For a few seconds I just stood in paralyzed terror, trying to think up some kind of plan. The creaking of heavy feet on the ladder rungs grew ever closer, and I knew I was running out of time. But I still couldn't move. It's like my feet were glued to the wooden flooring they stood upon.
After a moment, the Bee Keeper's head rose into sight, his torn beekeeping veil fluttering a little as if in a breeze. But it was no breeze that stirred it, it was the passage of bees, big ones that looked like they could cause some serious damage to a poor little Neems-shaped girl.
That was what broke my paralysis, making me turn and throw myself at the window, hoping to break it in one go, not get cut too badly on the glass, and somehow not die from the fall.
My plan... didn't work as intended. I managed to break one of the four panes of glass, but the crossed window pane and the rest of the glass remained undamaged.
I rebounded upon collision and was knocked onto my back with a thump, kicking up haydust and making me sneeze. I struggled to my feet, spared a quick glance behind me to see the Bee Keeper had just reached the top, and then headed right back towards the window and started kicking at the glass like a mad woman.
The second pane broke on kick one, the third broke after three kicks and I cut my foot badly on the last kick, and the fourth pane of glass didn't break at all no matter how many times I hit it.
I wasn't sure if I was just running out of energy, or if for some reason that one piece of glass was just designed extra strong. Giving up on it, I started kicking at the wooden frame, focusing on the cross bars in the middle.
The tread of heavy feet behind me was growing closer, and the buzzing of bees had become so loud I knew he was mere feet away, maybe even now reaching out to grab me.
Giving up on the window, I grabbed the bureau beside it, and hoping it wasn't too heavey to budge, pulled on it with all of my might. Bees were already starting to land on me, jabbing their stingers wherever they could.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled harder, and just as I felt his gloved hand start to close down on my shoulder, the bureau finally gave and fell towards us.
I only dodged getting squished because I'd seen it coming. The Bee Keeper, did not, getting mushed under it with a mighty crash as whatever had been in the bureau shattered around him.
Not wasting time sticking around, I ran back the way I'd come, towards the ladder, and threw myself over the edge, hoping to aim for a pile of hay.
I was maybe halfway down before I remembered all the ancient hay was up in the loft I'd just come from, and maybe in the horse stalls. All that lay beneath me was one long expanse of flat, hard, dirt.
Bracing for impact, I curled myself into a ball and prepared to roll once I hit the ground. All things considered, it half worked.
I landed with a bone jarring thud, rolled a good few feet, and slammed into the nearest horse stall with another thud that badly bruised my shoulder.
Stumbling to my feet, I stumbled further as my left foot twisted under me, possibly sprained, possibly broken, fell again and twisted my other foot, but only a little, and then just lay there for a moment, feeling beaten up and tired.
It was a mighty crash from above me that got me back on my feet, the sound that an old burea might make if it was angrily shoved off of a crazy Bee Keeper for instance.
Stumbling badly, my left foot hurting quite badly indeed, I staggered back towards the door and outside, then after only a moment of hesitation, dashed into the dead corn once more.