Claws of the Crocodile (Fem! reader)

Chapter 2

Twenty one hours leaving London, y/n finally manages to get some sleep. After what seemed like five minutes, Al  was nudging her out of it. He gestured at the window if the Airbus and spoke in a terrible Australian accent.

'Welcome back mate, that's the Kimberley out there.'

Y/n peered be blearily out from a height of 30,000 feet. 'Wow...'

Australia just went on and on. The vast plains disappeared into the horizon. Dust from the dry, arid ground blends into the haze of the sky so that it was impossible to see the join. The continent seemed to stretch on out over the edge of the world.

She thought again if her last visit. Her parents and Brihonys had been helping an Aboriginal tribe called the Jungun to  prepare a case to take to the Australian High Court. Two hundred years earlier, an English farmer had taken a liking to some land; he had put a fence around it and and claimed it as his own. The Jungun had already been living there for thousands of years, but that was easily taken care of: the farmer had guns and dogs; the Jungun did not.

Two hundred years on, the descendants of thoses Jungun had sued the descendants of the farmer, claiming their land back.

Y/n looked out at the landscape and wondered why anyone was fool enough to think they could own any of it.

She also thought of Brihony. Once again she reminded herslef that she wasn't going to the Kimberley this time. She and Al were heading for Darwin. One of the many things Pindari, her Aboriginal mentor, had taught her was not to live in the past. Be in the present; look to the future.

So, here in the present, y/n merely said: 'was that meant to sound like an Australian?'

'Wasn't it any good?'

'It was great if all Australians sound like a middle-aged Englishman.'

'If  you don't mind, I'm an elderly Englishman, and proud of it.'
Y/N laughed, and then the captain announced their arrival at Darwin within the hour.

There seemed to be a universal law that said passport queues had to be long and slow and boring. It had been like that in every airport y/n had ever visited, and the one at Darwin international was no exception.

She had turned oh her phone a little while ago, and left it to sort itself out with the Australian network. Now, as they slowly shuffled forward, she swiped the screen to unlock it, and casually checked her emails and messages.

The PlaceSpace app notified her of a private message. Brihony again, mabye? She gave the screen a tap.

Jim Rockslide...
Y/n froze, staring at her phone. It couldn't be! That was impossible! Thoughts whirled around his head. How on earth did a message form Jim Rockslide-

'Y/n...?' Al said gently, and y/n realized the queue had moved forward a couple of metres without her noticing. She hurried forward, then looked back at the phone.

Al asked if something was the matter, but she just shook her head.
The message read: Jim Rockslide-froday 31st Broome. Follow the white dragon.

Jim Rockslide? But Jim Rockslide didn't exist! Jim Rockslide was a made up character. Y/n's dad uses to tell her adventure stories about Jim Rockslide, the Hero Geologist who fought Nazis and aliens and smugglers all across the globe.

Y/n jabbed at the profile button to find out more about the sender. The profile page was empty, with just the standard outline of a human head instead of a photo.

And that made sense, because y/n knew full well that only two people in the whole world had ever heard of Him. Y/n's dad and y/n herself.

So how was the character made up by a dead man sending messages via PlaceSpace to y/n's phone? Y/n was still in a daze when they finally passed through passport control.

She barely noticed the wait at the baggage reclaim or their emergence into the arrivals area. If Al noticed she wasn't saying anything, he probably put it down to jetlag.

Y/n's thoughts whirled. She coukd only think of one way she might have received they message...
Her father was still alive.
No, she told herself immediately, her father couldn't be alive.

Ok, her parents bodies had never been found, but...

But if they were still alive, then they must have only pretended to be dead all these years. She couldn't think of a single good reason why they woukd do that.

How cruel would that be? What kind of a trick was that to play on their only daughter?

No, her parents were dead. They had to be. But Jim Rockslide was sending her messages. Round and round her thoughts went, and eventually one simple certainly came out of it all.

Whatever This was about, whoever was sending her those messages... today was Tuesday the 28th. He needed to be in Broome on Friday the 31st.

'Oh, good grief...'
It took y/n a moment to realize that her uncle had said something. Al had got out his tablet at the taxi threaded its way through the suburbs of Darwin on the short trip towards the university.

She was checking her own emails. It had been dark by the time they had left the airport, so apart from the streetlights and the headlamps and the red tail lights if other cars, y/n wasn't seeing much more of Australia.

'Whats the problem?' Y/n asked.
There was no hiding Al' s irritation.
'Some fool no one you know, but he's a big name he's gone and published a book that contradicts all my research. It's all about the extinction of the megafauna... he's wrong, of course, but I'm going to have to completly revise my acceptance speech at the university...'

He smiled apologetically. 'Im not going to be great company for the next few days, I'm afraid.'

Y/n had no idea what 'extinction of the megafauna meant, and she didn't care. It was like a day of sunshine into her palms.

She already checked travel options to her phone. There was a Greyhound coach to Broome every morning. The journey took nearly twenty four hours.

So she could have tomorrow, Wednesday, to unwind Darwin.  She could travel all day Thursday, and be in Broome by Fridays morning. And it wouldn't be like she was travelling into the unknown, because Brihony lived in Broome.

' You know,' she said casually, in a way that immediately made Al alert and suspicious, 'there might be a way around that...'

Done I hope you like it I might post another chapter to girl online, the secrwt Garden or This YesImBabyUwU