Fallen Angel (Wolvenrogue and Torridsoul)

Jake left Interstate 95 at the town of Millinocket and headed out on one of the few paved roads heading into Maine’s remote and unspoiled northwest. He was headed toward the shore of Eagle Lake, where he planned to spend three weeks hiking, canoeing and camping. He had done considerable research on the area, but was unprepared for the absolute remoteness and raw beauty of the area. About an hours drive from Millinocket, the pavement ended. There was gravel a few miles more and the road became a two track logging road, rocking his pathfinder side to side. He looked at the GPS and he was now an icon of a car in a vast empty space. Expanding the map, he could see the Lake, but there was no indication of the road he was on or any others. Looking at his cell phone , the words “No service” flashed on the screen. He shut it off. He was off the grid.


He had wanted to be alone, and he had gotten his wish. He stopped a moment and reevaluated. He had plenty of fuel, 3 weeks of food, plus his canoe and fishing equipment. That and his training as a navy seal renewed his confidence. He put the pathfinder in gear and continued on. It was nearing dark when he crested a hill and the looked out over the expanse of what he recognized as Eagle Lake the sun was setting and turning the sky pinkish. The fall colors were magnificent, simply breathtaking. He stopped and snapped a picture.

It took two more hours to find a way to reach the shore of the lake, and when he finally did it was pitch black. He could hear the water, but until his eyes acclimated, the lake was a black abiss. Taking out a candle lantern, he lit it and the light was nearly blinding by comparison to the night. Then he looked up. The stars were amazing. Unspoiled by city light, there were millions of them. Happily he unpacked his gear, and set up camp. Knowing there were black bears and moose about, he packed all the food and anything with a scent in a canvas bag, and after tossing a rope over a high tree limb, tied it up high in a tree 20 yards from camp. He lit a small fire and sat by it in the cool of the fall evening. It felt wonderful as it crackled and glowed. He put out the candle and just took in the awesome sights and the smell of the pines.


As he looked out over the lake, he saw what looked like a flickering light high up a bank along the southern shore. “Curious” he said out loud, though obviously to no-one in particular. It appeared to be about 5 or 6 miles away across the water, maybe ten if you hiked along the shore. He made a mental note to check it out in the morning. As the fire began to die down, he crawled into his tent, Undressed, and climbed naked into his sleeping bag. He always slept this way when camping, even in cold weather, as his clothes would invariably become damp during exercise, and that dampness would make him cold at night. He was asleep in seconds.


He woke in the best way possible. No alarm clock, just the sun rising over the lake and warming the tent. He got up, utterly refreshed and got back into his clothes. He climbed out, stretched and decided on hiking. He was eager to explore, so he pulled down his food cash and selected trail snacks and dried foods. They were light and easy to carry. He grabbed a fresh apple to get him started, and put away the food. Jason’s healthy habits showed. He was a muscular six foot tall with rippling abs, and agile as a cat. He was a trained climber and could easily swim twenty miles. A shock of sandy hair topped the 27 year old’s head, and his rugged features were set off by crystal blue eyes. Pulling his backpack on, he set off along the southern shore of the lake in the direction of the strange flickering light he had seen in the distance.

It wasn't the first time that Tori had ever gone camping or hiking, but she wouldn't have called herself a pro by any means. She was comfortable in the forest and woods around Eagle Lake had always been her go to spot when she found she needed the peace and tranquility of spending a few nights under the stars. It was however the first time she'd ever come from this direction, that had been her biggest miscalculation. Coming in from an area she wasn't familiar with had left her a little unsure of herself when she started on her way towards the lake. Sure she had her compass telling her that she was headed in the right direction to reach the lake, but she had no idea of the terrain in this direction.

She had her digital camera slung around her neck, and was snapping shots here and there. The camera was the only piece of technology she brought with her on these trips, because she wanted to bring a little of the nature back with her and she'd discovered that she had a little bit of a knack for taking good pictures. This trip she caught a picture of an eagle soaring over head that she was particularly proud of, and that is where the real problem had come in. Tori had been walking with her head down examining the pictures of the eagle that she'd snapped, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings or where she was walking. She stepped right on the thick root of a tree, and her balance escaped her, she tumbled backwards and landed on her bottom. If that hadn't been bad enough she landed on a mossy patch that sent her sliding down a steep drop. By the time she reached the bottom, she'd been smacked in the face by tree branches, her arms and legs were scratched up, her pants were torn and she couldn't tell the state of her hiking pack because it was still uncomfortably between herself and the ground.

She pushed herself up a little propping herself up on her battered palms to check out her surroundings, a surge a panic shot through her when she realized she was near the edge of a cliff, and below that cliff was nothing but the open water of Eagle Lake she slapped her palms against the ground, not caring out the stings of pain that followed "No... no... no... this is not good! Idiot... you're always supposed to watch where you're walking... pay attention to your surroundings.... all because of a stupid picture" at the thought of the picture her hands went to her digital camera which had remarkably survived the slide down. Even though she knew her preoccupation with camera had been the cause of the fall she'd been relieved that it was unharmed.

Tori tried to push herself to her feet, only to realize that her right foot was trapped under fallen tree and a groove in the dirt. She knew that the tree hadn't fallen on her so her foot had to have hit the ground with enough force to shove her foot under the tree. "Great... even better" she was trapped under a tree on a cliff. She used her other foot to try and budge the fallen tree, and even though the tree wasn't very large it was still heavy, too heavy for her to move. She tried turning her leg to pull it out but it just wasn't working, she had been able pull her pack off of her back to grab her flashlight as night was falling, she flicked it on and then aimed it at her foot, propping it on her leg she grabbed a stick and began to dig around the dirt surrounding her foot. She displaced a lot of the dirt but still it wasn't enough.

As a last ditch effort she grabbed the flashlight and flicked it on, then off, then on again over and over again hoping someone would see it and come to her aid. However she wasn't holding out hope, she'd never seen anyone else in the area before. She rested her head against her pack, her strawberry blond hair was pulled into what was now a messy pony tail that was full of leaves and dirt, her bright blue eyes were drifting now. She tried to make her 5'4 frame even smaller by curling towards the log and then she let herself sleep.

Following the shore of the lake, he walked easily on the firm wet sand. The morning was clear and crisp, almost frosty. His boots crunched at times on the gravely shore. After walking perhaps a mile, the beach ended, and a sheer cliff some 90 feet tall or so rose imposingly out of the lake. He looked at the situation and realized that without swimming at least a mile there was no way around it on the shore of the lake and so finding a game trail, he followed it back into the woods, reasoning that the deer had long since found a path around this obstacle. Perhaps a thousand yards back in the woods the path took off up a steep hill. The footing was treacherous, as the trail consisted of a sandy loam soil covered by rotting oak leaves, and was extremely unstable and quite slippery. He proceeded with caution, and as the trail grew steeper , and his altitude increased, he took out his rope and tied it off to a stout tree and continued climbing . Each hundred feet or so, he would stop, release the line and tie it off again. After an hour of steady climbing he reach the top of the cliff and followed the game trail along its edge, again keeping himself securely tied off. The view of the lake from this position was awesome, and he forced himself to be very careful lest he fall. As he worked his way along the trail looking for a way back down, he saw the trail begin to head back down, but he could see that the trail was falling away rapidly and that walking down it was going to be nearly impossible without falling.

As he looked for a suitable tree to tie off his rappelling rope to he saw something odd on the ground . It appeared to be a piece of light blue fabric, after picking it up he recognized it as part of a hiking shoe. Looking around he noticed the ground was disturbed and that there were considerable scrape marks along the trail. Looking back across the lake toward where he knew his camp was, he was reasonably certain that this was where he had seen the flickering light the previous evening. If some one had fallen, they had been out all night and were likely in grave danger.

Locating a stout tree, he tied off his 200 foot rope, and throwing it over the edge, he secured him self to it with a carabiner and began a controlled decent. Reaching the bottom, he found that he was still on a narrow ledge some 60 feet above the water of the lake. Looking to his left, he saw the crumpled body of what appeared to be a young woman. Moving carefully, knelt beside her and attempted to shake her awake. “Are you alright?” he asked, as he noted the her scratched face, and the blood soaked leg of her torn cargo pants.

The last thing that Tori expected to wake up to was someone shaking her awake, and given her position couldn't they have woken her a bit more gently? She turned towards the voice that was asking if she was alright, a little taken back by the man who was crouched down over her. She used one of her scratched up hands to push hair from her face and then blinked at the sunlight filtering through the leaves to shine down on them. "I've had better days." she said, her voice was soft and still carried a hint of sleep on it.

Tori had expected to wake up to the sound of bears or moose ruffling closer to her in search of her food, or to the realization that she was going to have to attempt to dig herself out again. She was pleasantly surprised that it was neither of those things. "My foot is stuck under that fallen tree. I tried to dig myself out but, I must have wedged it in there really good when I fell. I can't tell if it's broken or not, but my guess is that it's probably just sprained... and I'm certain nothing else is broken so that's good news... Hey... how did you find me?" she asked curiously, she wondered if those few flicks with the flashlight last night had meant the difference between life and death.

“You just relax and let me dig you out, OK?" he said in a reassuring voice. Right now we have to get you stable and safe to move and that leg is bleeding and I’m not sure it isn’t broken. Cover your eyes, I’m going to drive some pitons in and tie us off so we don't fall. we can't afford that" . He took out his rock hammer and pitons and within a minute had them both securely anchored to the rock face. "There" he said, "now we can get serious about some first aid, and getting you dug out. " He got out some tyelenol and a a bottle of water. "Take these. and drink that whole bottle if you can" he said, knowing she had lost a lot of blood and would need the fluid. He looked over the injured leg and the angle it was sitting at as well as where it was bleeding, and knew it might be serious. "Now miss, I don't want your taking this wrong But I need to cut your pants off and look at that leg. There's no other way to stop that bleeding, and we have to do that, and immobilize it before I can move you."

He didn't wait for permission, he knew that there was no other choice so taking out his sheath knife, he slit open the leg of her hiking pants from the rip near the ankle to just below the waist band and pulled it aside. Looking at the situation, he breathed a sigh of relief, it was bad, but at least there was no exposed bone, and the bleeding was from a large cut in the hollow of her hips which was oozing down her leg, and not a compound fracture. He could tell from the swelling that she had probably broken her shin bone in the fall, but that was easily splinted. He took her hand and holding it tight said, "Your going to be ok, lets get you dug out and then I'll get you off this cliff and back to camp. " He took out his aluminum folding shovel and carefully dug out around her ankle until her fook was finally free.

When he told her to cover her eyes she turned back towards her bag and buried her face into it, the last thing she wanted was rock shards in her eyes. She had been about to ask him if he'd been a boy scout when he handed her the Tylenol, she took it in one hand and the bottle of water in the other and then tossed the pills in her mouth, she wasn't going to argue with her rescuer. After swallowing the pills she sipped from the bottle of water and listened while he spoke, she didn't think her leg was broken but to be honest she hurt all over so that could be masking any pain that might be radiating from her leg because of a broken bone.

He was so serious when he said that he'd have to cut her pants that it made her smile, she knew the situation was a serious one of course but if she let herself really think about it she'd panic "It's ok... "she said before he started cutting "I always keep an extra pair of pants in my pack... just in case I slide down a cliff." she wasn't being a smart-ass she was just dealing the best way she could. Because as the pants came away she saw all the blood and just how twisted her leg was. She winced and looked over at him "It looks much worse without the pants" a shudder ran through her body and she fought back a wave of panic.

Tori had gotten more than halfway through the bottle of water when she started feeling queasy from looking at her wounded leg, so she turned her head back towards her bag. Trying to focus on anything around her rather than her damaged leg, and the man who was digging her mangled foot out from beneath the fallen tree.

Seeing her turning pale, he stopped long enough to take a survival blanket from his pack, and cover her up so she would stay warm while he worked. He continued the digging, and soon had her ankle free. He cut a couple of green sticks and using an ace bandage secured and imobilized the leg, then he pulled back the blanket and worked on the slow bleeding cut on the lower part of her abs. It was long, but not deep. He pushed her panties aside and he applied three butterfly bandges to close the skin.

Once she was patched up and stable, he asessed the situation, and decided that there was no way to get her back up the cliff, andeven then they would only have to pick their way back down. "We're going to have to repell down to the lake." and then I'll have to get my canoe. He knew there was very little if any beach at the bottom of the cliff, and they might decend right into the chilly water, but they had almost no choice.

"Try and relax, I'm going to harness us together and then let us down slow. Do you think you can stand on your good foot if I help you up?"

Tori was grateful for the blanket and she wrapped herself in it tightly, she hadn't realized just how cold she was until he'd covered her. The man really was a boy scout, prepared for anything it seemed. She had thought herself prepared but she realized just how woefully unprepared she was by comparison to him. She wished she'd thought of these things, she had a lot of in case of emergancy things in her bag. However she didn't have a survival blanket, or any of the ropes and gear that he had but then she hadn't planned on rock climbing and perhaps he had.

There was a rush of relief when he had her foot free, until he arrived she'd thought that she was going to die stuck out here and now she was ok, she'd be just fine. Repelling down to the lake didn't sound like her idea of a good time, but she was ok with him being in charge since she figured that he knew what he was doing. She nodded a bit when he asked if he could stand on her good foot, she reached out and let him help her to her foot, she was unsteady for a moment but she leaned on him a moment and was then able to gain her balance. "We're going to repel INTO the water?" she asked curiously, wondering how that was going to work with her injured leg.

"Well I hope that won't be necessary" There may be a bit of beach at the bottom, but i can't see any from here. We have to make it work though. Even if I got you back up that hill above us There is no way I'd be able to get you safely back down. That straight drop is kind of a blessing in disguise. It will be a smooth easy trip don at least until we get to the water. I'm going to tie you in hard and attach my self with a release clip if the water is deep at the bottom, I'll leave you hanging there above the water and drop off and swim to shore and go for my canoe and come back for you, if its shallow we'll just get good and wet and I'll carry you back along the beach."

All the while he was talking to her, he was busy fashioning a harness around her injured thighs and waist . he pants were not only shredded from the fall but he had slit open one entire leg. He stripped off his heavy shirt and wrapped it between her thighs almost as one would a diaper on a baby to protect her tender and injured skin from the ropes he was tying tightly around her thighs and waist. When she was tied off, he said "put some weight on the rope.. is it comfortable?" he knew she would need sit in the harness as long as an hour potentially. Once she was secure, he clipped his harness to the rope and hung there as well . They were face to face he legs on either side of his muscular torso. They could feel each others body heat and her breasts were right in his face. He pushed them off the rock with his strong thighs and looking over the cliff he asked "Are you ready?"

Tori did her best not to shake as he prepared her for their decent, she wasn't really cold as much as she was afraid of what was going to happen next. Heights were not really her best friend and jumping off a cliff never really seemed like such a good idea to her, she thought of it a lot like sky diving, why jump out of a perfectly good plane? But the difference was that this was life and death and it was the only way for them to get somewhere safe. She was definitely going to re-evaluate the things she packed into her hiking bag because she was woefully unprepared, and she didn't ever want to be in a spot like this again.

She put weight on the rope when he told her too and told him that it felt fine, she didn't know like he did that she could possibly be hanging there for up an hour, but either way it hadn't felt bad the shirt was a nice buffer between her aching body and the rope he'd fashioned into a harness. When he asked if she was ready she bit back a wave of panic and nodded "ready as I'll ever be." But with his head in her chest he couldn't see how she clenched her eyes closed tight, there was no way she was going to watch it all happen.

Jake contolled the descent carefully and they moved slowly closer to the bottom of the cliff. He stopped them entirely, just a foot above the water, but couldn't tell just how deep it might be. The water was stained dark with Tamarack. however they were but a few yards from shore and he could see that they could walk along the shore from there all the way to camp. He stripped off his jacket leaving himself bare chested in the cold and gave her the jacket, having her put it on, the dropped into the water. He hit bottom with the water not quite chest deep. He lowered her onto his shoulders, and releasing the rope from the cliff, walked her to shore keeping her dry. The water was like Ice and by the time he reached shore he was shivering like a leaf. He put back on the jacket, and coiled up his rope. Then lifting her to his shoulders he started off for camp.

"Are you ok up there?" he asked.

No matter how careful he was, she just couldn't seem to relax. He went slow but she clenched her eyes closed anyway, she could feel everything happening but she didn't want to see it. Maybe it was a little immature of her, but given her broken and somewhat mangled leg she felt she was well within her rights to maybe overreact just a little bit as long as she didn't let it interfere with what he needed to do to get them to safety. As far as heroes went Tori was glad that hers was a well prepared, smart, wild savvy hero! Rather than some bumbling fool like herself who'd have just made the situation worse.

When they were finally on the way back to wherever he was camped out, she opened her eyes and they were on the beach and no longer hanging over water. "I'm much better now that we're not suspended over water."

Jake smiled and kept walking. The exercise was beginning to warm him back up from the cold dip in the lake. He liked the feel of her warm thighs on his shoulders and his hands with which he gripped them firmly to keep her from falling. He also liked how her breasts snuggled up against the back of his head and ears. He couldn't help but imagine how this would feel if they were wearing a lot less clothing. She wasn't heavy for him to carry and the hike back to camp went quickly. When they arrived in camp he knelt down and taking he by the waist lifted her carefully from his shoulders. He sat her down on his camp stool and went to his tent and opened it up and unzipped his sleeping bag. He knew that were she to get cold she might get shocky and that would be dangerous. While she sat on the stool, he said "we need to get your damp clothes of you and get you in the sleeping bag. He too k her pack from her and looked inside to see if she really had dry clothes, but didn't find any. "I'll help you out of your boots and pants out here, and then put you in the tent. Then you need to take everything else off and get in the sleeping bag. Don't put any of your clothes in the bag. They are damp and will make you cold. I'll make a fire and dry them for you." He then started pulling off the boots and then carefully removed his makeshift splint. Her leg was badly swollen and he could tell it was tender, and there was no way he could get it out of her pants with out cutting the leg all the way to the waistband. He cut the pants and carefully slipped them off and then carried her in the tent. "I'm going to close the flap. Call if you need help. Remember, all of your clothes will be damp from last night and need to be dried."

If the situation hadn't been so damn serious she probably would have had a good giggle over the fact that he kept mentioning that she couldn't wear any of her clothes in the sleeping bag. Yes it was obvious that she'd have to get naked if she wanted to get warm, and she knew that he was helping trying to make sure she stayed safe, and healthy now that he'd gotten her off that ledge. But part of her wanted to make the joking comment that he just wanted to see her naked. "I got it... all my clothes" she said softly, after he set her in the tent and dropped the flap. Tori reached back and un hooked her bra, laying it next to the sleeping bag. Tackling the chore of getting her panties off was much harder, she couldn't really put pressure on her leg to lift up her hips so she had to wiggle until they scooted under her bottom and then she rolled them down her legs and laid them next to the bra and panties.

Using the same wiggle technique she squirmed into the sleeping bag and pulled it up to her neck, resting her head down with a sigh she called out to him "I'm in the sleeping bag... the rest of my clothes aren't!"

He opened the flap and picking up the clothes to dry them, he said "good girl. Sit tight I'll have some water boiling in just a moment. Coffee or tea?" he left the flap open slightly and got out and hung her clothes on a line he tied between two trees. "Are you hungry? he asked. I'm making bacon and eggs."