Been a while since I wrote a short story. Here's a special chapter I felt like writing.

(Short four: Field Trip)

Little legs kicked back and forth, a happy hum; end of the year Field Trip was always something to look forward to! She and the entire school were going to go camping for a week. What a fun time that would be!

Being able to see nature that's not just outside her house or around the school! The small child looked out the window now, watching as every blurred object pass by.

Above the moving bus, MoonJumper followed- swiftly through the air unseen. As stupid as this Field Trip sounded, he wasn't about to leave his human to a bunch of judgmental children. Who knows what they might pull on her! Pranks, get her lost in the woods..-!

Why did he care so much? He shouldn't care about this! Idiotic feelings are getting in his way-! Though he can't seem to muster up the energy to do anything to this child he's clinging onto. Why was she so different from the others? Was it the fact that she doesn't know about the troubles she carries, or..-

Stop!

Stop thinking about this!

All he needs to do is making sure this child doesn't get into trouble! She's a magnet for disastrous situations like these! Something is bound to happen, and he's here to make sure the child doesn't dig an early grave!

Here they were, as all the children poured out of the bus in a semi-orderly fashion, they lined up. The campsite was located next to a lake that divided off into glades. The place looked old, yet had modern like buildings- instead of wood, concrete took its place.

Not much an old styled camp, now is it? However, they did have cabins in a way.. just not traditional ones. Little Julia was the last child off the bus, she stood to the side and everyone took role call. Five children will be called out and that was to be their designated group.

Julia was apart of an all-girls group. A few of them were apart of the advanced classes; A rather noise to the sky air about them. Of course, Julia had no idea of the matter, nor did she pay attention well. She was more excited to explore the area, this place was massive and she was happy to be someplace different for once!

Everyone was being led to their cabins, or rather, buildings that were made of cement and had proper air conditioning. It was almost like an apartment but smaller. The buildings had six rooms, all walled off, and a simple living room. Each group was following their, what would be called, 'gator mother' despite some 'mothers' being male.

Once every child was settled in, they were left to mosey about while their gator mother watched over them. Julia stayed in her room for a moment, making sure her tall dark green rubber boots were on correctly. She was planning on getting near the swampy areas of the glades.

"Julia.. what do you think you're doing?" She heard MoonJumper speak for the first time this afternoon.

"Exploring!" Was her reply, she was chipper and happy, remembering a long time ago that her grandfather said these parts were haunted! "I'm gonna go find a ghost!"

MoonJumper had to stop himself from laughing. Julia was unaware that she had been friends with a ghost for some time now. Oh, who is he to ruin her fun? "Just be careful, swamps are very dangerous, their denizens strong and or venomous." Saying this, perhaps he should stay close behind here.

MoonJumper was unfamiliar with the kinds of snakes that roam this world. To a child that could be fatal...

"On another hand, perhaps you should go sightseeing at the local garden?" MoonJumper turned his head, only to find Julia was gone. "Oh, dear."

"Hey, look. There goes the fairytale kid.." one girl mumbled, to their gossiping group.

"I heard she pretty stupid." Another whispered, "Which is kinda disappointing since her dad is a really good cop."

The group nodded at each other, they were all outside watching as Julia skipped around, eyes to the ground looking for a rather large stick. This stick would aid her in finding safe ground during her adventures. Plus to beat of anything that tries to attack her, like raccoons! Julia hates raccoons with a passion; those dirty thieves stole her gram crackers a few times.

"Hey fairytale, what are you doing?" One girl approached the light orange-haired girl.

"Looking for a stick." She said, to busy to explain further. She picked up a rather thick branch, not one that was to clean however, it still had a certain kind of moss her grandfather told her not to touch. She tossed it away to find another one.

"Why?" Another asked with a disgusted face, just watching then Julia made her feel dirty.

"Because!" Julia picked up a perfect stick for her endeavor "haunted swamp! I'm gonna go find the swamp ghost!"

The group of girls looked at each other, trying their best to not laugh though snickers still escaped them. There were no such things as ghosts! Never was, and never will be! They assumed the small girl didn't know that, so what harm would it be to play a little trick on her?

"Mind if we come with?" The taller girl of the group asked, smiling a sickeningly sweet smile. "That sounds fun!"

Julia smiled at them, she had a ghost hunting crew now! Just like on television!

Nighttime came, which was always the best time to go hunting for the supernatural. The group of girls had to make sure their gator mother was unaware of their plan to sneak out, the girls would have to make it back for campfire hours because everyone would be there for their first day.

Well almost everyone, surely no one would miss the local fairytale spinner, right?

Somehow MoonJumper had managed to lose sight of his child, he knows something was off when those girls had taken a liking to Julia. No one would like her unless they wanted something. He frowned at that; the fact he too was one of those people, which was why he knew.

Julia skipped and tapped her stick around, a small map and a headlamp to see where she was going, the girls followed behind. One made a gagging noise, the squishing of soft mud were unpleasant to them.

Once they had made it to the edge of the camp, they saw the swamp that was surrounded by glades. The trees hung over them like arms severing in the soft wind. To Julia, it was breathtaking, but to the girls? They saw it as an ugly backwater alleyway.

"So, what do we do when we find this... ghost?" One asked, looking at Julia, their headlamps crossing streams of light.

"We don't do anything! We just watch!" Julia smiled at them, "we don't know if the spirit is vengeful or not! So making any moves towards it would be bad."

"W-what if it is vengeful...?" One girl said, who was particularly afraid of the dark, asked. The forest was starting to get to them, clouding their judgment of ghosts being real or not.

"We run like the wind!" Julia stated.

"Okay!" The taller girl said, smiling at her, the gasped in surprise "is that it over there!?" She pointed at nothing, but Julia didn't know.

"What, where?!" She was afraid she had missed it, the small girl tried to move forward but a sudden tug and a push knocked her into a tree braking her headlamp and her sense of direction.

Julia gripped onto the bark, pushing herself off. She must have tripped again, the girls laughed at her. It must have been pretty funny!

"Wow! You are stupid!" The tall girl said to Julia, she was smirking but the girl on the ground couldn't tell with the light shining in her eyes. "Wake up fairytale! Ghosts don't exist!"

Julia held a confused, "what..?" They were so nice to her all day, why were they being mean now? "Of course they exist..."

"No, they don't." The group leader said, face no longer smirking "that's just some stupid things adults say to scare little kids!" She then pointed "which makes you a freak since you're not scared!"

"That's not being a freak, that's being brave!" Julia yelled at them.

"Let's see how brave you are when we leave you here then!" The tall girl waved, turning around to walk away.

"Hey, wait!" Julia called back, realizing they took her map and her source of light. "Why..?"

A sudden roar echoed around the forest, more near them then away. It didn't sound like a cougar or a bear. No, it sounded more dangerous than that. The mire had shaken from the sound alone. A flash of color in between teal and green zipped around trees, catching all the girls' attention. Fear told them to run and ran the did, But Julia was having a harder time with the mud.

A massive amount of energy escaped this being as Julia was able to get a clear look. It glowed in the dark, a soft light, yet bright enough for Julia to her entire body. The energy the surrounded the long being looked like lightning, claw-like hands floated in place with smaller coin-like objects acting as arms. Its scary mask with long wavy prods stuck out far.

The small child was amazed, So awestruck she refused to move. Though, the first thing out of her mouth was:

"Are you a dragon?" Such an innocent question from a girl looking up at a being she had no idea what they were capable of.

It looked down at Julia, almost mulling over the thought of what it should do.

"Thank you for scaring away those mean girls!" Julia smiled, finally able to stand up. "I thought they wanted to be my friends.." she mumbled, then she realized all this excitement had made her forget where she was.

Without her map, she was lost.

"...I'm lost now..." the girl quietly said, trying to figure out where she came from. "I'm gonna be in big trouble." She then turned to the large being "are you lost too? Where'd you come from?"

Still no reply.

"That's okay, we can find out way together!" Julia smiled again, Unafraid of the towering long serpentine. It's mask looked down at her, a questioning look.

Looking around Julia giggled "Let's go this way!" The child pointed, only to have the being quickly snap at something, this made Julia freeze when she realized that the being had snapped a water moccasin coming on land in half.

Julia was about to step on it.

"Wow! You're quick! Quicker than a snake!" She smiled, though she then looked away worried. "Moon was right... I shouldn't have done this." The being placed a clawed hand on her head, almost like it was trying to comfort her.

"Julia! Thank heavens I found you!" MoonJumper dashed in grabbing the child away from the being. "What on earth is a Dweller doing here?!" He whispered to himself in a panic, he'd never seen a dweller of this size before. It made him feel, uneasy, almost scared. Though not for himself, but for the child that was now safely in his arms.

"Moon!" The girl hugged him happily, both not minding the mud for now. "I'm sorry, I should have listened to you!"

"No... I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there." He looked down with a sad expression on his face.

"It's okay though, the ghost dragon saved me!" The child pointed out, but she then saw it drift away. Its job was done. "Oh.. it's leaving... bye-bye ghost dragon!" The child yelled waving, MoonJumper was still in shock about this dweller being here, or that it was way larger and dangerous looking.

"Let's... return, shall we?" MoonJumper said, slowly making their way back to camp.

"Let's scare the campfire meet up!" Julia giggled, looking up at him.

MoonJumper smiled "oh, I thought you'd never ask..."