The fire envelops my hands. Without knowing it, I start sweating. At first, it's just warm. A ticklish sensation. Then, it starts heating up, getting uncomfortable. Then, it's a total inferno.

I grit my teeth. "Is it working?"

"Yes!" Zee says excitedly. "It's melting right off! Are you okay, though?"

I nod, the fire muting me. "Keep burning."

After a few seconds, she says, "Hang in there. Just a minute."

Then, it feels like my hand is blistering and opening up. I wince and sharply pull my hands away from the fire, blowing on it. "Darn. Sorry, Zee. I just couldn't stand it."

I know that we had failed and I can't bear to see Zee's disapointed face so I turn away. My cuffs are reduced to ash and is blackened, yet it's still hanging on stubbornly to my hands. Frustratedly, I bang it on the ground.

"Why... won't... you... bloody... open!" I punctuate every word with a bang and am reduced to swearing.

On the last bang, I hear a crack. At first, I thought that it was my bones, but then my cuffs falls, revealing pink, ashy hands.

"Will you look at that," I say, amazed. "It worked." I wriggle my fingers in front of Zee.

"Happy to be of service."

We spend the next few minutes trying to get the walkie talkie to work.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

Static emits from the speakers.

"Yo. Earth to Marlin and Mercury. You there?"

Screeches.

"If you don't pick up, I swear we're going to make the trip the worst ones in your life!" Zee says, though she sounds worried.

Nothing.

Zee turns to me, depair in her watery eyes. "Do you think they're gone?"

I gulp, my shoulders slumped. "We just have to pray they aren't. Let's keep trying." I grab the walkie talkie and just hiss their names at it. "Marlin, Mercury, Marlin, Mercury, Marlin, Mercury..."

Suddenly, the walkie talkie breaks my chant with distorted voices. "Hey... Roo... Zee we're... tree... Come quickly!"

Zee jumps to it and says, "Hello? Zee and Rooba here. We hear you. Please repeat."

We listen. It beeps again. "Go... mountain... we see you... climb up!"

"Climb where? What mountain?"

"... up! Look up!"

We look. The sun blinds me for a while, but when they focus, I see two figures up waving at us. I wave back. They're alive! They gesture for us to go up but it's a long way to the top. We'd better start now.

"Here," Zee says. "This part's rocky. After you?" She smirks.

I give her a face and plant my foot in a steady-looking rock. It fell off. "Huh," I mutter.

"Test the rocks first, dummy!" Once again, Captain Obvious strikes again.

"What does it look like, nimrod?" I call up, laughing. I guess I'm just too relieved that they were still alive. "I am testing it out!"

I look around some more and grab a tough root. I pull on it and it stays strong. The root hangs about a quarter of the journey up the cliff. I decide to use it. Bracing my feet on the walls, I twist my wrist around the root and start climbing. Half-way up the root, my arms are starting to feel wobbly. Zee's right behind me and she's already sweating too. When I reach the top of the root, I extend my right arm and brush it over the wall. It touches a rock with a grip on it. I carefully put my feet on a ledge and on the count of three, I let of the rope. I wobble a bit but don't fall off. Breathing a sigh of relief, I start to climb higher when I hear a 'twang'. It's the root.

"Zee! The root's coming out!" I warn her.

She starts to find handholds on the cliff and I grit my teeth. She finds it quickly and the root fell off a few seconds later, tumbling into the forest ground.

Which looks so far away.

I gulp, fighting off vertigo. I concentrate on the rock in front of me. We were making such painstaking progress, it was a miracle the Peacekeepers didn't see us. I grab another handhold and touch something slimy. Taking my hand off the wall quickly, and adding strain to my other side, I watch in horror as a pink-and-black lizard attaches itself in my index finger.

"Oh. My. Freaking. Turtle." I scream and my hand spasms as if it has a mind of its own, trying desperately to rid itself of the horrible creature. It's sticky paws finally let go and I stay there, still paralyzed in fear. Then, Zee inhales sharply.

"Dude. Tell me the lizard didn't land on my hair."

I look down and on Zee's brown hair, there's something wet and slimy that resembles a dirty bubblegum. I gulp. "Just... swipe your hand above your head and hit it."

She doesn't look at me. She's as still as a statue. "It's there, isn't it?"

"Umm... yes. Just swat it away," I say.

"I'm not going to freaking squash it! What if it explodes and blood or pus or whatever is inside a lizard pours down my head?" Her voice climbs higher and higher, slightly hysterical.

"No, you just swipe it over your head... n-no need to kill it," I say, apprehensive.

Zee breathes in quick, shallow breaths and lifts her hand from a rock and brushes the lizard off in one panicky movement.

Only it didn't fall off. It happened like this:

The lizard sticks on Zee's hand and as her hand flies up in disgust, the lizard lets go and flies straight at me.

Well, not at me. But pretty close. It flies up next my face, practically on my nose, and for the few moments it's suspended in the air, it faces me with its beady eyes as if saying, 'I'm watching you,' before falling to the ground for god.

The next few seconds are a blur of screaming. I hear Zee screaming too. We're scarred for life. When I run out of breath I start climbing up again. This time, I test every stone carefully, looking at each dark hole for any signs of disturbances.

When I finally reach the top, Mercury and Horus is on the ground, laughing.

"D-didja see the look on their faces?" Marlin blurted out to Mercury, who has tears in his eyes.

"That... was... awesome!" Mercury cried out, clutching his side.

I pull Zee up next to me and I march up to Mercury. "Funny." I smack his shoulder but it doesn't affect him. I look up to Marlin and glare at him. "Rocks."

Marlin tries to stifle his laughter but is turning purple in the process. I kick dirt on them and raise my hands in the air with frustration as I hear Zee mumble, "Boys."