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An entrepreneur's adventure: Part I

I frantically clawed at the dirt with my free arm, hoping for a jagged rock I could hold, a branch, a tuft of grass ... anything. My left arm hanging from a protruding tree root was weakening and hot from lactic acid. The warm blood sliding down the inside of my elbow felt almost cool to the strained muscles. I could still feel the frames of my glasses on my face, "at least I haven't lost those" I thought. But the glasses were of no use now, it was dusk, for me the hardest time to see.

"Shika hio mti, Harry", a voice fell from above. I strained and turned my head up. Although I couldn't see him, I knew Collin was there. He must have been petrified, already feeling the unbearable guilt he would have to bear for putting his nephew in a life and death situation. "Heh heh", I managed a chuckle, imagining the comic expression on his face right now, his face wasn't suited to tragedy.

"What" I scolded myself back to reality. I was making fun, and certain death was waiting for me 200 feet below unless I did something now. I turned my eyes up again. I could now see the extended tip of the branch poking through the uneven face of cliff. This was it, there was not going to be an easy way out of this situation. I couldn't think my way out of this mess, no time to come up with any fancy gizmos, no chance to code a solution in visual basic.

I figured if I missed grasping the branch with my right arm the momentum to bring up my arm would almost certainly make me lose the grip with my left arm. But I was past tired and I didn't know how much longer that left arm could hold. Would this be the end of my journey as an entrepreneur? Would all the ideas and hopes for starting up business come crashing down with me, from this bleak, cold and wet cliff face.

"Come onnnnn!," I muttered under my breath, psyching myself. I looked up again at the branch, I can do this I thought. I moved my dangling legs closer to the cliff face, in case I missed I wanted them to be where I could easily get something to step on to slow down the fall. Knowing that I couldn't wait any longer I let out a yell, channeling all my ki into a swing and stretched out my right arm towards the saviour branch...
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