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Chapter 7

Buffy woke with a start, and lifted her head from Spike’s lap

“Huh wha-what was that?”

Spike stayed completely still, and they both heard the noise again, like something quite heavy walking carefully through the undergrowth

Buffy sat up slowly looking in the direction of the noise

“Can you see anything?” she whispered

Spike glanced across to the children, and then Sam and Willow to check that at least Sam was asleep, then he looked at Buffy, circled in front of his face with his finger, and Buffy understood what he was going to do.

Spike allowed his demon to come to the fore, and Buffy saw the ridges and his golden eyes as he shifted – he hadn’t done this in over a year, and it felt strange………

Scanning the immediate vicinity, Spike stood slowly and walked to the edge of the undergrowth and walked slowly about, but he could see nothing – whatever it was, had gone

Spike sat down exhausted.

Buffy knew he would need blood now; he always did after a ‘change’.

“Here baby” Buffy had cut her wrist with the penknife Billy didn’t need earlier and had let her blood drip into one of the tumblers. The cut would be nothing more than a scratch by morning.

Spike took the blood and gulped it down, he rinsed the tumbler and said

“There was nothing – at least it had gone when I went to look………good job I can still change at night huh?”

Buffy nodded and shuddered

“Cold pet – here, I’ll put more leaves on the-“

Buffy shook her head, but cuddled up to Spike, who put his arm around her.

“I think I’m with Izzie on this…I don’t like it!”

“I know pet…seems too much like the past...Dragon’s Breath Mountain…Pit of Hellfire”

“Yeah, just a bit…shall I go and wake Sam, the moon is well past that shape”

“Nah, leave him to sleep, I’m okay, I can grab a few hours during the daylight – I’m much better use to everyone during the night hours, just in case – you go back to sleep now, I’m going to have another coffee”

Buffy lay back down, dozing. Through the undergrowth towards the beach she could see the first colour changes in the sky indicating that dawn was near. She felt a slight shudder go through Spike and she sat up and gently rubbed Spike’s back

“You okay baby?”

“Me- yeah I’m fine…huh, psychological that’s all – seeing the dawn. Sunrise was one thing I thought I’d never see again at one time” Spike turned and smiled at her, giving her a light kiss

Buffy leant her head against his shoulder

“Hey…you didn’t wake me!”

“Morning Sam…no, you two looked like babes in the wood, we didn’t have the heart to!”

“You’ve been awake all night?”

“Spike has, I’ve dozed”

“Mom…help me out please”

Buffy went over to the hammock and lifted Billy out.

The fire was almost out, all the fuel consumed by the greedy flames.

“Any problems?” Sam asked stretching

“Well, we thought we heard something – I had a quick scout around but (Spike shrugged) nothing”

“Quick scout around – huh you wouldn’t have seen my ar-er hi Billy, you okay mate?”

Billy came back from behind a tree, yawning

“Try and get another couple of hours sleep baby, it’s still very early yet” Buffy helped him back into the hammock

“Have we got anything to drink – I’m parching” Sam asked

“Half a bottle of water – unless you fancy going to the waterfall and fetching more, and then we could all have coffee” Buffy suggested

“Here, I’ll show you where it is” Willow took the bottles and she led Sam off

“Is there any grub left, I’m starving?” Spike rubbed his tummy

“Er…let’s see…there’s one Cornish pastie…a chicken leg………a piece of carrot cake…half a cheese sandwich, an apple and a banana and two of aunt Peggy’s chocolate brownies”

“I could do with something sweet – energy you know”

“Here, but don’t tell the others!” Buffy gave him the two brownies

Spike ate them, he’d just finished when Willow and Sam returned

“Here, I’ll make the coffee” Sam pored the water into the cake tin to boil, and got the tumblers ready.

“Is there anything to eat left?”

“I think there was a brownie I didn’t eat!” Willow said and Buffy and Spike exchanged a look

“Um…there was…sorry, I ate it, needed the energy I was flagging at about three o’clock this morning!”

“Oh, is your watch working?”

“What – oh no, when I say three o’clock…I’m surmising, you know”

“Here, do you mind if I leave the carrot cake for Izzie, and the fruit for Billy, you can have the rest” Buffy passed over the food boxes

“Have you had anything?”

“I’m not hungry, really” Buffy gave Willow a reassuring nod and Willow took the boxes off her.


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

“Mommy – wait for me!” Izzie put down her piece of cake and scampered after her mom.

“I’m only here poppet, I’m not running off”

Buffy had taken off Izzie’s tee shirt and had rinsed it out, draping it over some bushes to dry. All the others had gone off exploring.

Then suddenly Izzie heard voices

“Well I hope Spike and Billy have done better than us – oh hi”

“No joy?” Buffy asked

“Just these…but they’re not ripe” Sam held up four small green bananas.

Sam sat in their makeshift ‘camp’ and saw the piece of carrot cake, and couldn’t resist it.

“Izzie…do you want this pet?”

Izzie shook her head no.

Sam ate it, and Izzie came back saying

“I lick-ted all the frosting off it…but I don’t like the cake!”

Sam frowned then smiled, laughing he hauled her over to sit between his legs

“What are those?” Izzie asked, pointing the small green fruits

“Hmm…they’re bananas, but they’re not ripe so they won’t taste very nice”

Excited shouts made them both look up, to see Billy and Spike staggering into the camp carrying a ‘tray’ made out of banana leaves. The tray was heaped with huge juicy looking pineapples, mangoes, coconuts and some brown furry-looking pods

“Oh wow – you DID have more luck than us!”

Grinning, Spike and Billy set their haul down on the sand

“I swear to you, it’s the sweetest, juiciest pineapple you’ve ever tasted!” Spike said

Quickly opening his penknife, Sam cut the leaves off several of the large juicy fruits and then cut them into quarters, handing them out, the sweet juice dripping through his fingers

Everybody ate with relish, and agreed, a tastier pineapple they’d never had! After a quick dip in the waterfall to get rid of the stickiness, they went back to their haul

“What are these then Billy?” Buffy picked up one of the longish fat brown furry pods

“Ah, smack two together…like this” He demonstrated, and bits of shell broke off and putting the one pod down carefully, Billy peeled back the broken bits of shell to reveal pale yellow spongy type seeds closely packed. They looked like the polystyrene shapes that are sometimes packed around delicate goods for transportation.

Billy picked out one of the seeds and put it between his teeth, taking off the spongy yellow bit. It tasted a lot like lemon sorbet, delicious!

“And see this, the black seed inside, don’t throw it, it can be washed and dried and then ground up it makes a kind of nutty porridge”

“And how come you know so much – what is it anyway?” Buffy asked copying what her son had done.

“Fruit of the Baobab tree…I read it in my book!”

“Hmm…that’s really nice…bit like…um freeze dried lemon ice-cream! Willow said

“That pineapple though – I’ve never had better!” Buffy stated

“So, what did you find uncle Sam?” Billy asked

Izzie held up the four sorry looking bananas, and everybody giggled

“We can have the mangoes and coconuts for lunch”

“Hopefully we’ll back on the boat then” Sam said, and suddenly it went dark

Frowning everybody looked up to see a huge grey/black cloud cover the sun, suddenly there was an almighty clap of thunder and the rain began to fall – in torrents.

Quickly they all squeezed into the camp shelter, pulling the fruit in also. The banana leaf roof did an amazing job of keeping the rain off them – and suddenly Buffy broke camp and ran out in it, shrieking and laughing, holding her arms up in the air – Willow joined her and Izzie, leaving the men thinking they’d gone slightly mad! – But they were laughing too!

The rain eventually stopped, leaving everything steaming and dripping wet, but a thick mist prevailed so even when they stood on the beach, they couldn’t even see the boat

“Doesn’t look like we’ll be leaving anytime soon…come on” Spike and Sam went back to their camp.

“Is the boat alright?” Willow asked worriedly

“Dunno, we could barely make it out through the mist…it’ll lift soon enough, no doubt” Sam said, looking up into the greyness

Spike yawned

“I’m going for a few hours shut-eye, I’m knackered” Spike announced, yawning again

“Me too daddy, I want to come with you” Izzie announced.

“Okay princess, but no wriggling okay, daddy wants to sleep” Izzie nodded solemnly and held her arms up to her beloved daddy. Spike scooped her up, blew a raspberry on her tummy and made her giggle.

After making sure the hammock would hold him and Izzie, Spike climbed onto the swinging bed and pulled Izzie up to join him. Izzie immediately cuddled up to her daddy, who put his arm around her protectively. Izzie closed her eyes and they were both soon fast asleep.

Buffy said she’d stay by the camp, while Willow, Billy and Sam went off exploring





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