Slowly the figure rose back up. Meri paused, muscles screaming to let loose, to get out of here.

But she waited until she could tell it was a girl, probably a bit older than her, in some kind of black robe outfit.

Whew. Okay, not so scary. Was there some type of cosplay going on that she hadn’t heard about? A LARP group she needed to join? Not fair. It must have been an awesome party if everyone had gone to as much work as this girl had. Though it was kind of hard to tell what fandom she was aiming for. And what she was doing out here. They were probably on some epic quest or something. She had to be about melting right now, with the long sleeves. What was with all the black anyway? Maybe she was trying to be a Sith. Ohh, she totally needed to see how she’d made her lightsaber if she was.

“Are you lost?” Meri tried again.

The girl cocked her head. She narrowed her eyes at Meri for a second, making that skin crawling feeling come right back.

“Yes.” Even that one word sounded odd. This girl had LARPing down, for real. Even an awesome accent.

“I have a canoe. Need a ride back to town?”

The girl looked at her a moment again, like she was calculating something. “Is there a blacksmith in your town?”

Okay, that was taking things a little too far, staying in character. “I guess?” There were horses in the area, there had to be whatever a modern day blacksmith was called around, didn’t there?

“Then I will go with you.” This accent totally rocked. It wasn’t like any she’d ever heard before, which make it uber cool.

The girl came forward out of the trees and Meri got her first full look at her. She must have been out here for a while. She was caked in grime, strange colored grime for this part of Florida. What had she gotten into? Her hair was dyed white and when she got close enough, her eyes nearly knocked Meri down with their total awesomeness.

“Where’d you get the contacts?” Purple, but not just one color of purple, but swirls of dark and light. She absolutely had to get a pair. If she could make her student loan payment this month.

Purple Eyes just raised an eyebrow. “You have a map of this place?” she asked.

“Yes?” That wasn’t supposed to come out as a question.

“Mark this spot.” The girl just stared at her, like she totally just expected to be obeyed. Weird. She fished around in her backpack for a second, pulled out a pen and did exactly what she’d been ordered to do. Also weird.

“What’s your name?” Meri asked. She checked her surroundings and then headed for the canoe.

“Senara.”

“Nice! My name’s Meri. My real name. Where did you come up with yours?”

Another raised eyebrow. She was all for staying in character, but this was kind of extreme.

“Did you lose the rest of your group? I have a radio, I can call the park to send out some rangers to look for them.”

Something passed across Senara’s face. Then it was gone. “I am alone.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Okay, now things were getting even more weird. She wasn’t one of those girls kept in a shack or something and didn’t know anything about the world, was she? That would explain the weird name and clothes. Maybe even the accent.

They walked back to the canoe in silence. Afraid to ask any more questions, Meri just kept quiet. And apparently quiet was ‘Senara’s’ default setting.

When they reached the canoe, Meri went over and pulled her red sash loose from the branch. She turned to go back to the canoe and noticed Senara bumping the boat with her toe, an odd look on her face. Had she never seen a canoe before? That seemed unlikely. Maybe she’d never seen plastic.

That slightly freaked out feeling tried to work its way into her stomach again. Meri clamped down on it before it could take hold. “You okay?”

The other girl cocked her head, looking confused. “Yes.”

She had to be close to Meri’s age. At least she looked like it. But what girl her age didn’t like to talk?

“Okay then. Let’s get going.” The canoe slid easily into the water. Meri motioned for Senara to get in first and move toward the front. She did, but really gingerly. Almost like she was stiff. Was she scared of the canoe, or was something wrong? What was she supposed to do in this situation? Maybe if she knew a little more. “So… you from around here?”

“No.”

Okay. Dead end. “Are you visiting from up north?” Senara sat and Meri gave the canoe a shove, jumping into the back as it glided out onto the water.

“No.”

Not from around here, but not visiting from the north. Europe maybe. That would explain the accent. A better explanation than a shack anyway. “Do you have family here?”

Senara looked over her shoulder but didn’t answer. Well then. Obviously questioning wasn’t going to help. They floated along in silence for a couple of minutes while Meri tried to figure out what to say.

A gator popped out of the water to their left. Senara instantly lifted a hand and pointed it in that direction while reaching toward a hilt that Meri hadn’t noticed until now at her waist.

“Hey, calm down, you’re rocking the canoe!” This girl was wandering the Everglades and she was this afraid of gators? That didn’t seem like good planning. Senara’s eye narrowed and she stared at the gator, a fierce glare that looked like it could set the poor thing on fire, water or no water.

“Do the swimming dragons not attack your vessels?”

Swimming dragons, for real? “Ahh, no. You don’t have to worry about them unless you’re in the water.” Okay, now she was seriously starting to think this girl was one of those kidnapped people that grew up not knowing anything about the world. What other explanation could there be? She needed to get her to somebody who could help. Maybe one of her professors. And she needed to get that knife or whatever it was away from her too. If it was real, at least.

They made it back to the canoe shack in silence.

She paddled until the front end bumped the shore. Senara jumped out and struggled to tug the nose onto the sand. She seemed to be working a lot harder than she should be. Maybe there wasn’t any muscle under those robes, from being locked up too long. That was a thing, right? Her face looked okay though, other than the grime.

The feeling of eyes boring into her followed her as Meri moved out of the canoe and chained it back up. She straightened and brushed the sand from her hands. Whatever was going on, this girl needed help. She should probably take her to the police station, but that just seemed wrong. Unless she was a missing person.

“Town’s that way,” Meri said, waving down the path that led to the school and then a housing division before turning into a road and hitting some stores.

Senara narrowed her eyes and stared at the path. “Can you show me on your map where the blacksmith shop is located?”

“I would if I could. I don’t know where one is.” Meri waved Senara along and started up the path. “I can ask around though, if you really want to go. Why do you need one anyway? You have a horse with a problem?”

“No horse. I just need his help repairing something.”

Asking a blacksmith to repair something? Seriously, this girl was like two centuries behind.

“Like your phone or something? We can hit the electronics store.”

There was the head cocking again. “What is that? Are they able to work with metal?”

Okay, so maybe she legitly needed a blacksmith. Which would be so weird. “No. You can come back to the dorm with me and I’ll Google it. My phone died out in the trees. It has an awesome battery, but I forgot to charge it.”

Senara stopped. “What killed this phone? One of the water dragons?”

Ummm, so maybe offering to take her to the dorm hadn’t been the greatest idea. Maybe she could leave her downstairs and run up and find Sandra. Sandra would know what to do. She always did.