Jason had definitely reached a tolerance limit. Best friends or not, the windian was sick and tired of constantly having to put up with Chad and David, and he couldn't stand not having any chance for privacy. Coupled with the stress of being lost out in the wilderness with a bunch of other students he didn't know and therefore didn't like, and Jason's bad mood was slowly turning him into a vendictive, abusive, and outright evil person. Moreso then he already was. The smallest things were beginning to get on his nerves, like the way Chad constantly sounded surprised over the dumbest things, or how David had a habit of saying 'man' a lot. The two windians seemed to sense this from him, and both were keeping their distance and their mouths shut for fear of sparking Jason's temper. As the trio was getting ready for bed, there was an odd silence that seemed to encompass their tent. David and Chad had stationed themselves as far from Jason as they could, every so often glancing at each other and then casting a nervous look at Jason, somewhat fearful of making eyecontact. Jason was flat out ignoring his friends as he settled down into his sleeping bag, and soon enough, the trio was settled and slowly drifting to sleep.

It was about 3am when David suddenly woke up with the insatiable urge to do something horrible to his friends. Quietly sitting up in bed and reaching for his pack, the windian hunted through what items he had with him in search of anything he could possibly use. Having found a bit of tape, rope, and glue, the wrestler carefully got out of his sleeping bag, got to work, and by 3:40, he was settled back down in his bag and falling asleep once again. When the sun finally rose, David made sure he was the first one awake and out of the tent.

Jason woke up to find a pillow securely taped to his head.

"WHAT THE FUCK??!" The windian sorely attempted to pry tape out of his hair without pulling anything out along with it. Chad was startled awake by his shout and sat up instantly, dazed and confused as he looked around.

"Wha? Huh? ... Jason, dude, you've got a pillow taped to your head..."

"I fucking noticed!" Jason grumbled loudly as he removed a few more pieces of tape from his hair, wincing as he did so. "That little fuckshit David is doing to pay for this..."

"I guess I'll go warn him to get a head start." Chad grinned as he reached over and grabbed his shoes, then suddenly stopped and stared at his footwear curiously. "Um..." the windian picked up his shoes and noted where they were apparently glued together at the soles. "Or... not..."

"David, you little shit!" Jason jumped up out of his bag and darted out of the tent, suddenly letting out a startled shout and fell forward as a tight jerk around his ankle sent him tumbling. Behind him, Chad gave a yip and was nearly pulled straight out of his sleeping bag by a strong pull around his own leg. Both windians turned and stared at the piece of rope that was tying them together, then looked at each other.

"DAVID!" The two windians were running in unison, Chad in his stocking feet trying painfully to keep up with Jason who was looking to throttle the windian wrestler as soon as he got a hold of him. David saw the two coming and immediatly jumped up from his spot, diving for safety. A couple of the students turned to watch the trio oddness, but eventually went back to their breakfasts.

Vagger was sitting away from the rest of the students with Windford, both of the teachers busy pouring over maps and trying to figure out just where they were making wrong turns.

"Well I don't think we've passed that little stream yet..." Vagger tapped the map lightly with his finger, his tail swishing slowly behind him. "So we can't be all that far east. And we haven't hit this clearing here to the south, so we should be somewhere in this general area here." He traced his finger around the portion of forest that he believed the camp was currently located in. Windford just sighed, scratching the back of his neck in worry.

"That's a big area that we could be in though, and no sure way to tell just where exactly we are."

"True." Vagger's ears twitched. "But if we just head north, we'll either run into Windia, or we'll run across that creek there, which we can then follow, so either way it seems like north is the way to go." The woren glanced up at the sky and then looked around, assessing which direction he wanted to head. Both his and Windford's attention were suddenly diverted by a large crash in the foliage and the 'ouch!' that signaled Jason and Chad finally catching up to David. The two teachers merely exchanged glances and went back to their course plotting.

*****

Chad and Jason were still attached at the ankles. The knots that David had tied were effective enough, but all of the running the windians did managed to only tighten them to the point where if Chad and Jason wanted to be seperated, they'd have to cut the rope. Unfortunatily, no one had brought a pocket knife with them, or at least no one was willing to admit they had, and both Tym and Cynthia had turned down Chad's hopeful requests that the forest clanners might chew through the rope for them. Jason was still in a horrible mood, only now he was forced to have Chad no less then two feet away from him at all times. Chad didn't seem quite as bothered by the whole situation, and while he was prying about his shoes apart earlier that day, he could have sworn he heard David whisper something about having done Chad a favor. David himself was keeping well distanced from Jason's murderous looks. He was silently praying that the group would find their way back to Windia by nightfall, or else he wasn't too certain if he'd survive another night in the same tent as Jason. The wrestler's prayers went unanswered as dusk settled and found the group of travelers walking in yet another large circle.

"What we need," Tym growled under her breath, "is a guide who actually has some sort of sense of direction!"

"Cheezus Tym, lighten up! Windford and Vagger are trying, alright?!"

"Windford and Vagger are failing, alright?" The wolf snapped a mocking reply back at Sabs. "If we had someone here who actually knew what they were doing, we'd have been back in Windia a day ago!"

"Just think of it this way..." Amber's wings twitched slightly as she looked at her friends. "We're still getting credit for this."

"Well whoop-dee-frigging do!" Tym rolled her eyes, lolling her tongue out the side of her mouth. "We get credit for getting lost out in the woods! I think we should be getting credit for survival and geography classes too just for making it through this stupid ordeal!"

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Amber could her Rick's thoughtful voice and she just shot a curious look at the grass runner before shaking her head and turned back to her friend.

"Come on, Tym! At least it's an adventure, right?"

"How the HELL did I get a bug bite there???!!"

Both Sabs and Amber's eyes went wide as they heard Carl's shout from somewhere behind them, and the two girls just exchanged bewildered looks. Tym snorted and wagged her tail as she grinned.

"Oh yea. That sounds like adventure to me."

With Vagger's instructions, the students once again began to set up camp for yet another night out in the wilderness.