Shorts of the Rula

Forest Falls

He rolled from his side onto his back, feeling the stiff aches like many sticks poking at him. Turning his head, he looked up the slope, feeling again every battering bump from his roll down it. Slowly, he brought out his phone from one of his pockets. It was cracked, a great jagged fissure of lines that rendered the screen unusable.

A hiss of a sigh escaped him that transformed into a howl of pain.

A slight movement of his leg was all it had taken. Until that moment, he'd been unable to feel the burning hurt it was sending him. Now, it seemed to be all that he could feel.

Pushing himself to a seating position, he looked at his legs. The left looked fine. The right looked fine.

Except for the furious fire of the pain within.

Breathing in deeply, he tried to think of anything but the pain. Letting his breath out, he felt slightly better. Repeating it twice more, he then looked around as he thought of the best way to continue.

Hopefully, he pressed the power button of his phone to wake it, but that hope was snubbed when no light showed.

He knew it was evening, having left Thetford at six of the afternoon, walking the forest back to his home of Brandon. A journey he had made many times, making his fall this time a stupid accident.

There were many paths through the forest, but he only ever touched a few of them, as he would always cut through the trees to make as direct a path as possible.

He had to be close to one of those paths. It would be there he might be able to find someone. Anyone. Whether a jogger or dog walker or anyone else, he needed help.

Tucking his legs toward him to jump up, doing his best to ignore the pain of the right, he lost balance as soon as it was just his legs supporting him.

On his side, he shuffled closer to the nearest tree. Grabbing it, pulling himself up with it, he leant against it with only his left leg on the ground. His right knee rested on the trunk of the tree as he rubbed at the lower half of his leg.

The pain didn't subside.

He couldn't be sure if it was broken or just severely stressed from the fall. No matter what had happened to it, the only sure thing was clear. It wouldn't be supporting him if he tried to use it.

But he had to if he wanted to find help.

Fortunately, being surrounded by trees was an advantage.

Quickly looking around, he tried determining the direction that would let him see a path in the shortest distance. Sure on that direction, he prepared for the long steps to the next tree.

Pushing himself away from the tree, he swung his right leg forward, his left leaving the ground. For a second, he flew through the air. His right foot touched the ground.

There was nothing. His leg had left him. He felt frozen, unable to move except for the fact the momentum of his jump was still carrying him forward. Suddenly all the pain burst back into existence just as he fell forward in an uncontrolled tumble, whacked off the tree and onto the ground again.

Pain flared in his left arm as he landed on it, quickly dispersing again a second later as he rolled onto his front.

He was angry at himself for attempting such a stupid move. He had wanted to move quickly, but hadn't considered that doing so would cause more harm to himself.

Pushing himself back to standing, gritting his teeth at the pain as he moved, he leant against the tree he had just hit. He needed to take things slow, rest when necessary, and hopefully find someone soon.