Via modes mysterious and downright unnatural, Buffy was nearly already there. Only she'd avoided the conventional route, as well as the ladder, and had opted to climb her way into the tree canopy quite a few trunks down from the house. From there, it had been a number of precarious hops and leaps and manoeuvres until she'd reached her goal.

Buffy paused. She could hear the sounds of someone ascending. Muffling her own movements -- and suddenly now missing her shirt -- she crawled onto the treehouse's roof. And waited.