Rue's POV:

"Go camping, they said. It'll be fun, they said. Yeah well it's not so fun when you get lost in the ass crack of nowhere!" I grumbled as I stumbled through thick plants and tall trees.

It's the dead of night, I have no idea where I am, I'm lost in what I'm pretty sure is uncharted territory, and I'm sick of existing. Well atleast I'm hallucinating that these flowers are glowing.

Wait what?

I stop and look around me and sure enough, all the plants were softly glowing strange and beautiful colors. I felt a smile tight at the corners of my mouth at the amazing sight. That is, until I looked at my footprints. Everywhere I touched or stepped was dead and shriveled up. Some even reduced to ash as if burnt.

"Disgusting human filth like you doesn't belong here. Look at the destruction you bring without even trying."

I whipped around to see what had to be a hallucination. A giant bull that had to be at least 10 feet tall! With a Griffin(?!?) about the size of a lion. This had to be a hallucination. I must've hit my head along the way.

"State your business, human." The bull huffed at me. His voice thunderous.

Before I could even respond, I felt something slam onto my back from above. I collapsed to the ground with the thing on my back. I turned my head to the side to see a dog(?) with burnt wings pinning me.

"How did you get here? Who else knows about this place?" It demanded.

"I-Im sorry but this isn't real, right? Could you just knock me out so I could wake up back at my campsite? That's how it works right?" I hurriedly said.

The dog thing scoffed at me before looking at the bull. "He's just a clueless human. Let's buzz him and send him back." The bull nodded back at him.
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I screamed as I shot up in my sleeping bag. Najat stormed into the tent and frantically looked around before her eyes landed on me.

"Rue! Rue, you fucking rude piece of shit! I was so worried!" She tackled me into a hug. "No one knew where you were! What happened?!"

"I-" I stopped as I tried to think. "I... I don't know? All I remember is that I was lost, I fell down, and woke up here." I said and hugged her back. I quickly pulled away from her though as I'd burned. I felt a burning or almost electric and static like feeling in my chest.

I scrambled for my phone and lifted up my shirt. Najat grimaced as she saw my chest that was covered in bandages.

"When Tiria found you, he said you were unharmed except for that marking on your chest." She said and held my phone and opened the camera app.

She turned the screen towards me so I could see my bandage covered chest. I slowly peeled the bandages off to see a huge scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.

"That's weird. It's already healed but when Tiria brought you back here, it was fresh and bleeding. That was only yesterday." Najat said in surprise.

I only nodded in confusion as I felt something tugging at the back of my mind. "Tell everyone to pack everything up. We need to leave and it would be best to never come back. I don't remember what happened but I know it wasn't good and something worse will happen if we stay." I said to her and she nodded.

"I don't want to stay here another second, either. I'll go tell the others." She said and left the tent.

I looked at the scar one last time before shutting my phone off and pulling my shirt back down. I got up and started packing up my stuff and tried to forget about the scar. It obviously meant something but whatever it was, I had a feeling it wouldn't be good for anyone if I remembered what it meant.

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Beep beep, hey there meh future self. Date's monday, july 13 2:59-3:01am. Since I know you're going to read this again,

Rue- means regret because he regrets this whole experience

Najat- means safe because her showing up means Rue is safe

Tiria- means searching/searcher because he went out searching for Rue.
OK bye have fun