Camp Lily

Day 2

Lily's Camp

The campsite was a mess.

When the girls woke up, they discovered something had raided their camp overnight. The firewood was scattered, most of the supplies were either missing or broken, and the entire campground was in a state of disarray.

"What could have done this?" Lily asked in astonishment. She wanted to blame Meiko's camp for such an attack, but something told her that wasn't right. It must have been some kind of animal.

"Hey, come look at this!" Gumi called from the side of the tent. Lily, Tei, Yuki, Maika, and kokone made haste to join her and see what she referred to.

"Oh my Lola..."

Across the side of the tent were large scratch marks from what seemed to be a claw. A wild animal must have tried to break in. Either that, or it was trying to give them some kind of warning. Either way, the marks were a bad omen.

"Where did these come from?" asked a very concerned Maika.

Before any further speculation could be made, Lily noticed the tracks on the ground. She drew everyone's attention to them, and made note that they greatly resembled the pawprints she and kokone had seen on the first day. "A wild cat..." she muttered to herself.

"A wild cat? I knew one of those would try to break in!" Tei said in agitation.

"What do we do? What if it comes back?" kokone shuddered.

"It's not going to come back. I know a thing or two about hunting. I'd say this pesky feline better say its prayers."

Tei hurried back into the tent, while the others watched her go. As she threw things around from the inside, the outsiders could hear phrases such as "Where is it? Why is this here? Where did I put that darn thing?" Eventually, she gave a "Aha! Here it is!" then emerged from the tent with her desired item in hand.

"T-Tei! Don't you think that's a little... excessive?" kokone hid behind Lily at the sight of Tei's large blade.

"This is just a straight butcher knife," Tei explained. "It's far less lethal than most hunting tools. Unless I'm the one carrying it."

Tei held her knife in the sunlight for all to see. The silvery blade glistened as Tei's pale hand gripped the black handle. She did not plan on taking any prisoners. Anything that attacked her camp would surely pay the price.

"Well, leader," Tei continued. "We gonna go catch this cat or what?"

"Y-yeah, we should. It might strike again," Lily said, nervously backing away from the blade.

"Good. You're with me," Tei stepped closer to Lily, taking charge of the situation. Lily gulped and nodded obediently.

"I thought you worked best alone," Maika put her hands on her hips.

"I do, but I can't let Lily out of my sights. You saw her quivering at my story last night."

Lily blushed with embarrassment. She hoped nobody would notice how terrified she actually was. Maybe Tei made a better leader than her. The knife-wielding girl did not back down from giving instructions.

After minimal further discussion, the group split off to go wild cat hunting. Gumi went with Maika and kokone went with Yuki, but the latter two stayed as close to the campsite as they possibly could. On the way out, Lily picked up the first large stick she came across. Tei used her knife to sharpen it and made a very sharp weapon out of a simple twig.

Armed with knife and stick, Lily and Tei ventured out into the forest to seek out the wild cat that attacked them.

Meiko's Camp