Chapter 62 – After the Fall

  They didn’t stop right away after the treefall. Riley made sure they moved past the broken branches and unstable ground before calling a real break. When she finally did, the group gathered in a small hollow just off the trail, surrounded by ferns and thick moss.

  Everyone looked rattled.

  Jess sat down with her back against a tree, chest rising and falling too fast. Marco paced in small circles, muttering, “That was too close, too close, too close.” SkyWaker lay face?down on the ground in dramatic despair while Sir Quacksworth supervised from a rock. SleepisforT leaned heavily against her trekking poles, still pale.

  And Fleta…

  Fleta stood very still.

  She felt like her bones weighed more than her body. Like her muscles remembered the slide, the empty air yawning beneath her. Like her breath wasn’t sure if it belonged in her lungs yet.

  Riley stepped toward her. “StillMoving?”

  The nickname grounded her — two words that weren’t fear, weren’t memory, weren’t the shaking inside her chest.

  Fleta blinked and looked up.

  “I’m okay,” she said automatically.

  Her voice didn’t sound like hers.

  Riley’s expression softened. “You don’t have to be okay yet.”

  Fleta swallowed.

  SleepisforT limped over slowly and sat beside her on a soft patch of moss. “That scared me,” she said bluntly. “Like a lot.”

  Fleta let out a trembling breath. “Me too.”

  Jess dropped to her knees in front of them. “Fleta, when you slid — I thought—” Her voice cracked. She didn’t finish.

  Marco finally stopped pacing. “I felt my soul leave my body. Like, for real.”

  SkyWaker raised a hand from the dirt. “SAME.”

  Fleta felt the pressure in her chest build — not panic, not fear. Something else. Something deeper.

  Riley knelt in front of her, staying low and calm. “Tell me what’s going on inside,” she said gently. “Not the outside version. The real one.”

  Fleta’s throat tightened.

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  “I… I keep seeing it,” she whispered. “The edge. The drop. My feet sliding. That feeling of… of losing the ground under me.”

  Her breath hitched.

  “I wasn’t thinking about bad memories,” she continued. “Not this time. It wasn’t like before.” She pressed a shaking hand to her chest. “This was now fear. Present fear. And it still won’t leave my body.”

  Riley nodded slowly. “That makes perfect sense.”

  “It does?” Fleta asked, voice small.

  “Of course,” Riley said. “Your body just went through something terrifying. It needs time. That doesn’t mean you’re weak.”

  Fleta blinked hard. “It felt like something grabbed me — like the trail almost took me.”

  SleepisforT shook her head. “It didn’t. I grabbed you first.” Her voice trembled too. “And I would do it again. Every time.”

  Jess sniffed. “We’re not letting this trail steal you. Ever.”

  Marco added, “If a mountain wants to fight us, it’s gonna have to get through all of us first.”

  SkyWaker lifted their head. “AND THROUGH THE DUCK.”

  A small laugh slipped from Fleta — just enough to loosen her chest.

  Riley placed a steady hand over Fleta’s. “You’re safe. You’re alive. And you handled the danger exactly right.”

  Fleta’s breath wavered. “But I was so scared.”

  Riley nodded. “Courage isn’t not being scared. Courage is being scared and still reaching for the next handhold.”

  The words landed somewhere deep. Somewhere still shaking, but quieter now.

  Fleta lowered herself to sit on the moss beside SleepisforT. Her legs felt rubbery. Her palms were damp. Her breath still shook a little.

  But the world wasn’t spinning. The edge wasn’t beneath her. And she wasn’t alone.

  Jess leaned against her shoulder. Marco sat cross?legged nearby, pretending to meditate. SkyWaker flopped dramatically across everyone’s knees. SleepisforT held Fleta’s hand lightly, as if reminding her she still existed in the safe world, not the dangerous one.

  Riley sat last, circling the group with a leader’s protective calm.

  “You’re allowed to feel all of this,” Riley said. “Take the time you need.”

  Fleta nodded.

  For a long moment, no one spoke. The wind moved through the trees. Birds sang again — a sign danger had passed. The moss cushion felt solid under her.

  Finally, Fleta whispered:

  “I thought I was going to fall.”

  Riley squeezed her shoulder. “You didn’t.”

  SleepisforT added softly, “And you won’t.”

  Fleta closed her eyes.

  Her body still remembered fear — but now it also remembered hands pulling her up, voices calling out, faces twisted with concern, not anger.

  Support, not punishment. Love, not control. Safety, not silence.

  When she opened her eyes again, the world felt steadier.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “All of you.”

  Jess smiled through watery eyes. “Anytime.”

  Marco nodded. “Every time.”

  SkyWaker threw one arm skyward. “THE FELLOWSHIP ENDURES!”

  Riley smiled. “When you’re ready, we’ll move. No hurry.”

  Fleta took a slow breath.

  Still shaky. But full.

  “I’m… still moving,” she whispered.

  This time, it didn’t feel like a reminder.

  It felt like truth.