Amanda called again louder. Still nothing. She felt her chest tighten as she thought of all the horrible things that could have happened. Surely she’d have heard if Indi had fallen into the river. Maybe there was a way out down that end. They hadn’t actually checked. From on the beach they had been able to see enough that it looked like that way was blocked, apart from where the river flowed but maybe there was a gap they couldn’t see. Amanda held up her flame and that same scene was all she could see now. No sign of her friend. If Indi had found a gap they’d missed she might have gone through first to check where it went before coming back to tell Amanda about it. Amanda wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to go exploring though, even if there was a way off this beach it didn’t mean it would get them back to the cave entrance and if they went deeper in it would be harder for Cat and Kass to find them. Plus they risked further injury.
She briefly considered waiting it out here but worry threatened to overwhelm her so she pulled herself up to balance on one leg. Immediately she had to slide herself back down, one hand on the rock wall, as her vision blurred and her head went woozy. She took in a deep breath then heaved herself up once more, slower this time. She was careful to keep her weight off her injured leg.
However, now that she stood she found walking was going to be almost impossible like this. Instead she lowered herself once more to the ground and crawled hands and knees over the rocks in the direction Indi had originally gone.
She winced once or twice as she accidentally bumped her sore leg against the rocks. It took her longer than she originally thought it would to move. Every so often she found she had to rest as her vision threatened to darken. Despite all that she managed to keep a small flame burning along the edge of the water, following her as she moved.
Eventually she reached the end of the small beach. She was surprised to find a much larger gap between the water and the rock than she had first realised. The water, of unknown depth, flowed into a dark tunnel with enough space above it to fit half person. Assuming the water was hip height (which Amanda considered unlikely) then a person could easily walk along the tunnel without having to duck. Unfortunately, they had been right about one thing. There was no way anyone could get through there without getting wet.
Amanda studied the water. Even with the light from her fire it was hard to judge the flow. It looked calm enough. That meant very little though. For all she knew there could be a swift undercurrent. She hoped not for Indi’s sake, as she had little doubt that this tunnel was where Indi had gone.
“Indi?” she yelled as loud as she could.
She held her breath as she waited for a reply or any indication of life. None came. All she could hear was water falling somewhere but she couldn’t pinpoint the direction. She felt sick. She knew there was very little she could do. Even if Indi was hurt, it’s not like she could get her out of here given her own condition, and going deeper into the cave definitely made it harder for the others to find them. It would be stupid to risk more injury to herself. She knew the best she could do was wait until the others returned. Wait and hope.
She didn’t move back down the beach. This spot was actually easier to reach for anyone coming into the cave above. She considered keeping her flame off but decided against it. She could keep it going for many hours yet and liked the comfort it brought. She focused on the ceiling and created a small flickering flame that made the shadows dance around the room. That, she figured, would be hard to ignore. She concentrated on it long enough until the thought burned in the back of her mind and then she barely needed to pay any attention at all to keep it going.
Amanda sat there for what felt like, and probably was, hours. During this time she played with rocks, tossing a couple gently into the water, but not too far out least she disturb the dragons. Her thoughts drifted often to Indi, imagining all sorts of horrible images, Indi unconscious at the bottom of a cliff, Indi trapped and pinned underwater somewhere. Her thoughts jumped back to the dragon too. Surely it wouldn’t have dragged her down?
She lay on her back and studied the rock wall. She briefly contemplated climbing it, but knew she couldn’t have done it even with two good legs.
The time passed and she wondered how long she had been there, if it had really been as long as she thought or it it just felt like that. She imagined Sirius at home, not knowing any of this was happening. She knew if anything happened to the others that he would come, and he would bring their friend Wolf, and Wolf would find them. Wolf could find anyone.
Amanda had been lost once before, in the north forest, as a child. This was back before Wolf was Sirius’s friend, back when Wolf had been Amanda’s friend, before either of them had known Sirius. He still was her friend too of course but he spent more time with Sirius these days. Back then though Wolf had found her. He’d used his magic to transform and followed her scent. He’d found her lost and he’d led her back home.
At some point Amanda drifted in and out of sleep. She was so out of it that at first she thought she was dreaming hearing the voices. But then they got louder. Someone was calling Indi’s name.
Amanda sat up, now wide awake. There it was again! Her name this time.
“This way,” the voice called to someone else, quieter but easier to hear because it was closer.
Amanda started to speak but choked on her own voice and had to try again. “Cat?” she called, not quite as loud as she should have.
The other voices went quiet. Then “Hello? Amanda?”
“Down here,” she shouted back, still not believing that she wasn’t just hallucinating it all.
“Where are you?” she heard the familiar and welcome sound of Cat speak, now just inside this room and somewhere above.
“Down here,” Amanda replied, the strain in her voice clearly showing through. “Watch your step, it’s slippery and unstable.”
She heard some scrambling and low mumbling up above. Then “Are you okay?” a concerned Cat called down to her. “Is Indi there with you?”
“I’ve got a broken leg,” she called back up. “Indi went wandering off down the tunnel I think, I’m not sure where she is.”
“Shit,” Cat swore.
“Do you have the rope?” Amanda asked.
“Yeah, hang on,” Cat replied.
Amanda heard another softer voice talking to Cat that sounded like Kass from what little she could make out. It sounded like they were discussing how to get Amanda back up.
“Do you have a map for this cave?” Cat called down.
“No, only what we drew up, which wasn’t very much,” Amanda replied.
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There was a pause of silence then Cat called down to her again, in a tone that sounded almost like fear. “How long have you been down there?”
“About a day, I guess, I don’t know. How long has it been since you left? It was a few hours after that.”
Silence again.
Someone swore softly. Probably Cat. Then the end of a rope dropped over the edge and was lowered down. She heard muffled voices, arguing maybe, then Cat’s indignant voice just loud enough to hear. “No, I’m going down.”
“Have you got food and water down there?” this time it was Kass who spoke, and loud enough that Amanda recognized her voice.
“I could use something to eat. There’s water here already.”
Amanda heard them debating softly again.
“Are you in the water?” Cat called, hesitance in her voice.
“No, there’s a beach here.”
More mumbling back and forth. She overheard a firm “No,” from Cat. Finally Kass called down to Amanda, “is the rope down.”
“Yep.” It was down and then some, a small curl formed on the beach.
“How much extra have you got?” Kass asked.
“A couple metres,” Amanda called back up.
Kass must have said something to Cat because then Cat replied loudly with “No, I’m going down. You don’t know if she’s with it enough to tie a decent knot and I want to check her leg.”
They talked back and forth for a few seconds. Kass spoke too quietly for Amanda to make out but she caught bits and pieces of what Cat said. Something about ‘wasting time’ and ‘stuck down there’ and ‘Indi’. They’d been talking less than a minute however when Cat said “fine” indicating that they’d come to some sort of agreement.
Amanda might have butted in to tell them she was fine enough to tie herself into a rope but what with Indi having disappeared further down the tunnel and how tired she was, she figured it was better if at least one of them came down to her.
The rope disappeared back up the cliff, and Amanda heard some scuffling and the sound of rocks being moved around. Eventually Cat yelled “heads” and the rope tumbled down further along the beach, not too far from Amanda.
Kass said something to Cat and Cat replied “What? She’s further along that way, I wasn’t going to hit her.”
Amanda managed a small smile then yelled up “What’d you tie the rope on to?” She couldn’t remember anything obvious up there that would make for an easy anchor.
A light from a headlamp appeared over the edge. Amanda shut her eyes against the brightness. A moment later the light turned off and Amanda opened her eyes to see Cat’s face peering over the edge, lit up by Amanda’s small fire on the beach.
“Meat belay,” Cat replied with a daring grin.
Now Amanda understood the arguments over who was coming down. A meat belay was a human anchor. That meant Kass was up there probably wedged behind some solid rock with the rope tied to her. She’d have found a good position that she was unlikely to get pulled out of, while Cat abseiled down the other end of the rope. They would have considered the friction but weight still made a difference and given there was easily more than a 20 kg difference between the two woman it really would have made more sense for Kass to be the one abseiling down. Amanda didn’t find it surprising that bossy Cat had overruled the more passive Kass though.
“You don’t think it would have been better to lower Kass down?” Amanda asked as Cat made her way down the wall.
“Well hello to you too,” Cat replied in a light-hearted semi-sarcastic tone.
“She is the lighter of you two,” Amanda justified in a casual tone.
Cat shrugged as her feet touched down on the rocky beach. “She’s behind a decent rock.”
“It’ll probably take both of you to haul me up.”
Cat gave an inattentive nod, her focus more on sussing out Amanda’s physical condition.
As Cat crouched down next to her Amanda added, “I figured you could look for Indi first or...” Amanda trailed off reminded of Cat’s hatred of going into the water. If anyone was going to look for Indi down that tunnel it wasn’t going to be Cat.
Cat’s green eyes met Amanda’s brown ones briefly, then scanned the rest of her face, giving her the once over. Her eyebrows knotted at the mention of Indi’s name. Amanda could see the worry.
“Here.” Cat handed Amanda a muesli bar.
Amanda took it gratefully and started unwrapping it. She was imagining the taste as she ripped into the packet.
Cat looked off down the beach for a second then back down at Amanda’s leg. There was no blood or break in the skin but the area around her lower calf had gone a dark purple colour and was obviously swollen. Despite having experienced more than her fair share of broken bones in her lifetime Cat just didn’t know enough to tell if it was serious or not. Amanda hadn’t looked like she’d been sweating and she was coherent. It was hard to tell the pallor of her skin in the light but Cat doubted it meant anything if she was paler than usual. That was probably to be expected. Right?
Cat noticed the flame on the beach, properly noticed it this time. “How long have you been doing that for?” she asked.
“Not long,” Amanda lied. She shook her head then added more honestly, “Cat, it’s barely any effort for me.”
Cat bit her lip, eyes travelling back to Amanda’s leg.
“My leg’s fine, it’ll be fine once we get back home. We need to find Indi though. I’m not sure what happened to her. She disappeared off down river.”
Cat met her eyes again. More worry showed in the wrinkles between her eyes. “How long ago?”
Amanda shook her head. “A few hours maybe.”
Cat looked at where the water disappeared into the tunnel. “In the water?”
Amanda didn’t miss the hint of fear or the catch in Cat’s tone. She just gave a nod. “I’m worried she might have slipped in.
“How’s it going down there?” Kass yelled from up above.
Cat glanced up and yelled back. “You might need to come down. Tie the rope around the big rock, it should hold your weight at least.” Finally she added with another worried look at Amanda, “bring some more food.”
“Okay,” Kass yelled back.
While Cat was looking up Amanda closed her eyes for a moment and focused on breathing. Her leg was throbbing, more than it had yesterday but not so much that she couldn’t ignore it. She tried not to think about the fact that she would likely have to move soon, somehow.
Kass got herself down about as fast as Cat had, including tying the rope around the rock. One look at Amanda’s leg and she said, “We should probably splint that.”
“Right,” Cat agreed. She’d completely forgotten that that was what you were supposed to do. Cave rescues weren’t really in her repertoire. Come to think of it neither was most outdoor bush type stuff. Dealing with the poachers was about as close to home as she got out here. She was much better at breaking bones than she was at mending them.
Kass swung a small bright orange pack off her back and unzipped the single pocket. It wasn’t a bag that Cat had seen before. It was a full sized day-pack but it was made of what looked like parachute type material, light-weight and easy to compress but Cat suspected also pretty tough. She figured Kass must have had it bunched up in her pack and transferred some essentials to it before climbing down. “Do you have a first aid kit?” Kass asked.
Amanda pointed to her bag back up the beach. Kass hesitated before going to retrieve it. “We should grab some branches.”
Amanda shook her head. “We can do it later, just wrap it for now. I didn’t bother yet because I wasn’t planning on moving about much until you guys got back.”
Cat eyed the distance from where Amanda currently sat to where Kass had retrieved her pack from. “Not planning on moving much huh?”
Kass handed Amanda the first aid kit and Amanda fumbled through it to find the bandages while Kass studied the injury. “Have you taken your shoe off yet?”
Amanda shook her head and gave a grimace. “I wasn’t really inclined to, and I can feel and move my toes so I figure the blood flow’s fine.”
“You’re going to want to take it off to wrap it aren’t you?” Kass asked.
Amanda shook her head. “I didn’t want to move it more than I had to. We can probably just bandage around the shoe. You know how to do it?”
Kass nodded and Amanda handed her the bandages while continuing to look through for painkillers. She found a small packet of eight.
Amanda looked up at Cat who was quietly eyeing the tunnel where Indi had gone.
“Do you have some water on you?” Amanda asked the others, figuring a water bottle would be easier to drink out of. Her own one was empty and she hadn’t bothered filling it up.
Kass glanced up briefly but didn’t stop with the bandaging. “In the bag,” she nodded to the orange parachute.
While Amanda downed a couple of pain killers Cat reached out and gave the rope a test pull. She slowly put her weight on it. The rope held tight.
Kass eyed her with a worried expression.
Amanda noticed. “Cat,” she warned.
Cat stopped pulling and flashed a small mischievous smile. “I was just checking.”
“That’s our only way up,” Kass reminded her.
“I wasn’t putting more than your weight on it,” Cat replied. “Besides it’s going to need to hold our weight to get up.”
“I figured I’d go back up first and reinforce it from the top,” Kass explained.
Amanda wasn’t paying attention. She frowned. Now that she had her eyes on Cat she’d noticed something. A subtle difference in the usage of each arm. She appeared to be favoring of one side, and... “Is that blood?” Amanda asked.