Dragon War [not finished]

Cinder Cliffs: Ryia

RYIA'S POV

I grip the rocks as hard as I can. Sweat drips down my face. The sun burns my neck. Down below, the sea of faces stares up at me. I find a handhold and pull myself up a few inches. The kitten mews.
I am climbing the face of Cinder Cliffs, famous for the dragon that scorched them years ago. A stranded kitten sits on a ledge a few feet above me, dropped there by a hawk.
I reach and grab another treacherous fistful of dirt, hoping it won’t give away and sent me hurtling to my death.
It doesn’t.
As the minutes tick by, I slowly make my way up to the mewing kitten. I reach the tiny ledge it’s on.
The ledge is just big enough to hang my fingers from. I can’t release them or I’ll fall.
Slowly, I pull my left hand off. I reach carefully for the kitten.
I grab it and wrap my arm around it. It struggles, and when I pull it off of the ledge and towards me, it starts to freak out, groping and swinging in every way.  “Sshhh,” I pet it calmly, praying that I don’t fall.
My right hand slips. I try to shove the cat into the little bag I brought with me, slung over my shoulder, but he resists.
My right hand slips some more.
I’m hanging by my fingertips, and I know I’m about to fall.
In one final moment of triumph, I shove the kitten in the bag and throw it down to Margaret, who catches it.
I instantly reach for the ledge, but it’s too late. My right hand falls, and I’m plunging towards the earth faster than I can think.
I reach for anything, anything, to keep me from smashing into a pudding at the bottom.
My fingers grab a little handful of dirt. I’m about sixty hands from the green grass below.
How on earth did I get up here? There are no handholds where I am, just a solid, vertical rock wall.
The dirt gives way and I fall again.
Peter runs by and catches me.
The fall takes my breath away, but I’m all right. I smile.