Everyone woke up that morning like usual- an air horn being blown into everyone's tent.
The person blowing the air horn was the leader of the group- Liz, a human-bat hybrid. She had naturally black hair, green eyes and was ridiculously tall.
"Hey everybody, GET UP! Jade made oatmeal, and it's gonna get cold!" Liz hollered in the center of camp.
The mention of Jade's cooking was incentive enough to get everyone up. Despite her silent, mordant attitude, Jade, who was part blackbird, was an exceptional cook.
I struggled out of my sleeping bag and stuck my head out of the tend, squinting against the bright morning light. Across the circle of tents, I saw LOL (stands for Lynn O'Laikey) squinting in a similar fashion, and settling her rectangular glasses on her nose. In the center of the circle was a big campfire with a pot making small bubbling noises sitting next to it. Standing over the pot was Jade, her dark hair covering one eye, and dancing around next to Jade was Bunny, a rabbit-human hybrid. Bunny was the youngest of the group, and by far the most... energetic, shall I say.
Aside from those I've mentioned, the clan members currently not in my field of vision were Echo, nature lover and part lizard, Pinky, seamstress extraordinaire and part electric eel, and Hawk, LOL's jocky boyfriend, part... well, hawk.
Speak (or write, I suppose) of the devil- out came Hawk from the nearby woods, his glossy black hair tied back in a small ponytail. He had a bundle of firewood tucked under one of his muscular arms. Hawk dropped his load next to the campfire, where Jade was ladling oatmeal into everyone's bowls.
It was then when I realized I'd been sitting there for quite a bit, and probably looked a little strange. I crawled the rest of the way out of the semi-makeshift tent, got up and stretched.
"Morning, Liz," I said semi-awkwardly.
She blinked, them seemed to register my presence. "Yo. You getting used to camp life?"
I glanced around. "I guess so. What do you guys to in the winter, though?"
"We save up funds from Hawk and Echo's jobs and use them to rent hotel rooms," Liz said off-handedly, then jogged over without another word to yell at Bunny, who was trying to put a mushroom she'd found into the oatmeal.
There it was again- that feeling of not really belonging here, despite pretty much mutual acceptance in the beginning.
I tried to shrug off the melancholy feeling and got the small bowl I'd been issued out of my tent. As I walked over to join the small line for breakfast, I felt a jolt on my back- like, electrical jolt.
"Ack!" I whirled to meet the innocent blue eyes of Pinky, who was holding up one finger, which she'd used to zap me.
"Hiya, Vic!" She grinned. "How's it goin'?"
"Good," I mumbled, and turned back around to find that Hawk had taken my place in line. I groaned.
...
Later that day, Liz proposed I make myself useful. I was happy to oblige, given the fact that there's almost NOTHING to do at your average campsite, and this one was no exception.
"Jade and I are going into the woods to see what we can find food-wise," she said, settling a makeshift fishing pole on her shoulder. "You want to come with us? It'll be a good chance to see what your talents are."
"All right," I said, standing up and futilely attempting to brush the dust off of my already dusty jeans.
"Cool," Liz said, already heading towards the woods. "C'mon, Jade!"
Jade, who was toting a lethal-looking longbow, nodded noncommittally and followed.
Soon, we were out of sight of the campsite. None of us spoke for a bit. Liz was the one who broke the silence.
"Jade, how about you scout for game from the air? I'll take Vic with me to the creek and see if there's anything to catch."
Jade nodded, and took off her jacket. As she spread her jet-black wings, a couldn't help but be amazed at how effortlessly she jumped into spontaneous, graceful flight. Then, with a rustle of leaves, Jade was gone.
"C'mon, dude," said Liz, pointing. "The creek's this way."
The creek looked a lot like the one I'd seen on a field trip in middle school, except for the notable lack of kids stomping around in galoshes and teachers yelling instructions to a deaf audience. This one was much more of the "tranquil" variety.
I was taking all this in while I noticed Liz acting a little strangely. She'd tucked her raggedly cut hair behind her ears and had her mouth slightly open as if she was singing. I didn't hear a thing, though. Suddenly, she reached out at lightning speed and appeared to catch something in midair.
Noticing me staring, she smirked. "Echolocation," she said bemusedly.
Liz opened her hand and showed me what the fuss was all about- she'd caught a fly.
"That's great and all, but... why?" I said, puzzled.
"Bait," said Liz, pulling a paper clip out of her pocket. One of its ends was bent out, and sharpened to a nasty point. She speared the fly on the clip and tied it to her fishing line. Unexpectedly, she held the fishing rod out to me. "You want to try your hand at fishing?"
"Uh, sure," I said, taken slightly aback. I took the rod from her and walked closer to the bank. My first cast was an epic failure, landing in shallow water about two feet from me.
"Do more of a backswing," said Liz from behind me.
My next attempt was much better- I managed to get it into a run (a shallow, fast-moving part of a stream, for those of you who don't know your terminology).
"All right, now we wait," said Liz.
"Great," I muttered, rolling my eyes slightly. This was going to be hard to get used to.
You might be wondering- why wasn't I trying to leave? Why would I want to stay in the woods with such a strange group?
Well, there are two reasons: 1. My life back in civilized society was hardly a bed of roses, and 2. I was having the most fun I'd had in years.
After about five minutes of contemplating an ant dragging a piece of leaf across the ground and listening to Liz humming Bohemian Rhapsody, I felt something tug at the pole in my hands.
"Woah!" I exclaimed, "Got something!"
"Right, pull!" said Liz, sounding uncharacteristically excited.
I heaved on the line, and a fin broke the water with a splash not five feet from where I was standing. Swallowing with nervous excitement, I pulled harder. It obviously wasn't all that big a fish, and I pulled it onto the bank with relative ease, where it lay there, twitching.
"Uuh... what now?" I said, staring at it blankly.
"Now, we put it in this bucket and try to catch another," Liz said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I hadn't even noticed she'd brought a bucket. Liz and I took turns holding the line, and we eventually landed seven fish or so between the two of us.
"Nice work, man," said Liz, slapping me high five. "Let's get back to camp."
"What about Jade?" I asked, shouldering the fishing rod.
"Jade moves at her own pace. She'll come back to camp eventually, and there's no sense in looking," Liz replied, picking up the bucket and starting off towards the campsite.
...
Sure enough, Jade was already at the camp by the time Liz and I got back. Her back was turned, so I couldn't see what she was doing, but LOL and Bunny were looking pretty interested in whatever it was. Intrigued, I walked over to look.
I later wished I hadn't, due to the fact that she was skinning a dead rabbit.
LOL chuckled at my expression. "Welcome to the wild, city boy," she said, a slight joking edge in her tone. "Did you and Liz catch anything good?"
"He really surprised me, I gotta admit," said Liz, coming up behind me. "Between the two of us, we got seven decent-sized ones."
Bunny poked one of the fish in the bucket. "Liiiiiiz?"
"Yes, Bunny?" Liz sighed.
"Do raw fish taste good?"
"No, you silly, you might get salmonella," said Liz, ruffling Bunny's hair. I blinked in surprise at her sudden segway from leader to... mom.
I guessed there was more to Liz than I thought.
