At The End of Her Rope (Secret Santa for High on Lullabies)

[Blah!?]

Righto, here's my submission. I hope you like it, HoL!

Prompt: Two girls are on a hiking trip on a summer afternoon and manage to get themselves lost. As they get deeper into country, wildflowers abound and one of the girls allergies start acting up. The other tries to help her control her symptoms. And she'll need to, when they have to hide from a wandering bear....

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Freya didn't hate being outdoors. On the contrary, she was very outgoing and loved to get a breath of fresh air whenever possible. What she did hate, however, were her allergies. Flowers, trees and even freshly cut grass could ruin an otherwise perfect day. But a forest hike on a hot summer day was a necessary evil. Jen, Freya's roommate, was a timid, panicky individual, and Freya was determined to break her out of her shell. They would start small, and a secluded hike with just the two of them seemed small enough. Or, at least it had before Freya's allergies began to act up.

"HEH'TSCHH!"

"Gesundheit, Frey. Need a tissue?"

"Nope, I'm good." Freya took in a hard sniff and rubbed her nose. Jen seemed a little more talkative than she normally was, so Freya was willing to overlook the itchy feeling in her nose, for a while at least. She chuckled as she watched Jen trying to make sense of her map, holding it so close to her face that she may as well have been wearing it. Jen turned the map over and tilted her head to the side, clearly confused as to their location.

"Frey, where are we?" Jen asked, giving up on the map.

"No idea." Freya shrugged. Upon hearing these words, Jen took on a frightened expression. She glanced around nervously, clutching the left strap of her backpack with both hands.

"Well, um, can we go back then? I don't want to get lost." Jen was almost hopping up and down, building up too much nervous energy to contain. "We can just follow that rope you've been laying ."

'Oh yeah, the rope,' Freya thought to herself. It was one of Jen's precautions for their hike, but in an attempt to expose her to the real world, Freya neglected to inform her when it ran out. That was over thirty minutes ago, so Freya had forgotten about it completely. Looking back to Jen, Freya shrugged again.

Jen nearly screamed. She spun around in a circle and began to jump up and down. After a moment, she had completely lost herself.

"We're lost! We're going to die out here!" Jen wailed, grabbing Freya's arm and jerking her back and forth. Freya put her hands on Jen's shoulders and held her still.

"We're not going to die. We just have to… Have to… Hehh… Hahhh… HEHSHHH! EH'TSCHH!" Freya let go of Jen and took a step back, rolling her eyes. This wasn't the best time to have an allergy attack. Freya rubbed her nose back and forth with her middle and index fingers, feeling the itch inside progressively weaken until it was nothing more than a dull tingle. She opened her eyes and nearly jumped as Jen immediately shoved a folded tissue over her nose.

"Jen, now really isn't the best time," Freya said, jerking her head back and away from the tissue. Jen stepped forward after her and planted the tissue back on her friend's nose.

"If you promise me we'll be okay, I'll believe you. Bur first…" Jen tilted her head to the side and put on her impossibly exaggerated 'sad-cute face.' Freya groaned, but she knew going along with it would keep Jen calm. She took a deep breath and blew her nose into the tissue, immediately feeling better as she did. Freya sniffed and ran her index finger across the underside of her now only slightly stuffy nose.

"Alright, alright. I promise we'll be okay. Just let me see the map," Freya said, trying to look as calm as possible. Jen handed the map to her friend, standing next to her so she could read it as well. Freya tried to find any landmarks on the map that they could see from their location. She found it difficult to concentrate, being distracted by both Jen's panicked jitters and the itchiness of her nose. Freya was able to ignore both for a short time, but before long her allergies once again begged to be indulged.

"Ehhh… Heehhhh…" Freya tilted her head back as her eyes slowly fluttered shut and her nostrils flared. Jen immediately caught on to what was happening, and she had a feeling what would ultimately happen. "Hehhhh… Haahhhhh…"

"Whatever you do, don't sneeze in-"

"EHH'TSCHH!"

"-The map."

Freya had reflexively raised the map up to her face as she sneezed, pressing her nose into it. She held it out to take a look at the damage, but she immediately crumpled it up. Freya tossed the ball of paper high into the air over her shoulder and heard it hit something, but it didn't sound like leaves or dirt. She slowly turned around to see a brown bear standing only a few feet away. Freya seized up, but she managed to tap Jen on the shoulder.

"Jen, turn around slowly. Don't make any quick movements," Freya instructed, punctuating her last sentence with the quietest sniffle. Jen immediately began to tremble, even before seeing what was behind her. Upon seeing the bear Jen tried to scream, but Freya had prepared for this. She had slowly moved her hand up to about where her friend's face would have been when she turned, ready to cover her mouth. As soon as Jen was silenced, Freya did her best to take control of the situation.

"Be quiet, don't make any sudden movements. Most of all, don't run. Try to look as imposing as possible," Freya said in a low voice, trying to ignore the ever-increasing tickling inside of her nose. Jen shot her an unsure glance.

"Look as imposing as possible? Do you have any idea how hard that is for me? And, how do you know any of this will even work?" Jen replied, trying to be quiet herself.

"I don't. I just seems like it would."

"Oh, great. That's really helping."

"Don't meh… Mention… Hehh…" Freya's eyes would have rolled if they weren't fluttering shut. This was the absolute worst time for her allergies to act up, but when nature calls… Jen caught on to what was happening, and she raised her own hand up to her friend's face. She slid her finger under Freya's quivering nostrils, praying her efforts would be enough.

"Ehh… Heehh… Haahhh…" Freya's head tilted back slightly, her nose escaping Jen's finger. Jen reacted quickly and shoved her finger back into place, squishing her friend's nose up roughly. The bear growled at the sudden motion, but it didn't show any further aggression.

Despite its presence, Freya wasn't paying any attention to the bear. She was devoting all of her focus to holding back her ever-building sneeze. All the leaves, pollen and dust from the trail were driving her allergies wild, but she just couldn't let herself sneeze. A single itchy tear dripped from her left eye as the tickling in her nose flared up to an unbearable level. Jen tried to help out as best she could, starting to rub her finger slowly across the underside of Freya's nose, but it didn't appear to calm her down in the slightest.

"Heeehhhh… Ehhhh… HAaaahh…" If the tickling in her nose grew even the slightest bit stronger, Freya knew she would have to sneeze. Her head tilted back even further, a sure sign that she was about to lose control. However, just as she lost herself to the building sneeze, Freya heard a loud crash in the distance.

"HEE'TCHHHH!!" Freya bent completely at the waist with the force of her sneeze. As she straightened up, she slowly opened her eyes and saw that the bear was miraculously heading the other way, leaving her and Jen alone behind it. As she thought of Jen, Freya realized that her friend was no longer with her. Turning around, she saw Jen running off into the forest as fast as she could. Letting out an irritated sigh, Freya began to run after her.

"Jen, stuh… Ahhh… Haahhh…" Freya reached one hand out to Jen as she ran, feeling yet another sneeze building up. She grabbed the back of her friend's shirt, but she still kept running. No longer wary of the bear, Freya gave in to her newest sneeze and immediately wished she hadn't.

"EH'TSCHH!" As she sneezed, Freya tripped and fell to the ground, pulling Jen down along with her. They landed on a patch of dirt, bumped and bruised but still relatively unharmed. Freya laughed as she stood up, helping Jen to her feet as she did. As soon as Jen was standing again, she forcefully shoved Freya, knocking her on her rear. She put her hands down on either side of her body to steady herself and felt something she didn't expect under her right palm. Looking down toward her hand, Freya held up a piece of white string.

"Hey look, it's the ruh… Rehhh… Heehh… E'TSCHH! Rope."

[obsessed]

Aha, this was cute! I like how it all fit together.

"We're lost! We're going to die out here!"

That line killed me.

[count tiszula]

Terrific! Once more the sneeze is mightier than the ravening beast! Especially when emanating from a heroic maiden. And lots of FUN, building up, holding back, infact all the good stuff....

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Just the right combination of funny and angst and spice in my opinion. Great story, as always.

[Owen]

You are the god of stories!! XD

[greenwave9]

=D ok that was awesome! any slight possibility of a part 2?

[Just Older]

That was impressive, Blah-San!

They were both so calm and panicky at the same time.

[Whysprr]

This was really good! Great story

[ooo]

Aww, this was cute and well-written! Loved the ending

[High on Lullabies]

Eeee! I love it, sir! I love it I do, thank you so so much!

It's got some wonderful ideas in it, particularly Freya (and I like that name too, by the way) sneezing all over the map. And that's before you even get to the tension and the delightfully meltingly yummy build-up to the conclusion.

It's got everything I like in a story in a neat little package, I couldn't have asked for more

[sillystarsmoons]

I liked reading this. Great story. Thanks for sharing.