A Camping For Two

Trip 2 (Akatsuki Maya)

Sebastian

She stared at us with her gleaming amber eyes, her expression empty. I was about to mouth HELP when she stepped beside me and hopped down to the steep ground to cut the vines before pushing Mary up with one hand. Mary easily lifted up to the stable ground.

The unknown woman stood up and brushed any dust stuck on her maxi pleated long skirt. She then looked at us. “Are you alright?”

Suddenly Helen stormed to her and pushed her down. “You’re late! You should save us earlier, you dumbass!” I frowned at her retorts. I didn’t inform this to you yet, but these two girls here are among the meanest girls in the college. I myself didn’t have a clue as to why I’m in the same group as them.

“Helen, you should be thankful to her, not be mad at her!” I scowled angrily at her.

“What? Be thankful that she saved Mary when she almost died? You too, you should be able to save her if you’re not that weak!”

Mary went behind Helen, her eyes glared at me angrily.

Oh great, now they’re teaming up.

“Helen is right. We’re your girlfriends, so you should treasure us more.” Mary said, which gained an agreeing nod from Helen.

I felt my jaw throbbing. I am known to be pretty patient, but this is going too far. Quietly, I skid closer to Helen and grabbed her on her waist. “What are you-” Helen seemed shocked, but wait.

Because Helen is considerably lighter than Mary, it’s easier to carry her like a ragdoll. I then tossed her down on the steep ground.

Mary instantly shrieked, while the unknown girl widened her eyes in shock.

“What are you doing to me? Get me out of here this instant!!” Her tone of voice increased with each word she spoke, but in all honesty, I couldn’t care less.

“Oh, don’t be a wuss.” I snickered. Then with a wanton smirk on my face as I towered over Helen, I added. “I’m sure someone who ‘treasures’ you more will come to rescue you.”

I then turned around, sparing no time in seeing their expressions nor hearing their angry wails, before grabbing the mysterious girl’s wrist and waltzed away.

***

“Here, press your wound with this.” The unknown girl handed me a hot pack.

I raised an eyebrow at the hot pack, before checking myself. Now that I’m aware of it, I can feel a slight stinging on my right knee. I quickly rolled up my jeans to see my knee caps getting bruised. “Oh.” I singly mouthed.

“Thanks.” I then accepted her offer.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come earlier.” The girl said while I studied her face. Her tone sounded sincere although it didn’t show in her face. She’s probably an aloof type of person.

“No, it’s okay. I should be the one saying sorry for the earlier trouble. The two of them should be thankful for your help.” I adjusted my seat on the fallen tree trunk which she had prepared for me—by pulling it from nowhere. It’s a bit uncomfortable, given how cold the damp surface could get especially in autumn, but this is better than having to sit on the rocky surface, which is several times colder.

The mysterious girl nodded her head silently. Then, she flicked open a small looking burner—like a Bunsen burner but cooler in appearance—and placed a metallic canteen filled with water on top of it. I was staring at her for the whole water boiling process, not realizing that I’ve sneezed because of the cold.

She lifted her face for a moment, her amber irises glinted from the light reflection of her lamp which was still on and was put on a small table on her right. She leaned forward and reached the firewood placed on her front left and put it into the campfire in front of her—which separates us. Then, she fanned the fire for a bit, increasing the oxygen rate that went through the burning woods, and enlarged the campfire. I heaved a satisfied sigh, grateful for the amount of heat the fire gave me in assist for this cold.

The unknown girl returned back to her mysterious activity. While waiting for the water simmer, she opened a pack of cocoa powder and scooped two spoons of it into a mug—which is also on the table. Then, she opened the lid of a small, palm sized container and tapped some of its contents into the same mug before then, carefully lifted the canteen and poured some water into the mug.

After that, she stirred the content of the mug for a few seconds, putting it back on the table to open another container—this one is a metallic water bottle—and poured the contents of the bottle, which in my eyes looked like milk, then finalized whatever she made inside the mug with a few rounds of stirring.

“Oh.” She was about to hand me the mug when she halted in the middle, which also made my reaching out hands froze mid-air. “Wait a moment.” She put the mug down and took out a pack of small, bite sized marshmallows before stuffing the surface of the mixture with it.

“Here you go.” She handed me the mug again, and was successfully accepted by me.

The moment when the bottom of the mug touches my hand, I was overwhelmed by its warm sensation. I know for some of you it’s probably just some hot object put in your hands, but for me—after going through a 2-hour journey in this cold weather, driving Helen’s car all the way to Minnewaska just to take a good-looking picture, then sacrificing my hands for it—This warmth is all I need.

The girl gazed at me, as if studying my complexion. “Go on, warm yourself with it.” Her eyes pointed to the steaming hot chocolate drink. After setting her eyes at me for a few seconds, she shifted her gaze somewhere else and took out another mug, probably making hers.

I slowly nodded, my hand caressed the smooth surface of the light blue, warm mug when I gazed down on it. The mixture of the hot cocoa in this mug is the one I’ve never seen before in my 20 years of life—particularly because I’m not a fan of hot chocolate drink and making one is a pain to begin with—yet the mixture she concocted looks different from what I thought.

Rather than brown colour, or light brown, her hot chocolate drink is almost cinnamon—a light brown mixed with dark orange. In fact, there may be cinnamon powder added in the cocoa mixture based on the smell wafted from it. My eyes trailed the floating marshmallows which hovers on the surface smoothly due to the blowing wind.

Somehow, I’m attracted to give this hot chocolate drink a taste. I brought it closer to my mouth, pausing a bit to ingrate the warmth to my lips and tipped it upwards a bit to let the mixture flow into my throat.

Just as I though, the mysterious girl really did put in some cinnamon powder in the mixture, but there’s more than just the cinnamon powder enhancing the taste. I couldn’t describe the taste well because it’s immaculate; the thickness, the sweetness, the milkiness and even the amount of spices that warmed the body, all of them are created perfectly from this one mug.

Now I know why people said drinking hot chocolate drink in cold season is the best, because it literally is. The delicious taste which stimulates my senses rendered me to let out a contented sigh, like I’m an old man or something. But if I’m served with a hot chocolate this good, I don’t even care what people call me.

“…Thank you.” I said after a delayed response due to my immersion with the chocolate drink’s amazing taste.

She briefly smiled—which I found myself stunned by it—before slowly nodding her head.

The night deepened, me still enjoying the taste while she was stirring the hot chocolate milk as she smiled lovingly at it, like she’s taking care of a child.

“You know…” She suddenly spoke, breaking the silence between the two of us.

“…I’m actually a bit wary to lend help, because well, I’m alone and I can’t help thinking about something bad occurring in the woods.” She cast her eyes down, looking at the hot chocolate drink like it’s more interesting than my face. I won’t get mad though, the hot chocolate is indeed more intriguing than my facial feature.

“It’s alright. I know how you feel.” I took another sip. “Anyway, are you here alone? Don’t you have a friend with you?”

She dithered; her eyes shot quickly at me before it looks down again. “I actually planned to go with my friend, Maika, but she suddenly gets caught into some matters and wasn’t able to make it. That’s why I’m here alone.”

I gave her a nod. “Then…” My eyes darted behind her and towards her exclusive looking camping utensils. “Where are you from?”

For a moment, a mysterious blend of emotions flashed before her eyes. It was too quick for me to determine what it was.

“…New York.”

My eyes widened in shock. “Wait, we’re in the same?-” I choked on my next word, inadvertently, I guess I just let her on in my origin. I quickly picked myself and cleared my throat.

“…How did you get here?”

She delayed her response again. “…I use moped.”

“Ah.” Once again, she won my shocked expression. She’s a pretty tough girl to go through about a hundred mile of journey just to come here. Yet again, I don’t think she’s just your average teenage girl. First of all, her face looks Asian—slightly narrow eye shape and thin lips—though her eyes glowed a bright tinge of amber. In a glance, she looked like a mixed blood.

“...Isn’t that dangerous?” I blurted out.

She the looked up to meet my eyes, which in turn, made me speechless. It was my mistake to think her eye shape is narrow, because they’re not. They’re as round as those cute little hamsters you found in any cute animal videos—rounded, and have double eyelids. Above all, her big amber eyes gleamed beautifully because of the light, somehow catching my interest to want to know more about her. She broke my daze when she said, “I know, but I have no one else to ask.” She bit her lips, suddenly fell into pondering. “…I wish I had a dog to guard me.”

Her spontaneous words sparked an idea inside my mind. “Then, how about me?” I blurted out, half joking, half serious.

She immediately shot me a grimace. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.” I waved my hand to my front, acting as if I didn’t say anything. I was out of my mind, really.

I was hoping that she would brush it all off and move on, but unfortunately, the girl stayed still. Her face looked like she’s deeply thinking, mostly about my unprecedented offer.

“That sounds good, actually.”

Huh?

“Huh?”

She then nodded quickly before happily sipping her hot chocolate drink, then puffed a sigh. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.”

Is she serious?

The unknown girl suddenly pointed to my camera which I placed beside me. The lens at the front cracked a bit because my lovely camera didn’t survive the fall, luckily that was the only thing that’s damaged.

“You guard me each time I want to go out for a camp, and I’ll pay you every time.” She suggested.

I don’t know how my offer turned out to be something like this, and didn’t even consider about the dangers of accepting a work offer from a stranger I just met, but her suggestion sounds too good to be rejected. I mindlessly agreed.

I guess I’m inevitably involved in outdoor activities now, whether I liked it or not.