Genre: Romance
Rating: NC 17
Disclaimer : Standard disclaimers apply. The characters belong to Shalz R.
Chapter 15 : Part Six : Five Glorious Days
Because of sleeping late the night before, Ian got up later than usual and missed the treat he had got the previous morning. He opened his eyes to see that even Evan was up and shut them again, almost in remorse, "I missed!" he mumbled.
"What?" Ian hadn't noticed that Adrian was sitting just behind him sipping his tea. He slowly looked around, still lying down. "Yeah!" he thought, "Where else should I expect to find you!" and gave him a dry smile, "Sunrise!" he said aloud.
"That happened ages ago. You missed it!" bantered Tyler, who was at the other end helping Sonya and had heard neither his mumbling nor Adrian's question.
Ian supported himself on his elbows and looked at him, "That was brilliant, Tyler. You amaze me everyday." and Tyler again was scotched just as giggles erupted all around him.
In the next few minutes, Ian was on the stream, buttoning down his shirt, his brow was knitted and lips pursed as he went over all the parts of his plan. Tyler called him to breakfast and a smile appeared on his face as he started to walk back.
After a quick breakfast, during which there had been a somewhat quieter and tense atmosphere, he walked out under the trees, while others were still picking up their bags, and started to look around. Evan had asked what they would be doing but Ian had avoided the question and Sonya had been looking up expectantly at him every few minutes waiting for him to say where they were going. After he walked some distance away from others, he turned and called back for Tyler and Adrian. They had sensed something was up in Ian's mind and followed him. The girls and Evan exchanged curious looks and stood looking where the three were standing.
"What's happening?" Evan asked.
"Maybe they are planning for the day, Evan." Ashley answered, as she put his bag's loops on him.
Sonya remained quiet. "Maybe," she thought, "Ian maybe talking to Tyler and Adrian about our yesterday's talk. Maybe he's having second thoughts about going to the dense part of the woods and is discussing it with Tyler and Adrian. Maybe that's why he has been quiet!"
She hardly knew what Ian was upto.
"What's up?" Tyler asked. He was always more curious than Adrian.
"I just had to get you guys alone here. Yesterday Sonya and I were talking." he started in an excited whisper. Adrian's eyebrows slightly went up, and Ian, for a moment, felt that Adrian may have been awake last night and was now feeling that it was that he wanted to tell him and Tyler about. Adrian checked his eyebrows in an instant and Ian continued without stopping. It happened all in a second. "She saw me looking out towards west and asked if the woods there were the denser. I saw she was looking so mystified by the prospect of dense woods and added that they were dangerous. She became so interested and asked if we could go there and I just played along and said its dangerous but we could."
"What did you that for?" Adrian asked.
"We're just playing a game!' Ian asnwered impatiently.
"C'mon now, if you don't want to play, just keep shut!" Tyler said, his arms flying all around in his excitement. Adrian kept quiet. More than just a game was on his mind. He was seeing Ian truly in his element and just smiled and nodded.
"So what are we going to do?" Tyler asked.
"Well, you remember that slimy little pond we found last time!" Ian explained, a playful smile on his lips and mischievous gleam in his eyes. Tyler's eyes became big and Adrian looked up and slowly breathed out to avoid laughing and being seen by the group. Tyler, however, could hardly suppress his grin getting wider all the time.
"I'll tell them there are crocodiles or something there and take them though carefully."
"You can't do that! Evan is there too. What if he gets out of control?" Adrian suddenly became serious. Tyler looked like he would strangle Adrian, "You will spoil all the fun!"
"He won't. I'll do everything. You just have to nod or keep quiet. If I see a single smile coming up from either of you, I'll throw you in personally. Understand?" he asked.
"I think I'll just ask Ashley to pack in extra medicines." Adrian said thoughtfully and turned to go.
"Nooooo!' Ian and Tyler panicked and pulled him back.
"Are you mad?" Tyler exclaimed. "They will become suspicious!" Ian couldn't believe Adrian could be so stupid.
"But they are going to know that we going in to the so-called dangerous part! So few medicines along will only hype your suspense." Adrian justified.
Ian and Tyler exchanged a thoughful look, "OK!" they chorused.
They walked back and Ian began solemnly, "Campers, I've decided for some real adventure for today." He saw Sonya smile as excitement crept back in her eyes. He fought to conceal his own smile. "After discussing with Tyler and Adrian I've planned that we will go to the denser part of the woods. It is probably the most dense. And dangerous. You have to be extra careful. Very quiet and totally alert. Conscious of every sound and movement that happens around us. Its a little more than two hours walk. Are we ready?"
There was no response. Evan stood with his breath held in, which he had forgotten to let go. "You have something to say, Evan?" Ian asked him. Evan just slowly breathed out but his eyes remained wide and blank.
"What do you mean by dangerous?" Lauren asked slowly.
"You don't have to worry, Lauren. Just be careful." Ian dodged the question.
"Ashley, keep some medicines and stuff. We might need them." Adrian said quietly, with a slight touch of urgency in his voice. Ashley barely nodded and wet inside the camp to get more medicines out. Tyler smugly caught Adrian's eye and nodded appreciatively for perfecting his dialogue delivery.
"So we'll move." Ian turned and finally allowed himself to smile. His announcment had just had the desired effect on everyone.
Together they walked out. Some time later, Ian noticed that the group was keeping very solidly to the commands he had given them. They were all very quiet and very alert. They were also walking very close together. No one seemed to notice that they were still more than two hour's walk away from the dense part, and the woods about them were yet as good as the ones they camped around.
They kept up their pace and after a time the trees grew close together. This was a further clue to the group and whatever little conversations that had been going on were now stopped. Ian stopped and turned to face them.
"The trees are close together here," he began in a low voice, gesturing at the woods and the group, "and the undergrowth is thick. We will walk closer together but in a line. Evan, you come right behind me and Sonya you keep a watch on him. Lauren come after Sonya, and Tyler you follow Lauren. Ashley after Tyler and Adrian in the end. okay." The group had been moving around according to his directions and were now standing as he wanted them. "Good. Now no one is quite as alone. Keep close. After a while when it gets thicker from here on, we will have to go around the trees a lot. Keep careful that you do not miss the one ahead of you. For not losing yourself, you could probably hold on to the bag of the person going in front of you. The ground is going to become uneven so have a firm footing. We will go on now." He turned around. The group was getting closer and holding on to the bag of the person in front. Sonya had Evan in front and who was way below her so she could not hold anything, but had Lauren holding her bag. They started to walk on again, quite awkwardly with unsteady foothold and arms flying around in their attempt to keep their balance and avoid making any sudden movements or loud noise.
Ian had noticed the look on Sonya's face as he was giving directions. He couldn't help smiling. He was playing his first prank on Sonya and a very naughty one after a long time.
After another hour's march, Ian stopped abruptly looking keenly at the ground. The group that had been blindly following the bag in front of them bumped into each other when he stopped all of a sudden, and Evan landed on the ground. Sonya pulled him up and tried to peek ahead of Ian.
Tyler and Adrian were the only ones not puzzled. The others were all trying to look at Ian and beyond him to try and see the reason for this sudden halt. Their fears ranged from snakes to other ferocious beasts. But they could not spot any such thing around them or in the trees above them. It seemed the same green forest floor covered with leaves and dry grass, only a biggish patch without any trees, which was wide towards the right and very narrow on the left, there were a few mossy stones here n there, until trees started again. After surveying everything, they started prodding the person in front to ask Ian. Sonya being the first had to ask.
"Ian!" she whispered, keeping her voice as low as possible even in the whisper. Ian was still looking keenly ahead at the ground in front for him.
He turned around slowly, and gestured to them to keep quiet and to stay where they were.
He stepped forward cautiously. Tyler was having a hard time keeping his laughter from bursting out. Adrian wasn't even looking ahead for the fear of spoiling Ian's little game. He kept looking around on the pretence of keeping a lookout.
All the girls and Evan bent as forward as was possible without moving from their place and craned their necks to see what Ian was going to do next. They didn't even take support of the surrounding trees for the fear of upsetting something. Ian bent and picked a small stone and threw ahead right into the wide of the patch. There were very audible gasps as the stone landed with a small splash in green water. Tyler would have given the whole thing away if anyone one had been looking at him. But everybody was looking at the water to notice his violently shaking shoulders, and Adrian who had turned around clamping his hands over his mouth. It was difficult not to laugh when Tyler stood there red-faced, looking like he was going to blow up any moment.
Ian stepped back to the wide-eyed nervous group. "That is a very dangerous pond." he said.
the group didn't need telling that. If hadn't been for Ian they would have already stepped in and been the food for whatever lived in it. They were already looking at him with gratefulness mixed with fear of the place.
"We will stop right here, won't we?" Ashley whispered.
"Oh no! We must go across it!" he said with feigned excitement in his eyes. The excitement was obviously because of the prank, but he couldn't show that. Not yet!
"But how will we go across?" asked Sonya and Lauren nodded vehemently.
"Is there a boat?" asked Ashley looking around.
"No. No boat. We will walk across."
"Uncle, are you sure?" Pretty sure that Ian had lost his mind.
"Yes Evan."
"Ian, we are having problem walking on this ground, how do you suppose we will walk across water?" asked Lauren, partly exasperated and partly hopeful that maybe crossing that murky pond would be cancelled from the day's plan.
"Oh! Its very simple." said Ian, "Tricky but simple, once you get the hang of it." he said walking ahead and motioning them to follow.
"Are we going to tarzan out of it?" Evan asked looking at the long vines that fell around them.
"No Evan!" Ian chuckled, "See the stones appearing every now and then? We will step on them and walk across!" he made it sound so simple but the group stared at him knowing it wasn't as easy as he said it was.
"Ian, those stones are very slippery." Ashley pointed out.
"And we have bags!" Lauren added.
Sonya was the only one not asking any questions. The more Ian explained, the more interested she looked. Ian was enjoying every moment of it.
"Just step where I am stepping and you won't fall off. You come here!" he said to Evan and hoisted him up on his left shoulder.
He stepped on the very edge of the pond.
"Wait a minute!" asked Lauren suddenly, "Why can't we walk around it?" and Ashley's eyes brightened up considerably.
"Because, " he said and stepped on the first stone, gesturing Sonya to follow him, and she stepped on the edge, "We don't to disturb the crocodiles!" he gave in the punch line and pulled Sonya ahead and leaped on the second stone. Sonya jerked her face up at him, gulped, and clutched him tight on his right shoulder, staring at the green water around her.
The others had frozen solid on the ground and Tyler had to go behind a tree to hide himself as he laughed. Sonya looked behind her at the girls, urging them to come on now that she was already standing on a stone in a pond infested with crocodiles.
Lauren held her hand tight and stepped onto the edge of the pond and gingerly placed her foot on the edge of the stone Sonya was standing on as if to check that it was really fixed on the ground and Ian stepped ahead, pulling Sonya a step ahead and making place for Lauren. She stepped on it and let the foot on ground go and placed it on the stone balancing herself and looking at Tyler to support her. Tyler immidiately stepped behind her and put his hand on her back to support her and stepped behind her as Ian moved another step. Just as carefully Ashley followed Tyler and Adrian held her as he stepped after her. One step as a time, the group moved. Some stones were further apart than a comfortable step and they had to leap to them. With each step they took, they looked around the water and the ground around for any sign of its inhabitants, hoping for a crocodile to leap at them any moment. Each one was breathing hard and trying to make as little noise as possible. Finally, after stepping through twenty or so stones and without confronting any crocodile, Ian leaped on the edge on the other side and put Evan on the ground. Sonya leaped after him and he had to catch her from falling. Standing her aside, he reached out for Lauren and helped her on the ground and Tyler jumped after her, who then helped Ashley and finally Adrian landed too.
They all threw their bags down and caught their breath and looked at each other and smiled at their brave attempt to cross a pond which had crocodiles in them. They marvelled at themselves for having been able to accomplish such a feat!
"We.." panted Lauren, "We did it! We did it!"
"Wow!" Ashley looked around at the pond.
"A real adventure!" Sonya joined Ashley to look at the pond.
"We fooled the crocodiles!" Evan jumped up and down.
They looked at each other and allowed themselves to laugh a little as they almost congratulated themselves and each other.
Tyler and Adrian couldn't hold it any longer. They burst out, their backs to the trees and doubled over laughing.
"We did it! We did it!" Tyler mimicked Lauren.
"Wow! A real adventure!" Adrian joined in.
Both of them having a great time laughing their heads off. The girls stood confused and looked at them going bonkers.
"Well, if it is so funny then why don't you try to swim across the pond with a crocodile!" Lauren
"Yeah! I'd like to see how you laugh with a croc at you tail!" Ashley sneered at Adrian, sending them into greater fits of laughter.
"Oooh! Look, careful Adrian, there's a croc at your tail!" Tyler mocked Ashley's comment.
They stood getting irritated.
"Ian you did it! You're a genius!" Tyler managed to say between his laugh.
"I've never had a harder time trying to control myself all the way to here."
"You should have seen their scared faces!"
The girls turned to look at Ian who standing some way off leaning on a grinning wide.
"Ian!" said the girls at the same time. But Ian was more interested in seeing Tyler and Adrian laughing the way they were, even though he was enjoying seeing the girls get teased as well. All in all he was enjoying the whole scene. But he wasn't laughing as the guys would have expected him to! He was just standing and grinning as if waiting for something.
"What!" said Tyler catching his breath, slightly confused, "What's with you?"
"What are you waiting for?" said Adrian clutching his sides.
"Will someone tell us what is going on?" Ashley said, her fists on her sides.
"What are you laughing about?" asked Lauren still nonplussed and turned to look at Sonya, who looked as though she was beginning to understand.
"What are we talking about? Didn't it ever occur to you, that you didn't spot anything at all in the water?" Adrian said, having another fit of laughter.
"Not even a ripple!" Tyler said settling down on the ground, not being able to stand any more.
Sonya and Lauren walked up to the edge and looked about and turned around to face Ashley, quite embarrassed.
"So, this was a prank!" Ashley shouted at Adrian, who only laughed louder.
"It was his plan, why shout at us!" Tyler exclaimed and collapsed on the ground still laughing.
They all looked at Ian, who still standing, calm but grinning.
"What is it, Ian?" Lauren turned to Ian, "You don't feel like laughing at us?" she went on sarcastically.
Ian only grinned wider.
"There are no crocodiles?" asked Evan quite disappointed.
"You lied to us!" Sonya finally found some words. Ian's eyebrows shot up as if to say, why wouldn't he! But he still stood calmly.
"What's the matter, Ian?" Adrian, asked feeling something fishy about Ian's atitude and Tyler also controlled his fit and looked up a little confused.
Ian straightened up and still smiling mysteriously, casually picked up a small stone at his foot and walked to the edge, throwing and catching it. There he turned around and looked at everyone with a wide grin and then turned again towards the far right of the pond which was narrow and had a thick growth of trees around it. Aiming the stone he threw it at the pond. The stone hit the edge of the pond and bounced back in the water. Everyone got up to see, and a few seconds later as the ripples caused by the stone faded, there were bigger ripples appearing on the edge of the green and then bubbles and then something was visible above the surface and which looked like a strange flatish stone. And then the stone opened its eyes.
There was dead silence as the group realized that they were faced with a real crocodile. Tyler and Adrian shot to their feet and girls were gaping, having forgotten to scream. And then all of them screamed together and the crocodile seemed to move towards them but then seemed to change its mind and stayed where it was.
"Man, there's really a crocodile here!" Tyler said horrified.
"Ian you should have told us!" Adrian said.
"Some could have got hurt!" Tyler said.
"Its only a baby crocodile! You don't need to worry." said Ian calmly, and turned to look at the girls, his mischievious, mysterious grin still there.
"Someone could have fallen in!" said Ashley in disbelief.
"The crocodile would have attacked then! I don't even know how to swim! I could have drowned!" said Lauren, almost in tears with self-pity.
At this Tyler couldn't help chuckling, even though he was shocked that Ian didn't tell even them.
"What are you laughing at, now? You knew this, didnt you!" Lauren turned to him.
"Silly! You could walk across this pond even without the stone!" he picked up a small fallen branch and stood it in the pond, sticking it in the bed. The pond was barely a few feet deep.
The girls looked as horrified but then all of a sudden realized that since the prank was played on the guys too!
"Not even a ripple, huh!" Lauren taunted Tyler, starting to giggle uncontrollably.
"How was that for you!" Sonya sneered at them, and giggles turned into a loud peals of laughter.
They pointed at the guys and went rolling into the ground, having a good laugh in their turn. coming up every now and then with a comment on the brave front they had put up.
Ian was still standing calmly enjoying the scene. The guys stood looking dejected and very embarrassed.
"You played a prank on us?" Tyler complained.
"I though you were on our side!" Adrian demanded an explanation, as the laughter grew.
"No, Adrian. I don't believe in taking sides." Ian clarified, the smile still playing on his lips.
The girls finally got a hold of their laughter seeing that Ian was still grinning as he was before. They stopped laughing, hoping to find some other point to his prank that they hadn't yet seen.
"You made a fool of us to make a fool of them!" continued Tyler.
"Yes! But you are the greater fools!" said Ashley.
"No you are! You got fooled twice!" said Tyler.
"How dare you!" said Sonya infuriated.
"How dare me?" shouted Tyler, "You were fooled first!"
"But you still are the greater ones!" countered Lauren.
"We all are!" said Adrian calmly. He stood calmly looking at all of them, and then they all turned their gaze to Ian. It soon became clear to them what Ian's prank was. He had both the sides believe in him and against each other. Yet he had lied to no one! And now that it had dawned on them, Ian had the last laugh. It started as a small giggle and then louder and merrier than all others' as embarassment and sheepishness showed on their flushed faces.
It was now his turn to mimic others and enjoy the upshot of his careful planning.
Then all of them gave up joined in, knowing that it was over! Ian had had his fun this time.
"We'll get our back Ian!" said Tyler as he laughed at himself.
They all walked back around the wider mouth of lake this time, shouting at Ian who laughed all the while.
They all went back laughing and hitting Ian at times. They stopped when the trees were once again spread out and there was enough space to run around and walk without worrying about foothold.
They sat down a clearing and rested.
"Its almost lunch hour! Does anyone want to eat right now?" Sonya asked.
"Yeah!" said Evan. "Great idea!" Tyler said.
Evan and Tyler were always the first ones to jump up to lunch and dinner offers. So right there in the clearing, the little party had their lunch, still laughing at each other.
"How did you find that place?" Sonya asked Ian.
He laughed, "The hard way! We didn't know it was pond or anything. We just walked right into it. Huge splash and all! We came back wet and stinking! But laughing! At that time itself, we had said things how cool it would to get someone else here and have them walk into it like we did! At that time, there were no crocodiles in it."
"Yeah! How did you know there were now?" Adrian asked him.
"He probably was conspiring with them against us! I'm sure I heard it snigger!" Tyler said.
Ian laughed again, "It was in the campsite details that we had got before we dicided on this place. Only if you had read them. My only worry was that if there any other campers there, we would have to wait till they got on and that would spoil the fun!"
"Spoil the fun!" Ashley still could not believe.
"C'mon! Everyone had a good laugh! Besides, you should be thankful I took you all out clean, and didn't have you walk into it!"
They stayed there for the rest of the day, moving around only when Ian took them further to the places where they had been when they came here last.
The sun was setting when they started to return. The evening was a great one with Lauren's guitar and their songs and jokes. Tyler came up with many stories of the pranks they played in school.
The bombs they set off under teachers' chairs, scared girls with nasty insects, mixed up costumes at a school play, and everyone, specially Sonya, listened almost stupefied with the kind of things they had done. Even though, just the previous night he had told her how mischievious he had been as a boy, she was still quite surprised to learn what Ian Maxwell was capable of.
Finally Ian announced sleep time when they had started to nod off while sitting.
Sonya seemed to be asleep. He waited to be sure that everyone was sleeping and then turned to face Sonya, to make up for the treat he had missed that morning. He was feeling more than satisfied with the way the camp was getting along. After today's prank, Sonya had become a little more easy on her rigid attitude when he was around. She had hit him a couple of times when they were getting back and he had mimicked her. And then at dinner she had sat down next to him, asking him about how he got the prank's idea and she seemed very comfortable.
The next day, Saturday, was the last day at the camp. "I want to make it special. On Sunday we would be starting for home early in the day. I want us to get back before lunch if possible, because we then had to leave and probably look at the packing." The thought made him want to spend some more days here at the camp with Sonya, but he knew that was not possible. So long there only once when he and Sonya had a good talk. "Tomorrow, I want to spend all the day just with her. I wonder if that will be possible. Now that she is at ease, she will talk. I don't want any big activity that will keep me busy with others. Maybe if we could just go boating and fishing, then maybe Sonya and I could share a boat, and maybe I could send off Evan with Tyler or Adrian. But to go boating, we would have to go into the boating lot, and that means people. But we can go fishing right in the stream. But then all about sharing the boat with her is off. Oh, well! I guess, if I could just give them a few lessons on fishing and send them off into midstream!" he smiled. "But then I guess this is the last time I'll get with her in the next two months or so." So with plan set for the next day, Ian finally slept.
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