Camp Lily

Day 3 - The Cave

"Back, demon! Stay back!" Tei swung her knife through the air, trying to ward off Ring Suzune, who hovered over her. Lily, Maika, Gumi, and kokone attempted to hide under the blanket behind their guardian, but Ring did not seem phased by Tei's attempts at threatening her.

"I could take that knife from you without lifting my finger, you know," Ring reminded Tei of her supernatural power.

"I know, but I can at least look cool defending my friends!"

By this point, the girls had tried everything in their power to defeat Ring. They learned the hard way that she was invincible, and capable of turning anything they threw at her back at them. She could bend everything in the house to her every whim, which made her impossible to fight in her own terrain. She would not let them leave under any circumstances.

"We've been here for hours now. Where is Yuki?" asked Maika under the blanket, growing impatient with their awaited savior.

"Maybe she got lost. It's not hard for a child to lose their way in these woods," answered Lily, who sat squished between Gumi and kokone. They did not space themselves out too well under the blanket, but it mattered little, since Ring soon lifted it off of them, anyway.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I am very tired. It has been a long day of playtime. I must check in for the day. I suggest you do the same, since you haven't slept at all," Ring dropped the blanket and turned away from the girls of which she tormented.

"I didn't know spirits needed to sleep," Tei lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes, we do. Using up energy takes a lot out of us, and we must rest to cover. We're a lot like fairies in that regard."

The girls watched as Ring walked off into the darkness and started to fade away. As she left, she turned over her shoulder to give one last farewell.

"Be good while I'm away. We'll play much more when night falls again. Goodbye."

Ring disappeared, leaving her captive audience alone in the living room. All of them were exhausted, but none of them had the strength to sleep. After being kept awake by both a storm and a haunting, they were very strapped for energy. Even after Ring encouraged them to rest, they knew better than to do such a thing. Since Ring left them unsupervised, they had the perfect opportunity to make their getaway.

"Do you think she sleeps in the bedroom?" asked kokone.

"Absolutely. Why do you think she attacked us in the first place? I went in her room!" Lily explained.

"Okay, so let's avoid that room. We need to find another way out of here. None of us are going to fit through that crawl space in the wall. What other options do we have?" Maika asked the group.

Gumi suggested breaking the wall down, but that idea was turned over for two reasons. One, they didn't have the tools for doing so. Two, it would make too much noise and wake up Ring. Once this idea got shot down, nobody could think of anything else. They were stumped.

After a long conversation that ended up going absolutely nowhere, the five decided the most they could do was search the cabin for a way out that they might have missed. While they were certain they hadn't missed anything, they didn't have many other options.

"What's our battle plan, leader?" Tei turned to Lily, once again putting her on the leadership pedestal. At least coming up with plans to search a small house wasn't too hard for Lily.

"kokone and I will search the kitchen. Maika, you search the bathroom. Gumi, you search that weird empty room. Tei, stay here and make sure there's nothing we missed. Gumi, Maika, since you're going to be close to the bedroom, be extremely quiet. We can't risk waking Ring up."