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Griffin, ever the camper and adventurer, found herself frustrated by the down time of the campers. Well, at least down time for her. There wasn't anything for her to do at the moment while kids were all occupied with other activities, be it dance lessons or macaroni art. She needed something to do. A hike? Perfect! Now she was looking for someone to do it with. Talia? No. Moose? Yesss.

Happily she was poking around, here and there for her friend and soon-to-be hiking companion. Things had been so peaceful at camp. It was just the break she needed from her senshi life. Although didn't that mean that she was leaving people vulnerable to attack in the city? She tried to dismiss that thought from her mind. She was probably the only sailor scout at camp. It'd be silly for any others to be here. Destiny City was a big place, it had to have plenty of other scouts to keep it safe. Right?

Now was her time to relax. Her vacation. And her time to hike.
"Moooooooooose. Where are youuuuu?"

"Moooooooose! DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She stamped her foot down. She was not to be called Griffin this week unless there were absolutely no children about. In front of campers, she was to be known as Hawkeye, after the world's finest scuba-diving cat. Not that she ever told anyone the origin of her camp name. She also liked how it was a play on her real name. Hawk? Griffin? Clever.

"And yes. Yes I do." She stuck her tongue out at her friend. She didn't mind the wait, though. Griffin was patient and always early, so she was accustomed to it, no matter who she was waiting on. She reached back to her small, light-weight back pack and pulled out a map of Camp Larkspur. Next she produced a compass from her pocket. She pointed to the corner of the map and said, "We are going hiking here. It's not as far as it looks, the scale of the map is pretty big- well, for a map. Only a few miles round trip." She nodded confidently. "We'll be back way before it gets dark, no worries!"

As she was talking, she began leading Talia to the trail they'd be taking. It wasn't that well-traveled. Not one where they'd take the kids, but it was safe for experienced hikers. And their friends.

Griffin harrumphed at Talia's name-calling. "Well whatever, MOOSE." She tried to make it echo, but the dense forest muffled most sounds except the occasional crack of a limb or call of a bird. She chose not to respond to how she'd come up with 'Hawkeye'.

Nice equipment? "Well, I brought my own." Of course she brought her own. She'd packed light for such a short (in her opinion) hike, but she had plenty of water and snacks for just in case, and two flashlights even though they should be back to the camp before sunset. Just in case. She waved her hand without looking back at Talia, "Of course I did." She pulled a map out of her backpack and it was indeed a topography map. She had this in addition to the Larkspur one, one of the forest's trails and then the one she held now. She was the teenage female equivalent to the cub scouts. Always prepared!

"Pfffttttt. Talia, I've been hiking since I could walk," not really, "I know what I'm doing. So if you died it wouldn't be my fault! And I wouldn't go to your funeral!" She tossed her hair in defiance. At that moment, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, something dark and bulky, and heading towards camp. It was no bear. Nor lion, nor tiger. Even from the distance she could tell it was a youma. Why? Because it looked like a moving tree. Seriously, who wouldn't notice that? Well, apparently Talia hadn't.

But oh shiiiiiiiiiii- ...


"Uh, Talia! Uhm, wait here! I need you to wait here! I have to scout ahead, I think I lost the trail and only I can find it because I have the map, okay?" She was frantic, she'd have to stop the youma before it got to camp and the kids, and also keep Talia safe. And not let her find out about her secret senshi identity. She threw her things at Talia and did her best to make her running off seem nonchalant.

Once she got to a safe enough distance away, she took her henshin pen out of her pocket. "Maenalus Power, Make-up!"

The senshi of mountains was completely in her element, and she knew she'd have to make it quick. Now all she had to do was lead it away and dust it.

There was a youma in the woods. WHY there was a youma in the woods, the guardian cat did not even know. She hadn't sensed anything from the Negaverse in the area, so it was truly a surprise that there would be a youma by the camp. Maybe it was a stray youma that had traveled very far and was now reacting because there was a camp? ********* didn't know, nor did she venture at the moment to try and solve this mystery.

What mattered was that there was a girl who was in the pathway of said rampaging youma!

A girl, who ********* had a sneaking suspicion was a Senshi.

From seemingly nowhere, the cat fell from the sky (or rather, an overhanging branch from a different non-youma tree), and landed quite firmly on the girl's shoulder. Any sane person would have been startled by such a sudden addition of extra weight to their shoulder. So to start everything off, ********* simply cried out "Sorry about that! Don't just stand there, run!"

A backhand to the face. That was quite unpleasant, if anything. With a tiny yowl, the cat fell off of her shoulders, but sturdily landed on her feet. The girl had started to run, and the cat shook herself off for a moment in an effort to regain her composure before also starting up her own paws.

"That creature behind you is called a youma... I don't know how it got all the way out here... but we need to find some place safe to hide from it for a moment." It sounded like an easy enough plan, though the execution might have been a bit more difficult to pull off. After all, the youma was behind them and would probably see any turns they made off of the path.

For a moment, her legs continued to run, even though she had been picked up. When she realized that she was in the girl's hands, she stopped and prepared to get tucked away in her arms. One of her legs was pinched slightly, but the manx didn't complain at all. In fact, when they found that temporary hiding place, she didn't complain at being called a guy. She was quite certain her voice was a bit more feminine than that of a fellow.

Rather than disagree with the girl, she gave her a more specific label for the cat. "My name is *********, and I have a couple things for you!" With that, she squirmed and squirmed until she was out of the girl's arms and on the ground. Making good use of the small amount of time they had until the youma was bothering them again, she quickly did one of her graceless back flips, summoning up two items in the space she had just jumped over.

"Take them both... phone and pen. Put the phone away someplace safe for now. You will be using the pen right now though!" What in the world could they possibly be using that pen for?

"Take it, and shout out as loud as you can 'Draconis Power, Make-up!' Use as much feeling as you can when shouting, or it won't work."

********* had seen henshins many time before. They all were strangely unique. Even if the fires that wrapped around this new senshi were not going to burn her, the manx still took a couple steps back out of natural instinct. It was when she finished up that the manx pointed out the truth.

"This isn't a dream, Sailor Draconis. You are a Sailor Senshi." Of course, the tailless animal couldn't help but appreciate how eager this girl seemed to be. The tone wasn't the scared version of Now what, but instead seemed to be bursting with energy. She sounded ready.

"Well, first, I'd like to hitch a ride if I could... and secondly, when you see that youma, you need to confront it. Get up close to it and call out 'Draconis Breath of Flame'. You will know what to do from there."

There was a thoughtful pause before she added "Though, be mindful of the area you use this attack in, we don't need to be starting a full fledged forest fire."

Draconis stared at the senshi who had suddenly joined her. "What there are more?" she exclaimed. Of course, ********* wasn't exactly in a place to make idol chat at the moment. *********. So that was it's name. Weird name. Then again, she was Draconis and this new girl was Maenalus. Weird names all around.

********* seemed serious about this whole thing, but Talia knew better. "Alright dream kitty. So this is just like a fight game. I've been playing too many fighter games obviously. Ahaha," she laughed heartily, not truly aware her life was in danger. She reached up to her head and felt the beads that were on the side. "Ooh these are pretty. I like these," she said with a smile.

A loud crash interrupted her musing, and Talia became slightly more alert. "Uhhh yeah let's uhhhh ... dust it?" Was that senshi lingo or something?

********* was asking for a ride, and Talia wasn't about to deny picking up the adorable cat. It looked so ... fluffy. Happily, Talia picked up the cat and said, "Alright, up you go kitty!" Get close and yell out ... whatever the cat said. Something about a forest? Well it made sense, she got the "breath of flame" meant something about fire.

"Alrighty uh ... Maenalus why don't you ... go first? Do we take turns or something?" Talia could not take this encounter any less seriously. Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered the "machine" and the "knight actor" she met back in the park awhile ago. Now it made sense. The man must've been a senshi too, right? But ... he didn't feel the same as Maenalus. She felt different.