Camping trip
I'm searching through the tower in a panic. They let me stay here last night, likely from a suggestion of Loki since they have no real reason to. Although, I have a feeling he knows about my current situation, living at the church. Of course my flask has, once again, gone missing.
Before I know it I'm out of time and Happy is driving me to school, and I'm boarding the bus beside MJ, Ned, and Peter.
I can off-set the weakness of too-little blood by eating plentiful amounts of meat, but only for a few days and the last one is likely when I'm coming back to the tower.
Of course they won't be letting us hunt and instead brought rations, but it's mainly meat except for graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars, for some reason.
Besides, this is a STEM school. Even though at least half of them probably got in on money, they may have weak stomachs for all I know when it comes to killing and skinning an animal, then dealing with fresh raw meat.
I look up, checking the amounts of tents in the back of the bus. Since the teacher/helpers will get their own and each is only going to hold two, that leaves one person that would have to squeeze in with someone else. I grin, I could decline and quickly set up my own shelter. Then they wouldn't have to force me into one.
My eyes widen when I look out the window, this is the forest my church-home is in. Luckily we're headed away from it, I know this forest like the back of my hand, and setting up camp in a clearing on the other side of it.
We park in the clearing and load out of it, taking our stuff with us. The teacher, Mr.Harrington, looks confused, "Huh." He said, "Looks like we have one to little. Moontide would you mind squeezing into a tent with MJ and Betty?"
I put a bit of my vampiric persuasion in my voice, "I go camping here all the time, I could share sure, but that would be an uncomfortable invasion of their space wouldn't it? I already have a shelter set up here. It's by all the other tents and perfectly safe, protected from rain too." I give an innocent smile.
"Um...Sure. You can sleep there." He says, still in a slight daze.
I grin widely and walk over to a thick tree beside the other tents. It's on a miniature hill, about the size of two tents. At the bottoms of it there's a small wall of natural looking rocks. Pulling out some of them, it reveals sliding doors on the other side that I open. There's a cave spanning the whole hill and I enter, placing my sleeping bag down at it's spot where I would usually make a bed of leaves, grass, and flower petals, but I guess I can't do that now. Around the middle of the cave there's a small stream, it runs underground and through the cave, and I can walk over it if I need to.
Setting my stuff down and closing the doors behind me, I walk back out and stretch after the long bus ride, then go over to where Betty and MJ have finished their tent. Good news, Ned and Peter are sharing a tent, bad news Flash and one of his goons are just a tent or two away from them.
Said Peter and Ned were attempting to make the fire, but Flash was talking to them smugly making their work harder. Lightly jogging over I grabbed some wood and began to help them set it up in the proper formation, then sweep away any extra leaves and make a fire barrier of leaves and sand.
Eventually Flash left, and the three of us were asked to help unload the food since we had finished and it was getting dark. I turned to them after unloading the last cooler, "So guys, what are the marshmallows and chocolate for? Not that I'm complaining but..."
They practically dropped the one they were holding and turned to me with wide eyes, "You've never had s'mores?" Ned asked in disbelief.
S'mores? "No? What are s'mores? Why are you looking at me like that?" They whispered among themselves for a moment and grabbed my arms, pulling me over to where they were trying to light the fire.
When it was finally started they dragged me over to sit and eat on a log with them and MJ, who they told about my 'predicament'. Her eyes widened but nothing more, she began to sketch what I can only assume was my confused face.
After we finished all our food, I ate three hot dogs cooked as little as I could get away with, packs of marshmallows and metal sticks were handed to each log of people. Ned and Peter began spearing as many marshmallows as they could on it, then held them over the fire until they turned a light golden brown. MJ placed one on a graham cracker with chocolate and another cracker on top then handed it to me.
"This," She said, "Is a s'more." I took a bite and wow that's delicious. Considering I don't have my flask my diet on this trip will mainly be the meat, but this won't be bad at all." After a while they passed a fake feather around and people took turns telling scary stories, or just stories in general since not everyone knew how to forge a creepy one.
It finally got passed to me and I set it down in front of me.
"This." I said, "Is the legend and story of Koricrov, the volcano spirit."
I moved closer to the fire. "Once in a time, aged long ago. The world was bleak and stony, magma veins running everywhere, any plant life deep underground and all the world's water even deeper."
Flash laughed, "This isn't scary!"
I smirked, "Oh, do not judge a story when it has yet to begin." I looked deep into the fire, focusing on the center of the flame, watching what I was about to tell, and all the others followed my lead, trying to see something inside it.
"There was one spirit who ruled over all the creatures struggling to survive, digging up what they could to eat or hunting it down. The spirit's name was Koricrov, and she was huge. Her appearance changed, some believed she was a dragon with lava for veins, others thought she was a person larger than a mountain, or a magma-spewing snake. But she was indeed a dragon most of the time. Razor claws that set aflame whatever they touched and a fiery red glare that could burn through diamonds.
She had hundreds of minions, all diffrent shapes and sizes that brought those who did not obey to her. She slowly melted the flesh off of their bodies then ate them or set them imprisoned in the flaming mountains she formed and lived in. One day after ruling alone for eons, she had three children, the sun was the firstborn who she sent to the sky, the second was a dragon, always asleep and never woke but never died. She sent him into the moon for his uselessness, where he now rules over all in the dreamrealm and prophecies, with more importance than his mother ever believed.
The final child and the smallest was a Phoenix, who would likely become the heir to her domain. But he was smarter than to go along with her plans, so she tortured and abused him. His name was Porthern, and he was a spirit of love and fertility, who could control the fires both normal and of life. He teamed with the creatures and encased Koricrov into the earth's core.
He, in thanks to those who lended aid, bestowed a feather as a blessing of fertility upon the earth, rising the waters back into the oceans and the plants to the surface where the first child helped to tend them. He then went into slumber beneath the ground, his egg waiting to be reborn under a tree of life every hundred to thousand years, his ashes becoming ore, the oldest ore had become his mother's rage-fueling food.
But for Koricrov, her anger burned molten and she is still alive and awake after all this time, waiting for revenge. She sends minions into the night to bring people and animals as food and prisoners of molten cages. Every time a volcano erupts or an earthquake happens, it's a reminder she is here, she is angry, and she will do whatever it takes to claw her way back up to 'purify' us by bathing the world in lava once again. This time leaving none surviving or uncaptured. So watch your back, watch what you say near the earth's cracks, or she shall hear, and will be coming for you. Legend says they used an object to send her underground, a blood crystal with powers none knew, but enough to defeat her. Someday she will rise again from the earth and seek it out. If it ever falls into her talons, the world is doomed and everything shall burn, leaving nothing but a horrific dystopia behind, where she rules as eternal queen."
I glance around, seeing Flash and others perfectly and satisfyingly frightened. We all stand up and exchange good nights with the other people, some shaky walking back to their tent. I stretch and go back to my shelter, settling down in my sleeping bag and wishing the stars good night.
~-~-~-~
The next morning I woke up and got dressed, snagging and quickly eating a leftover hot dog from last night, as well as the breakfast sausage the teachers made this morning, eating one biscuit so it's not suspicious.
I heard them whispering last night. Today they would take us into the woods and see if anyone had the memory to lead us back, and if not they would take us the long way back to the campsite, so the entire hike/walk would be the whole day.
:-:-Time skip, Take me out to the dumpster, with all of my fellow trash-:-:
Long story short we didn't see much I hadn't seen many times before, we went along the parts I've explored many times, on my way to the clearing for previous camping trips. I did however, once have to slightly hypnotize the teacher just a little, to steer the group away from the church when we were nearing the end. I lied when the questioned it, said we were nearing a bear den.
Unfortunately the only three people who had any idea of the way back at all was Peter, MJ, and I. Peter's was mainly by the homing instinct the spider bite gave him, since it was at least partially a wolf spider, so that's kinda cool.
In the end we spent the night like yesterday, grilled burgers and the such, s'mores, and the other half of the class got to tell their stories.
Flash's story wasn't scary in the least, I swear I almost fell asleep where I sat. Before long we had to say goodnight. Tommorow we would just be taking a few photos, maybe doing a bit of arts and craft if we wanted since they brought some supplies, and then take down the tents and go home. Frankly I'm glad, based on how weak I feel right now with the meat-diet and no actual blood, as well as taking into account the hike, I'd say if I faint at all it's going be tommorow afternoon or evening.
-:-:time skip:-:-
I crack open my eyes and groan. I hadn't been able to sneak out to the church and grab a new flask, because the teachers had taken turns all night, watching the tents to make sure people didn't try to sneak out. It would've been risky to try hypnotism again, and I haven't really learned teleportation spells since I have wings.
So naturally I just tried to sleep, only to have an aching stomach when I woke up. Today we don't have to do school since we would be arriving around halfway into the day, so I would be headed straight to the internship.
Hopefully someone found the flask, but if not...
Well, I don't like it, but if not Loki said I could. I really want it as last resort though.
Sluggishly getting dressed, I look in the stream at my slightly blurred reflection. I don't think I look TOO bad at least.
Walking outside I find MJ and Ned at the arts and crafts station. "Wow, you ok?" Ned asks when he spots me. Guess I was wrong, I don't look the best apparently.
I wave him off and grab some pinecones and branches, as well as glue and glitter. I carefully weave them into three small wreaths. Blue and red glitter goes on one, black and purple glitter on the second, orange and blue glitter on the third. I grinned, setting the second on MJ's head and the third on Ned.
MJ raised a brow and stuck her tongue out, but didn't remove it. Ned looked confused but shrugged it off. I looked around to see Peter walking around, taking photos and I quietly call his name, knowing he'll hear. True to form, he looks around before landing his eyes on us and walks over.
I giggle and put the first wreath on his head and steal his camera, snapping a photo with MJ between her two losers, using their shoulders like arm rests. I snap another with my phone, using the caption "Hail the queen of Losers!" I grin and hand them the pic, which I magically quadruplicate. I keep one for myself and the others are theirs.
I turn back to the table and make another one, this one looking more like a crown and somewhat fancier. I carefully add metallic gold and black paint, with a bit of green glitter here and there. It looks a bit more carefully made than theirs, but it's for Loki. I carefully put it in my satchel and load my sleeping bag into the bus over where my seat is, the generally vacated back row(s) where we sit.
We take a few more photos with Peter and then we're called to load up into the bus. I lean against the window and shut my eyes, listening to vibrating engine and trying to tune everything else out and sleep.
I really hope the flask is back at the tower.
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Thanks for sticking with me! Web you later Spiderfans!<3
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