Lily's Camp
Harsh winds blew through the Execrated Forest, whistling through the trees and forcing the woodland creatures to take shelter. Thunder and lightning crashed through the skies, causing the forest to tremble beneath it. Rain poured down and gradually worsened, coming down in bucketfuls at a time. Nobody would want to be caught outside during such a storm.
Inside the treehouse tent, Lily, Tei, kokone, Maika, Gumi, and Yuki huddled close together. None of them particularly liked storms, but Yuki and kokone were more frightened than the others. What a day to put a tent in a tree. To be closer to the sky on a day where the gods unleashed such fury on the world made for a bad stroke of luck. They found it hard to feel safe on such a night.
"We should try to sleep. The storm will go by quicker if we do," Tei suggested.
"How are we supposed to sleep in this weather?!" Gumi asked as she and kokone cuddled close to Lily.
"I don't know, just try not to think about it?"
None of them were going to sleep that night. Despite their best efforts, they could not keep their eyes shut with all the crackling and booming going on outside. It was worse than trying to sleep on New Year's Day with all the fireworks going off. No matter how hard they tried, they could not tune out the storm.
Great winds came from all directions, picking up speed and blowing branches off trees and uprooting a few plants. The tent trembled in place, while numerous objects flew at it from the outside. Even the Execrated Forest had not had a storm of such caliber in years. This was either a case of rotten luck or something did not want the singers in the forest.
A heavy gust of wind swung itself against the tent, rattling it and shaking everyone inside. If any of them were even close to falling asleep, they sure weren't anymore. Everyone screamed as another gust slammed into the side of the treehouse tent, slightly shifting it across the branches it rested upon. They were not sure how much more it could take.
One final blow struck the tent with full force and removed it from its sitting place entirely. The tent flew off the branches and hurdled toward the ground, bringing everyone inside along with it. Their screams were cut off by the sudden impact, which hurled the campers toward the fabric wall. Lily, Gumi, kokone, Maika, Yuki, and Tei were flung through the side of the tent, tearing through the material and hitting the muddy ground on the outside.
The tent was destroyed, and all its inhabitants were muddy and bruised. They were without shelter in such a terrible storm, their situation could not have possibly been worse.
Tei lifted herself from the ground and scanned everyone beside her. "Is everyone alright?" she asked, checking on Lily who landed beside her.
"I'm fine, thanks," Lily sat up and went to help kokone, who had fallen on her other side.
Once the campers were all up and sure they hadn't attained any serious injuries, they knew what needed to be done.
"We have to find Meiko's camp. We can't stay out here in this storm," Lily took charge, keeping an arm around a weeping kokone.
"You're right. We might not all fit in their tent, but it's the only choice we have," Maika seconded this idea. Without anywhere else to go, the six girls left their ruined campsite behind them and trekked out blindly into the wilderness to find their other friends.
Pushing on through the furious storm, Lily's group hurried through the trees as quickly as they could manage. The more it rained, the harder it became for them to see where they were going. Lily, Tei, and Maika each tried to lead the front of the pack, but none of them could keep a stable sense of direction for more than a minute. kokone clung to Lily the whole time as if her life depended on it, and Gumi carried Yuki on her back. They were all drenched, their hair falling down flat and their outfits becoming uncomfortably soaked. Many of them had to continually push their bangs out of their eyes, but they would just fall back into place afterwards.
Nobody knew, that after many twists and turns, they were going in the exact opposite direction of Meiko's campsite. However, they would soon come across something equally as effective, though not quite as welcoming.
"Look! A house!"
Tei pointed out a small cabin that sat among the trees. Nobody expected to find any sort of manmade structure out there, but the cabin was actually rather sizable. Black and yellow restrictive tape stretched out across the front porch, reading "CAUTION" in bold letters. Someone did not want people going inside. However, it looked abandoned and riddled with cobwebs. The chances of the door being unlocked were pretty good.
"Let's go in there! At least until the storm calms down," Maika insisted.
"W-Wait!" kokone shouted, still clinging to Lily with both arms wrapped tightly around her. "I-Isn't that cabin just l-like the one... from Tei's story?!"
Maika rolled her eyes. "That was just a stupid story Tei made up to scare us. This cabin is probably perfectly safe. Look, no one's been in it for years! It's abandoned!"
"What about the g-ghosts?!"
"This storm is more deadly than any ghost could ever be. Come on! We're going inside!"
Unable to argue that point, the girls followed Maika into the creepy cabin. Anything was better than facing the storm for even a minute more. They were fortunate enough to find the door open, and all six of them hurried inside. Shutting the large wooden door behind them, they left the storm outside and took refuge inside.
Meiko's Camp
Meiko's camp, despite being on the ground, also suffered from the storm outside. Meiko, Yanhe, Rin, Xin Hua, and Merli sheltered close together, unable to sleep or take their minds off the storm.
"It'll pass soon, don't worry," Yanhe assured the crew.
Just when they thought things couldn't possibly get worse, the sound of scuttling outside caught everyone's attention.
"Wh-what was that?" Rin quivered.
"Must be some animal trying to shelter from the storm," Meiko theorized. "Ignore it."
Although the campers tried to ignore the sound, it only grew closer and louder. The scuttling outside almost overpowered the storm in terms of loudness.
"What if it's one of Lily's campers looking for shelter?" asked Xin Hua.
"Leave them. Serves her right for splitting up with us."
"But you were the one who split off."
After the brief moment of worry, the noise outside finally died down. Everyone moved closer to the wall to see if the thing outside had actually left. However, as soon as they felt everything was safe, a loud scratching noise broke out from the side of the tent.
The five girls shrieked when they heard the scratching, and each of them hurried to the center of the tent to be as far as they could from the creature outside.
"Well, one of us should go out there and have a look," Merli stated, before all eyes turned to her. "Not me! I'm still recharging from exerting myself so much today!"
"Well SOMEONE has to go out there and check! Whatever that is might tear through the tent!" Meiko demanded.
Before further argument ensued, Xin Hua looked over to the notebook she had kept score on earlier. The front page still displayed the tally marks, marking Team M's victory over Team RY. She crawled across the tent floor to retrieve it, and flipped the page to the next one.
"Okay, everyone, how about this?" Xin Hua spoke up. "Let's take a vote. Whoever gets the most votes has to go outside and check!"
Everyone exchanged a glance with each other, before looking back to Xin Hua. After a silent exchange, they all agreed to the plan. It would only be fair.
Xin Hua tore off five pieces of paper and handed them to each of her campmates. They retrieved pens from the backpack, and all at once, they voted on who should go outside. Xin Hua and Merli whispered to one another during the voting process, so Meiko and Yanhe did the same. The groups of twos eyed each other angrily as they scribbled names on their respective sheets of paper. Once every one of them had voted, they put their votes down and Xin Hua went to read them out loud.
"Once the votes are read, the decision is final. The person voted off will be asked to leave the tent to see whatever the heck is outside," Xin Hua said as if she were a reality show host. She picked up the first vote and unfolded it to read out loud.
"First vote... Merli."
Merli snarled and looked around the tent to see who put her name down.
"... Rin."
Rin gasped at the sight of her name.
"... Rin. That's two votes Rin, one vote Merli."
Rin and Merli gulped as Xin Hua read the next vote.
"... Rin. The person voted out of the tent... Rin. The camp has spoken. It's time for you to go."
"What a blindside," Yanhe said, quietly.
With much frustration, Rin stood up and angrily kicked the backpack across the floor. After growling to herself, she addressed the group.
"Fine, I'll go. But my hospital bill's on all of you."
Wishing their brave soldier the best of luck, Meiko's team saw Rin exit from the tent and enter into the horrible wilderness. She prepared herself to face whatever she met outside, human or not.
"Please be a chipmunk, please be a chipmunk, please be a chipmunk..." Rin repeatedly said to herself. As her white shoes stepped into the mud outside, she looked all around, trying her best to see through the rain that clouded her vision. She moved to the side of the tent where the scratching took place, but she found nothing out of the ordinary. "Huh. Maybe it left. Bye bye, chipmunk."
Rin took a moment to look around and make sure nobody was out there. She wanted to be sure before going back inside, since although she hated being out there, she didn't want some wild animal tearing through the tent.
While Rin searched around, she failed to notice the figure creeping up behind her, ready to strike. Only when it stepped on a twig did she stop in her tracks and look up. Wondering what could have possibly made the noise, she slowly turned her head over her shoulder to see what stood behind her. However, as soon as her eyes made contact with it, she tried to scream.