Girl on Fire

Chapter 20

"Hey, look what I found!" Ivy yelled, scrambling in the mud.

"It looks like a screw!" She said proudly.

"Give it here." Tefia said gruffly and Ivy handed it to her, looking up at her in admiration.

Tefia spun it round in her hand and nodded, "It is a screw. And I'm guessing that means that the check point thingie isn't too far away."

We all shared a smile at that, after walking for a week along the river, we were tired, beaten up, and desperately needed a bath.

Ryker shot up ahead, something he'd been too tired to do for a while now. A second later he was back.

"There's helicopters waiting, like, 10 minutes out for you. I'm going, see you later losers!" and he was gone.

We all looked at each other and sighed, before starting the treck up the river.

About a minute into it, though, Ryker came running back, a scowl on his face.

"They said that I have to walk with you guys. And they told me that I might get points towards the upper stream deducted."

"Well, that's what you get for ditching us." Tefia snarled.

Ryker mumbled a hurried apology, before we started off again.

"Well," Paul said, trying to lift the mood, "on the bright side, we've been walking along this river for a week and all we've encountered was a crocodile! unless you count the leech, of course."

"Yeah, and the crocodile was quick to back away when there was a ball of fire chasing it!" I said with a wink.

"Yeah..." Tefia said distantly, pulling ahead a bit.

"What's up?" I said, catching up to her.

"None of your business." she said fiercely.

"Okay," I said, raising my hands in mock surrender.

"Are we nearly there?" Ivy said, running up and holding my hand

"Yes, now hang on a bit." I said, pointing back to the others.

Ivy looked at Tefia curiously.

"What about her?" she said.

"Just go!" I said. Ivy hmphed and then walked back.

"Why are you still here?" Tefia said with her back to me.

I shrugged, "Why not?"

"Because," she paused for a moment, then laughed softly, "fair enough!"

She reached into her pocket, pulled out what looked like a little ornament and handed it to me.

"For you, I guess as a piece offering. I keep being horrible, and I just can't help it. So please can you ignore everything I say to you that is mean?"

"Sure," I said, "but maybe you could practice not being mean?"

She sighed.

"Six years, Ash, six years. I started blacking people out when I was four. That's a long time of bad habits before you change."

"Fine." I said, still not satisfied, and I accepted the ornament.

It was actually amazing. She had obviously been working on it for ages. It was a flume of fire, carved into the mud of the forest floor, every swirl of fire delicately rounded and pointed with the utmost care.

"I love it!" I said with a smile.

Tefia chuckled slightly an then resumed her heavy footed trampling through the forest floor.