章 20: Change in weather

A lone figure was seen walking into the jungle area outside the camping vicinity, and disappeared into the blackened night.

Around 2 in the morning, Mia's group were woken up by the other group of campers. Apparently there was a sudden change in the weather and a storm would be coming their way, so they were advised to pack up their belongings and climb down the hill quickly, before the weather turned bad.

Therefore, they all packed their camping gears in the shortest time possible to start climbing down the hill.

In their urgency, Mia realised someone was missing from their group.

"Where's Phoenix?" she asked in panic.

Everyone looked around and noticed that Phoenix was not with them.

Since it was the first time they hung out with Phoenix, and they were currently in a rush to go down, they forgot about Phoenix's existence.

All of them began to feel guilty and panicked with the situation.

"Oh no! Where did she go?" Mia was looking at the others, wondering if they knew anything.

No one said anything, because no one knew anything.

"I'll go and find her." Mia was about to go search for Phoenix, but Ashton stopped her.

"No. Mia. Followed Ethan and Tiana to get down from the hill first. I'll stay and search for Phoenix."

Mia was about to refute but Ethan spoke, "Mia, let Ashton stay and looked for Phoenix. She probably went to relieve herself. Don't worry so much." Ethan tried to reassure Mia, and themselves. Both Ashton and Ethan try to soothe Mia's panic and give her assurance that Phoenix would be fine.

"Alright. I'll go with Brother Ethan and Sis Tiana. Be careful brother." Mia relented.

Waiting was not an option as they might really get caught in the storm that was approaching.

Without dilly dally, they all started to move. Ethan, Tiana and Mia headed towards the path that led to the bottom of the hill while Ashton went to the other campers and asked if they saw Phoenix.

"Excuse me, do you see a girl in a black pants and a green jacket around here?"

They all looked at each other trying to figure out if anyone saw anything. Luckily, one of the men saw someone went into the jungle when he was getting back from taking a dump.

"I'm not sure if it's the person you were looking for, but I saw someone walking towards that side into the woods."He pointed to Ashton in the direction where he saw the figure. Ashton thanked him and they left him on his own devices as they were also in a hurry to climb down the hill.

Ashton immediately dashed to the direction that was given to him and started to search for Phoenix.

"Where is she? What is she doing inside the jungle in the middle of the night?" Ashton talked to himself while looking around in the dark. He had a flashlight with him but his eyesight was still limited, as the surroundings were too dark, as the storm was coming, even the moon was hiding behind the clouds.

Ashton already walked deeper inside the jungle, only the sound of the winds and rustle of the leaves accompanying his search. Ever so often there was the sound of crickets and who-knows-what was heard.

The wind was getting stronger and suddenly there was a sound of thunder, making him jump in surprise and drop his flashlight. But at that moment, someone crashed into his back.

"What are you doing here? We have to go. A storm is coming," the person who bumped into him said with an urgency in her voice.

"Me? What are you doing inside the jungle?" Ashton asked sternly.

Phoenix didn't answer him, as they needed to hurry to leave this place. They both ran towards the campsite.

The campsite was already empty, everyone already climbed down the hill.

Phoenix looked at Aston questionly.

"Everyone had already packed up and gone down."

Phoenix nodded her head, picked up her backpack that was left on the ground and started to head down.

Ashton, who already had his belongings with him, followed after her.

They both started climbing down, no one spoke anything, but they didn't really care about the silence between them as they needed to hasten their move to get down, but unluckily for them, the rain started to poured down and they had to slow down their movement.

The rain started to get fierce and it was too dangerous for them to climb down, as the rain would make the ground slippery. Thus, they decided to deviate from the trail and find a suitable place to take shelter.

They found a large tree, with a big opening on its trunk, large enough to hold both of them.

"We have no choice but to wait for the storm to pass," Ashton said.

"I'm sorry. It was because of me you were caught in this weather." Phoenix was feeling guilty for their current situation.

"Where are you even going in the middle of the night?" Ashton asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I can't sleep. So I just took a walk to clear my mind," Phoenix said guiltily.

Ashton changed his tone of voice. "In the jungle? something bothering you?" He was reminded by a complex emotion that was usually hiding behind Phoenix's eyes. 'But she was smiling and looked happy last night.'

Phoenix didn't answer Ashton and just hugged herself to keep warm from the chill.

It was true that she couldn't fall asleep, not because she was uncomfortable with sleeping in a tent or in an unfavourable place. In fact she could sleep anywhere even in the jungle floor, it was just that, being surrounded by trees, reminded her of those days from her past. Her feeling back then made her restless and sleepless, and addition to that, she didn't get to make her daily phone call that usually served as her lullaby.

Hence, she decided to take a walk in the jungle to clear her mind and assure herself that those days had long gone.

It wasn't her intention to walk too deep into the jungle and away from the camping site. She only noticed when there was a change in the sound of the jungle, the sound that hinted there was a change in the weather.

Nature was amazing, they could detect the changes in the weather better than humans could, and she knew about this from her past experiences.

Thus, Phoenix turned around and headed back in a hurry to the camping site before she bumped into Ashton.

While Phoenix was thinking about all this, Ashton looked at her and saw the usual empty eyes of hers were swirling in different emotions.

"I'm sorry," Ashton suddenly blurted out.

Phoenix snapped out of her reverie and turned her head to look at Ashton with a questioning gaze.

"What for? It's my fault. I'm the one who was supposed to apologize."

"Nothing. Forget it." Ashton shook his head trying to clear his mind. 'What's wrong with me? Why does seeing complicated emotions in her eyes make me restless?'

The wind was howling, the rain was getting heavier and heavier making the temperature colder and colder, both of them couldn't help but get close to each other and seek warmth from the other.

Without thinking, Ashton pulled Phoenix towards his embrace to shield Phoenix from the crazy weather, and Phoenix just let herself be hugged by Ashton. Miraculously, as time passed by, Phoenix, who was having trouble sleeping earlier, fell asleep leaning on Ashton's chest.

'Seriously? She had trouble sleeping before, but now, she fell asleep in this storm? This girl is too weird.'

Ashton was dumbfounded when he found out that Phoenix was fast asleep in his arms, he was about to shake Phoenix to wake her up, but he saw how peaceful her sleeping face was. She looks so serene, different from the emotionless face that she usually wore. Ashton fixed Phoenix's position in his arms and tightened his hold on Phoenix to make her more comfortable to sleep. Without her knowing, Phoenix rubbed her face like a kitten on Ashton's chest seeking warmth. She circled her hands around Ashton waist, and hummed in satisfaction making Ashton chuckled in amusement, 'So cute.'

But soon, even he himself fell asleep leaning on the tree trunk while hugging Phoenix tightly.

The storm passed, the sky cleared, morning came and the sun rose from the east. The sunlight fell on Ashton's face throughout the gap from the leaves, waking him up from his sleep. He blinked his eyes repeatedly to adjust his eyesight from the blinding sunlight.

Phoenix woke up when she felt movement under her. She creased her forehead, her long curled eyelashes flutter like butterfly wings, and her eyes slowly open.

She blinked her eyes repeatedly to adjust her sight and was surprised by what she saw in front of her, and in what position she was currently in.

She was looking at Ashton's clothed chest, her arms circle Ashton waist and her hands were clenching on Ashton's windbreaker tightly. Her eyes went wide when she realised that they were sleeping in each other's embrace. She looked up and saw Ashton's face was looking at her. She quickly released her hold on Ashton, and slowly stood up. There was a tint of pink on her cheek that she didn't know. She peeked at Aston and coughed to release the awkwardness that she felt.

"We should move. The weather has cleared," Ashton said to ease the awkwardness.

Phoenix nodded and started walking away, running from Ashton like her ass was on fire.

From her back, Ashton was smiling in amusement seeing Phoenix's flustered face. 'She is not emotionless after all'. He stood up and trailed after Phoenix.

The ground was wet because of the storm, so they had to tread their steps carefully. However, it wasn't long till Ashton was already a few steps behind her. Phoenix was feeling uncomfortable with Ashton's presence at her back. She was still feeling unnerved for waking up in Ashton arms. It was a foreign feeling for her.

Suddenly,

Aaaahhhh…..

a scream was heard.