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Both Mesa and I reflexively tighten our thighs at the threat.
"Look, I get that it's big adjustment, but you're just going to have to get used to it. Oz and I are together and we're planning on staying that way."
"So you don't want me to kick his ass?" Mesa gives his sister a crooked eyebrow and a deep scowl but I might hear a hint of my old buddy under, his tone.
"No ass kicking," Meadow warns. "Now, if I can trust you two to act like grown-ups, I need to get those monster hunters down to the rendezvous point so the crew can get them past the fire area safely."
"And us too, for that matter," I point out, reluctantly loosening my hold on Red so she can gather her things for evacuation.
"Get changed, and meet us on the ground." I lean down to kiss her and give her bottom a light swat that earns me a giggle from my girl and a threatening growl from her brother.
"I'll go head off your monster hunters," Mesa grumbles on his way out the door. "Just hurry the fuck up."
9
MEADOW
Mesa might not kill Oz, but I'm not so sure how safe I am from my grumpy big brother. I guess I'll cut him some slack, I really am throwing a lot on him all at once. When we get everyone safely off the summit, we'll have plenty of time to explain things to my family.
Once they see how good Oz is to me, they'll get behind us. My brothers will come around-- even hard-headed Mesa.
On the ground, I toss my stuff in the forestry service truck that's assigned to me and join the small group gathered together near the van that brought the influencers to the trailhead.
"So you need to follow us out of here and then the sheriff will escort you through the burn section, understand?"
Oz explains the plan to the girl that will apparently be driving them out of here while a couple of the guys pack away gear and video equipment into the van.
The campers are excitedly talking to Mesa about the footage they caught while my brother scowls at me and Oz.
"Hey, when do you think the area is going to be open again?" One of the monster hunters asks me. I can tell she's hopeful that the evacuation is precautionary and they'll be able to return in a day or two but I can't give her any assurances.
"Depends on if the hotshot crew coming in can keep the fire contained to the west side of the range," I tell her. "If it dies on its own when it hits the peak, then maybe a couple of weeks, if it decides to travel down the east slope-- could be years."
"Man, the 'squatches are going to lose a lot of habitat if that happens." One of the camera guys sounds genuinely concerned.
"Dude, I told you, they're inter-dimensional!" One of the other guys tells him. "They've been here for millennia, man, you got any idea how many forest fires they've survived and still never had to wander into human territory?"
"Because they can portal into the eleventh dimension and live inside the mountain, man."
Mesa's scowl turns on the guy giving the lecture on Bigfoot's ability to, apparently, travel into another dimension and I decide not to ask any of the questions running through my mind right now-- like, how does this guy know?
"You're gonna be right behind me, Red."
It's not a question. There's no mistaking Oz's directive, he wants me where he can see me in his rear-view mirrors.
"Mesa's going to run sweep, right behind our monster hunters. I'll meet up with you at the station in town."
After making sure I'm buckled in and have my door closed and locked, he leans through my open window for a kiss.
"Close up this window, babe," he tells me, "that fire is going to have all kinds of wildlife on the run, I don't want any frightened Sasquatches trying to climb into the truck with you."
He gives me a wink and a grin, and another kiss.
"Or bears," he adds more seriously, before stepping back so I can raise the window.
The silence of the night is suddenly split by a noise I've never heard in all my years of living in the mountains.
Something like the trumpet of an elephant crossed with a lion's roar echoes off the granite peaks surrounding us.
