The Dranon Heiress

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade so don't sue. Besides, I'm dirt poor (as an authoress) so if you want money, go ask my fanfic-counterpart, Chika, cos she's filthy rich.

---- Chapter Five ----

"How are things at your end?"

"Fine. Except a few hitches, nothing's really wrong."

"I left before I could see what they did."

Chika looked up at the starry sky and wondered when was the last time she had ever had some peace and quiet in the forest. When she lost count of the years it had been since, she shrugged and adjusted the earphones to her hands-free set. On the other end, Rika was humming softly to herself.

"I heard from Naoko," Chika said suddenly. "Her group's camped exactly where they landed. It seems to me like her lazy instincts are kicking in. They're running short of water."

"Serves her right, useless bum," Rika replied.

"Where are you camped?"

"Some distance from our landing place," Rika informed. "The idiot, Ian, didn't want to carry anything, so the tents were never brought from the helicopter. I don't think they know this, but the food wasn't brought either."

"So what are you sleeping under?"

"Huh, they made some sort of strange looking tent out of their spare clothes," Rika said contemptuously. Chika chuckled under her breath. "Improvised what they thought a tent looked like. Stupid idiots. They're freezing their arses off."

Rei's voice came through the speaker. He asked who Rika was talking to at this hour, but only received what passed for a death threat. Chika smiled. Leave it to Rika to terrorise her group until they were scared witless. She was sitting on one of the higher branches of a tree, resting on it, actually, because she hadn't wanted to sleep in the tents. There was only four, and the guys were too stubborn to sleep in one with members of another team. So Kai was in one, Robert and Oliver were in another, Tala had his own, and Michael hogged one. She was given the choice of sharing with one of the guys who had his own tent, but she declined.

"You're up in a tree too, aren't you?" she asked. "Knowing you, you would definitely NOT sleep under a makeshift tent made out of guys' clothes."

"Yeah. I guess we both had the same idea."

"Hey, so I'll talk to you later. I don't want to rouse my group's curiosity."

--------

Quiet.

That was the first word that came to Kai's mind as his eyes opened. He could see the canvas which made up the top of the tent, but everything else was shrouded in darkness. Sitting up, he decided that he could not sleep. Not when the knowledge that his newfound rival was perhaps freezing out in the cold because they were too stubborn to share with some other guy. He slipped on a warm sweater and lifted the tent-flap.

No one was outside. Their camp fire was banked, but still gave off a little warmth. There was still no sign of any movement. He looked around at the surrounding area.

//What could have possibly possessed her to leave the camp?//

He walked past the campfire and through the tall trees. The smell of leaves, bark and the mossy ground was everywhere. The only sound heard was an owl in a nearby tree, hooting and swooping down on its prey. It didn't disturb him. He walked on like he was prowling, eyes flickering to either side in search of familiar blue eyes.

". . . I don't want to rouse my group's curiosity. Night."

He headed in the direction of the voice. That was before he heard a snap and a bird-like shriek from the same direction. He began to run, convinced that it hadn't been a bird who made the sound. When listened to carefully, it sounded more like a scream. He reached the base of a particularly large tree and looked up.

Chika was hanging from a weak looking branch, breathing heavily. He looked down and saw another branch around the same size had fallen down. She still hadn't seen him.

//Things just couldn't get worse// she thought to herself. //It just couldn't get worse//

"Chika? What are you doing up there?"

She saw who had spoken and dread filled her eyes. She groaned.

//It just did// she whined in her mind. //Oh no, not him. Why him?//

"What are you doing up there?"

"Nothing. I just like impersonating a monkey in the middle of the night," she drawled sarcastically. She glared at him. "Get lost, before I get my hands on you."

Kai surveyed his surroundings before looking back up at her. He heard a faint creak and his eyes flitted to the branch she was holding on to. It was snapping, its delicate limbs not taking the pressure of her sudden weight very well. A breeze blew past, bringing the sound of quiet laughter with it. Chika rolled her eyes.

//Great, now even Rika knows I've fallen off the branch of a tree//

"Hey."

Kai's voice brought her back down to earth. He was WAY below, so that she could only just make out the expression on his face. He held his arms out, positioned under her.

"What do you want?"

"Let go." His voice was flat, demanding. "I'll catch you. Trust me, let go."

"Easier said than done," she snapped. "This is a fifty-foot tall tree, if you hadn't noticed."

"It's not like I can't support your weight," he replied with a smirk. "Heaven knows we've already had THAT experience before. Don't worry. I'm not going to take advantage."

"Advantage your arse!" she yelled.

Height wasn't exactly one of her favourite things and it irritated her to see that she was really high off the ground. Besides the fact that Kai had just prodded a sore spot and that she had seen one of her least favourite living things in the world. She shuddered. Snakes. When she had hung up, a snake was slithering its way across the branch towards her. And she HATED snakes. Other things she didn't mind, but snakes - she didn't even want to go there.

"You can't hold on there forever."

"Says who?"

"Says the branch," he shot back. "It's breaking."

She looked quickly at it. Horrified, she knew he was right. But she was still suffering the after-effects of her scare - courtesy of the stupid snake. Her nerves were all a jumble and she was sure, if the branch DID break, she would not be able to save herself in time. That, at least, was a sensible thing that had processed through her mind - not including hurling insults at the one named Kai.

"Come on," he called. "I'll catch you."

//If he touches me the wrong way, I'll kill him// she vowed. Taking a deep breath, she pried her fingers from the bark. Her stomach shot all the way up, until she was sure it would come out of her mouth. Biting down the initial shock, she steadied herself - trying to regain her composure, even though she was frightened out of her wits.

He dropped his arms suddenly and turned to go, but at that time, she chose to land. A moment later, Kai was on the ground, looking absolutely pissed off. She sat casually on his back, as if nothing were wrong. He drummed his fingers on the ground annoyedly.

"Get off."

She did as he asked, dusting herself off and brushing back several strands of her hair. Kai got up slowly, before glaring at her all over again. She turned around to go.

"Hey."

"What?"

"I just saved your life, you know."

"So what?" she asked, turning her head to look at him. "All you did was lie on the floor."

---- End of Chapter Five ----

A/N: I'm breezing through chapters!!!

All right, so the fourth chapter wasn't so good, but never mind. I was having a writer's block anyway and I really wanted to get started on this camp thing, but had to get the other stuff over and done with first. Like, for example, saying how the other teams came to be in Japan and yeah.

By the way, I still don't know the Japanese names for the characters!!!!!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bittersweet Angel