Long ways to go Part VI

Well, I’d best be getting down.  Those little ones had moved on, that click clacking fish was nowhere in sight.  Least I hadn’t heard it in a while.  I took one last look around and reached for the trunk to steady myself.
I bit my lip, trying to stop the pain that shot through my side.  My eyes watered a mite.  That’s the only explanation I have for the fact I hadn’t seen those bird creatures settle in the tree next to me.  I froze when I heard the whisper of wings moving.  The two birds were getting ready to take off.  I scrunched as close to the trunk as I could.
My foot slipped just a tad, so I hung on with a grip that caused my side to shoot with pain once again.  Yeah.  My eyes watered once again.  How I kept from screaming is something I won’t figure out for quite some time.  My heart bout stopped when I felt a hand grab my wrist and pull on it.  I looked up to see my uncle, his eyes bout large as saucers.
I frowned a mite, steadying my feet on the trunk.  The pain was letting up, enough so I could get a better grip on the trunk.  I felt the whoosh of wind as those bird creatures flew off down the river.
“How’d you get here?”  My uncle was easing himself down to my level.
“Don’t zactly know.  I was walking over ta the bridge and fell.  The path, it just opened up and down I went.  How, where?”
“Shh.  We have ta get away from the bank.”
I managed to follow him to the ground.  He looked me up and down, shook his head and commenced to carry me over to the tree those birds had just left.  I tried to hang back.  I wasn’t going anywhere near that tree.  He grunted and pulled me, setting off the pain in my side.
When he pushed me up the trunk, I grabbed the lowest limb and just hung on.  A whack on my foot got me moving.  Somehow, he managed to get me up higher and let me set for a bit.  I looked about me, trying to avoid my uncle’s prodding of my side.
“Hang on for a little bit more, my nephew.  There’s the tunnel we need to get to.”
I nodded my head.  Course, I couldn’t see for the flashes of reflected light of the river blinded me.  I closed my eyes and tried to relax, catch my breath.  When I opened my eyes, there it was.  Just off the branch we was on.  A hole in that cliff.  I stared at the amount of space I’d have to get across.  I groaned.
“Not to worry, nephew.  I got ways to get across.”
“I sure hope so.”
“You ready to move?”
I wasn’t but nodded my head anyways.  And braced for the jolt of pain.  Uncle grinned and jerked his head to the tunnel.  A rope bridge was being pulled over.  I took a deep breath and winced.
Yeah, friends and neighbors.  A rope bridge that Uncle tied with a complicated looking knot on the limb right under my feet.  No, he didn’t carry me across.  I walked on my own two feet.  Getting across was a mite bit scary.  Had to hang on with both hands.
Once across, I leaned against the stone wall and watched as Uncle pulled that bridge back.  He carried me again, down a short tunnel and climbed down a ladder stuck to the side of a large cave.  It felt like a couple hours passed before my feet touched the floor.  I wanted to sit.  Uncle pulled me further into that cave.  I saw a fire a few feet away.  A shadow or two caused me a bit of fright because they looked an awful lot like the bird creatures we just escaped from.