Here is a picture of Tennielle:

I got "tagged" again twice before reaching camp, and had to tell my triumphant attacker that I was already on my way to exchange bandanas. When I got there, there were several other students waiting to do so as well, so I got a brief respite before joining the fray again.

I fingered my new, blue bandana as I walked back through the trees. It felt weird to not be able to be tagged -- it would have been cool for them to let mice tag falcons, although that wouldn't teach us about the food chain. When I reached my broken tree branch, I didn't see Tennielle, so I began walking again to find her.

A sudden cloud of darkness descended upon me. No, not again! I thought as my sight was stolen from me. I stumbled to my feet and began to push toward camp. Another forest fire?

I heard a yelp, then a sharp crack that resounded through the air before being dampened by the fog. I began to push in the direction I had heard it coming from as someone broke out in gasping sobs. Fear pulsed with my quickly beating heart as I felt my way forward at an agonizingly slow crawl. Every sense was on fully, straining to give me clues so I could help the person.

A blaze roared up in front of me, and I screamed, scrambling back. The heat bit at my skin, and the light was like a punch to my eyes. The column of flame reached upward through the fog, burning it away.

"Fia! What are you doing?"

I turned my head around shakily and saw Tennielle approaching. The darkness was gone, revealing the look of confused concern on her face. I turned my head back around, but the fire was gone, and in its place was the same mist I had seen for the past week.

"I thought she said the darkness was from a forest fire!" I complained. "But it's really unlikely that it would have gone away that fast."

"She did," Tennielle said confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"So isn't this at least a little strange?" I pressed.

"What?"

I stared at her for a long moment. "You didn't see the darkness, did you?"

A panicked expression swept across her face. "No... oh, dear. I was right."

"What is it?"

"That stupid bird you keep obsessing over. It's trying to hurt you or something."

"How on earth do you draw that conclusion from me seeing darkness? Maybe I just got tunnel vision for a second or something."

"No, I think there's something else going on here. We need to get to the bottom of this!"

"Tennielle," I said exasperatedly, "I wanted you to believe me, but I didn't mean for it to go this far!" I was deeply annoyed by her rash assumptions.

"Fia, you're just not seeing the whole picture!"

"Jared said-"

"Jared doesn't know everything!"

I spun on my heel and stomped away. "Neither do you!" I yelled over my shoulder.