The next day, Jason, if at all possible, seemed to wake up in an extra sour mood. He and Chad were still attached at the leg, which ment that the two were forced to sleep next to each other once again. David made sure that Chad was between himself and the red-haired windian for fear that his friend might try and exact revenge upon him in the middle of the night. The windian wrestler had, of course, no fear of Chad doing something similar, so he figured he was safest next to the brown-winged drama student. This had nothing to do with Jason's bad mood. In fact, David and Chad were spending the morning trying to figure out just what had managed to add to it.

David was, once again, the first of the trio to be outside and awaiting breakfast. Vagger and Windford were worrying amongst themselves, as breakfast was exceptionally lean this morning. They hadn't anticipated being out of Windia for this long, and they were almost out of provisions they had brought with them. Many of the students seemed extra down and quiet today, and it was almost as if the weather was reflecting their feeling. The sky was grey, and the smell of rain hung in the air.

Jason and Chad, eventually joined their friend outside. Against all odds, Chad seemed to just barely be keeping up a good mood, but it was obvious that things were beginning to wear him down as well.

"Man, hey guys." David grinned at his two friends as they sat down with him. His grin quickly vanished as Jason shot him an extreemly sour look.

"Shut the fuck up, shithead!" Jason snapped aggressively at David and then turned to scowl at the little campfire in front of him. David looked helplessly from Jason to Chad, and the brown-winged windian just shrugged at him.

"He had a dream last night," Chad started to explain, "he said he couldn't remember what it was about, but you were in it and you did something really bad to him, and he's still pissed off about it because you never apologized."

"... Wow..." David looked between his two friends with dumbfounded amazement. "Man, you're mad at me for something I did to you in your dreams?" His question was met by annoyed mutterings from Jason who still refused to look at him.

"Not quite." Chad pointed out. "Actually, he's mad at you for what his dreaming reprisentation of you, developed by his own subconcious, did to him in his dream, and then never apologized for."

"Again... wow..." David just shook his head for a moment, like he was having difficulty comprihending the situation. "Man..." he turned to Jason who was still glaring darkly at the fire. "Man, look, whatever it was that I did to you in your dream, I'm sorry, and I'm sure I feel really bad about it, whatever it may be."

Jason just muttered again, rubbing his thumb over his fingertips. "Shut the fuck up. Just don't talk to me." He got up and walked off, forgetting for a moment that he was still attached to Chad. The poor brown-winged windian almost fell over as his foot was pulled out from under him, and he somehow managed to get into a standing position, hopping and attempting to balance on one foot. Jason shot him an evil glare and Chad just flashed him an apologetic smile and pointed to the rope that held the two together.

The two teachers were still pouring over their map, barely paying much attention to anything that was going on as they tried to figure out where they were taking wrong turns. They were so distracted from the students that one of the kids might have been able to get away with murder and they wouldn't have noticed. Or not. "Tym!" Windford looked up, shouting angrily at the wolf girl. "Stop chasing around Gregory!"

Tym stopped and looked over at her teachers, a crestfallen look on her face. "Aw... but we were just having a little fun..."

Gregory was leaning up against a nearby tree, attempting to catch his breath now that the forest clanner was no longer chasing him. He glanced over at the teachers who had just turned their attention back to their maps, and then his gaze moved back over to Tym. The wolf girl caught his frightened look and she returned it with a dangerously evil grin, wagging her tail behind her and hunching her shoulders, all the while chanting "skin the kitty, skin the kitty, skin the kitty" as she bared her fangs and pulled out some of her colored pens, uncapping them and weilding them like one would weild a pocket knife. Gregory let out a little whimper as his ears drooped, currently too tired to run from the advancing forest clan girl.

"That's enough, Tym!" It was one Cynthia Westin who suddenly stood between the cat and dog, arms crossed over her chest as she planted herself in front of the grey-furred wolf. With Tym hunched over as she was, it was almost like Cynthia was towering over her. However, the expression on Tym's face didn't change much as she looked at Cynthia. She just stopped walking forward, one foot still raised in mid-step, her tail hanging motionlessly in the air behind her where it stopped in it's wagging. Her fangs were still bared, but instead of grinning evily she now looked more annoyed as she rolled her eyes up at Cynthia.

"Oh please." Tym finally stood up, recapping her pens and sticking them back into her pockets. "I was just having a little fun." Her tongue lolled out in a sloppy grin. Ms. Westin looked less then amused.

"A little fun? Seriously, chasing around poor Greg while chanting 'skin the kitty' and trying to butcher him with your pens is not a 'little fun!'"

"Well, maybe not for you." Tym crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue defiantly at Cynthia. The brown wolf girl's tail twitched slightly in annoyance.

"Hey, Cynth." Chris walked up and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry about her. We're all tired and everyone wants to get home, she's just trying to get on your nerves."

Cynthia sighed. "Yea, I guess you're right, Chris." She turned away from Tym and looked over at where Gregory last was. The woren was nowhere to be seen. Cynthia just shook her head and she and Chris walked off. They could both hear Tym barking tauntingly at them as they walked off.

"Ha! Furball lover!"

Cynthia rolled her eyes, her arms still crossed as she walked with her friend. "Sometimes, she seriously gets on my nerves. I just don't get how someone can be that bad at times."

"Well, it's a typical woren/wolf thing, isn't it?" Chris ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. "I mean, you and I are one of those rare cases that actually get along." He chuckled.

The students continued to mull about restlessly, some had already packed up their items and were just waiting for the teachers to get everyone together for today's walk. Many were excited to finally be getting home, a few were worrying over the possibilities of being stuck out in the woods for the rest of their lives, and Tym was busy giving a quick survival course on the types of bark that could be eaten from trees and the protein one could get in cooking their fellow classmates. When the early morning was slowly turning into the early afternoon, more of the students began to wonder.

"Usually we're walking by now."

"Vagger and Windford have just been staring at those maps, I wonder if they know where we're going?"

Various comments like these and many more were floating through the group of students. This didn't help the nerves of the two teachers who were already frayed from lack of sleep and stress. Finally Vagger started folding up one of the maps and looked over at the windian teacher.

"Well," he sighed, his tail twitching, "I guess... we continue on?"

Windford was about to reply when some rustling in the bushes caught the attention of everyone, and the entire group, teachers and students alike, looked over in time to see a large forestclanner walk out of the brush. He was dressed in a woodsman's outfit that looked well worn and had a bow and quiver strapped to his back. He had a large reddish colored mane with faded brown tips, and white fur that started under his chin and continued down his neck. His eyes were a dark brown, although the left eye seemed cloudy, and there were some scars on that side of his face. The teachers and some of the students recognized him immediatly.

"Fenwood!" Tym barked happily, her tail wagging and her tongue lolled out as she spotted her survival teacher. "Finally! We're saved!"

Following shortly after the wolf clan teacher, the enormous form of Kurk Briggs walked into the clearing. The shell clansman gym teacher was wearing heaving looking pants and shirt, much more of a traveling outfit compared to what most of the students saw him wear at school. Vagger and Windford quickly hurried over to the two teachers.

"Everybody, get your stuffed packed up!" Fenwood barked loudly at all of the students and they went scurrying about before he turned to Mr. Briggs. "Go make sure everyone is accounted for." He watched as the gym teacher went over, picked up the student list and went about calling out and checking off names. Then the survival teacher then focused his attention to the two field trip leaders. "What was going on out here?"

Bo Fenwood had always been a gruff looking character, although a good man and teacher, but he had a natural intimidation that could make anyone uneasy, and the look of concern mixed with frustration in his eyes didn't help make him seem any more friendly. Both Vagger and Windford tried not to flinch as he watched them both expectantly.

"Well.. um... we..." Windford stammered helplessly, constantly stopping to clear his throat. "That is to say..."

"We got lost." Vagger finally admitted with a sigh. "Somewhere we took a wrong turn and ended up walking in circles for the past two days while we've been trying to get back home."

"Everyone is here," Briggs walked up to the other teachers, role sheet in hand, "just stressed and tired. Ah, Bo, you might want to go take a look at a couple of the students." He motioned with a jab of his thumb over to where Jason Burnhart and Chad Wingston were standing together. Bo looked past Briggs, studying the two windians for a moment before turning back to Vagger and Windford.

"Why are two of your students tied together at the ankle?"

"That would be because of him." Vagger pointed over towards David Stark. The wrestler waved sheepishly at Briggs, his wrestling coach. The armadillo clansman teacher just rolled his eyes.

"Figures."

"I'll go take care of them." Bo headed over to Jason and Chad, pulling out his pocket knife as he did so.

"Hey Fenwood..." Jason grudgingly recognized his two archery coaches who had just shown up.

Fenwood just grunted as he cut the rope between the two, and then managed to remove each half from either windian's leg. Chad immediatly jumped up and began to dance about.

"Freedom! Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom!" The windian paused in his gleeful hopping and looked over at Jason who was currently rolling his eyes at him. ".. aw, I miss him already." The brown-winged windian ran over and latched himself onto his friend's arm. Jason shoved him off roughly.

"Don't... fucking... touch me...."

"Man, seriously." David walked up and led Chad away. "Let's give him a break."

"Aw... alright." The windian's wings twitched sadly but he left his friend alone.


With the help of Fenwood and Briggs, the group finally made their way back to Windia in a couple of hours. Vagger was devistated to realize they were just a two-hour trip from home and had been going in circles just south of Windia, and both he and Windford were not looking forward to all of the work that lay before them after this fiasco. The students, tired but relieved, had to stop by the school before being able to return home. During the two extra days they were gone, the school had recieved a series of unhappy letters from parents and guardians demanding that Rangers or the Guard be sent out in search of the missing students. The school had instead sent out Mr. Fenwood and Mr. Briggs, two teachers who were particularly good with navigation and tracking, and with the return of the two trackers, and all of the missing teachers and students, everyone was sent home with a letter of apology signed by the principal himself and Windian High was suspended from taking any other field trips until further notice.

The trio made a note to avoid each other for the next few days in order to give each other a break.