Ariadne

Chapter 3

Catching her breath, Linda pauses on the trail, her eyes scanning the tall grass glen around her.  Early spring prairie flowers reach for the sky in a mixture of whites, purples, and golds, shockingly delicate against the backdrop of the dark forest surrounding the open space.  Gnats and other tiny flying insects buzz about as small birds dive and dart, a perfect comparison to dolphins herding fish into a feeding ball.

As she tucks a stray, mousy-brown strand of hair behind her ear, Adrienne joins her, exhaling in a puff.  "How are the feet?"

"Better."  Both watch her feet as they rock and flex the leather in which they are encased.  "Len helped me with some mole skin.  I guess standing on my feet for fifteen hours at a time did not condition them for trudging up a mountain."

"Standing for fifteen hours?"

"Yes."  She sticks her hand out proudly, shaking the other woman's with a firm grip.  "Linda Janks, trauma surgeon, MEDCOM.  United States Army for ten years, tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now I treat gunshots and car accidents in Seattle."

"Well, at least you are used to boots."

"True, but these...I ran out of time to break them in.  It's amazing how quickly days go by when you are locked up in a surgical room for three in a row.  Really hoping we camp near a stream tonight so I can just walk in, boots and all."

"No offense, but you seem kind of young to have that long of a career...army, medical school, and a specialty as intense as trauma surgery?"

"Oh," she waves off the questions with a smile and giggles.  "I am thirty-eight.  I just look like I'm twelve.  My mom has the same affliction."

As they start up the dusty trail, Adrienne laughs and adds, "You must get carded all the time."

"I got carded to a rated R movie a few years back.  That was annoying.  I love being carded for drinks.  Always overtip the waiter or waitress when they ask for ID."  Her brown gaze takes in her walking companion before she inquires, "How about you?"

Adrienne runs down the same information she shared with Tom, receiving a raised eyebrow from the former Army surgeon.

"Outdoor education?  Huh."

Lowden stops abruptly in front of the women, and a distracted Linda plows into his back.  Before she can fall, Jennings grabs her arm, holding her upright.

"Ugh," escapes her as she recovers.

"Geez, Lowden.  Way to warn the pretty lady here you were going to go all Great Wall of China on her."

"Sorry.  Snake.  What kind of snakes live around here?"

Toby pipes up from further up the trail, "A whole mess of poisonous ones.  How about a description?"

"Brown, with more brown.  Kind of a diamond pattern...I think.  Thing was fast."

Jennings pushes his friend forward as he smiles apologetically at the petite surgeon.  "You will have to excuse my best friend.  He's a firefighter, not a nuclear physicist."

The scruffy blonde turns to glare at his friend.  "You're a firefighter too, dumbass.  I don't see you busting out the Latin to identify the reptiles occupying this mountain."

With exaggerated whining, Jennings counters, "I don't see you busting out the Latin...what are you?  Ten?  Move your ass, or I am volunteering you for heavy lifting when we reach our campsite."

"What are you, my mother?  You can't volunteer me for shit, Jen."

Adrienne laughs as she passes the friends, observing Lowden as he eyes the grass warily.  Daylen coughs Lowden back to attention and nods towards the retreating group ahead of them.

"Sorry.  Snakes freak me out."

"Well, be sure to check your sleeping bag tonight before you zip in.  They love warm sleeping bodies."

"Are you kidding me?"

Jennings yells over his shoulder, "Would you quit acting like a little girl?  You are embarrassing the hell out of me."  The muscular brunette turns to Linda and adds, "We have honestly been camping before.  I have no idea where this is coming from."

She shrugs as she grins.  "When we break I'll show you some pictures of camel spiders."  Her hand mimics a large crawling creatures as she continues, "Try waking up to them in your tent, staring at you.  Waiting for you to move so they can jump on you." 

Jennings leaps to the side as her hand attacks his arm.  "Camel spiders?"

"Think they are more closely related to scorpions.  They were everywhere in Iraq.  Their bites look nasty, but they are mostly harmless.  Very, very, very creepy, though."

Alicia bounces along next to Paulina, but her attention turns to Linda.  "I love big spiders.  Used to have a pet tarantula.  They are the most beautiful creatures.  So graceful and powerful."

Eyes widening to dinner plate diameter, Jennings asks, "Used to have a pet tarantula?"

"He didn't escape or anything.  Died of a ripe old age.  And is it my imagination or do we have the severe potential for more guy on guy, best friend, wrestling action later?"

Jennings addresses the hopeful looks that have suddenly sprung up on the girls.  "Uh, no.  I don't wrestle other guys, so bat those eyes at our guides.  They seem to be more apt to struggle in the dirt together.  Maybe you will all luck out and they will roll into the creek so you can have some wet t-shirt action as well."

"Is that some kind of firefighter code?" asks Paulina as she smirks.  "Watch my back, don't throw me onto it and pin me to the ground in the raging inferno?"

"What do you do for a living, almost divorced Paulina?" diverts Jennings, feeling outnumbered by the wry females surrounding him.

"I am a court appointed children's advocate.  I protect the kids from the big bad wolf, which is usually a parent."

"Whoa.  Really?"

"Yes.  I can be very maternal under this feisty exterior.  I have perfected playing with Barbies and Matchbox cars."  As she bounces her eyebrow, she continues, "How many kittens have you rescued from trees?"

"None.  Have rescued a litter of puppies from a storm drain, but no kittens from trees."

With a loud sigh, Toby addresses the group, "If you can have full-blown conversations with each other, we are not pushing hard enough.  Haul your butts.  Let's go.  Burning daylight."

Bringing up the rear, Daylen mumbles, "I am hiking with an internet dating ad.  Awesome."  When Adrienne's rich blue eyes meet his from twenty feet up the trail, he stutters to a stop.  She smiles and shakes her head before catching up to the firefighters.  "Crap.  Way to go, Daylen.  Now she thinks you're crazy."

**

After a couple hours of rocky trail, the group reaches a clearing near a creek.  The ground sits mostly clear, shaded by the enormous canopy above.  Near the creek shore, tall reedy plants grow except for a clear area that has seen a fair share of foot traffic from humans and nonhumans alike.

Toby drops his pack and stretches his arms above his body, growling with delight.  "Yes.  Record time, people!"  He rotates to see the red and sweaty faces of his tired clients and laughs.  "Much better.  You all look so cute when you're not flirting with each other on trail."

Linda grunts as she relinquishes her pack and walks into the creek.  "Ahhhhh.  Sweet, sweet mountain runoff."

Toby jogs to the creek and puts out his hand as he jumbles out, "No, no, no.  Back on dry land.  Wet boots are not the answer to tomorrow's hiking pain.  Get them off, we'll drying them by the fire Lowden and Jennings are about to make.  Doug can help."

The three men pop their heads up from their prone positions on the ground.  Their guide doesn't acknowledge them, busy helping Linda limp out of the water and remove her sodden footwear.  With slow deliberate movements, Tom saunters to the two younger men and offers a hand.

When he gets them to upright positions, he slaps them on the shoulders and says, "Let's go gather some wood, boys.  That fire isn't going to build itself.  Doug can get some kindling and needles."

After shucking his pack, Daylen claps and rubs his hands together.  "Ok, ladies, and the rest of you fine gentlemen...let's clear out the site, get a pit dug for the fire, and erect some tents."

Alicia snorts, stops, then covers her mouth as she bursts into laughter.  As the handsome mountain medic stares at her in confusion, she laughs out, "You said erect."

Bright red flush covers Daylen's face, and when he turns to bury himself into his work, there she stands.  Adrienne shakes her head while eyeing him.  "Not many ways you could have said that.  Get them up...raise the poles...tent lingo is lying in wait for innuendo.  Your blush is very cute."

"Thanks.  I think."

"You really don't want to be on this trip, do you?"

He sighs as he removes his tent from the sling on the bottom of his pack and dares to glance into her eyes.  "It's not 'this' trip.  It's all trips.  I'm good at rescuing people, not guiding them around and pointing out the wildlife.  That's Tobe and my sister."

"Well, you should be bonding with Jennings and Lowden then."  As her head nods to the slow moving duo following dutifully behind Tom, her lip quirks up to match her eyebrow.

He peers around her and matches her half smile.  "Probably right.  They seem like your average, fun loving, humble superheroes."

"They actually aren't that bad.  Well...Lowden seems humble.  Jennings could go either way.  Hard to tell.  They have a classic leader and follower bro-lationship going."

"Bro-lationship?"

"Brotherly relationship...bro-lationship."  Adrienne demonstrates the marrying of words by presenting each hand individually and then grasping them together.

"Did you just make that up?"

Her hand waves off the complimentary look he gives.  "On the spot.  I must admit to falling prey to the modern day splicing of words and names to cut down on all the seconds I would have to use to formulate full words."

"Yes.  Life is too short to use full words.  Daylen Hale, by the way.  I never committed to introducing myself personally to any of you.  If we're going to be splicing words, figured we should officially meet."

"Adrienne Shay.  Pleasure to officially meet you, Daylen."

Toby grips his friend's shoulder harshly as he speaks, "Now that we finally have that out of the way, Adrienne can help with tents, and Daylen can organize the fire pit and our supplies for dinner."

Irritated brown eyes glare at Toby as Daylen grinds out, "And what the hell are you going to be doing?"

"Filtering the water, getting the bear cans down from the trees."

"You and Suzy put bear cans in the trees?"  His eyes flash to the web of rope in a tree off to his right.

"At each camp site.  You have no idea what we do to prep for these trips, Day.  Must keep the bears from eating our supplies, and we start with a lot of yummy goodies the thieves find to be especially tempting."

"So when my baby sister fell out of a tree and broke her leg..."

"She was practicing a new way to tie up the buggers so the friendly squirrels and other tree dwellers don't drop them on our heads."  He throws on an Australian accent for effect, "They're right bastards, them rodents are."

With all the stealth of a lynx, Adrienne pounces, "Where were you when we were attacked by the snake earlier?  Thought you Aussies loved to wrestle small scaly things?"

"Unless it's going on the barbie, I'm wrestling nothing, Sheila."

"You need a cool hat.  All the other nature boys on Discovery have cool hats.  Have you ever been chased by a dinosaur?  Wooly mammoth?  Saber toothed cat?  Toy poodle?"

Wrapping his arm around the shoulders of an increasingly uncomfortable Daylen, Toby blurts out, "Damn I like you.  Have you met my friend, Daylen?  He's single.  Ooof..."

Toby goes down in a crumple of writhing pain while Daylen trains his perfectly innocent gaze to Adrienne.  "We should get started on that huge list of chores, don't ya' think?"

"Uh..."  As Daylen guides her away from the elbowed Toby she laughs out, "Sounds like a plan."

Toby grunts out a last ditch dig, "He likes to have his earlobes sucked."

While grinding his teeth to the point of cracking his jaw, Daylen nods to Adrienne and hurries off to clear out the fire pit area, then dig the hole.  Daylen glares at Toby as he searches his gear for the small shovel, estimating the amount of time it would take to dig the hole large enough to accommodate his tall friend.

"Lucky for you it would take me fifty years to dig a hole big enough for your body with this thing," whispers from his lips before he makes his way to the center of the site. 

Discretely he glances over his shoulder to see Adrienne and Alicia positioning and straightening a tent as Paulina fits together the poles.  He smiles and chuckles to himself.  'Ok, maybe she's right.  I should at least try to get to know these people.  Why does it feel like I'm back in summer camp?'

**

With the fire built and a series of small trout roasting, the group gathers around on various pads and stumps.  Exton finds his way back to Linda's side, helping her massage the soreness from her feet while they chat quietly.  Between drinks from their Nalgene, Toby and Doug discuss the fishing opportunities further along the trip.  In a small giggly group off to the side, Alicia, Jennings, Paulina, and Lowden play an animated game of poker, twigs and rocks their betting items of opportunity.

From the periphery, as she carries on a conversation with Tom regarding favorite movies and talk show hosts, Adrienne watches Daylen stir the fire coals silently.  She notes the faraway set to his dark brown eyes, and slides into wonder about what happened to the poor guy recently to cause him to draw into himself.  Then the dirty angel on her shoulder tugs on her hair and commands her to rush over and suck on that adorable earlobe.

**

After dinner, nightly chores, and much good conversation, Adrienne Shay retreats to her tent and notebook.  Shedding her false persona, Ariadne Shaw starts her copious notes on each participant of their training group.  In case the 'journal' should fall into the wrong, curious hands, she makes sure to use her coded descriptions.  To anyone else the notebook would read as innocuous observations and a recounting of the day's activities.  To a federal agent the notebook reads as a collection of forensic profiles for a list of possible suspects.

Once her case study of her travel companions is complete, she tucks it away and crawls into her sleeping bag.  Sleep takes her immediately with the soft lullaby of the breeze through the needles in the large pines and spruces playing above her tent.