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"One," I said through my teeth "Damn you, whoa! One hip--"

Flash

"One--"

Flash

"Whoa! WHOA!"

I wasn’t conscious of the fall at all; nor even the landing Oneat the reins, a thousand pounds of panicked horse going to pieces underonto will h my flesh, and I tried frantically to fit asp, and foundto the first inti on breathing, conducting an inventory The rain was still pounding down ontodown into my ears My face and hands were numb My ars The left one hurt, but not in any threatening way; only a bruised knee I rolled heavily onto ar that had saved e

Abovethunder I looked up, dizzy, and saw the horse’s head, protruding from a thicket of buckbrush some thirty feet overhead Below the thicket, a steep, rocky slope fell away; a long scrape mark toward the botto up invirtually on the edge of this s it, screened as it was by the heavy growth of shrubs The horse’s panic had sent it to the edge, but evidently it had sensed the danger and caught itself before going over--not before letting er!" I said And wondered whether the unknown Ger similar "I could have broken my neck!" I wiped the mud from my face with a hand that still shook, and looked about me for a way back up

There wasn’t one Behind ranite horns Before ht doard into a small hollow The slope I stood on declined into this holloell, rolling down through clumps of yelloood and sumac to the banks of a small creek so to think No one knehere I was I didn’t know exactly where I was, co for me for some time Jamie would think I was still at Muellers’ because of the rain The Muellers would of course have no reason to think I hadn’t made it safely home; even if they had doubts, they couldn’t follow me, because of the flooded creek And by the tie would long since have been obliterated by the rain

I was uninjured, that was so I was also afoot, alone, without food, hly wet About the only certainty was that I wasn’t going to die of thirst

The lightning was still glancing to and fro like dueling pitchforks in the sky above, though the thunder had faded to a dull ru struck by lightning now--not with so antic trees--but finding shelter see; drops rolled off the end ofonquite a bit, I e of the stream

This creek, too, ollen by the rain; I could see the tops of drowned bushes sticking out of the water, leaves trailing li current There was no bank to speak of; I foughtclaws of holly and red-cedar toward the rocky cliff-face to the south; perhaps there would be a cave or hollow there that would offer shelter of a sort

I found nothing but tuate So else that offered a se red cedar tree had fallen across the stream, its roots undermined as the water ate away the soil in which it stood It had fallen away from me and struck the cliff, so that the thick crown sprawled into the water and over the rocks, the trunk canted across the streae mat of its exposed roots, a bulwark of cracked earth and sht not be co in the open or crouching in the bushes

I hadn’t even paused to think that the shelter ht have attracted bears, catamounts, or other unfriendly fauna Fortunately, it hadn’t

It was a space about five feet long and five wide, dank, dark, and clanarled roots, packed with sandy earth, like the roof of a badger’s sett But it was a solid ceiling, for all that; the floor of churned earth was damp but noton my skull

Exhausted, I crawled into the farthest corner, set my wet shoes beside me, and went to sleep The cold of my wet clothes made me dream vividly, in jumbled visions of blood and childbirth, trees and rocks and rain, and I woke frequently, in that half-conscious way of utter tiredness, falling asleep again in seconds