Page 17 of The Mountain Man's Determined Bride
Morgan got busy collecting every small stick she could find. Unfortunately at this time of year, she probably wouldn’t find any that were bone dry but she had to try. She scooted herself over to a fat dead log, hoping the termites chewed it enough she could dig out some loose dry pieces from the middle.
With no concept of time and no light other than the moon shining through occasionally, she worked slow and collected what she thought might work as tinder then busied herself striking the stones together hoping for a spark or two. “Maybe I could use a vine and some sticks to create friction and an ember. I’ve seen that guy Bear, oh what was his name? He made it look easy.” It was something she’d never done before or ever needed to do, they always carried everything necessary in their packs or on the snowmobiles. She tied the vine around a stick, bending it to make a bow then twisting the vine around another stick and using it like a drill into a piece of wood.
Remembering what that guy from the TV had done, somehow she’d whittled the wood down enough it started to get hot and actually lit. She’d also worn herself out completely. After adding the sticks she’d found and some moss that felt dry, she had herself a small fire which was just enough to take away the chill and make her sleepy. With Pepper’s reigns in hand, she laid her head back against the log and promptly fell asleep.
Unfortunately it didn’t last as long as she’d wanted, the sleep part. Something must have spooked Pepper, his stirring pulling on the arm she’d attached to the reigns.
“What is it Pepper?” She couldn’t see a thing ten feet away from the fire. She tried to tune out the crackling of the fire but didn’t hear anything. Morgan knew they’d slipped and fallen down into a ravine so maybe the smoke from her fire caught someone’s attention. Preferably not a predator looking for a snack.
“Hello, is anyone out there?” Then silence, she waited a minute and tried it again a little louder. Then she heard it, faint but she’d definitely heard voices. “Hello, who’s there?”
***
“This isn’t a very traveled path Luke, are you sure my sister went this way?”
“Positive, I saw her myself. Besides, she never took the same path down the mountain that she’d used coming up. At least that’s how she did it when we dated.” Hopefully that hadn’t changed because she could be anywhere…lost. They’d hollered her name so many times, even the owls were talking back.
“Hey do you see that?”
“What?” Luke tried to focus on where he thought Tyler was pointing. “Where am I looking exactly?”
“Over to the right. I think there’s a ravine that way. Looks a little like smoke, don’t you think?”
“Damn, it sure as hell does. Do you think that’s her? How the hell would she build a fire but more importantly, why would she still be out here. We need to get there.”
Both men kicked their horses into a trot, shining the flashlights on the path ahead of them until they were parallel to the stream of smoke. Tyler jumped down first, hurrying to look down the slope but caught some mud and slid down a few feet.
Whoa there…” Luke grabbed the man before he slid off the side. “We need to find another way down there. I sure as hell hope she didn’t slide off this trail.”
“You and me both, thanks for saving me. That’s a long way down there.”
Luke and Tyler walked their horses ahead, steering clear of the mud then mounted and rode a ways until they found a path that looked to meet up with the ravine.
“It doesn’t look as steep as where you fell, maybe we can tie off the horses to a couple branches and work our way down the hill.”
“I’m game if you are.” Tyler was first down the mountain side, both men using the small rooted trees to keep them from sliding. Once at the bottom, they headed off in the direction of the smoke.
“Morgan is that you?”
“Who’s there?” A faint female voice answered.
“Sis? Oh my God itisyou.” They ran to her side, Tyler wasting no time throwing his arms around his sister. “Thank god you’re alive. How the hell did you get down here?”
Morgan had started to explain with shaky breaths but stopped suddenly when Luke emerge from behind her brother. She couldn’t help her emotions at the sight of him. She wanted to hate him but he’d come through for her, he’d followed her after all. She had her doubts but maybe she was wrong to doubt him. Tyler moved away so Luke could come closer.
“Hey.” He knelt down face to face and she didn’t hesitate to throw her arms around his neck.
Through soft sobs she mumbled…“you came for me.”
“Of course I did. Did you think I wouldn’t? I was crazy with worry when you took off.” He kissed the side of her face, his hands running from her neck line to her back. “I’m so sorry for everything Morgan, for whatever I did wrong. I just don’t want to lose you.”
“Alright you two, that’s enough. We need to find a way out of here.” Both men discussed their options, which weren’t plentiful.
“I think our best bet might be to wander up the ravine a ways. Looks like it might go uphill slightly that way so maybe one of us can climb back up the hillside we came down from and get the horses and hope the path up there meets up with the ravine eventually.” Tyler shrugged, waiting for Luke’s opinion on the idea.
“Okay, I see how that might work but what do we do with Morgan. I sure as hell can’t carry her outta here. Do you think if we get her up on the horse, she could ride out of here?”
“Yeah actually, I think that’s as good an idea as any. I’ll check her leg but it looks like she wrapped it pretty good. Doesn’t surprise me, she’s always been a master at that.” They looked over to where Morgan was covered and out cold leaning against the log where they’d found her.