A crowd of stares

Laura and 'Selena' joined the throngs of varying figures leaving the parking field and heading into the forest next door. Knights in painted armour. Rogues in hooded cloaks. Orcs in ill-fitting rubbery masks and what looked like varying attempts of were-creatures.

There seemed to be some distinct thematic colour schemes going on, reds and blacks and greens picked out prominently… Though Laura could not really remember reading what each was supposed to mean. The only real theme that united everyone was a propensity to show as much flesh as possible, while still maintaining some idea of your character: Breastplates were more breast than plate. Assless leather chaps and loincloths abound. Every variation of the 'chainmail bikini' imaginable. It seemed the 18+ requirement on tickets to a weekend of fantasy had only really left one thing on people's mind. It was effectively just a nudist colony with scraps of metal and bone taped on around the sides.

Laura's misgivings about being here grew and grew. Walking along in her long white dress, every other eye seemed to latch on to her… as if she was the one under-dressed. Hulking orcs snickered like children as she passed, and girls with holes cut out to let their tits swing free tutted and whispered to one another. So much for having a relaxing weekend of escapism.

Skye's invitation had come out of the blue, as things most often did from that confusingly erratic creature. Since graduating, Laura had only seen her previous flatmate two or three times in whirlwinds of strange new hobbies and half-baked plans for adventure. The thing was… She kinda missed the chaos that seemed to constitute the younger girl's entire existence. By comparison Laura had secured herself a very stable, sensible job. She had savings. She had a cat. She was eyeing up the possibility of potentially considering attempting the deposit on a flat. She went to see her increasingly married and child-laden friends at the weekends. By all accounts she was doing everything right that one was supposed to do in life… So God was she bored.

Skye's fairly garbled message had arrived so perfectly as she had come to that conclusion. Decided that she was just about ready to try anything to change up her routine of drudgery. Yet, still she had agonised over it for weeks. Opened and closed the PDF of rules and guidelines a thousand times without really taking any of it in. The thing was Skye had always just seemed to fall through life… bouncing from one mad situation to another, and yet always landing on her feet. Laura didn't think she could handle that. Didn't think she'd pull it off. She'd stop to think for a second and then… poof, the magic was lost.

Which was why she'd decided to just not think. She'd paid for her ticket and thrown a random costume together at the very last minute… safe in the knowledge that this wouldn't offend her old friend in the slightest. They'd flown down the motorway singing loudly to old songs they half remembered and reminiscing about previous adventures. Only nearly dying in like, two, major road accidents on the way.

The one thing Laura had actually always connected with Skye on, was a love of fantasy books and wicca nonsense. What could the harm be in hanging out with a bunch of nerds and hippies in a forest for the weekend?