"How's everyone's jet lag?" Rae asked with a smile.
Gogo grumbled. Her trip was considerably shorter than the ones of everyone else, but she didn't much like flying so she'd gotten very little sleep the night before. Now, at their destination, the sun was shining high in the sky, and she wouldn't be able to shut another eye until they had properly set up camp God knows how many hours later. Oh well. The trek would keep her awake, she hoped. Rae grinned and patted her back.
"I slept the whole way, I feel pretty good," Saiko said. She tied her brown hair into a ponytail. Her hair was a lot shorter than a year ago, though it still framed her face in a way that it hid half of it. "I thought I wouldn't be able to, but I just put on some relaxing music and before I knew it I was asleep!" She smiled.
Nana next to her didn't look quite as well rested. "I got a few hours, I think," she said, an involuntary yawn escaping her mid-sentence. Her hair was still short, though it reached past her ears now and was dyed a silvery grey. "I kept drifting off but then I'd fall on Ellie's shoulder and that'd wake me up again for a couple of minutes."
Ellie looked guilty and smiled. "Sorry, I won't sit in the middle on the way back," she said.
She mimicked Saiko and tied her hair up, though she didn't have a particular reason to do so. She just noticed everyone who had long enough hair to tie up had done so, and she didn't want to be left out. She'd ask later what it was for later.
Rae still had her honey-coloured curly locks, as they were part of her image as an idol, and Gogo's hair length didn't appear to have changed much, though she wore her thick black hair in a braid now as opposed to the two small buns she usually had when Clairewood was still isolated. Other than that, everyone looked pretty much exactly like they had a year ago.
Ever since the events in Clairewood had concluded, Rae had sworn they would go on a camping trip together, and here they were, a year later, finally making good on it. It had been a while since they'd seen each other in person, so it was also a bit of a mini reunion. Gogo had moved back to her parents after her exchange year at Clairewood Academy ended, and now lived about eight hours away from Clairewood. Rae lived with Se-jin, her boyfriend, in a country four hours away, which made meetups a little more difficult. It felt like they'd just seen each other yesterday, though. Being in a Pretty Cure team together forged a sort of bond unlike any other. Even if much of that time was spent fighting against the Cures, as was Ellie's case.
Now they were all in a country unfamiliar to them, as chosen by Rae. "We'll be away from any technology," she had explained in their group chat after buying them all tickets without informing them ahead of time, "completely at the mercy of nature. We can set up camp, and make our meals over a campfire, and tell spooky stories at night, and sleep under the stars... It'll be great!" After a stunned silence of a few minutes, Gogo replied with a giant PNG of a chicken.
But here they were, all varying degrees of tired, but all quite excited. "We will take a bus that will take us to the edge of the forest, and we'll walk from there. Lots of people camp there during this time of year, so who knows, we might make some new friends!"
"I thought this was supposed to be a bonding experience for us," Gogo interjected.
"Maybe we could ask them for help if we can't figure something out, like making a fire, or something," Saiko said. She was happy to hear they wouldn't be alone. She didn't particularly feel like telling the others that she was scared. She was certain they knew that already anyway.
Rae nodded.
"Good point, Saiko! But just in case we can't…" she rummaged in the large rucksack on her back. "I've got this!" She held up a fat little manual with a bright orange cover. It was still wrapped in plastic. "This should tell us anything we might need to know about camping." She turned the book over to study the back. "It says they even have tips to keep bears away from your camp!"
"There's bears?!" Gogo exclaimed.
"We'll be fine," Nana sussed. "If bad comes to worse, we've always got these." She held up her wrist, the Cure Bracelet shining in the light.
"Yeah, if a bear doesn't get to your arm first," Gogo mumbled.
"Aw, I've got no reception out here," Nana lamented. "I wanted to send my parents some pictures of the forest." They were walking along the side of the road, with Rae in front, looking at a giant paper map that should lead them to the path into the forest.
"That makes it more nature-y!" she shouted back at Nana, who was lingering behind a little with Ellie and Saiko. "Our phones are basically just cameras right now. We've got to get by on our own smarts."
"And the smarts of your little orange book," Gogo added. "Though it might be tough to read if you don't take it out of that plastic."
"I bought it as a precaution, you know, in preparation for the trip," Rae explained. She didn't mention that she bought it at the arrival's section of the airport after landing. "I'm hoping we won't need it and can just get by on our own."
"Have you gone camping a lot?" Gogo asked. It suddenly occurred to her that none of them had asked this rather important question.
Rae froze a little and buried her face in the map. "Y-yeah, when I was a kid I went fishing with my dad and we would sometimes set up camp at the waterside so we could start fishing at the crack of dawn. I actually brought fishing equipment! It's been a while so I'm not sure how to do it anymore… But I'm sure my book has information on it."
Gogo narrowed her eyes.
"How long ago was this?"
"Oh, we're here!" Rae shouted a lot louder than was necessary. She pointed, map in hand, at a small gravel path that lead into the forest.
"Let's follow the path for a bit, and then if we see some place that looks nice we can travel deeper into the forest to set up camp."
"We're going off path?" Saiko said, peeking out from behind Nana's shoulder.
"I'd expect we would," Nana said with a smile. "Doubt anyone who's strolling through the forest would appreciate us blocking the path with our tents."
They walked on the path for a little while, and Saiko began to feel at ease. Lots of sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the path and the mossy ground, and every now and then they passed people who greeted them with a smile and a nod. The idea of staying overnight in a forest didn't seem so spooky and mysterious anymore.
After a little while they passed a group of hikers, all fitted in walking boots and sturdy jackets, and carrying rucksacks. Rae went up to them and excused herself. "I was wondering if you knew a good place to set up camp," she asked with a smile. A glint of recognition appeared in the eyes of the young man she had addressed, and Saiko wondered if he knew who Rae was. If he did, he didn't mention it, and instead pointed to a brook nearby.
"If you cross that you'll come out on a clearing, right next to a river, it's quite large and there's a huge oak in the middle of it, you can't miss it. It gets lots of sun and it's got an ideal spot for a campfire. You know how to safely make campfires?"
"Yes, of course!" Rae said. She was holding the little orange book in her hands.
The young man gave them some more advice, and then wished them the best and his group went on.
When Nana crossed the brook, she felt a little odd. She couldn't pinpoint what it was she was feeling, except that it felt like something had… Changed. She turned around and looked at the path they had just left, and of course, nothing looked different. "Are you coming?" Ellie called.
Rae and Gogo had hurried on to the clearing, but Saiko stopped when she saw Ellie stopped. "Did you feel it too?" Saiko said carefully. Nana nodded. Ellie looked from her to Nana. "What do you mean?"
"The brook," Saiko said quietly, as if she didn't want the others to overhear. "I felt something strange when I stepped over it."
"Really?" Ellie frowned. She walked back to the brook, stepped over it once, stopped, and stepped over it again. Apparently not satisfied, she did it once more, and then shrugged. "I didn't feel anything."
"Maybe it's animal instinct," Saiko said.
"Or maybe it's just paranoia," Nana proposed. Saiko nodded and they went on to the clearing, but she didn't really believe that. If she had been the only one who'd felt uneasy crossing the brook, then she could believe it was paranoia, but the fact Nana had felt it too made her feel even more uneasy.
"This is harder than building one of those do-it-yourself wardrobes," Gogo complained. She was sticking the plastic skeleton of her tent together, and every time she glanced at the instructions sprawled on the grass in front of her, she looked more frustrated.
"Really? I thought those were supposed to be easy to put together," Nana said, working on her own tent.
"Yes, well, they're not when your trying to hammer one of those wooden pegs into a hole, only to find out you chose the wrong size peg, and then you find out they didn't give you any replacements, and you try to shrug it off and move on but then you get this screw you gotta screw in but its just not sticking, so you turn your screwdriver too hard and the whole damn thing cracks in half because they used cheap-ass fake wood that isn't worth anything which is why you should just get a wardrobe built by an actual carpenter who cares about his work and doesn't make you screw around with flimsy wooden pegs and holes and- SHIT!" Gogo got so worked up that, when she finally managed to stick some semblance of a tent skeleton together, part of it snapped loose and vaulted itself into the river.
"Don't worry, I'll get it," Ellie said as she hurried off to the waterside.
"You're very passionate about Swedish furniture," Nana said after a moment of astonished silence. Gogo saw the humour of all this after the clouds had dissipated from her vision, and laughed.
With some help, they managed to put hers, Nana's and Ellie's tents together. Nana had brought an orange tent big enough for two people, as Saiko didn't want to sleep alone. Gogo's red tent was also on the large side, with a little front entrance that made it look more homely, and a little plastic window in the side. Ellie's was the most simple tent imaginable, one that wouldn't look out of place at a training camp for soldiers. It was a dull green, making it look even more military. It fit one person, and even then it would be a snug fit. Ellie didn't mind, the tent was more for the experience anyway, as she didn't need sleep and physical discomfort wasn't a sensation she was capable of feeling.
Rae felt a rock drop in her stomach as she realised she'd thought she was overly prepared for their trip, only to forget to bring the most essential part: A tent.
Gogo laughed. "That's not very chicken of you."
"At least I didn't go full tsunami about being incapable of building a tent thirty minutes ago," Rae grumbled.
"What does it mean when they say that," Ellie whispered to Nana and Saiko. "That whole 'chicken' and 'tsunami' thing."
Nana shrugged.
"We never bothered to ask, we thought it was some kind of Precure code thing between the two of them," Saiko said, realising now how odd it was they never asked.
"You can have my tent, I don't really need it anyway," Ellie said, smiling.
Rae was still scowling. "No that's okay, I'm sure my feathers will keep me warm."
"Hey, it's alright, we all forget stuff sometimes, don't worry about it. My tent is huge, you can sleep in there if you want to. I didn't bring any spare sleeping bags though," Gogo said. She felt a little guilty about teasing Rae, but she hadn't expected Rae would get so worked up over it.
"Thanks," Rae said. She breathed out a big sigh, trying to relax. She felt incredibly stupid about forgetting the tent, but nobody made a big deal about it, so maybe she was overreacting. "I did bring a sleeping bag, so that's not a problem. I brought three, actually."
"Three?!" Gogo exclaimed. "No wonder you had no space for a tent! Why three?"
Rae turned red. "I thought maybe one of you might forget to bring one, so I brought some spares." She wished her fringe was longer so she could hide her face like Saiko would.
Rae and Nana busied themselves with the fire, with the aid of Rae's limited memories of her camping trips with her dad and the little orange book, while Gogo, Saiko and Ellie messed around at the river. Saiko was resting her feet in the water, which had gotten sore from all the walking, while Gogo and Ellie tried to catch fish.
Initially Gogo had tried to use Rae's fishing rod, but she didn't have any bait. Rae explained she could use a rake she brought (Gogo had to stop herself from saying something about Rae forgetting the tent but bringing a rake of all things) to get worms to come up from the soil, and she had been in the middle of digging the rake into the ground when Ellie jumped into the river and plunged her hands into the water.
"I saw bears do this in a documentary," she explained with a big grin on her face.
"You have to stand still, and not put your hands into the water until you see a fish," Saiko said from the side of the river overlooking the lake. Her knowledge of bears, or any animal really, extended a bit further than Ellie's single documentary experience.
"Oh, okay!" Ellie said. She took her hands out of the water and stared at it intensely.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to stand on the side of the river?" Gogo asked. She left the rake sticking up out of the mud.
"I don't remember," Saiko said. "You could try it? See who catches a fish first."
Gogo leaned over the clear water streaming by her at high speed. If there were any fish, they'd stand out against the dark brown floor of the river. She hunched down, and stuck out her arms like Ellie did. She was ready.
In the end, neither of them caught anything, though Gogo did end up falling forwards into the river after losing her balance. She'd stared at the same spot for so long her head had started to spin.
Rae and Nana managed to get a fire burning quicker than they had anticipated, which was a relief. Thankfully they were not dependant on Ellie and Gogo's fishing skills for their dinner.
Dinner was simple, consisting mainly of tinned foods, but it tasted good regardless, shared with friends in the open air of the forest.
Less simple were the dishes. Rae had brought three separate collapsible sinks to do the dishes in, and they had to heat a pot of water over the fire first on which Ellie badly burnt her hand (or rather, unable to feel the steep rise in temperature as she held it in the flame, she heated it up until it glowed). She then proceeded to tease Saiko, who had shrieked when Ellie absentmindedly reached out to her, by running after her with her glowing hand outstretched.
"That's not funny!" Saiko said after she'd ran into the lake and submerged herself so only her head stuck out of the water. She was the only one in the group who did not think it was funny.
"Gather around," Rae said after they had cleared up everything. She sat next to the campfire and pointed a torch at her face.
"You look ridiculous," Gogo laughed. She grabbed a bag of marshmallows and sat down across from Rae. Ellie, Nana and Saiko joined them, albeit Saiko a little hesitantly. Now the sun had gone down the forest did seem a little spooky, and a scary story wouldn't help much.
But she preferred being with her friends over being in the tent by herself. She was decked out in her coat, Nana's coat, two blankets and Ellie's sleeping bag to keep her warm after her plunge in the river.
"Once upon a time," Rae began. "...Okay, I'm going to stop pointing this thing at my face, its hurting my eyes." She put down the torch.
Gogo chuckled. "So you start off with a fairy tale opening and then immediately break character. Great storytelling!" She rummaged in the bag of marshmallows and stuffed three of them in her mouth simultaneously.
Rae ignored her. She cleared her throat and started again.
"On a night, not unlike this one, there was a family. They lived in a forest just like this one. They heard a knock at the door…" It became clear to everyone rather quickly that Rae was making the story up on the spot. It wasn't very good. Both Gogo and Nana had to bite their tongue not to interrupt. Saiko was relieved at how Rae's fumbling made her story anything but scary, and Ellie was very confused.
"The babysitter heard a voice coming from upstairs," Rae continued, the story now having somehow changed setting from the forest house to a suburban street with a babysitter as its main character. "When she went to look, she saw it was HER FRIEND!" Rae screamed. Saiko jumped.
"Oh good," Ellie said, sounding relieved. "I was afraid something bad had happened when her friend went upstairs to check on the children."
"With NO LEGS! CRAWLING DOWN THE STAIRS! OF BLOOD!" Rae continued droning, leaving a dramatic pause after every exclamation. Ellie's eyes widened with every shout.
"That's awful!" she exclaimed. "Who did that to her? Was it the kids?"
Rae paused. "Uh, no, it wasn't the kids. The kids are dead."
Ellie gasped. "Did her friend do that? Oh! Did the friend get in a fight with the kids, and then they cut off her legs, and she killed them, and now she's going to attack the babysitter? She should run!"
"That'd be a better story than whatever this is," Gogo mumbled. The bag of marshmallows was empty.
"N-no it ends after the friend is crawling down the stairs. I guess she gets out? I mean, that'd make sense..." Rae shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe I should've thought a little harder about the ending."
"Allow me!" Gogo piped up. She tossed the bag to the side of her chair and sat up. "This is a story Vilmar told me a billion times when I was a kid. Okay, so there's this guy who works at this pizza place, right, but he's like, a night guard. And he's new to the job…"
Gogo's story wasn't any better than Rae's. It might've had the potential to be scary, but Gogo told it more like an anecdote than an actual story. Ellie wasn't particularly fond of the story because it featured evil robots. "I liked the one about the babysitter in the forest better. That one had a cool battle at least."
"But you made up the battle," Saiko protested quietly.
"We should get some sleep," Rae said, getting up. "We have to get up early tomorrow morning, I want to show you guys how to fish."
Gogo frowned. "You've got enough equipment on you for five people?"
Rae looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Yes, of course I do."
Gogo nodded placidly and echoed: "Of course you do."
As they were all quite exhausted from the trip and setting up camp, and Ellie could shut herself down whenever she wanted, it didn't take long before they were all sound asleep.