Conquering the Cliff
The first thing Chester did upon returning home with the resin was to make a brush by tightly binding stiff animal hair to the end of a stick. He dipped the newly fashioned brush into the bucket of resin. After coating the bristles with a bit of the precious sap—which had cost him an entire day of painstaking harvesting—he applied it to the split sole of his shoe. He pressed the sole firmly against the shoe, wrapped it tightly with cord, bound it secure, and set it aside to dry.
"This should hold it," Chester muttered, setting the shoe down before pulling out their preserved rations. He stuffed his face with a mix of smoked meat—gathered from his hunting and trapping—and the strawberry dough he had been hoarding so carefully.
Monia, on the other hand, was utterly enchanted by the strawberry dough. She loved its chewy, springy texture, but most of all, she relished its rich, concentrated sweetness.
"This is... absolutely marvelous!"
"Only eat one. Just one of those is enough to count as a full meal."
"I simply must have another!"
"Hey, hands off." Chester caught her before she could bolt toward the workshop, silently resolving to hide the rest of the strawberry dough somewhere she would never find it.
"So, we begin by cutting more bamboo today?"
"Yeah. Reminds me of when we were building the cabin."
"I hoped I wouldn't have to look at another stalk of bamboo for a very long time."
At her complaint, Chester gave her a look as if she were speaking nonsense, lightly shaking the bucket of resin. Monia stared at the bucket—which was, of course, made of bamboo—and let out a soft chuckle, nodding in defeat.
"At this rate, do you think we'll drive the island's bamboo to extinction?"
"Hardly. This island is massive. There's bound to be bamboo growing everywhere."
Axes in hand, the two of them set out from the cabin.
"Hah!" With one final swing of her axe, Monia brought a bamboo stalk crashing down. She chopped it into sections and rolled them away with her foot. The logs rolled across the ground, settling neatly beside the other piles.
"Phew." Wiping the sweat from her brow, Monia began trimming the smaller branches off the stalks using her claw knife. Beside her, Chester—who had already finished trimming his own pile and binding them into neat bundles—was already bringing down another tree.
"Say, Chester. Isn't there a pretty significant distance between the waterfall and the cabin?"
"There is."
"Then how are we going to manage it? Over a distance like that, won't the..."
"Won't the aqueduct sag and bend?"
"Yes."
"We have trees along the path. We'll use them as supports. We can loop ropes loosely around the trunks and suspend the bamboo channels from them."
Naturally, he also planned to reinforce the structure. By splitting bamboo into thin strips, wrapping them around the main channels, and binding them tightly, they could provide a decent amount of structural integrity.
Nodding in understanding, Monia deftly swung her claw knife, slicing away the remaining branches. She stacked the bamboo logs with practiced ease and bound them together with rope.
After about half a day of grueling labor, they had successfully cleared out every single mature bamboo stalk, leaving only the young shoots behind.
"Phew!"
"We've completely decimated this place."
"Yeah. The rest of the forest is dense, but this patch is completely bald now."
After making several trips back and forth to haul all the bamboo to the cabin, they finally sat down for lunch. Their meal consisted of the tender pith of a plant they had found while searching for bamboo, along with some strawberry dough and smoked meat.
Once they finished eating, Chester gathered every spare length of rope in the cabin, untying them and splicing them together into one massive, continuous line.
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm going to carry this all the way to the waterfall, looping it through the trees along the way. It'll mark the path for the aqueduct."
Chester coiled the long rope into a basket and stood up.
"Ugh!" Even for Chester, the sheer weight of the rope was immense. He quickly realized that trying to climb down the ladder with this heavy load on his back was a recipe for disaster.
"Then how will you get it down?"
"I'll just drop it. It's not like throwing it down will break it."
With that, Chester grabbed one end of the rope and walked over to a spot he had scouted earlier—the middle of the bridge connecting the cabin and the workshop, where sturdy branches extended conveniently above and below.
"We'll start here. This is where the aqueduct will end."
Chester tied a short piece of bamboo to the end of the rope and tossed it over an upper branch. Once it caught, he pulled it down, looped it under a lower branch, and pulled it back up. Finally, he wrapped the rope securely around a slightly higher branch to lock it in place.
"What is that for?"
"A handle. I'll explain once the whole thing is finished."
Chester tossed the rest of the heavy coil down to the ground and climbed down the ladder. Once on the forest floor, he loaded the rope back into his basket and began walking in a straight line toward the waterfall. To lighten his load, Monia transferred a portion of the heavy rope into her own basket and walked alongside him.
"...Hold on." Whenever they came across a tree of sufficient height, Chester would halt, grab the rope, and scale the trunk.
"Don't fall!"
"I won't. I'll be careful."
He looped the rope once around a branch at the appropriate height, climbed back down, and continued toward the waterfall. He repeated this process over and over. Normally, the walk from the cabin to the waterfall was a quick, familiar trek, but climbing up and down trees along the way made the journey take far longer than expected.
After what felt like hours, Chester finally stood before the waterfall, staring up at the sheer, towering cliff face.
"...Um, are we climbing that?" It was the same cliff face she saw every day. But until now, it had merely been a part of the scenery, not an obstacle to be conquered. The sudden realization that they had to scale this wall made Monia's face turn utterly pale.
We're climbing this? This? How? Monia's eyes trembled like a ship tossed in a violent storm, but Chester merely nodded with casual indifference.
"Yeah. We're climbing it."
"I've scouted the area as thoroughly as possible, and there's no other way up."
"So, what choice do we have? We climb." But the moment Monia even pictured the ascent, her mind filled with images of a fatal plunge.
"C-Can't we just not do this? What if you fall!"
"It's dangerous, sure, but it has to be done."
"You're the one who taught me to know when to give up!"
"But there are also times when you have to take calculated risks."
"What kind of logic is that?! That's completely unfair!"
"Survival requires flexibility. You adapt to the time and situation." As he spoke, Chester pulled out the climbing gear he had prepared beforehand.
It wasn't anything fancy. They were simply the same beast claws he used to make their knives. He had drilled holes through their bases and tied thick cords securely through them. Wrapping the cords tightly around his palms, Chester secured the main rope around his waist and stood before the cliff.
...It's high. It was easily over ten meters. Chester took a deep breath, gripped the claws, and drove them firmly into a narrow crevice in the rock.
He drove the other claw in just as securely, then gripped the cords and pulled them taut. Placing one foot against the rock face, he shifted his weight to test the hold. Satisfied that the claws were anchored and the cords would hold, he kicked off the ground with his other foot.
Kicking off, he engaged his back muscles, pulling his body upward in one fluid motion. He found a solid foothold on a small ledge, distributed his weight between the anchored claw and his legs, and reached upward with his free hand.
He drove the claw deep into the stone again, using his bent leg to push himself upward. Simultaneously, he yanked the lower claw free, reached higher, and anchored it. Once he verified the hold was secure, he pushed off with his other leg.
One hand reached out to scout the next hold, while his other hand and feet maintained his balance and support, and his legs drove his entire body upward. Step by painstaking step, he repeated the rhythm.
Thank goodness the rock is sturdy. Cold sweat poured from Chester's body with every inch he gained. A single slip, a crumbling handhold, a snapped cord, or a collapsing foothold would send him plummeting to his death on the rocks below.
Every muscle in his body was wound tight. His breathing grew heavy, and his pupils dilated, sharpening his focus on the rock face. Even with his heart hammering as loudly as the roaring waterfall beside him, Chester kept climbing.
The golden rules: Never look down. Push with the strength of your legs, rather than pulling with your weaker hands and shoulders. And constantly look ahead to map out the route, ensuring you don't climb into a dead end where you can neither advance nor retreat.
To keep his focus razor-sharp, Chester banished all thoughts of how far he had come or how much further he had to go. Complacency was the enemy of tension, and complacency led to fatal mistakes. In any endeavor, the moment you think I've got the hang of this or this is easy enough is the moment you are in the greatest danger.
It was a dizzying, terrifying spectacle. Unable to bear the sight, Monia had already crouched down on the ground, covering her eyes with both hands.
How long had he been climbing? The cords wrapped around his palms began to bite deep, tearing through his skin and drawing blood.
"...!" The sudden, sharp pain of the cord slicing into his flesh forced Chester to freeze. He paused for a fraction of a second, gritted his teeth against the pain, and forced himself to keep moving.
How much further? By the time his shoulders burned as if on fire, and the sheer physical strain and terror had emptied his mind of all coherent thought—
"Yaaaaah! I made it! I'm at the top!"
Chester had finally reached the summit. He collapsed onto the flat ground above, pounding his fists against the earth in a triumphant roar. Hearing his shout, Monia finally uncovered her face and looked up to see him standing at the top.
"...Phew!" Monia sank back onto the ground, her heart still hammering wildly against her ribs. She glared up at the celebrating Chester with a mixture of relief and exasperation.
"Well... at least you didn't get hurt."