The Overlook, 0.1km from Camp Campbell, 7 days after the Anomaly

Whisper was not a deep sleeper, as Tangle had come to know. Constantly being hunted by a shapeshifting madman with a knife will do that to anybody. It meant that the wolf would wake up at even the slightest rustling of leaves, and this morning was no different. Whisper's eyes twitched all over the place as she scanned for movement outside.

Drawn by the flapping of a nearby bush, she spotted three figures: a scrawny acne laden mess, a large burly grunt, and a short dude with an eyepatch. She eyed them closely and watched their mouth movements. She couldn't hear their voices, but her ability to lipread told her that they planned to attack the camp.

Whisper grabbed her wispon and stared down the sight. As much as this wasn't her world, she had begun to grow quite fond of the campers, despite having never met them and she felt compelled to protect it. As the trio of Woodscouts crossed her line of sight, she aimed at the ground in front of them and fired. A yellow beam pulsed, blasting a hole in the ground right in front of them, kicking a cloud of dust and dirt in the air and giving the Woodscouts the fright of their lives.

"How did they know we were coming!? And since when were they armed?!" Snake asked in a panic as the column of dirt rained down upon him.

"I propose we make a hasty retreat, men!" Pikeman suggested. Petrol gave an approving grunt in response and the three slunk off back to their own camp. Whisper gave a light smile, before turning back to bed, only to see two tired, grumpy faces staring back at her.

"Mind waking us up before you start firing that thing?" Tangle asked in a low grumbly voice.

"Sorry." Whisper whispered.

"What were you firing at?" Belle asked.

"Intruders. Had to scare them off." Whisper answered, before she and the others tucked themselves back to bed.

Camp Campbell, 8:25am, The same day.

Nikki had just been returning from a toilet break when she saw that cloud of dust erupt from behind the trees, and it had been bugging her ever since. Even as she slept for the remainder of the night, it stuck out in her mind like a sore thumb. Having got up, and had breakfast, she decided to investigate.

"Nikki, where are you going?" Max asked.

"I saw something, earlier this morning. And I'm not too sure what it is. You coming with me?"

"Sure, why not? It's not like there's anything else going on right now. What are you looking for?" Max followed Nikki's lead while she explained what she saw.

"You sure it was this way?" Max asked, as he watched the line of sight to the camp become increasingly distant.

"I've been through these woods before, we'll be fine." Nikki assured him. "Hey look!" Nikki pointed at a deep round hole in the ground.

"It's a hole, Nikki. What gives?"

"Well somebody had to make it." Nikki jumped into the hole and reached into the dirt with her hands. "And it's warm too."

"So like, a trip mine, or something? Sounds like a Woodscout raid gone wrong to me." Max guessed.

"I guess so. Whatever it was they ran away from it really fast." Nikki pointed at the footprints in the dirt.

"Which means what they ran from must be over… that way!" Nikki turned 180 degrees and found herself pointing at a treehouse nestled discreetly among the trees. "Huh. That's new. Did David build this?"

"No way. David's far too fucking insufferable not to have mentioned it by now. But if it wasn't him, then who did? Cos it wasn't any of us." Max replied.

"Why don't we find out?" Nikki grabbed onto the rope ladder at the base of the tree and pulled herself up. "Hello?"

"Oh! Hi." Tangle awkwardly responded in surprise. "You're one of the campers, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I'm Nikki. And you are?"

"Well, I'm Tangle, the lemur, that's Belle over there, and this is Whisper, the wolf. She doesn't talk much to strangers, but she's a great shooter, scout, ally, friend, love…ly to be with." Tangle stopped herself from getting too carried away.

"So you were the one who scared away the Woodscouts." Nikki pieced the puzzle together. Whisper just gave a simple nod.

"Nice!" Nikki remarked. Max had heard some of the commotion from below, and climbed up the rope ladder himself.

"Nikki, who are you talking to?" Max popped his head above the top of the ladder, catching the attention of Tangle and co.

"Shit. Forget I asked." Max disappeared back down the ladder.

"No no, wait Max, they're okay, trust me!" Nikki rushed over to invite Max back into the treehouse.

"If you say so." Max relented, clambering up to the tree house and taking a seat inside.

"So what brought you guys here, of all places?" Max asked, finally coming to terms with the fact that there were non-humans that could talk.

"Well, as you might have guessed, we're not really from this world." Tangle began.

"No shit." Max replied.

"We uh, got thrown into this place via some chain reaction, or something, while we were battling Dr Eggman."

"Who's Eggman?" Asked Nikki, intrigued.

"Evil scientist, hell bent on world domination, you know the type." Tangle replied.

"Hates nature? Answers every problem with bombs?" Nikki guessed along.

"And commands a robot army to boot." Belle continued. "Not me of course, although he did build me, but I'm one of the good guys."

"We get it, Pinocchio, thank you." Max cut her off.

"Her name's Belle, actually." Tangle corrected him. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"This Eggman guy sounds really nasty. I sure hope he didn't follow you guys in here." Nikki continued.

"Doubt it. He sounds like a worse Cameron Campbell with extra firepower. With an ego like that, we'd know if he showed up." Max replied.

"Who's he?" Belle asked.

"Campbell? He's a corrupt businessman. Always has a scheme, and it always about money. No morals required. Don't worry, he's too stupid to be of any real threat though, unlike Daniel." Max explained.

"Yeah. If HE shows up, we'll let you know!" Nikki promised. Max stared at Whisper's wispon uncomfortably and then at Whisper, who saw the deep sense of mistrust in his eyes as she had felt herself many times.

"Yep. Definitely worse than Campbell." Max turned away, unable to hold eye contact for very long.

"Anyway." Tangle cut the tension in the air. "What do you guys do on a 'normal' day?" she asked. "We don't really get to see or do much from way out here."

"Well sometimes, I hang out with my friends whether it's Max, or Nerris, or Dolph or Ered, Neil or someone else. Other times David and Gwen have activities for us to do."

"And sometimes some crazy shit happens which we barely get out of alive." Max added. "Which sucks, but we lived, and that's what matters. That's what camp teaches you."

"You wanna meet the rest of the campers? See the camp for yourself?" Nikki asked.

"Nah, we're ok." Tangle replied.

"You guys are nice and all, but we're not sure how the rest of your camp would react to guys like us." Belle gestured at herself. "Or anyone else on this world for that matter."

"Don't worry about it. Your secret's safe with us." Nikki promised. "We won't tell anyone, will we Max?"

"Not a soul." Max reciprocated with a confident smile.

"Hey, did you know we have a platypus as our mascot?" Nikki asked.

"I think I saw her last week, actually." Tangle replied. Max stood by himself, watching the view of the camp through the window, straining his eyes to see a lanky figure in green approaching them.

"David's started looking for us. We better go." Max warned.

"Okay. Guess I'll be seeing you guys later then." Nikki got up and headed towards the exit.

"We'll be here when you need us." Tangle replied. "It's not like we can make a portal to take us home or anything."

"See you tomorrow!" Nikki departed, jumping down the ladder and sauntering back to camp as Max trailed behind. As they left, Tangle and Whisper smiled at each other, before they noticed Belle scribbling frantically into a small notebook.

"You okay?" Tangle asked.

"Of course." Belle replied. "I just need to think."