
story POV: Andrew
It was an incredibly long time before me, Cindy, and Greg decided on a spot to set up camp. I set down the super heavy backpack and began to unpack our small tent and pillows. As soon as we got there, Cindy headed out again to go and explore the area and set up monster traps. Greg helped me set up our tent, though he was the only one sleeping in it since he was the most scared of the dark.I and Cindy didn't mind sleeping outside since I mostly enjoy sleeping under the stars.
It was a few minutes before me and Greg heard frantic footsteps coming toward our campsite. Cindy busted through the bushes and hugged me and Greg tightly. "Another m-monster is coming!" she struggled to speak through her fear. Greg began to shiver with her while I just rolled my eyes.
"Bears are more afraid of you than you are of them, Cindy," I said, getting up from my seated position and grabbing my slingshot to chase whatever the threat may be. "You don't have to run like that."
"But it wasn't a bear!" she exclaimed, hiding behind Greg. I noticed him just frozen in fear. I sighed. They truly were made for each other.
Just kiss already. I thought.
Before I could go and see what the threat was, a tiny mouse scurried from the bushes where Cindy arrived and found a crumb to chew on. I turned around to face the cowering kalons. "Was this what you heard, Cindy?"
She shook her head, obviously too terrified to speak. I turned back around and noticed that the mouse seemed to have multiplied by at least one hundred times since now there were so many that I couldn't even count. It was like a huge wave of just tiny mice. Now I could understand my partners' fear.
I backed away slowly back to Greg and Cindy, who was just staring at the mountain of mice, terrified. The mice could easily just avalanche onto us and crush us, and they seemed to be watching us as well, waiting for us to make a sudden movement to pounce. I wasn't sure exactly what they were after, but I figured out that they were after our food supply.
"Run," I whispered to them as they stood up from their cowering. Greg's paw was wrapped around his dagger, and Cindy tried to sneak a few snacks. They didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, and I got impatient. "I said run, you guys!"
As soon as I said that the avalanche began. The mouse mountain began to fall on top of us. I picked up Cindy and pushed Greg out of the way of the biggest cluster of mice. A few landed on us, and Cindy wouldn't stop wriggling! It was a lot of struggling, but we managed to escape the wave of mice and we were now running out to who knew where.
It seemed like forever until we stopped running to take a break. "Welp..." Cindy said as I put her down. "There goes of our food and weapons...."
"W-well maybe they didn't take all of our stuff..?" Greg suggested, trying to stay optimistic, though I noticed that he was about to start crying. "In the m-morning w-we can go back and check."
And we did just that. It was a long night without shelter, but we were able to find some large leaves to use as blankets and beds. As soon as dawn hit, we headed back to our campsite. After the long walk back, we found that all of our stuff had holes and bite marks on them, and our food was pretty much gone... except for the bananas that we had.
I sighed and picked up a bag that had the least amount of holes and bites marks, and put the bananas and knife in it. I turned to my partners' who looked at the scene in sadness. "Don't worry guys," I said, patting them both on the head. "We'll get new cool stuff when we continue our quest to save kalon kind."