Indiana Andrushenko and the Escape from Zoodochos Pigi

Indy had surmised that it had been to penetrate Zoodochos Pigi, the ancient Grecian mountaintop life-giving spring temple, so he was not surprised when the alarm was raised. Surveying his surroundings there was no chance he could retrace his steps down the beaten path so he looked over the other side of the peak. Thinking fast he broke hastily for the foreboding cliff's edge in order to circumvrent the known military stronghold. With rose-coloured glasses he imagined a way along down to the coast, and carried forth into the field of stones, shrubs and greenery. These proved difficult obstacles and the progress was further impeded by the thorns of the bushes and the obscene amount of spiders in them. "At least it's not snakes," he grimaced after wiping the umpteenth web from his face. Prospects did not improve around the corner as the underbrush thickened and the angle of the cliff grew more acute. He found himself wobbling at the edge of the precipice time and again just managing to reel in his momentum and plot the next few metres. The going was so tough that the route needed altering nearly constantly. Impossibly far below him was the sea and his awaiting onward voyage under strict instruction to leave in less than an hour, with or without him. Bushes morphed into trees with brittle yet strong pointed branches stubbornly growing tangled, close to the ground. Worse yet the drops were becoming ever more steep and required both hands and feet to stay upright until finally Indiana was faced with a vertical climb. He originally dismissed it as impassible but having peered all around deemed it the only choice. So difficult was it that he dared not attempt the traverse with his precious cargo pack to disrupt his balance. After careful consideration he hucked it straight down the ledge where it thwacked into a tree with a sickening series of cracks. Moments later he set about doing his best not to follow suit. With his literal back against the wall he carefully considered each hold, each step. Painstakingly slowly with surviving outweighing catching the boat he lowered himself from rock to rock. Arriving to his bag he couldn't help but utter "nice catch" as he disentangled the straps. One cliff face down but he was still dangerously close to the edge and the undergrowth unrelenting, now with vicious, gnarly, thorned vines ripping at his clothes. A glance at his watch coincided the first drops of rain and he allowed the water to lubricate his passage as he increased the pace. That is until a new near-vertical drop presented itself as the only means out. He glanced back but knew going up was out of the question and struggled to push the thought of being stuck on this exposure out of his head. He had to focus on the task at hand and negotiate the crumbling cliff face. Only having lowered himself partway down this new climb, in a precarious position, did he appreciate just how damning the rain was on these slick rocks. Having just utilised a foothold he noticed a crack in the large boulder and with terrifying ease broke it free from the cliff into free fall. The length of time that it could be heard crashing through everything in its path as it fell further and further was alarming. Somehow he avoided that fate and allowed himself just a moment's glance back at what he'd traversed. But forward he must go! Thrashing through the bushes now he no longer noticed the tearing at his clothes, the water in his eyes or the blood trickling from his hands - for those sharp bushes that had disgruntled him at the start of the descent now provided handfuls of thorny leaves to brace himself from falling. Yet fall he did, countless times, as boulders rolled, branches broke or feet slipped but never was it a fall he couldn't recover from with his mind firmly locked on its goal now.
Breaking free from the bushes a new challenge presented itself - a valley of loose rocks and boulders running quickly down and away. With trepidation he took the first few steps slowly but as the rocks slid and rolled out from beneath his feet he had no choice but to carry himself along as best he could in the mini landslides he was creating. If not for the fear of having a foot crushed or ankle snapped he may have found this to be a fun experience. It was, he noted grimly, the best progress he had made all trek. After a few hundred metres of this he pulled up as the rocks in front of him rolled over yet another cliff. "Not out of the woods yet," he thought - and not for the first time that day. This drop was no easier than the previous ones and with no less dire consequences for a mistake so he summoned his strength, not wanting to lose focus now having come so far with a glimmer of hope just below. At the foot of this he exalted and ripped through the last long wall of bush that no longer phased him and in minutes he was free. Reviewing his path down the mountain looming over him he couldn't believe it but somehow he was on a relatively flat dirt path running shortly to the sea. With no time to lose he covered this distance and in the rain he stripped his outer gear and dove into the cold Aegean sea just in time to catch his connection out of there.