David laughed. "They're all bark and no bite," he assured her. "You've been in Rimrock long enough. You must have noticed the late-afternoon storms we get. A big wind, lots of dark clouds, and about three drops of rain?"

"I've noticed," she said. "But not from up here. This is a whole new perspective." She tried to smile, but her mouth wasn't up to it.

"It'll be over in about ten minutes, you'll see." David slipped his arm around her shoulder. The movement required a whole readjustment of their feet, and for once, Jenny didn't welcome his touch.

"Listen," she said. "It's time for a confession. I'm terrified. I've been terrified ever since we set foot

on this amazingly beautiful rock formation, and the little storm that's brewing isn't doing anything to calm me down." She tried to stop it, but her voice kept rising until she was almost shouting. **What'll calm me down is feeling flat ground underneath my feet!"

David got the point, and to Jenny's relief, he didn't click his tongue or shake his head in disgust. His fingers tightened briefly on her shoulder. "You're right," he said. "It's stupid staying up here in a storm. We'll forget the nest. Let's get down."

Wishing wouldn't get them down, of course. Only an agonizingly slow process would do that. The hand and footholds they'd used on the way up seemed to have shifted position, or else the darkening sky made them harder to find, and Jenny spent a lot of time clinging precariously to the side of the bluff while David scrambled below her, found a secure spot, then helped her inch her way down to him.

The wind was stronger now, whipping Jenny's hair around her face and blowing grit into her eyes and mouth, but so far, the rain had held off.

"Not much farther," David said as Jenny scrunched down behind him on a narrow, sloping ditch between two massive boulders, her drawn-up knees poking him in the back.

He turned his head to say something more, and Jenny saw his shoulders tense and his mouth snap shut.

"What?" she asked.

'Thought I heard something." He listened again, his head cocked to one side.

Jenny thought she heard what he did. A gutteral rumbling, like a far-off drum-roll. "Thunder," she said. But not so far off, because it was followed in seconds by a flash of lightning.

David nodded, but kept listening for a moment. Then he gave a little shake of his head. "Stay here a sec. Fm going down a few feet. I'll be back."

Jenny managed a smile, but since he was already scooting over the edge of their little slope, he didn't see it. She pulled a piece of hair out of her mouth, wrapped her arms around her knees, and waited. The thimder kept rolling and she did her best to ignore it.

Then there was a sharp crack, followed almost immediately by a real flashbulb of hghtning, and the rain hit. It was more than three drops this time. Jenny's hair was plastered to her head in seconds, and the patch of sandy dirt she'd hunkered dciwn on quickly turned to mud.