<div class="floatright">(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_et9ttl8zdzQ/TD_-vwBMOGI/AAAAAAAAN5E/eP7JumXuE2M/s1600/1a3f651e06434edab4aee510aaf9f5b6.jpg)</div><br/>Michelle followed along into the forest retreat, now dressed in a pair of jeans, cowgirl boots and a gray T-shirt.  The subtle lack of a bounce to her step indicated that she now wore a bra, which seemed a little uncomfortable to her, but an unfortunate necessity if she was going to be training.<br/><br/>Most of the changes didn't really bother her all that much.  She felt a subtle connection to nature in a way which she just couldn't quite explain.  It was hot, but the heat didn't really bother her, and the jeans and boots would be great so that she wasn't constantly brushing up against needles and poison ivy.  If not for the heat, she'd probably want to keep her arms covered as well, but that was just a question of moderation and temperature.<br/><br/>What drove her absolutely crazy was the rule of no technology.  She had to leave her cell phone back at her apartment, which just felt careless and foolish to her.  She knew that there wasn't anything that she really needed, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someone, somewhere, was trying to contact her.  If only she had the little device, she'd be able to keep up.<br/><br/>Her father had told her various stories about how he'd been forced into completely insane situations without even a survival knife, and she realized on some level that she didn't really need her phone, that it would only be a distraction.  Still, she'd never had any problem in her life of keeping up with multiple things simultaneously that others might consider distractions, and she wasn't sure it was really necessary.  Even so, she didn't feel like trying to complain or anything of the like.<br/><br/>What the situation at the mall had taught her, however, was that she needed to have her Thunderbird feather handy in the event of an emergency.  She'd tied it to the Native American necklace she wore, where the exotic feather just looked like another trinket to add alongside the lucky rabbit's foot.  Time would tell if such a thing would be problematic.