|:Chapter 2:|

Nikku was the first one to be outside and she walked out to where Mr. Yen and Kett were talking.

 "C'mon Yen, y'know nothing bad has ever happened, so stop worrying about it." Kett said, patting Mr. Yen on the shoulder. 

"You never know.." Mr. Yen said quietly, turning his head toward Nikku.

"Good morning, Mr. Yen." 

Nikku lifted her head to look him in the eyes. He did seem a bit worried. She remembered they had learned about the few dangers in the forest, but the most dangerous part was the mystic island, no one knows what's really on that island. All they knew was that there is no way in or out, unless you can fly. They can't. Mr. Yen looked behind her and Nikku followed his eyes to see a small crowd of students pouring out of the building. There was a lot of talking and excitement. Everyone gathered around Mr. Yen and Kett talking about what they wanna see and do. Kett got their attention and explained some rules. 

"Don't touch any animals or unknown plants," He said loudly so everyone would hear even if the crowd wasn't that big,"Stay with the groups and..." 

Kett continued with the rules, although Nikku didn't pay attention because she read all of them in the permission slip, instead she took the pencil from the spiral of her journal and started doodling.

"Is everyone ready?" Mr. Yen asked, now looking more excited than worried. 

There was a loud cheer from the students and they all followed Kett to the man-made ramp leading down the plateau, it looked like people just took a chunk out of the plateau to make the ramp, and that's pretty much what they did, so that was reasonable. They walked down the ramp carefully trying not to trip on all the rock poking out of the ground. It was much quieter when they got to the forest, everyone started whispering or stopped talking all together, maybe it was from the calming feeling they all got from the forest. 

It was quiet for a while until Mr. Kett pumped one fist into the air and yelled, "Who's ready for an adventure!?" That seemed to get everyone hyped, most everyone cheered ready to explore the forest for the first time.

The group walked down the dirt path that weaved through the trees. Nikku was in the front right behind Mr. Yen, drawing plants she saw and writing notes. Soon they reached the end of the path which stopped a couple of feet away from the hunters camp. The camp was built in the trees, there were supposed to be rope ladders that went up into the smaller tree houses although Nikku couldn't find any. The treehouses were covered in leaves and you'd have to really be looking for them to see them, but Nikku knew where they were, thanks to all the detail her dad gives her when he tells his hunting stories. The largest tree in the center was the main base, the tree it was on was surprisingly symmetrical and the leaves seemed to be a golden color instead of the yellow green most of the nearby trees were. They are near the end of summer and the trees have started changing to the beautiful warm colors of fall, but soon after the beauty is the harsh winter. Winter on the plateau is hard, farming mostly has to stop because of the cold, and animals get harder to find, not only that, but it's cold. Extremely cold.

"Welcome to the Hunters Camp!" Kett announced proudly, throwing his arms into the air. 

"Where is it exactly?" Someone asked, raising their hand not waiting to be called on. Nikku was already looking at the trees for entrance to the main base. 

"Go look for it." Kett said, "But don't go too far." 

Nikku ran up to the large tree in the middle and slowly walked around it looking at the trunk closely. Once she had completed a whole circle around the tree she bumped into someone. She apologized and she continued to study the tree. 

"What are you doing?" Arki said curiously, following her. 

"Oh, it's you." Nikku mumbled, ignoring Arki's question. 

"Hey, your parents are hunters, right?" Arki put his arm over her shoulder, "So, have you been here before?"

Nikku pushed his arm off and continued to study the tree, ignoring his question. Nikku went around the tree a third time before finding the small ledges her dad talked about, Arki had gotten bored and went to look for the base as well. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her, she didn't want to give away the only entrance to the hunting camp (Other than the ladders, which were clearly not put down right now). No one was looking, so she grabbed a small ledge on the tree and pulled herself up. It was like climbing a rock wall, but with wood. She made it up to a hatch covered in leaves, she pushed it open and hauled herself out. She sat on the wooden floor of the base, tired from the climb. The tree was taller than she thought.

After a minute or so Nikku got up and looked around, it wasn't big, the roof and walls were made with giant leaves, and no one seemed to be there. Ahead of her was an open wall where a bridge connected to another platform in a different tree. Nikku went on the bridge and looked down to see students walking around, looking up and down, surprisingly no one had seen the bridges yet. The trees were close, they probably wouldn't even need a bridge, but then hunters would have to jump from platform to platform.

Nikku watched the students wander around in confusion for a minute or so until she heard laughing from a group of people behind her. She turned around to see a small group of hunters walking back with two small sacks over each of their shoulders. The guy leading the group looked like someone her dad had described to her, a big blond man with a permanently grumpy face. Her dad told her he was the leader of the early hunters, they always start hunting a few hours before her parents' group, so they come back earlier. The man noticed her and his shoulders bounced up and down, not like a shrug, but more like a chuckle. A grumpy looking man, but a good guy. Nikkus' classmate stopped at the sight of the hunting group. 

"Hello, early birds!" Kett yelled, waving his arm in the air to the group. "Everyone gather around." 

The hunters made their way to join the group of students, first dropping off their bags by the tree. Nikku stayed in the tree houses, but she made her way to a closer house to hear the group better. 

"Hello students!" The hunters leader said, "I'm Garat, Wrens group leader." 

"Wrens?" Someone in the small crowd asked. 

"Yes, Wrens is the name of the early hunting group, Roselins is after us, then Sparrows." He explained. 

"Why Roselins?" The students asked. 

"Roselin means Finch. Okay! Now does anyone think they have found the base, I know one person has." 

A chatter arose, Nikku heard "Someone has?" "Who did?" "Who isn't here?" The voices were familiar, but Nikku never really paid attention to whom the voices belonged to. The crowd seemed like a confused mess until Garat clapped his hand and caught everyone's attention. 

"Why don't we see who found it?" 

Garat walked toward the large tree with the hidden ledges. Nikku went back to the hatch door to meet everyone there. She sat by a wall and waited for all the students to make their way up the tree. They looked at her with a bit of amazement, but she kept her head down making sure to avoid making eye contact with Arki. 

"Ah, Nikku, right?" Garat asked as he pulled himself up from the hatch. She nodded to him and stood up. 

"Story mans' daughter?" 

"Story man?" Nikku asked, although she could see why he would call her dad that. 

Garat chuckled, "He doesn't only tell his stories at home y'know." 

Nikku smiled as she got up, and she could feel Arki's eyes on her. The Wrens leader turned toward the crowd and clapped his hands to get their attention again. He told them they could explore as long as they don't touch any hunting materials and weapons. The crowd went back to being loud and slowly started to split up and explore other areas. Mr. Yen and Kett stayed and chatted. Garat joined them, nodding at Nikku before walking off.

Arki quickly made his way toward her, but Nikku immediately turned the other way and walked to the closest bridge. Arki quickly caught up.

"Hey!" He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, Nikku kept her head down to avoid looking at him Arki sighed. "Alright, I'll leave you alone." He turned around and walked away, eventually jogging across a bridge with his head low.

Nikku watched him run off, she couldn't make eye contact with him without getting all teary eyed, she didn't want him to see her like that. Nikku turned back to the bridge she was heading to and saw a blond boy with long hair charging at her like a bull, she hurried to the entrance hatch. That might be one of Arki's friends, Nikku thought as she went down the tree.

She didn't want to wander around the base when there was a chance of running into Arki again, plus, if she put all of her dads' stories together she could probably get a detailed mental image of the entire base.

Nikku wandered under the hidden tree base for a while, she wandered aimlessly just thinking, eventually she realized the loud class seemed to disappear. She lifted her head to see an endless amount of trees around her, she was lost. She looked up trying to see if she could find the hunters tree house. Nothing. No hidden tree house, no clearing, no classmates, no hunters, she was completely lost.