Bringing him back

The Climb

Autumn shivers and rubs her hands up her down her arms, trying to keep warm. Emily weaves and skips through the trees, excitedly. Autumn cautiously steps over the piles of sticks on the ground and maneuvers around the sharp branches.

"I bet the view from the top of the hill looks awesome!" Emily shrills happily and quickens her pace. Autumn tries to hurry too, but trips over a root in the ground.

"Emily, slow down!" Autumn pants, her breath coming out as a silver vapor.

"Hurry up!" Emily counters back as she pushes her way past the skinny trees. Autumn sighs as she tries to make her way past the low trees, but she gets scratched in the face by branches.

"Can you just wait for a second?"

"But we're nowhere near the top of the hill!" Emily exclaims. It's true, the ground had barely began to incline. Looking up, the top of the hill was still towering over them and it would take them quite awhile to reach the top. Of course, it was no help that the hill was covered in low trees that had already lost their leaves and were eager to poke and scratch anyone who walked past.

"I'm getting cut trying to keep up with you, though. You're short - you can make it under the branches better." Emily sighs dramatically and sits down on the hard earth, waiting for Autumn to catch up. Autumn trudges up the hill with her head ducked down to avoid branches scratching her face.

"Finally!" Emily says, when Autumn finally makes it up to her. Autumn glares at her and Emily sticks out her tongue.

"C'mon, ya dork, let's get going." Autumn says and helps Emily up. Emily already was a couple feet ahead of Autumn in just a minute. However, Emily would stop on occasion to let Autumn catch up to her. Autumn didn't understand why Emily wanted her to come along if Emily was just going to leave Autumn in the dust. Slowly and steadily they make their way up the hill. Autumn went from shivering to sweating uncomfortably as they climbed higher and higher, their legs burning.

"We're almost there." Emily pants. Autumn merely nods.

"Do you think our fort will still be there?"

"It's not really a fort...More like a hole we just dug in the side of the hill."

"I bet it'll be there." Emily presses on and cranes her neck to see if she can see it.

"I think it's a little more that way." Autumn says pointing to the left. Emily nods her head in agreement and they walk tiredly to the left. They sustain peaceful silence for about a minute. Both girls were concentrated on catching their breath and inhaling gulps of the crisp, cold air. Emily breaks the silence.

"I see it!" she shouts and with sudden energy makes a lopsided run for their 'fort'. Autumn quickens her pace as she watches Emily shovel out soggy, yellow leaves.

"It's smaller than I remember." Emily says.

"That's probably because the last time we were up here it was like, last summer. You were smaller." Emily shrugs and sits down in the hole they dug out of the earth.

"It's really pretty up here." Emily says. Autumn nods as she looks appreciatively at the view. They were extremely high up, the houses down below were barley visible. The trees beneath them were skeletons, having lost all their leaves. The sky was a brilliant blue and not a cloud was in sight. Autumn sits down next to Emily and feels her jeans sodden beneath her. She doesn't mind however and continues to look admiringly out at the view. Neither of the girls talked for awhile, the simply let the view entertain them as they caught their breath.