Free Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) by Robin Roseau

began climbing, Brooke asked Simone, "Is she ready?"
    "Yes," was the reply.
    Halfway up, I watched as Brooke peeled off the cliff face and began to fall. I caught her immediately.
    "Good," said Simone.
    "That was intentional."
    "Yes," she said. "And you responded perfectly."
    "What if I hadn't?"
    "If I didn't think you would, you wouldn't be on belay in the first place."
    Next up was Gia. Brooke moved me to Gia's rope and she had Elisabeth belay for Simone. She watched us both carefully.
    Then Serena climbed beside Brooke. She fell twice, and I caught her both times. The second time, Brook peeled off as well, and Elisabeth caught her.
    It was my turn.
    There was a dispute over who would belay for me. Brooke ordered Elisabeth to do it. Lara ordered Brooke to.
    "Lara," I said. "Could I have a hug before I start climbing?"
    She glanced up then crossed over to me. She pulled me into her arms, and I said, "Let Elisabeth. Trust the experts."
    She kissed me and ordered me not to fall, then asked Elisabeth to belay for me.
    Brooke invited Serena to belay for Simone. I walked over to Elisabeth and said, "Give me a little slack on my way up. I won't fall."
    Then I walked to Simone. "Will there be handholds for someone my size?"
    "Yes," she said. "Although there are a couple of tricky spots for you."
    "Warn me before we get to them." I grinned at her. "Try to keep up."
    "Safe is better than fast," she said.
    I eyed the cliff face, walked up to it, and said, "On belay!"
    Elisabeth gathered most of my slack but left me with a little and then said, "Belay on!"
    I began to climb.
    I am a werefox. I am tiny and much weaker than a wolf, but I am still a were. I weigh barely a hundred pounds, but I have the upper body strength of a human male. All the wolves were much stronger than I was, but they were also carrying more weight. Furthermore, my hands are smaller, which means I can use smaller handholds. And this particular wall offered plenty of places to grip.
    It wasn't the same as climbing a tree, not at all. When climbing trees, I always have something very obvious to grab. The rock was different, very different.
    I began to clamber up.
    Simone didn't have any trouble keeping up with me, but she'd been up and down the wall multiple times. I hadn't. She was were, of course, so she had far more endurance than a human would have, but she had still been up the wall three times. I had hoped she would be tired out and that I could leave her behind, but she seemed quite relaxed.
    "Difficult point coming up," she said. "Please slow down and be deliberate in your choices."
    I worked my way through the difficult point, moving slowly, and Simone told me, "Well done."
    In another twenty feet, I got stuck. I had a firm hold of two good handholds, and my feet were jammed into a little crack. But for the life of me, I couldn't reach the next handhold. I looked around, wondering if I would have to travel to the side. Simone had found a resting point and was watching me.
    "Do you want me to tell you how, or do you want to figure it out?"
    "Figure it out," I told her, grinning.
    "I wasn't expecting you to get stuck here," she said. "It might be a dead end for you. The rest of us can easily reach that next handhold, although this is where Lara fell."
    "She ordered me not to repeat that."
    "Elisabeth will catch you if you fall," she said. "But it's best not to."
    I looked around. "There's another path over there," I said, gesturing to my right.
    "Yes," she said. "And either Brooke or I could get to it, but I doubt you can."
    "I could crowd you," I said, "but I bet that is frowned upon."
    "It's not your first choice."
    "Right." I looked at my choices. My left hand was hanging by the fingers in a crack. The crack was wide enough I could slide my hand all the way in. The handhold I wanted I could reach with my right if I could just raise my body high enough.
    I jammed my left hand firmly into the crack and made a fist, which caused my hand to become firmly lodged