(c) 2009 by Jefesse
"Watch out behind!"
I looked back, to find the source of that exclamation on this beautifully sunny and cool morning. There was the older couple we had met at the campsite that morning. Though we'd started out on the path while they were still having breakfast, they'd already caught up to us. Both of them were quite fit, and seemed to be experienced hikers. Jim, the man, had slightly greying hair; Becky, a perky brunette, held his hand as they walked along the path, under shady trees. We had been the only four people at the campsite; it seemed we had the mountain all to ourselves.
I put my arm around Sonya, and we squeezed to the side of the trail, allowing Jim and Becky to get past us. "You guys headed all the way to the top?" I asked.
"Yup. It's a good view up there, we've done it several times before," Jim answered, stopping a little ahead of us. "Think we'll see you up there later?"
"Sure! I bet we'll get there first," Sonya interjected before I could speak. Of course, the brat would have to contradict me. I shot her a warning glance.
"Um, we probably won't make it up there, Jim. Neither of us is in shape for it," I replied. "We'll see you later, I bet."
"Okay. Have fun," said Jim. "Don't overtax yourselves," Becky reminded us. They turned and paced quickly along the path, and soon were out of sight. They would probably be up to the top, and on their way back, before we even reached our stopping point.
I turned to Sonya. "You're skating on thin ice, missy."
"What?" She batted her eyelashes at me. "I was just being funny."
"Okay, but you know we need to take it easy, right?"
"Um, yes sir."
"Good girl. Let's get moving." Hand-in-hand, we continued up the path.
***
Sonya sat on a boulder which lay along side the path, and brushed the sweat from her forehead. I sat next to her, pulled out my water bottle, and took a hearty drink.
"Sonya, don't forget to drink!"
"Okay, okay." She drank from her bottle, as I looked out over the valley below. Seeing the beautiful expanse of leafy trees, trembling slightly in cool breezes, made me feel calmed and relaxed. The boulder we were sitting on was shaded by some shrubbery, of a type I didn't recognize, whose long and slender stems rustled softly.
It was almost two hours after we'd met Jim and Becky. We had ascended several hundred feet, I estimated. It certainly felt like it; it was time for a rest. We still had a way to go to reach the stopping point we had agreed on that morning: a large rocky outcrop along the path, made of stunning red sandstone. Above and behind us was a steep slope, almost a cliff face, mostly rock. About thirty feet up was the next segment of the path, which ran under the pink and red stone that marked our turnaround point. It seemed so close, but I knew that we had another mile or so to go along the path to get there.
I saw Sonya looking up at the slope above us. "I bet we could climb up there no problem," she said. "It's not too steep."
"Um, I'm not so sure," I replied. I took a closer look. "Well, it looks like a 70% slope. That's enough to be very tiring to climb, especially in our condition. And I see a lot of places where the rock is completely smooth. I don't think there's anyway to climb around them."
"Well, maybe it's too hard for you, but I bet I could do it."
"Sonya, no. Neither of us is climbing here. It's more difficult than it looks, and we could get stuck up there with no easy way to get back down."
"But--"
"NO, Sonya! You are not climbing up there. It is not safe." I looked in her eyes. "No climbing; do you understand?"
"Um, okay."
I yawned. I was starting to feel a little drowsy. "Let's have a little nap before we go on, okay?" I leaned back against the boulder.
"Okay." Sonya settled down beside me, and I cradled her head in my arms.
***
I jumped with a start. Sonya was not beside me. How long had I been sleeping? Where was she?
Her backpack was not lying where she had left it. I looked up and down the path, but saw nothing.
Then I heard an "Oh!" from above my head. I looked up. There she was, clinging to the slope, her feet about twelve feet above the level of the path.
"Sonya, what are you doing?" I shouted.
"I got bored while you were sleeping, so I decided to try the shortcut." I saw her scanning the slope above her for another handhold.
"Sonya, there's no way to get all the way up. You need to come down, now!"
"Come on! Let me try. Please? How far up am I?"
She looked back down over her shoulder, and I heard a quiet "ugh" escape her lips. Clearly, this was the first time she'd looked down, and what she saw gave her quite a fright.
"Um, maybe I better get down now," she said weakly.
I was really scared now. Visions ran through my brain, of Sonya freaking out and doing something dumb, or simply passing out and falling. "Hang on! Don't worry, if you got up, you can get back down the way you came."
"I don't know what to do! Help me! I'm scared to move!" The tone of the voice showed she was frantic.
"Be calm, Sonya. It's okay, we can figure this out together."
It seemed to take forever. I would guide her to the next handhold or step, and, after much hesitation, she followed my directions. Working this way, she was able to retrace her steps back down the steep, rocky slope, one small move at a time. When she was almost to the bottom, I grabbed her in my arms, and set her down on my feet. She threw her arms about me and squeezed tight, as though she were still high above the ground and hanging on for dear life.
After giving her a chance to catch her breath, I got her to sit down on the boulder, and I sat next to her. Sonya was shaking as an after effect of her big fright, and I gave her a chance to calm down.
"Thank you," she said, after a while. She was still clutching me.
"Your are most welcome," I replied. Then I said, "Sonya, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"Um. Well. I guess that was a really stupid thing to do, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it certainly was. And you knew it was before you started, didn't you. I seem to remember we discussed it."
"Um, yes. We did." I said nothing, and waited until her nervous chatter filled the silence. "I guess I got bored, and couldn't help myself. I guess maybe I was trying to show off."
"Well, whatever the reason, what you tried was very reckless and dangerous. Climbing a difficult slope without having a plan, and without having a partner to back you up. I'm very disappointed, Sonya," I said.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have done it. I promise I'll never do anything like that again!"
"But what is worse, we had already discussed it, and I forbade you to try to climb. I'm very angry that you disobeyed me, especially to do something so dangerous."
I looked at her, and she looked down at her shoes, she was so ashamed. "I'm in big trouble, aren't I?"
"You most certainly are." I stood up, and wandered over to the stand of shrubbery. She stood up to follow me.
"I guess I'm going to get it good when we get home." Unconsciously, she moved her hands to cover her bottom. "I suppose I have it coming." I was carefully inspecting the shrubs, picking out individual stems one by one.
"Um, what are you doing?" she asked. I had found a decent stem, a little over two feet in length, about the width of Sonya's pinky, with no branches or leaves coming off it. I pulled my pocket-knife out of my pouch, and bent over to to slice at the stem near the root.
"Hey, what are you doing?" she said, with rising panic.
"What I'm doing, Sonya, is cutting a switch." I finished cutting the little shrub away from its roots, and I turned my attention to slicing away the leafy part at top.
"Noooo! Please, not that! Not here!"
"I'm sorry, Sonya, but you need to be taken care of right now." I finished removing the top of the shrubbery. What I held in my hand was a slender but fearsome instrument of punishment. I gave a swish, and was satisfied with the whooshing sound I heard. The switch was light, but very whippy; it would deliver a painful sting.
"No, please punish me when we get home! Not here, please! What if somebody sees? I couldn't stand it if somebody saw."
I extracted a beach towel from my backpack. I unfolded it and draped it over the boulder. "No, Sonya. You need to be punished here and now, at the scene of the crime. And the only people around are Jim and Becky, and I'm sure that right now they are way up at the peak of this mountain. Now take you pants and panties down, and lie across the towel."
"Oh! Do I have to?"
"You are going to have your bare bottom spanked with a fresh-cut switch, miss. I do not want to hear any more argument; the sooner we start, the sooner it will be over with."
"Oooh!" But she did as I asked, unbuttoning her khakis sliding them past her hips; the light-weight fabric fell in a little pile around her hiking boots. With a little sigh, she did the same with her panties. With a very downcast look, she waddled over and bent over the boulder, resting her upper body on the towel, and exposing her bare behind to the ministrations of the switch. Her face was turned to her left; she could see me (and the switch) out of the corner of her eye. I could see she was trying to see up the path, to tell if anyone was coming.
A soft breeze suddenly blew up, and Sonya shivered.
I lifted the switch. "Ready?"
"Yes, sir." She trembled a little with anticipation.
Whooosh! CRACK!
"Oooooh!" she screamed involuntarily. She had never felt a switch before, and hadn't realized how much it would sting.
Whooosh! CRACK!
"Oh!"
Again and again, the switch kissed her upturn bottom, with a sharp CRACK! Each time, she made a little gasp, as the stinging stroke penetrated her consciousness. Again and again, I whipped the switch across her bottom, making sure that every part got attention. I watched as her bottom turned a bright pink, with the slight hint of horizontal lines marking the punishing strokes of the switch.
Soon, she was flexing her legs on every stroke, or arching her back, trying to do anything to distract herself from the pain. But she gamely stayed in position, accepting her punishment.
When the green wood of the switch began to split, I stopped. I bent down and looked directly into Sonya's face. "Have you learned your lesson, miss?"
"Yes, sir," she said tearfully. "I promise, I will never do anything dangerous like that again. And when it is a matter of safety, I promise to be obedient."
"Okay, Sonya. That's what I wanted to hear. You may stand up now." Shakily, with the aid of my outstretched hand, she stood up. I took her in my arms and hugged her. "It's all over now," I said.
"Thank you," she replied.
We embraced for a while, until, suddenly, I heard the sound of someone coming down the path. Sonya gasped "Oh!". I snatched up the beach towel and quickly wrapped it around her waist, tucking it in like a bath towel.
Jim emerged around the bend in the path, followed right behind by Becky. Stupidly, I was still holding the switch in my hand. That, and Sonya's pants and underwear still visibly puddled around her ankles, meant there was no way to hide what had happened -- assuming they hadn't heard anything, which seemed unlikely.
Becky rushed up to Sonya's side, and took her hands in hers. I could not hear their whispered conversation. Jim ambled over to my side.
"So, what exactly has been going on here?" Jim asked.
"Um," I responded. "Well. Sonya tried to climb the rock face up there, without any help, even after I told her it was dangerous. So, um, ..."
"I see. So you gave her a good old-fashioned switching?"
"Um, that's right," I said.
"Well, that's all right then," he replied. I began to feel relieved -- it didn't seem we were going to get in trouble over this.
"It's all right?" I asked.
"Yup. Between you and me, if Becky here pulled a stunt like that, she knows she'd get this belt across her backside." He winked conspiratorially and pointed to the thick leather belt he was wearing. Jim spoke this last quite loudly, and Becky glanced at him; I could see she was blushing.
After a while, Jim and Becky headed off down the path a bit, giving Sonya a chance to get her pants back on in private. Then we gathered our things, and went down to join them. All four of us walked back to camp together. That evening Sonya and I enjoyed the company of our new friends around the campfire.
