“You think someone would spend six hours hiking up here on the off chance a big group has their stuff up here?”
“Yes, Talos. Did you not hear Elaine’s lecture about the dangers ofbears?”
He sighed. “Ivan is staying up here. He also has bear sprayanda horn.”
I made a show of wiping my brow, relief flooding through me again. “Phew!That’sa relief.”
Talos waved a hand at me. “Go pack your things. Make sure it’s light. The trek down there is a little precarious.”
“Roger that.” Maybe it was a good thing to not be here when Blake arrived.
As much as I wanted to be the first to greet him, allowing him to get his story straight in the presence of only a few people versus all of us, plus Talos, was the better idea. He was already going to be put on the spot by his second, regardless, and at least if he was up here for a bit to help Ivan with camp, it would seem more likelending his handand not something else, which Talos was no doubt doing to be suspecting the moment they came face-to-face.
I’d sneak him away once nightfall hit. No one would be looking for us then.
Elaine was already packing a small bag when I made my way over to her. She had a blanket spread out under her, cushioning her slightly from the rough terrain of the mountain’s face. There was a canteen by one of her knees, along with a half eaten bag of trail mix.
“Hey!” She waved. “Got all your stuff ready?”
“Yup. Still feeling good about our trip?”
“Oh, I’m over the moon. The last time we went down there, we got to see an eagle’s nest. Now, you may be thinking, Elaine, I thought eagles usually nest near a water source because they’re fishermen. And to that I would say, I know! I did, too! But Iguess there is a small river that runs close to here that connects to the falls on the other side of the mountain that they use! How cool is that?”
Damn, actually that was pretty cool. “You’ll have to point it out to me once we’re down there. I have a friend that’ll go bananas if I send him a photo of an actual eagle.”
“Definitely. I promise I will. I’m going to be bringing my binoculars, so we can totally use them to scope out some of the trees where I last remember the nest being.”
“Perfect.”
“All right, everyone!” Talos’s voice rang out across the area. “Everyone heading down to the second vantage point, head this way. All those who are staying, check in with Ivan, please!”
“That’s us,” I said, offering a hand for her to take.
She slipped hers in mind, folding herself up from the blanket. “Thanks. Oh, I’m so excited!”
Her attitude was definitely infectious. Letting myself be pulled into it was enough to satiate the worry crawling up my throat at missing Blake. Maybe this hike would help me burn off some of this excess energy. Coming in hot the second I met him wasn’t exactly sexy.
After a headcount, Talos waved for all of us to follow, giving clear and concise instructions as we descended down to the narrow stonemade footpath along the side of the mountain face. Only wide enough to travel down one-by-one, I held tight to the thin railing jutting out from the mountain’s side while we went, keeping my attention locked onto the man in front of me while following him.
More than once, I felt Elaine grip the back of my shirt to slow me down, patting me lightly when I obeyed and kept at least two steps between me and the man in front of me. The problem with being tall I typically ran into more often than not, was overtakingpeople by accident. Long strides tended to outdo even the most athletic ones more times than not.
When we finally reached the second vantage point, a rock shelf that was far smaller than the one up top and about a mile down from it, we collected together against the mountain’s face, keeping away from the edge until all of us were finally down the steps.
Our group was only about twelve people, which gave us all enough room to move around freely on the shelf.
The air felt a little denser down here, strangely enough. I pulled in a deep lungful, the scent of pines and dirt filling my nose. That rough kind of outdoorsy smell not many people tended to appreciate but was my absolutely favorite.
“Wow,” Elaine breathed out, her arm brushing against mine. She had her binoculars looped around her neck and was slowly bringing them up to her eyes. “Oh yeah, I definitely see an eagle’s nest.”
She inched her way over to the side of the dropoff, carefully keeping her steps small. While I wasn’t at all worried she was going get distracted with her binoculars and plunge over the edge from a bad foot placement, I still kept close to her while she moved, on the off chance something happened.
Like parts of the rock shelf crumbling or?—
Something moving out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Glancing over to my left, I spotted more movement, going completely still the moment I realized it was a fuckingsnakeslowly climbing up the rock wall.
“Hey, uh, Elaine,” I muttered. “Remember what you were saying about those snakes that were super snake-looking with the reddish brown pattern that you said were up here?”
“Oh, yeah. Copperheads.”
