I stabbed the other dagger next to it pulling myself up testing the spikes I stepped on before pulling myself up with it beneath me.
Minutes passed but dragged on for hours. I willed myself not to wipe the sweat dribbling from my forehead and dripping onto my curly eyelashes. I kept my gaze up, not wanting to look below me. I parted my lips taking a deep breath, a salty bead of sweat slid into my mouth wetting my parched tongue, a salty taste engulfing me. Yanking my dagger from the gluey sap and pulling myself up further.
I place my foot on another spike, forgetting to test it before I pressed all my body weight on it. A low crack shot into the still air, I stiffly tilted my head down to glance only to see a small crack running along the black thick spike's surface. "Shit!" Just as that word dropped from my mouth the spike snapped beneath me, with no spike to stand on I hung loosely from my two daggers.
Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead like a wave and the clothes on my back clung tightly to my skin, soaked in perspiration. I tensed my muscles, tightening my grip around the hilt of my dagger, resisting the imminent slipping of my palm. I scanned below me, seeing White Bun pacing back and forth at the base of the tree, opening his mouth as if to say something but closing it again only to stare at me with teary eyes that conveyed everything I needed to know.
I looked back up and browsed the tree, searching for a spike to brace myself on, but the only spikes near enough were small or unstable, and any stable spikes were too high for me to reach normally. "Dammit," I mumbled under my breath.
"Seems like you're in a bind?" I snapped my head to the source of the voice. Ralph hung upside on the branch of a nearby tree with a smile plastered on his face. He bit into an apple just as red as his hair, a loud crunch resounding.
"Why have you been following me?" I narrowed my eyes, staring at him with a dark expression.
"I don't think this is the best time to be questioning me," He laughed, grazing his finger over his bottom lip, his deep blue orbs not once leaving me. I clicked my tongue and looked back up, spotting a spike above me. "You know I can help you..." he trailed off.
"No thanks," I stated and swung back and forth picking up pace at each swing. Ralph laughed again and bent in half, grabbing the branch he was on and pulling himself up as he continued to stare at me.
"You will fall at this rate so I can help you, I just want something in return," He said with a trace of arrogance. I ignored him and continued swaying back and forth, slamming my body weight to each side, my speed increasing, but my dagger also slipped from the tree's clutch inch by inch with each swing. "What are you doing swinging like that? You'll end up slipping,"
"Shut up, won't you?" I asked in my most honey-coated voice possible.
"Someone's rude, isn't she?" I didn't respond and continued swinging, and after minutes of swinging, I picked up just the right amount of speed, or so I hoped. The dagger was hanging by a thread by the tree, only saved by the viscous liquid clamping down tightly on the dagger. With my last swing, I pushed all my body weight into it and on my way back up I yanked my daggers from the clutched of the tree and its sap, I threw one of my daggers away and with my now free hand latched onto the spike's body avoiding the glinting tip.