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Chapter 8


A couple of hours later, Izzie woke and called to her mother as quietly as she could.

Buffy had been bashing open the coconuts.

Spike stirred as Buffy lifted her daughter down from the hammock, but Spike stayed asleep.

“What are you doing mommy?”

“Trying to open these nuts here…but I’m not having much success”

“When’s Billy and the others coming back?”

“I don’t know baby, but soon, don’t worry, now can you hold this for me while I…there! That’s better!” Buffy twisted the pieces of shell with the coconut on, and the nut came away, Buffy put it on a banana leaf, and the shell she threw on a pile for burning later.

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


“I don’t think we should go much further, we’ve been walking for ages and it’s getting back, we don’t want to end up getting lost” Billy said

Sam stopped slashing and striding

“Hmm, perhaps you’re right…we haven’t found anything though, have we, except thick jungle – although it DOES look like it’s thinning out just ahead” Willow said

“Maybe there’s nothing to be found”

Sam said, but he didn’t believe that, he KNEW that they must be there for a reason.

“Okay, just to where you said it gets thinner, then we turn back”

“Stand back…there!” Sam hacked a particularly thick over-hang of vines, to reveal a clearing – and what looked like the ruins of some sort of building

“Oh wow!………I KNEW there must be something here………” On a squared off piece of carved stone, about the size of a decent sarcophagus were strange pictograms, an eye in a triangle, three dots over what looked like a rising sun, a tree with wiggly lines emanating from it…

Billy immediately went over to it

“Be careful lad…” Sam warned, looking around – noticing the stones around the big stone were set in a circle.

“Oh look…they’ve carved the shape of a person on top of the stone…” Billy said, also noticing that there was a strange ‘channel’ running from the ‘neck’ of the carving to the edge of the stone

Willow frowned and said

“I don’t like the look of that, it looks – “

Remembering that Billy was only a child she stopped herself short of saying it looked like a sacrificial altar, the channel being for the blood to run down from the sacrificial victim.

“Aunty Willow…do you think this channel was…well…could it be for blood – look, it’s coming from the neck part of the carving”

Willow frowned and held her hand out towards Billy

“It might be honey…come on, lets get back shall we – this place is giving me the wiggins”

They turned back the way they came, and in just under an hour they were back at the camp.

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


“Daddy…I want to go home”

“Me too pet, we will soon, I promise, just as soon as the weather gets better”

“When will that be daddy?”

“I don’t know poppet…it should be very soon”

“Tomorrow?”

“Maybe”

“I hope so…I don’t like Lundy Island”

“This isn’t Lundy pet…not sure where it is, but this isn’t Lundy Island”

“But you said we were-!”

“Izzie, want some mango?”

“No! I WANT to go home!” she began to cry, Spike picked her up and carried her off a little way, trying to soothe her down

Buffy sighed and said quietly,

“I must admit, I’m with her!”

Willow looked up from gnawing around a mango stone and nodded in agreement

“Buffy – I’m taking her to cool off, she’s a little bit hot” Spike said and strode off towards the waterfall

“Hope she doesn’t get sick – that’s all we need”


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


It was so hot and humid, everybody just lay down, staring upwards towards the canopy of the forest. Somebody’s stomach gave a loud growl…

“You know what I could just eat now – a steak. A big, thick, juicy steak, with mushrooms, onion rings, and – “

“Oh, will you SHUT UP!” Willow said, rubbing her tummy

“I was just saying!” Sam said, with a hint of apology in his voice.

“Chicken me. Barbecued chicken, all sticky and spicy” Spike said

“You’re just as bad – be quiet!”

“Sausages! Got to be uncle Sam’s sausages though…the spicy ones – with ketchup and fries!” Billy said

“Mommy, I want fries and sausages too!” Izzie piped up

“Now look what you’ve done…honey, you can’t have fries and sausages, we haven’t got any”

“But mommy…I want… I…” Spike picked her up and hauled her onto his lap.

“Oh come on pet, don’t cry hmm? Be a big brave girl for daddy, and I promise you, when we get home, you can have sausages and fries, okay?” Spike tried to placate his fractious daughter.

Izzie sniffed and rubbed her face against Spike’s chest.

It had been three hours since they’d eaten the last of the mango, coconut and pineapple. There were still quite a few baobab pods – but they seemed fiddly and hardly worth the effort………

“Tell you what, Sam – you stay here with the children, and Buffy Willow and I will go off and see what we can find huh – get a nice fire going you never know”

Sam raised his brows, but nodded

“Right then ladies, follow me!” Spike strode out in the direction that Sam and the others had taken earlier – and when he was out of earshot of the children and Sam, he turned to Willow and asked

“Will – can YOU do something?”

“Such as?”

“Conjure up a couple of chickens, or a turkey or something?”

“Or even some decent weather so we could go home?” Buffy asked hopefully…

“I know, I’ve been thinking that myself – but I need stuff”

“Stuff? - What kind of stuff?”

“Herbs...candles, an offering…a bowl – I”

“Well look around, some of this stuff is bound to be herb – we can check in Billy’s book”



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

“Is this it?” Buffy asked hopefully, indicating a thick, bushy plant.

“No…can’t you smell it – that’s wild garlic”

“Poo! Now you come to mention it………so it’s no good then” Buffy wrinkled her nose at the pungent smell that suddenly permeated the air

“Well, not really – I need something like sage”

All three of them walked on a little further, when Spike shushed the two girls.

They both looked at him, he was frowning

“What is it?” Buffy whispered

“I thought I heard some - there! – I heard it again, listen” Spike said

Straining to hear, both Buffy and Willow even held their breath. Buffy was just about to say she couldn’t hear anything, when there was a distinct sound of something moving around in the bushes ahead of them. Spike waved his hand up and down, and crouched, Buffy and Willow followed suit, crouching in the undergrowth. Squinting in the distance to see if they could see anything, all they could really see were jungle plants.

A full minute later, Spike stood after nothing more had been heard. Slowly Buffy and Willow stood too.

“I don’t think it was anything to worry about, whatever it was, has g-oh!” Buffy was just about to say the word ‘gone’, when an arrow whizzed past her face and stuck in a tree four yards to her right

“What the - !” Buffy began, wide-eyed with shock

“DOWN!” Spike hissed and the three dropped to the ground as one

“Well we know one thing now, we’re not alone on this god-forsaken island, and the natives definitely aren’t friendly!” Spike went to the tree and retrieved the arrow; the feathered end was sticking up at an angle. After pulling it out of the tree, he sniffed it.

“As I thought…it’s been dipped in poison”

“POISON!”

“Shh!…Now…let me see, we heard a noise ahead of us, but the arrow came from the left of us, and it was at an angle………so I reckon the bowman must be in that tree over…there”

Spike crept over to the tree and gave it a good shake, then motioned for the other two to help him.

Ten seconds later, not being able to hang on any longer, the bowman fell out of the tree with a thump and a yell

“All-right sonny-Jim…I’ve got you now…I think I’ll take those, thankyou very much, and that” Spike took the quiver of arrows and the bow off the now terrified native, and gave them to Buffy

“And I’m going to teach you not to start shooting at people, it’s dangerous – somebody could get hurt!” Spike had the hapless native by the scruff of the neck. Frowning after he’d taken a better look, he realised that the native was really only a teenager – couldn’t have been more than 14-15 years old at the most.

“That arrow could have hit my wife, or my friend, or even me – do you understand?” The young man blinked terrified at Spike.

“I think you’ve scared him Spike” Buffy said

“Really? – Coz I haven’t started yet, now just you listen here, mate, when…oh” Spike looked up

The bushes that were in front of them suddenly rustled, and Spike, Willow and Buffy all stood looking at at least 10 more natives, some carrying spears, some with bows and arrows. All were covered in a random white substance, just daubed haphazardly over their faces, chest and torso. They all wore an animal skin loincloths.

Spike blew out his cheeks, and let the boy out of his grasp

“I was just telling laddo here how it isn’t polite to fire arrows at people, could get hurt”

Nothing. No response whatsoever from the group standing in front of them.

“Do you reckon we could ‘take’ them…I’m wary of the spears, in case they have that poison on them, but I reckon we could-“ Buffy whispered, trying not to move her lips. Suddenly one of the natives, the biggest one in the front pointed his spear at Buffy and shouted out,

“SILENCE!”

“Oh, you DO speak English then, good. I was just saying to the lad here that going around and firing ar-“

“Enough! You will kneel for the arrival of our God and King, Liama”

Buffy, Willow and Spike looked as the bushes shook, and through them came a rather large white man, he had on a multi-coloured robe, and a fancy headdress on – he was also the spitting image of Angel!

“I SAID KNEEL before our God and King!” The native said, brandishing his spear

Spike’s reaction? His brows dropped from being surprised and his whole face changed to a snarl

“Kneel? – Like FUCK I will!”





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