[Naria]

"Ahh, now this is much better," She sighed. Narleah had found some reprieve from the sun that had made her sick the previous day. She climbed ever higher until she reached the top of a large hill. The scenery was breathtaking, she couldn't help wondering though how she would escape the mass amount of trees that surrounded the area. The little dwarf whistled a happy tune as she moved down the other side of the hill.

Narleah was making good time, when she suddenly came to a crevice in the earth. It was not all that wide, about four to five feet across, so she figured that she would be able to jump across. She took a few steps back and ran forward as fast as her little legs could take her. Sailing through the air she thought how easy is this, I will make it no problem.Just as she was about to put her right leg forward to reach the opposite side of the crevice; her foot slipped and she found herself falling...down, down until she landed with a mighty thud. Narleah shook her head trying to clear her blurry vision...."Aye, well I should have known that my day was fairing to well for me," she sneered. It was at that time that she felt a searing pain rise from her right knee; Narleah had sprained her knee in the fall.

She sat crumpled at the bottom of the pit for quite sometime wincing in pain and trying to think of a way out. Narleah had noticed that the area immediately around the crevice had no trees, alive or dead. There were, however rocks and lots of them. She pulled her crumpled hat out of the small of her back where she put it when she arrived in the cooler climate. What to do, what to do she thought. "Hmmm, if I were to pierce a hole through my hat and pull the rope through....I could try and hook my hat on one of those rocks up there." She pondered some more and then thought what do I have to lose, I might as well try. Narleah did just that, it took some doing, but she managed to rip a hole in her beloved hat and pull the rope through. She gave a giant heave ho and threw it up....nothing, it didn't even reach half way. She gave another heave ho...this time it made it to the top, but didn't grab onto anything. Narleah watched the hat fall back down and gave it yet another lob upwards. Success! The hat grabbed hold of a rock, but would it be enough to hold her weight. She gave the rope a tug and found that the hat did not come floating back down to her. Narleah tied the remaining rope around her waist and began shimmying up to her freedom. She had found a rhythm, she used her good leg for leverage and her buttocks for support and balance. It was hard work dragging her bad leg instead of being able to use it, but she managed to work her way to the top.

Narleah reached the mouth of the crevice and found that getting herself over the ledge was actually much harder than she imagined. She took her pack off and threw it up and over the ledge and with all of her might, pulled and pulled herself until she could use her left knee to push her body up and over the rest of the way. Totally exhausted and feeling the throb in her knee, she lay on her back staring up at a now starry night.