Chapter 22: The Two Camps

When nighttime approached Misty learned that the sticks in the center of camp was for lighting fires. Around dinnertime the sticks were lit up by the Tribe boys and they all cheered as it was. Music was also started up by a simple kind of object made of tree wood that was assembled together to hit a "drum" as Lilypaka called it, on its own, and other music-playing things were nearby it like "pipes", "bells", and others (Lilypaka had told them all about the different instruments). Overall it produced a rather fun melody that seemed appropriate for any celebration.
The girls had given up trying to stay by the boys and had retreated to a small camp by the lake. Lilypaka and Misty had gathered sticks and Lilypaka managed to make their own fire, and not much long after that Campbell and Misty had gone hunting and brought back several rabbits so the four of them - Adele, Lilypaka, Campbell and Misty - could eat.
The boys in the group - Sidew, Lephos, Rhett, Ophir, Koro, Moonshadow, Tiggerpaka and Bracken - had all joined the Tribe boys in their party, whatever the occasion was for (Misty suspected there was none). Not much long after the fire had been lighted the boys all began running around and laughing, playing chasing and fighting games and overall just goofing off.
"Boys are stupid," remarked Campbell as she took a bite of rabbit, eyeing the boys.
"That's why they make for good entertainment," laughed Lilypaka.
"I heard once back at The Bending Tower that girls tend to live longer than boys," Misty said, watching as two Tribe boys - Destin and Zela, Misty had learned - rolled around and bit and clawed at each other, while everyone else was chanting them on, "I'm starting to believe it's true."
"No duh," Campbell snorted.
They watched in silence as Destin clawed at Zela's face and Zela shrieked, "surrender! Surrender!" and the boys all cheered and started laughing. Zela retreated into the crowd.
"Who's gonna take me on next?!" Destin yelled.
"I will," Ophir spoke up, stepping forward.
There were "ooooh"s and laughter from the boys as Ophir came into the makeshift ring that was made for the event.
"Y'know the rules, twiggie," Destin said. Misty figured he was referring to Ophir's skinny physique. "First to surrender's out."
"So I gathered," Ophir smirked.
"Oh, brother," Campbell muttered. "I don't think this'll end well."
"Alright, twiggie! Let's start then!" Destin laughed, and the rest of the boys did as well.
Everyone watched as Destin was the first to attack. He lunged forward at Ophir and dove towards the ground, quickly going under Ophir and kicking at his belly, easily unbalancing him. All of this was done before Ophir even had time to react, and Ophir fell towards the crowd, which pushed him back into the fight. Ophir attempted to get to his paws but Destin was already there, and he bit down on Ophir's ear and Misty gasped in alarm as he pulled part of it off.
Ophir yelped in pain and blood began pouring down the side of his head. Misty expected everyone to be shocked, but the boys merely cheered and laughed and Ophir angrily got to his paws, growling at Destin, who just smirked at him.
"Aren't you like, not allowed to do that?" Misty heard Bracken say over the laughter.
"Of course you are!" insisted a gray wolf who Misty recognized as Razern. "We're the Tribe of Awesomeness. We can do anything we want."
Misty was unable to look away as Ophir charged Destin and clawed at his shoulders and attempted to bite at Destin's neck. Destin snarled back and sliced his claws at Ophir's chest and his eyes, effectively blinding him, and then slamming into Ophir to knock him off balance, before hitting his side to make him fall to the ground.
Destin now had Ophir pinned and began clawing at Ophir's face, and Ophir yelped at each strike, obviously weakening. The boys were all shouting and cheering at this, some chanting "Destin! Destin! Destin!"
"Get 'im, Ophir!" Campbell hollered, but the Tribe boys acted as though they hadn't heard this. In fact, only Ophir seemed to as he turned and looked at Campbell, before gritting his teeth and striking Destin's chest with his claws, and then biting into Destin's leg, sinking his teeth in.
Destin howled with pain as Ophir then kicked at his stomach and bashed into his chest, clawing at his muzzle. "Oh boy," Lilypaka was saying as the fight carried on. "Ophir and Destin both seem exceedingly arrogant. One of them will pretty much have to almost die before they surrender."
As Misty watched while Ophir bit on Destin's tail and Destin kicked at Ophir, she realized the meerkat was right.
With a great amount of force Ophir yanked Destin's tail and forced the boy to fall to the ground. Before Destin could get up Ophir had his jaws clamped around Destin's neck, but didn't bite down. Misty knew what Ophir was doing: threatening to kill him if he didn't surrender.
"I surrender!" Destin shrieked. "I surrender!"
Ophir let go of Destin, who scampered away from him as the boys all cheered and laughed, chanting, "Ophir! Ophir! Ophir!"
Destin growled at Ophir but retreated into the crowd. Misty looked at Ophir: he had claw marks on him and was bleeding from several places - especially his ear - but he seemed fine.
"That was intense," laughed Ricochet, who was in the middle of the crowd. "Who's up next?"
Misty didn't see who else was going because she turned back to the girls. "How long are we staying here?"
Lilypaka shrugged. "Who knows?" she said, eating a pill bug.
"Hopefully not longer," Campbell sighed. "Already this place is getting on my nerves..."
"Everything gets on your nerves," Misty pointed out.
"Not everything..." Campbell insisted.
Misty glanced at Adele. She was watching the boys, laying down by the fire next to Misty. She had finished eating her rabbit. Adele glanced at Misty and looked at the boys then brushed her left paw on her right one. Misty somehow got what she was saying: they're stupid. Misty nodded back in agreement, chuckling.
Suddenly Tornado came crashing towards the girls' camp, hitting Campbell, who immediately shoved Tornado away. He stumbled to his paws, blood spilling from his shoulder, and Misty could hear the boys laugh and howl as Tornado darted back to the ring and jumped at Ophir.
"You know what we need?" Lilypaka said.
"To kill a boy?" Campbell growled, glaring at Tornado despite his being occupied with fighting Ophir.
"A barrier. To separate us from them," Lilypaka insisted.
Misty nodded. "That's actually a good idea."


They came back from the woods to see the fighting was over and the boys were back to hanging out around he campfire, all talking and laughing and some howling to the music. Misty carried several sticks and some vines in her mouth, and so did Campbell and Adele. Lilypaka also had some sticks and vines with her. They threw them all to the ground. "I say we get to building," Lilypaka insisted. "We'll dig the sticks into the ground and encircle a little wall around us, putting several sticks in a same place to make it sturdy, and we can use those vines to tie them together. We'll leave a space for us to go out of. If we need more sticks we can head back into the woods."
The girls nodded in agreement and set to work.


Much later into the night - when the moon was almost in the middle of the dark sky - the barrier was completed. It was short enough they could see what the boys were up to, and it'd keep any of them from going to their camp again like Tornado had.
"There we go," said Lilypaka, looking impressed. "Let's seem 'em try and get through that."
"I don't know what'd we do without you, Lily," Misty chuckled.
"We should try and get some sleep," Campbell remarked. "And thankfully, we won't need to take turns watching. If there's trouble, I have a feeling the boys'll be loud enough."
Misty and Lilypaka laughed in agreement and not long after they all settled in to sleep.

Author's Note:
The Lost Boys from Peter Pan and Once Upon a Time inspire me for what to write about the Tribe of Awesomeness. :3 I loved Peter Pan in OUAT, he was amazing. :D
I got school tomorrow, ugh. We also have standardized testing this week, which is gonna take two whole days to do. :/ On the bright side, we're allowed to read when we're done our tests, so I might get Allegiant finished.