The next day, after they had broken down the tents and repacked them, the eleven of them moved on. That is to say, ten of them moved on. The eleventh, one Cindy Connor, walked in exactly the opposite direction. She had been making it a point to get lost every one or two days. They all just wrote it off as Cindy trying to get some attention.

Raven was the first to notice that she was missing this time. He blew out a long breath, hissing through his teeth. Okay, he thought impatiently, the first few times I didn't mind. It was actually kind of interesting, going out and exploring different parts of the forest, but this is the fourth time she's done this. The novelty is really starting to wear off.

Raven turned to his right, where Ryan was walking. He really didn't know the other boy very well, but Shara seemed to like him so he couldn't be too bad.

"I have to go," he muttered, just loud enough so that the purple-haired boy would hear him.

"Huh? Why?" Ryan asked, stopping in his tracks, and taking a moment to be grateful that no one was walking behind him.

"Cindy's run off again," Raven said, not sure whether he was disgusted with Cindy or just really, really angry.

"Hey slowpokes! If you don't want to spend the rest of your lives wandering around in the woods, I suggest you get your butts in gear!" Conrad shouted from somewhere up ahead.

"Sorry, Conrad, we can't!" Ryan shouted right back, grinning. "We'd love to, but we really, really can't!"

"Oh? And why might that be?"

"Raven said Cindy's run off again!"

"What?! Oh, for Christ's sake, this is the fourth time! What, does she think we have time to spare for every one of her little tantrums?!"

"Raven says he's prepared to go out and look for her again," Ryan said. Now that Conrad had come to stand with Raven and Ryan, Ryan could speak without shouting across the forest.

"I'll tell dad, that is, if he didn't overhear that little exchange. You go and find Cindy."

"Right." Raven nodded.

"Are you sure you don't want some help?" Ryan asked.

"No. I've always been able to find her before."

"Oh. Okay, suit yourself. Good luck, Raven."

Raven smiled slightly, he was starting to get to like Ryan. Turning, with a last wave back at his brother and new friend, Raven set off into the forest. Cindy had always seemed to be looking for him the other times she'd run off, so all Raven thought he had to do was start looking for her. Looking back, he found that he was too far away from the others to see anything but the trees that surrounded them.

Sighing, Raven continued on his way. After twenty minutes, even Raven's patience was starting to wear thin.

"Cindy, I know you're out here somewhere. Everyone's waiting for us, so why don't you make it easy and come out already?" Raven listened, but only the silence of the forest answered him.

Raven ran a hand through his short gray hair, grabbing a fistful and pulling it just hard enough to distract himself from his growing annoyance. Hissing through his teeth, Raven continued to search.

"C'mon Cindy, this really isn't funny anymore!" Raven had never been known to shout, so this display was very unlike him. But since his tolerance for Cindy's antics was reaching an all-time low, this was only natural. "Quit playing around! I meant it Cindy, these games of yours are getting on my nerves!"

Raven stopped, listening to the echoes of his voice as they faded into the background noise of the forest. Just as he was approaching a particularly tall tree, Raven heard something. It was a sound unlike anything he had ever heard, though in some respects it was similar to the phasers he had heard sometimes on Star Trek.

His last thought was: Who would have brought a toy phaser this far into the woods? Then, a sharp but somehow not entirely painful burning sensation rushed through his body. The last thing Raven saw was the trunk of the tree he had been looking at, seemingly rushing forward to hit him. Then, nothing but blackness.

Raven woke up with a bad headache, and, once he opened his eyes, the really unpleasant feeling of being blinded. A few seconds spent groping for his missing sunglasses, and Raven was able to open his eyes without feeling like they would be burned out of their sockets. A sound carried on the wind caught his attention just then, crunching. Like someone was walking on the thick carpet of leaves.

The sound was coming closer.

"Cindy, is that you?!"

No answer. Raven wasn't even sure that whoever was coming could even hear him yet.

"I really should warn you, I know karate!" Raven shouted to the as-yet-unknown person. If it really was Cindy, she'd probably get a good laugh out of that.

Again, no answer. The sound just kept coming closer, and Raven began to wonder if Cindy was going to try to sneak up on him. She was probably going to double-back somewhere, since she now knew that he was on to her. It's what he would do, after all. I'll just have to outthink her, Raven smirked.

Slipping off his backpack, then crouching down to the ground so as not to make any noise when he put it on the ground, Raven took a moment to reorient himself after having such a heavy weight taken off his back. Once Raven was sure he could stand and walk without falling over backwards, Raven started to slink over to where the sounds of footfalls and crunching leaves were coming from.

Making as little noise as he could, Raven moved slowly forward, hoping not to alert Cindy that he was coming. When he was close enough to see the silhouette of the person, Raven pounced.

"Gotcha!"

The person who Raven tackled, though it was a female, and though she was blonde, was not Cindy Connor. Once Raven noticed that this girl wasn't his friend, all his shyness about meeting new people rushed to the fore. Jumping off the girl like he'd just been stung by a bee, Raven turned away.

"I'm – I'm very sorry I did that," Raven said, speaking hurriedly, his head turned as if he was talking to the trees instead of to the girl. "I thought you were someone I knew."

"Oww," she moaned.

"Are you hurt?" Raven asked, snap-turning back to the girl. "I didn't hit you that hard, did I?"

As the girl lying on the ground sat up, Raven noticed that she reminded him a lot of how Cindy used to be. Cindy used to be the kind of person who would get mad if you so much as bumped into her, and the way this new girl was glaring at him reminded him of those times Cindy would go off on someone for getting in her way. She looks more like Shara, though. It was true too, with her long blonde hair and gymnast's build; she did indeed resemble Raven's younger sister. She even looked about the same age. She was a lot taller, though. Even taller than him, or she would have been if both of them had been standing up.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," Raven said again.

"All right, all right." She sighed. "Could you just help me up?"

"Sure."

Raven pulled her back to her feet. Sure enough, she was about a foot-and-a-half taller than him. Then he noticed what she was wearing. His first thought was: Why would anyone be doing barefoot gymnastics this far out in the forest?

She seemed a bit confused though. No, make that a lot confused. As if even she didn't know why she was wandering around in the forest, barefoot, and wearing a black leotard.

"Are you lost?"

"Yeah, I think I am," she muttered, looking hurriedly back over her shoulder. She seemed frightened of something. "There was some kind of a monster following me, but I think it's gone now."

A monster? Okay, that's a new one. Raven didn't give her the same sideways look that one of his brothers might have, but that was only because he didn't want to offend her again. Still, even if she was wandering around in the forest, spouting delusional-sounding nonsense, there was no real reason for her to look as crazy as she sounded. Who knows, she might even be telling the truth. As incredibly unlikely as that scenario was.

"Wait here," Raven said, already turning away, intending to head for his backpack.

She grabbed his arm, arresting him in midmotion.

"You're not going to just leave me here, are you?" she demanded.

"Of course not. I just think that you should be a bit more… properly equipped for wandering around in the forest."

"I'm coming with you." She had a very definite way of speaking, no doubts about anything. There were times that Raven admired that, and times that it just annoyed Raven to no end. Time would tell if the girl belonged to the latter category or the former.

They reached his backpack without any more words being exchanged. Raven didn't mind this, as it allowed him time to mentally run through the clothes he had packed for this trip. None of his pants would fit on a person as tall as she was, or if they did, they wouldn't look very good. She did look as if one of his shirts might fit passably.

"I'm going to let you borrow some of my clothes. But they might look a little strange on you," Raven warned.

"Stranger than this?" the girl tugged at her leotard. "Let's do it."

Once she said that, she seemed to grow even more confused. It was as if that particular phrase was familiar to her, somehow. First things first, Raven reminded himself. I'll get her dressed normally, and then I can ask her to tell me her life story. If she can even remember it, that is.

The girl was acting like a lot of the amnesia victims Raven had read about in various books. She seemed to be displaying most – if not all – of the symptoms. Raven wondered if she was really suffering from amnesia, or if she was just a very good actress.

"Um, you can pick out whatever clothes you want, but I only have one pair of shoes that you can borrow," Raven said.

"Sure, thanks." Raven noted that she seemed to be focusing more on the contents of his pack than on him. That was fine, better that she knew what she was going to wear.

Once she had finished getting the clothes she was going to wear, Raven turned and began digging through his pack for the old, extra pair of shoes he'd brought along on a whim. It's a good thing I decided to take these along, he thought. Raven had read often in one book or another about the characters feeling destiny at work, or something to that effect. Maybe that's why I brought those shoes.

Raven wanted to laugh, but he figured that that would only further confuse the girl he was trying to help. She was dressed by now, he noticed, wearing his old gray tee shirt with the blue outline of a tiger on it. She had also chosen to wear a pair of his jeans, despite the fact that they ended about nine inches from her ankles.

"You look good – I think," Raven commented. "Here, I think these should fit you." He handed her the shoes.

"Oh, slip-ons, good. I can handle these." She quickly put them on. "They look nice, thanks."

"Are they tight?"

"No. Well, at least not very. Anyway, they look nice."

"I could loan you another pair," Raven suggested.

"Don't bother." She waved him off. "I like these. By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Raven Carter. Who are you?"

"I'm… going to have to get back to you on that. Honestly, I'm not even sure myself about that."

"Why don't you come and find me again when you find out who you are? I'd like to hear how your story ends. I'm not all that fond of cliffhangers, after all."

"You'll still be here?"

"Yeah. For the next three weeks, at least."

"Okay," she said. "I'll come and find you when I get my memory back. And then we can talk some more." She grinned. "After all, you're not the only one who doesn't like cliffhangers."

The two of them laughed, then quickly sobered up.

"Is that a promise?" Raven asked, still smiling.

"It sure is!" she held out her right hand, they shook. Then she smiled wider.

"Raven! Where are you?!" he heard Conrad calling from the forest. "We found Cindy! Don't tell me we're going to have to go find you too!"

"Well, I guess I have to-" Raven had turned in the direction that his brother's voice had been coming from, but when he turned back the girl was nowhere in sight. "-go now."

Raven's lips curled into a soft, thoughtful halfsmile. I guess I'll see you soon, mystery girl.

"Raven!"

"I'm coming, Conrad! I'm coming!"

Raven picked up his backpack, resettled it on his shoulders, and headed off to find his family.