The arrow whistled as it flew over Theo's shoulder to embed in the tree stump, noise caused by the slightly imperfect fletching that was wound into its design. A second shot was better aimed, for the legs this time, but still failed to find its target as the limber escapee leapt above it's path. Confident hands gripped on the low-hanging but sturdy looking branch as the momentum of the jump carried Theo straight over the large fallen trunk that had been in his way. The arrow thunked into its bark as he landed on the other side, legs bending like a spring under him to absorb his weight before pushing him back into a run on the other side.

Deciding to risk it Theo threw a quick glance back over his bare shoulder, hoping to catch a fix on his pursuers. There had been three after him initially, that he had seen, no doubt confident that that would be enough to bring him back. Given that he was running directionless through unfamiliar woodland clad only in a pair of worn hide trousers he could agree that they'd had fair reason to think that. Hell, if he'd given it more thought himself he would probably still be back under their charge. But then that wasn't how he worked. He had wanted out, so he got out. Simple as that.

In theory.

Instead now Theo could only see two of them, both scrambling through the ragged undergrowth in his wake. Despite them being fully garbed they were having a worse a time of it, neither of them a match for him in the agility stakes and they were definitely falling behind now, especially as they had stopped to take a shot at him. He'd hoped that slavers, for that was who he assumed they were, wouldn't be so quick to write of their losses and bring lethal force to bear. Looked like he was wrong, which was annoying.

Still, if there were now only two of them behind him that meant that - oh hell.

He'd been a fool for not realising sooner what was about to happen. Instead Theo had been too busy concentrating on looking rather than listening. If his wits had been that little bit more about him he would easily have picked up on the fact that there was still the noise of a body moving through woodland despite the fact that both him and his pair of other pursuers had paused.

As it was he barely had enough time to react as a machete-wielding fist exploded out of the thick bush to his left. For such a rugged and worn looking weapon its blade was incredibly sharp and bits of twig and greenery sprayed behind its path in a trail of floral remains. Only the quickest of reactions saved its target as Theo threw himself into a backwards bend to avoid the blow, wide eyes able to trace the blade's edge passing barely an inch above the skin of his neck. His assailant had thrown so much weight into the blow, so sure he was of hitting, that his over-extension caused the rest of his forearm and elbow to pass similarly by.

Theo knew an opportunity when he saw it and a flexing of muscles brought him back up to a solid base just as quickly as they had bent him out of the way. He threw an arm up with his momentum and looped over and then under that of his out-stretched assailant, effectively hooking that right arm with his own left. A pivot on his heels put the two of them back to back, a position Theo used to thunder a stiff right elbow into the other man's side. That got a grunt but little more as the slaver, balance now stabilised courtesy of his attacker's arm-grapple, struggled to free the grip, trying to turn on the spot to relieve pressure from the shoulder joint being bent back.

It was the worst move he could have made.

Teeth gritted into a battle-grin Theo reversed direction to spin himself back face to face with the struggling ambusher. As he did so the hold he had on the machete-arm twisted just enough to shift up the hand gripping the weapon. It was a small manoeuvre, just a few inches, but it came together just beautifully when the palm of his free hand whipped back from its just-delivered elbow to slam into the now raised hilt of the machete. The slaver had just enough time to blink in shock and surprise before the superbly coordinated action sent the tip of the weapon thrusting into the soft tissue of his throat, quickly followed by half of the rest of its length.

It didn't end there though. Movement in the corner of his vision caught Theo's eye and he was quick to react. Shifting his grip to take full hold of the weapon's hilt, fingers over the top of the dead man's, he tensed both arms and strained upwards to hold his victim in place for just long enough to take one more step around him.

He was just in time and could have sworn that the dead and staring eye's of the impaled man got just that little bit wider as both arrows thudded solidly into the back that now acted as Theo's shield. Maybe he hadn't been quite dead so soon after all, but he certainly was now. As soon as Theo felt the impact he ditched the dead weight, moving his hand from the hilt and using it to shove on the slaver's face. The body fell heavily backwards to land with the back of his head impacting the very tree stump Theo had recently cleared. The grip of his rictus still clutched the weapon, the same one that had been the death of him.

Theo paid it no heed. Although the third man's death had brought foreign shouts from his comrades it hadn't slowed them any and he could see them already knocking another arrow each as they marched forwards. His explosion of violence had been quick and raw, the whole exchange taking barely seconds to play out from beginning to end, but it didn't seem to have deterred his would-be captors any. Instead he simply gritted his teeth against their inexorable pursuit and pushed off into a run once more. He still had no more complex a plan in mind other than to keep evading, keep running.

Keep alive.

Agile as he was there was ultimately nothing Theo could do to stop from being lacerated over and over by the various undergrowth and branches he was forced to push through. Without any form of clothing on his upper body he was rapidly being covered in a variety of cuts and grazes. Prodigious as his stamina normally was the manner of passage forced upon him was beginning to tell on the escapee. Breath was starting to become laboured and the spring in his legs was beginning to fail. With no sign of his pursuit ending he desperately needed to find some sort of resolution, even if only a temporary one.

A quiet-at-first but now loudening roar had been concerning him and, mounting a boulder and kicking off to the other side, now Theo saw why. Up ahead of him, not quite ten meters beyond where he now stood, lay the wet crashing path of a great downpour of water. A fine mist slowly spread outwards from its sides and even from here Theo could feel the faint watery texture alighting on his bare skin. It was actually quite refreshing and he gratefully stepped closer towards the drop, squinting a little against the damp but still able to see that the pool of water at the bottom of the fall lay some twenty meters below his vantage point. Rocky walls covered in moss lined either side of the drop, as well as some way above him where the water first started its drop, placing him almost exactly half way up its height with no easy way up, down or even round.

He was actually getting wet now and the escapee mopped droplets from his brow and brushed them back over his hair before giving it a flick to keep it out of his face. Then a shout behind him caused him to freeze before whipping his head around looking for direct signs of his pursuit. There was nothing. Yet. But soon, all too soon, they would be on him again and this time it seemed like he had nowhere to run.

Theo forced calm upon himself in an effort to focus on the situation. He needed to take a moment, look around, assess his options. Flapping and panicking now wasn't going to help him any.

So there was a drop, a big drop into unknown water. It could be deep enough to dive in without fear or there could be a mass of rocks right under the surface. Frankly it wasn't a mystery he was eager to solve unless he absolutely had to. Then there were the walls of the canyon-like drop. Just rock alone could be scaled, but this was damp rock, wet even, and coated in slippery moss. Again, not a good option and that went for both the wall looming above him to his right as well as down. To his left the forest continued, and thus is chase along with it. It seemed a shame to come across a terrain feature such as thus waterfall and not be able to utilise it in some way to his benefit. Water removed tracks and trace, a barrier such as this would, if beaten, get him away from his pursuers.

So that left...across?

Theo padded forwards as far as the rocks allowed, taking care to find steady footing on the edge so as not to risk a crippling slip down the rockface. From this vantage point he squinted over the face of the waterfall, gaze tracing over it rippling surface, looking for anything that might...just...there.

It was tricky to see through the spray but, by contrasting how the water fell over one particular spot compared to the rest, Theo was fairly certain that something was causing the water's otherwise straight-down fall to bobble ever so slightly. Slowly, tentatively, he edged his way over to where the chasm rose above him to his right, pressing himself into its mossy face to best get a flat look straight across the falling torrent as well as just what it was exactly falling over.

Sure enough, almost impossible to see unless you knew what you were looking for, there seemed to be an ever so slight rocky outcrop about three meters out and another couple or so down.

It was time for a leap of faith.

It was going to be wet (obviously), very wet and Theo knew that just relying on his hands alone to grip and hold on was just asking for a long, damp fall. He didn't have much in the way of option on his person though, certainly no gloves and without a blade no means to cut strips from his soft hide leggings. That left he woodland around him, there had to be something there he could draw on to-

Theo froze as a call broke through the murmur of the woodland's background noise. His eyes darted around, scanning every point that he could of his surroundings but he saw nothing. It had sounded close though and, looking up, he could see what looked like a small flock of birds breaking cover from the tree canopy and flapping around seemingly aimlessly above. Theo guessed their distance at no more than a hundred or so meters sunwards of himself, the direction he had come from. the direction of pursuit.

Time was running out and fast.

Breaking into motion again he stepped away from the canyon's edge and back into the tree-line, vision split between keeping an eye out for his would-be slavers and scanning around and down for anything he utilise on his hands. Soil. Dirt. Wood. Bark. Leaves. Shrubs. Plants.

Hmmm...Plants...

Or rather not the plants as such but rather their roots. The idea occurred to Theo and straight away he began scrabbling at the ground. It would leave sign of his activities for sure if he just began uprooting everything but at this point he couldn't be too choosey and also, so what? They might see he had been digging but hopefully the mostly crazy purpose of it would escape them. He avoided the plants that were too small or underdeveloped and tore only at the ground underneath the larger looking shrubs, the creepers, plants of some size and substance. Almost straight away he was rewarded for his plan, scrabbling revealing a long, pale and fibrous looking root system. With beggars not able to be choosers Theo immediately threw all of his eggs into this one basket and dug up great clods of earth in his effort to free up enough to bind his hands with. Some of it snapped and broke but mostly it was tensile enough to take his efforts, snapping only when he put his full strength into pulling at it from either end. It may have only taken a minute but with his pursuers so close it was a very long minute.

Finally clearing the roots of their main plant structure Theo advanced back on the rocky drop once more, taking the uprooted plant with him so that he could hurl it away from him and into the watery depths some way below him. The roots he then twisted round his hand as tightly as he could, tucking in the loose ends where possible. It wasn't perfect, in fact it was so far from perfect that he still had to hold them in place with his thumbs, but it would do for now. All they had to do was provide some grip for a one-shot move, with spare lengths tucked into the waistband for the inevitable (he hoped) return trip.

It was now or never. Theo surveyed the plan one final time, fixing both the distance across and the distance down that his leap would have to carry him. As happy as was ever going to be he trotted back to the edge of the tree line once more, lined himself up, clenched and unclenched his fists and then took a deep breath.

Another deep breath.

Another deep breath.

Another deep breath-sprint! Sprint! Spr-the edge!

-JUMP!