Volanta

Oliver knew from the very start that it would be Peter to do something cocky and get everyone killed. He was lucky he wasn’t dead already. Just in pain. Lots and lots of pain. The last thing he remembered was a giant snake, running away from it with Pippa, and the both of them falling down a steep hill. He turned his head and saw her next to him, unconscious with blood dripping down from her hairline. The leopard cub was circling around her protectively, as if the tiny thing would be able to protect her from anything more than a bee sting.

Oliver finally managed to sit up, finding that he wasn’t too hurt. Some heavy bruising, at the most. It sure didn’t feel good, but he was lucky it wasn’t worse. He moved over to kneel beside Pippa, checking her over. She had a steady pulse and it didn’t look like she’d broken anything, but there was a chance of a mild concussion from hitting her head. The leopard growled at him and attempted to roar and scare him, but he effortlessly nudged it out of his way as he turned Pippa onto her back. The cub responded by clawing at Oliver’s hand, drawing a bit of blood.

“Ow! Hey!” Oliver snapped at it. “I’m trying to help her, you tiny heathen. What does she call you? Jasper? Jasp- OW! Jasper, no! Enough with the scratching, or I’ll punt you halfway across this jungle.”

He tried to ignore the angry cub as it furiously gnawed on him, while he tried to use a scrap piece of fabric he’d torn off the bottom of Pippa’s skirt to tightly bandage the wound on her head. He’d found a tiny bottle of medical alcohol at the bottom of Pippa’s rucksack, and used it to clean it a little bit. It would have to do until he found a source of clean water.

Nudging Jasper away again, he picked Pippa up, careful of her head as he looked around at where they were. The middle of nowhere. With no map and no compass and no hope of finding the rest of the scattered crew. And now Jasper was clawing and biting at Oliver’s ankles. He was extremely tempted to just kick the cat aside, but somehow the wild animal meant something special to Pippa, and she wouldn’t allow him live with himself if he did that to her.

“Oliver?”

He looked down and saw Pippa’s eyes flutter open, looking around before looking up at him.

“Hey, Pips,” he said quietly. “How’s your head?”

“It hurts, but I think I’m okay.”

Eventually, he found a creek in a nice, shady clearing. It was a little too peaceful to be true, but at least Oliver had a clear view of what was around him. No snakes in the shallow water. He set Pippa down and leaned her up against a tree. Jasper finally stopped attacking Oliver to curl up in her lap. She petted his head as Oliver checked her bandage.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” she asked him.

He didn’t say anything, handing her a canteen full of cool water. She drank in silence, her fingers tangled Jasper’s soft fur. Oliver plopped down next to her, rubbing his sore shoulder.

“No, I don’t,” he said finally. “We were pretty far from camp already, and I have no idea how far we fell. There is no way to climb back up that hill, so we have to find a way around it. It’s late, today. We don’t want to be lost in the jungle at night. We should-”

“Set up a camp somewhere safe,” Pippa finished. “We should find higher ground, though. Somewhere clearer. I’ll be able to walk in a minute.”

Oliver raised a brow at her, then shrugged. They rested for a few more minutes before continuing their trek through the jungle. Pippa had the journal in her rucksack, and Oliver flipped through it as they walked. She was cooing softly to Jasper when she stopped suddenly, grabbing Oliver’s arm.

“Look,” she said, pointing to the ground.

Oliver kneeled down and saw that the ground had been worn down and the bushes pushed apart slightly. An animal wasn’t likely to have done that. It had to be a person, and more than one person at that. Pippa was surprisingly observant. Oliver found that while he had the notes and the facts, she was the one who actually spotted the little things.

“Come on,” she said, going down the worn-down path.

“Pippa, hold on,” Oliver said, following her. “Don’t go rushing into these things-”

It was no use. She wanted to go, and there was no stopping her. They both stopped and stared with their jaws agape at what they saw on the other side of the bushes. There was a clearing there, with a crystal lagoon. There were some tiny waterfalls scattered around it, which made a soothing sound in the background. Tiny fish swam in the lagoon, around colorful coral scattered around in the sand. However, the most fascinating thing was behind one of the overhanging waterfalls. Behind the falls there were carvings in the stone.

“Otter, come look at this,” Pippa said breathlessly, running her fingers over the carvings.

Oliver examined them closely. They weren’t any form of language he’d ever studied, but it was clearly some form of script. A language that hadn’t been discovered yet.

“Do you know what this means?” Oliver muttered.

“It means we were right,” Pippa said, laughing excitedly.

“Unbelievable,” Oliver murmured, still examining it. “This looks old. It could be hundreds and hundreds of years old.”

They studied it in fascination until the sun went down and they lost light. By then, Oliver had copied the entire thing into the journal.

“You should get some sleep,” Oliver told Pippa. “I’ll stay awake and keep watch. You need the rest more than I do, for that head injury.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

She didn’t argue with him more after that. He knew she had a hard time staying awake, and no amount of lying could change his mind of that. No matter how excited she was, it had been a physically rough day for her. They sat in the soft grass and Oliver leaned up against a tree, while Pippa curled up near him, using her light jacket as a pillow. Luckily, the island weather was warm enough for them to get away with not having any form of a tent.

While Pippa slept, Oliver looked over the script he’d copied down. It didn’t even resemble anything he’d seen. Not in the slightest. He wished Nigel was there with them, because he could practically hear the man cheering in victory. The thought of it made Oliver smile, and he felt a tug at his heart. He missed Nigel, and his parents. He could only hope they were all going to be proud of him.

Oliver winced softly when he felt Jasper claw at his ankles again. He closed the journal with an audible snap and pulled his ankle away, checking it and seeing that the leopard had gnawed his way through the leather of the boot and made it to his skin.

“You’re a mean little thing,” Oliver mumbled. “I’m not trying to hurt Pippa. Why do you hate me? She’s clearly sound asleep, right over there.”

Jasper started growling, but Oliver realized that the cat wasn’t growling at him. Looking past him, actually. Oliver’s head snapped up when he heard a nearby rustling, coming from the bushes behind him. He glanced at Pippa, seeing she was still asleep. He decided against waking her. He was probably just hearing things. The rustling stopped and he relaxed again. The fur on Jasper’s neck was still sticking up, but he was no longer growling. He backed up and curled up beside Pippa, and a few moments, was sound asleep as well. Oliver glanced back towards the bushes. It had to have been his imagination.