Chapter Ten

Event II

HIKE

"Get your camp setup all packed, we’re about to hike all the way up to the mountain in front of us. Can you maggots see it? Yeah? No excuse will be entertained, everyone has to climb up!” Trystan instructs and warns the kids.

“IS THAT A YES OR NO?” Trystan almost yelled at the crowd.

“YES sir” everyone shouted in unison.

“What is it called though?” Jasper questioned.

“Pardon?” Trystan replied.

“The mountain, what is it called, it must have a name right?” Jasper said boldly, it felt like he was the only one standing up to Trystan, others seemed a little tamed.

“Oh right, right. It’s called the ‘Gruselig Mountain’. Now shut up you chattering birds!” Trystan orders in a superior tone.

“and no chit chat during the hike! Am I clear? No need to say 'Yes'" Trystan added.

“Gru..s. e.lig?” Raven thinks to herself, doesn’t that mean ‘Spooky’ in German? How weird, why would anyone name a pretty mountain like that? She wondered.

Anyway, she couldn’t care less about anything anymore, the fact that her best friend betrayed her was eating up her inside. Just when she thought it would be great to pair up together considering they are bestest of friends, but oh well, it seems Valerie had other plans.

Raven, disheartened and not interested anymore walks up to her tent with almost no energy left in her and continues to pack up her stuff. Thinking about the betrayal was making her lose her mind, afterall it was her bestie, she had some expectations.

“Hey! Do you need any help?" A voice says in a calm tone.

"It doesn't really matter.." Raven responds in a low upsetting voice as she looks up to see who it is.

Jasper smiles, "well it doesn't matter if you want to sleep out in the cold when we reach the top” he says as he joins her while she packs.

"Who is the other sleeping bag for?" Jasper asks in amazement.

"I don't know," Raven replies.

"Don't you have a girlfriend to help?" Raven sarcastically mocks Jasper.

"You mean that girl?" Jasper points in the direction of Lyla.

"Isn't that obvious?" Raven adds and then looks away.

"Seriously? I don't even remember her name!" Jasper laughs.

"Something " Raven says

"You really think so?" Jasper raises his eyebrow.

"Why else would you look like that?" Raven says confused.

"The same reason, I'm here at the camp for" Jasper returns to his calm tone.

"What reason?" Raven asks

"LET'S KEEP GOING" Trystan orders the crowd.

Lyla couldn't bear the sight of Jasper helping out Raven, ofcourse she forced Tim to pair up with her (Poor Tim). Valerie and Sharon stayed on the same team, it was as if they had vowed to spend the rest of their lives together.

The previous in-charge of activities with a dead soul in his eyes guided the way, Lyla was the first one to follow, dragging Tim along with her all the way. And as usual Raven was the last one in the group, but maybe not alone, this time.

Raven could hear someone walking behind her as they proceeded, the sound of fallen twigs & leaves being crushed under someone's foot made her sure. She tried to see who it was from the corner of her eyes, is it Trystan?

For a moment, a smile spread across her face. The thought of Trystan, always made her cheeks glow bright pink against her pale complexion and would always make her nervous.

“ Is he the ghost of Gruselig mountain?” Raven said to herself and chuckled.

Raven decided to play with him a little, just to confirm if he was following her or just decided to tag along. As he never got involved in any of the previous activities. She was starting to like the stalking game.

She paused for a second and realised the sound stopped as well. She then took multiple steps quickly and heard him fasten his as well. It was fun for her, she blushed hoping he would catch up with her soon enough.

After a while, she got tired from hiking all] the way up to the mountain so she decided to take a break to catch her breath. She sat down on a rock just a couple steps away from her. Then she opens her bottle to drink some water, it is when she could see a figure in front of her blocking the sun. It was Trystan, with one of his legs on the rock and the other on the ground while holding the staff he’s been carrying around.

It was for the first time that Raven noticed the staff alongside him. It had an eagle-head handle with a feather-like collar, the shaft was pitch black with a shiny polishing as of a Raven. It was the shaft that attracted Raven the most, she could see the reflection of her face on it. It almost enchanted her.

Trystan puts out his staff to rest on the rock and sighs while he catches a breath.

“ Fascinating, isn't it?” Trystan almost says in a different tone than usual. His voice was deeper, it felt like he was doing it on purpose to sound more appealing in front of Raven, it was that obvious.

“You think you own it?” Raven tries to be as stern as possible.

Trystan silently sat next to her. As he took a deep breath. He kept his distance yet tried to stay as close as possible. This was him trying to play it safe.

She couldn't believe he could be good to her or to anyone. This was her first impression of him speaking inside her mind. She always found him to be rude yet this was exactly what attracted her to him the most, weird if you ask me.

"It’s a family staff, kind of stuck with it. Passed on from generations..” Trystan reveals as he pretends to dig with it.

“In fact, it just seems like ordinary staff if you ask me!" Trystan adds as his eyes stay glued onto Raven’s face monitoring the changes in her expressions.

For a minute Raven was too fixated on the staff to properly make sense of what Trystan said. After he was done, Raven seemed to have recognised the staff.

“Here, would you like to hold it?” Trystan offers it to Raven.

"Hold up!! I have seen it before!" Raven exclaims.

"That's impossible," Trystan responds.

"But.. I have" Raven defends.

Trystan goes silent for a moment as if he was caught red handed.

By this time Kimberly aka Tim, had realized that Raven isn't following the group or even with it. So he tries to slow down his steps in order to get a glimpse of Raven as everyone overtakes him; he didn’t find her.

"You should get going," Trystan asks Raven in an authoritative tone as if his perfume of sweetness was wearing off.

"Uh, Yeah.. I should.." Raven hesitates but gets up to get going.

“What about you?” She adds.

“I’ll be right behind ya!” Trystan replies.

________

While everyone else was engrossed and occupied with another group activity that was already assigned to them, Roxie was on a mission of her own. She seems to be looking for something, as the place seemed weirdly familiar to her.

Not only that, it felt like someone constantly had their eyes on her. The forest, even up the mountain, was as dense and hollow. The forest was watching her every move. She could sense it. The trees, the winds, the fallen leaves on the ground; everything seemed to bend in the direction she took her steps.

A dead silence followed everywhere she went, also it was oddly a chilly weather for summertime. Roxie started getting chills and shivered as the wind blew past her.

The trees were huge and thick, they covered up almost the entire forest, she could hardly see the sky or even the tip of the trees, it was hardly visible. The fact that there was not even a single sound of any animals made it creepier and also made her want to leave, but how could she, she was there for her sister or so she thought.

Somehow she mustered up her courage and continued walking up the mountain, alone. She was only a little sidetracked but headed the right way up. She was fully exhausted and wished she had never come to the camp in the first place but it was for her sister. At least that kept her motivated.

_______

After the odd and fun encounter with Trystan; Raven now walks alongside Trystan, slowly since he said he’d be right behind. As Trystan took a step forward, she moved two steps back so that she could match paces with him.

As her eyes were still fixed onto the staff that Trystan held dearly, her attention slowly drifted towards the Red Flags that were dug in the ground at a difference of distance of a few steps all along.

“What are those now?” She wondered.

“Ah that must be her” Tim finally falls behind to successfully catch a glimpse of Raven.

Tim slows down to catch up while pretending to walk as he waits for Raven. Lyla was too engrossed into her own chattering to even notice that Tim was gone and it had been more than just a minute.

“Are you alright?” Tim asks Raven, concerned since she had been gone for way too long.

“She is definitely fine! You should worry about yourself, young man.” Trystan replies in an annoyed tone, as if he was trying to defend his territory.

“Oh, hello there, I did not notice you at all” Tim tries to be as polite and calm as he could. Something about trystan always made Tim be on the guard or just watch out.

Now Raven walked alongside both of them; Trystan on the right and Tim on the left. Tim was being clingy but this didn’t stop Raven from blushing the entire time when suddenly they came across some bones tied up to ropes that surrounded a certain parameter.

“Ar..are those real bones?” Tim asks curiously while pointing at them.

“Yes they are, but of animals,” Trystan replies, still pissed about Tim interrupting his time with Raven.

“Wish they were yours” Trystan murmurs under his breath.

Raven had already noticed rusty animal traps on her way up, it was absurd that the flag poles could have been made up using animal bones when there were no animals around to begin with - well explains why there weren’t any.

By this time around, all of them have reached the top of the mountain. It was flat enough to accommodate the campers and their tents for them to camp. There were trees surrounding the entire compound. It appeared like it was specially prepared for camping.

“Alright boys and girls, why don’t you collect some firewood after you’re done setting up your tents, so we can get the fire started?” the in-charge said with a sluggish and cold voice.

"To save you the trouble of arguing, let me assign one task to each one of you"

“Lyla, Tim & … firewood... , Valerie & Sharon… start a fire..., Raven.. Dry grass..,” the instructor went on telling spots where they would find what's needed and where to gather, etc.

“Ugh.. why did he have to assign me the dry grass?” Raven was annoyed, she was aware that it was the hardest to find given the climate in the camp wasn't exactly sunny or dry.

Nevertheless she gets going, it was already assigned and arguing with the incharge would only get her into trouble. She didn't wanna be in the spotlight for the staff and being late had already made her be.

Raven had a grumpy face on and it wasn’t difficult for Tim to guess why. But, she was already inside the woods looking for some dry grass, the land was mostly barren or the grass was mostly wet wherever her eyes could see.

Hearing some footsteps approaching her, she was startled for a minute until Trystan came into her sight.

"Oh! It's you! I got scared for a minute" Raven said as if she was found by her knight in shining armour.

"What have you been assigned?" Trystan gets closer to Raven and whispers in her ear.

"Ah.. dr..dry grass" Raven couldn't utter a word and stumbled to do so with him so close to her.

It felt good for some reason, Raven didn't know what to do or say. There was silence for a minute when…

"There you are!" Tim interrupts and catches Raven off guard.

"Ah, yeah what happened?" She steps away from Trystan and tries to get hold of her.

"I got the dry grass you were looking for" Tim walks towards Raven and hands her it.

"Where did you find it?" Trystan questioned Tim, he was also sure that it was almost impossible to find in the Forest.

"Just around there somewhere" Tim pointed blank in some direction.

"Let's get back" Raven suggested as she sensed something wasn't right here.

"Yes you shall" Trystan commanded, as he took a step closer to Raven and slipped something in her pocket sneakily.

"What about you?" Raven questioned Trystan.

"I need to take care of something," Trystan said in a soft tone to Raven.

Raven and Tim head back to their campsite as they walk in silence. It was weird because Tim usually was quite talkative. Tim seemed oddly off for his extroverted personality; Raven was concerned.

Once they reached, Raven handed the dry grass over to Sharon so that they could start the fire. She stands away from the crowd as the others attempt to light up the stack of wood. They were having trouble lighting up the woods, Lyla was being annoying as usual until Trystan helped them light it up.

Looking at the sky, she slid her hands into her pockets in search of some warmth for her cold hands. It was then, she realised there was a paper that she quickly took out. She unfolds it deliberately.

It read:

***

MEET ME BY THE EDGE OF THE MOUNTAIN AT MIDNIGHT ;)

-TRYSTAN

***

Raven gets startled and folds it back in a haste as she hears somebody call her name.

To be continued...