"No!" Louie almost shouted.
I put my hands on his mouth.
"We need to save the other one," he said through my fingers.
"We can't do anything, Louie," I said, trying to hold him tighter.
"Of course we can. Rory, we can take on it, right?"
"Aye, we could" the dwarf agreed and looked at me, pain in his eyes. "But we need to stay put."
The second calf was no longer running and had frozen in fear, letting out screams as it tried to force its body to move away.
"Why? That child needs our help," Louie protested.
"Remember what the queen said," I told him. "We need to refrain from violence."
"Aye," Rory added. "This is the circle of life in the wild."
"You can't save them all," I said, and petted him sadly.
"I can and I will!" Louie said and wriggled out of my grasp.
Just as the balgura was about to grab its second prey, Louie cast a spell against the side of the canyon. His ball of compressed air exploded on the cliffside, sending debris flying into the air. The balgura was too far away to be hit by any of it but it was enough to distract it and also to jump-start the calf's survival instinct.
The smaller animal started its slow run away from the hulking primate, which was now pumping its chest in frustration. The huge black monster sprinted after the calf, but it was obvious it was now a losing battle for it. It was simply too slow.
Once the balgura had disappeared from our view and we could no longer hear its footsteps, we climbed out of our little hideout and patted ourselves down to get rid of all the dust and dirt that had fallen on us during the stampede.
"It's not fair," Louie said as he sniffed at the blood and pieces of flesh left by the calf that was eaten alive. "It could have escaped."
"This is the way the world works in the--"
"I know how the world works," Louie interrupted me. "It doesn't mean I have to like it."
"No," I said and fell on one knee, stroking his back. "But you have to live with it."
"I'm sorry, Alex," he said, turning around to face me with his ears pointed at me. "I don't have to live with anything I don't like. If I don't like something, I will change it."
I opened my mouth to offer another piece of comforting advice that would soothe his pain, but couldn't find any.
How could I argue with what he'd just said? He had the mental power and determination to strive for something better. To make a change.
"As soon as we're done here, I'm starting the dog rescue project," he said and barked determinedly. "Will you all help me?"
"In any way I can," I replied without having to even think about it.
Rory and Leo also agreed with a nod.
"Great," he said, and his face took up his usually happy and smiley expression again, his tail wagging softly. "Then let's get this quest going," he added, starting directly toward the side of the canyon.
"Do you know where we're going?" I asked.
"To Mount Palm," he said without turning around to look at us.
"Did you see a mountain when you were floating before?"
"I did," he replied. "We need to climb this cliffside."
"How do ye know it's the mountain we want?" Rory took his turn in asking.
"You'll see when we climb up." Louie turned around to look at us. "I have a hundred feet of rope in my inventory. How much is that? Is it enough for me to tie it to something above and throw it down to you guys?"
"Should be plenty enough," Rory said, once he'd taken a good look at the cliff we would try to ascend.
The side of the canyon wasn't completely smooth. In fact, there were enough footholds that an experienced climber might be able to get to the top without having too much trouble. But I'd only ever tried climbing at an indoor climbing park once and I was sure Leo had never done this before, so the assistance of a rope was necessary.
"Okay, here I go then," Louie said.
"Ye know how to tie a knot?" Rory shouted, once Louie was about halfway up.
"Guess we'll have to see," Louie replied. He let out a howl before landing on the cliff's edge.
For a few moments, he moved out of our view, searching for a place to tie the rope. Soon after, the thick rope dropped down in front of us, hitting the ground with a little thump.
"Want to go first?" I asked Leo and he nodded.
My thinking was that it would be better if he went first, since he was the weakest of us in terms of HP and Physical Defense. If he fell, we'd be able to catch him.
Yet again, however, Leo surprised me by pulling himself up easily and climbing at a fairly fast rate. even though he didn't look like he had the physicality for it. Leo was always a man of secret talents and this must have been a big one. There was no way to reach results like these in few weeks. He'd probably been training his body for quite a while.
As soon as he got to the top, he threw another rope down the ground. "Tie it around yourself and I'll hold the other end," he shouted, "but don't use it to climb up. It's just a failsafe."
"Okay," I shouted and then turned to Rory. "Shall I go first?"
"Ye're strong, lad, but I doubt ye can catch me if I fall." He started to tie the rope around me. "More likely ye'll break my fall and I'll break ye."
"Fair enough," I said, exhaling so that Rory's knot would be tighter around my waist.
"Off ye go," Rory said and patted my back as I put my hand on a protruding rock.
"Coming!" I shouted, and the rope tied around me tensed up.
I followed Leo's steps as much as I could but soon felt the climb was much more difficult than he'd
