As the rain had faded and stopped now, 10 minutes later they all were ready to go to the lake. They had taken Rei*s super all-weather-conditions-tent with them, as they would probably stay at the lake overnight. All-weather-conditions... The Hino Temple once had been received a visit by a wandering guest who let his tent in a bag there. That was on purpose, because the tent was wormfood. It had a big hole in the side, the side that was forming a part of the roof. Rei had been around 10 or 11 when she found that bag with the tent on the east side veranda of the temple. Her grandpa had fixed the tent for her then as she was so amazed by it. She had wanted to keep it at any cost tho it looked like it had been a meal for a swarm of moths, thereafter being dunked into mud.
But she had been a little girl, someone who regarded a tent something adventurous, and sincerely had used it quite some times. Mostly to camp in it not 50 metres from the temple away, but who cares.
Rei had the tent loaded upon her back. The others had taken sleeping bags from Hino temple, this way, no one needed to go home and pack a sack first. Bunny was the only one that had ran home through the rain to get "utmost neccessary equipment".
The others equipped at the Temple. A sleeping bag would be all they would need. To everyones amazement, grandpa Hino had appeared right the moment they wanted to depart and recommended them to take rubber boots with them, as the lakeside was wet.
And then, out of nowhere, Yuichiro had appeared right from the other side of the temple, like he had only waited for that moment, and reached Makoto - who took it - a bag of rubber boots.
Where the hell did they got these rubber boots you could ask, and Rei was the one who was most flabberghasted.
Her grandpa had spoken from some investment the other day. He sold boots now or what? They all were new!
Maybe he was a rubber boot fetish now and let young maidens work in the temples* court where they would clean the place from leafs with a brush? There was not a single realistic possibility why Rei*s grandpa suddenly had a large ammount of rubber boots - in female size. Rei finally ignored the mystery and they were already on the way to the bus station where they*d meet Usagi. Bunny had a mysterious plush bag over her shoulder.
"First thing you won*t need in rainy outdoor activity is a purple plush bag!" Rei had said, "And last you need is a purple plush bag with Bunny ears! OMG you are adult, Bunny!"
Instead to start the obligatory argue, Bunny laughed "It was the only backpack I could find in my hurry."
Rei rolled her eyes. Bunny was a complete idiot. She had left her usual backpack in the temple when she had left for home.
But Rei didn*t say anything as she didn*t wanted to point out they could*ve brought the forgotten backpack with them. That very moment, the bus arrived, and they rolled through a new quick rain shower towards the lake`s direction, while the light became dim and dimmer every few minutes.
With a red glow over the water, the lake was reflecting the last sunrays of the passing day. Five girls had arrived at the lake when the final fade of the twilight was just about to turn them into grey silhouettes with a chuckling black water panorama in the background. A tent-bag was thrown onto the rain moistened ground that looked like brown sand. Instead, it was earth that did not feature much grass anymore. The water was about 20 metres away.
"Yo, let us finish this quickly, Mako!" Rei said. It was just 1 hour after they had entered the bus. Not bad for the distance, but to most of them - except Ami - the quick setting of the sun had been surprising anyway. They had arrived at the lake*s main parking place in 45 minutes but had yet to wander 15 minutes to the area they had been told about. The last light of the dusk was just about to be squeezed behind the horizon, into nothingness, like someone pressed the sun down to hide it.
"We just need to ram the tentpegs into the earth I think!" Mars said to Jupiter, who helped with the building of the tent. The earth didn*t seem to be hard here, for sake, as Rei had taken no hammer with her. Usually she used a big stone but there was none in sight.
"What color is this actually?" Jupiter asked. The bag was orange with some bleached red patch that now looked rose. In the dim light it was rather beige. But she meant the tent itself. REi held the second peg in hand after she had brought the first successfully into the earth: "I think it is supposed to be green but I can*t assure you," smiling to Makoto who kneeled at the other side of the tent, "this old survival kit has had better days."
"Yea we gotta pay attention the kit doesn*t become a kite overnight." Makoto answered in sarcasm, stood up and rammed the peg into the ground with one kick of her heel. Rei had a harder job. Not only the ground seemed harder on her side of the tent, she also lacked Makoto*s strenght. |
