She sat up and rubbed her eyes, eventually looking up at the sky to try and see what time it was. She'd tried to check her watch the evening prior but had found it meticulously missing, as did every other member of the tribe. She estimated that it was maybe two or three in the afternoon.
"Hey," Oz greeted her quietly.
"Hi." She looked over and saw him seated on a boulder near the fire, keeping an eagle eye on the poultry he was cooking. He looked a tad tired, but he was also apparently quite deep in thought. She looked around her and saw that no one else was awake. She wondered how Wesley could sleep so long. "Smells good."
"Does it?"
"Really sweet, actually. I wouldn't have expected that from such small birds."
Oz nodded. "I got hungry, so I decided to cook them up. Besides, they were starting to attract flies."
Buffy smiled. "I like my food fly-free, thanks."
"I didn't mean to wake you."
"Oh, it's no problem." She stood and staggered ungracefully to where Oz was, sitting beside him. "It's probably time I got up anyway. If I sleep too long, I get really restless when I wake up and I go on an extra-special slaying frenzy, which isn't really an option on this little vacation." She sighed.
"You miss the slaying, huh?"
She nodded and smiled grimly. "Already, and it's been, what, 36 hours since I last poofed a guy? It'll be a miracle if I last 36 days."
"You'll do it. You and I, we'll be the ones battling it out for the million at the end."
Buffy smiled. "Oh, that'll be interesting. Worthy of television."
Oz rarely smiled, but he did so now. He looked about. "Look, Buffy, I really hate to put you on the spot, but if I've heard correctly, this game is about kicking people off the island. I'm not so okay with that. Judging has never been my strong point, mostly because I just don't really care, but I'm barely willing to send my friends, all of whom deserve the money more than I, home because of greed."
Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Are you copping out, Oz?"
The werewolf shook his head. "I said barely willing. I'm still fixed on the idea that I'm going to win against you." Buffy smiled. "But you're really looking out for me here, making sure I don't maim the general populous and make more of my curse. I guess I'm trying to say that I won't be voting you off. As long as you're still in the game, I won't be voting for you."
Buffy smiled warmly. "Wow, Oz. I appreciate that. But…""I'm not asking for anything in return. If you want to vote for me, that's your choice. No grudge."
The Slayer nodded. "Good. I just didn't want to give you a false impression. I've already guaranteed Spike immunity from my ballot, and if it's between us three, I've got to vote for you, and I don't want to lie to you. But unless you give me a reason, Oz, I don't see any other reason I should vote for you."
Oz smiled at the fire and nodded. They remained in comfortable silence again. It seemed to be a trend with these two. Oz soon reached down beside him and brought up a slab of bark with something carved into it. "Got the mail," he said shortly, and handed it to Buffy without looking at her.
Buffy gaped. "And you waited until now to give this to me because…"
"Other things are more important."
Buffy couldn't help but chuckle a little to herself at Oz's kind and short sentences before bending over the wood and reading it over several times.
MEANWHILE…
"Well, that was uneventful," Anya announced as she stomped her way out of the forest. "I went looking for food, which is much less interesting than it sounds when there's no food to be found."Riley stood and stepped away from Willow, who had stopped crying but was still looking extremely unhappy with her little situation. "You didn't find anything?" he asked.
"Nothing. Not a thing. I thought I saw a flock of the pears run by, but it just turned out to be a bunch of very plump birds. They didn't seem to be the most intelligent birds in the world… I probably could have caught them if I wanted to."
Riley blinked a few times. "So… why didn't you catch them, then?"
"Well, they aren't food. They're just birds."
"Yeah, but there's a trick to birds," Faith said as she carried a pail full of water; she'd obviously made the pail out of an old tree on the spot. Riley and his army training couldn't help notice the mastery with which the object was made. "See, first you kill 'em. Then you cook 'em. And voila! You got yourself food."
Anya scowled at the Slayer. "Well, I knew that."
Faith opened her mouth to ask Anya a fairly rude question about her lack of intelligence, but thought better of it and smiled at Riley instead. She kept having to remind herself that being mean to people who can kick you off the island and cheat you out of one million dollars isn't the wisest plan there ever was. "Where's Giles?" she asked Riley."He went looking for something to cure Willow with. What happened to Cordelia? I thought she was getting water."
"I tracked her down and sent her looking for food instead. That ditz wouldn't be able to make a sturdy carrier for the water if she had a twenty-page instruction booklet. What's wrong with Willow, anyhow?"
Riley hesitated. "Uh… well, it's interesting." Willow made muffled vocal noises that sounded like she was yelling, only without opening her mouth. "Okay, so maybe not interesting so much as… unfortunate. It's unfortunate, that's what it is."
"Quit stalling. What's her deal?"
Riley was spared the explanation and Willow was spared the humiliation as Cordelia ran screaming from the trees and right into the ocean. She dove under quite intentionally and stayed under for a long time as a hoard of flies the size of her head buzzed after her, hovering above the water and awaiting her inevitable surface for air. Faith forgot about interrogating Willow and collapsed into a spiel of laughter, clutching her stomach and letting the tears run down her face when Cordelia broke surface and screamed again. Riley threw off his t-shirt and dove in after her, swimming at an impressive pace and catching up to her. He yelled something which she evidently understood, and the two of them disappeared underwater. The flies remained.
Willow was so enthralled with the whole series of events that she unconsciously took her hands away from her face. Faith soon stopped laughing at Cordelia and her flies and soon started laughing again once she took a look at Willow's face, rolling over and over on the sand, totally unable to control herself. Willow noticed and her face fell. She replaced her hands over her nose and mouth. She looked over at Anya and realized that she, at least, hadn't seen.
She was too busy staring into the ocean with immense concern in her eyes that Willow had never seen before. Eventually she spoke: "I don't think they're coming up."
Willow's eyes whipped over to where Cordy and Riley had last been seen, and realized that Anya was right; they'd been under for a terribly long time. Too long, in fact. The flies seemed to understand this, too… they buzzed close to the water as though staring into it, and promptly flew back into the woods, ignoring the three women still sitting at camp.
"Oh, God," Willow said into her hands. She jumped and noticed that despite the unfortunate state of her face, she was still able to speak. Maybe not eat or drink, actions that were far more important, but she could speak.
"I don't like this," Anya stated. Faith finally stopped laughing and noticed that the other two were staring quite effectively at nothing. She saw that the giant flies were gone and figured out that Willow and Anya were so pale because Riley and Cordelia had both disappeared. She joined in the staring into the horizon. They remained that way for minutes, barely blinking, refusing to believe what seemed terribly apparent.
Giles ran promptly into camp, holding something yellow by a stem at the top of its head. The thing was whistling and waving its tiny, almost cartoonic arms and legs around wildly to no avail. "All right, Willow, I've found the culprit. I'm hoping that if I cook him up… and provide you with a straw… you should be able to eat him properly, and he might cure your… unfortunate condition." He waited for a thrilled response from the redhead, but when he got none, he held up the other object in his hand. "In my travels, I passed the well as well and found this impressively crafted piece of bark. It's telling us of our first challenge. I believe it says something about a reward." Still nothing. "Good Lord, are you all asleep on your feet?"
Anya finally turned, eyes threatening tears. "Cordelia and Riley disappeared underwater at least ten minutes ago. They haven't come up for air since."
Giles stared. "Oh."