He dug his knees into the dirt, clinging to anything to get leverage to pull himself upwards. The incline was steep, and his core was screaming at him, and so was the side of his ribs that had hit the ground hard on the way down.
“Please, please please,” he ground out under his breath, trying to push on despite the ache, his ankle throbbing more with the strain of his leg muscles. The path seemed impossibly high up, horrifically out of reach, and he clung to the few roots he could hold, desperate to get up there. He made it just about halfway up before his knee slipped and he found himself sliding back to the bottom, groaning in pain and despair. Henry gave himself a moment to breathe, a moment to check himself over and make sure he wasn’t any worse off than he had been before. And then h
