I'm very, very sorry that this took so long!

*

Day 3, Part 3

*

There was a series of gasps from everyone. "But then-" Juni whispered. Storya and Poetina, having realized that almost every CBer was by the Cougar Cabin, came over as well. "What's going on?" Storya asked curiously. Poetina's face fell, and she pointed to the bed where Quill lay. Storya's eyes widened, and then she shook her head sadly. "This is becoming far too common," she sighed. 

*

After Quill had been buried, the CBers retreated in their cabin-groups to their cabins. Sterling, Lumi, and Kitty sat and wondered. "Now, there's been a death in every cabin," Lumi observed. Kitty nodded and scribbled furiously in their notebook. Sterling just sat on her bed, staring down at her hands. The wind whistled mournfully through the trees outside the open door. "I think," Kitty spoke up, "that the only way to stop people from dying is to help Storya and Poetina change Iyan back." They held up their notebook. A complicated chart filled the page they'd been working on, accompanied with doodles and pencil-smudges. Lumi peered closer. "Wow, Kitty!" she exclaimed. "When did you find time to work on this?" Kitty blushed a bit. "I've been working on it for a while, ever since Luna-Starr died." "Sterling what d'you think of this?" Lumi turned to the brown-haired girl. "What? Oh." Sterling stod up and leaned in to look at the chart. "Hm," she said, examing it even closer. "Yeah, this looks pretty accurate," she shrugged. "Good work, Kitty. Should we go get the others?" "No," Lumi shook her head quickly. "They wouldn't be of much help. We should try do this ourselves." Kitty and Sterling thought about it, then nodded slowly.

*

In the Cougar Cabin, Dragon and moon kitsune were talking as well. "We should try and stay in camp," Dragon reasoned. "If anyone can keep us safe, it's Storya and Poetina." moon kitsune nodded. "You're right," he sighed. "Have you noticed that now one person from each cabin is dead?" "I didn't used to know, but now you told me," Dragon replied. "I feel like that has some significance, but I don't know what." The sound of an old, brass bell clanging alerted the two CBers to a meeting called by the people they had been talking about.  "CBers!" Storya called from her podium at the front of the picnic area. Everyone gathered at the tables and looked expectantly up at her. "We need a plan of attack," she continued. Kitty looked up and opened their mouth as if they were about to speak, but Lumi leaned towards them and shushed them. Kitty looked confused for a second, but they quickly nodded their understanding. moon kitsune frowned in the Bear Cabin's direction, but then he shrugged. "Storya," he called, "I think we should stay in camp and lay low for a while. Just to be safe." Storya nodded slowly, thinking. "I think so too, moon kitsune," she agreed. "That would probably be best. Okay!" she stood a bit taller and called out, more loudly. "We're going to stay in camp for a few days. Me 'n' Poetina will set up some activities for you all to do. You can go now!" the CBers filed back to their cabins.

*

"How are we going to investigate now?" Silver complained. "What if we just don't?" Juni suggested quietly. Silver tilted her head to one side. "I mean, actually, Juni, that could work. Make sure no one suspects us." "Th-that's not what I-" Juni sat up straighter and spoke a little more clearly. Silver wasn't listening, however. She was pacing the room and rolling her shoulders. "Ahhh," she flopped backwards onto her bed. "I wish Luna-Starr was here," Juni whispered. "Me, too," Silver sighed. "I wish everyone was still alive." Before Juni could respond, Lumi pushed the door open. "Hey, guys!" she grinned. "Oh, hey, Lumi," Juni smiled back. "We need to have a meeting," Lumi told the Wolf Cabin girls decisively. "You're right," Silver nodded. "I think I'll go get the Cougar Cabin-ers. Are Kitty and Sterling coming?" Lumi nodded and sat down on Luna-Starr's vacant bed. Silver stood and slipped out the cabin door, heading down the dirt path towards the Cougar Cabin. She shot a quick smile behind her at Sterling, who was about to open the cabin door that she had just closed, then turned back and was back on her way to fetch moon kitsune and Dragon.

*

Kitty pressed their back against the wall in terror and desperation as a huge brown bear growled and opened it's mouth wide. Blood dripped from its dangerously sharp teeth, and its breath smelled like rotting flesh. But there was a sense of terror and sacrifice in the bear's eyes that was all too familiar to Kitty. "You aren't trying to kill me, are you," they whispered breathlessly. "You can't control your body." A fat tear squeezed out of the bear's eye as a simultaneous roar came from its mouth and the direction of the forest.

*

Dead: Luna-Starr, NoOneKnows, Quill

Probably Going to be Dead: Kitty Cat 

Suspects: Iyan, Silver, Juni, moon kitsune, Sterling, Dragon

*

Tell me if there's anyone you want removed from the suspect list! 

Hmmm. This is tough. I've read enough Poirot to know it's never the most obvious suspect but somehow I'm still convinced this is me. Hmm. Glad this is still alive though!

Day 3, Part 4

*

"Where's Kitty?" Sterling looked around quickly. Everyone was gathered in the Wolf Cabin- except for the aforememtioned CBer. "I'm not sure," Lumi shrugged. "They said they'd be coming soon after me." An ominous silence filled the room. Sterling glanced around at her friends, then jumped up. "I have a bad feeling about this," she said. "Let's go check if she's in the Bear Cabin." Lumi, Silver, and Juni got up, with Dragon and moon kitsune following, a bit reluctantly. They'd only just got to the Wolf Cabin, and now they had to move again. The door of the Bear Cabin swung open slowly, forebodingly. Sterling stepped backward, tripped, and shrieked. Blood was splattered on the wall, and Kitty's body lay on the floor, magled. Storya and Poetina were there in a flash. Within a couple of minutes, the Bear Cabin was cleaned and there was caution tape spread around the door, stopping it from opening. "Wh-" Lumi stared questioningly at her cabin, and the two supervisors. "It's safer if the Bear Cabin CBers move to the other cabins to sleep, alright? Luminescent, you'll go to the Wolf Cabin, and Sterling, you'll move to the Cougar Cabin." Sterling nodded slowly in agreement, and Lumi looked annoyed for a second, before she realized the practicality of the situation, and shrugged amiably. Storya nodded in relief, then announced, "We're going to spread out and play a game. Each of you have your cabin ribbons-Lumi and Sterling, you'll keep your brown ribbons, you won't be in different cabins, you'll just sleep there-but now I'm going to split you all into two groups. When we are in these groups, everyone will spread out in the clover fields. Each team will attempt to capture everyone on the other team, while rescuing their teammates. As a group, you all may decide how to capture and rescue. Ferocious Dragon, Luminescent, and Princess Juniper, you will be on the green team. Sterling, moon kitsune, and Silver Crystal will be on the purple team. You may leave, and go to the clover fields now!" The CBers got together with their teams and strode through the forest to the wide, sunny, warm clover fields. 

*

"Ha! I got you!" moon kitsuen crowed, tapping Lumi firmly on the back. "Drat!" Lumi glared teasingly at the boy. "You're coming with me!" moonkitsuen laughed, leading her to a grove of saplings that served as the purple team's "jail" and making sure she handed him her silver-gray pebble. "No cheating," Lumi reminded him as she sat down, "put that stone on the tall boulder, remember?" moon kitsuned nodded and smiled at her, before setting Lumi's pebble on top of a shoulder-height black boulder. Before he could even react, however, Dragon tore up from behind, tapped moon kitsune's back, grabbed the pebble, tossed it to Lumi, and dragged his new prisoner off to the other side of the clover field, laughing all the while. By the time moon kitsune was safely secured in the green team's "jail," a small collection of flowers picked from the fields of wildflowers beyond, with his pebble taken, he was laughing, too. "Wow," he grinned, "just, wow. You are fast!" Dragon smiled back. "All in a day's work," he wagged his finger teasingly, before dashing off again. 

*

Sterling sat sadly in beside moon kitsune in the green team's jail. moon kitsune turned to her. "What's wrong?" he asked kindly. "So many people have died," she sighed. "It feels wrong to be having fun without them." moon kitsuen smiled sadly. "I know what you mean," he agreed. "But I think they'd all want us to have fun here. Besides, I think you need to do something to take your mind off the deaths." Sterling shot him a small smile in return, but before she could respond, a blue-gray rock landed in her palm. She looked up in surprise and saw Silver grinnning down at her. moon kitsune was already tearing away across the field after Dragon. "Come on!" Silver held her heand out to Sterling. "Let's go get them." Sterling smiled back and stood up, following her teammate across the field. 

*

Meanwhile, in the forest, Lumi was experiencing a fierce mixture of emotions. On the one hand, she felt sorry for the person-person?-in front of her. On the other hand- she didn't want to die.

*

Dead: Luna-Starr, NoOne, Quill, Kitty

Probably Going to be Dead: Lumi

Suspects: Iyan, Silver, Juni, moon kitsune, Sterling, Dragon

*

Um... now that Lumi is "Probably Going to be Dead," it looks like every CBer that's alive is a suspect. should anyone be removed? 

Day 3, Part 5

*

A scream echoed out of the forest. moon kitsune turned toward the sound with a strange look on his face, and he dashed into the woods. The other CBers followed. However, just after bursting through the treeline, moon kitsune skidded to a stop on the fresh grass. Her back pressed against an ancient-looking, wide tree, Lumi shot the others a wild-eyed glance. A huge, hump-backed brown bear stood on its hind legs in front of her, its mouth open and twisted into a growl. Juni, coming up behind moon kitsune, shrieked. The bear turned around slowly to look at the CBers. It's (gray?) eyes grew wide with an unrecognizable emotion, and a strangled sound was emitted from its mouth. A bright red ribbon floated out of its mouth and hovered around and around its body. Then, there was a bright flash of light, blue with hints of gold around the edges. A CBer fell to the ground, gasping for breath, with tears and blood running down their face. "Sterling?" Lumi whispered, falling forward next to her cabin mate.

*

Sterling opened her eyes and groaned, rubbing her bleary eyes. Then, she stared at her hand. It was pink and red with blood. "How-" she managed, though before she could get the full question out, she remembered. Tears slid down her face, and she closed her eyes again, wishing she could forget. Wishing she didn't remember anything. Wishing she could go back to before. "Sterling?" she heard a soft voice. She looked up again. Juni was watching her, concerned. "Can you tell us what just happened back there?" Dragon asked, his voice considerably harsher. Sterling sighed, then winced. Her ribs felt like they were cracking with every breath, every swallow, every thought. Every beat of her heart. "I-i can," she gasped, "b-but only after you tell me what happened." She thought she already knew, but she wanted to hear it from someone else first. "What happened?" moon kitsune asked, his voice rising in pitch and volume. "What happened?! Sterling, you just killed Lumi!" Sterling's face fell. She'd expected that, but... it was so hard to hear. "moon kitsune, be quiet!" Silver snapped. "Look at her. Look at her!" moon kitsune glared at Silver, but he didn't say anything. His face did soften a bit when he stared at Sterling's tear-and-blood-stained face. "Can you tell us your story, now?" Juni asked quietly. Sterling nodded, coughed, pushed herself into a sitting position in the bed she recognized as her own, in the Bear Cabin, and began. "After the first death, I found myself unable to... to remember where I'd been f-for the last ten min..." her sentence was drowned out by hacks and coughs. "For the last ten minutes," she finally said. Silver nodded encouragingly, and Sterling continued, "That happened with the others, too. With NoOne, I couldn't remember anything that happened in that dream-vision. I got hints, of course, from Kitty and Lumi, so I didn't seem completely clueless." She curled her knees up tightly, cradling her aching chest. Her head felt like it was splitting in two,and she couldn't see much anymore. A strange, rushing, wave-like noise was slowly overtaking her hearing, but she kept at her task. "Quill's death- I remembered only a dark, cold feeling, like a wave of black seawater rushing over me. And then I woke up." Sterling shivered with the memories, and tears slipped down her face, further and further. She could feel that she needed to finish her tale quickly. Her life was slipping from between her fingers. "When Kitty died, I remembered a bit more. I remembered claws, glowing eyes, a scream. Blood. And blue. Blue and blue and blue..." she sighed desperately, trying to grab ahold of her mind once again. "And th-then... when I... when... when I k-killed Lumi..." she trailed off, trying to clear the tears and blood from her eyes, fruitlessly. "I remembered-remember-everything. I remember watching my body-but it wasn't my body, it was a bear-as if I was someone else. A dangerous shadow hung over me-one with blue-and-gold edges. I could feel that shadow controlling my body. No. I could see it, but I couldn't feel it. I was senseless and cold. But that shadow... it was carrying a burden of its own." Dragon leaned forward. "I believe you," he said softly. "But what else can you tell us about the shadow?" He looked down at Sterling's eyes and gasped. They'd been closed. Her face, previously marred by blood and tears, was free, clear, and peaceful. A blue light shone around her. As the CBers watched, her eyes opened. They'd been a piercing gray before, and they still were, now-but now, they glowed with a light more fierce than the stars. "Sterling?" moon kitsune asked softly. Sterling said quietly, with no hint of her previous coughing and struggling, "Save Iyan. Only then will all be revealed." The CBers exchanged glances, then turned back to Sterling. But her eyes were closed once more. She lay on the bed peacefully. Slowly, Silver laid her fingers on Sterling's neck. "There's no pulse," she whispered.

*

Dead: Luna-Starr, NoOne, Quill, Kitty, Lumi, Sterling

Suspects: (we're gonna... restart here. Sterling has already been revealed as a murderer, do you think there are any more?)

*

Hope you lizards like this! I planned this for so long.