The pasta and bread ended up being rather filling, and strangely calming as well, so we’d gone to sleep pretty quickly afterward. Nito had slept in her auto-trike, while I’d set up my tent next to it. She was still scared of the darkness-shrouded town, but we’d covered the windshield with a sheet and then she’d managed to calm down and sleep. Personally, I’d meant to think over how we’d get out of this until I drifted off, but I’d fallen asleep the moment I’d lain down, and the tent was already bright when I came to.
In the end, our rescue mission began with me running my fingers through my bedhead to get my hair back in order and looking things over with a sleepy gaze.
“Let’s get the luggage down first,” I decided.
“The luggage?”
The Kettle had a roof rack atop it made of metal poles. Tied down to it with rope were drums of water and boxes of mana stones and cans, along with things like pots and pans that would be fine even if they got wet. The impact of falling down into the hole had sent the load askew, but the majority of it was still up there.
“Whether we go forward or back, I think it’ll be easier if we’re carrying less.”
“I see. I’ll do my best!”
“I hate to tell you when you’re all fired up like that,” I said, looking at her clenching her fist, “but you’re doing the stuff in the car.”
She deflated a bit, pausing for a long moment.
“Is there something wrong with me?” she asked eventually.
“No, it’s just the weight.”
“I have weight,” she insisted.
“It’s a matter of scale.”
“I can’t believe this,” she grumbled, before setting about sorting the luggage in the car.
“Get the fragile stuff out of the way, like the wine we got from Ned.”
“Right.”
I untied the rope from the roof rack and got each drum and box down one by one. I took breaks as I worked, but I was still done in by the time I’d gotten them all down.
“What next?” Nito asked.
“Hmm, what indeed?”
She looked at me silently.
“Quit looking at me like you’re thinking, ‘You have no idea? Unbelievable.’”
The bright sunlight now illuminating our surroundings made the situation clearer. The hole took up most of the width of the road with a circular collapse. Reddish earth was visible at the bottom of it, and it was about as deep as my knees.
“I guess we were lucky. We’d have been done for if it were deeper,” Nito opined.
I nodded back. Not only would we not have been able to escape, the Kettle would have ended up abandoned. I noticed that several flagstones had dropped inside the hole, probably from the original road surface.
“Say, you see those stones?” I asked, crouching at the edge and pointing.
“I do,” Nito answered, crouching next to me.
“If we piled them up by the tires, do you think that might work?”
Nito put her finger to her chin and made a thoughtful noise before looking at me with an inscrutable expression.
“It is worth the attempt.”
“Don’t you think you’re getting a little too into things?”
“Just a bit,” she answered after a pause. “I mean, it’s like an adventure novel. Working your way out of danger is exciting.”
“Ah, right.”
There was a slight flush to her cheeks, and her nose was twitching restlessly. This was a different reaction than I’d expected from her. It struck me that she was actually rather bold...
Well, it’s hardly any surprise. She did set off on a journey on her own... This was way better than her crying or being angry, in any case.
“Let’s get started then.”
“Let’s!”
Seeing her move away and hop down the drop made all the strain from yesterday just drain away.
“I really thought I’d screwed up. Look at her enjoying herself though,” I muttered to myself.
There was no doubt in my mind that her brightness was what had saved me.
She’d immediately picked up an armful of stones and tottered back. She put them behind the front wheels of the Kettle and then let out a sigh.
“Why are you just sitting there watching?” she demanded.
“I was just thinking the weather was nice.”
“You can sunbathe later.”
“Actually,” I told her, “I’m solar powered.”
“Then get up and work while the sun’s still up.”
She chivvied me along and down I went into the hole. It was hard work shifting the stones, but we realized that we only needed to fill in the two front tires’ worth of space, so we managed to finish before noon.
“I wonder if this’ll work,” I said.
“Why would it not?”
The slope of broken stones was rather uneven, and it looked like a good kick would collapse it.
“Well, I guess we only need to use it once,” I decided.
“Either way, it’s not me driving at least.”
“Hey, I can hear that smugness,” I said, glaring at Nito as she whistled tunelessly and turned her face completely away from me.
That was the truth of the matter though: unless I could drive it well, the Kettle would lose its balance again. I crouched down in front of the fruit of our efforts and gazed at the slope, still somewhat uneasy.
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Yeah, looks like it’ll fall pretty easily,” I said, looking up at Nito.
She shook her head at me, looking around in a panic.
“Up,” she said. “Look up.”
I did as she said and soon saw a man half hanging out of the window of a three-story apartment building. He took out the cigarette from his mouth and breathed out a plume of white smoke before smiling at us.
“How about it? Fancy a trade?” he called down.