June gave me a quick, teasing nod. "Go get your prince. We'll get his flag."
"Goodluck," I shot before stalking slowly towards Griffin in the opposite direction to the way June and Jordan headed.
He looked me up and down. "How did you escape so quickly?"
"Magic."
He laughed softly. "I'll do better next time."
I continued taking slow steps towards him, distracting him with conversation. "There will be no next time. I can't believe you actually tied me up."
"I did warn you." He grinned then added, "And I made your face a masterpiece. 6:6, princess."
I lunged towards him but he dodged me at the last second.
"You'll have to be better than that," he teased.
I lunged again, this time almost brushing his jacket.
"I'd love to stay and chat." He winked. "But you know, I have a flag to get."
He turned on his heel and began running, me hot on his tail. I may not be on the school's hockey team myself, but I did have a brother who was. A brother who would drag me out to our local turf to help him train during the holidays. A brother who I was always determined to beat.
And now I was determined to catch Griffin.
To my relief it did seem as if he had no clue where our school's flag was because he was running in entirely the wrong direction. I chased him past the campsite and into the forest behind. We ran uphill for over ten minutes and slowly, much to my annoyance, he began to gain a lead on me.
By the time I reached an array of granite boulders near the top of the hill I'd lost sight of Griffin for at least ten seconds. I came to a halt and looked around, he could've gone in literally any direction from here. Just as I was beginning to believe that he'd actually lost me, I heard shouts coming from trees nearby and I began jogging again towards them.
One second I was dashing through the trees, the next I suddenly felt my body being swung up into the trees, a net engulfing me. It took me a few seconds to process what had happened, to realise that I was now swinging high up above the ground, ensnared in a net made of rope.
And to make matters worse, it was beginning to rain hard.
Today was not my day.
I quickly examined the rope net suspending me and groaned, this thing could contain a bear. There was no way I could break through the rope or somehow fit my body through a tiny hole.
"Someone! Help!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Help!"
Maybe Griffin was still within hearing distance. After a few minutes of shouting and almost going hoarse I realised that nobody was nearby and I was well and truly stuck. I turned my attention to the top of the net and climbed up the sides of my cage to reach it. To my disappointment the top didn't bring me freedom either, but rather confirmed just how trapped I was.
I began picturing the headline of the news: Bear trap activated by innocent girl who met her end in a tree.
We didn't even have bears in England.
Time passed and the rain and wind began picking up, turning me into a quivering mess even with my thick coat on. Surely capture-the-flag had finished by now? The sky was dark enough now that it had to be past 3pm. People should realise soon that I was missing. Though thinking about it, had they noticed I was missing all morning? No. They'd assumed I was off with Griffin.
What great friends I had.
I drew my coat hood further over my head. It was completely soaking already but it was my only shelter against the wind. I just had to survive in this trap until they sent out a search party looking for me. I rubbed my hands together, trying to return colour back into my fingers. Minutes continued to go by and I began singing softly to myself, trying to cause a distraction against the worsening weather.
People have survived far worse, I reminded myself. I'll be fine.
Maybe this was my superhero beginning. Maybe I'd become the next Iron Man. I laughed out loud. I already was a superhero. I was a female. A FeMale. Iron male. I laughed again, but to anyone listening it probably sounded like hysterical mumbo jumbo. The cold was messing with my head.
I. Am. Fe. Male.
I snapped my fingers together.
I. Am. Also. Freezing. People needed to hurry up and find me.
"Rory!" The wind seemed to howl, mocking me and my thoughts.
I sighed. Now I really was going crazy hearing voices in the wind.
"Rory!" There it was again. A voice in the storm. A voice of storm.
How poetic.
Maybe people would write poetry about me.
I shook my head. I wasn't in the 1800's, people would never write poetry about me.
"Rory!"
A familiar figure stepped into view. I blinked away the raindrops in my eyes. "Griffin?"
"I'm here," he said, running over. "You're safe."
For the first time in what felt like hours, warmth spread throughout my body.
"I never thought I'd be happy to see you." A lump formed in my throat. "But I am so happy you're here."
"I will always be here for you, princess." He looked up at me through the rain. "Time to get you down."
"How?"
"Here." He held up a knife. "Can you reach?"
I stretched my arm out through a hole, my numb fingertips just reaching the knife. I pulled it up and began cutting a hole in the side of the net. After a few minutes it was big enough for me to squeeze through and so I began climbing out.
I wish I could say I got down gracefully from there, but instead I climbed out and promptly lost my grip on the wet rope and fell to the ground with a thud. It took me a moment to realise that I hadn't actually landed on the hard ground, but rather onto Griffin.
"I hope you know CPR." He groaned beneath me. "You just took my breath away."
I sighed in relief. He was okay.
I rolled off him and shakely stood up. My body was stiff and muscles I never knew I had were sore. I began jumping up and down on the spot, trying to get my blood flowing. "How did you find me?"
Griffin stood up and it was then that I spotted his face. It looked almost... guilty? I narrowed my eyes as all became clear. "You knew where I was because you made that trap."
He grinned sheepishly. "6:7 to me."
"You—"
"Are soaking. We need to get you to shelter." He scooped my legs up and pulled me to his chest, bridal style.
"Griffin! Put me down!" I exclaimed.
He began walking. "Not happening princess."
I decided not to protest further because I was very happy to return to stealing his warmth. Instead I asked, "Why did you leave me there for so long? Over an hour was excessive for a prank."
"That, I am sorry about." He stepped over a puddle. "I waited just passed the trap for a couple of minutes but I didn't hear any cries of help from you so I assumed you'd missed the trap and were still following. Before I could even think about double checking on you, I got ambushed by your brother and his friends. They hauled me to jail and I couldn't exactly protest."
I prodded his chest with my finger. "You both need to get your ears checked. I was calling out for over ten minutes."
"I'm sorry. I never planned to leave you there. If I had known..." he trailed off.
"It's okay. How did you work I was actually here?"
"When the weather got worse the teachers decided to stop the game and send everyone back to the school."
"Who won?" I interrupted through shivering teeth.
"I'm not sure," Griffin replied. "I left to come find you the moment it ended." My heart fluttered and he continued. "I asked Noah if he'd seen you and he said no. I knew then that you likely had got caught so came for you immediately."
A flash of lightning lit up the sky and a few seconds later, thunder boomed and the heavens truly opened on us. Griffin cursed and gently put me down under a tree with massive leaves that acted as a bad umbrella. The weather was now ten times worse than what it had been mere seconds ago.
"Change of plans." Griffin shouted over the crashing of rain and wind. "We're not going back to school."
"What?" I shouted back.
He grabbed my hand. "Can you run?"
"Yes!"
Together we dashed through the undergrowth, and I could only trust that he knew where he was going because I definitely didn't. We ran through the forest that had been transformed into a watercolour painting of greens and browns, colours blending into one another. After a few more minutes a familiar cottage came into sight and we dashed towards the old door. Griffin swung it open and ushered me inside the old groundskeepers cottage.
I breathed out a sigh of relief; finally we were out of the rain.
Griffin took off his dripping coat and hung it over a chair. "We can stay here till the storm ends."
I didn't need to look out the window to see that the storm had really only just begun. "We might be here a while," I said quietly.
"I know." He looked at me and in the darkness of the room I saw a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You look like a drowned rat."
A/N:
Who here likes lightning storms? I love curling up by a window with blankets, a book, and a mug of hot chocolate whenever there is one.
A quick note to those who don't know, Fe means the chemical element iron. Hence Rory thinking she's iron male!
Vote and comment if you enjoyed:)
SouthernAlps over and out...