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Her father always told her not to be in the forest past 6 pm. The old ladies that lived next door often gossiped about the missing people that disappeared there. And the gossip girls at school whispered about the ‘sightings’ constantly.
The forest was serene, birds chirping, owls hooting, and the sound of the slow wind brushing past the trees.
That didn’t calm Akane’s racing heart, though.
She had already made a campfire in preparation for the night. She had also tried to catch some fish in the pond that was supposed to be nearby, but ever since the sun started to set, she couldn’t seem to find it.
It was supposed to just be a short excursion in the forest to train her martial arts, it wasn’t supposed to end up with her lost in a forest with paths that seem to change every minute!
She decided to lay down to try to calm herself.
She had gone camping before, it was in a field though, not in a forest that was rumoured to be filled with magical child abducting monsters!
‘This is it,’ she thought while staring at the sky, ‘I’m sorry father, Kasumi, Nabiki, mother…’
She pulled herself up, determination filling her eyes once again ‘No! I can’t give up just yet. Why am I scared of some monsters, I’ll just beat them up! Yeah, that's what I'll do! They don’t stand a chance!’
She stood up, dusting herself “C’MON MONSTERS! I’M NOT SCARED OF YOU!”
-
“Wow, that girl’s real stupid-” a hand hit him on the head.
“OW! WHY’D YOU DO THAT FOR, YOU STUPID PIG!”
“Shhhhhhhh, shut up, she might hear-”
“Is someone there?!” the girl exclaimed, eyes widened, staring at the tree Ranma and Ryouga were hiding in.
“See?! I told you!” Ryouga whispered-screamed.
“I can see you, y’know!” the girl exclaimed again, now directly staring at them.
“Crap! I told you to turn back to a guy!”
“No you didn’t!”
“Are you lost too?” the girl asked, slowly walking towards the tree they were hiding in.
“No-”
“YES! We’re also… lost… like you.” Ryouga declared, cutting off Ranma.
“What? Why are you-”
“Shut up!”
-
The two in the tree seemed to be bickering, Akane didn’t really hear what they were bickering about. She was just so relieved that some else was here.
“Can you come down here?”
“OF COURSE! C’mon Ranma!” the boy answered.
The two jumped down. There was a boy with black hair and a yellow bandana around his head and a short girl with bright red hair tied in a braid wearing chinese clothing.
She walked towards them, “My name’s Akane Tendou.” She introduced herself.
“Ryoga! My name’s Ryouga Hibiki!” the boy, Ryouga , answered, he sounded very nervous, “This is Ranma Saotome, he- I mean, she’s pretty rude, so you probably shouldn’t talk to her.”
“No I’m not!” the redhead exclaimed.
“Um… nice to meet you two, you guys wanna sit down with me?” Akane asked.
“Sure!” Ryouga answered again, a bit too fast and enthusiastic.
The two followed her to the campfire, and they sat down around it together.
“So… uh… what do you two like to do?” Akane tried to initiate some small talk to decrease the awkward atmosphere.
“I like martial arts” Ranma answered
“Oh! Me too! What about you Ryouga?”
“Also… martial arts”
“Oh, that’s nice…”
The quiet lasted an uncomfortable amount of time, before Ranma stood up.
“I don't know about you two, but I’m starving!”
“You always are!” Ryouga shouted.
“And?”
“Me too, I don’t have any food though.” Akane interrupted.
“There’s a river nearby, we could probably catch some fish.” Ranma stated, pointing his thumb to the woods behind him.
“Really?! I looked everywhere and couldn't find any body of water.”
“Well… you probably didn’t look hard enough,” Ranma stated, “Now, C’mon.”
-
Ranma wasn’t lying, after five minutes of walking, they found themself staring at a beautiful river.
“Hey, Ryouga, wanna see who can catch the most fish?” Ranma smirked.
“Are you challenging me, Ranma?!”
“Yeah.”
Akane watched the two run towards the river, and the utter speed of their hands while catching the fishes made Akane stop breathing for a second.
“Hey guys, isn’t that a bit much?” Akane inquired, after realizing how much fish they were catching.
“Oh! Huh?” Ryouga stopped in his fish catching, “Ranma!”
-
The three came back to the campfire with way too much fish for three people- actually, I take that back, I guess it wasn’t too much?
Akane stared at Ranma, wide eyed.
Ranma stopped in her eating, staring at Akane, “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you have no shame, Ranma!” Ryouga shouted at Ranma.
“What’re you talking about?” Ranma answered, mouth full with fish.
“You are eating, like a PIG!”
“Says you!”
Akane felt like she was missing something.
-
The three of them slept around the campfire together that night.
It felt like a sleepover with some friends, Akane completely forgot that she was lost in a forest with some strangers, and that her family were probably worried sick about her.
They talked until they fell asleep, Ryouga and Ranma were fun to be around with, although it turned out what Ryouga said about Ranma turned out to be true, she insulted Akane a total of 12 times that night.
-
It was probably around 2 am, Akane was awoken by some strange noises.
It sounded like growling and an unfamiliar man shouting something like, ‘heat? Hot?’ something along those lines. Akane was too tired, though, in the morning Akane thought that it was probably just a weird dream.
-
“Akane! Akane!!! Where could that girl have gone-” Kasumi, Nabiki and their father had gone looking for Akane that morning, so far they hadn’t found any traces of her.
“Kasumi!”
“Nabiki? Did you find her?!” Kasumi asked, worry etched into her voice.
“Yeah, follow me.”
Kasumi followed Nabiki into a small clearing in the forest. Kasumi could see Akane sleeping peacefully on the grass near a burnt out campfire.
“Oh, Akane!” Kasumi ran towards Akane’s sleeping form.
“Huh? Kasumi?”
“Oh, thank God you’re safe!” Kasumi exclaimed as she hugged her youngest sister, “Nabiki, go tell father.”
“Where’s Ryouga and Ranma?” Akane asked, still sleepy.
“Who?”
“Ryouga and Ranma, they were here when I fell asleep last night…” her words trailed off as she stared at the clearing, and stood up.
“Akane, are you… alright?”
Akane walked towards a yellow bandana with a note in it, it read.
‘Last night was fun, we should do it again some other time, come back soon alright.’
-
She wanted to come back again, hopefully soon.