Here's chapter 11 at last. Sorry it took so long but quality takes time especially when my quality assurance staff, i.e. my lazy, lazy brother, takes around three days or more to "get around to it". Seriously though I hope you enjoy it and I'm very sorry for the wait. As always I look forward to the reviews, and even if you don't R&R thanks for giving it a read anyway.

Chapter 11

Crossing the Great Chasm

Sarah could do nothing but gawp stupidly at the scale of what lay before her, standing on the final inch or so of a precarious cliff edge overlooking a chasm for which impossibly huge was probably an understatement. The enormous gap must have been at least a mile and a half across to the opposing wall which rose even higher than the one the group were standing on, blocking any decent view as to what lay on the other side. Even worse there was no telling how deep the chasm went as a thick, swirling mass of pale grey mist obscured everything more than fifty feet beneath the cliff top.

"You want us to cross this!" Sarah exclaimed.

Over the roar of the wind howling in her ears, she could have sworn she heard someone laughing, and it was probably Buck. Now Sarah was able to put up with quite a bit from the deranged mammals she'd only just met but suicidal lunacy was about where she drew the line and although she'd only known him for less than two days this weasel had just succeeded in crossing that line twice. Of course the first time was debatable as Buck being mercilessly hunted by three homicidal panthers didn't seem all that intentional.

"Impressive isn't it," the weasel replied happily.

"How big is this place?" Crash yelled over the roaring wind.

"Big enough," Buck answered. "You fella's wanna get out before that volcano blows? This is the only way."

'It damn well better be,' Sarah thought to herself angrily. 'Coz if it isn't I'm gonna wring that weasel's scrawny neck till his eye pops out.'

"So supposing we make it all the way down to the bottom of this thing," she heard Diego ask. "How are we supposed to get back up on the other side? You said you didn't know what was over there so…"

"So? I've never been all the way down there either," Buck pointed into the ravine. "But where's the fun if ya' already know?"

"In surviving maybe," said Sarah.

"Huh, why survive when ya' can live," Buck cheered back as he approached the very edge and peered down into the cloudy abyss. "Hey Mike ya' think ya' can glide down there and take a little peek for us?"

"In this wind?" Mikey exclaimed just as a particularly powerful gust blew by, knocking both possums off balance and into Diego's side.

Getting back to her feet while brushing dust from her fur Sarah could hear Buck reply and although she couldn't make out what he'd said over the wind a raised middle digit on Mikey's left forepaw appeared to be the rebuttal.

When she turned to talk to Crash about his opinion she was surprised to see he was walking over to the cliff edge.

"What the heck are you doing," she asked as she caught up to him.

"Just checkin'," he replied.

For want of something more helpful to do Sarah decided to join him in peering down into the misty depths. Below she spotted a small group of some kind of lizard-bird things diving in and out of the sea of white a few hundred feet away from the canyon wall.

"What are those things?" she asked.

"I dunno what they're called," Crash answered. "But me and Eddie got to fly on one when Buck pushed us off a cliff to save Sid."

"I guess I had to be there huh?"

"Yeah probably," he replied while continuing to gaze downward into the chasm. "It's pretty steep but it's still got a good slope and there's plenty for us to hold onto. I bet even Diego could climb down there."

"I dunno, on a good day I suppose but in his condition I wouldn't be so sure," Sarah mused aloud.

"Well it's not like we have much of a choice," said Crash. "It's either this or the volcano."

"What about the wind?"

"We'll just have to hold on really tight I guess. Besides, those guys don't seem have a problem." He pointed toward the small flock of lizard-birds.

"I guess," Sarah replied with a shrug as she leant back from the edge and looking into Crash's eyes as they met hers with equal apprehension she couldn't help but sigh. "We're gonna die down here aren't we?"

"Probably," he answered. "But we've got Buck with us and that's gotta count for something right?"

Before Sarah could reply a loud, rather growly voice suddenly cried out from behind her giving her a jolt of surprise. Upon turning to face the weasel responsible she quickly noticed that he now had a very long length of thick, ropey, jungle vine coiled around his left shoulder.

"Now's no time to be wastin' when we've got a natural disaster breathin' down our necks!" Buck yelled determinedly over the continuing harsh gale. "You boys wanted to get out in one piece and in one piece we'll get out, as long as ya' all just clam up and follow the rules, starting with rule number one."

"In our defence you did say you just made them up as you went along," said Diego.

"Pfft, technicalities," Buck remarked with a grin, before walking over to join Crash and Sarah at the edge of the cliff. "You kids don't mind a little adventure do ya'?"

"Depends on what you mean by adventure," Sarah answered.

Crash smiled broadly. "As long as you're with us I'm up for anything."

"That's what I like to hear!" Buck announced happily before beginning to uncoil the length of vine which unravelled to quite an impressive length. "Now before we go down we'd better get tied up coz it'll be easy to get lost in that mist and we don't want anyone gettin' separated down there do we? There's no tellin' what we're gonna find and ya' don't wanna find yourself alone when ya' do, so just pick a spot and wrap it around ya'self nice and tight."

Although she knew where this was leading and she damn sure didn't like it Sarah did as she was told and grabbed up the nearest section of vine just behind Crash while Mikey helped Buck in tying a vine around Deigo's middle. By the time the group had finished Buck wound up as the lead with Mikey just behind him, Diego standing somewhere in the middle with the possums at the back.

Once everybody was ready, or as close to ready as any animal could be given the situation, Buck began to lead the group toward the edge of the cliff and as the group crossed over the precipice to begin what was sure to be a long and likely fatal trek to the bottom of the chasm Sarah distinctly heard him cry out enthusiastically over the wail of the wind, "Onward to adventure mammals and if we die, bullocks to it all at least we had some fun!"

Perhaps she could still take heart in the fact that at least one of them was able to find the fun in all this.

Although it took about half an hour of non-stop climbing Sarah was surprised to notice that the wind quickly fell away as the group managed to finally reach the top of the mist layer. Why was anyone's guess but at least it solved the problem of how the fog managed to stay so thick despite the cyclonic gales above.

It was actually kind of hypnotising the way it seemed to swirl and flow like a big white river of frost down the canyon and out of sight beyond the bend. It was also quite scary knowing that to reach the other side they were going to have to climb down through it to the bottom where any number of strange, unknown horrors could be lurking within and a simple tug on the vine that bound them could signal the coming of a grisly fate for everyone.

Even Diego seemed quite uneasy with the prospect and Crash was literally shaking with fear. To be honest Sarah also had a pretty bad case of the nervous shakes herself, and with good reason. Buck seemed to be the only group member not currently quaking with apprehension, if anything his expression seemed more of stout alertness. Sarah, like most possums would have, held no admiration for such bravado and so still maintained that as soon as they reached the surface, assuming they ever did, she would endeavour to put as much space between herself and that suicidal weasel as possible.

Plunging forward into the mist the entire group was suddenly enveloped in a curious warmth and intense humidity which she could already feel beginning to condense on her fur making it uncomfortably damp and strangely sticky. Despite her discomfort however she remained silent and continued to follow the pull of the cord, unable to make out anything more than the blurry dark outline of Mikey's enormous bushy tail just a short distance ahead of her.

Climbing down even further, as the mist became dark Sarah began to notice a strange smell in the air. It was a kind of pungent cloying odour not unlike the smell of rotting leaf litter in the forest above only mixed with several other harsh, powerful scents mostly akin to varying forms of decay especially that of animals and plants. The picture it most strongly brought to her mind was that of the fresh water bog near where she'd grown up and into which she and her siblings had often ventured to play games and sample some of the weird grubs and insects that lived in the area. Strange that somewhere so far away could remind her so much of her childhood home.

"Uck," she heard Mikey exclaim ahead. "What the heck is that stink? Smells like a swamp."

Suddenly she heard some very loud sniffing all around her before the group suddenly came out of their collective stupor and finally started to speak.

"It smells like some kind of marshland to me," Diego remarked from somewhere just ahead.

"What's the difference?" asked Crash.

"Not a whole lot," Mikey replied. "Ya' find marshes around the coast, swamps wherever there's water and bogs wherever there's water and no place for it to go. They all smell like dung, full of sink holes and ya' go nuts if ya' stand around breathin' the air too long."

"You still believe that old rubbish, Mikey?" Buck exclaimed. "I spent a good three days in a bog up there in the jungle and I'm right as rain."

"Three days?" the glider asked in a puzzled manner.

"That I remember," Buck answered.

"That around the same time you got married to the pineapple?" Diego asked.

"It's where we met actually," the weasel replied, and although she couldn't see his face Sarah could easily assume it was with a nostalgic smile.

"Well that's just fantastic," Mikey remarked wryly.

"Oh it was," said Buck, clearly ignorant of his friend's sarcasm.

"Yeah and let's not spoil the magic by going any further," the glider suggested, and fortunately for everybody Buck appeared to agree.

As the group continued further the smell continued to intensify to the point that it was becoming a little too much even for Sarah, and possums were notorious for their tolerance of odours most animals found utterly repugnant. The fog also began to thin out and by now it had reached the point that she could easily make out the expressions on the faces of those close to her. All the others except for Crash bore crinkled noses and brows, the universal face of revulsion. In the possum twin's case it was sometimes a little more difficult to tell since his nose was always a little short and crinkled thanks to an incident neither he nor his brother could seem to agree upon.

"Well well, looks like you were right all along Mikey," Buck announced loudly as the incline finally began to level out and the mist thinned enough for the group to clearly see several feet ahead.

At first Sarah wasn't able to see what Buck had meant but as the group moved forward the ground beneath her paws suddenly began to soften and she felt the awkward squelching of warm mud.

"Now we know what's down here at least," commented Diego.

"Huh, ya' know with all the water down here this place isn't really much of a chasm is it? It's really more of really steep ravine," Mikey began before the tiger abruptly cut him off.

"And I'm we could all be forgiven for not wanting to hear you detail the difference this time," the sabre growled.

Mikey immediately began pouting at having been interrupted in such a rude manner, but unfortunately for him the others were all with Diego on that one.

"Great," Sarah exclaimed unhappily. "Hey Crash remind me to kill your brother when we get back."

"It's not that bad," the other possum replied. "Sure it's a bit mushy and stinky but it's not like the ground's gonna jump up and eat us."

"The possum's right ya' know, a little mud never hurt anyone," said Buck. "Besides with that stink and this fog there's no way anything can smell us or see us."

"Famous last words," Mikey remarked with a sneer.

"Oh yeah, that. Shame ya' can't pull a runner this time eh?" Buck replied in a manner which seemed nothing more than a light-hearted quip but given Mikey's reaction it must have held more malicious connotations that Sarah was not savvy to.

"Look let's just concentrate on getting to the other side as fast as we can," Diego finally spoke up evidently foreseeing the argument that was sure to follow. "This place is perfect for an ambush and I don't wanna hang around to get jumped while we're all tied together like this."

"Good point tiger," Buck replied, before suddenly taking his knife to the vine and cutting himself loose. "Feel free to do the same, it's not like we need it anyway."

Although Sarah wasn't quite sure if the weasel was throwing a bit of a hissy fit or simply doling out some honest advice, she opted to do likewise by tearing the vine from her body with her claws, as did everybody else it seemed while Buck continued.

"If anybody's thinkin' about pullin' a runner ya' might wanna do it now. Don't fancy ya' chances much though."

Okay so it was a hissy fit, probably directed at Mikey who's only response was a bored eye-roll. At least Sarah felt a lot a better without the vine since it had already begun to chafe halfway down the cliff and had become quite painful by now anyway.

"No takers eh?" the weasel asked while eyeing the rest of the group. "Well then let's go, time's wastin'. And try to keep this goin' in a straight line else we're gonna wind up walkin' in circles 'til the place floods with lava."

Continuing on deeper into the swamp very little conversation seemed to take place amongst the group. Diego and Buck were probably too busy trying to keep their eyes and ears peeled for trouble, but the possums were just too scared at the thought that some horrible beast could be lurking anywhere in the mist around them just out of sight. Twisted demented creatures lusting for blood, hungering for sweet mammalian flesh, deemed too hideous by nature itself to subject upon the unsuspecting animals of the world above.

Sarah couldn't tell if it was real or just her imagination but it felt like every creak, crackle or gurgle emanating from somewhere just out of sight seemed to signal an imminent danger that forever failed to materialise. Even the croaking of toads and frogs, and the chirping of various insects sounded somehow sinister. To be honest it felt like she would go crazy from all the anxiety and paranoia this place seemed to foster.

Well at least that was true for the first half-hour or so after which she'd pretty much gotten used to the smell but definitely not the mud, which in places got right up to her waist and slogging through it was becoming quite tedious, not to mention wearing on her joints which were already aching from the long climb down. A few minutes more and she was almost hoping that something would happen just to break the monotony, and barely a second after that thought one of her paws caught on something mid-step, hanging just above the mud and she wound up face-planting in a puddle of the sticky gray mush with a small squelch.

"You alright?" Crash asked as Sarah pushed herself back onto her knees while spluttering profanities.

"It's just mud", she replied, "What's the worst it could do apart from reek like a skunk's rear-end?

Although he offered a paw to help her up Sarah refused it, choosing to do so herself before turning to see what she'd tripped over. At first nothing presented itself and in this miserable semi-darkness that was probably to be expected but as she leant in closer she noticed a very faint glimmer. At first she dismissed it as nothing but a trick of the light along with inhaling so much of this stagnant air but as she moved for a closer look the little glimmer remained constant and seemed to move along parallel to her eye-line.

"What are you doing?" she heard Crash ask from behind her.

"Looking," she answered simply before pointing towards the strange shiny line, "Can you see that?"

She pointed as best she could toward the little glint of light.

"Yeah, looks like a bit of web so what? There are heaps of spiders in places like this. It's too cold for them anywhere else except during summer." Sarah gave him a strange look and he proceeded to elaborate with an impish grin. "Most mammals are pretty scared of 'em, and some are really scared of 'em. Me and Eddie like to grab whole bunches of really big ones and hide in trees to drop on people and watch them freak out. It's pretty funny. I'll show you when we get back up there."

"That is disturbing on a million levels," Sarah remarked as she reached forward to pluck at the web with her claws in the hopes of breaking it. "Can't you just eat them like everyone else does?"

"Don't like the taste."

"What, how could you possibly not like them?" she exclaimed suddenly, any fleeting interest in the web now completely forgotten in the wake of this latest shocking development. "Does Eddie?"

"Well, yeah he does, but then he'll eat anything," Crash commented. "He doesn't have refined tastes like me."

"No kidding," Sarah said sarcastically.

"And what the heck do you two dunderheads think ya' doing'!" Buck's familiar growly voice suddenly yelled as he walked into view from behind the veil of fog.

"Hi Buck, sorry about the wait, Sarah tripped on something," Crash replied.

"Didn't break anything did ya'?"

"No I just tripped on this weird piece of stringy stuff," she answered, indicating the glimmering yellow strand.

With a look of distinct curiosity Buck pushed the possums aside and jabbed his knife into the ground next to him as knelt down toward the odd thread, presumably trying to get a closer look. Sarah wasn't even going to try to guess why. Attempting to understand even half the things this weasel did was quite beyond her.

"That's some real strong piece a bug string," he exclaimed after grabbing the strand with his paw and lightly tugging on it.

"You know what it's from?" asked Crash.

"I dunno some kind of spider probably," Buck answered dismissively as he stood up, grabbing his knife and leaning it back against shoulder. "Probably best left alone whatever it is. Let's get going shall we? Don't wanna keep ya' buddies wait'n anymore than you have already."

With one last look toward the source of their mildly interesting detour, Sarah joined Crash in following Buck back to where she assumed Mikey and Diego would be waiting. However after travelling only a couple of feet the weasel was suddenly stopped in his tracks with a short oomph as if he had walked into something. An obstacle apparently none of them could see.

"What is it?" Crash asked.

"Another ruddy web," the weasel replied, before taking his knife and preparing to take a slice at the thing before pausing in his motion and lowering the knife with a smile. "That's what ya' want me to do isn't it?" he continued with a small laugh.

"Who?" asked Sarah.

"It's a bluff tripwire. Normally ya'd think the little string back there was some kinda' trap designed to snag this fella an easy lunch, but in this case ya'd be totally, fatally wrong and probably some kind of daft reptile, coz that one's actually a decoy to distract ya' from this, the real one."

"So you've seen this kind of thing before?"

"Seen it, beat it, used it," Buck replied smugly. "Those stupid Dinos tend to fall for the classics, but when it comes to us higher mammals the hunter has to break out the tricky stuff. Too bad for them we're still one step ahead."

As he spoke, the weasel ducked his head and took one step forward beneath it, but as he lifted his foot to take another his paw became visibly caught on something and he promptly fell just as he finished the sentence, landing flat on his smugly grinning face.

"Clever girl," Sarah heard him remark unhappily as he pulled his face out of the mud only to later hear a loud crackling sound begin overhead just before a loosely bundled assortment of branches and twigs, large enough to bury a rhino, came crashing down on top of the unfortunate weasel.

"Buck!" the two possums cried out in unison, as they both quickly began scampering over the woody detritus that seemed to be held together by more of the strange spider silk.

"Uh Sarah!" Crash exclaimed in a terrified voice.

As she looked up from the trap, she instantly noticed one of biggest arachnids she'd ever laid eyes on; a great mass of spindly, yellow and black banded legs slowly making its way down one of the nearby trees. From its slow pace and the gleaming droplets of venom that hung ominously from each of its enormous fangs it was pretty obvious the creature was very confident in a successful catch.

Now normally she wasn't even the slightest bit afraid of any kind of creepy crawlies, but when it came the to this giant, slobbering monstrosity she was more than willing to make quite a big, screamy exception.

"Hey one of you gawking twits gonna shut ya' screamin' traps and help me!"

Sarah looked over to where the voice had come from and was surprised to see roughly half a weasel poking out from the debris, struggling in vain it to free himself. Neither possum needed to be told twice as both rushed over to see what could be done.

Along the way Sarah noticed Crash grabbing up a rather good sized looking stick and turning around to face the great spindly mass, looking back momentarily to call, "Help Buck, I'll hold 'em off for you."

Although she wasn't exactly sure how the lone possum was hoping to do that, Sarah still gave him a nod of acknowledgment before continuing over to Buck, who certainly looked a little worse for wear now, especially with his ever present eye-patch now missing.

"Nice of ya' to take notice," Buck grumbled through tightly gritted teeth.

"Sorry I was kinda distracted by the giant monster that's about to kill us."

"Don't need the sarcasm right now sweetheart," he replied through a pained grimace.

"Well fine, uh can you feel your legs?"

"Oh I'm pretty darn sure of that. Movin' 'em's the tough bit right about now."

Sarah set about trying her hardest to move away some of the larger pieces of deadwood. This was of course made quite difficult by the thick stretches of web that bound them, necessitating the use of her claws which quickly began to ache with the effort required by the surprisingly strong strands of spider silk.

"Come on you oversized bug muncher!" she heard Crash cry from somewhere behind her.

As she looked up she saw the young possum race up to the approaching spider and take a quick swat at one of its forelegs with the stick, hitting the mark perfectly and affecting a quick leap to the side as the surprised giant proceeded to do absolutely nothing about him and merely continued on a beeline toward Buck and Sarah. Things weren't going very well.

"So much for a distraction," she remarked nervously and immediately returned to her rescue efforts as the beast drew closer, continuing to ignore the possum swatting and jabbing impotently at its legs.

"Go for the eyes mate!" Buck suddenly cried out.

"What eyes?" Crash replied desperately.

"The little black, shiny things on its head!"

"What head?"

Sarah watched Buck groan, half in pain and half in annoyance as he rolled his eye and grabbed up his knife to throw it as far as he could toward the possum and his oversized duelling partner, "Just climb on and stab the thing."

At first it seemed Crash wasn't quite sure what to do with the opportunity he'd suddenly been given but as the first of the spider's legs began to land on the edge of the trap precious few feet away from where Sarah was still desperately struggling to free the trapped weasel his brain finally seemed to snap into action. Without any further hesitation he quickly leapt over to where the knife was now lying in a patch of silk, and grabbed the thing up in his paws before turning to face his opponent again. For some reason Sarah half expected him to throw out some sort of clever one liner before proceeding, but instead the possum merely clutched the dull edge of the knife in his teeth as he dove onto all fours and sprinted forward.

With a well timed leap he launched himself into the air to grab hold of one of the spider's enormous stick-like limbs, and wasting no time at all he quickly clawed his way up to the topmost joint from where he made one final leap onto the its bulbous abdomen. At that point Sarah lost sight of him and was left to hope that whatever Crash did, he did it right.

As the creature's mass began to tower over her, she soon found herself dropping all attempts at helping to free Buck and merely began to cower in front of him as she stared upward toward the two dripping fangs beginning to descend toward her. In an effort to become ignorant of her impending death Sarah closed her eyes and made several vain attempts to try and think of something happy. A strange pretence of serenity that she immediately dropped as a colossal thud forced her to open her eyes to the awkwardly spectacular sight of the giant arachnid flailing its legs violently. It was quite strange to see something writhe and stumble about while somehow remaining completely silent save for the small possum clinging to its back and crying out some kind of rodeo call.

"Hey Sarah you've got to try this someday," Crash called excitedly to his bemused comrades.

After having been staring death in the face mere moments ago Sarah found it difficult to see the fun in it. Nevertheless she was certainly quite relieved to still be breathing right now and was almost tempted to laugh as the spider began to make a hasty retreat back up its tree and Crash was sent hurtling down into the mud. Thankfully he did so with Buck's knife still clutched tightly in his paw.

A few minutes later after having sufficiently calmed down from the usual near death adrenaline high and with both possums now able to help, the weasel was quickly dug free of the debris. On first impressions it seemed he'd managed to acquire some nasty cuts and bruises from the ordeal, and was now limping quite badly thanks to several broken toes on his left hind-paw. All things considered though he was doing quite well for an animal that'd just been crushed beneath a heap of tree branches and subsequently attacked by a giant spider.

Normally Sarah would have expected a generally very prideful mammal like Buck would be somewhat averse to the idea of needing a shoulder to lean on but he seemed to be taking it in good stride. If anything it was the owner of the shoulder who seemed to have the most problem with the arrangement. The owner in this case being Crash who considered it somewhat unfair that Sarah got to hold the awesome dinosaur tooth knife while he, the conquering hero, had to bear the weight of a wounded weasel.

Of course both Sarah and Buck knew that it would be far too ungentlemanly for either Crash or himself to force a young female like her to bear the weight of an injured comrade. Not that she was finding being the honorary knife carrier all that thrilling. Crash was right, the thing really was surprisingly heavy. It had only been a minute or two and her arms were already getting tired.

"Had to be the middle of a bloody swamp didn't it," the weasel growled with a tone of mild amusement.

"You'd think being trees they might actually have a couple of leaves on them," Sarah commented. "Well look at the bright side Buck. We're all alive aren't we?

"True," the weasel said with chuckle. "Can't help but feel something's missin' though."

"It's just an eye-patch Buck, you'll get over it. To be honest you look kinda badass without it."

"More like broken ass to me," Crash added grumpily.

"Hey hey, we shouldn't be snappin' at each other like some lousy reptiles when we should be celebratin' our great victory over the dreaded swamp beast of yore."

"Okay first of all you can either talk or have a concussion, you're not allowed to do both and second, what is it with you and reptiles?" snapped Crash.

Buck opened his mouth to respond but the possum quickly jabbed him softly in the belly and reaffirmed his earlier statement, "One or the other." At this the weasel merely gave a small smile but remained otherwise silent.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking," Sarah began after a few minutes of relative silence had passed. "If I lifted up your eyelid right now do you think I'd be able to see your brain?"

Out of the corner of her eye Sarah was sure she saw Crash going in for another poke as Buck seemed to open his mouth to comment, but she was quickly distracted by a new and much more welcome sound.

"I thought I smelled a swamp monster," Mikey called as he and Diego walked into view from beyond the ever present veil of fog. "Crikey what happened to you fella's, get caught in a mudslide or somethin'?"

With that little comment Sarah was now thoroughly reminded of the fact that she, Crash and Buck were pretty well slathered from head to foot in fetid swamp mush and worse still was the thought that there was going to be no way to clean it off until they managed to climb up the far wall, and now she remembered they all still had a massive canyon to climb.

Eddie was going to pay dearly for this.

"Geez Bucko you look like a limp noodle," Mikey remarked, as Crash proceeded to guide the muddy and injured weasel over to Diego who for once appeared more than happy to take on a passenger without argument.

"Much appreciated Wet-tail," Buck replied sarcastically. "And no thanks tiger. Not while I can still walk on me' own two feet."

"Can you?" Diego asked, and the weasel immediately took his arm off Crash's shoulder straightened himself up to which the tiger responded with a sigh and smile, "Whatever you say."

"He fell for a double bluff tripwire thing, and got buried by a hundred pounds of deadwood. Oh and we got attacked by giant spider," said Sarah.

"Four broken toes, a concussion and some nasty bruises," Crash added as he walked over to Sarah and made a grab at the knife which she was all too willing to let him take. "I don't think he's gonna die but damn that's gonna hurt in the morning."

"What the spider didn't do anythin'?" Mikey asked.

"Didn't even try. One little scratch and the big pansy ran straight back where it came from like a frightened cockroach," Buck answered.

"And who did that?" Diego asked, suddenly curious.

"I did," Crash piped up eagerly. "Buck threw me his knife and told me to go for its eyes, but, well, I didn't know where those were so I just climbed up onto its back and stuck the knife into the big round bit at the back."

Diego looked to Buck for confirmation which he gave in the form of a proud nod.

"That's pretty brave for a possum," he remarked. "What happened to spineless, lily livered cowards?"

"Yeah you probably shouldn't tell Ellie about that," Crash answered sheepishly. "Besides, Sarah had that part kind of covered anyway."

"Hey I was trying to dig Buck out of that trap before the spider turned him into lunchmeat," Sarah pointed out angrily.

"Funny, from where I was standing it looked more like you were blubbering for your mommy," said Crash, to which Sarah retorted with a swift punch to the shoulder.

"What, neither of you even tried to run away?" Diego asked. "What about playing dead?"

With Crash busy growling while rubbing his now very sore arm and throwing angry looks in Sarah's direction she wound up being the one to answer.

"Where would we run? This whole place is a giant death-trap and Buck's the only one who knows how to get us out of here so if we didn't save him we'd be just as good as dead anyway."

"I can't believe it," the tiger mused with a smile. "You possums actually did something genuinely smart."

"Don't get used to it," Crash grumbled.

Sarah looked to Mikey in expectation of some further comment but at the moment the glider appeared far more concerned with giving his injured friend a needlessly scrupulous thrice over. Something which seemed kind of pointless considering all the mud, and from the disgruntled look on his face Buck didn't seem to understand the point in it either.

"Since everyone's here and accounted for now, I guess we should get going," said Diego. "We should only have about half a mile to go so as long as you possums don't take any more unexpected detours we should be able to get there in about twenty minutes or so."

"Hey it wasn't a detour we only fell back a bit," Crash pointed out indignantly. "How the heck do you know where we're going anyway?"

"I don't know exactly," Diego replied. "But as long as we keep going in straight line the cliff wall should be straight ahead."

As it turned out, almost half an hour later, the tiger's estimate of twenty minutes proved to be far more optimistic than the reality. In truth he could hardly have been expected to foresee having to cross a small but surprisingly deep river of thick, muddy water which, being well over the other members' heads, necessitated two trips back and forth to carry the rest of the group across. By the time everyone was safely on the opposite bank Diego was pretty worn out and just like Buck, Crash and Sarah, was completely slathered in mud.

By now Mikey was the only member of the group who didn't look and smell like a dung pile thanks to his being able to find a sufficiently tall tree trunk from where he was able to glide over to the other side. Diego was quick to point out that this ability had so far done very little to help anyone but the glider himself to which Mikey himself made absolutely no effort to deny.

Despite how tired they all were and Diego's injured shoulder giving him a significant amount of grief he continued to insist the group keep on moving. Buck was also in pretty bad shape but even though both Mikey and Crash offered to help him the rest of the way he flatly refused both times and continued to limp along next to the tiger at the head of the group. If she didn't know any better Sarah could have sworn those two were partaking in some kind of silent competition of endurance, which really wasn't helping anyone but from what she could tell between Buck being at least ten sticks short of bundle and Diego's prideful nature, short of dropping dead neither was going to stop. Were all carnivores were this stubborn?

"I dunno probably," Crash replied as she quietly related her thoughts to him. "I mean look at that hawk Eddie got friendly with. She's so hung up on that whole honour thing she'd probably get herself killed if she thought it would help him. Wish he'd told me about that before, it would have been awesome to have hawk helping us out."

"What about those panthers? Buck said they cheated and made Rudy run onto a tree instead of actually fighting him?"

"Sure, if you believe 'em. If you ask me that pile of bones looked way too small to be Rudy. I mean he was one huge dinosaur and tough too. Sure he wasn't too bright, but if he can fall down a great big chasm and come back out of it in one piece, what's a tree gonna do to him?"

Sarah's heart suddenly began to race and she looked at Crash with a mixture of confusion and fear. Surprisingly the possum merely began to laugh.

"Don't worry that was miles away from this place, and besides it's been almost three years since then. If Rudy's still alive he'd have found a way out ages ago, but boy if you could have seen your face."

Sarah laughed with relief. "You're worse than Eddie!"

"In what way?" Crash asked slyly, evoking yet another hearty laugh from her.

"Oh every single way."

"Aw bummer, do I get do over?"

"Is that your way hitting on me now?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Kinda," Crash answered impishly.

"You cannot be serious."

"Hey, think about it. You're covered in mud, I'm covered in mud, your Eddie's girlfriend and I'm his twin brother, we've got so much common."

"And it's totally not happening."

"Oh come on, we even fought a giant spider together," he replied eagerly. "If that's not an awesome first date I don't know what is."

"That's your idea of a great first date?"

"Well it was scary and dirty and someone got hurt. What more could you want?"

Sarah couldn't help laughing again. "Never thought you were that cynical."

"Hey it's not cynical if it's the truth."

"Geez Ellie was right, you really are the evil one."

"You don't know the half of it, but I'm willing to show you a thing or two if you'll let me," Crash said.

The wry little smile with which he'd said that all but killed any pretension to seriousness his little antic may have had, but despite the fact that he was obviously joking Sarah still couldn't help herself, "Oh like what?"

"The bunions on his left foot probably!" Mikey suddenly yelled back, causing both Sarah and Crash to jump with surprise.

"Shut it ya' ravin' ninny!" Buck cried angrily. "Let 'em get to the good bit first!"

Suddenly Sarah's face began to grow warm with embarrassment as the two mammals all stared straight at her and Crash, with the goofy smiles of eagerness. Fortunately it appeared Diego hadn't been listening, apparently having only just noticed that the others had stopped.

"Keep goin', don't mind us," the weasel continued.

"You know suddenly I don't really feel like it," she replied sheepishly, and the two mammals immediately groaned with disappointment.

"Nice goin' wet tail!" Buck grumbled to Mikey as the group continued with the two mammals now chuckling inanely and murmuring to one another about things Sarah could guess with absolute certainty weren't the pinnacle of morality.

Admittedly she could have tried explaining that it was all actually a rather obvious put-on, but right now that didn't look like it was going to change how embarrassing the situation was and would probably do little more that affirm its legitimacy in their twisted little minds. Fortunately, at least it seemed to have set the topic of conversation for the remaining ten minutes of dreary trudging before the entire group finally found themselves staring directly toward a great rock face not unlike the one which they had previously scaled down into this mud-bucket. An almost simultaneous dismayed groan came from the entire group as their eyes followed the steep incline of heavily pitted stone slowly fading into the fog just a few feet above them. The heaviest feeling which rapidly consumed every one of their minds being the agony of knowing that they were going to have to climb it, and this time it would be against the pull of gravity.

"Okay everyone," Sarah heard Buck finally struggle out between numerous laboured breaths. "I think we'll make camp 'ere."

I don't know why but the idea of Buck being without his eye-patch has enthralled me greatly from the moment I began writing Chapter 1, hence it's loss during the brief arachnid encounter. I'm very, very sorry for pulling out the old giant spider cliché but the moment I saw that giant butterfly in Dawn of the Dinosaurs all I could think was, ' holy hell that place must have some bloody big spiders!' (Massive arachnophobe speaking here.)

When you finally put the reviewing pants on please be so kind as to point out any grammatical and/or spelling mistakes you spot. They're such a pain and are incredibly embarrassing when I spot them a week or two down the track. Never be afraid to criticise as long as it is justified! (Huh, the dissimilitude in those last two sentences almost sounds like a cheap magazine horoscope.)