Acrobatic Ability
Nathanial crouched behind a squat tree covered in leathery leaves.
“What do you see, Nathanial?” hissed Jericho, who lay flat behind him.
“No guards on this side,” Nathanial whispered as he ducked back down. “And there were none on the port side either.”
“It’s almost as if they know there’s nothing to fear, isn’t it?” asked Annabelle grimly.
She had strung her bow, attached the twine to the back of an arrow and tied the other end of it to the rope, which lay in a coil at her feet. She studied her target. Nathanial watched as her breathing slowed and an intense look came into her lovely eyes.
“Can you do this, Annabelle?” he asked, suddenly overcome with the thought of what they were getting themselves into. “Perhaps it would be better if we simply give ourselves up after all?”
She glared at him. “Oh, certainly. With the two of you wearing British uniforms, armed with British weapons, and all those poor dead lizard-men in the camp. We’d be shot on sight. Now stop bothering me, Nathanial. I’ve got to get us onboard that airship.”
Annabelle scrambled up the side of a pile of boulders, squatted and took aim.
Nathanial held his breath.
With a twang which seemed far too loud, her arrow arced skyward, trailing the rope behind it. An instant later, it had entangled itself in the nest of rigging on the starboard side.
Annabelle gave a gentle pull.
The arrow pulled loose, caught for a heart-rending second…then came loose and fell.
“Never mind,” Annabelle said as she gathered the rope up and reset her arrow. “I see what I need to do now.”
With hardly a pause for consideration this time, she pulled her bow and sent her arrow at a less abrupt arc. It flew higher, higher, and shot over a heavy line, then began to fall.
“Hold onto the rope, Giles, while we fetch my arrow,” she said calmly. “I believe I’ve managed it.”
“You’re wonderful,” breathed Giles.
Nathanial scrambled out and grabbed the arrow after it fell to the ground. He pulled the twine until he had the rope in hand and gave it a tug.
It held, it held!
“Now, Nathanial,” Annabelle said with a grin as she put her bow carefully down beside Jericho, “we’re almost there. Let’s see how good I am at shinnying up a rope.”
“Absolutely not.” Nathanial was already climbing up higher on the rock pile. “Stand by.”
He looped the rope loosely about his waist and began climbing, hand over hand. He amazed himself at his ability.
In only a few moments—though he was gasping for air and his shoulders had fire running through them and all the skin seemed to be gone from his palms—Nathanial was able to boost himself over the edge of the deck. He took a quick look around.
His luck seemed to be in, for a change. A rope ladder was secured to a bulkhead almost directly in front of him.
In less than five minutes, he had assisted Jericho, Annabelle and the hulking Thymon onboard the zeppelin.
“Now,” said Annabelle, an arrow knocked in her bowstring, “shall we see what’s what?”