"Should we go check it out?" she asked, her stance protective as she looked warily out into the forest.
She followed him, her eyes peering into the forest cautiously. They walked for quite a while until they approached a clearing, and there seemed to be movement, although it was difficult to tell through the crowded trees. Poppy squinted through the gloom and frowned, and then pulled Francis behind a tree, just to see some scouts emerge from the clearing. "I told you that it was nothing, Ben," one grumbled at the other. "C'mon. He's gonna kill us if he gets back and the tents aren't set up." The other one scanned the forest, looking for anything out of place. "I could have sworn that I heard something," he muttered, but he turned and joined his friend back into the clearing.
She nodded with wide eyes. "Sounds like they're building some kind of camp there," she whispered, her brow furrowed in thought. "I wonder who 'he' is.."
"Maybe their boss? I'm sure we'll find out eventually. Now I'm glad that we built our camp up above."
"Told you," she whispered, grinning. "They're pretty far from our base too, so we don't have to worry about them finding us too much." She glanced around, obviously a little on edge. "Should we head back?"
Poppy looked over her shoulder at the clearing, and then followed him quickly, her footsteps light and precise. They reached the tent again, and Poppy began climbing up the rope ladder quickly, obviously still anxious.
Francis followed, and picked up the sticks, holding then under his arm. "So how are we going to do this?"
"Well," she said, gazing up at the sky. "We need to get some of the vines off these trees to bind them together."
She nudged him playfully before going to climb. "That's the best compliment I will ever receive from you." Her fingers found natural holds in the branches, and she climbed quickly, wrapping vines around her arm as she worked.
He nodded sarcastically. "I'm sure it will be." He climbed on the other side, collecting the vines in loops.
They worked in silence for a while, with Poppy climbing higher and higher. The late afternoon sun sank lower in the sky as they worked, and Poppy finally called out to him. "We should be good now. We needed lots of rope, but this should be good."
He nodded. "It's just under and over, right? I haven't done that type of stuff since elementary school."
She nodded, her curls flopping over her eyes. She blew it out of here face with annoyance. "That's right," she said. "We're going to be weaving the sticks and the vines very, very tightly. It forms a flexible but sturdy fence. Can you do that?"
"Yeah. Sounds easy enough." He set to work, weaving the vines sturdily with the sticks. "Hopefully this doesn't take long."
