Ned Bigby stirred and opened his eyes when his vision cleared he could see the moon and Just below it the trees. The only thing he couldn't see was the campsite. The he remembered something he had over heard earlier that day on the bus. Billy Loomer, the school bully, and his buddies that it would be funny to dump Ned and Cookie out in the middle of nowhere. The class was on a camping trip in the rocky mountains they were here because Ned opened his big mouth and made the mistake of letting the teacher in charge of the trip her him talk about how he secretly liked camping
Just then Ned heard and soft moan and some rustling on the ground next to him. Ned turned toward the sound and in the moonlight was able to make out another sleeping bag. But to his surprise the head that popped out the sleeping bag wasn't cookie's it was Moze!
"Moze," said Ned, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," said Moze Groggily, "What happened? What are we doing here?"
"Loomer is what happened," Muttered Ned, "This is just another on of his practical jokes!" Ned suddenly smiled,
"What's so funny?" said Moze clambering out of her sleeping bag.
"According to what I heard on the bus Loomer's errand boys were supposed to toss cookie out here with me," replied Ned, "boy is he going to flip when he finds out that it was you in that sleeping bag and not Cookie, you know what a crush he has on you."
Right then Ned noticed that Moze wasn't wearing one of her normal outfits. She was wearing a pair of cotton shorts and a pink tank top.
"Nice outfit," he said
"Very funny," snarled Moze
"Alright," said Ned trying to ignore how appealing Moze looked in the moon light. "The best thing to do is to stay put until they find us." after finding a more comfortable spot they climbed back into their sleeping bags. They were almost asleep when a wolf howled nearby. Ned was jarred awake by a suddenly bear hug that was nearly crushing his wind pipe and his hips at the same time. He found Moze hugging him with her arms and her legs.
"How did you get into to my sleeping bag so fast?" He said quirking an eyebrow at her.
"I don't know," said Moze turning red as she began to comprehend where she was and how close she was to Ned, "That wolf howl startled me."
"Don't worry," said Ned, "wolves actually avoid humans as much as possible."
"I guess I'm just not used to camping or getting dumped out in the middle of nowhere for that matter." Said Moze
DAYBREAK…
The main campsite, which was about 20 miles away from Ned and Moze, was in a state of general panic. The principal's strobe light hat was on full blast and he was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, Gordy had built a "satellite tracking system" out of a roll of chicken wire and an old trashcan lid. Cookie was in the middle of printing out missing person posters when Bully Loomer and his cronies came walking around the corner at the end of the row of tents. Loomer stopped dead in his tracks when he saw cookie sitting there.
"Hey Cyborg," he snarled, "Where's Bigby?"
"He and Moze disappeared from the camp last night," Replied Cookie growing melodramatic, "They're out there alone relying on their wits for survival." Loomer didn't hear the last part of cookies speech he had zoned out the minute cookie had said that Moze was out there with Ned. He now stood staring daggers at his cronies.
"My sweet Jennifer is out there," he snarled, "you told me cookie was in that sleeping bag!"
"Well we can't tell a blue tent from a red tent in the dark." They whimpered then they took off running with Loomer at their heels. They rounded a corner and ran squarely into Mr. Sweeny.
"Mr. Loomer," he thundered, "Am I to understand that you and your friends were behind the disappearance of Bigby and Mosley?" with out waiting for an answer he somehow grabbed all three of them by the collars and dragged them into his detention tent.
Moze sat on a rock finishing off her half of the granola bar that Ned had found in his pocket and split with her, between fits of laughter as he gave his impression of Cookie giving there eulogies. When daylight had come Ned had discovered that they were in the bottom of a dry riverbed. Of course that wasn't nearly as disconcerting to him as the night before when Moze had said she was to jittery to go back to her own sleeping bag and had come right out and asked to stay in his sleeping bag with him. Never being able to say no to her he relented. She had then sworn him to secrecy about it knowing full well that their parents would hit the ceiling if they found out.
Still it wasn't easy for Ned to sleep. Apparently Moze had habit of nuzzling her pillow in her sleep and since there was no pillow Ned laid there for most of the night with Moze nuzzling his chest every five minutes.
Ned studied the dark clouds up on the top of a distant ridge for several minutes as Moze Rolled up the sleeping bags.
"We need to get up out of this riverbed and move to higher ground." He said
"You said last night that we needed to stay put." Replied Moze
"I know," grimaced Ned but if we stay here we could get caught in a flashflood when the storm clouds on top of the ridge open up."
"When did you become such a mountain man?" asked Moze
"My cousin Jason, you've never met him, used to bring me camping up here when I was younger. He's two years older than me, but in one weekend he could teach me more about survival and the woods than the boy scouts could teach me in a year. He taught me how to anticipate the weather by the humidity and air pressure around me." By this time Ned and Moze had scaled the riverbank and were walking down the trail. Ned looked around.
"We're about twenty miles south of the campground," he commented
"Twenty miles," said Moze, "How did Loomer get us all the way down here."
"My guess would be that modified golf cart that Gordy showed up in." Replied Ned.
2 hours later…
Someone at base camp finally had enough presence of mind to call the rangers, and the rangers organized a search party. By the time they reached the spot where Loomer confessed to leaving them. Ned's prediction had come true there had been a flash flood and the dry river bed was now a raging torrent. No one knew that Ned and Moze were two hours away from that spot.
Ned and Moze walked for another thirty minutes then they stopped to rest. Ned Looked around and hearing a creek nearby suddenly remembered something special nearby. Moze laid down on a bed of soft green moss and was soon dozing. When she awoke the first thing that she realized that she was hungry. Her nose picked up the scent of a green herb that smelled like peppermint. Moze was so hungry that she ate almost half of the plant. Then she heard Ned humming.
Ned had remembered that in the edge of the creek near that very spot there was a natural hot spring, and while Moze rested he decided that there wouldn't be any harm in a little skinny dipping to relax. He was sitting in the water relaxing in the heat he closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them he saw Moze she was laying on her stomach on the small patch of grass next to the natural hot tub. She had propped herself up on her elbows and was looking at Ned with a funny look in her eyes. He was about to say something when he caught a whiff of sweet mint.
"Moze you didn't by chance eat a green herb that tasted like sweetened peppermint did you?"
"Yes it did Ned," she said with a coy tone in her voice.
"Oh great," thought Ned turning away for a moment, "Moze just took a big dose of Toka leaves one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs in the world!"
Just then her heard the sound of gentle splashing he looked up to see Moze' clothes laying on the bank and her walking toward him in the warm chest deep water. Then she spoke in a voice that was downright sultry
"Mind if I share your hot tub?"
TBC Please Review.