Odessa nearly jumped out of her skin.

Through the trees she could just make out the shadowy figure of Hoots squinting her way.

With a yelp Odessa grabbed her shorts and underwear and dashed behind the tree.

Blushing bright red she replied, “I was just taking whiz.”

“A what?”

“A pee. I was just going for a pee.” On her wrist her heart rate monitor beeped urgently. Odessa scowled at it and considered throwing it into the bush. She didn’t. Instead, she hurriedly put her clothes back on.

“Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting?”

Odessa frowned. Was she interrupting? She considered answering with something sarcastic but she held her tongue. Hoots was just an old lady, and their client in a way. She should be nice to her.

Tucking the necklace into her pocket, Odessa stepped out from behind the tree and came face to face with Hoots.

She nearly jumped out of her skin again. She was glad she had already peed. How did the woman manage to move so quietly and so quickly? She had advanced senses not teleportation abilities like her grandson, unless she had a teleportation infusement? But if that was the case then why use it to just move around but not to take them to Bob and Donny? Odessa probably just hadn’t been paying attention, that was all.

“It’s fine,” Odessa told her. “I’m done now?”

“Do you lot always take your clothes off when you go to the bathroom?” Hoots inquired unabashedly.

Odessa blushed a deeper red and was glad they weren’t too far from camp. “Well, um, that’s more of a Chaser thing really.”

“I see. I wonder if the muscly boy does it too. I guess we’ll find out when he next wanders into the bush. Or maybe he’ll pee in the pool like the other one.” She didn’t sound too happy about Chaser’s actions and she sounded a little too eager in the way she talked about Nico.

“Uhh, I don’t know if you should be intentionally spying on people.”

Hoots chuckled. “Oh, relax dearie, it was a joke.” She gave Odessa a light punch on the arm, just as Odessa had done to both Chaser and Donny earlier.

Odessa laughed nervously.

“So,” Hoots started. “How long have you been diving? Do the other humans dive? You should tell them about this place. We like company here, especially the young folks like you lot. That’s what keeps me so young you know but we don’t often get them and my grandson is so busy so I spend a lot of time on my own.”

Odessa relaxed slightly as they walked. Hoots did have a hearty sense of humor, so what if some of it was a bit weird. It wasn’t like she was from their generation so it made sense she’d think different things were funny. “No, not really,” she answered. “It’s mostly just me, and I didn’t learn how to dive until I went off to uni.”

They chatted all the way back to the camp. Hoots stayed very close to Odessa as they walked. It was almost a little too close, but she had just said that she didn’t get a lot of company so Odessa didn’t complain. Although, she almost could have sworn that at one point the old woman sniffed her hair.

“Food’s ready, I think.” Chaser called, looking a little like he wanted someone else to confirm that everything actually was cooked properly.

Nico was still over talking to Triss. They looked deep in conversation and Nico was holding her hands. Were they lovers?

As Odessa watched, Triss nodded and then walked off in the direction of her tent.

Rhys had stolen Odessa’s chair so she took a seat in the one next him, while Hoots went over to check on the food. Nico joined them a moment later and together they dished up the food then took their seats around the campfire.

Nico sat down on the other side of Odessa and handed her one of the two plates he’d grabbed.

“Thanks.” She flashed him a smile.

He nodded, then more seriously he said to the group in a low voice, “About Triss. There was an incident a few months back where her dad died while diving. The incident today probably reminded her of it.”

They were silent for a moment and then Rhys nodded. “I know what that’s like.”

“Did you lose somebody?” Nico asked.

Rhys nodded, then added, “Not diving. Climbing.”

“I’m sorry.”

Rhys nodded again and then shook his head. “It was a few years ago now. But I know how it can feel. How long it takes...”

“You spend long enough living the adventure lifestyle and eventually everybody loses someone they know,” Chaser added. “It’s a good reminder to live while you can.” He held up his beer. “To the ones who got left behind and to the ones who keep going.”

“Left behind?” Odessa asked.

Chaser nodded. “Left behind in the past, but never forgotten.”

“Here, here.” Nico nodded with a smile as he raised an imaginary cup.

“Oh, hey, you guys don’t all have a beer. You want one?” Chaser asked.

“Sure,” Nico replied.

“Hoots?”

“Oh, no I don’t drink. Thank you kindly though.”

“Triss?”

Odessa glanced back to see Triss on her way to the campfire circle.

“Ah, sure.” She smiled at Chaser then she took a seat.

“So, are you guys dating?” Odessa asked as casually as she could of Nico and Triss.

Nico laughed.

Triss gave her sort of smug knowing look.

Then Nico replied. “No, Triss is my sister.”

“What?” Odessa blinked and looked from one to the other. Witch genetics were weird such that sometimes people looked quite different from their parents. It wasn’t unheard of for two blonde-headed blue-eyed parents to give birth to a dark-haired red-eyed child, but this was taking it to the extreme, especially given Nico was half chikari; even half chikaris tended to always be born with green eyes and dark skin. It was only witches for whom the genetics got weird.

“Your sister?” Rhys repeated.

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“You look nothing alike,” remarked Hoots, stating the obvious.

Nico smiled, then suddenly took on a focused look as a flying beer can spiraled towards him.

“Heads!” called Chaser from across the campfire.

Triss slowed it down, caught it with her telekinesis, and then handed it to Nico. She sat up straight and readied herself for the next one.

Instead, Chaser walked around and handed it to her. With the shake of his head he remarked, “Cheating.” He took his seat. “What did I miss?”

“Nico and Triss are brother and sister,” Odessa told him.

Chaser narrowed his eyes at them, obviously unsure if she was just joking.

“Well, technically we’re half brother and sister,” Nico explained. “We both have the same mother.”

“My mother cheated on my dad with Nico’s dad, when I was very young,” Triss added. “And then kept doing it. At least they had the sense to get divorced. It was a pretty amicable split actually, relatively speaking, and our parents—” she nodded at Nico “—have been together ever since.”

“So you’re older?” Odessa inquired.

Triss nodded. “Only by a couple years, but yes.”

“Triss’s dad was a professional diver,” Nico explained, “so when she’d spend her weekends at his place they’d pretty much always go diving, didn’t matter what the weather was. It wasn’t until later that she taught me how to do it as well.”

Triss nodded and then looked quietly down into her food.

“What about you, Hoots?” Chaser asked, “When did you start diving? And why haven’t you explored these caves already?”

“I was a wee lass when I began but I only ever did open water stuff until very recently.” The old lady sighed. “And Kevin doesn’t dive. He likes the technical side of things but he’s a terrible swimmer and he hates the cold. He tried it once or twice but he didn’t like it so I have to find others.”

“And you what? Just pick randoms?” Triss asked. “Surely with all your money you could hire professionals?”

“We’re professionals.” Nico gave her an offended look.

“We met Kevin in a bar.”

Hoots smiled. “I like a good range and you shouldn’t knock yourselves, young lady. I’ve read all about each and every one of you. And I’ve watched some of your videos on that... what do you call it?... the internet.”

“You guys have videos on the internet?” Odessa asked Nico and Triss.

Triss shook her head. “Not really. I think she’s mostly referring to you and Rhys.”

“Donny has quite a bit of online stuff too,” Odessa said.

“Yeah, but he never shows his face,” Chaser added.

“And all the videos of Chaser are of his arse,” quipped Rhys.

Chaser stretched. “It’s my best feature.”

“It’s a very nice arse,” agreed Hoots.

Chaser gave a surprised laugh. “Why, thank you.”

“What about your other friend?” Odessa asked Nico and Triss. “The one who was injured? Another brother or sister?”

“Cousin,” Triss replied.

“Hey, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but surely if you have a healer,” Rhys spoke to Hoots, “Then maybe he could take a look at their cousin too?”

Triss shook her head before Hoots could answer. “Ricky would rather die than let a healer near him. When he was five his mum was in an accident and an amateur healer who turned up early on the scene tried to fix her and mucked it up. She died of healing-induced cancer a few years later.”

“Surely if this was a good healer though?” Rhys suggested.

Triss shook her head again. “It doesn’t matter. He’s got it in his head that they’re all evil cancer-causing demons. He doesn’t even like regular doctors that much, and he’s a terrible patient, but he’s got a broken pelvis so he’s stuck.”

“And you just left him there?” Rhys queried.

“His mum, our mum’s sister, is porting down to look after him. But like I said, he’s a terrible patient, complains about absolutely everything. The bed’s not at the right angle, the food’s terrible, the pillow’s too hard, the pillow’s too soft, there’s too many pillows... so we decided to go diving instead for the sake of everyone’s sanity.”

“Triss doesn’t really have the best bedside manner either,” Nico added with a sideways glance at Triss. “So it really was better for everybody.”

She screwed up her nose at him.

Nico then turned to Odessa. “So, I hear you play the violin?”

Odessa found herself caught off guard. “I...err...uh, yeah. Who told you that?”

“Chaser.”

Odessa glanced at Chaser who raised his beer can. She wasn’t sure what number that was but he’d usually stop before he had too many. Odessa had stuck to her one can. She wasn’t really that much of a drinker, and Rhys was right, she was a lightweight, and she did want to do some diving tomorrow.

“Nico likes to think of himself as a good guitarist,” Triss added.

“I am a great guitarist,” he objected in an offended tone.

Triss smiled.

“Well, alright, time for some music around the campfire then?” Chaser suggested eagerly. “And maybe it’s time to get our squeeze on.”

“Our what?” Asked Nico with raised eyebrows.

Odessa grinned. “It’s the squeeze box. You’re gonna love it.”

Odessa grabbed her violin while Rhys and Chaser got the squeeze box.

The squeeze box was a coffee table sized box, square shaped and open at the sides with irregular beams pushed all though the middle. It was a box designed to practice caving. The game was that the first person would pick a path through all the beams and have to contort and squeeze their body through that path as fast as they could. The next person would then follow and try to beat the first’s time. For some people, just getting back out of the box was a challenge. That was why they also always carried a screwdriver with them, just in case anyone got stuck for too long. Chaser had once spent four hours in the thing before he’d managed to twist his way out. Being small and flat-chested, Odessa had never had much trouble. For her, the challenge was more about speed.

The squeeze box usually sat underneath all the tents but the tents were already up so there wasn’t much they had to move to get the squeeze box out. Odessa’s violin case was on the other side, just past all Donny’s camera equipment... ALL of Donny’s camera equipment... Odessa frowned. Even his favorite handheld camera, the one that never left his side, was lying there, right on top of everything as if it had just been casually thrown there, which wasn’t right, because on the rare occasion that Donny wasn’t using that camera, he always packed it neatly away in its case. Why would he leave it there just like that, out where it could get damaged?

She returned to the campfire with her violin, her brain still trying to work that puzzle out. First the mindwalking necklace and now this. Something didn’t feel right but she couldn’t put her finger on what. The simplest explanation was that Bob had just dropped the necklace while he was going for a pee in the forest. Perhaps the pain in his leg had distracted him. And likewise, maybe the prospect of teleporting somewhere had distracted Donny enough to forget his camera. After all, it had been a long day and he had forgotten to film their initial meeting that afternoon.

She was distracted from her thoughts as the others clamoured for her to play a song.

She played them a few of her favourites, and felt almost a little sad that Bob wasn’t there to tease her about her excessive use of vibrato.

Then Nico gave a lovely performance on his guitar, which Odessa filmed since Donny wasn’t there to capture it.

They tried to play some songs together and Triss remarked that they were well suited to one another, which Odessa didn’t think had been intended as a compliment.

Chaser knew three and a half songs on the violin, which he played several times over, while they tried out the squeeze box.

Nico, being the largest on account of all that muscle, got stuck and had to be unscrewed from the thing. Even Triss gave it a go. She did alright, better than the boys but not as good as Odessa, given Triss was taller and bones can not bend.

“Perhaps it’s time for some new songs,” Triss suggested after Chaser had repeated ‘Drunken Sailor’ for the seventeenth or eighteenth time that night. “Do you play any instruments, Hoots?”

Hoots nodded. “I do indeed.” Then she stood up and slowly walked off into the jungle.

The others looked at each other questioningly.

A few moments later, there came a soft, echoing hollow sound, that sent shivers down the spine.

“What is that?” asked Rhys in a disturbed voice.

“Oh, that’s creepy,” whispered Chaser with a grin.

“It’s beautiful,” whispered Triss with a look of sadness.

Hoots emerged from the forest playing some kind of flute.

It was far better than anything anyone had played all night and she held their rapt attention with her haunting song. It sounded like the wind itself was crying.

----------------------------------------

Odessa woke up that night to the sounds of something rustling. Was that an animal sniffing around just outside her tent? A rather large animal. She lay still and listened as it got closer and closer to where she lay.

Then the sound stopped.

Odessa remained as frozen as she could. It wasn’t like there were any bears or anything in this region. There were snakes though, and maybe dragons? No, it couldn’t be a dragon, they weren’t close enough to the mountains, plus dragons were bigger than whatever was out there. She thought about goblins again. She was pretty sure the others had just been joking and they weren’t real, were they? Maybe she should ask Nico and Triss tomorrow. What about wisps? She’d heard stories about how they’d hypnotize you and lure you out into swamps to drown or freeze to death, but wisps didn’t rustle, they floated.

Suddenly whatever it was started moving again, shuffling away.

Odessa breathed out a sigh of relief, and then she heard a loud splash. That was definitely a big animal and it had just gone into the hole.

More confused and curious now than anything she poked her head outside the tent. There was nothing there. She climbed out and walked to the edge of the water. But the water was strangely clam, not even a ripple disturbed its dark black surface. She could see only her reflection and that of the nearly full moon looking down at her with its shadowy face. Whatever had been sniffing around outside her tent was gone now.

She glanced around the clearing at the dense jungle. She was utterly alone, apart form Jimmi the skull, who was looking the other way.

And yet, as she turned back to look down at the pool, she had the uncanny feeling of certainty that she was being watched.