wesleynotponcy | A Cave In The Middle Of The Forest | Pylea

The thing about caves was that, while they were pretty good places to hide from angry mobs, they tended to get a little boring. Conversation was pretty much essential.

Conversation and, you know. An estimated time of fleeage.

Tara	Tara smiled a bit at Fred, trying to put the older girl at ease. "So," she said, glancing around the cave for something, anything to talk about. "I'm ... not much good at math. Can you tell me what you were doing?"
Fred	"M-making things work," Fred said. "Or. Trying to. Trying to -- find how to get out of here."
Tara	"You think you could .... build a ship or something?" Tara asked, an edge of hope creeping into her voice.
Fred	Fred laughed despite herself, then quickly clapped her hands to her mouth in surprise. "I -- no, not a ship, it's a -- swirly ball thing? It's from my dream -- I mean. Not a dream, because, um, it happened?" Yeah, that was taking some getting used to. "I came here by one, so I thought..."
Tara	"... a portal?" Tara asked, clearly surprised. "You think you can open one on purpose? We, um, lost our book about how."
Fred	"I'm not sure," Fred admitted. "It's. I mean. I used to think that if you said them out loud and in the right order the quaking and quivering would..." She shook her head. "But I tried. For years and years -- until my tongue was swollen and my head was all kaplooey. It doesn't work on this side."
Tara	"Did you try saying them backwards?" Tara asked. "... and now I feel like that's about the stupidest idea ever."
Fred	Fred nodded, though she looked a little unsure now. "Every order I could think of," she said. "It never worked, though. You must need to be back home to do it. Or one of those priests. They have all the power here."
Tara	Tara blinked. "But ... it has to work for somebody," she hazarded. "Lorne opened one, and that drokken. Maybe I could help you?"
Fred	Fred's eyes lit up. "You think we can? 'Cause if we can, if we can it'll be good, we can -- leave an' not have to be in a cave an' get home and there'll be -- tacos!" Oh, Fred. Very serious all of a sudden, she checked, "They've still got those, right?"
Tara	"Absolutely," Tara promised. "I had one with chicken for dinner like three nights before we got here. We even have burritos."
Fred	"Burritos!" Fred blurted out, looking excited. Look, she'd gone five years without Mexican food, okay? And she was from Texas. Give her a break. "I mean, uh." She offered Tara a smile. "I mean, we could try sayin' them in a different order, if you wanna try." For the Mexican food. If it would get her some decent tacos, it was worth a shot.
Tara	Tara nodded. "Sure. Let's write down what you have and then we can try it once we find our friends."

Kennedy	Without anything immediate and tangible to do, Kennedy was back to pacing. "We should get back," she told Angel, agitatedly, digging both hands into her hair. "I don't love this being-split-up thing." Plus, she was hoping to run into a fight along the way. Now that she thought about it she really, really wanted to kill something.
Angel	"You think I'm crazy about it?" Angel groused. "I'd rather be out there beating some of those guys up." Hey, look, something they had in common! "Probably be safer to go back through the woods, though," he admitted, a little reluctantly. "Less chance of running into so many at once. More manageable violence."
Kennedy	In Kennedy's world, Buffy probably had the sudden urge to headdesk right about now. "Manageable violence. Good one," Kennedy said with an amused snort, and she was totally filing that one away for future use... though it might be a little alarming the way her eyes lit up at the prospect of impending mayhem. "Someone's enjoying this whole walking-in-the-sun thing a lot."
Angel	"What, can you blame me?" Angel countered. "I haven't gotten to do this since... well, since one day last year. This is an improvement." Shut up, Angel, that day had been perfect. "What about you, anyway? You're -- having fun." More during the violencey bits. Like he wouldn't notice.
Kennedy	"Hey, I want to get home," Kennedy insisted, holding both hands up. "But I'm feeling the need to kick ass more than usual here." A Slayer in a demon dimension. Yeah, that was a fabulous combination, really.
Angel	"I hear that," Angel said with a nod. He really, really heard it. Really. A lot. "Just something about this place." It made Slayers twitchy and demons ragey. So... great place for a vacation.
Kennedy	Honestly, if Kennedy hadn't ditched the vision-quest field trip back in Sunnydale she might understand a little bit more about why exactly she felt the vague but persistent urge to snarl and leap on things like a predator. "That, plus the super-friendly local attitude toward human and human-looking types," she added. "Pretty good reason to want to get the hell out of here." If they could, that was, and-- oh. Ha. "No pun intended."
Angel	Angel snickered anyway, because sometimes he was a nerd. Don't tell anyone, it would ruin his image. "Okay," he said, "so, back through the woods in the direction of that castle, and this time we'll stay in one place until we can all get out of here." He cast a glance over at Tara and Fred. "...bet they've made any progress with the portals?"
Kennedy	Kennedy took what she knew about each of them, mixed in a healthy dose of her usual overconfidence, and nodded. "What, a science genius and a kickass witch? Totally." This was her incredibly expert opinion. Look, as long as it didn't involve draining her energy to open a portal, it was all good.
Angel	Angel nodded. "Then let's move out." This was obviously going to go wonderfully.