Hand over Hand

They called and hallooed much louder, to drown out the whispering vines and their own panic. They were answered at last by a splash upstream. Adolphus had thrown a branch in the water. They retreated upriver to parlay.

“How can we answer you back with all that shouting?” Adolphus demanded.

“Never mind that!” Mirabelle interrupted. “It’s all those nasty vines over here unless we push back into the woods.”

“Bettina found the boat!” Annabelle said. “We need to find a way to get you all over here.”

The vines waved in the air as though seeking the source of all the noise. Gerhardt eyed them with distaste, running his finger along the string of his ammunitionless crossbow.

“Or you could cut through the woods and we could float down to meet you.”

They discussed this option at length. Finally Claire refused to do anything that might separate them further.

“Aaagh!” Gerhardt shouted and pointed to the river. “It’s swimming across!”

Annabelle looked. “Don’t panic. It’s just some vine that the yeti uprooted.” She raced the clump of dead killer vine downstream, jumping down to the sandy beach where the boat rested. To the pained dismay of her siblings he waded into the water, grabbed the dead vine and dragged it to shore.

“We know it’s strong and flexible,” she said. “Let’s see if we can use it.”

She taught Bettina to tie a sheet bend (Gerhardt already knew) and they tied the vines together. When the resulting rope was longer than the river was wide, she tied it to the pick. Instructing her siblings to move well back, she swung the impromptu grapple into the trees on their side of the river. She hit a branch on the first try but the pick bounced off and fell right into the middle of the living vine!

The vines grabbed the pick, feeling it all over. Annabelle yelled in frustration and yanked on the rope. The vine yanked back. Gerhardt and Bettina grabbed the rope too and all three of them pulled as hard as they could. More vines slithered over the pick to hold it.

Working under whispered instructions from Annabelle the children made as if to let go the rope, only to yank it all the harder on her signal. It didn’t work and they all fell into the dirt. The vines rustled and swayed. Gerhardt glared at them.

“It’s laughing at us!”

“Get ready over there!” Adolphus’ voice carried over the river.

Annabelle, Gerhardt, and Bettina jumped up and grabbed the rope again. They heard a brief scratch, and a small yellow flame fell into the midst of the clinging vine. The vines flailed and waved, frantically trying to escape the brief flame. The children pulled the pick free in the few seconds before the match went out, and von Hedwigs on both sides of the river cheered.

“How do that?” Bettina demanded.

Her eldest brother laughed. “Waterproof match case! Come on, Annabelle, don’t worry about getting it over a branch, just heave it over here and we’ll tie it off.”

She did so, and Adolphus, Mirabelle, and Claire crossed the river hand over hand on a rope made from the very vine that had tried to kill them.

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This story began with On Grandmothers. The previous episode was In a Strange Land and the next is The Last of the Gouda.