A very original way to get rid of boredom. [Private for me and Kennuh]

The lonely, deadly forest -- oh how you've been missed.

Kendall was running, running, running -- through the leaves, ducking under branches, leaping over logs or fallen trees like a track sprinter would a hurdle. Her hair, tied back into a ponytail, flowed in the wind as she took her average day's exercise in the dreary monster-infested forest, where nobody would or could bother her. Her half-siblings in the Ares cabin liked to run together through the camp, the commons area and then down to the beach, back to the lake, and then end in the cabin courtyard, while along the way they liked to trip each other up or push and shove like muscular toddlers. It had become so annoying that she had left them to run by themselves almost five years ago, running alone except with maybe a friend or two through a path in the forest she had found and made for herself.

Huffing and puffing, she strained herself to go faster and farther; sweat rolled down her face and neck, beginning to seep into the collar of her black tank top. It was still so damned hot in camp, and what was it now? September? October?

At that question, Ken began to slow down, pondering the question. Her heart pounded in her chest and her breathing was harsh, erratic -- but slowly, she began to laugh out loud at herself, all alone (or so she thought) in the forest, with her sword Bloody War tied securely to her back for protection. She couldn't even remember what month it was -- hysterical, absolutely hysterical. She coughed slightly and wiped off the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, deciding with a glance at her watch that it was high time to be getting back. Turning around in a circle, the daughter of Ares examined her surroundings: was it... this was, to go back? No, she had just come from that way, but it was such a long route.

Blowing some strands of hair out of her face, Kendall turned to her right and began to walk in that direction: she would most likely find a nymph or satyr to talk to, who could direct her out of the forest and back into camp. She liked most of them, they had some good sense to knock some idiotic younger campers' heads together when they decided to vandalize parts of the forest. As she walked, however, she heard a dull and rather crunch whump somewhere to her left, like something falling. She paused suddenly, hand slowly reaching for her sword's handle. "Who's there?" she called out suddenly, then almost smacked herself. Why would she lead whatever it was right to her?

Well, the voice certainly did sound human enough. Keeping her hand by her sword handle, Kendall approached the voice cautiously, parting the branches of a tree with one hand -- only to get smacked in the face when she moved it a little too far to the left -- to see who this voice belonged to. It was definitely a girl and not a nymph; it smelled faintly iron-y here, like there had been blood spilled. Squinting slightly, she realized the girl had a rip in her jacket and some sort of cloth patch on her forehead; she couldn't exactly tell right now. Maybe she was just trying to be edgy.

"Well, that seems like quite the problem there," Ken ventured to call out, passing underneath the branch to step closer to her. The girl was sort of sitting on the ground, looking a bit grumpy judging by her facial expression. The whole ridiculousness of the situation hadn't dawned on her until now: she had gone running to be alone and away from the rest of camp, only to encounter... someone from camp. She supposed that it was a natural occurrence, considering its vicinity from the main areas of the entire place, but the forest was so large that rarely anybody stumbled upon anybody here; it had been safe for her to assume she'd be entirely alone besides the crickets and maybe a loose hellhound. "Did you fall or something? I don't have any ambrosia or nectar with me, but if you need to walk and can't, I can help with that."

Watching the girl try and fail to find nectar in her bag, the demigod sighed and held out her hand to Astr-- what was her name? Aster? No, it was Astrid. Like that character from that movie about dragons or something. She noticed that Astrid's hands were bloody when she wiped them on her jacket, but for now, she decided to say nothing about it. "The name's Kendall, daughter of Ares. Here, take my hand and I'll help you up, you can lean on me on the way back -- I'll carry your backpack too, if you want." That is, of course, if Ken could remember the way back. Maybe the girl knew the way better than she did: the faster they got out, the more likely it was that they wouldn't be attacked by monsters -- and to be honest, she didn't feel like fighting for two today.

Ken was no healer of any sort, but she did know that if the girl couldn't walk then something was pretty damned wrong: a part of her leg could be broken or she could have a deep wound instead of the sprain, like she claimed, which would probably be exacerbated by them hobbling in sync back to the infirmary. Maybe they'd meet a nice nymph or satyr along the way who would go get help or tell them the way back; that strip of cloth over the injury didn't seem like it could hold up for a long hobble, even if they readjusted it a lot.

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Ken replied steadily, trying to balance the girl and make sure she didn't put too much pressure on her injured leg. A cursory glance told her that the wound looked pretty bad, based on how bloody the makeshift bandage was, but it might stop soon if the bandage were tight enough and her blood did... that coangle thing. Coangle? Something like that. This daughter of Ares never paid any attention to those Apollo healers' ramblings about what the body did to defend itself against diseases and all that; she liked to tough any illnesses or injuries out until she figured out she had worsened it somehow, whether it be by taking the wrong medicines or not binding a wound correctly or what. Ken had almost done this when her shoulder was broken during the quest with Eric, but luckily an Apollo healer got to her in time on their return, before she'd really messed up her arm.

Clearing her throat slightly, she made a slight movement as if to move forward, but stopped before her foot could touch the ground. "Er, yeah. Well, anyway, we should get moving. Do you want to move first, or should I? I don't want you to strain yourself."