Fantasy

24 - Jayce

As the twilight turns to dark night I pull my pocketknife from my jacket and subconsciously start turning it over in my hand for comfort.

"Wow, I'm falling asleep while walking," Randy yawns.

"Still no sign of Levina?"

"Jayce, we're probably a long way off."

"Can you check?"

"Yeah...she's still east of us."

"Do you think we should stop for the night?"

"She has."

"And you know this because..."

"She's stopped moving, geez."

"Alright, maybe there's like a cave between those rocks up ahead," I suggest to Randy. We walk up to them and sure enough, two huge boulders lean against each other forming a sizable void in between."

"I think we could stay in here for the night," I explain, gesturing into the crevice. He looks at me like I'm crazy.

"You go first."

"Alright," I agree. I hold my hand up and make a fist, then with a pulse of magic it breaks out in flame and I've got a torch. I venture forward into the dark, well, darker cave. It's not wet and damp or adorned with stalagmites and stalactites like a normal cave. Of course it's really not a cave, it's just a little tunnel-like thing formed from how these huge rocks lean against each other. Looking up I can see treetops and the faint moonlight streaming through the branches through the crack in the top of the stone wall. The tunnel itself is at least twice my height, a few yards long, and a couple yards wide. A huge tree branch that fell down through the ceiling leans diagonally, caught between the two stacks of boulders. "Randy!" I call, "It is a nice place to stop. Come and see." He appears beside me, literally, out of nowhere. I react by throwing up my arm in a defensive position and nearly clobbering him in the head. "Really?" I ask. "You couldn't have just walked the two steps into the tunnel?"

"Habit, geez," he shoots back. My dislike for Randy is growing. He looks around with raised eyebrows as if he's too good to spend the night here.

"This place is probably full of poisonous snakes and deadly spiders along with who-knows-what," he grumbles.

"I'm sure if we have a campfire it will keep most of the wild creatures at bay," I tell him a little mockingly. Just a little, but he glares at me when he hears the sarcasm in my voice. I give him an innocent expression back, but when he looks away I smile and shake my head.

"Anyway, we need to build a campfire," Randy says as if I didn't just mention that. "The problem is that we need fuel; unless you just want to stand there all night with your hand on fire."

"Oh, I'm sure we can find some wood scraps around here, as long as they're not too wet."

"Okay, well I'm gonna go get some leaves and stuff for the fire," he announces before exiting the tunnel. While he's gone I sift through the decaying mess of "leaves and stuff" on the floor of the tunnel and come up with some sizable sticks and small branches. I make a pile of the smaller twigs and Randy returns with fists full of dry leaves.

"Great, set them down on top of the twigs," I instruct.

"Alright," he agrees, then comes over and sets the leaves down. I squat beside him and touch a lighted index finger to the leaves. They immediately combust and catch the twigs on fire. I add some larger sticks to the fire, gradually building it up. Within about ten minutes we have a roaring fire.

Only now does it occur to me how odd this situation is; I'm sitting around a campfire in a rock tunnel across from a nineteen-year-old I barely know. I like to think I could easily live in the city or the country, but I'm used to the city. The crickets chirping and the absence of traffic and lights is unnerving. Based on Randy's expression, I'm not alone in that feeling, plus I still don't think he entirely trusts me. Still, my biggest worry is Levina. I hope she's alright. I mean, what if she gets lost? Or...I don't know. Before my imagination can conjure up a horrible image I take out my pocketknife and turn it over in my hand, rubbing my thumb over the wood finish. Randy glances down at my hand. "Why do you do that?" he asks.