Anima's Ghost: The Summer Before (Song Line Echoes, book 2)

Chapter 17: Surprise

The rest of the first day passes without event. Edelweiss stays with the group, Leylina continues her exploration while staying within sight, and eventually we all branch off from each other a little bit, covering more ground, while staying close enough to the four-wheelers to head back when it starts getting dark. I'm still not sure what we're looking for, but I guess that's the price I pay for being the new girl. Not even the book Spyro gave me to read could tell me anything specific. The Bridgewater Triangle is too big, there's too much.

But still, I doubt any of these boys know nature and woods as well as I do, so even without knowing exactly what interests them, I'm sure it'll be easy enough for me to spot anything out of the ordinary.

There is nothing out of the ordinary. Just a lot of ground covered, and then a small camp made between the circle of four wheelers as the sun sets.

"Ever put up a tent before?" Spyro asks me as he and Rune start unpacking them from their backpacks. To try to save on space, the boys will be split between two tents while Edelweiss and I share a third.

"Country girl, remember? If I slept outside, it was without any sort of shelter," I tell him.

"I don't think that's a normal country girl thing," Spyro almost laughs. When Edelweiss deposits her backpack against a tree, I go over to get the third tent from it. "Wasn't that dangerous?" he asks, coming over to help me set it up.

I shrug, "Like I said, wild animals are only dangerous if you give them a reason to be."

"Yeah, but what if one mistook you for a dead body and tried to eat you?"

I almost laugh, "Um, animals can hear heartbeats and feel warmth and see breath just like we can. They know the difference between something living and something dead."

Spyro stops what he's doing and just looks at me thoughtfully, "I sound like a dumb city boy to you, don't I?"

I nod, grinning, "A little bit, yeah." Spyro laughs and we continue our work. "If it makes you feel any better though," I add, "true city boys are usually dumb enough to think they can walk up and pet a bear while baby talking to it." I roll my eyes. "And that's even if you could get them far enough from their fancy coffee shops or whatever to get them into bear country."

"Yeah, I'm not that stupid."

Gatsby and Borden come back then, each with an armload of wood. Borden looks strangely like he does this kind of thing all the time, but Gatsby's puffing as he drops his armload in a pile near the center of the circle of tents and four-wheelers. Borden builds the fire, then we all settle down for a simple dinner of sandwiches sent along by Grandma Powell. During the night though, we don't quite give up our search for something else with us. But even in the dark, there's nothing but the wilderness.

The next morning, I jerk awake to the sounds of something moving around within our little camp and pain like a knife twisting in my lower back and my lower abdomen. It takes me about three seconds to remember where I left the rifle Borden gave me, thinking that whatever's out there might be a bear or a mountain lion, or that I should have asked the boys if there even are bears or mountain lions in this area – and thanking gods that I never so much as leave the house without pads, just in case.

In the fourth second, I realize that whatever I'm hearing outside the tent is probably one of the boys.

In the fifth second, I realize that if it's not one of the boys, then it's an animal that I'm probably the only one who can deal with calmly.

For the next five seconds, I hate my life and my body's timing.

"Edelweiss?" I whisper quietly, but she's still sound asleep. No need to tell her to stay quiet and still then.