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Chapter 6



“This looks promising, clear enough for us to build a fire, we could make us a shelter with the beach-blankets and towels…dad, you go back and get mom, uncle Sam, can you find us some dry material to make a fire?”

Spike followed the flattened trail and called out to the girls, who clambered down from the rocks and followed him. They left the cool-boxes on the rocks, figuring nobody or nothing would touch them overnight.

Spike carried the blankets and the bottled water.

Meanwhile, Billy went over to a tree with a long thin vine hanging down. He reached for it, gave it a sharp tug and a piece about thirty foot long broke off.

“Brilliant!” pleased with himself, he saw Sam drop a load of sticks and long dried looking fronds on the ground.

“Want anymore?”

“Much as you can find, we need the fire to be in all night” Billy said, winding up the vine.

Ten minutes later, with the aid of the vine being used to tie some of the blankets to some trees, they had a three-quarters closed in shelter, the open side looking out to the fire.

“Get some of those big branches with the long leaves, they can make the roof” Billy said. And Spike and Sam went off again

“Mommy…I don’t like it, I’m frightened!”

Buffy picked up Izzie and cuddled her

“Don’t be frightened baby, I’m here, daddy’s here, and aunty Willow and Uncle Sam and Billy too, there’s nothing to be frightened of”

Spike came back and looked concerned, and frowned

“Is she alright?” he mouthed

Buffy soothing her daughter nodded and whispered back

“She’s tired, that’s all” Spike nodded

“Dad…have you got your lighter?”

“My Lighter, no, why?”

“To start the fire…no matter I’ve seen this done loads of times…I need a knife – a penknife will do”

“Hold on Billy… I’ve got a book of matches here somewhere – here you go” Willow fished them out of her pocket

“You, with matches?” Buffy looked surprised and smiled

“I just put them in my pocket this morning, while I was making coffee on the boat – lucky I did!”

“Mommy…I’m sleepy…when can we go home?” Izzie began to wriggle on her mother’s lap

“What’s up poppet?” Spike asked

“I want…I want to go!” Izzie said, with a petulant pout

“We leave in the morning sweetie, you go to sleep now, sooner you sleep, the sooner morning comes”

“No daddy… I want to…GO!” She wriggled

“Oh, you mean –“

“I want a wee!”

“Oh…um…” Buffy made her stand and she stood too.

“I’ll come with you – I need to go too!” Willow said, and the three girls went off.

“Bring some more dry stuff back to burn” Sam called, and Buffy raised her hand

Five minutes later, the men had a nice fire going, and the girls came back with their arms full of dry leaves for burning.

“We found a waterfall, it’s beautiful!” Buffy said, dropping her pile on the floor.

“It’s getting dark – we can look in the morning…now Izzie, look what your clever brother has made for you – a hammock!”

Izzie eyed the fabric slung between the two trees – she wasn’t impressed as she was tired and irritable

“I don’t like it!”

“Izzie – don’t be mean, Billy made it specially for you!”

Buffy picked her up and put her in it. Wriggling so it swung, Izzie held her arms up to her mother and gave a worried cry

“Mom-my, I don’t - ahhhh!…”

“Now look…lie down…that’s it……… see, it’s nice you can swing gently” Lying her down, Buffy made the hammock swing very gently. She could see her daughter’s eyelids drooping

“But mommy…I don’t………” Izzie yawned, tiredness overcoming any misgivings she had about her impromptu sleeping arrangements, eyes closing, she went fast to sleep.

Sam held his hand out to Willow

“Come with me”

Willow smiled and asked

“Where to?”

Sam gave her a look, and she grinned, allowing herself to be pulled up off the sand

“Be back later, don’t wait up!” Sam said, striding off in the direction the girls had taken earlier.

“I expect uncle Sam wants a shower in that waterfall” Billy said, feeding the fire some more fuel

“That’ll be it!” Spike said grinning

“Yes, that’ll be it!” Buffy said, glancing at Spike.


************************

“There…alone at last!” Sam wound his arms around Willow and leant her back against a convenient tree!

“And why do you want us to be alone, hmm? – Could be dangerous around here…we could fall down a ravine” Willow said, and then Sam kissed her.

“…Hmm…or um…or we could get totally lost…” Sam homed in for another kiss

Willow smiled and then she continued…

“There could be all manner of wild beasties around here just waiting to eat us up!” Willow’s eyes began to roll…Sam continued kissing her, moving from her mouth to her neck, making her shiver with delight…

“Or…oh, or there c-could be s-sn-snakes - ahh!”

“The only…snake around here………is that………of the trouser variety…here, feel!” Sam took Willow’s hand from his waist and put it on his hard-on!

Willow giggled and gently gripped him, rubbing her hand up and down, before allowing herself to be pulled to the soft sand beneath them………

They returned to Buffy and Spike about an hour later

“Golly, you dried out quick” Billy said

Sam and Willow noticed that the pile of fuel had grown

“Sorry, dried out?” Sam looked confused

“Billy reckoned you’d gone for a shower in that waterfall” Buffy said

“Oh right, um…no - actually we, well I was looking at the stars” This was true, but only when they were walking back to ‘camp’!

“Did you…um, find anything interesting?” Spike asked with a grin

“Yeah…sand gets everywhere!” Willow said quietly, and Buffy stifled a giggle and winced.

Billy yawned

“Come on son…there’s room for you with Izzie, if you lie top to tail” Buffy stood and Billy slipped his sandals off and Buffy helped him into the hammock. Izzie didn’t even move.

“Right, who’s for coffee – it’ll have to be black no sugar, but hey?” Buffy asked

“Coffee? – But how?”

“Well, we have clean water, one of aunty Peggy’s cake tins, Spike went back and fetched the cool boxes so we have tumblers to drink out of, and I noticed earlier that by mistake I’d bought a jar of instant coffee in one of the food bags, I grabbed it out of the cupboard at home this morning, thinking it was a jar relish”

“Great!”

They poured some water into the tin to boil, Buffy tipped a little of the coffee granules into each tumbler

They sat around the fire, it was quite cosy, it was a warm dry night, a little noisy at first when the cicada’s started chirruping, and the birds started calling, but it soon died down.

“I was thinking, I’ll stay awake and keep watch – keep the fire in and that” Spike said

“We’ll take it in turns if you like, we’ll just drink the coffee first” Sam said, then he yawned

“Well okay, you two go get some sleep, and I’ll come and wake you at…”Spike looked at his wristwatch out of sheer habit

“Oh! God knows – I forgot my watch has stopped…tell you what, when the moon reaches that dark shape over there, I reckon that’ll take about four-five hours” Everybody looked up to where Spike was pointing

“Billy’s watch might be working, it’s digital” Buffy said

Spike shook his head

“No, he showed me this afternoon when we were at those rock pools, it was just a blank little screen”

Buffy stretched and leaned back, her hand rested on Billy’s book-bag.

She sat up and pulled it round, taking out the map – it could clearly be seen by the firelight as she unrolled it. After studying it for a few minutes she said,

“Hey…look at this”

“Look at what?”

“This…I reckon…that bit there, on the left hand side, is the beach…” (She turned the map so the scroll was top to bottom, rather than left to right)

“See, beach, okay - and then that’s the waterfall Willow and I found earlier, and that dark shape Spike just pointed to over there…is that bit there…it says, hold on…Dragon’s…………I can’t…” Picking up the map and squinting closely Buffy said

“I think it says Dragon’s Breath mountain – its Dragon’s something anyway” She put the map back on the sand.

“We better not go East” Willow said over Buffy’s shoulder

“Why not?”

“Look………Pit of Hellfire…” Willow, Spike and Buffy all exchanged glances, their old lives rearing its ugly head and making them shiver

“Look there…Caves of what? – Next to the pit, Caves of…the 7 Sirens” Spike said, leaning in on Buffy’s left.

“Siren’s? – Aren’t they supposed to lure sailors with their songs, and their boats get dashed on the rocks and that?” Buffy said

“Something like that…we could do with Giles being here, he knows all about these legends and that”

“Well, you can tell him when we get home tomorrow - now, I know I need some serious shut-eye, I’m knackered!” Sam lay down, and Willow went over and lay by him.

Spike and Buffy unrolled the map a little further to see what else they could find out………





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