A story by Tessa Dahlgren 7h Grade—English teacher Mrs. Shaffner

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as I ran out of breath. There was doubt about it. They were getting closer. I clutched at my shoulder and suppressed a cry as I felt the sticky blood seeping through my torn shirt.

I heard a shout, I stumbled backwards away from sound pounding feet crunching on dry golden leaves. Suddenly the ground gave out beneath my feet, sending a whirling sensation of blind falling, like in an out-of-control elevator. I fell on my side in a hill of dry, crumbling sand and stone. I gasped for air, only to swallow a cloud of dust.

I tried to get to my feet, but I heard my pursuers approaching. I clenched my teeth, knowing this would hurt. I hurled myself down the ravine, I rolled and stumbled on side, dust billowing up around me like an angry swarm of insects, sky and yellow stone revolving in and out of my sight.

I flung out my hands as I bounced about. Desperately clawed for a hold on the rock wall. My elbows and rams were rubbed to a raw red scuffed on sharp rocks, poised like a daggers on the rock wall, as if yearning too feel blood on its sun-warmed skin.

A twisted and dried tree root flashed in the corner of my eye. Desperately I lunged, stretching out my arms like a really energetic zombie. Digging my fingernails into the bark, I hoisted myself up, leaning over my perch as I gasped for air. The hot heat of the sun at me s if angry I had not fallen to my death…yet anyway.

I looked up hearing shouting, small pebbles bounced down the ravine wall from their angered pacing.

Snippets of frustratingly spat words echoed down after the pebbles “We don’t have time for this!”
“Aw, shut your pie hole, you know we need him!” retorted another.
Then a third spoke. “He can’t survive out here, leave him.” A chill ran down my spine. The voice radiated with firm authority and an eerie assuredness “We need to keep moving.”

No one else spoke after that, and I heard the crunch of dry soil under their feet fade away. I let out a relieved sigh. Resting my temple on the rock, inhaling slow, urgent breaths.

But the sun’s silent anger wouldn’t let me forget that I was still dangling here. I released one hand, swiping in on the thigh on my jeans, wiping off sweat and dust I looked around for something that might suddenly give me an inspiration of how I could get out of this mess.


A shadow rippled across the rock wall, a gush of wind following close behind it.

Startled, I looked up. The silhouette a great bird hovered in the sky, floating in circles around the sun.

Then it started getting bigger, and bigger and bigger, until I could see the individual feathers on its massive wings. Trying to make sense of this I squinted, too late my stunned brain realized that the bird was getting closer. Not bigger.

Panicked I looked around for something to defend myself with, or at least to hide by. The bird’s shadow dropped closer and closer to me, I closed my eyes silently and knew I was insane, but the bird could rip my head off.

I let go.

Wind rushed through my fingers, but there was no sense of falling, I suddenly wondered if the bird had gotten me, and was flying me away to save me for lunch. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I had let go of the wall, and I was falling.

But I didn’t have long to think about it. In my genius moment I forgot tow things.
1. There was a wall on the other side of the one I had let go of.
2. The ravine had a bottom too.