Chapter 18
Cassie

We decided to head to the forest floor for the night. It was the safest place to be, since it was raining, and the sun was setting fast. Marco, of course, wanted to get as far away from the area as possible, but on the ground it was already to dark to see anything.
We found a (very)little cave sheltered by trees and vines that we choose as our shelter. I morphed wolf to make sure there were no inhabitants of the cave.
I laid towards the mouth of the cave with the others, listening to the soft drip drip drip of the rain.
Marco leaned against the wall, rubbing his neck and muttering.
Ax and Fi stood towards the back of the cave, talking amongst themselves.
Jake was pacing, no doubt brooding over his responsibilities. Amara, however, was sleeping. Sprawled out at the base of a rock. And snoring softly. The sight almost made me laugh. She sure wasn't a troubled leader.
The others were all randomly spaced around our little cave, sleeping or humming. Kai was away.
Amara sat up and yawned. She blinked and looked around. "Where's Kai-chan?"
"Dunno," I shrugged. "She said she had to go get something."
Shinji laughed. "Knowing Kai, she's probably picking flowers."
"Exactly, Shinji-san!" Kai poked her head into the cave, and walked in. Soaking, and with an armful of flowers.
We stared at her. "And what are those for?" Nichirasu asked.
She didn't answer. She sat down, crossed legged and sat her bundle beside her. She took a yellow flower and began to grind it up on top on a small rock. She added a few more yellow flowers until she had kind of a purple/yellowish goop in her bowl shaped rock.
Then she got up and carried the bowl over to Marco. She slopped some goop on his neck.
"YAH! That's cold!"
She paid him no mind, and kept sloshing. After awhile, she say back on her heels. "There, that'll help."
He looked at her suspiciously.
She merely shrugged and sat down. She took a purple flower.
"Does that one have healing properties too?" I asked curiously.
She blinked. "No. These are for a flower crown I'm going to make now."
Amara giggled as Kai strung her flowers together.
She's such an odd little person, I thought, cocking my head and looking at her.
When the night became too dark to see anyone around me, I tried to get to sleep. I really don't think anyone did. I kept glancing at the mouth of the cave, half-fearing and half-expecting to see the jungle girl with her knife.
Jake came and sat next to me.
"Why did that girl hate us so much?" I whispered.
Silence. "I don't know." He answered quietly.
I sighed. "Well, this is going to be fun."

Chapter 19
Nichirasu

It was almost dawn. Note the 'almost'. It was still like four freaking thirty in morning and darker than a crow's feather.
And that's dark.
I was just about to finally fall asleep. After all the nights troubled whisperings and the rain and Amara's snoring, it was finally quiet and I could finally sleep.
Yeah, right. Why is the world so cruel?
"KIAH!!!" A battle cry!
Confusion! Confusion everywhere!
A knife! A spear!
Amara's strangled cry, "Morph!!!"
They had attack us. Those stupid Princess Mononoke looking jungle people had jumped us!
"Ax! Help us here!" Jake cried.
"No! Don't hurt them!!"
"Bail bail bail!!"
We ran. I didn't know who was with me or who was fighting. All I knew was I was hauling some serious butt.
Running, running blindly away from the cave. And I was morphing as I ran. Not a battle morph, and morph to get away.
Also, I wasn't quite thinking straight at the time so I morphed a pretty stupid thing.
Crow.
My legs started to dwindle. No, no!! I needed those!
Suddenly, "OOF!!"
Something-someone- had jumped on top of me. I barely had to time to think, "Wha?" And then I went out cold.