Chapter two: Surviving….or trying too

They were lost… hopelessly so. After their vain attempts at finding the trail, they wandered aimlessly through the woods. Their energy drained from panicking and searching. The wandered about as it got dark, passing tree, after tree…. They seemed to be walking in endless circles. The trees, everyone just as tall, dark and menacing as the last, looked down and whispered their disapproval. Owls hooted, things screamed, weird clicking noises drifted in the wind. Tired as they were, as the night grew darker, each one started getting goose bumps, Ava's nerves were stung tight, and every breaking twig, every subtle noise, made her jump. All four gazed around warily, and wearily. The night got darker, and colder. They shivered, miserable, and scared, and o the brink of exhaustion. Finally late, late in the night they collapsed. Huddling together for warmth they drifted off into fitful dreams, there on the hard, forest floor.

Ava awoke to a bright light in her eyes. It was starting to warm up .she squinted, thankful for the warmth of the sun. She sat up slowly, blinking a stretching. For a moment she had absolutely no idea where she was. And then it all came flooding back. The horse ride, the exportation, the deer chase, the panicking, and the desperate night.

Beside her Sam lay curled up in a ball, her glasses in the small space between her and her legs, twigs and leaves were stuck in her hair. Dale, with her head on of Sam's legs lay in a weird crumpled shape, a leaf stuck to her face, and twigs and leaves also littered her hair. Finally, with her head on dales stomach was Mel, on her side. She was slightly curled up, her hair also a nest of leaves and twigs.

Ava reached up and touched her own hair. Finding, as she expected, dirt, leaves, and twigs, she slowly began picking them out of her hair, and trying to shake the dirt out by flipping her hair violently. When this did nothing but give her a headache, she decided to see if she could find a stream.

She walked a little ways, and found the first good luck they'd had, except maybe for not being eaten. There was a small merry bubbling stream water so clear you could she the pebbles gleaming. Almost like gems….. In fact, they were a little to much like gems. But, Ava, eager to get clean kneeled on the bank by the stream, plunging her head into the stream.

Immediately she sprang back, the water was bitingly cold. Her hair, though wet, still needed scrubbing however. She slowly approached the steam again, and with a deep breath lowered the ends of the stream into the waster, forcing her hands in to scrub, slowly, she managed to scrub all her head, and amazingly, the water didn't seem as cold as it did at first. She finally stood, having scrubbed her face, hair and hands toughly, she walked back, hair dripping to her dozing comrades.

When she returned, she found them all up, except for Mel. Dale was up in a tree scanning the forest, and Sam was rubbing the lenses of her glasses on her shirt, before returning them to her face. They both spotted Ava about the same time. Sam raced over

"Where the bloody hell do you go? We've been searching every where, Dale thought you'd gone and gotten yourself eaten." Dale climbed back down, landing neatly on her feet, and stalked over.

"Actually it was verging more on the hope that you got eaten." She muttered. Dale never was a morning person. Harsh as she sounded she smiled faintly. Then Sam noticed her hair.

"What the heck?" she gasped touching it lightly

"What?" Ava asked slightly worried "all I did was wash it"

Dale snorted "in what? Dye and sparkles?"

Ava's mouth dropped open "what are you guys talking about?"

They stared "Your…." Sam began "well your hair…."

"Has blue streaks." Dale finished bluntly "and you've got blue sparkly crap in it." Sam leaned n closer to peer at her hair and gasped.

"They're gems!!!" she screamed "holy cow Ava!"

"What?" Cried dale incredulously she grabbed s handful of Ava's hair peering at it. After a minute she dropped it. "She's right." She murmured, staring. Ava gaped

"WHAT?" she cried "but…but…"

"And it's not wet either." Sam observed fingering her hair. Ava took a lock of her hair staring blankly at it. It was dry, that was true. It was also a lot curlier than she remembered and vivid aqua streaks ran through it, spotted by small aquamarines, it seemed to have grown 5 inches as well, and hung, curling down her back. She looked up, amazed at the faces of her friends.

"That…is…so…weird.." she stated dazedly. Behind them, Mel sat up. Stretching and yawning. She stood, brushing twigs and leaves off her jeans and shirt, and strode over, looking as fresh as if she'd just spent the night at the Hilton.

"Hey guys!...erm… nice…hair Ava" she said grinning. All three glared at her. Why couldn't she wake up ugly and groggy and grumpy like everyone else? Mel was more of a morning person, if you couldn't already tell. They stood. Not knowing quite what to say to each other. I mean what do you say when your lost in the middle of the woods, and one of your friend's hair has just turned an unnatural color, and is misted with jewels?

"So where exactly is this….stream?" dale asked, innocently. Ava sighed.

"Here… I'll show you." And she started off in the direction she'd come. Mel was a bit confused, but followed. She walked up to dale and Sam, asking what was going on. They explained as they walked. Soon they came once again to the stream. The stones at the bottom glittered, and now, fully awake, Ava could see plainly that they were in fact, gems. Mel, dale and Sam stared, open mouthed. Mel cleared her throat.

"So.. Now what do we do?"

"What do you mean, 'what do we do'?" dale exclaimed "obviously, we rob this thing blind!" she grinned and approached the edge of the stream. Sam stuck her hand out, stopping her.

"What the heck do you think your doing?" she demanded. Dale blinked.

"Robbing it… blind?" she said, shifting her eyes. Sam sighed.

"You can't just rob a stream."

"Why?" dale asked

"Because!" Sam exclaimed "you.. You just can't."

"Sam's right." Mel said "you can't."

"But why?" dale whined

"BECAUSE!" the three shouted. Dale sighed, shrugging off Sam's arm, muttering something about wasting perfectly good jewels.

"Why don't you guys wash your hair or something, see if it happens to you" Ava suggested. Dale shrugged, seeing no cons in having her hair dyed and coated in costly jewels, she advanced before anyone could say anything, dropping to her knees and plunging her head into the water, and scrubbing it vigorously before jumping back, shivering.

"HOLY CRAP THAT'S FLIPPEN COLD!" she yelled shivering. The rest just stared. Her black hair was streaked with a amber shade, and flecks of amber showed in her long hair…. Come to think of it… when had dales hair gotten so long? But what they stared at most was the strange… furry ears on top of her head. They gaped, saying nothing.

"soo…." Dale asked the cold water waking her up fully. "Have I been jewl-a-fied?" the nodded, speechless.

Sam, now amazingly curious, raced to the waters, edge, following dales example of punching in scrubbing vigorously and emerging. Gasping and sputtering. She raced back to them. They turned their attention to Sam, whose hair had become straighter, and streaked with green. Sparkles of green peridots flecked her hair, and her hair seemed to have grown a whole bunch, it now came to just past her butt.

Now, Melanie, knowing she had too, approached the stream wearily. She kneeled slowly, and taking a deep breath plunged her head in. after vigorous scrubbing she too emerged gasping and blinking, shivering like mad. Her hair had be come wavy and down her back streaked in bright purple, and flecked with almost blood red, and purple jewels.

They stood silent for a few moments taking in each others new appearances, then they started all at once describing to each other how the other looked, amazed and surprised. For the first time that morning they were genuinely enjoying themselves. This too, was not meant to last long, for before long there excited chatter was interrupted by a loud, low growl. They all froze, across the stream and in the shadow of thickly clustered trees, something moved. Something really large. Something… angry.

A.N. See? told ya it got...weird. lol, sorry i'm a little rusty, not to mentnion it's midnight! well anyway please R&R!