel noticed her well before it was within reach, ceasing its attempts to gnaw on the necklace --Silly thing will ruin its teeth…-- to chitter angrily at her and fluff up its bushy tail. She frowned at it, undaunted, and kept climbing.
It darted off without warning, and she jumped after it. Gwen didn’t think about the path she was taking, focused on tracking the fleeing thief and trusting her hands and feet to handle the rest. She was barely aware of the branches she was grasping and dodging aside from the occasional niggle of instinct that warned her away from certain limbs. She wasn’t sure if it was some inkling of the Echo or all of her prior experience that let her guess the squirrel’s path of escape, but either way she managed to never lose sight of it.
It wasn’t long before she was close enough to touch that big bushy tail. Rather than seize it, she gave it a single, sharp tug.
Startled, the little thief dropped the necklace with a high-pitched squeal.
Relieved the creature had decided to cut its losses and abandon the shiny trinket rather than forcing her to wrestle it out of those thieving little paws, Gwen released the squirrel’s tail and let it flee. She didn’t need the squirrel, after all, just the necklace. She watched it launch itself to another branch and disappear around the trunk like a little bolt of lightning, significantly faster than it had been a moment ago. She wondered how much of that newfound speed had to do with her scaring the daylights out of it, and how much was due to no longer being hindered by the weight of the chunky ironworks necklace.
Seeing that the pursuit had come to an end, Yozan called up, “Did you get it?”
Gwen picked her way down to the empty bird’s nest the necklace had landed in and plucked it up. It seemed undamaged despite the squirrel’s dogged attempts to abuse it. “I did.”
She descended to the lowest branch and picked her landing zone, choosing to hang from the branch and drop down rather than jump straight to the ground.
Yozan was eying the tree in a way that suggested he would be up in the tree trying to mimic all the climbing and jumping he’d just witnessed if it weren’t for the little issue of having no way to reach the first branch. He wasn’t the least bit disappointed she’d settled for retrieving the necklace and hadn’t apprehended the furry thief.
He grinned as she handed over the stolen trinket, “You let it off with a warning?”
Gwen laughed and shrugged. “Let’s hope it learned its lesson.”
Crux - noun
1. The basic, central, or critical point or feature: “the crux of the matter;” “the crux of an argument.”
2. A puzzling or apparently insoluble problem.
3. The most difficult portion of an ascent in rock climbing or mountaineering.
Challenging prompt right off the bat lmao. I’ve literally only heard crux used in the context of “The crux of the issue/problem/matter.” Or to mean a cross or intersection, though that seems to be incorrect, according to most of the dictionary sites??
This word was getting into ‘losing all meaning’ territory within, like, 5 minutes of the prompt coming out because I was rereading it and mumbling it to myself so much lol
As usual: I am literal. Endings are hard. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
