Castille closed the door to the cabin quietly, letting the screen door click shut. She dipped out of the porch light, avoiding the other cool circles of light that came from the campers’ cabins. Bed time was long ago, but she couldn’t stop thinking. Being out in the forest made her think of her home, but not the one with the sister and the hyperactive dog. No, she was thinking about the rainforest, the emerald lizard attached to the tree trunk wider than her arms. She hadn’t returned to Grus after the first time, though not for lack of trying. She had spent many a night standing in the middle of her room, jamming the button that was supposed to send her back, but to no avail. She remained rooted in her cream carpet with clothes strewn about willy-nilly. Eventually she had just stopped trying, and the longer she spent away from her humid homeland, the more depressed she became. She had only gotten to visit once, how come her phone wasn’t letting her return?

That was three weeks ago. Now, she lay in her bottom bunk in the middle of the forest, feeling a pang of longing. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore, and rose quietly, feeling around until her jacket appeared in her hands. Now she was sneaking into the forest, letting the trees engulf her.

Caution prickled in the back of her mind as the darkness got thicker. She was adult, but her childhood fear of the dark sent her mind spinning back in time, where monsters with red eyes glared at her from behind every corner and any second, something was going to grab her. Her ears strained to hear every sound in the blackness, and she was concentrating so hard on listening that her ears actually began to ring. She felt the panic bubble forward, first as a tingle behind her eyes. It moved to the back of her head, and her neck hairs were standing up. Castille stopped walking and twisted her backpack around frantically, yanking at the zipper. When it finally relented she stuffed her hand inside, pulling out a flashlight as long as her forearm. She pushed the button and felt her panic start to fade as the light revealed leaves and tree trunks, not demons with pointed fangs reaching for her. She pulled out her henshin pen and set down the flashlight, whispering

“Grus Power, Make Up!”

When she had finished transforming, she picked the flashlight back up again, fishing out her senshi phone. She leaned her backpack up against a tree nearby, and then held the phone in her hand, holding her breath. Lets hope it works this time….

She pressed the button, and felt the rush of space travel around her. She let out a whoop as soon as she hit the ground, jumping into the air. It had worked! She turned quickly on the spot, staring out into the very different forest, and past her excitement, a little nagging of fear. She teleported from a different place, so the ruins she had found the first time were…where?
Grus took a piece of bright pink fabric she snagged from one of the camp activities and tied it around a tree. At least she will be able to find her way back to the spot. It would be very bad for her to return to Earth in a different place. What if she returned and landed in the boys cabin or something!? Or right in the middle of the showers? No, she would not take any chances.
She explored her new surroundings, admiring the new plants, and getting reacquainted with the old ones she recognized. This was a different part of Grus, but she figured that would happen anyway. This part had more ellow flowers than the one before, and snaking vines that travelled up the tree barks and bloomed with blue and white flowers that smelled like oranges. The ruins on this part of the planet were easier to find, and within half an hour she was staring up at what used to be a giant tree house aloft in the branches. She lifted a piece of rope from the ground and tugged, the end still up in the tree. She wondered if she could use it to climb…

Ten minutes later, she was dangling from a rope, her arms straining as she tried to awkwardly pull herself up to the first platform. She arrived, breathing heavily, and took a moment to lay on the platform, catching her breath. She stared up at the platform above her. It had vines flowing down in curtains from it. She sat up, and looked around. She was about halfway up the tree, and the platform was round, and big. In front of her were the remnants of a wall, half of it rotted away into nothing. The other half stood a couple feet taller than Grus, and when she rose to inspect it, she found faded color on the inside. They painted their walls? Did they have paint like people on Earth? Maybe they made their own? Her mind whizzed with questions that for now, had to go unanswered.

She stepped passed the first wall, and stood in what used to be a house. She slowly turned on the spot, looking at the old house. Across from the first wall, there was one with a window still standing upright, though the glass in the pane lay in shattered pieces on the floor on both sides of the wall. She walked over to it, placing her hand on the weathered sill, feeling a pang of sadness. It was a shame that she had to see this place now, in its decay. How great it would have been to see the houses when they were first built! Living among the treetops, just like birds! Maybe that’s why she was the Senshi of Feathers. But a question nagged her more than any other. It kept repeating itself, getting louder as more questions crowded in. It wanted to be first.

Where did all of her people go?

Her people. That was a funny way of referring to them. She pondered this, leaning slightly against the window sill, then prompty standing back up straight when it groaned and bent. She kept her hand on it though, as if being physically connected to this world were helping her sort things out. It was true of course,they were her people at some point in time. Maybe she had even lived her in a a past life. But she had never before thought of anyone that lived on this big rock in the Grus constellation as her people. Her people were from Earth right? That’s where she was born, that’s where her family lived. But standing here now, in the middle of the forest clutching a window that hadn’t been looked out of in who knows how long, she felt like she was home. Like she belonged. She continued her way around the house, for it was round. And it seemed to have been all one room, with no visible markings on the floor to suggest that there were multiple rooms with doors. Once she had made her way around the first time, she stared out to the other trees, where other houses sat in various states of disrepair. These were badly mangled, but a rope connected two trees together. Grus wondered a lot, tugging on the rope “Did you swing from house to house?” She tugged one more time, and a bridge flashed before her eyes for just a moment. She let go of the rope and gasped, her hands going to her mouth to cover the scream that wanted to escape. It was another hallucination! Was the heat getting to her?

It certainly was hot. It seemed that when all of Destiny City was sleeping, it was the middle of the day here on Grus. She supposed if she came here in the middle of the day on Earth, it would be nighttime. The thought of being so far from home in the dark, where no one could help her made her shiver despite the rolling humidity around her. The tree tops seemed to harbor clouds around them, covering her with a fine mist. Her decision to go home was made final by the yawn that escaped her lips. It must be almost dawn back on earth, and she had a full day of campers ahead of her. She made a move to reach the rope that dangled downwards, and her foot kicked up something. Pausing before it, she bent down and picked up the object that fell limply in her hands.

It was a doll. A cloth doll, the remainder of its clothing hanging loosely about its tiny frame. It was maybe a foot high, with long hair a color Grus could not tell. She handled it carefully, turning it over with caution lest it should fall apart in her hands. It was simply done, nothing extreme about the stitching, the clothing or the face. Just two holes where she assumed some sort of button would have been, and a painted on smile that peeked through the dirt. She stood up and looked around. A child lived here. This was a family’s home. She blinked back a tear that decided it was going to appear. She imagined a little girl holding the doll, playing with her friend while her mother stood by the window and talked to someone outside. Maybe dinner was cooking. Maybe their father hadn’t returned home yet from whatever job he had. She sat down on the edge of the platform, her feet dangling off, staring at the doll.

“What happened here?” She asked absently, not really sure why she would bother speaking out loud here. There wasn’t anyone left. And the doll certainly wasn’t going to give up its secrets, for its tiny painted smile remained frozen in place. She sighed, placing the doll next to her. She couldn’t take it with, that much she knew. Grus grabbed the rope and carefully slid down it.

When she reached the bottom, she silently thanked whatever gods gave her gloves because without them, her hands would have been raw. She stared back up at the platform, wishing she knew more, and then jogged back to the spot marked with the bright pink fabrics. She inhaled deeply, trying to imprint the smell to her brain, and went home.

She stumbled as she landed back on Earth. The first thing she did was power down. She wasn’t sure who was at this camp, but if one senshi was here, at least one Negaverser had to be as well. Then she grabbed her backpack and stuffed the flashlight back inside, drawing out in its place her jacket. The morning fog combined with the mist from Grus still lingering on her skin made her arms break out in goosebumps. It was considerably lighter now. In fact, she didn’t need to use the flashlight to find her way back out of the woods and to Hemlock cabin. She paused at Daffodil, opening the door quietly and counting heads to make sure no one had run off while she was away playing Sherlock Holmes on another planet. FInsing every bed filled with a sleeping kid, she smiled and shut the door, checking her watch. If she jogged back to the cabin, she would have just enough time to take a two or three hour nap. She removed her shoes tiredly, letting them flop outside before she entered the cabin. Everyone here too was sleeping, lost in the world of dreams for a few more hours. A nice silence before the games and fights and activities of the day commenced. She folded herself in blankets and immediately felt her eyes get heavy. Falling asleep wasn’t going to be an issue. But as she drifted off she asked herself again, just one more time. Heck, maybe it would come to her this time.

What happened to the people of Grus?


WORD COUNT: 2,017