Grasping the situation

Xander looked at the hole in the ground that Buffy had fallen into.

"Can you climb out of there?"

After several seconds of silence Buffy answered. "No. I cant climb out. There's no good handholds and the dirt falls apart in my hands. And its too high for me to jump. I just tried. Got about halfway up."

"Shit." Xander muttered to himself.

"Is Giles okay?" Buffy called up.

Xander looked around and found their mentor sprawled several feet away from the hole in the ground that Buffy had fallen into. He quick marched over and inspected the man. Who seemed fine. Just knocked out like he had previously been.

Picking Giles up he brought him closer to the hole in the ground and set the man down. "He's fine, uh, same as he was when this all started, I... uh, kinda forgot about him in all the excitement."

"Thats good to hear. I tried to push him to safety when I started to fall." Buffy answered.

After several seconds of silence Xander asked, "Buff, how we getting you out of there?"

"Um... I can look around for an exit. I havent really explored this cave yet. Just... just enough to find the, uh, the, uh... stuff. So maybe theres an exit down here. Somewhere. In the dark."

"Not a fan of that." Xander looked around and once again found that there was nothing of use to help Buffy get free around him.

"Kinda limited on options." Buffy pointed out.

"I can go and get help." Xander pointed out.

"And that takes how long? And remember you have to drag Giles out of here too."

"Shit." Xander tried to work out how that was going to slow him down. If he was lucky he was looking at least at an hour to get help. "I dont like the idea of leaving you down there in the dark for an hour or more."

"Well, one of the benefits of being of the Slayer is better night vision. To me it's not that dark anymore. My eyes adjusted real quick."

"What do you want to do Buff?" He asked as he tried to think up an idea to get them out of this mess.

"I think me exploring is my best bet. Ill look around down here for a way out."

"And if you get lost?"

There was a harsh laugh from Buffy, "I'll do the money trail trick to find my way back here."

"Stay close for a bit, okay? I'm going to look around for something to get you out up here. Give me ten minutes to look around."

"I dont think you'll find anything."

"Just give me ten minutes."

"Ten minutes." Buffy agreed.

Xander looked around at several of the trees that were around them. All he needed was a branch that was long enough. Or near long enough. Buffy had a twenty foot vertical leap using Slayer powers or there abouts so he needed at least a thirty foot long branch to meet her halfway and get her out.

Quickly running to the nearest tree he began running around and looking for anything that was the right length. Or near the right length.

"C'mon give me a break. Please." Xander grumbled to himself as he checked around several of the nearby trees. looking for anything that he could use to meet Buffy halfway.

"All I need is some Goddamn rope!" Xander looked up at the biggest tree that looked to have a branch long enough but the tree was too big, too sturdy for him to climb up and break the branch free without either a hachet or super strength.

"Shit." He checked his watch. Time was almost up.

"Just some fucking rope." Xander took a final look around and found nothing. They were pretty much up shit creek without a paddle. It's not like a hundred feet of rope were going to just fall out of the sky....

Xander blinked as his brain finally realized the solution to this situation.

Rope seemed... innocent enough. Surely there was no downside to rope. And they were in a fairly **** situation. Maybe not life threatening but dangerous certainly.

Xander looked at the tree next to him. "I've found a length of rope anchored to this tree that is long enough to reach Buffy at the bottom of the hole that appeared."

"That shoukd do it." He crossed his fingers.

And with a barely visible shimmer of the air and a feint feeling of static electricity there was suddenly rope tied to the tree, a coiled excess of rope resting in his hands.

"That's... something." Xander mused before remembering what he needed the rope for and running to the hole in the ground.

This strange event of his words becoming reality was certianly useful.

"Rope coming down." Xander called as he pitched the coil of rope down.

"Seriously? Where the hell did you find rope?" Buffy called out.

"Worry about that later, climb up now." He didnt want to admit to using the power. And he wasnt certain how long the rope would last. What if this words becoming real thing only lasted five minutes? He didnt want the rope to vanish while Buffy was in the process of climbing up it.

It only took a minute for a mussed and dirty Buffy to pull herself up the rope and out of the hole in the ground. Xander was amused to note that she had another muddy sack slung over her shoulder.

Getting clear of the hole Buffy just sat down on the grass beside Giles and with a heavy sigh she looked up at Xander, "Well, that was an adventure."

"It was that." Xander bobbed his head.

Buffy divested herself of her bag of money and staring at the bag for a moment she slowly looked up at him. "Rope, huh?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "Did you want to stay down in the dark?"

"Not particularly. I get it, it was an emergency situation." Buffy allowed. "But, seriously, Xand, zip that lip until we find out whats going on."

"From here on out." Xander bobbed his head.

"Seriously, Xander, think before you speak." Buffy gave him a warning wave of the finger, "We dont need a stray thought going pair shaped because you said it. No Stay Puft Marshmellow Men on a rampage, if you please."

Xander snapped off a quick salute. "I promise. I will think thru everything I say while we figure this out. No bad outcomes, guaranteed. "

Buffy flopped onto her back and let out a groan, "Here's hoping."