Tuffy Turtle's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

The wind had moved faster than he could. Tuffy walked into the deeper forest, following the path of broken branches and torn earth. Then he heard it. A scream, sharp and scared, cutting through the trees ahead. Someone was already caught in it. Tuffy ran. His legs burned and his shell knocked against his back, but he didn't slow down. The rope bounced against his side as he pushed through the darkness. The screaming grew louder, coming from somewhere near the base of a hill. He rounded a stand of weathered trees, their trunks snapped in half and limbs scattered across the ground like broken bones. Just beyond them, a cave opened in the hillside, its mouth dark and wide. The screaming came from inside. He stepped into the cave and saw her pressed against the far wall — a doe, her eyes wide with terror. The wind howled at the cave's entrance behind him, pulling at his shell, trying to drag him back out. Tuffy braced himself and threw one end of the rope to her. She caught it, but when he pulled, the wind pulled harder. His feet slid across the stone. He wasn't strong enough. The rope burned his hands as it slipped through them, inch by inch. Tuffy wrapped the rope around his shell and dropped to the ground, using his own weight as an anchor. The wind screamed. The rope went taut. For a long moment, nothing moved. Then the wind shifted direction, howling deeper into the cave instead of out. The doe stumbled forward and collapsed beside him, gasping. Tuffy lay on the cold stone, the rope still wrapped around him, and understood something new. He could reach people in time. But he couldn't always do it alone. Someday, the wind would be stronger than his shell, and he would need someone to hold the other end.