Adventures and Such at Camp Batterfly: Part Five

      Swept by Tyrannia! Can you believe it? We hope you're having fun!

      Lenka and Pavol

      Zita and the rest of the new campers didn't know exactly what a camp fire entailed, so after they read their letters, their counselors explained it to them. At a camp fire, the entire camp gathered together and made food and sang songs 'round the fire. Since this was only their first camp fire, they'd be making s'mores. S'mores were easy. But they would have to learn a bunch of songs. And the fire couldn't be made out of nothing. They needed fire wood. Lightmite instructed the campers on how to collect fire wood. Apparently, you couldn't just pick up a bunch of random sticks and throw them in the fire.

      The rules of fire wood were:

      1. No breaking wood off living trees

      2. The wood has to be dry

      3. No going too far off the path, and stay with a buddy.

      4. No hitting each other with the sticks

      There were three kinds of fire wood they had to remember. Tinder was the smallest, and they needed to most of it. Kindling was medium sized. And fuel was the biggest kind. They didn't need a lot of fuel. Naturally everyone wanted to collect fuel. Marissa and Deanna teamed up with Zita and they volunteered to collect tinder. They raced off into the woods, but not too far off the path. They looked around for the thinnest, smallest wood. That proved harder than they had expected.

      "I can't see anything!" Marissa sighed.

      It took them awhile, but they came up with a fairly decent pile of tinder. Their counselors put a tarp over their wood so it wouldn't get wet if it rained. They went over the rules of fire safety, which were:

      1. No running around or playing near the fire

      2. No leaving the fire unattended

      3. No leaning over the fire with your hair down

      4. Always keep a bucket of water near the fire

      5. Clear the area around the fire

      6. Fire is dangerous. Don't be stupid.

      The campers laughed at that last one.

      After that, it was time to learn some camp songs. Lightmite asked Oak Ledge if they knew any camp songs. Campers like Marissa already knew tons of songs. She stood up and waved around her arm.

      "Yes, Marissa?" said Lightmite, smiling. "Do you want to come up and teach some songs?"

      Marissa leapt into the air and bounded up to the front.

      "Does anyone else want to help?" Thornberry asked.

      Deanna raised her hand.

      "Alright, Deanna."

      The royal Ixi joined the starry Techo at the front. Together they taught Oak Ledge a bunch of camp songs. Some were traditional Faellie Scout songs. Others were silly camp songs. One was a bout a hungry Polarchuck. Another was about a faerie who got lost in the woods. Zita sang along loudly.

      It was in between songs when she heard something. It sounded like a sniffling, and it was coming from behind her. She turned around and saw the Hissi that she had gone canoeing with. It looked like she was crying. She noticed that Zita was looking at her. She immediately stopped crying. She was sitting all alone. Zita wondered where her friends were.

      Zita realized that she didn't know the Hissi's name. She somehow found the confidence to say:

      "Hi, I'm Zita."

      The Hissi stared at her for awhile. But she did answer eventually.

      "I'm Beatrice."

      Zita decided to keep talking. "What's wrong, Beatrice?"

      Beatrice looked a little accused. Zita felt guilty for asking her that. Beatrice took a deep breath before answering.

      "I'm just a little homesick."

      Beatrice looked really sad. Zita got up from her seat and went to sit next to Beatrice.

      "Why don't you send your family a letter?" said Zita, trying to sound comforting.

      "I did," said Beatrice, "but they haven't responded yet."

      Zita didn't know what to say to that. "I'm sure they will," she said.

      "I swear," said Beatrice, "they just send me to camp to get rid of me."

      "I'm sure that's not true," said Zita sympathetically.

      Beatrice started crying again.

      "Well, are you having fun?" asked Zita.

      Beatrice looked Zita straight in the eye.

      "I guess so," said Beatrice.

      "You guess so?" said Zita.

      "Okay, fine, I am," Beatrice said, crossing her arms and even smiling a bit.

      "Sing, girls," Lightmite reminded them.

      Beatrice and Zita both turned around to face forward, where Marissa and Deanna were still singing. This song had movements to go along with it, so Marissa was gesturing wildly. Zita and Beatrice sat together for the rest of the time, until it was time to go.

      Their next activity was archery. Everyone was really excited, so Zita was too. Zita had never done archery before. She was a little nervous but mostly just excited. The archery instructor was a red Scorchio named Toffee. They were taught the rules of archery and then they lined up to shoot. Most of Oak Ledge, including Zita, ran to get in line. But running was against the rules, so they were told to go back. Now Zita was stuck at the back of the line. Deanna didn't run, so she was one of the first. Zita and Marissa cheered her on.

      Deanna's first arrow didn't make it to the target. Neither did her second one. He third just barely made it, and pierced the outermost ring. Marissa cheered.

     Her fourth arrow made it slightly higher. Four arrows were all you got. Once everyone in the first wave was done, Toffee blew her whistle and they went to collect their arrows.

      Marissa's group was next.

      "I've been doing this for four years," she said to Zita. "I've gotten pretty good."

      Beatrice was also in that group. She waved to Zita. Zita smiled back.

      Marissa aimed her first arrow and pulled back to bow as far as she possibly could. The arrow went flying was above the target and into the woods behind.

      Beatrice's first arrow went sailing forward and landed on the target, very close to the bulls eye. Everyone cheered.

      After four tries, Marissa finally got an arrow on the target. She threw up her arms in celebration.

      "You did better than last year!" said Toffee. Everybody laughed.

      Beatrice's arrows were all very close to the bulls eye, but none hit it. The whistle was blown. The arrows were removed form the target.

      "Good job, Marissa," said Zita, as Marissa walked by. Marissa offered a high five. Zita took it.

      Zita also said good job to Beatrice as she walked by. Beatrice smiled and said thanks.

      Then it was Zita's turn. She was in the same wave as Ona and Lee. They wished her good luck. The bow was very heavy, and her arm guard was itchy. She attached the arrow the way Toffee taught them. She wanted to close an eye to aim but she didn't know which eye to close. She let the string go. The arrow took off into the air and landed on the target. She made it onto the target! It was a little bit over the bulls eye. She had to aim a bit lower next time. She attached another arrow and pulled the string. The blue Moehog let the arrow go. It was a little bit below the bulls eye that time. She tried her third arrow. That one was a little too much to the right. She had one last try. She drew the string.

      The cheering started before she even saw it herself.

      "Zita got a bulls eye!" she heard Marissa cry.

      She looked up to see her fourth arrow right smack dab in the middle of the target. Toffee, as well as Lightmite and Thornberry looked impressed. Oak Ledge was going nuts. Ona and Lee were clapping.

      "Great job, Zita!" Beatrice shouted.

      A smile broke across Zita's face. She loved camp.

     ---

      Two nights later, Camp Batterfly had a camp fire to remember. Zita was in between Marissa and a pet named Gratia, whom she had just met. They sang all the songs that Marissa and Deanna had taught them, and then some. They roasted marshmallows over the fire and had the best s'mores any of them could ever remember tasting.

      After the camp fire was over, Zita wrote her first letter home. A long one, detailing all the fun she had had at camp over the past couple of days.

     ---

      Three weeks later, four pets from another cabin from another unit found the totem on the hiking trail. Their unit was awarded with ice cream sundaes after dinner.

     ---

      Soon enough, The Month of Relaxing turned into the Month of Swimming, which turned into the Month of Hiding. Soon, it was time for camp to be over. Zita had written down all of her friends' account names on her last piece of stationary.

      "Bye, Zita!" Marissa sobbed running away from her owner for one more hug, "I'll miss you!"

      "I'll miss you too!" cried Zita.

      "You better be coming back next year!" Marissa bawled.

      "I will!" Zita promised. And she would be. Definitely.

      Zita's family was one of the last to show up. She parted with all of her friends in a similar manner. Eventually, it was just her and her counselors. Lightmite and Thornberry looked even sadder than the campers.

      "Just think," said Thornberry, sniffling, "We'll be back in the real world tomorrow."

      Lightmite sighed. They hugged each other and cried.

      Finally, Zita saw a very familiar duo looking very out of place as they walked down the hill to Oak Ledge.

      "Zita!" Lenka hollered, as she dashed down to throw her arms around her pet.

      "Hey guys," said Zita, wiping away her tears. "Nice to see you."

      "We missed you so much!" Lenka cried.

      "I missed you too," said Zita. "Can I come back next year?"

      "Of course!"

The End