he slipped his foot out of the loop at the bottom of the grey rope , and as quickly as he could , he slipped down the rope , gripping with his hands , and letting his legs swing below him he reached the loop and with a gulp grasped onto it , letting his legs swing out far beneath him the rope parted with a snap tavi plummeted between doroga lowering the rope from above and the few feet he had gained by letting himself farther down the rope , the fall might have been little more than ten feet not much higher than the roof of the stables , and he had jumped from there several times-always into mounds of hay , true , but he had made the jump without fear he tried to remember to keep his legs loose , to fall , roll if he possibly could the fall seemed to take forever , and when tavi landed it was a shock to his ankles , knees , thighs , hips , back , all in rapid succession as he tumbled to the earth he landed on one side , arms flailing wildly out and slapping down with him , and his breath exploded out from him in a rush he lay for a moment without moving , dimly aware that he was on the ground , still clutching the loop in the end of the rope in his fist he regained his breath in a few moments , becoming aware of a couple of incongruous facts as he did first , there was no snow , down here in the chasm of course , he had seen no snow from above , but the significance of it had n't quite registered on him until he reached the ground it was warm humid nearly stifling he sat up , slowly , pushing himself up with his hands the ground beneath him , or rather , the greenly luminous wax beneath his fingers felt pleasantly warm , and he let them rest against it for a moment , letting his chilled fingers recover from the cold wind that had frozen them on the way down from the top of the cliff his ankles stung as though being prickled by thousands of tiny needles , but the sensation faded after a moment , leaving them feeling merely uncomfortable and sore tavi gathered himself to his feet , the pack shifting about uncomfortably on his back , and squinted at his surroundings .