Dan frowned as the war lizard crashed through the jungle, Imperial soldiers fanning out to either side of it looking through the undergrowth for him and Jennifer. Despite the gravity of the situation, he couldn’t help but think that they needed a better term for the gigantic quadruped lizards covered in spellshields and magical weapons. Technically, “war lizard” was accurate, but the simple and straightforward name seemed a bit anticlimactic in the face of five-plus tons of magically-combat-optimized dinosaur.
It had been two days since their raid on the landing site, and the Tellask response had initially overwhelmed Dan. Either the Tellask had a lot more troops on Earth that they could spare hundreds of them to look for him and Jennifer, or their scouting mission had kicked up more of a hornet’s nest than anticipated. Regardless, he certainly didn’t expect four war lizards with about 75 Imperial soldiers accompanying each one. Worse, both Jennifer and Dan had seen signs of elves active in the area.
The first night, they traveled about as far as they could, hopefully outpacing their pursuers. The morning of the second day, Dan had an idea. He remembered stories about how early canoes were made from burned and dug-out tree trunks. Between the two of them, he and Jennifer were able to find a kapok tree over 200 feet high. More importantly, it had a trunk that was just under ten feet in diameter.
With the help of Gravitational Easing and his sword, Dan cut a small hole about a hundred feet up the sheer trunk. Then, he used Flame Jet to burn into the core of the tree before blowing the ashes and charred wood back out with Forcebolt. While he worked, Jennifer dug a pit and hid the charred chunks of the kapok tree between carving wooden pitons to be used as handholds.
Thanks to his magic, the project that should have taken an entire day was done in just under four hours. He was sure his actions killed the tree and that he had committed some sort of great sin against conservation. Now, he and Jennifer were trapped in tight quarters far above the jungle floor. They had wedged the bark back on the tree, and with the size of the sword holes they used to climb the tree, barely wider than the thin, enchanted blade itself, absent a close inspection, no one was going to find them.
“Go fish,” Jennifer whispered, interrupting his train of thought. Dan wasn’t entirely sure why she had brought the cards, but they had been a godsend.
“How long do you think they’re going to keep at it?” He asked as he reached for his card.
“Do you have any threes?” Dan shook his head as she responded. “If I were them, I would’ve given up a day ago. Maybe those wolfmen of theirs have our scent and can tell we’re still somewhere in the area. Otherwise, they’ve given us too much time. We could be anywhere within like fifty miles at this point.”
“Do you have any jacks?” Dan inquired, shifting the cards in his hand. “I know, it just seems strange for them to still be searching our area. I think they have some idea where we are, and I don’t really like it.”
Jennifer shrugged as she handed him a pair of Jacks. “I can’t say I’m super thrilled. All they should know is that we killed a couple of people on patrol. I don’t have any idea how many of those giant dinosaurs they have, but this has to be a fairly substantial expenditure of material just to track us down.”
“Got any sevens?” Dan placed her jacks next to his in his hand. “I suppose we should be flattered. Apparently the Tellask seem to think that we’re fairly important. I guess this is just one more area where we’re helping out the war effort. The more Imperials they have out here sniffing around our tree, the less they will have for guarding the perimeter.”
“Go fish,” Jennifer replied. “What about fives? I’ll be sure to remind you of how helpful we’re being if we get caught. I’m all for helping out the army, but you’re a little bit of a bleeding heart, you know. Caution might not get you a medal, but it will greatly increase your chances of returning home alive.”
Dan handed her a five. “Believe me, if I thought we could slip out, I would be all for it. As much as I like playing go fish with you, I’d much rather not be hunted like some sort of animal.”
“We could always switch back to gin rummy.” Jennifer chuckled as the entire tree shook from a war lizard brushing against it.
“Or, we could pick a game that you aren’t a quasi-professional in.” Dan rolled his eyes. From somewhere beneath them, he heard Imperials shouting. “I don’t even see why you want to play rummy. You beat me what, five times in a row before you admitted that you used to play rummy for money.”
“Hey!” Her smile was dazzling in the darkness. “There weren’t any stakes. You didn’t lose anything but your dignity and time.”
Mana flashed outside the tree. There was a rumble as a spell detonated nearby. Ice mana radiated off as the tree rocked and shook from icicles pelting into it. Dan glanced at Jennifer. A second later, mana flashed again, and another ice spell burst further away to their right.
“They definitely know we’re somewhere around here.” Dan sighed as he set down his cards. “The imperials don’t know exactly where we are, but they’ve narrowed it down enough to shoot up into the canopy.”
“They might be bluffing.” Jennifer shrugged as she rapped her cards on the floor of their chamber, compressing them into a cube. “Just firing randomly into the air in an attempt to smoke us out.”
Another spell detonated further away. Below them, more voices shouted as the war lizard pushed further into the jungle. They sat in silence for a minute, and soon the voices receded as well.
“I think they’re just trying to scare us into running for it.” Dan frowned slightly. “Even if they’ve figured out we’re hiding in the canopy, I don’t think they’ve realized that we have almost a foot of wood between us and the outside world. Still, I don’t know how long this will last, and I’m not sure how keen I am on playing The Hunt for Red October up here while they detonate depth charges as fast as their mana can recharge.”
“How keen are you on running from a dinosaur?” She sighed and leaned back up against the wall of the tree. “We aren’t really full of great answers here. Until the coalition forces actually attack and take some heat off of us, we’re outnumbered, and we don’t really have anywhere to go.”
Dan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Still, if they keep this up, they’re going to get us eventually. It’s only a matter of time before we run out of food. Or worse, they switch to fire spells. Then we’re fucked.”
“Dan,” Jennifer’s voice was firm, losing most of its previous mirth. “I trusted your judgement before when we tried for the third tower. It didn’t work out. That happens sometimes; I get it. Right now, they know we’re nearby, but they don’t have any idea where.
“The jungle is a huge place, and they won’t find us on their own,” Jennifer continued, eyes locked onto Dan’s. “They’re trying to scare us. If they were going to use fire spells, they already would’ve. I don’t know if they don’t want to burn this chunk of the forest down, or if there’s some reason they can’t use them, but if it were going to happen, it already would have happened.”
“But what if-,” Dan tried to respond.
“Blanketing us with area of effect spells isn’t something you do if you know where someone is,” she interrupted. “They want us to run so they can chase us. Right now, we’re one tree in the middle of a forest. If we run, they’re everywhere. They’ll spot us before long, then it’s just a matter of endurance. We might be able to outrun them for a while, but we’re dealing with an entire army. It isn’t a winning proposition.”
“I just don’t like waiting,” Dan griped. “I’m going stir crazy up here. With the number of patrols down there, neither of us are going to be able to get out and use the bathroom or hunt.”
“There are plenty of cupped leaves nearby,” she smiled a bit grimly. “They’re going to refill with water every time it rains. The good part of being in a rainforest is that it’s going to rain pretty frequently. As for food? Well, we have plenty of protein bars.”
“I guess,” Dan grumbled, motioning around their tiny hollowed-out section of the tree. “I think the two of us differ on the definition of ‘plenty’ with regard to the protein bars, and I still don’t see how we’re going to resolve the bathroom situation.”
“The good news is that a steady diet of power bars will probably put that question off for a day or so.” Jennifer chuckled darkly. Dan winced. She was right; the dry and dense protein bars had plugged both of them up fairly badly. “The bad news is that I don’t think there’s a real solution to that. The System will prevent us from getting dysentery, but I don’t anticipate living in our own filth to be fun or pleasant.”
“Shit.” Dan frowned.
“Literally.” Jennifer nodded.
Dan picked his cards back up. “I thought we were supposed to be the heroes of this story. This is far from the glamorous lifestyle I expected when I signed up to be a magical superhero saving damsels in distress from the ravening elven hordes.”
“God,” Jennifer laughed quietly. “I know. I’m not exactly sure what I expected when Ibis borderline kidnapped us, but getting stuck in a smelly hole with you wasn’t exactly near the top of the list. No offense.”
“None taken.” Dan grimaced. “I’ve got to agree, festering in the jungle heat and humidity in a tiny recess along with our own waste seems absolutely miserable to me. Do we even know how long we’ll have to wait before the coalition is ready to attack?”
“I haven’t heard anything.” Jennifer shrugged. ‘It could be in two days, it could be a week. All there is to do is wait.”
“Or make an ill-advised run for the hills,” Dan smiled at her. “We could always panic and make dumb, hasty decisions.”
“Thank you for listening.” Jennifer brushed some of the hair out of her face. “I know that trust has been hard to come by for you for a while now. I’m not going to pretend that I’m a saint or anything like that, but I’m not looking to screw you over, Dan. I’m just like you, in over my head and trying to make sense of this gigantic stream of bullshit while I try to make it out of here alive.”
“What about when we play gin rummy?” Dan quirked an eyebrow at her. “Does your exhortation on trust apply there as well?”
“That’s different,” she replied with a laugh. “Rummy is serious business. If you want to beat me at rummy, appealing to my better nature isn’t going to get you anywhere. I’d suggest you focus on ‘getting good’ instead.”
