Chapter 9

"I don't get it."Thorne said, as they were walking away from their latest encounter with the man-cloud. "It's been a whole day, and we've gotten nowhere, nowhere at all!"

He thumped his paw on the ground hard, whilst the girls looked on.

"Actually," replied Shaiden, with an air of certainty, "we have gotten somewhere- we've found out that the cloud can shapeshift. We've only seen it turn into a man so far, but what's to say it can't turn into other things, more dangerous things?"

There was a moment of silence, as everyone tried not to think of the grim things it could be capable of.

"And," she continued, "we've found out that it can influence people. They can hardly feel it, but we all saw it happen to ourselves back there. We need to be very careful."

Thorne sighed. "It's not like we can follow it, not now." He looked to the sky, which was now a dark blue colour. There were a plethora of stars, and a large, snow-white moon.

Shaiden nodded, and almost on cue, Crystal yawned.

"Tired?" asked Thorne.

"Kinda." Crystal answered sleepily.

"Don't worry." he said softly. "There's bound to be loads of places round here that we can use for a camp."

Crystal nodded. She turned to Shaiden. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.

"Well," said Shaiden, "you could go and get some firewood, but you seem way too tired to..."

Crystal interrupted before she had the chance to finish, running off into the trees. "I'll be back as soon as possible!" she called.

For a moment, Thorne and Shaiden were looking at each other, confused.

"I thought she was tired?" Shaiden asked, with a hint of angriness in her voice.

"I guess she just reserves her extra energy for when it's needed." answered Thorne, with a smile on his face.

Shaiden rolled her eyes. "Thorne, what is it with you and Crystal? Every time you're around her..."

Thorne cut her off. "Look, if you really want to know, I'll tell you why she and I are so close."

He bent forward, readying himself to whisper into Shaiden's ear, but soon retreated, as he realised that the strange entity would probably know anyway.

At normal distance he said, "Crystal is the daughter of a billionaire. She needs protecting and seeing as you don't seem to care less..."

Shaiden stopped him. "Wait- the daughter of a billionaire? You mean, all this time, we've been friends with the daughter of a billionaire?"

Thorne nodded, trying not to laugh.

"Thorne, I think I know what the cloud wants with us!" she said, sounding very confident.

She was just about to say her theory, when Crystal came running back, saddled with logs. "I'm baaack!" she said happily.

"Good." said Shaiden, trying to hide the sarcasm in her voice. "Now, I think I know the perfect place to set up camp."

She led the others on a short walk to a clearing. It was quite big, and surrounded by trees, and those flowers, like the ones that they'd seen earlier.

"See?" said Shaiden. "Perfect!"

Thorne nodded in agreement, whilst Crystal rushed off to lay down the firewood. It was quite comedic, watching her trying to lay the logs in a pyramid, them falling to the ground each time, and her trying to light the fire, with two sticks. Eventually, Thorne went over and helped her out.

As you would imagine, the sleeping arrangements were quite basic, with the grass acting as a big all-in-one pillow, blanket and duvet. Thorne and Shaiden got used to it quickly, but Crystal tossed and turned, constantly complaining about how she missed home's silken sheets and four poster beds.

A few minutes later, Shaiden had already curled up and was silently sleeping (ninjas did everything silently). Crystal was still moaning, and Thorne was lying down, still wide awake.

He had no idea what time it was, he didn't really care. The quicker he could get out of here, the better. He decided that the only way to keep himself occupied in these ungodly hours was to find someone to talk to, so he sauntered over to Crystal, who was groaning.

"You OK?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

Crystal shook her head. "I miss home." she said,

Thorne laughed. "You're such a worrier, Crystal!" he said.

"I guess I am." she said, laying her head on Thorne's shoulder, eyes drooping

Thorne felt slightly weird at that moment. Was that really what she thought of him?

He decided to let the answer go for now, and snuggled into Crystal's cheek.

"Goodnight, Crystal." he whispered.

There was no reply. He looked over, and saw Crystal, with her eyes closed, sleeping soundly.

The sky was pitch black, when the two of them were asleep with each other.