Indi sat back against the wall and peeled the wrapper off her muesli bar. She looked sad. “What about sleep? How are we going to sleep on these rocks?” she eventually asked again.
“We can lean against the wall, or each other, maybe take turns, or just stay up. You ever pull an all-nighter?” Amanda asked in an attempt to distract Indi.
Indi shook her head. “I always fell asleep, as a kid I always tried to stay up all night on Samhain, but I don’t think I ever made it past midnight.”
“What about at uni?”
Indi shook her head. “I always had my projects done early. Sometimes I’d stay up late to help others but never past 3 am.”
Amanda gave a laugh at that.
“What about you?” Indi asked.
“Sure but not for assignments. I went to a few parties that went until dawn in high school, we’d drink all night then watch the sunrise. Then spend all day falling asleep in class. Good times.”
“I almost did that once, not the falling asleep in class part, it was a Friday night. My friend Jackie and I went to a party then back to mine and Jackie wanted to stay up to watch the sunrise. We watched movies and had a popcorn fight. I ended up falling asleep on the couch though. I think Jackie made it but I never did ask, she fled as I was waking up, when mum was coming down the stairs. Mum wasn’t too mad though, she thought it was funny. But I did have to vacuum it up.”
They sat in silence listening to the cave for a bit. Somewhere nearby Indi could hear the dripping of water. She glanced sideways at Amanda. The woman had her eyes shut and was leaning back against the rock behind her. Indi wasn’t sure if she was asleep or not. The fire was still burning though.
Indi tilted her head back until she was looking at the wall behind them upside down. It was perhaps a little more than twice her height. It was slightly overhung and very slippery but maybe if she lifted Amanda up or Amanda lifted her up? No that wouldn’t work, not unless Amanda stood on one leg.
“Hey Amanda?” Indi whispered, not wanting to wake her if she was actually asleep.
“Mmm?” Amanda murmured.
“You reckon you could stand on one leg?”
Amanda opened one eye questioningly.
“Well, I was just thinking...” Indi glanced up.
Amanda followed her gaze.
As Indi opened her mouth to speak Amanda snorted. “No.”
“But what if ...”
Amanda shook her head. “There wasn’t anything to climb past that ledge, just slippery-arse rock.”
“We didn’t really get to see that part too well, maybe I could lift you up since you’re the better climber then you could pull yourself up the rest.”
“Believe it or not, climbing actually does use legs Indi.” Then she added with a mutter, “unless you’re Cat, and not even Cat could climb that.”
“I thought you could climb better than Cat?”
“Yeah, grades wise we’re pretty similar but Cat’s taller and stronger and she can get away without technique, she’d be better on something without feet than I would, she’d also probably be stupid enough to try it. That woman is fearless to a fault, which to be fair, does improve her climbing.”
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“I could catch you with a shield.”
Amanda gave a soft laugh. “Unless you can move the shield once you’ve cast it I doubt it’ll help. We’re better off waiting here for the others.”
“You’re pretty fearless too you know,” Indi said wistfully, “You all are.”
Amanda smiled. “So are you.”
Indi rolled her eyes and gave a sheepish smile that said she didn’t think so.
“You dragged us all out here,” Amanda continued, “even though you’d never been camping before.”
Indi shrugged. “Well sure I guess. But then I got us stuck in this cave.”
“I’m the one that fell off the wall.”
“Yeah and then I went and did it right after you, which is probably even worse.”
Amanda shrugged.
They both laughed.
Silence returned once more.
Amanda played with some extra fire in her hand, running it over her fingers and twisting it around like a ribbon.
Indi watched mesmerised. “Do you think the water dragon will return?”
“Dunno,” Amanda replied still playing with the fire.
“Do you think it’s friendly?”
Amanda shrugged. “It didn’t eat us before.”
“Do you think we could coax it out and get it to help lift us back up the rock?”
Amanda stopped twirling the fire. She put it out with the close of her hand then turned to face Indi to see if she was serious. “It’s not a tame dragon,” she explained still unsure as to whether or not Indi had meant it as a serious suggestion.
“What do they eat?”
“Same as all dragons,” Amanda replied, “Metals and rock. Water dragons actually eat the rock whole, digest the certain metal bits and some other minerals, like calcium and stuff I think,and pass the rest. It’s why there’s so many caves.”
“Wow, A sub wouldn’t last very long down there then.”
“A sub?”
“A submarine, an underwater metal capsule for carrying people. The military use them sometimes, so do some scientific research groups. It’s an invention brought back from the old world, something the humans use a lot over there. We use them more up near the equator I think.”
Amanda nodded slowly, trying to imagine the thing Indi was talking about. “No, I don’t imagine that would last very long near a water dragon or any dragon. We’re lucky dragons mostly keep to a higher altitude.”
“Could you imagine a world without cars at all, Cat would go crazy.”
Amanda gave a wicked grin. “Then everyone would be riding horses.”
“And ships,” Indi added.
“And ships,” Amanda repeated still grinning.
Indi frowned. “But they don’t eat planes?”
“They do,” Amanda corrected. “Just not very often, we’ve mostly figured out flight routes that work, and some choppers send out a radio frequency that the dragons aren’t too fond of. It mostly keeps all but the hungriest away. Anyway there’s a good reason most of the transport out of this side of the country is by boat.”
“You know I read they’ve recently tested out this new material called fiberglass, made from plastics, that they can use instead of the aluminum. Apparently the humans have been using it for decades.”
“Huh,” Amanda mused.
“It’s more expensive though and I don’t think they’ve quite got the process right, the world jumper that brought back the info only got like half of the details and then disappeared without a trace. No one knows what happened to him.”
“He probably jumped worlds again.”
“Maybe,” Indi replied, but her tone suggested that was a boring answer.
After barely a moment’s silence Indi piped up again, “You know I bet Kass could climb that wall.”
Amanda rubbed her face with her hands. “That’s not going to convince me to give it a try. She has less to lift and she is actually a good climber, but even she’d still struggle getting up that wall, trust me.”
“She could use her powers.”
“Yes that would probably do it,” Amanda agreed. She wondered if she should have left Kass with Indi. They wouldn’t be in this mess then. But Kass and Cat were the fittest, Amanda would have just slowed them down. It would have been the same problem leaving Cat with Indi too. This way had been the obvious and best choice.
“What if you blasted steps into the wall?” Indi suggested.
Amanda considered giving Indi an incredulous look, except it actually wasn’t a terrible suggestion. Any other firestarter would have laughed it off as crazy but Amanda wasn’t just any firestarter, and she could blow up a rock if she wanted, maybe carve a path through it. So she paused for a second and considered it, but only for a second. Any longer would have given Indi hope and she didn’t want to do that unless she was sure. Possible? Yes. Risky? Also yes. And it wasn’t like she could carve the rock, it would be an explosion. What the rock did was somewhat unpredictable and thus uncontrollable. She was as likely to create some kind of slippery slide as she was stairs, or hit someone in the face with a flying piece of the explosion. She shook her head. “No, too dangerous,” then added not because it was true but because it was more likely to convince Indi, “too much energy needed.”
“What if we piled up the rocks on the beach?”
Amanda looked up and down the beach then back at Indi with an apologetic look. “I don’t think we have enough rocks for that.”
“Mmm, true,” Indi sighed. She pulled her knees up and hugged them tightly.