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Sunlight peeks through the forest canopy, dappling the trail. Ruggie’s ear twitches as a mosquito buzzes too close, and he waves a hand to chase it off. Just ahead, Jade is scanning the area, occasionally stopping to crouch beside a bunch of weeds or mushrooms with a small book, looking between them. Often he will stand up with a sigh, but every once in a while he grins ominously, cutting a few and tucking them away. Thankfully, as far as Ruggie can tell, Jade hasn’t been collecting ones that were obviously poisonous. He’d have to take a closer look if Jade wanted to share his bounty though, and double check the contents of the cooler that he had mistakenly let Jade carry.
They follow the trail in silence, their conversation having long since died out. It’s a comfortable silence though, Ruggie doesn’t feel the urge to fill the air with mindless chatter. Actually, maybe it was too quiet. Ruggie peeks over his shoulder, and shouts.
“Silver!” Ruggie calls back, trotting from where they came. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Jade stop as well, following behind. As Ruggie rounds a bend in the path, he spots Silver, standing in the middle of the trail.
“Are you alright, Silver?” Jade asks as he approaches, but Silver doesn’t respond.
“Ah!” Ruggie waves his hand in front of Silver’s face, but it doesn’t elicit a response. “He fell asleep.”
“Quite impressive,” Jade chuckles, “I never imagined a person could fall asleep in the middle of a hike.” Although his words are lighthearted, that sharp toothed smile of Jade’s still raises the hairs on the back of Ruggie’s neck.
“Hey, wake up Silver, we’re almost to the campsite. At least wait until the tent’s set up!” He shakes Silver’s shoulders, who slowly rouses from his sleep.
“Hm? Sorry, did I fall asleep?”
“Yeah, in the middle of walking. It’s a good thing you didn’t fall and hit your head.” Ruggie pats Silver’s shoulders and chuckles. “Although if you crack your head open I get first dibs on what’s in your bag.”
Silver rubs his eyes, frowning. “I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that. Or rather I hope you’d come to my aid before rummaging through my belongings.”
“ Shishishi , of course. I could probably get a favor out of the other Diasomnia guys if I help you out. That’s worth more than some camping gear.” Ruggie tucks his hands behind his head, laughing.
“… please don’t incite an accident to get a favor out of Master Malleus.” Silver yawns before following. Ruggie can hear Jade chuckle beside him, and rolls his eyes. Jade should be the one getting that warning, not him.
“Well, gentlemen, we wouldn’t want to be setting up a tent in the dark, so shall we make haste?” Jade has his usual inscrutable smile. With noises of agreement, they continue on.
Soon they come across a rickety wooden sign, pointing to a smaller path that branches off the main trail. It looks a little overgrown, with clover and grass creeping into the middle, and bushes and branches poking in.
“It looks a little… suspicious…” Ruggie trails off, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“The sign says ‘campsite’ and is pointing at it, as it was said to be in the directions, so I’d imagine so.” Jade has his phone out, trying to get a signal. “I can’t imagine it’d be particularly dangerous, much less so since we have our magic pens.”
“Even so…” Despite knowing not many people go out hiking in the forests around NRC, the trails have so far been relatively well maintained. So the path to a campsite being completely neglected felt… wrong. It definitely felt like one of those bad horror movies he watched with some of the other Savanaclaw sophomores.
“Well, it’s not as if I’d lure two unsuspecting classmates into a deserted part of the forest in order to do away with them. And certainly not with so many others knowing of our camping plans.” Jade chuckles, and Ruggie can only respond with a half hearted laugh of his own. Behind them, Silver’s already nodding off again, seemingly unaware of Jade’s ominous joke.
“I guess we should check it out then, at least while it’s still light out.” Ruggie sighs, his shoulders slumping, one of the straps of his backpack nearly sliding off. When Jade came to him with the proposal of a weekend camping trip, he thought it would be a nice break from taking care of Leona, not the premise of a crappy horror flick.
Ruggie stands back a bit, letting Jade take the lead. He gives Silver a push, urging him forwards, with Ruggie taking the rear. The overgrown bushes snag at his bag, and he watches as Jade and Silver dodge some of the lower hanging branches.
“I truly didn’t expect the trail to be so poorly maintained.” Jade comments, ducking low beneath a branch with a heavy curtain of lichen. “I hope the campsite isn’t in too bad of condition.”
The twigs snapping underfoot make Ruggie tense up, even knowing it was them making the noise. His ears stand, alert, and he can’t help but look over his shoulder every once in a while. In fact, Ruggie pays so much attention to what’s behind him that he runs right into Silver’s back.
“Why'd you guys stop?” Ruggie peeks around Silver, and his jaw goes slack.
The campsite is wide and clear, despite the dense forest surrounding it and the path being overgrown and untended. It opens right up to the water, and even has picnic tables and fire pits.
“Well, I’m glad to see it’s in better shape than the trail.” Jade comments as he looks around.
“Thankfully.” Ruggie sighs, and then mumbles under his breath. “Looks like I won’t be having any slasher nightmares.”
“Did you say something, Ruggie?”
“Nope.” Stretching his arms up, Ruggie winces a bit as he feels his back pop. “Wanna get the tent set up before the sun goes down?”
“Let’s do so. We don’t want Silver sleeping on the dirt.” Even though they’ve only stopped for a couple minutes, Silver is already starting to doze off. Snickering, Ruggie shrugs the straps of his backpack off, letting it drop to the ground.
“We need a tarp on the ground first, right?” Snapping open the buckles on his bag, Ruggie grabs the plasticky blue sheet. “Silver, don’t just stand there, gimme a hand.” He calls back, and can hear the thump of a bag hitting the ground.
“Shall we set up camp over here?” Jade calls from a grassy patch near the picnic tables. Before long, the three of them have the tent set up. Groaning, Ruggie flops on his back inside the tent.
“This thing is huge, glad we won’t be squished together in a tiny tent.” Even with his arms stretched out he can’t reach either side. “Where’d you get this thing?”
“The Mountain Lovers club has a nice array of equipment at its disposal.” Jade has his usual smile on as he puts away the extra stakes and rods.
“Even though you’re the only member?” Ruggie raises an eyebrow. “Actually, never mind, I don’t think I wanna know.”
“Your instinct for trouble is as good as ever. However, if you’re willing to take the risk–“
“How about we get started on dinner!” Ruggie sits up quickly, cutting Jade off before he can finish talking. The sun is starting to set and Silver is barely awake, and honestly… Ruggie’s not sure he wants to hear the rest of what Jade has to say.
Although the picnic tables are a little rickety, they’re sturdy enough, and the grate and bricks of the fire pit look almost new.
“Perhaps they’ve been maintained with magic.” Jade muses as he inspects the area.
“That’s nice, way better than a mouthful of rust.” Ruggie rests his arms on top of the cooler, fingers tapping the plastic lid.
“Ah, Ruggie, do you mind collecting some firewood? I can prepare the ingredients while you do so.” Something about Jade’s smile has turned ominous. Even if Ruggie trusts Jade’s ability to forage, he’s definitely seen some poisonous plants when Jade returns from his hikes, and it was definitely on purpose.
Jade chuckles under Ruggie’s suspicious gaze. “I assure you, nothing I’ve picked up today was poisonous. And I’d certainly choose a less conspicuous occasion if I did have anything planned.”
“It’d be even more reassuring if you weren’t thinking about poisoning people at all.” Ruggie sighs, his shoulders falling forwards. He wants to push the job off onto Silver, but that comes with the risk of him falling asleep in the forest.
“Hey Silver, make sure he doesn’t put anything weird in the food.” He watches as Silver slightly raises his head from the picnic table, making an almost inaudible grunt of acknowledgement. It looks like any surveillance would be a lost cause.
Clasping his hands behind his head, Ruggie heads towards the edge of the clearing. Although the middle of the campground is more or less clear, the same couldn’t be said for its perimeter. The shrubbery isn’t as dense as around the path, but instead it’s covered with fallen branches and dead leaves. Glancing over his shoulder, it looks like Silver is awake, or at least sitting up. But Ruggie doubts he’ll stay up for long, so he hurries to gather some decent sized branches and twigs.
Shuffling back, Ruggie drops his load of wood off by the fire pit, and sneaks a glance at what Jade’s prepared. It looks normal for the most part, in fact it looks perfect. He knew Floyd was a great cook when he was in the right mood, but Jade seems to be just as capable. He’s laid out an assortment of skewers, everything cut neat and uniform, although some of the mushrooms look… rather fresh.
“Are those what you were grabbing on the way here?” Ruggie asks, and raises an eyebrow when Jade simply chuckles in response.
After getting the fire started with the help of Silver’s magic, Ruggie plops down on the picnic table’s bench.
“Do you need any help with cooking?” He asks Jade, who’s already started laying the skewers on the fire pit’s metal grate. Ruggie’s words don’t come from a genuine desire to help, but rather to avoid any other potentially toxic alterations Jade could make during the cooking process.
“Heh, it seems you don’t trust my abilities. I can assure you that I’ll give it the same treatment as if I was in the Monstro Lounge kitchen.” Jade’s smile isn’t reassuring at all, so Ruggie can’t help but keep glancing over from his seat at the picnic table.
“Now that I think about it, why'd you come with us, Silver?” Ruggie turns his attention from Jade to Silver, who's now looking more alert. “It doesn’t sound like something you’d be interested in.”
“Ah,” Silver’s brows furrow, “my fath– Lilia heard that I was invited and insisted I go as well.” He rubs the corners of his eyes, as if he was being pushed around by an overbearing dad. “He said it would build character.”
“That sounds rough.” Ruggie snickers, leaning his chin against his hand. “Being dragged out into the wilderness because of the whims of an upperclassman.”
“Well it’s fine, it’s been fun.” Silver’s features soften into a gentle smile. “We’re in different classes and clubs this year, so it’s nice to see each other every once in a while.”
Ruggie looks away, watching some squirrels that were hanging around the perimeter of the campsite. “Yeah, it’s not bad.” He mumbles, a little embarrassed. Almost as if on cue, Ruggie’s stomach lets out a growl.
“It seems you have good timing.” Jade chuckles as he approaches, paper plates full of skewers. Ruggie’s ears twitch as he sniffs the air, the smell of cooked meat leaves him nearly drooling.
“ Shishishi , looks like this trip was really worth it! Thanks for the food!” Ruggie claps his hands together before digging in. The juicy beef and earthy mushrooms are grilled to perfection, and despite his misgivings, Ruggie’s glad he left the cooking to Jade. Letting his eyes leave his food, Ruggie glances up. Both Jade and Silver have started talking between skewers, regarding grilling techniques by the sound of it. Behind them, the setting sun has started painting the sky in pinks and purples, and the only sounds besides their conversation is the fire crackling and the occasional bird or squirrel rustling in the brush.
Ruggie grins, feeling more relaxed than he has in a while. “If you ever got some good meat that needs eating, I’d be happy to join another one of these camping trips.”
“Well, if you’re that interested, might I invite you to the Mountain Lover’s club–”
“No thanks!”