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Chapter Six

Off the Path

‘Molly!’ Hannah shouted again, but there was no reply.

‘Quick!’ exclaimed Emily, her heart hammering.

They reached the trees. But just as they skied into them, Hannah grabbed Emily’s arm. ‘Careful, Em!’ she shrieked.

In front of them, the ground ended in a steep drop. Another metre and they would have plunged right over the edge. Emily felt as if she’d just had a bucket of ice dumped over her as Hannah pointed wordlessly to a thick track in the snow. Two ski marks came to an abrupt end and then there was a path of flattened snow running down the slope as if someone had fallen and rolled over and over down it.

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‘Molly must have skied straight over the edge. Come on!’ Hannah was already undoing her skis. Emily quickly did the same. They both knew it was hard to ski downhill in cross-country skis and the slope was way too steep for them to be able to do it safely. Throwing down their rucksacks beside their skis, they began to clamber down the slope as fast as they could, grabbing on to bushes and tree trunks as they went to stop themselves from falling. All sorts of images ran through Emily’s mind – Molly injured, crashed into a tree, hurt…

‘Where is she?’ Emily panted as they followed Molly’s trail in the snow.

‘There’s one of her skis!’ cried Hannah, spotting it sticking up in the snow. ‘Molly! Molly!’ she shouted.

Emily joined in.

A faint cry echoed from further down the slope. ‘Help!

They scrambled towards the sound and suddenly they saw Molly.

‘Oh, no!’ Emily gasped.

Molly was hanging on to a tree trunk with both hands, the weight of her rucksack pulling her down the steep icy slope. Her teeth were gritted and her face was pale with the effort of clinging on.

‘Hang on! We’re coming!’ shouted Hannah.

Within seconds, Emily and Hannah had reached Molly. Throwing themselves on the ground, they each grabbed one of her arms.

‘Thank you!’ Molly gasped.

Using all the strength they had, Emily and Hannah pulled Molly and her rucksack back up to safer ground.

Molly collapsed in a heap in the snow. ‘Oh, Molly!’ Emily said, flinging her arms round her. Hannah joined in. All three of them were shaking.

‘Thank you for rescuing me!’ gasped Molly, her teeth chattering with shock and cold.

For a moment they were all silent as they struggled to get their breath back. They were halfway down the steep slope. There were trees at the bottom and through them the frozen waters of a river sparkled. To the left was the drop that Molly had almost fallen over.

‘Are you all right?’ Emily asked Molly. ‘Did you hurt yourself?’

‘No. I’m OK,’ said Molly.

‘What happened?’ Hannah demanded.

‘I skated over the edge of the slope,’ Molly replied. ‘I was going so fast I couldn’t stop in time and suddenly I was over the top of it and falling. I rolled down and down and grabbed the tree trunk just in time.’ She shivered. ‘Thank you so much for helping me. I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold on for much longer –’ She broke off. ‘I should never have gone off like that,’ she whispered.

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‘It was really dumb,’ Emily agreed, hugging her. ‘Don’t do it again. Not ever!’

‘I won’t. I promise,’ said Molly. ‘I just couldn’t bear the thought of skiing all the way back round the mountain again.’

Suddenly a low hooting sound echoed through the air. Emily glanced up and saw a large white bird take off from a tree nearby. ‘An ice owl!’ she said. ‘Look!’

‘He must be out hunting,’ said Hannah.

The bird flew over their heads and landed on another tree where there was a large nest. It stood on the edge of the nest and shook itself. As it did so, one of its white and grey feathers spiralled to the ground.

Emily jumped to her feet and ran to where the feather had landed on the snow. She picked it up.

‘Cool!’ said Molly in delight.

Hannah grinned. ‘You know, Molly, maybe coming off the map was a good thing to do after all!’

‘Ha! Didn’t you know, it was my plan all along!’ Molly said airily. She grinned back at Hannah. ‘But, you know, I think we should maybe stick to the map from now on!’