Screw It, Let's Be Magic

Chapter eight

"Well, we should probably turn in for the night," said Kaliah, peering out of the caves entrance at the steadily darkening sky. The rest of us looked at her like she was a nutter.
"What?" She asked, looking hurt. "It's dark out, and I'm not about to explore caverns in the dark."
Fennec put down his third bottle of rootbeer, and scooted over to her.
"I've been drinking caffeine for hours, and unless I'm mistaken, we don't have any bedding. I'm not about to sleep on the rocks, so unless you have some magical bedding store with about," he paused and counted off the people in the room. "Six sleeping bags, or more, then we're not sleeping."

He crossed his arms, and rested against Adrian's rock.

She simply smiled, and glanced at her backpack.
"No. Freaking. Way." Sam crawled over to the bag, dropped her bottle, and unzipped it. She rummaged through the bag, and pulled out several armloads of bedding and snacks. "Blanket fort?" She asked hopefully, pushing her hair away from her face.

Twenty minutes later we had a massive pile of bedding in a smaller cavern, shielded from wind and rain. Everyone had climbed onto it, claiming pillows and blankets with wild abandon. Adrian passed around cookies, and Kaliah opened a protection charm, and drew a circle around our blanket pile with the sand.
"Ahh, my feet were killing me." Grumbled Sam as she pulled off her sneakers. I kicked my shoes off too, and wiggled my toes. Conversations ran off track as more and more sugar was consumed, leaving us all in a giggly mess.

"So have you ever like, kissed somebody," asked Sam, looking across at Kaliah and I from an upside down position.

"Um, no?"
"Neither have I."
She made an overexaggerated frowny face, and pushed out her lower lip.
"That's no fun. Why not?" She asked. Fennec must have overheard the conversation, because he turned around to face us, and pointed with crumb covered hands.
"Jess can't get anyone 'cause she's not a looker," he bit into an apple, and chewed messily. "And Kaliah scares all the guys off!" I punched him in the arm, giggling.

"Shut it! You're not much of a looker yourself!" He mock frowned, and then crushed a cookie onto my head. "Pptth!"
"Geez Louise, Stop it!" I cried. Even though my hair was short, it was still hard to get pastries out of curls. "Hehehe." He slunk back to the back pack, and grabbed another cookie.
I thought for a second, then called over Ocean and Adrian.

"Hey! Wanna play something?"
"Never have I ever?" Suggested Sam.
Ocean smiled, and scooted over to the rest of us. Adrian flopped backwards, and pulled himself into a sitting position.
"Never have I ever licked a dog." Fennec put one finger down.
"Haha! Never have I ever fallen asleep on a toilet." Another finger for Fennec.
"Never have I ever failed a class." And yet another.
"Well, never have I ever...slept in a cave." And another.
"Never have I ever eaten a cereal bar." Said Kaliah.

"Whoa whoa whoa. No cereal bars?" Ocean exclaimed. He dug through his pockets, and handed her a package.

"Eat it. You can't live life without ever having a cereal bar. It's just sad." She took it, and put it in her mouth. "Hmm. It's all right."

Sam looked over to me, and whispered "What's a cereal bar?"
"I guess it's like a granola bar." She thought it over for a second, and then sat back against a cushion.
"Oh, okay. Cool."
"Well, never have I ever sat on a cat.
~
I woke up the next morning slightly confused. I hadn't remembered falling asleep. Sitting up, I was able to see everyone on the pile. I brushed off a blanket that had stuck to my face,and looked around. Everyone was there except for...

"Kaliah?" I whispered. It echoed slightly through the cave. I crawled off of the blanket pile, and stepped onto the light grey stone. It was cold, cracked, and grimy. There was a magic light floating in the corner, one cast and maintained by a magic user. Which had to be nearby...
"Kaliah?"