Fffc May Special Daily Challenge (May 15th) - Lost and found

[m_findlow]

Title: Lost and found
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Owen, Jack, Ianto, Tosh
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 778 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for fffc May Special Daily Challenge - May 15th - Mountain, Star, Glasses
Summary: An orienteering adventure goes awry.

'Just admit we're lost,' Owen said, feeling the blisters forming on his feet. Even in solid hiking boots, his feet were protesting against the rugged terrain.  The temperature was dropping and he could feel the damp starting to seep into the collar of his jacket.

'We're not lost, Owen,' Jack insisted.

'How do you know?'

'Because I'm using the stars to navigate us back.'

Owen barked out a laugh. 'Bloody hell, no wonder we're so screwed.'

Jack let out an annoyed breath at his companion. 'Well, we wouldn't need to use the stars if someone hadn't lost the compass.'

'Oh yeah, blame me why don't you? Even with it you couldn't read the map. And besides, I tripped by accident.' He was just grateful he hadn't dropped himself in the stream.

'The only person I know who can manage to trip over themselves and drop a compass into a stream stream. Perhaps you need glasses so you can see where you're going.'

'It was that bloody stoat that came out of nowhere and startled me. Just shut up and get us back to the car,' he griped. It was cold and dark, and he was tired, hungry and thoroughly over it. For all their ambling around the countryside they hadn't managed to find a single thing they'd set out to find. They'd had all the tools they needed as far as he was concerned, a map and a compass. What he really needed now though was a GPS, which was in the phone he'd left behind in the car.

Stupid rules, he thought. Ianto claimed it was so Jack couldn't cheat, but he was looking at Owen just as much when he said it. The only thought that cheered Owen was that Ianto and Tosh might be equally lost. At least then it wouldn't be so bad, though the prospect of spending the night out in the elements wasn't appealing. Out in the Beacons, it was known to snow overnight.

'I'm sure that mountain should be on our left side,' he said, making out the large shadow looming over them. 'It was on our right this morning when we headed out.'

'Hey, which of us has traversed the universe with nothing more than the clothes on their back?' Jack replied. 'I can get us back. I have an innate sense of direction.'

'We should have been back hours ago,' Owen moaned.

'Yeah, well, it wasn't dark enough for stars earlier. We'll be fine.'

After another thirty minutes of trekking around aimlessly, nearly breaking ankles in the process as they stumbled over craggy rocks and hidden clefts, Owen decided to pull up. He wasn't walking a step further until it was light. This wandering around in the dark was nonsense. 'Face it, Jack. You have no idea where we are.'

'Jack?' Owen was sure he heard a voice call out in the darkness.

'Owen?' came another that was distinctly Tosh's.

'Over here!' he yelled back.

Two beams of torchlight soon came into view, bouncing around as they called out again.

'Boy, are we glad to see you,' Jack said. 'Did you get lost, too?'

'Lost?' Ianto cried. 'We've been searching for you two for hours. We went back to every flag marker to look for you but all we found were the flags. We figured you might have strayed away from one of them but you didn't collect a single one.'

'Not for lack of trying,' Owen said, bemoaning their failed attempts to win the orienteering competition. He'd though he and Jack would be a shoe-in compared to their two desk-bound friends. As if they'd be any good at tracking down markers out in the wilderness. It turned out he and Jack were the ones that weren't much good at it, spotting the clutch of small orange flags sticking out of the top of Ianto's backpack.

'Are you kidding?' Tosh said. 'You're absolutely miles off course! It's a wonder we found you at all.' Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she'd been yelling for hours. 'Be lucky we found you at all. We were so worried something had happened to you.'

'We're fine,' Owen replied, trying g to brush off their concern. 'No thanks to Captain Jack Sparrow here who thought we'd use the stars to navigate our way back, though.'

'We would have,' Jack insisted. 'We were headed that way,' he said pointing. 'That was right, wasn't it?' he said, looking at Ianto for confirmation.

'Well, sure,' he replied. 'I mean, if you were planning to walk all the way back to Cardiff instead of meeting us back at the SUV, then you were spot on for directions.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Of course Ianto and Tosh aced it! Jack is better at navigating through space and Owen knows his way around a dead body, but when it comes to the Beacons, stick with Ianto and you can't go wrong.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

I suspect Jack would have been okay if they hadn't lost their compass. A map isn't much good without one!