Put your hands up

It was the sounds of rocks being piled that woke her.  Large boulder size rocks by the sound of it. Her sister must be building something.  Again.  Tony groaned moving out from underneath the warm blankets.  She made her morning tea and was nibbling on toast that had been left out for her as she walked by the large opening of the cave.  At first glance her sister was placing buckets on the very

large rocks she heard earlier.  Each one seemed to be full of water.  Shaking her head she began her morning rituals. 



After her stretch and morning mediation she walked by their 'back door', as it was now called, on her way back to her room to retrieve towels and soap for the shower when she noticed her sister was still working on bringing large rocks from the side of the cliffs to stack them in a large circle.  She was surrounded by even more buckets of water.  In front of each large boulder were a pair of smaller rocks piles, each one holding what appeared to be bundles of sticks that were being held in place by



.... is that duct tape?



Sighing she decided she still had time before her sister did anything devestating and continued to get ready for the day.  A day of cleaning up what ever mess her sister would make. 



As she walked by once more on her way towards their shared shower, it looked as if Blue was now re-arranging the rocks again to form a semi-circle.  There are more bundles of sticks propped up by more smaller rocks.  Blues face shows a rare look of concentration that causes Tony to take a moment and watch closely as her sister carefully places the last small pile of rocks near the end of the half

circle.  She takes a step back and is eyeing her work.  She seems happy with what she's made. 



Grabbing several buckets at a time she carefully placed each bucket on top of the larger boulders, hopping to each boulder and checking the placement of each water bucket. 



Jumping down she began to put together what Tony would call stone snowmen with the left over stones. Piling them on top of each other there were four stones instead of 3, the smallest one on top. 



Tony was about to investigate closer when Blue started her way up to the caves entrance. 



Tony made a note to test Blues speed later when her sister hopped up to the lip of the cave she smiling when she saw the young sorceress.



"Hey ya sis, how ya doin?" She gave Tony a quick half hug as she squeezed passed her and disappeared into her room.  Less the a second later she had a CD player that she insisted on buying last week along with several CDs, her gun belt slung over her shoulder. 



"Blue what are you ... ?"  Tony's question died in alarm as she watched her twin grab a handful of stick matches.  Visions of flames and charred animals flitted quickly in her mind.  "Blue, what are you doing?"  Worry making itself known in her voice.



"Don't worry, go take your shower, that'll give me a few to work out the bugs, but I'll call you when I'm ready ok?"  Blue seemed to dismiss her sisters emotions with a quick pat on her shoulder.



Tony tried her best to smile and ignore the flashes of reckless abandonment that would end in her kneeling next to her badly injured sister while listening to apologies and all the ways that she didn't think it would go so wrong.  Wringing her hands she walked towards her room and made way for the shower that she was sure she would be using again very soon.



Hesitating, feeling as if she'd miss something important if she simply did as Blue said, she went on to take a shower. 



She did miss Blue grabbing a gasoline can that they used to run the generator before they started using the waterfall.   



She was out of the shower when she felt a sudden flash of heat, it was gone so quickly that she dismissed it.  But the consistent smell of smoke made her stomach tighten as she wrapped a towel around herself and walked to her room.  Peeking outside, she saw her sister moving quickly to rearrange her water buckets once again.  She could swear she saw wisps of smoke curling upward, but at a second glance there was nothing.  Blue was fine, everything was fine.  Maybe she really needs to give her sister more credit.



***



Blue was at the cave entrance as soon as her sister was her own room.  Looking back and forth Blue rushed to the bathroom throwing her burnt clothing into her hamper (to be hidden later), rinsing off in the shower and was dressed in fresh clothes and back outside.  She had put out the fire right away.



Making sure she put the gasoline can away before Tony could notice it was missing and grabbing a couple more matches on her way out. With a sigh of relief she hurried to finish 'tweaking' her little project.   



***



Tony, dressed and making sure the first aid kit was ready, walked to the edge of the cavern once again pausing before she started her way down.  She heard the what sounded like the hammers of pistols being pulled back then firing followed by heavy drums.  Shaking her head, Blue's music bewildered her sometimes.  Looking to her right she noticed that the gas can had been moved.  Eyes widening she decided that she might be better if she stayed where she was. 



Looking at the clearing she could see Blue standing in the middle of the semi-circle, glaring down each rock pile as if they were a dangerous horde.  Tony sat and made herself comfortable for what promised to be, at the very least, a good show.



Blue's feet were moving to the heavy beat of the song, her hands twitching over her pistols. Suddenly, moving to the main chorus of the song she leapt into action, not firing her pistols but throwing them.  The flew forward knocking the top of the rocks off the stone snowmen only to be called to Blues hands as she twirled them on her fingers throwing them once again to knock off the tops off the other piles chipping them down one more rock and again 'calling' them back to be twirled on her fingers once again. 



She spun her self around as she started throwing them to the others around her, calling them and flinging them away as fast as they reached her hands again.  Her aim and accuracy getting better with each throw. 



With each of the snowmen defeated, Blue stood with her back towards the piles of rocks now awaiting their fate.  Turning slowly to face her 'enemy' she holstered her guns.  Reaching up, she pulled her hat down over her eyes. 



Tony grinned as she watched her sister mimed a imaginary argument with the piles of rocks before her. 



The last warning given, Blue pulled her weapons and started to fire.  Each bullet striking the match placed at the center of the gathered twigs and soon flame was dancing atop of each pile of rocks. 



Blue spun around and started to fire at each bucket of water over the piles, each bucket either being knocked over or a hole being punctured to put out the fire below them.  Flipping back ward she fired the last two shots and put out the last small fire.



Blue, now crouched in the center looked up and pumped her fists as she shouted her victory loud enough to echo through out their valley.  Jumping up she began to dance to the remains of the song. 



She was in mid boogie when she spotted her sister sitting on the edge of the cave looking down on her.



"Did you see that?!  Did you see how awesome that was?  Did you want to see it again?!  I can do it again!" 



Tony transported herself down to her sister and looked over the area, as Blue started to prepare for another demonstration.  She was obviously pleased and Blue couldn't be more thrilled until she noticed Tony staring at a scorched patch of ground in front of the first two rock piles.



"Don't worry about that, it was no biggie really no sit back and watch, it'll be even cooler once I figure out how much gas to use later."  She turned to replace a bucket and when she turned back Tony was gone.  "Tony?"



"I believe I'll be safer up here."  Tony stated calmly.  Blue nodded and went back to work to get the rocks back in place before she started again.  Her back turned, she didn't notice that the gas can had disappeared. 



At least her sister was taking things seriously enough to learn to aim.  If she had learned anything about her sister, Tony learned that she needed to be happy with her own small victories and her sister taking the time to hone her craft was a victory.



Even with the threat of injury.