Seth the climber

A good distance down the ravine, about twenty upright logs of increasing height led from the edge of the stream to the wall of the ravine.


The highest log granted access to a rocky ledge. It might be our destination. This is not what Stan described.


They arrived at the logs. The lowest was three feet tall, the next was six feet, and each subsequent log stood roughly three feet taller than the previous one, until the tallest rose about sixty feet high. The logs were arranged about three feet apart, in a staggered row. None of the logs had any limbs. Short or tall, they were all of a similar circumference, about eighteen inches, and they were all cut flat across the top.


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Seth dashed over to the first log, scrambled onto it without much trouble, and, taking a jump as if he were playing leapfrog, ended up seated atop the second log.


Grandma hurried over to the second log. "You get down from there!"


Seth shakily got to his feet. Leaning forward, he placed his hands on the third log. From his position on the second log, the top of the third came almost to the middle of his chest. Another leapfrog jump and he sat atop the nine-foot log. "I can do this," he said.


"It won't be so easy as you get higher," Grandma warned. "You come down and let me do it."


"No way. I already have one dead grandma."


Kendra watched silently. From his seated position, Seth shifted to his knees and rose unsteadily to his feet. He leapt to the next log, now well out of Grandma's reach. Kendra was quietly glad Seth was climbing the logs. She could not picture Grandma doing it successfully, especially dressed in a bathrobe and slippers. At the very least, think of the terrible places she could get splinters! And Kendra could very clearly envision Grandma Sorenson crumpled in a lifeless heap at the base of a log.


"Seth Andrew Sorenson, you mind your grandmother! I want you to come down from there."


"Stop distracting me," he said.


"It may seem like fun on these lower logs, but when you get higher-"

"I climb high stuff all the time," Seth insisted. "My friends and I climb up in the bars under the bleachers at the high school. If we fell there we could die too." He rose to his feet. He seemed to be getting better at it. Seth landed on the next log, straddling it for a moment before getting to his knees.

"Be careful," Grandma said. "Don't think about the height."


"I know you're trying to help," Seth said. "But please stop talking."


Grandma came and stood by Kendra. "Can he do this?" she whispered.


"He has a good chance. He's really brave, and pretty athletic. The height might not get to him. I would freak out."


Kendra wanted to look away. She did not want to see him fall. But she could not take her eyes from her brother as he leapfrogged from log to log, higher and higher. As he jumped to the thirteenth, almost forty feet high now, he leaned precariously to one side. Chills raced through Kendra as if she were the one losing her balance. Seth gripped with his legs and leaned the other way, regaining his equilibrium. Kendra could breathe again.


Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. Kendra glanced at Grandma.


He was going to make it! Seventeen. He got to his feet, wobbling a bit, hands out to either side. "These tall ones shake a little," he called down.



Seth leapfrogged to the next log and landed awkwardly, teetering too far to one side. For a moment he hovered on the brink of regaining his balance. Every muscle in Kendra's body clenched in horror. Arms pinwheeling, Seth fell. Kendra shrieked. She could not look away.


Something flashed from the ledge-a slender, black chain with a metal weight at the end. The chain coiled around one of Seth's legs. Instead of falling to the ground, he swung into the cliff, colliding roughly with the stone wall.


For the first time Kendra had a view of Nero. Built like a man, the troll had reptilian features. A few bright yellow markings decorated his glossy black body. He held in a webbed hand the chain from which Seth dangled. Muscles bunching powerfully, Nero hauled Seth up to the ledge.



Chapter 14