The nighttime was beautiful, a serene sky framed by the branches of the forest trees as a gentle wind swayed them... And then there were the 2 idiots yelling their heads off in a panic.
"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?! WE ARE SO DEAD WE ARE SO DEA-A-A-EAD!"
"OHMYGOSHROBBIEISGONNACOMEBACKANDFINDUSAND PROBABLYBEATUSUPANDSOMEKINDOFMONSTER'SGONNACOMEANDEATUSANDWE'RESODOOMED, WE ARE SO DOOMED!"
A twig snapped as a nighttime Jackalope hopped by in the underbrush a few feet away, unseen by the 2 boys. Their reaction was predictable.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Yet more yelling.
Finally having enough of this noise, a rock came sailing through the air and nailed one of them in the head, and then bounced off to hit the other just as hard.
"-AHHHHH-Ow~!" one of them rubbed where the stone had hit, wincing. The other had fallen down and was getting up with an annoyed expression on his face. "Sigh, well, I guess that's enough freaking out for one night. When mysterious rocks start coming out to get you, I think it's a sign to start thinking and stop screaming." He dusted off his hat, which had a markered '4' upon it, before readjusting it upon his chestnut hair surely. Taking lead of this shift in attitude, the other boy nodded in agreement.
"Well, since we can't get back- even if we could, I don't want to have to deal with Robbie- we should probably find some shelter, right? Where's a safe place-" he cut himself off, delivering a face palm before continuing with sarcasm, "Okay, so since there's no actual secure place in these woods ANYWHERE, where's the least deadly?"
"On what scale, 3? The 'it wants to murder us! RUN!' scale, the 'these things want to make one of us a ruler for eternity, gotta bail!', or, and my favorite, the 'thing we don't understand, never heard of before, probably means bad when its glowing or laughing maniacally' scale?" 3 rolled his eyes, but still smiled at the joke. "I'd say... 1 and 3 this time 'round. I think that was a strictly Mabel-thing with those Gnomes, 4. Besides, we look exactly the same. If they wanted to make one of us a ruler, they'd have to pick both!"
"True, true," 4 admitted, nodding in assent, then clapping his hands together decisively. "Okay then! When we headed out, this way was northeast, that was southwest, and that was sideways, so we should goooooooo- This Way!" 4 pointed towards where their path would've taken them if they'd continued on biking, in a mimic of an iconic pose.
Which completely withered as the sound of a ferocious roar filled the night air, the ground shaking and trees up ahead moving wildly. Something was coming towards them, and it was big, angry, and fast.
Paling, he croaks, "ChangeofplansnevermindjustRUN!"
The duo bolt with renewed energy in the opposite direction, resisting the urge to scream in terror as that'd just make them all the easier to find. By the time they stopped, exhausted, they were in a completely unknown place, the moon far overhead and starlight waned significantly. They both panted, collapsing onto the mossy ground. "Gr...great... so...somehow... now we...we're even MORE...lost tha...'fore!" 3 gave a hard cough and then let out a tired breath. 4 only nodded mutely, too worn out to talk. The 2 lay in silence, watching the clear indigo sky together, before falling into a deep sleep.
BONUS:
"Heh heh heh! That'll teach YOU fools to mess with MY beauty sleep!" A small figure walked out into the clearing the 2 intruders had been, tossing yet another rock up and down in his hand. "The Gnomes ARE mighty! HA!" He looked over to where the approaching beast was coming from and called out, "You guys can cut the act now! We scared 'em good!" The trees stopped shaking, as did the ground, roar dying down in an instant. From the direction the indications of a terror had originated, flooded instead hundreds of gnomes. Jeff beamed with pride at how well their plan had gone off. It'd been surprisingly easy to get boulders to imitate monstrous footfalls when one looked in the right places. And Shmebulock was surprisingly good with imitating the stuff they usually had to avoid so they wouldn't be taken by some predator.
"Let's go! Let's go! I wanna get a few more hours before those annoying birds start yapping again!" Jeff ordered, his happiness from success keeping those orders from being barked. His little army followed their leader's words, milling back to their secure grotto for the night.