Without a Compass by Helen Juliet

Author:Helen Juliet [Juliet, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2017-08-21T23:00:00+00:00

Riley knew he’d still gnaw at his worry that Kai was secretly irritated with him. But if he didn’t want to talk about what was bothering him, that was fine. He’d respect that. “Okay, cool.”

As they began their slow ascension, Riley decided he had two choices. Fret himself into such a tongue-tied silence that he blew any chance of getting Kai to like him. Or, find something to talk about and hope that he chanced on something that would keep him out of his sudden strange mood.

“It says we need to take a selfie from as high as we can,” he said, with only a slight nervous tremor. He never liked being in charge of a conversation. But he held fast and pointed to the paper. “It suggests we climb a tree or a rock, but surely we’d get bonus points for getting to the top of…whatever this is we’re on.” He gestured to the hills around them.

Kai lit up at that, and Riley gave himself a mental high five. “Oh yeah,” he replied. “I was hoping we could try and scale the fell, but didn’t know if you’d be up for it.”

In truth, Riley was wary. He was used to running long distances, but that was at the gym or in the park. However, they were only going to be walking. It wasn’t like there were any wild beasts lurking in the highlands waiting to attack. It was just the unknown element of their environment that perturbed him.

But seeing the delight he’d caused on Kai’s face was enough to wash most of that away. “Sure,” he told him. “I’m up for that. So’s Baby Bee, aren’t you?”

‘Ruff!’ She wagged her tail and hopped a few feet in front of them.

“If there’s any other way to get bonus points, we should go the extra mile,” he said. “The amount of pub quizzes I’ve done well on from bonus points has taught me that much.”

Kai bit his lip, his smile broad. “Agreed.” He raised his hand for a real high five, which Riley was only too happy to reciprocate. “Let’s win this thing.”

Riley didn’t really believe they had a chance of victory, but he liked Kai’s competitive spirit.

They continued to plod upward. The incline wasn’t steep, but he was already feeling a warmth in his calf muscles as they worked to get him up there. He’d done a few stretches inside his tent before they’d left, but his new boots were rigid and felt heavy. They’d soon break in, hopefully.

A buzzing noise made Riley look around. It was faint, but it didn’t feel like it belonged in their serene surroundings. He squinted, but he couldn’t see anything unusual.

“Are you alright?” Kai asked.

Riley blinked. The sound disappeared again. “Yeah,” he said with a shrug.

Kai wanted to know more about Riley’s adventures in pub quizzing for some unfathomable reason. It did gave them something to chat about for a while. Riley and some of the others from work had a ritual of going down one of the locals near their office on a Wednesday.

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