I'm back with the next chapter! Did I update fast enough?
Also, this chapter is a bit longer, so... hope you guys enjoy it!
Hazeltail's POV
The many campers sit around the campfire. A figure approaches towards the back. In the gleam of moonlight, the axe shines a little, and the figure raises the axe, about to strike, when suddenly...
"GAH!" screams Bumblestripe, falling backwards off the log. The rest of us laugh at his tall-tale story. Bumblestripe picks himself up and sits back down in between Dovewing and Ivypool, the two sisters.
"Axe stories are so old," Jayfeather murmurs.
"Stop it, Jay-Jay sass master," says Toadstep. He and Foxleap have started calling Jayfeather that, and it annoys the heck out of Jayfeather.
Jayfeather tosses a marshmallow at Toadstep. Toadstep catches it in his mouth and eats it.
"Okay, guys, but I've got a better story," says Foxleap. He clears his throat. "It's called, The Fabulous, the Weird, and the Sassy: The tale of Foxleap, Toadstep, and Jayfeather."
"You must have put those in the wrong order," retorts Toadstep, "because I'm obviously the fabulous one."
Foxleap pushes Toadstep off of his log and continues the story, ignoring Toadstep's angry murmurs.
"The story begins with a trio of guys named Fox the Fabulous, Toad the Weirdo, and Jay the Sassy. Fox was so fabulous that everyone in the kingdom loved him."
"Oh, great, so we're in a kingdom now?" Jayfeather growls.
"Toad was so weird that everyone just ignored him. And Jay was so sassy that everyone feared him."
...? I think to myself. I would have said that out loud, but I'm not quite sure how to say "...?" out loud.
"One day," continues Foxleap, "there was a man named Tiger who was jealous of the three. He was so normal that he was not as weird as Toad. He wanted to be as weird as Toad."
"Rewind... Tiger? Who the heck is that?" asks Rosepetal.
"I needed a random name," Foxleap says, pushing Rosepetal off the log as well.
He's going to form a habit out of pushing people off of logs, I think.
"Also, why would someone want to be as weird as my brother?" Rosepetal asks again.
Foxleap pushes Rosepetal off the log again. He clears his throat and continues. "Tiger was also jealous of Jay, for Tiger noticed that whenever someone made fun of Jay, he always snapped back at them. Tiger wanted to be as sassy as Jay."
"But the person Tiger admired the most was Fox, for Tiger wanted so badly to be as fabulous as Fox."
"So then what?" asks Ivypool, obviously bored.
"So Tiger tries to kidnap the three, but with Fox's fabulous ninja skills, Tiger is defeaten. And the kingdom lives happily ever after, and Fox is crowned king, the end."
Everybody just stares at Foxleap. I try to smile and clap for him, but my clapping fades away as nobody joins me.
"Sooooooo, who wants s'mores?" suggests Cinderheart, struggling to turn around and grab the bag of chocolates and graham crackers. But her broken leg twists around, and she yowls in pain.
Hollyleaf grabs the s'mores ingredients for her and turns to her best friend, full of concern. Cinderheart breathes a sigh of relief as she gets a water bottle and drinks it.
I look down at the ground. I don't want to end camp like this. I don't want camp to end at all. We've got to make our second to last night at camp fun.
Wait a minute...
Icecloud's POV
Lionblaze and I are next to each other when Hazeltail stands up.
"We're going to play Charades."
Berrynose looks at his sister. "What are you, five? Grow up, Hazeltail."
"Shut up, Berrynose," says Foxleap. "I'm liking this idea."
Hazeltail smiles. "Thanks, Foxleap. Anyways, I think you guys all know how to play charades. So I'll start. The category will be animals, something easy to start with."
Hazeltail thinks for a moment before dancing around the fire on her tiptoes, flapping her arms around. She looks kind of crazy, but the others finally begin to smile, so I think it's okay.
"A bird!" exclaims Foxleap. Hazeltail nods as my crazy red-haired brother stands up and sits on the ground. He starts moo-ing.
"A cow!" yells Mousewhisker as Foxleap nods and Mousewhisker stands up.
"You guys are so immature," Berrynose mutters, rolling his eyes.
"Berrynose, this is your brother!" Honeyfern says in shock.
Mousewhisker stands on one foot and holds his arms to his side, but he has no balance and wobbles over.
Honeyfern giggles. "A flamingo!"
"No, Honeyfern! Don't turn to the dark side!" Berrynose protests.
"Shut up, Berrynose, or else we are no longer dates to the dance!" Honeyfern retorts. She lays on the ground and says, "ssssssss..."
"A snake!" Rosepetal says. She trades spots with Honeyfern as she gets down on her hands and knees and neighs.
"A horse!" laughs Toadstep. The siblings exchange places and Toadstep sits down and starts saying something really quietly, then yells, "ugh!"
"A... seal?" Foxleap says, confused.
"No, I'm Berrynose!" Toadstep laughs. It makes me laugh, too.
Berrynose looks up. "What?"
Foxleap walks over to Berrynose and pushes him off his log, and then my brother returns to his seat.
I suddenly remember that Toadstep and Berrynose are cousins, so Berrynose shouldn't take this too harshly. But anyways, I stand up and say, "my turn!" as Toadstep returns to his seat and I get on the ground by the fire.
I sit down and put my hand to my face and start to lick my hand.
The others laugh and someone exclaims, "a cat!"
"Correct!" I say, returning to my seat. Dovewing is about to stand up, but all of a sudden, I hear something.
"Shh," I whisper to the others.
"What?" Berrynose growls.
"Just shut up!" I whisper-scream. I feel a chill of wind coming towards me. I look over at the bushes, and I stand up and walk over to them, with careful steps.
"Icecloud, be careful..." one of the campers say as I look over at the bushes. They've stopped moving, but beyond these bushes... I hear laughing.
"Guys, do you hear that?" I ask. I turn around as the others all slowly begin to stand up.
"Guys!" wails Cinderheart.
"What is that?" Poppyfrost asks.
Everyone stays silent at this time. Not even Berrynose says anything.
We listen as the laughing and talking gets closer.
"Uh oh..." whispers Jayfeather. "I can just barely hear them."
Of course, Jayfeather's got incredible hearing, considering he can't see. So I ask, "Jayfeather, what are they saying?"
Jayfeather swallows. Even though it's hard to see him in the dark, with only the moon and the campfire as light, I can see Jayfeather's face pale.
He shudders. "They're saying something about annoying Thunderkids-"
As if on cue, a gust of wind suddenly blows, and we all shudder, and the campfire is blown out. Ivypool screams - or is that Dovewing?
"Does anyone have a flashlight?" I ask, thinking quick.
"We don't have time for flashlights!" protests Berrynose. "Everyone, run!"
Lionblaze, next to me, grabs Berrynose's wrist. "Are you crazy? We're surrounded by bushes... Some with thorns! And our only visible escape is the path that leads to them!"
"Everyone, get ready to fight!" Bumblestripe says.
"Foxleap and I have black belts in karate," I offer.
"That's wonderful," says Blossomfall. "Just... Oh, I want to go home!"
The four shadowed figures appear to come closer. One of them shines a flashlight in our eyes. They know we're here. They know who we are.
And they're probably here for a reason.
The four figures finally step into the little campfire clearing. I waste no more time.
"ThunderCabins, attack!"
I close my eyes and kick the air, but someone grabs my foot. I open my eyes and try to free my foot, but whoever grabbed it has a firm hold on it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys!" says a familiar voice. My leg is released, and the flashlight that had been shining on us earlier is now in Foxleap's hands. He shines it on the four figures, and his jaw drops.
"Brambleclaw! You scared us!" Lionblaze gasps.
"Yeah, and you guys scared us!" Ashfur protests.
Next to the two boy counselors are Sorreltail and Squirrelflight. Squirrelflight stands closest to me, so she must have been the one to grab my leg.
"Squirrelflight, why did you hurt me?" I frown.
Squirrelflight shrugs. "Just self-defense."
I squint my eyes. "But I just got my black belt in karate!"
Squirrelflight looks at her fingernails. "I got my black belt five years ago."
I turn around to look at all the fellow shocked Thundercampers. I turn to the counselors, then to the campers.
"So, what were you guys even doing?" asks Cinderheart.
Sorreltail speaks up. "Okay guys, well..."
Squirrelflight interrupts us. "We gave you guys the privilege of staying alone at this campfire that we built for you guys. We gave you one rule. ONE. Does anyone remember that rule?"
For a moment, nobody speaks. But after a while, Hazeltail squeaks, "be back at the cabins by eleven."
"And what time is it?" Brambleclaw asks.
Hollyleaf barely manages to say, "nearly midnight."
"Well?" Ashfur asks. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"We won't do it next time, Ashfur!" Foxleap says.
"You guys are crazy," says Squirrelflight. "And there won't be a next time, because tomorrow's already the dance."
"Yay!" squeals Dovewing.
"So, what's our punishment?" I ask.
The four counselors stare at each other.
"First off, Foxleap, get the flashlight out of our eyes," Brambleclaw growls. My brother turns off the flashlight, squeaks, "sorry!", and gives the flashlight back to Brambleclaw.
"Your punishment," Squirrelflight decides, "is to show your camping skills and rebuild the fire, then make each of us a s'more."
"Perfect!" decides Rosepetal before any of the counselors can come up with a more worse punishment.
"Okay, guys," I say. "We need a few more sticks and leaves..."
And after a few minutes, we get another fire started. Bumblestripe and Mousewhisker make s'mores for Brambleclaw and Ashfur as Honeyfern and Rosepetal make s'mores for Sorreltail and Squirrelflight.
When we're done, we all sit on logs and eat s'mores, with the warmth of the fire.
Squirrelflight laughs as she wipes her mouth with her sleeve. "Oh, how I love camp," she says.
"I'm going to miss it," agrees Brambleclaw.
For a while, nobody else speaks. We just sit in silence, agreeing. I can barely imagine returning home...
"Since we'll still be here for a few more minutes before we go to bed..." begins Toadstep.
"Can you tell us a scary story or something?" Foxleap finishes.
The four counselors look at each other and laugh. Sorreltail finally begins to speak.
"I'll tell you guys a story filled with humor and horror," she says. "Once, in the middle of the woods..."
And we laugh the night away.
Hope you guys liked it! Don't forget to...
Sorreltail: Review!
Brambleclaw: Follow!
Squirrelflight: and favorite!
Also, if you leave a review for this chapter, you will be mentioned in the next chapter as a fabulous reviewer :) So PLEASE review! ~Silverblaze
