Girl on Fire

Chapter 12

The sun beat down on our necks and backs. It was blistering hot, so much so, that I cursed the people who packed our bags for not giving us sun-screen.

After a few hours of walking, we cane across a huge rock that seemed extremely displaced in the middle of a desert. It provided shade, though, so we decided to take a break.

As we sat down next to it, I considered taking another drink from my ever dwindling water supply, but then I decided against it.

"Why couldn't they just take us to the camp, like normal people would?" I complained noisily.

"Well," Jemma grinned and a jewel poked its head out of the ground, "We're not exactly normal people, are we?"

I shrugged and smiled, "Fair enough!"

Suddenly, we felt a slight rumble beneath us. It felt like the ground rose a but, and then went back down again. We then heard a muffled yell of 'ow' and the rumbling faded away.

"What was that?" I said in shock.

"Probably an earth Spiritus." Jemma said, "One that doesn't have much sense if danger and probably hits quite a few deep rocks!"

I laughed. "So you're saying that they dig a little tunnel under there, like little moles!"

"Yeah," Kathryn said with a small smile, "but I don't want to be there when you tell one of them that: it could end pretty nasty."

After a while, we moved on.

"So," I said, not really wanting to say this, though I knew I had to. "Do either of you have any idea what we need to do in there?"

The girls looked at each other warily and then back to me.

"We were kinda thinking that you knew, since you seemed to be sort of... In charge..."

I stared at them for a moment, felling disheartened.

"Well, what are we going to do then? If we just walk up to the base with no idea where we're going, we'll be screwed!"

"Well I reckon that we should just go and stake the place out, see if there are any more clues there." Jemma said importantly. "Considering that your option seems to be to stop, which will get us where, might I just say?"

"Alright, alright!" I said defensively, "you take charge, then. See how it feels to be blamed for everything that goes wrong."

Jemma went red and shrugged, obviously happy with being in charge.

After another half an hour or so of walking, we started to see a grey lump in the distance.

"That must be it!" Jemma said, smiling for the first time in ages, "I reckon we can get there in about an hour or so, finally!"

We kept walking until we came roght up to the building. Security was tight, and I could see that there was at least one patrol around the edge of the outer wall.

We hid behind a mound of sand that had been dragged into a pile by the wind and waited, trying to decide what to do.

"I would say that we just wait," Jemma said with a slight frown, "We can get an idea of the nature of the patrols and try to sneak in."

"Go for it." Kathryn said quietly, "I honestly need a break." She reached into her bag and brought out a small book. "The trainers know me very well."

"Wait," I said, slightly shocked, "Are you just going to read? Why don't you actually help?"

She shrugged, "This isn't my area of expertise." She said, "I've seen Jemma on the training exercises, she is better at this than me."

I sighed and settled down as well. I took the dagger out and looked into the fierce blade once again. The picture of the lion swirled and was created again. Seeing that face seemed to give me hope, and it relaxed me. I felt like I had another friend to help me along.