Excerpt: Amaranth Valley

We got to the creek fast this time, so fast that Silence was panting hard. I didn't feel bad for her, though, because I could make her better. I don't know when I realized it, or if it had been obvious all along and I just didn't let myself in on the secret.
I didn't bother checking how deep the hole was. It wouldn't be too deep, it was never too deep. It would be just far enough to be scary, but there'd be water or grass, something on the bottom to cushion the fall. It always happened that way. Silence had run from this place once already - she would worry, but she'd trust me in the end. She'd follow, and we'd wind up in a spooky cave or a forgotten tunnel. But I wouldn't be afraid. I knew what I was looking for. I looked down into the pit, braced myself for the fall. There was a breeze on my face as Silence shoved past. Before I could grab for her, she'd jumped in.
That was the first problem with the story

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Now that I had to jump in after her, I was nervous. Was she out of the way? Was she alright? Why couldn't I hear her down there?
"Hey! You down there?"
For some reason I always had trouble talking loudly when there was no one to talk to. I knew she was down there somewhere, but without any kind of reaction, a turned-up ear or a wagging tail, it just felt like talking to myself. I forced myself not to whisper.
"SILENCE!"
It always felt kind of funny screaming that at the top of my lungs. Yeah, take that, noisy forest.
I listened. No Silence, just quiet.
Well, I couldn't just go back and say the dog fell into a pit. Especially not if it meant leading them here. There were some things I needed to figure out, first. And I couldn't do that from where I was standing. Besides, Silence was the faithful sidekick. You can't kill off the faithful sidekick. It kills the story. I jumped in.
It was farther than I expected.
As expected, though, I landed on something soft.
I hadn't expected it to be Silence.
I jumped away, panicked. There was no blood on her fur, or the ground, but she wasn't moving either.
"Si? Get up, get up, get up."
Not frantic, not loud, just insistent. She needed to get up, at least struggle to, otherwise she'd have to be dead.
She did get up.
I'm not sure if she was dead.