"Mm, night guys"
"Night Jackie" Ling and I both replied in unison. The tent wasn't too big but we managed to fit ourselves in, unfortunately Jackie's bed was in-between ours. The order was head to toe with Jackie's feet but thankfully they didn't stink. Ling gave me a look with a raised eyebrow, gesturing to Jackie's feet with a smirk. She pretended to bite down on Jackie's big toe before resting her head down on her pillow.
The night had gone smoothly enough. We lit up a fire and cooked meals that Ling prepared, it wasn't enough that she just heat up the ration packs like the instructions read but she mixed and matched the different flavours to create a very tasty meal for everyone. Jason hooked up his own solo tent while I pitched our own. He loved chatting with Jackie since they had so much in common, but she didn't seem to want to give him a moment's peace. It was only when we decided to sleep that she left his side. Outside of the tent's thin fabric I could hear the constant chattering of the wild animals outside. The birds didn't seem to want to sleep while the monkey's whooped and cheered. I was excited to be here, on another part of the world and away from the constant studying and worrying.
We all stood on the soft edge, weighing the pros and cons of the situation. There were ways around it but it would take a while to backtrack. "I don't know. Is it worth the risk?"
"Probably not. But then if we don't get there before too long then it'll be dark"
"There's water down there, if that's any consolation". We were standing on top of a large sand dune that led straight from the thick forestry. It was taller than any I'd seen or been down before and went straight from sand into the ocean at a steep incline.
"I think we should just jump. We'll probably regret it later if we don't" Ling declared as we peered over the soft, sandy edge.
"We'll regret it if we do and someone busts their brains up" Jason declared scratching the back of his head in hesitation. Ling took a few steps back from us, adjusting her hair as she tucked her hat away. "Besides, what if there are rocks in the water?"
"I don't think there are any rocks down there, it's too shallow" Jackie declared. Ling stretched her legs.
"Is that any better than rocks?" I asked sarcastically. Ling cracked her neck and got into a running position. "How about a rope? We could... "
"Comin' through". Ling sprinted straight past us and jumped. She fell quickly and landed down in the sand, her feet submerged in the white grains before falling forward and tumbling down towards the sea. The three of us left standing exchanged curious looks before I shrugged and jumped after her.
"YEAH!!" Jackie and Jason screamed as we headed down. My feet would disappear within the sand but it only slowed me while I sprinted downwards. I had to run fast or I'd lose my footing, my speed must have been great as I passed Ling pretty quickly and she'd had quite a head start by comparison.
"Comin' through" I called back to Ling, loosing my step and falling face first into the sand. From a distance it must have looked like a cloud of sand that was being thrown around by the wind. I skidded to a stop before the bank ran off into the water below, granted I was upsidedown and a load of sand splashed into my eyes. While blind I heard Ling laughing as she skidded to a halt beside me with Jackie and Jason quickly following.
"Let's go again!" I yelled, turning over on my front and washing my eyes with the salty water, my backpack was filled with loads of sand as were my pockets.
"You guys alright?" asked a strange feminist voice. We all sat up and our laughter died away as two people came running for us. "That was a long way to fall".
"No we're fine. You should try it some time" Jackie called rubbing her eyes.
The other two travellers pulled us to our feet and even held pat the sand away. "I'm Nicky, this is my sister Kristine", Nicky announced to me, pointing to her sister. I assumed that they were twins since they looked so similar, except for their hair and what they wore.
"Ling, Jason and Jackie" I stated pointing to each of us.
It didn't take long for us to find a good sleeping position. A campsite beside a deep water pool that was being drained into by a short waterfall, there was already a small group of people there sharing a single tent. Nicky and Kristine were heading in the same direction we were so we decided to tag along with one another, plus they were pretty nice.
"Worried?"
"About what?" I was tapping the tent pegs in with a rock, Ling helped by pulling the tent's line out.
"How much time Jason is spending with Nicky. What're the odds we'd run into another doctor that the same age as us?" I leaned around the tent and saw Jason sitting by the pool's edge, his feet dipped into the water with Nicky beside him. "Jackie will be really upset if they hook up before she can".
"There's nothing we can do about. Are you going to stay out of the matter?" Ling looked away, rubbing a hand over her arm. "Ling?"
"I'm not going to hit him over the head and force him to love Jackie if that's what you're asking". I looked back to Jason and Nicky, he was whispering something into her ear. "And the thought has come to mind more than a few times".
Ling and Nicky were cooking around a communal fire that everyone was sharing, including the other campers that were already here when we arrived. As there were so many of us Ling decided now was as good a time as every to cook our biggest meal. We sat on logs around the fire, everyone chatting to one another. Ling and I sharing a log while Jason had Jackie on one side and Nicky on the other.
"Go Germany!"
"Go Australia!"
"America!"
"移動日本!" Everyone turned to Ling curiously. "Uh, Go Japan!" This was met with laughter as one of the German hikers picked his guitar back up and continued singing. The tune was clearly old and reminded me of pirates, but the German language was one I'd never learnt. Ling rest her head against my shoulder as we ate from plastic plates but with steel cutlery. "Do you like it?"
"It'd delicious" I spoke with my mouth full of food. My plate was filled with an almost soup dinner that had chunks of sausage and other meats, if I was lucky I'd come across the occasional vegetable. Despite how simple the dinner was Ling had made it much more edible.
After a while everyone seemed to retire to bed till it was only Ling and myself, Jason and Nicky and the eager German on his guitar. "You're not tired?" I asked him across the now petering fire.
"My girlfriend is sleeping. It help her sleep when I play" he announced with a very heavy accent. I wrapped an arm around Ling's shoulder as we savoured the fire's warmth and the soothing music. It was only then that we noticed that Jackie was also asleep and left Jason alone with Nicky. The two were getting pretty close together now, speaking to one another slowly and in the way that only lovers do.
"What are you thinking?" Ling asked looking up to me, rubbing a hand along my trousers.
"I'm thinking..." I paused. There aren't many words in the dictionary that could describe the feelings I had for Ling. "I was just thinking about how great your tan is".
Ling purred. "You always know just what to say".
"I love you". We shared a long kiss before standing up and heading for our tent. I allowed myself a quick look back to the campfire to see Jason and Nicky sharing a similar kiss.
The morning Sun was already up but the trees around us cast a cool shadow that only small pieces of light could penetrate. Jason and I were overlooking the pool from atop the rocks where the waterfall fell.
"Think it's deep enough?"
"I'd say so. Pools underneath falls are deeper than anywhere else" I replied looking down to the dark blue water. "Of course I could be wrong" I remarked with a smirk.
"It's your gambit, why don't you go first?" I looked down at the camp and saw Jackie and Ling were already up, Jackie heading for Kristine and Nicky's tent. I walked back to a tree and ripped a vine off of it. "Trust that?" Jason asked pointing to the green rope.
"Why not?" I took a running start and and swung around in a circular motion, releasing and yelling happily as I hit the water. The last thing I saw before becoming submerged was Ling waving to me with her hand in hand. I allowed myself to sink deep into the pool till Jason splashed down in kind, probably not wanting to be shown up. I liked him, he was a friendly person and knew how to tell a good joke but I had to start hating him since that's was I was certain Ling and Jackie were going to start doing.
"Alright, so this island here isn't too far from where we're heading. I think we could swim there and be back before it's too late". Ling was showing us Jackie's maps and pointing to the small gap between one really big island and another smaller one.
"Yes, but the gap looks a lot smaller on this map than it will when we're there" I rebuttled tapping the map. Jason was standing over the map and Jackie also listening to Ling's suggestion but not entirely interested.
"We can at least check it out. Decide when we get to the beach" Jason spoke, turning around and seeing that Nicky and Kristine were having trouble with their tent then jogged over to help. Ling and I shrugged in agreement before standing up. We bid farewell to our German friends before heading down our path towards the beach.
