An Aire is a sort of French service station. It's like a motorway car park where you can just stop and park. Some have services, and others are literally just parking and loos. They're mainly designed for lorries to be able to stop I think.

Anyway, enjoy and review! Please? ;D

Amanda wakes me up an hour later to say we're stopping soon.

Five minutes after that, we pull up in a small, dark Aire, and Faye wakes up too. The three of us climb out, and take in the night around us. It's cold, but the coldness is refreshing, and we are the only car there.

I rummage around on the back seats, trying to find my sponge-bag, which seems to have vaporised itself. Faye's goggles . . . beach towel . . . string . . . suncream . . . washing line . . . mini dustpan and brush . . . OUCH! My hairbrush . . . Well, at least I found it eventually. I drag my spotty sponge-bag out, hairbrush still poking evilly out of the front pocket. That found, I hurry to get ready for sleep.

Amanda is leaning against the car when I come back from the loos. The opportunity is too good to miss! Maybe I could catch her off guard and make her jump?

I drop to all-fours, and scamper sideways so the car blocks me from view. Then I slowly advance, making no sound on the smooth tarmac. Soon I'm right beside the car, only a few metres away from Amanda, ready to spring.

Then suddenly I feel a pair of hands grab my shoulders from behind. I squeak loudly, and flip onto my back, squashing the hands. I stare up at Faye.

"Oi!" I protest, as she drops to the ground beside me, shaking with uncontrollable giggles. I free her hands, feeling slight satisfaction that it probably hurt when I squished them. She doesn't notice though, she's too busy pretending to die of laughter.

"You're evil. There's no need to rub it in!" However I'm smiling as I say it, and I have to admit that it was pretty skilful!

Peering around the edge of the car, Amanda eyes us with concerned surprise written in her raised eyebrows. "What are you two doing?"

I catch Faye's eye, shrug, and get the giggles too. Amanda shakes her head, and doesn't ask. Probably wise, considering.

Then she flicks her long hair over her shoulders with the air of waking up from a daydream, and announces that we should be going. Faye climbs into the driver's seat, more sensible again, and we set off along the long, dark, empty motorways once more.

I fall asleep again pretty quickly, despite the large, knobbly something sticking into my side. I have a feeling it's Amanda's camping chair, which she insisted on bringing even though they provide plastic chairs, and a table. But I sleep soundly all the same.

.

What I guess is several hours later, the world comes blurrily back onto focus, still wrapped in darkness. The noise of the car has stopped, which I assume is what woke me. I grope for my water, and have a drink. Then I wake myself up properly.

"Shall I drive now, Faye?" Amanda whispers from somewhere nearby. "I feel more awake."

"Sure," Faye answers, also whispering. "I'll try to get some more sleep, if that's ok?"

"Right."

I stretch, and look around. We've stopped in another Aire, another small, dark one. There are a couple of other cars here, but not many. Amanda and Faye are standing just outside, leaning against the car, and the driver's door is wide open which is why I can hear their conversation.

I roll my window down, not bothered enough to actually get out. "Where are we?" I ask. Amanda jumps slightly. "Just past Orleans." She replies. "You ok?"
"Yup!" I nod, and smile at my mentor. She looks tired, but happy. "You?"

She smiles too. "Surviving! Come on, let's get on!"

…

Lozere, high up in the Massif Central. The altitude signs read around 1300 metres, and it's beautiful. We're surrounded in all directions by pine forests and rolling mountains. Dawn is beginning to glow in the East, and it's so peaceful that it's hard to imagine that anywhere in the whole world could be as dangerous as the place we're going.

All of us sleep. Faye and Amanda are both too tired to drive now. It takes everyone a while to get comfy, but eventually we all drift off.

When I wake, it's about seven thirty, but I've no idea how long we've slept for because I didn't look at the time before I dropped off. Faye wakes at about the same time as me, and gets out.

I run around the patch of dry grass we are parked near, and do a few split-leaps and a cartwheel, trying to shake off the feeling that a large proportion of my brain is still asleep. If it ever existed in the first place. Faye laughs watching me.

Then she opens the car door to wake Amanda. I stop her. If we haven't woken her with the amount of noise we've already made, she probably doesn't want to be woken.

.

Inside the Services, I nervously order "deux cafés, un jus d'orange, et trois croissants avec utella, s'il vous plait." And that, to my surprise, is exactly what we get: two coffees, an orange juice, and three croissants with utella. I grin happily, partly because I just ordered something successfully in French, but mainly because of the generous amount of utella they seem to have given us!

"Merci beaucoup!" I smile sweetly, and even Faye manages to say "merci" too, if very quietly.

"I'll wake Amanda now," Faye decides when we get back to the car. She shakes my mentor gently on the shoulder, and informs her that we have croissants.

Amanda doesn't open her eyes. "Thanks."

"And coffee." Faye hands her that too. "Careful, it's very hot."

"Oh."

"I guess I'll drive then." Faye sighs, although she's smiling. She gets in and starts the engine. "Got the map Alex?"

"Don't need it." I giggle. "Stay on the A75 for, like, three hundred miles!"

…

"What exactly are we going to be doing in Spain?" I ask. The time is now about twelve, and we're driving past some large salt lakes, with a few very distant glimpses of a shimmering sea. Ahead, the Pyrenees are just visible as distant, hazy-purple forms, rearing up into the sky. I'm not quite sure why now is a good time to ask, but it is.

"I assume Hollie showed you the newspaper article that was passed around in the meeting?" Faye answers, turning around in the passenger seat to look at me. I nod. "Well, Amanda is on the fire-fighting team. That means that if there are any more out-breaks of fire, she'll be on hand to control them. Other than that, she gets a normal holiday. Some people have all the luck!"

"Why? What are you doing?"

"The Evil-fighting. That's what they're calling it anyway. I'm dealing more with the side that could involve defending against Kullervo and his forces, if they turn up. You know, dramatic lightning bolts, and breath-taking Athenian dives to avoid vicious Weather Giants!"

Amanda snorts with laughter. "Sure!"

"Oi!" protests Faye, laughing too. "I didn't exaggerate that much! All right, it probably won't come to thrilling battles with Weather Giants, but there's a lot we will be doing. Making battle

plans in case the worst does happen, working out what can be done to protect the local people and those coming to stay there, that sort of thing. Everything to do with the threat of an Evil Power."

"Impressive!" I agree, "And what will I be doing?"

"Keeping out of the way!" Amanda says as firmly as she can when she knows my answer already.

"Keeping out of the way?" I repeat in outrage. How old do they think I am? No way am I 'keeping out of the way'!

"No." I say aloud. "No tiny, little, miniature, non-existent way." That puts an end to that conversation.