The Black Hound of Bakersfield

Burn the Bones and Run

Lexi spent her afternoon hiking with Tamera and Aislin. They stopped for a bit partway through and showed off their tree climbing skills. Lexi wasn't nearly as good at the other two, but her claws gave her a little help. Aislin encouraged her to keep climbing, to the top. Sure enough, there was a little nook in the tree, enough to hold one person at a time. From there, a few sturdy branches came out, creating a little seat of sorts. Tamera was on the branches, and once Lexi got up high enough, Aislin moved to them too so the nook was empty.

The tiger girl crawled into the little space and looked out, awed at the sights. This tree was a little bit higher than the rest, and they could see all of Camp Bakersfield in one direction, and the ginormous mountain range in the other. It was a gorgeous view.

"This isn't something we show everyone, so feel honored." Tamera smiled as the wind blew through her hair.

They headed back down after a bit. Max, who was resting at the base of the tree, looked up at them, his eyes showing how upset he was. He whimpered and jumped on Lexi as soon as she was on the ground, licking her face and whining.

"I'm sorry, boy, I guess you don't like me climbing." She said, stroking his head.

The dog yelped, and grabbed Lexi by the hand, yanking her further down the trail. Aislin and Tamera were worried about her and followed close behind.

A blinding flash of light, and all of them were on the ground. The earth rumbled with the intense sound of thunder, louder than any of them had heard before. It was about 10 seconds before the first of them stood up, Tamera, her ears ringing from the sound. She blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

The tree they had just been in was now on fire, the leaves burning up and fluttering into the air as ash. Aislin and Lexi stared first at the tree, and then at Max, who had, undoubtedly, saved their lives.

"We need to get out of this forest, before more lightning strikes or that fire spreads," Tamera stated.

They began to make their way down the hill, a torrential downpour starting not moments after that.

"Maybe that'll save our tree?" Aislin hoped out loud as they ran.

"I still can't believe I didn't see that coming! I can almost always sense things like that!" Tamera was obviously quite upset about this.

They made it into the big house and found a table to sit down at.

Not long after that, Sterling came out and announced there would be no campfire due to the storms that night, and after dinner, everyone was to go to bed.

Rex made his way over to their table, "Did you hear that? That'll be perfect! No campfire to sneak away from, no other campers curious about what we're up too, this'll be great!" Rex declared.

He didn't seem to notice the lack of enthusiasm from the three girls, who were still shaken up from their experience in the forest.

................................................

Lexi lay in her bed, staring into the darkness, the storm raging on. Rex decided to change the time from after sundown to 9 PM. She knew all the other campers in the room was doing the same. However, they had one new unexpected problem.

Iris had been worried the power would go out or the wind would damage the cabins, so she decided to sleep in the girl's cabin that night. From across the room, Lexi could hear her snoring. She prayed that Iris wasn't a light sleeper.

The bell on the top of the big house began to ring, one ring for every hour. Lexi had asked about it after the first night of hearing it at 1 in the morning, and Aislin had told her it was electronic nowadays, but it used to be rung by the counselors. She counted out the number of dings. 9 times. It was time to move.