Chapter 2 - Twilight.

Chapter 2 - Twilight.

Summer vacation: another morning of waking up without an alarm clock. It should be bliss but this massive headache isn’t making it any better. I wish I could have slept more but it seems the first light of dawn woke me up. Strange, I thought we had set up tents for us to sleep in.
Looking around while lying on the ground really emphasized how crazy tall all the trees around me are. It seems like they go on forever. And even though I was awoken by morning most of this place is covered in shadow. Must be the density of the trees, I mean looking deeper into the forest I can see it is still really dark in some places.
After rubbing out my eyes and very slowly trying to sit upright, which comes accompanied by painful moans, I can now see the full extent of the battlefield that is our camping site. One tent still stands and the other two look like a wild animal took a liking to them. While looking around I see three of my friends lying around me on the wet grass, good thing we still have our manly chivalry and gave the one tent still standing to the girls. Bad thing is my clothes are now wet from, I guess, lying outside when the morning dew started setting in. I get up and see the other guys are still sleeping and head over to the remains of my tent to see if my bag of clothes survived whatever happened to the tents last night. They did, so I changed into clean clothes and searched if I had any cigarettes left. Lucky for me there is a whole carton left unopened. It was like a present from my past self. After finding some water and a little folding chair I sat down trying to cure this hangover with some liquid and nicotine.
While lighting one up I notice the real beauty of this place. We managed to find a secluded little meadow surrounded by trees that seem to go on endlessly into the distance. A low rising sun makes for a view straight out of some magical fantasy. The article did not lie when it described the essence of this place. Even though my head was still experiencing the aftershock of the night before, I felt an immense feeling of serenity.

- Little did I know this moment would soon come crashing down. -

After taking in the scenery for what felt like an eternity I hear some noises coming from the one still standing tent. The sound of a zipper opening soon followed. Now sticking out from the tent opening is a mess of hair and a pair of eyes trying to look around. From what I see it seems she might be experiencing the same hangover as me.

After fixing her hair she asks; “What happened to the other tents?”
“Must have happened right before we went to sleep.” I answer. “Because I can recall most of the night but my head is giving me a hard time remembering what happened at the end.”

She laughs as she gets out of the tent. It seems she still has the same clothes on as last night. Someone luckily evaded getting wet while lying outside.

“Guess you were happy that your tent survived the night, had to change clothes because I woke up soaked.”
“You’re kidding! Ah man, sucks to be you. Better wake up the others or they could get really sick.” She worriedly replied.
“Yeah you’re right. We need to pack up soon as well, still have a long drive till we reach the border.” Now looking back at the tent; “You go wake up Noah and pack up the tent, I’ll wake the guys and try to salvage what’s left of our camp.”
she nods and goes back inside.

I finish my cigarette and drink some more water. After getting up and walking towards where Peter is lying I squad down and try waking him by shaking him a little.

“Hey Pete wake up man.”
He moves a bit but no signs of waking up.
“You really need to help me pack, apparently we trashed the place last night.”
“What do you mean; thrashed the place?” he muttered.
“Well, get up and take a look.” I jokingly replied.

After some cursing, movement finally appeared as Peter tried to get up. He was obviously in some sort of agony because he immediately reached for his head. I offered him some water which he happily accepted. After adjusting to his situation I could see him looking around.

“What happened last night?” Peter asked.
“Ah, so you as well? It’s the same for Sarah and me.”
 I light up another smoke and turn back to Peter chugging down the water bottle like he hadn’t had a drink in weeks.
“I feel terrible.” I say “we really should not have mixed the shrooms man.”
“Well obviously you’re right, my head is bursting. Give me a couple of minutes while I try to wake up.”
“Yeah, sure.” I replied. “Guess I’ll wake up Alex and Max.”
Peter nods and lies back down, so I stand up and walk towards where the others are lying.

After repeating the same waking ritual both of them are up as well. To my surprise they look a lot more awake than Peter and Sarah. While discussing what might have happened to our tents last night I, again, hear movement coming from the one tent that miraculously survived. This time Noah pokes her head out. Her eyes widen as she looks at the remains of the other two tents and to us lying on the ground. She then starts laughing as her head goes back inside.

Half an hour later, more or less, all six of us were sitting around what was left of the campfire from the night before. All our stuff packed into our backpacks. Alex managed to salvage one of the tents but the other was beyond repair. We were discussing the beautiful surroundings and the things we could still remember about last night. But after some good laughs and breakfast we decide it’s time to navigate our way back to the car. Luckily we carved the tree that marked our way back. From that tree it was almost all a straight line to walk. We parked our car next to the road hoping no one would actually be on the road other than us and if they were; that they would leave the car alone.

The hangover was mostly gone by now but still slightly present. A lot of water and breakfast made me feel a lot better. And seeing as the rest is rather cheerful my guess is they feel the same way. The sun is standing higher now so at least there is a lot more light shining through the trees. Still, sitting in the car and being on the road again would be better than walking through this dense forest.

- As we walked among the trees and looked back one more time I remember
   thinking about how this night was successful in being a night we’d never forget. -