Tias POV
The ladder was dizzying to look at, the spines didn't seem very stable despite Scott telling us they were and Amelia demonstrating, but still climbing forty feet straight up into the air on spines stuck into a tree was not comforting.
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"Hey Scott," Amelia called from the tree, she sounded like she was yelling from the top of a mountain which did nothing to calm my nerves.
"I can't find the ladder, did someone move it?"
"Did you check the other side?" Scott yelled back.
"Oh wait, nevermind, they made a new one and left it inside"
There was a sound of a bunch of sticks clacking together before the sound of a wooden xylophone rang into the forest and Amelia's voice followed.
"I'll be right down after I fasten it to the tree."
"Ok don't be too long it's naema hunting time." Scott said only silence greeted him, the grunt of conformation lost in the wind before it reached the ground.
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It was dark now, sometime in between Amelia throwing a knife at Scott and her going up in the tree the sun had set and now it was getting cold, the brilliant bioluminescent moss that seemed to be everywhere was now glowing at its brightest.
I huddled close to kaily and mae as Scott stood out away from the tree scanning the forest for any threat. Scott had his eyes closed and he seemed to be focusing on sound.
"DUCK"
I obeyed the sudden command and hit the ground as a thump sounded to my left. Peeling my eyes open I was able to see a large cat-like creature silhouetted against the moss of the forest floor. Scott hurried over and pulled a knife from right between its eyes and looked up, following his gauze I saw Amelia. She was somehow hanging upside down from her feet and despite not seeing her face you could tell she was glaring holes in scotts head.
"You need to come out here more and you're getting rusty."
"Yeah your right but you are also crazy good" scott said
"I have the ladder secure get them up here before they get eaten" Amelia grumbled still hanging like a bat.
It took a little convincing but eventually we got kaily on the ladder and we started climbing. Somehow i ended up going first so i started climbing, it wasn't bad i just couldn't look down.
After what seemed like forever I broke through the leaves only to see what looked like a hundred feet of latter that melted into darkness, split about half rope later and half spines shoved in a tree, I nearly cried as my arms were on fire but I kept going.
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I was reaching for the first step of the rope ladder when the spine under my right foot snapped and I fell. I let out a yelp as I felt my left foot slip off the spine as well as my left hand but before I could fall more than a few feet I stopped.
I was hanging in mid air, my first reaction was to look where I fell from. It was more or less at eye level now and the spine was nowhere to be seen. In fact there wasn't even any of the spine snapped off into the tree. Finally getting over my shock i looked up. Amelia had managed to catch my hand and was hanging by her feet off a branch. As i watched she pulled a knife out of one of her holsters and flung it at the tree, it landed only slightly above were the spine landed and burrowed itself into the tree all the way up to the hilt. I looked back up at Amelia, still breathing heavily from my brush with death, she looked back at me but i could only see her eyes in the dark something flashed across the hasel orbs but it was gone before i could put a name to it.
"Your ok i'll always catch you when you fall" The words seemed to have struck a chord because she only whispered the second half of the sentence. Amelia carefully moved me over to the spines and only when she was sure I was fine did she let go.
"Amelia?'' Scott called from the back of the pack. I turned to my right to look at the girl. I was just above eye level with her because I had only climbed one set of spines. Amelia was still looking at me, but she moved her head so she was looking at scott.
"You ok?"
Amelia simply looked at scott for a few seconds before saying something that was definitely something in another language, there was another small moment of silence before scott said something back and told us to keep moving. Amelia shifted her gaze back to me for a second giving me a nod to keep climbing before reaching up and disconnecting her feet from the branch above and falling twenty feet to a branch below where scott was. Looking back up I decided I should start climbing.
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After a while i realised the darkness that engulfed the ladder wasn't just normal darkness it was more leaves however unlike last time it wasn't a thin patch it was thick letting no light through, i heard a russell to my right but i knew it was amelia she had said something about an extra entrance. Eventually i saw light it was a cool blue light it nearly seemed white but it was blue. I was only around four feet from the top when i heard steps, it sounded like someone walking across a wood floor, i paused not expecting the sound. As I watched the entrance I saw Amelia's head pop into view.
"There you are the second entrance it's a bit hard to enter so it took me a while '' Amelia stuck out her hand and pulled me out of the whole being careful to ensure I don't whack my head on the ceiling because of the dome shape.
As I looked around the room I was in shock. The whole room was shaped with the tree's branches, it was alive, the floor was a bit different, it looked more grown together like the dome was an afterthought. The room had a pole in the center with four benches surrounding it and what looked like coat hangers screwed into various places on the pole.
On the far side of the room the floor dipped down a few steps and was covered in blankets and soft pillows. The near side had backpacks on the floor just like scotts and to the right was the only flat wall it had cupboards all around in a big square but the middle was left empty.
I would have to ask about the only other thing that made the room more amazing was the light it was all coming from flowers, the soft cool blue glow gave the room a calming feeling. The flowers were clearly groomed to grow in specific places like around the top of the pole in the middle of the room, the floor near the backpacks and the floor near the pillows and blankets like bedside lamps.
The room was fairly large, probably slightly larger than your average classroom but it was also fairly empty with the benches in the center of the room seeming to be the only furniture.