Moon Angel

Chapter 4: Camp

Chapter 4: Camp

I sat on the edge of the bed in my cabin. After the debriefing of camp, I had gone directly to find my room. I would be sharing it with a girl named Emelia but I hadn't met her yet. I picked up the package that we'd each been given. I ripped it open to see what was inside. I pulled out a timetable, paper and pens, a pack of sweets and a black wristband, placing each on the bed beside me.

I had been told about the black wristband. It held a tracker that we had to wear at all times, for our own safety, in case we went missing. Everyone had one. I clipped the band around my wrist. It fitted perfectly.

I looked up to see a girl come in. She was almost the opposite of me as far as looks went. She had mid-length brown hair, tanned skin and dark brown eyes.

"Hello," she said. "You must be Selene."

"You must be Emelia," I answered.

"You disappeared quickly," Emelia said. "Didn't you want to meet everyone?"

"I'll meet them eventually," I said.

"I guess you're right," she replied, putting her bag down on her bed. 

A bell went off signalling our first activity. Camp had begun.

***

We all met in the meeting hall. I counted all the children there. Nine others stood in the room around me. If you counted me, that added to ten.

"Okay, everyone." Clive stepped onto the stage. "For the duration of Camp, you'll be split into two teams. In all the activities, you'll need to work in this team. Every activity you complete well, you will be rewarded a certain amount of points. At the end of camp, the team with the most points will win a prize. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you all have fun. Right now, we have prepared a few activities so that you can get to know each other. And the two teams are: Isaac, Larissa, Selene..."

I stopped listening at that point. My mind had moved on to other things like what sorts of activities we would be doing.  My attention was brought back to the task at hand when everyone started moving, trying to find the rest of their team. Emelia called me over to where she was standing with three other children.

"So this is team one?" a boy said.

"I guess we should introduce ourselves to each other if we're going to work together to win this," a girl said.

"You think we are going to win?" another boy asked.

"With me on your team? Of course," the girl answered.

The conversation was stopped by Clive telling the groups to head to different areas for the first activity. Our group had to meet outside Cabin Six. On the way there, the girl who had been speaking earlier walked up beside me. She was an average girl with light brown hair tied in a long plait that ran down the length of her back.

"You're a quiet one," she said to me. She thrust her hand out towards me. "I'm Larissa."

I took her hand and shook it. "Selene," I answered.

We came to a stop outside Cabin Six. The other three members of our team slowly joined us. A man was waiting. When we had all finally arrived, he announced our first activity. One of the boys was handed a bag that held all the things we would need. Our activity was to go into the forest and make lunch. We had two hours.

Once we were in the forest, Larissa called a team meeting. "How do we plan to go about doing this?"

"We could build a campfire out of the wood off the forest floor," Emelia suggested.

"How would we light it to cook the food though?" one of the boys asked.

"I have a knack for making fires," Emelia said.

"Good then," Larissa said. She seemed to have elected herself team leader. "We need to gather as much kindling and useable wood as we can find. Anything dry."

Everyone spread out, trying to gather whatever we could find that would burn well.

Ten minutes later we all met in a small clearing with what we'd found. Emelia brought all the wood together and built a campfire. She reached into her pocket and brought out a colourful lighter.

"Do you always carry one of those around with you?" one of the boys asked.

"Always," Emelia answered. "I'd be lost without it."

She flipped off the lid, flicked the trigger and let the flame bounce into sight. The flame licked at the dry leaves and small sticks that we had set up at the base of the campfire and roared up into a proper fire, a lot faster than I thought it would. One of the other boys in the team brought out the food and we began to cook it.

***

We ate our lunch in one of those comfortable silences that always form when everyone is content with the food they are eating. One of the boys sat next to me. He was a short, fair-haired boy who looked about twelve.

"I haven't met you yet," he said to me, nudging me and smiling. Instantly I knew I was going to like him.

"Selene," I told him. "It's nice to meet you."

"Jacob," he replied. "But I prefer Jay."

"Jay," I said, repeating his name. "I like it."

He smiled. I smiled back. I was liking this team already.

Camp was fun. Our team completed the activities quickly and precise. We all got along well and each activity normally ended in laughter. We hardly even saw the other team at all except for meals in the eating hall. I became good friends with Jay and Emelia, who insisted I call her Em, and that she call me Ellie. (She had a thing for nicknames. She would have given Jay one too if he hadn't have already had one.) I didn't mind. I liked Ellie. It was a nice nickname, better than those I'd had before.

By the third day of camp, my back was starting to ache. My wings had never been kept closed for so long. I had always had a chance to stretch them, a place where I was by myself, but at camp I was consistently surrounded by people and at night we weren't meant to leave our cabins. I hadn't had a chance to disappear and go flying. That night, the sensation to go flying was intense. It was like something in me was being pulled outside, towards the sky. I had to obey or I would tear myself apart. I slipped off the black wristband, hiding it under my pillow. From what I had found, Em was a deep sleeper. Getting outside wouldn't be a problem.

I didn't want to show anyone my wings. The other children here hadn't seemed phased by my appearance and they all seemed to have their own differences and quirks, but I wasn't sure how they would take it. Wings were clearly not human. It seemed like it would be a lot different than just a knack for tampering with flames.

I had never shown anyone my wings so why would I start now?

I left the cabin at midnight, going to the edge of the forest. I looked above me to where the pull was coming from. A full moon shone brightly above me. Looking at the moon I felt complete. The moment ended and I opened my wings, stretching them wide, relishing the freedom I felt from having them out. The moon shone down over me and it felt natural, like I was where I was meant to be. The pain disappeared instantly. I lifted off, flying over the forest.

As I was caught in the moment, I didn't see a face watching me from out of a window...