"I saw something!"
Kairi held on tightly to the back of Sora's sweatshirt as he leaned precariously out the old station wagon's window. "What? Another chipmunk?"
"No, no." Her friend waved his arms negatively, prompting her to grab him with her other hand too as he swayed dangerously, half in and half out. "Only for a second, but it looked pretty big. Maybe even a bear, or a cougar!"
"Maybe a caveman?" Riku, sprawling in the trunk, drawled sarcastically. "Or a zombie. Like, a caveman-zombie."
Sora squeezed back in to frown at the older boy. Kairi tried to suppress a sigh, albeit a fond one, sensing what was coming. Her two closest friends were inclined to argue about the smallest, pettiest things, and Riku had started another one.
"Or maybe it really was just another chipmunk," he continued dryly. "You like to tell us every single time we pass one."
"I only saw two," Sora snapped back. "And if it was a chipmunk, it was a really freaking big one."
"Save us. We're going to be in a campsite infested with mutant chipmunks."
"We're here!" Sora's mother piped up from the front seat, completely disregarding the boys' squabbling. Kairi eagerly jumped out and stretched. Sora and Riku moved smoothly into a new argument about who should get out the door first, never mind that there was another one on the other side of the car.
A van pulled alongside the station wagon in the gravel parking lot, almost immedately disgorging two other boys and a weed-thin girl, who waved excitedly at them. Kairi tugged on Sora's hood. "C'mon you lazy bums! Help me unload everything."
The six friends, including Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus, were camping in the brand-new campsite that had just opened up near their hometown. Sora and Tidus' parents were coming with them, and the camp facilities were less than a mile away, but otherwise it was the most remote experience the city-bred children had ever had.
Riku, thirteen years old and highly skeptical about how fun a week without modern technology would be, had to be dragged- he did everything with Sora and Kairi anyway- but everyone else was excited. Sora staggered over to Tidus under a huge mound of camping supplies. "I think I saw a cougar on the way here!"
Selphie eagerly pointed up the hill. "Is that our campsite?"
The ground they were walking on was crunchy and slippery with dead leaves, but everyone raced eagerly up the path. It was a small clearing, the only sign of human habitation being a small circle of rocks for a campfire. It looked barely big enough to contain ten people and all of their supplies.
It suddenly dawned on Kairi that this was it- she was stuck here for a week in this place, for better or for worse. They might be going out during the daytime to sightsee, but...
What was there to see this close to home? Maybe Riku had a point. She hastily shook her head, joining the others in pitching their first tent. This was going to be fun, for sure. A week without chores or hassles, with her friends- what could possibly be bad along those lines?
A lot, she found out quite quickly.
-
The tents, two for girls and three for boys, were all finally erected by the time the sun had fully set. By that time everyone was tired and sweaty and not really in the mood for Sora's mother cheerfully ordering them to get out chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers so they could make s'mores over the campfire, which Wakka and Tidus' father were still struggling to build. Riku was giving everyone only slightly sarcastic looks.
Things got a little cheerier once they were all squeezed around the campfire, the parents who had rightfully been forced to the back sticking their sticks through the throng of marshmallow-toasting children. Wakka had introduced the idea of some camp songs sometime earlier, only to be quickly humbled by the barrage of venomous looks. Still, ever-resiliant, he hummed to himself softly. Tidus, the only eleven-year-old in the group, was fighting off sleep by repeatedly knocking Selphie's marshmallows into the fire, laughing gleefully at her shrill protests. He would scoop the charred bits up after she pronounced them inedible and chew them mockingly in her face.
Surprisingly, the other trio was fairly quiet, not even a peep out of Riku when Sora stole one of his graham crackers. Kairi was watching him- he was thinking about something, staring deep into the fire. He was always thinking lately- she wondered if it was some thirteen-year-old thing. Truthfully, Sora and him had only started arguing so much the past two or three years, as Riku got older and more mature- and more sarcastic towards his younger friends. Her didn't try to provoke Kairi the way he did Sora, but there was still a distance between them that had not been there before- or maybe it had, and she was only noticing it now. Sora had always been closer to him, probably closer to him than her, since the two had been friends long before she'd moved into their neighborhood. Sometimes she still got the uncomfortable feeling that Riku still thought of her as an outsider, an wedge between him and Sora. Sora himself probably didn't notice anything at all- and why should she, really. She'd told herself earlier that worrying was stupid, and she was definitely going to have a good time- it was the last week of summer!
With that in mind, she prodded Riku in the ribs. "Tell a story, Riku!"
Sora glanced up and mumbled something through a mouthful of marshmallow- probably, "Yeah!"
Riku smiled, apparently calmer from whatever he'd been thinking about. "Sure," he said quietly. "About what?"
-
Riku couldn't sleep. He was sure he could feel every rock and stick and bump in the ground jammed up his back, and it wasn't helped by the sound of Sora trying to breathe through his pillow. He kicked him lightly in the ribs- again- but Sora only turned over and burrowed deeper into his sleeping bag.
It was going to be a long night. And those shadows- those strange shadows on the outside of the tent, and the soft rustling of leaves under padded feet-
He froze, fists clenching. The shadow outside the tent was still, and he finally realized it wasn't just a tree moving in the wind.
It was an animal, a huge one. I think I saw something!
There was a soft sound, and Riku barely stopped himself from jerking up when he saw a black nose poke into the tent, nudging up the zipper. He struggled to breathe quietly. The animals were probably just looking for food, not a fight... if he stayed quiet maybe they would just go away.
It was silent except for Sora's noisy breathing and the soft footfalls outside. And the zipper traveling further up. However, if anyone else was awake or being attacked they would probably make some noise- hopefully.
The tent flaps were finally open enough for the creature to squeeze its head through. Riku saw its yellow eyes gleam before it grabbed the bottom of Sora's sleeping bag and started to tug.
Staying quiet was no longer an option.
Riku exploded upward, automatically grabbing the closest thing at hand- a heavy-duty flashlight- and slinging it hard at the thing that was dragging his friend away. "Get outta here!"
Three things happened at once. Sora woke up and wondered why Riku was screaming and waving his arms around so late at night. The animal yelped and bolted. And there was no response from anyone else.
"Riku, what-" Riku clapped a hand over Sora's bewildered mouth and dragged him out of the tent.
"Guess what?" he hissed. "I believe you now about the giant chipmunk."
"It wasn't a-" Something large, furry and feral slammed into them, sending them on the ground and knocking the breath out of both of them.
"Get of! Getoffgetoffgetoff!"
Riku wasn't sure who started screaming, but that and their combined flailing seemed to make the creature back down off of them. He saw it clearly for the first time, set against the moonlight- like a dog with all the domestication and gentle hammered out of it- a gigantic wolf.
A rock thudded into the ground next to it, and it flinched and leaped out of Riku's line of sight.
"Guys!" A very distraught and hassled-looking Kairi ran up to them. Riku pushed Sora off his body with difficulty and tried to massage some feeling back into his strained wrists.
Kairi looked at him and voiced the last thing he wanted to hear. "Where's everyone else?"
"I don't know- we woke up and they were coming into the tent-"
"They were pulling me into the woods," she whispered. Riku noticed her hands were shaking and her lips were whitish. "I didn't even wake up until I heard you two screaming."
"Are they all gone?"
"Yeah... I think I scared them away." She gave him a funny little grimace, probably at the idea of herself frightening away a pack of wolves. "But all the tents are messed up. No one else is here."
"Noise scared them away once," Riku reasoned. "It's probably best to keep shouting for everyone so they can hear us and keep the wolves away."
"Wolves, huh." Kairi fumbled on the ground and retrieved the flashlight that Riku had thrown earlier. She shined the beam in Sora's face. "Wake up, sleepyhead."
In the new light Riku noticed a few spatters of blood on the ground. "I think I hit one of them, check it out."
"Riku..."
"What?"
In answer, Kairi illuminated the large bite wound on Sora's left shoulder.
-
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