Ending ELE (ELE Series) by Rebecca Gober, Courtney Nuckels

‘packing’ while Claire goes back to the others and reiterates my plan… My lousy plan that obviously won’t get us any closer to where we need to be.
    We all grab our packs and make sure the fire is completely out. It’s stopped snowing for the most part outside. The accumulation still makes our path treacherous, but at least our vision isn’t totally obstructed. Holding hands and forming a train, we slowly make our way up the same path we came down the night before.
    The bright snow burns my eyes as the sun ricochets off its surface. I can ’t hold my hand over my eyes because I have to hold onto the person in front of me and the person behind me. I feel like I walk almost blindly up the side of the cliff. It’s a little nerve wracking to say the least. After twenty minutes or so and some heavy climbing, we eventually all make it to the top in one piece.
    We lean against a few trees and catch our breath. I scan the area, hoping to have some kind of epiphany as to how to cross the waterfall. I look down at the pool of water beneath the falls. There are several fallen trees here and there strung out along the bank of the river. “We could move those and create a bridge to cross the river, if we could just get to the bottom.”
    Marya notices the fallen trees that I ’m looking at. “Yeah, I could totally move those. I just don’t see a way down from up here though.”
    “ We could try just walking along this route for a while and hope that the terrain slowly travels downhill,” Alec thinks aloud.
    Carrie steps in between us to get a better look of the area. “If this is Chikawan Falls, which it looks like it is, we would be travelling quite a ways before we find an easy way down to the river. Even then, we would have eventually had to get wet to get back to this point. I had no idea we were this far north. This waterfall and the cliffs that surround it are famous for being a rock climber’s paradise. With such exclusive access to only those who took on the thrill of the climb, people would come from all over the country to rappel down the side of these cliffs and swim in the pools of water at the bottom below.”
    “ Nice...” Connor says. “But how do we get down?”
    “ Man,” I say. “If only we could all just jump down into that pool of water.”
    Connor looks like he is actually thinking that could be a possibility… until Claire sets him straight with a stern look.
    Alec pulls a long rope from his pack and holds it up for us to see. “Rappelling anyone?”
    At this point, I’m not sure which way is up and which way is down. The color drains from my face and I have to hold onto the tree to remain upright.
    I feel Tony ’s arm wrap securely around my middle. “You okay?” he asks in my ear.
    I shake my head from side to side. “No way. There’s no way I’m rappelling down the side of that cliff,” I say, because really, it is not an option.
    “ Well, what do we have here?” Connor says playfully. “We finally find the chink in Willow’s armor.”
    I glare at Connor. “What, are you seriously willing to put your life in the hands of a single rope?”
    He gives me a smirk but doesn ’t reply.
    My dad looks around us. “Willow, honey, if we have any chance of getting down there,” he points down to the bottom of the waterfall, “then it seems as if it’s our only option. I’m not a fan of heights either, but it just doesn’t seem like we have a lot of options here.”
    “ Don’t get me wrong,” I interject. “I’m not scared of heights, you guys. What I’m scared of is dangling from a rope down the side of a cliff! Does that seriously not freak anyone else out?” I ask in bewilderment.
    Tony takes me by the arms and forces me to look straight into his face. “Look at me, Willow… really look at me.” I calm myself as much as I can and give Tony my full attention. “If I didn’t feel it was safe, I would never allow you to do this. Not ever.” Then his voice turns to a