This is my response for the 5 minute Freewrite Prompt: my shoe got stuck in the mud.
The first branch wasn't really painful, it just stung where it had caught me in the eye. But it was enough to throw off my balance and send me slipping over the edge of the trailway. There was a slight and very unexpected drop that couldn't have been more than three or four inches. However brief it may have been, I still panicked and flailed my arms wildly.
That was about the time I dropped the canteen I had been holding and managed to swing my walking stick, which was securely attached via a leather strap to my hand, into a collision course with my other eye. As spectacles go, it must have been fantastic. Now, momentarily blinded, struggling to regain my footing, I slipped again, tripped over the aforementioned canteen, and began rolling down the mountainside.
All because my shoe got stuck in the mud.