The Quercus Betula Lizards

Chapter 1

Adin's calendar gigantic was almost empty, but there was one good thing on it. Two days left of school before the summer holidays. Both their parents would be gone for the first two weeks of the vacation. They'd asked Adin if they wanted to come along, but Adin didn't want to and they didn't have the money for all of them to go. It was to celebrate Adin's parents' twenty years of marriage. Adin was much happier staying home alone. Adin was not the type to have home alone parties or make a mess of the house, so their parents trusted them. It was the best for both parties.

There was no way Adin could ruin the house when they planned to be away for at least half of the time, sleeping out in the wild and climbing the mountain practically in their backyard, or the whole neighborhood's backyard. They'd been taking rock climbing lessons for the last five years and had been looking forward to this for the last seven months.

Their parents didn't know they were going rock climbing, of course. They never would've allowed it. But Adin knew they'd be safe and there was no way their parents would find out, so everything was all right. They weren't going to stay home because there was a slight chance something might happen to them on the trip. This was what they'd been looking forward to for the last seven months. If they had to drag themself to school every day at least it could be for a reason, for this.

They'd zoned out, looking at the calendar and thinking about their mountain climbing trip. There was half an hour left until school started. They ran.

As the bell rang, they entered the school. Barely on time, like always. At least there were only two more weeks left of that this semester.

The day didn't pass quickly, in fact it passed as if through syrup. But it passed, like every other day. And so did the rest of the next two weeks.

Half an hour after saying goodbye to their parents, Adin left to go buy the equipment they needed. They'd been saving for years, and they still didn't have enough to buy the best quality things, but at least the thing they bought were a decent quality.

They managed to go to the store and back without meeting a single person from their class. They breathed a sigh of relief when they finally closed the front door behind them. If their classmates weren't well-intentioned, they might tell Adin's parents about their plan. But since nobody had seen them, nobody could tell their parents about what they were doing.

Leaving in two days was their plan, after sunrise. They had plenty of time to pack but started packing as soon as they got back because they had nothing else to do. They lay all the things they needed out on the living room floor. Now that they were alone, they could take up all the space they wanted. They'd bought a gigantic backpack because their family didn't have any hiking gear. Even though it was enormous, they only barely managed to press everything into it. They hoped none of the bag with ready-made foods as powders would leak. That would make a mess.

All they wanted to do was go mountain climbing, but they knew they needed some time to pack. Even though they had wanted to leave the next day, they wouldn't have been ready by then. Too bad they couldn't leave the next evening. Climbing in the dark wasn't appealing, though.

The next two days did pass quickly, as all Adin did was sit at home, pack, eat and relax. And plan, of course. They woke early on the day they were leaving, leaving a few hours after sunrise. They had packed everything they needed in gigantic backpack. It took them about ten minutes to get to the base of the mountain, but without the bag it would have taken them five. It meant their climb would take longer, but it was okay, as they had planned lots of extra time.

They climbed continuously until noon, when they sat on a stone ledge with flecks of different shades of grey sticking out of the mountain side to eat their lunch, soggy slices of bread with cheese, they'd been too excited to spend too much time on the food. Now they were stuck with food that didn't taste good, but they were ravenous, so they ate it quickly.

The air was clear blue with a few pillowy clouds. Adin was exhausted and lingered on the ledge for about an hour after they'd eaten, dragging their fingers along the rough surface of the rock and looking at birds passing by for entertainment.

They were too exhausted to climb any more, but it was fun to climb, and they couldn't set up their tent on the tiny stone ledge, so they started climbing again. A few hours later they came to flat ground where the stone was a darker grey with trees, grass and big boulders. They found a place where there was flat ground with grass on it right next to an almost vertical stone part of the mountain. The perfect place to set up a tent. Their tent wasn't big, nor was it small. It was technically a small tent, if you had the intended amount of people in it, which was four. So, it had more than enough space for Adin, who wasn't tall, to sleep. They were thankful to their past self for buying a big tent.

Adin knew the sun wouldn't set for a long time, since it was summer. They sat on the grass a few feet from their tent for a while and listened to all the animals and insects around them and watched the shadow from the rock wall behind them move. They didn't make their dinner before another two hours passed. They had fried egg with fried mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes made from a powder. A lot better than what they had for lunch, but it meant a lot more work. It took them about an hour to make, eat and wash everything in a nearby stream. They'd already been tired, even with the two-hour rest. After making food they were so exhausted they didn't do anything else for the rest of the day but stare as the sun set and slowly make their way into their tent to sleep. 

A/N: This is going to be my entry for ONC. I'm a little late, but the next chapter will be up tomorrow and I hope you all enjoy reading this.