Clary had never quite seen the point in camping. Why would people voluntarily spend time out in the wilderness, without so much as a solid wall to protect them, purely for fleeting enjoyment? Unfortunately, her (rather fervidly voiced) opinions were no match for Jocelyn's sheer determination, and alas, she found herself on the road.
"It'll be good for you," her mother had said.
Clary couldn't see how spending a week in the woods was going to improve her in any way. In fact, she had pointed out, what would really be good for her was a therapeutic massage, however, Jocelyn's stern scowl had shut down that argument fairly quickly.
It's easy enough for her to think that the trip will turn out well, Clary thought bitterly, she doesn't have to share a car with this lot.
Coincidentally, the largest car anyone coming on the trip owned was a six-seater, and so Jocelyn and Luke had volunteered themselves to drive separately. This left Clary stuck in a car with Jace, Isabelle, Simon, Alec, and Magnus.
Fun.
"Magnus, can we listen to something else?" Simon asked from the back seat. Magnus just sighed, and turned the blaring Lady Gaga music up louder.
"You're pathetic, Magnus."
"Sorry, Seamus, I can't hear you over the sound of real music. Not that you'd know what that sounded like, of course," Magnus said with a smirk on his face.
Clary rolled her eyes and looked out the window. The sky was a bleak grey, and the trees that lined the road were whipping about in the wind. A few stray drops of rain trickled their way down the car window. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the foundations of a headache when she was elbowed sharply.
"Sorry, Clary," Alec said gruffly, as he readjusted his seatbelt. He murmured another apology to Jace, who was sitting on the other side of him, and who had also just received an elbow to the stomach.
"Alec, you're way too tall to be sitting back here," Jace said, shuffling around to accommodate for Alec's discomfort.
"Yeah - if only I had been able to sit in the front," Alec commented, with a sharp glare in Isabelle's direction. She smiled back from her comfortable place up front, next to Magnus, who was driving.
"Hey - I called it first," she said teasingly.
"Oh yeah? Well, I call it first for the way back. Ha," Alec said with a nod as he finally settled down, happy with his position.
Isabelle laughed as she twirled a lock of black hair around her finger. "Sorry, but Simon beat you to it."
Alec turned his head as far back as he could to see Simon, who was sitting in the very back with a sheepish grin. "Seriously? I don't want to have to sit back here again. There's, like, no room."
"There's 'like, no room' in this entire car," Clary said, shifting uncomfortably. "Why couldn't we just portal here?"
Magnus shook his head with a knowing smile on his face. "Uh-uh, biscuit, you remember exactly what your mother said. We're having a mundane weekend. It'll be - "
"Good for us," Simon, Alec, Jace and Isabelle finished in unison. They had all received the same lecture a few too many times.
Clary sighed. "You know, Magnus, that we won't have decent showers, right? Or decent food?"
"You think I can't survive with only a public shower and our meagre little rations? Come on. Biscuit, I've been alive for so long, I predate showers."
"Meagre little rations? Excuse me, Mr Extravagant, but I put lots of time and effort into choosing what to bring. I spent three whole hours trawling Pinterest to find something interesting just to appease you," Isabelle said with a scowl.
Simon groaned. "Oh God. Pinterest? Izzy, we all know that there's only one thing more deceptive than a glamour, and that's Pinterest recipes."
"Plus," Jace remarked, "most Pinterest recipes require a certain degree of skill in the kitchen."
"So help me, Jace Wayland," Isabelle snapped, "I will flatten you."
"What the -"
He didn't get to finish, because Izzy had adjusted her chair and leant the back downwards, slowly squashing Jace.
"Children. Play nice," Magnus said reproachfully, pushing Izzy's chair back to where it should have been. "We're not going to last a day, let alone a week, if you can't suck it up and get along."
The rain grew heavier, pattering down on the car.
An awkward silence descended upon them, before Simon suggested, "why don't we sing a song or something?"
"Oh look! We're here!" Magnus announced with joy, cutting Simon off from any further musical advances. He turned off the main road and into the woods, onto a dirt road.
"Are you sure? I didn't see a sign…" Alec said, frowning. Clary hated to admit it, but she agreed with him. She wasn't entirely sure that Magnus knew where he was going either.
"Don't worry hon, I'm at least 80 percent sure this is the right place."
Jace raised an eyebrow. "You've been here before?"
"Well, no, but - "
"You saw a sign? Some sort of indication that this is the camping ground we want?"
"Look, blondie, don't question my authority, okay?"
Simon laughed dryly. "You have no idea where we are, do you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were driving, Sheldon," Magnus remarked.
"You know damn well my name is Simon," Simon said, unenthused.
"What was that, Sid? I couldn't hear you from all the way back there, because you're in the back, and I'm in the front because I'm driving."
"Magnus," Alec said quietly in a warning tone.
"What?" Magnus raised his eyebrows and looked at Alec through the mirror, winking slightly.
"Magnus stop!"
Izzy's cry came too late - the front wheels of the car had already driven over the edge of the small precipice that abruptly ended the road.
"Holy -"
Jace was cut off by Magnus driving as hard in reverse as he could. The car slowly tipped forward, and despite all of Magnus's efforts, it wasn't reversing.
"Shit, Magnus, you've got to use magic," Izzy said, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at the ground below them.
"But Jocelyn - "
"Screw Jocelyn!" yelled Simon, before adding a small "no offence, Clary" under his breath.
"Fine!"
With that, Magnus began to wave his fingers, blue sparks erupting out of nowhere, but before he could do anything -
"Holy shit!"
The car lurched forward, the dirt beneath its back wheels turned to mud in the rain, and Magnus was slammed forward, hitting his head on the steering wheel.
"Magnus!" Izzy yelled, to no avail. He was out cold.
"We have to get out of this bloody car," Jace said, opening the door and stumbling out. He helped Alec out, who clambered around to get the boot and let Simon out. Jace grabbed Clary, who had gathered a few bags in her arms. Simon practically fell out of the back, holding the rest of their supplies. Izzy had climbed into the back of the car and was trying to drag Magnus with her.
"Get out, Iz, I'll do it," Alec said, but she shook her head.
"Iz!"
She groaned at the effort but got Magnus out of his seat. The shift in weight inside the car made it slip further down the muddy hill.
Alec screamed, and grabbed the side of the car, holding on as tight as he could. Jace got hold of the other side, blinking profusely in the increasingly heavy rain. Clary reached into the car, seizing Magnus' arm and helping Isabelle pull him out. Izzy stumbled out onto the mud, holding Magnus' other arm, and Simon swiftly took it from her. She picked up Magnus' torso, and, with all her strength, pulled him over the back seat and out of the car.
Now that there was far less weight in the back of the car, it tipped forward precariously.
"Get back!" Simon yelled at Jace and Alec, who both struggled up the muddy rocks as the car finally crashed down the drop.
There they stood, all breathing deeply, shoulders heaving with the effort, as the rain pummelled down. The smoke from the crashed car rose up in a thick, grey column, blending in with the darkening sky. A clap of thunder echoed through the forest, and from their position on the side of the cliff, they could see darker clouds rolling in.
"Where do you reckon the camping grounds are?" Jace asked.
Alec shrugged. "They must be on the other side of the mountain. I can't see them from here."
It was true - all the group could see was a forest sprawled out in front of them, dark and uninviting.
"What do we do then?" Simon asked.
"We can't travel in this weather. We'll only get more lost."
"Plus - we don't want to hurt Magnus," Isabelle added, holding him in her arms, "or at least any more than he already is."
"So what - we're just going to sit here? In the wild? At night?" Simon asked, slowly growing frantic. "Nobody knows where we are!"
Clary pulled her phone out of her pocket, only to find that there was no reception. Upon seeing this, Simon threw his hands up in the air and rested them on top of his head. "Oh God. We're dead. We're all dead and my last words are probably going to be something pathetic like 'shut up Jace'. That's it. We're all doomed."
"Don't be ridiculous," Izzy said. "We got all of the stuff from the car. We have all of the food I brought - "
"Great. Now not only am I dead, but the autopsy is going to reveal Isabelle's crappy Pinterest attempts in my stomach. Hey - maybe it'll confuse them and go down as a murder case. I can see the headline - 'Jewish kid found dead, full of suspicious looking s'mores attempts' - "
Another peal of thunder interrupted Simon's hysteria.
"Calm down, okay?" Clary said, looking Simon in the eye. "We'll just follow this road back to the main road, and everything will be great."
Simon nodded quickly, though still frowning. "Okay. Okay. We can do this. Let's… um… let's just go back to the main road then. We could get a ride from someone up to the camping ground."
Jace clapped Simon on the shoulder, with a low "alright then," and began walking back up the road they had just come down. Alec shook his head and made to help Izzy carry Magnus.
"I'm fine, Alec," she said, but he insisted.
"Look, Iz, if anyone should be carrying him, it's me, right? I mean… uh… I'm the tallest… and um… you know…"
"If you're not strong enough to say 'he's my boyfriend' out loud then you're not strong enough to carry him," Izzy said with defiance, rearranging her grip and hoisting the High Warlock of Brooklyn over her shoulder.
"Also, height doesn't equal strength," Clary said, picking up the mud-covered bags and tents. "I may be half your height but I could still kick your ass."
"Okay, ginger, look - " Alec begun to respond, but Izzy tripped slightly, Magnus' lanky form slipping off her shoulder. He rushed to her side, trying to take the warlock in his arms.
"Iz, I can do this."
"You don't have to."
"I do, he's too big for you to carry."
"I can do it, Alec."
"It's not a question of whether or not you can do it, okay? You can. Alright? But I don't want you to."
"And why is that?" She asked, trying to shift Magnus' weight back onto her shoulder.
"Just… because, okay? Let me do this."
"Alec, no."
"What is your problem?"
She shook her head, and started off to Alec's right, trying to get away from him but getting dangerously close to the sloped side of the road.
"Iz! Come back, here. Don't be stupid!"
She spun around to say something, but Magnus' weight made her fall slightly off-centre, and she slipped on the mud.
"Izzy!" Simon yelled and lunged for her, knocking Clary over, but it was too late. She and Magnus fell and tumbled down the sloped side of the road.
"What the hell?" Jace asked, running back to them. "What just happened?"
Nobody answered, however, before Alec ran straight towards where Izzy had fallen, jumping off the road and into the forest's depths.
Jace stopped in his tracks, shock spelt out on his face.
"Jace! Don't you dare go after him," Clary said, getting up off the ground. "It's too dangerous."
He turned to look at her, and she knew he was going to disobey her instruction before he spoke. Of course.
"He's my parabatai, Clary."
"Don't."
But he did.
He ran, full pelt, at the side of the road and hurled himself off the edge.
"Clary, we're not going down there too."
She turned to Simon. "I've got the tents, and the food. There's no way they'll last without them. We have to go."
"But… we can't go down there. It's too steep - we won't be able to get back up to the road."
"Maybe not in this rain, but once it clears up, we'll just climb up. It'll be fine. Trust me," she said, walking towards the edge with most of the gear gathered in one hand. Simon picked up the rest and followed in uncertainty.
"Of course I trust you, Clary. I always have, and I always will. But I don't think it's okay to abuse that unconditional - "
But he didn't get to finish his sentence, because Clary had grabbed his hand and jumped.
"Well, that was a great idea, wasn't it?"
"Not now, asshole," Jace said, stretching out his back with a grimace on his face. The slope they had tumbled down wasn't nearly as perilous as the one the car dropped down, so they had not reached the same demise, but the tumble had still left its mark on the weary travellers.
Izzy was sitting a few metres away, nursing a sprained ankle silently. Her hair was matted with mud, but the persistent rain was washing it out. It trickled down her back, and down her face, blending with the trails left behind by mascara that had long since been washed away. Magnus had been left spread-eagled on a rock, next to her, still unconscious. Alec was standing, leaning against a tree. He refused to admit that the fall had hurt. His shoulder, in particular, was sore from where he had landed. Ignoring its throbbing, he watched Izzy carefully, as she looked away from him. He didn't know why she thought him incapable of helping with Magnus; if anything, he thought she should have been thankful for him leaping down after her.
Jace was watching Alec watching Izzy. He could read his parabatai like a book. Later, he resolved, he would subtly ask her why she was annoyed at Alec. It was how he had grown up - the Lightwoods would feud over something petty and he'd have to be the intermediary. He dismissed this argument as something that he'd be able to fix with some gentle, Jace-style therapy.
His thoughts then wandered to Clary. She'd been the most reluctant of them all to go on this trip, and yet she was used to the mundane way of life. There should have been nothing at all to intimidate her. And yet there she was, a frown on her face as she rifled through the bags, checking everything was in its necessary place.
Clary was indeed concerned, but not about their possessions. Her thoughts lay with Simon. She was worried about how he was coping. She had known him for forever, and she was used to his paranoia, but she had seen real fear in his eyes. There was no way she was letting him die in the woods, that much was certain, but this wasn't exactly demon warfare. That, she could handle. This was survival in the wilderness, with a group of warriors who were ignorant to the mundane world, a timid cynic, and an unconscious warlock. She was never one to turn down a challenge, but this was pushing the limits. Still, she checked their inventory pedantically, ensuring everything they needed was there, because God knew they couldn't afford another mishap.
Simon cleaned his glasses. They'd become muddied by the fall, and there was no way he was going to die blind. He didn't have anything to clean them with, so his wet shirt had to do. Eventually, he stood up, murky glasses on, and made to set up tents.
"What are you doing?" asked Alec.
"We have to sleep somewhere, right?"
Clary looked up; the sky was now a dark, charcoal grey. It was indeed time to sleep.
"We can't set up tents. It's too wet," Jace said, flicking his wet hair out of his face.
"Huh. Usually, rain means tents are a very good idea," muttered Simon as he fumbled with the packaging.
Alec sighed and took it off Simon. "He means that if we set them up now, they'll fill with water that we'll never be able to get out. Trust us."
Alec gave no valid support as to why he should be trusted, but his raised eyebrows and Jace's smug expression were enough to sit Simon down.
"What do we do then?" Clary asked, sensing Simon's discomfort.
"We wait it out," Isabelle answered, her lips pressed together. "We'll sleep underneath trees, which should be good enough for protection."
"What about wild animals?" Simon asked.
"We'll use glamours," Izzy said, standing tentatively on her weak ankle.
"And Magnus?" Alec asked, leaning against the tree again, challenging her.
She smiled grimly. "We'll put him in a tree and hope for the best."
When he scoffed, she asked if he could think of anything better.
Evidently, he could not, because within the next half hour, once the sky had fully blackened, the group were huddled underneath a large tree, Magnus secured with rope to one of the thickest branches. Alec had protested to begin with, but then Izzy had reminded him that being tied to a tree was better than the shitstorm that runing him with a glamour would unleash. Alec had settled with giving him the comfiest bag to place beneath his head and insisted that he be the one to tie the ropes.
None of them were in pyjamas, or had made any change to prepare themselves for sleep; they simply lay down, using the watertight bundles of clothing, sleeping bags and tents for pillows, and wished each other a good night.
How strange, Clary thought to herself as sleep begun to overcome her, that now, of all circumstances, we think a good night is achievable.