As they loosened their embrace, the watch powered down and Ben reverted back to his human form.
"Ben," Helen said, "I think we should get back to camp soon. It's getting cold out here, and the others might be wondering where we went." Ben rolled off of her, it really was late; the moon was already high in the sky and there were millions of stars blanketed across it. A chilling breeze swept through the trees, causing them both start shivering.
"Y-yeah you're r-right," he said, collecting his clothes. "We should be getting back," After Ben helped Helen find her wet clothes, and gave up his jacket, the two of them turned toward the valley below, where they could just make out the faint glow of a campfire far off in the distance. "That must be the camp," Ben said, pointing. "Wow, it's pretty far."
"Well it makes sense when you think about it, considering how fast we ran here," Helen pointed out.
"Yeah, but, how are we gonna get back?" Ben asked, "The watch is timed out and you can't cross the river."
Helen smiled. "Oh, come on Ben. Don't tell me you forgot that we're right near the top of the mountain."
Ben frowned. "No, I didn't forget. But how does that help us?"
"Well," Helen went on, "the river has to start somewhere, and it can't flow up, so we've got to be right near the head of the river. If we just hike up a little ways, we should come to a lake, and if we're lucky, there'll be a bridge so we don't have to walk all the way around."
Ben shook his head. "You're a genius, Helen. You know that?" he laughed. They began hiking uphill through the trees and before long—as Helen had predicted—the trees opened up to a crystal pool of midnight, speckled with millions of twinkling lights.
Helen gasped. "Oh, Ben look. Isn't it beautiful?" she asked, pulling him closer.
"Yeah," Ben replied, "it is." He paused to admire the breathtaking sight before them, when a large green ship landed in front of them near the water.
"Ship Ship" it chirped.
"Well I guess our ride's here," Ben chuckled as the ramp extended. Helen loosened her hold and they made their way toward Ship hand in hand. Ben was surprised not to find Julie in the main bay, but was nonetheless grateful for the lift. It was warm anyways, and Ship was also kind enough to provide Helen with a quick blow-dry.
As they neared the camp again, Ben could see the campfire was still going. Ship landed and Ben and Helen descended down the ramp, to find only Julie and Gwen still by the campfire.
"Oh, so that's where you went, Ship," Julie said up, "I was wondering about that." With a chirp, Ship reverted back to his puppy like form and landed in Julie's arms, licking her face."He flew off without warning a little bit ago. So, where've you guys been? You missed marshmallows," Julie asked, turning toward Ben.
"Oh, we just went for a bit of a run," Helen replied, her head leaning on Ben's shoulder as she sighed. Julie was too wrapped up in ship's incessant licking of her face to notice, but Gwen cocked an eyebrow.
"Well I guess we should all get to bed," Helen added with a yawn. "It is getting cold out here.
"You guys go ahead," Gwen replied, "I'll sit here a few more minutes and put the fire out when I'm done."
"Well, if the fire's staying I'm going to find some marshmallows," Ben added. Julie rolled her eyes and smiled, then headed toward the tent. As soon as everyone was out of earshot, the entire fire ring was surrounded inside a pink orb, which lifted itself from the ground and transported the both of them and the fire pit, about 100 meters away before hovering a foot above the ground.
"Uh, Gwen, you want to tell me what this is about?" Ben asked, looking around at the pink field surrounding them.
Gwen gave him a stern look, "Start talking!" she snapped, "What happened between you and Helen? Where did you go and what did you do?"
"I don't know what you're talking—"
"I'm not stupid Ben! I was monitoring you by picking up on your energy signals to make sure you were okay, and about 20 minutes ago your energy signals were completely abnormal, very similar to when you hang out with Julie in your room. What were you doing?"
Ben sighed, he really didn't really want to deal with this right now, and he could easily break out of Gwen's interrogation room by turning into one of his aliens, but it would cause too much commotion, and he didn't want to disturb everyone who had just gone to bed.
"Well, I ran to check on her—you were there for that—and then, when I caught up with her, we went on a run, up the mountain, where she fell in a river. After I got her out of the river I realized she was unconscious, so I had to use CPR. She still wasn't breathing so I removed her jacket and—"
Gwen put her hand over her face, "Ben, please tell me you didn't" she groaned, shaking her head.
"Well I—"
"Ben!"
"What?" he exclaimed.
"What do you mean 'what?'? What about Julie?"
"What about her?" Ben shrugged.
"Ben how can you say that about your girlfriend?"
Ben stopped. "Not so much lately," he sighed. "She spends so much time with Ship recently, it's like she's got no more time for me anymore. We haven't even been on a date in weeks. And then when we came on this trip I sorta started to notice Helen more than her."
Gwen softened her gaze a little, "Well if you don't like her anymore, why not just tell her, instead of cheating like this?" Ben balled up his hair in his fists "I don't know. I guess I just don't really want to. Break ups are hard."
"Okay, then, I'll tell her for you," Gwen suggested.
"NO!" Ben exclaimed. "You can't! Please don't tell her I'll die."
"Fine then," she snapped, "but you're going to break up with Julie tomorrow or she finds out about tonight."And with that, Ben found himself alone in the night, and began to walk back to the campsite.
When he got to his tent, Gwen had already returned and doused the fire, and disappeared into her own tent. Ben groaned and crawled into bed, his dreams swimming with nightmares of Julie and Helen.
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