“Do you… Think we.. Lost it?” Risa pants out, stumbling over her own feet as she falls down onto her knees, unable to keep running any farther. Even Alunya feels winded after that run, he can't imagine how the much less fit girl would be faring. Adrenaline can only take you so far, and she’s at her uttermost limit, falling onto her back, her chest heaving as she gasps for air.

  “I have to think so…” Alunya rests his hands on his knees, looking back. “I think I’d see something like that if it was out here, it doesn’t exactly blend in.”

  Risa whimpers and curls up into a ball, looking up at Alunya with a mixture of fear and awe. “What was it? Monsters aren't supposed to get through the Barrier, Hylicia keeps us safe… Mom said so…” She sounds almost angry, as though protesting reality for the events of that day.

  “There was something alot bigger and alot scarier, back in the cave. I didn't get a good look at it, but there was something there that caused the cave-in.” Alunya reports, collapsing into a sitting position. Risa doesn’t seem ready to acknowledge that, and instead looks around. The duo are in a lightly forested area, high in the mountains. Neither of them can see the crevice they had crawled out from, and there are certainly no landmarks either of them recognize.

  “Do you… Know where we are?” Risa asks, biting her lip. When Alunya shakes his head in reply, she covers her head in her hands.

  “Oh no… We’re still lost… I’m never going to see mom and dad again, am I? I’m going to be eaten by demons and nobody will ever even find my bones!” She whines, but her eyes have had enough crying already and can't produce any more tears. “Everything hurts… I’m never going to make it…” She moans.

  That was hardly surprising. Not only from the activity, but getting through that cave had taken a toll on both of them, even Alunya had suffered a fair number of cuts and bruises from jagged rocks, and Risa was faring considerably worse; her once pristine tunic was filthy and her legs are crisscrossed in tiny wounds, some of which were still bleeding.

  “Hey now, it's alright! We just need to find somewhere to settle down safely for the night. If we can find the river, we can follow that back to the village!” Alunya tries to reassure her. There is no way he’s going to give up on getting back now, not after getting out of the cave.

  “T-The village? Shouldn’t we look for my dad?” She asks, looking at him in concern.

  Alunya shakes his head. “We have no idea where we are, and there weren't any noticeable landmarks around camp. And, we don’t even know if they’re still there!” Alunya consciously suppresses the ‘or if they’re still alive’ addition that reverberates in his thoughts. “The village is a much bigger target, and I know how to find it if we can just find the river.”

  Risa nods hesitantly. “I-I… Ok. Oh Hylicia, why did I ever leave home? I should have just stayed with Mom, why did I ever think to leave the village…”

  Alunya frowns. He knew they were in dire straits, and she had had a very stressful day, but… Did she have to keep saying things like that? It wasn’t exactly helping! Besides, it had been a very exciting day. As long as he lived through it, he’d have lots of stories to tell Ari when he got back and had time to sort through it all.

  Assuming he ever makes it out of that cave, that is. Alunya hisses at himself. Hey! No! Bad brain! No tempting fate! Antares will be fine… There's no way he won’t be. Alunya shakes his head to dispel the thought, warranting a confused look from Risa which he pays no heed to. Right now, we just need to find someplace safe to stay the night.

  There is no tent, and the bedding was very lackluster; The least he could do was track down a soft place to lay down in the shade. It would be better still if he could find the river before nightfall, but that was likely unrealistic. Still, considering their previous position where they had entered the cavern, Alunya can roughly guess which direction the river was in- After all, they couldn’t have traveled that far underground.

  “Come on, we should keep moving until nightfall. We need to try to get back home as quickly as possible, since we don’t have alot of food.” Alunya explains to Risa, offering a hand to help her get up to her feet. Risa looks up at him in disbelief.

  “You want me to keep walking..? My shins feel like they’re about to explode, and I’ve never been this tired in all my life. I couldn’t move another centimeter if I wanted to!”

  Alunya frowns. He understood that, but it really would be better if they could move at least a little… The ground here is rocky, if they could go a bit farther inland at least the leaves would provide some cushioning. “Come on, just… Just a kilometer farther today, then we can stop. Just to get us into the shade of the trees.” Alunya pleads, giving the big doe eyes that always seem to get him what he wants from his family. Fingers crossed, Alunya hopes that this girl isn’t immune to his charms.

  “I said I can’t! It's too far! I can’t move another meter!” Risa complains. Well, I can't exactly just leave her here… Alunya thinks, giving a coy smile. “Alright, fine.” He shrugs and slides his arms underneath her, lifting

  Risa blushes brightly. “Wh-what do you think you’re doing!?” She protests, rolling out of his arms.

  Alunya shrugs. “You said you can’t move, so I was just going to carry you.”

  Risa stammers. “Th-That's…” She lets out an exasperated sigh as her cheeks turn a rosy red. “...I can walk!” Finally, she replies.

  Alunya smugly grins. That's a relief, carrying her all the way would be exhausting. Alunya thinks to himself cheerily. Maybe our luck is changing.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  True to Alunya’s word, it isn’t far down the slope to where the trees thicken and the ground transitions from hard rocky gravel to moist, soft topsoil covered in a layer of ferns and leaves.

  A rustle in the bushes catches the duo’s attention. Risa freezes up, her fight or flight instinct already kicking in, but Alunya crouches down where he was standing, eyes narrowing. Prying the branches aside, Alunya catches sight of the culprit- a rabbit, apparently not quite suitably skittish. Its ears swivel as it notices Alunya, and it begins springing away…

  But just a second too late, as Alunya dives after it fully bodied. The rabbit gets a couple feet, but Alunya grabs one of its legs just before it leaves his reach and yanks it back. Holding it securely around the hips where its flailing legs and biting teeth are not able to mar him, Alunya wraps the other hand securely around its head and unceremoniously wrings its neck, an audible crack issuing forth before the rabbit’s flailing suddenly stops.

  Alunya looks back at Risa, smiling ear to ear. “Stew meat!” He announces, cheerily. “Looks like we’ll be able to make that soup properly now!”

  Risa just blinks at him incredulously, perhaps a little nauseous. Alunya pays no heed and is already digging through the supplies. The pan is still in… tolerable condition, and he still had his waterskin. The meal was hardly going to be the easiest to cook or a masterpiece, but Alunya just shrugs and carries on- He’d make do with what he had.

  [...]

  “So how is it?” Alunya beams over at Risa. “Did I make it right?” The soup is being held in the pan at an odd angle to keep it from spilling, since one half of the pan is caved in, and the ingredients are much less distinct than they ought to be considering how they had been crushed by the debris. But at least it had bits of boiled rabbit in it, as Alunya had- mostly with his bare hands- ripped the rabbits skin apart and torn it's joints off. The lack of water for cleaning is a definite issue, but the water had all gone into the soup, leaving Alunya’s hands to just be cleaned as best he can by wiping them on the grass.

  Risa stares into the soup uncertainly. There is something… very unsettling about eating something that had been alive that recently, and she isn’t quite sure if Alunya knows what he is doing. But her stomach is groaning for sustenance, and she’s utterly famished. So, perhaps despite her better judgment, she hesitantly takes a bite of Alunya’s soup. It’s far from perfect- how could it be, when he’d made it while exhausted, wounded, tired, never having made the recipe before, with flawed ingredients in a flawed pan with limited water? But to someone who had just been through what Risa had, nothing had ever tasted so good.

  “I-it’s good.” Risa responds, uncertainly, meekly. She looks over at Alunya wondrously, who was making a pile of leaves to lay his bed down in, for extra padding. Somehow despite the circumstances, he seems uncannily casual about the situation.

  “Ya know.” Alunya starts saying. “I was kind of hoping to get to look up at the stars while on this trip. Now that there’s no tents anymore, I guess I’ll be getting my wish, huh?” Alunya looks over at Risa, smiling.

  Risa just stares at him, lost for words. After a moment, Alunya shrugs and flops over onto his back. Once again, sleeping on his back is just a more practical way to spread the weight out with the lack of proper bedding.

  Although he had fully intended to look at the stars that night, and the ground is not particularly comfortable, the exhaustion of that day’s struggles had gotten to Alunya more than he had thought, and in a matter of moments he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Sleep followed not far behind.

  [...]

  “Rrrghh…” Alunya groans as his consciousness slowly returns to him. At the time, he’d been able to keep going, but now that he’d had a day of rest on bumpy, hard ground, all the weariness from yesterday had caught up to him in stunning fashion. With far more effort than he is used to, Alunya sits up, his tired muscles and scabbed-over wounds complaining as he does.

  Isn’t sleep supposed to make you feel less tired? Alunya complains to himself sardonically. For perhaps the first time in his life, all he wants to do is rest his aching limbs and do nothing, but despite his weariness he pushes himself up off the ground. It is well into morning, the stars have already disappeared and the sun is nearly over the eastern mountains, but Risa is still sleeping where she is. Alunya frowns.

  She needs the rest even more than I do. I should probably just let her rest, I doubt she’d be able to move if I got her up now anyways. Alunya reasons to himself, and then diligently sets to work packing up his bedding before seeing if he can stoke another small fire for a small breakfast. There is precious little food left, though he is able to scavenge a handful of berries and mushrooms from the surrounding forest- Whatever they can eat, they would need to, they would need the energy to find their way back home.

  I hope we find that river soon. I’m already feeling thirsty. Alunya thinks to himself. He would have set out to look for it already, but Risa would probably freak out if he was gone when she woke up, so he stays in the area.

  The sun is high in the sky, and Alunya is considering just waking Risa up himself, when Risa finally wakes up on her own, signaled by a long, pitiful-sounding groan.

  “Everything hurts…” She whines, curling up. “I wanna be home and just lay in bed forever…”

  “Well, we’d better make good time finding the river, then!” Alunya announces, presenting her with what was left for breakfast-It is not much. “Eat up quickly and we’ll set out, the sooner we find it and get home the sooner you can rest.” He affirms, eagerly. The exhaustion of the morning has dissipated somewhat and he is feeling restless, eager to move, once more; he’d feel better walking through the forest than sitting around. And besides, he’d rather find the river before suffering crippling dehydration.

  The rest of their water had gone into that pan, and now there is nothing left; no food, no water, nothing. At least that meant there was less to carry. The spoon drops back into the pan with a clatter and Risa wipes off her mouth, looking deeply unsatisfied.

  Alunya packs up his gear and then, holding the straps of his bag, stands in front of Risa offering a hand to her. “Alright! Ready to go?”

  Risa looks down. “No…” She mumbles. “I’m still tired-”

  “Well, too bad, because we’re going anyways.” Alunya states authoritatively, grabbing Risa’s arm and pulling her to her feet.

  Based on where we were when we went in and the shape of the valley… We should just have to head downhill and towards the opposite side of the valley, and we’ll find the river soon enough. Navigation is thankfully rather easy in that area, since one can only wander in the wrong direction for so long, hemmed in by the mountains on all sides; provided one is able to feed oneself and stay safe from wild animals, they really couldn't stay lost in the valley for long.

  With that in mind, Alunya picks out a particular mountain peak and memorizes its shape- That way, he would be sure they are traveling in as straight of a line as possible and not meandering unnecessarily. Tightening the strap on his pack and dragging Risa behind him, he sets out into the foreboding wilderness.