Sam's Forest Exile - Log Carry (Short Story)

Not quite as good with the quick, impromptu descriptions/stories as I was and as a result didn't get anything for my last Sam picture on time. The following story is on that picture now, but I wanted to post it standalone so nobody would miss out.

If you want more like this, just say so, and let me know how you like it!

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With her exhausted and cramped muscles bulging almost past their level of endurance, Sam keeps pushing the enormous weight upward as she trudges forward step by step. Every time she takes this route, she tries to find a log larger than last time, or make sure she moves faster. But she could only prepare so much for these conditions.

A night of freezing rainfall had turned the forest floor into slippery mud. Every step she took risked her falling and worse, dropping the log onto herself. Sam knew, as she always did, that there would be nobody around to aid her should that happen, and such a mistake may lead to a grizzly end to her training journey. With every wobble she felt several times her bodyweight sway above her, her core tightening, legs quickly adjusting and shoulders screaming to compensate. Her agonisingly slow journey woulr take hours.

Then she reached the river, and again she had failed to recognise the severity of last nights rainstorm. The river was deep and rapid, a deafening chaotic turbulance ripping past and tearing away anything that came into contact with it. Furthermore, it looked like there had been some tree collapse or landslide up river - as the rushing water was filled with debris.

Sam stepped in without hesitating.

The chill was nothing. Sam was used to the sting of the cold. She welcomed the bracing spray on her superheated muscles. The force of the water was a different story. A constant weight pressed to her side trying to throw her off balance - ironically the weight that she held was the only thing keeping her rooted to the ground, even as it slowed her progress.

Her numbed toes curled hard against the slippery rocks underwater, clamping down for some extra purchase regardless of whether the skin split over the sharp edges. Sam roared as the weight dropped in her arms, her biceps thickening as she held it half way up to lower her center of gravity, but increasing the intensity of the fight. Her body shook violently with either effort, cold or both but she took it step by step.

Then, slam. Sam felt the impact before the pain, though the pain itself didn't make her so much as flinch. A heavy slab of jagged bark had just been thrown against her body, breaking the skin and cutting deep. With its speed and weight, it might have been a lethal blow were it not for the rock solid, hard flexed muscles ready to absorb the impact. But the damage was there. She watched blood spill and colour the water. It was time to move faster.

One foot in front of the other. She would not drop her weight. They would either both make it to their destination, or neither would. Only this mindset had let her survive this long under thse brutal, self imposed trials, and she wasn't going to stop now.