Run, rest, and run once again. That was the routine Malt had been following since leaving the front. Only this time, he no longer had the luxury to rest.

Staying still meant a certain and gradual death, and so all he could do was push forward.

Or so he would’ve, but there were limits to how much his body could endure. His breath was growing ragged by the minute and his muscles were screaming, fatigued to their limits.

Beyond that, he’d eventually have to sleep at some point. He needed to stop to forage for food and to source water, he needed time to allow his body to recuperate, and most importantly, he needed to somehow communicate with the girl.

He took a quick glance at the girl, who was surprisingly still following him. Within the last hour, he all but confirmed that there was something very abnormal about her.

Besides her origin and agenda, her irregular strength made it obvious that she was anything but a normal kid. Her endurance was exceptional as well.

Malt more or less had the body of an adult and was thoroughly trained as a soldier as well. His rigorous routine at Dagrdige was the only reason he could push forward despite the fatigue.

A girl that size, however, shouldn’t have been able to match his pace. Yet there she was, leaping over branch after branch close behind him.

Due to her shorter legs she needed to compensate by doing some sort of strange skip instead of running. For every two steps he took, she could travel the same distance in a lunge. While it may be possible for a child to lunge like that, doing so repeatedly for several minutes straight would be a challenge for the fittest of adults, let alone a small child.

If his theory that she was using some kind of magic was correct, that would mean their situation was more dire than he’d thought.

His knowledge on magic was sparse, but there was a single rule that all magic seemingly followed: all magic uses mana.

And if what she was doing was magic, she’d have to run out at some point. In the worse case scenario, she’d be unable to keep up with him, and he’d be forced to do something he really didn’t want to think about.

It’s easy to imagine then why he was so startled when she suddenly stopped.

He hastily halted, almost stumbling over doing so.

“Oh for- don’t tell me…”

His words stopped in his mouth as the girl rummaged through her rucksack and pulled out two items, a stick of steel and a rough looking black rock.

Then, with trembling hands, she struck the two together. A bright flash suddenly appeared as a few specks of white hot debris flew from the rock and onto the ground.

You’re kidding. She had a flint this whole time?!

He quickly sprung into action, scrambling across the foliage ridden ground, trying to find any dry twigs or the like. Seeing that there weren’t any in sight, he reached for his dagger to once again grasp nothing.

He turned to her, eyes still frantically scanning for anything that could be used as a blade. “Uh, do you have a knife?”

Without taking her eyes from the embers that she was trying to nurture, she thrusted her bag toward him.

He combed through the bag’s contents, sloppily dragging out anything that vaguely felt like a knife. After emptying nearly half the bag, he finally found it: a small all-purpose knife with a crude wooden handle.

He slipped the leather sheath off and clambered to the driest looking tree in his vicinity. He grasped the blade with two hands and began roughly scraping off curly shavings of semi-dry wood. Though at the panicked rate he was going at, he was doing more gouging than he was shaving, but no matter. If it burned, it would do just fine.

After a handful of the stuff had accumulated, he scooped it up and scurried to the girl. She took the kindling and placed it carefully onto the smouldering leaf that she had created.

Then, as gently as she could, she began blowing onto the smoking heap of tinder. While she was starting the fire, Malt’s job was to beat back the plants that were inching their way toward them.

He kicked at the bushes that drew too close and severed the vines that tried to encircle them, but no matter how hard he struggled, they’d eventually be overtaken.

He looked over to the pile of kindling, plumes of wispy white smoke were now steadily rising from within it.

Then, to his relief, a flickering lick of orange flame suddenly appeared from it. After it, another followed, then another, and another, each one larger and more lively than the last.

The girl gathered the twigs around her and threw them onto the growing flame. The sticks almost instantly ignited, and a bonafide fire was born.

He sighed in relief, taking in the dazzling sight. He’d never been so happy to see fire in his life, even more so than back at Dagridge, where the sight of a fire meant warm food at the end of a rough day. He then turned to the plants, and died a little inside when he saw that they were unfortunately still crawling toward them.

Of course a measly flame like that couldn’t burn live plants filled with water.

His eyes scanned the scenery for anything that could be used as fuel, but at that point the forest had drawn so near that he couldn’t move more than a few feet away from the flame.

As he ran out of options, he was slowly starting to think that the time had come. It might’ve been the end of the line, as some would say. But he wasn’t so much of a defeatist that he’d give up after that much struggle.

He shed his gambeson, ready to mutilate it in a last ditch effort to fuel the fire. Before he could, the girl pulled out another peculiar item.

It was a small bundle of reddish pink herb that resembled a grass or hay. She unwrapped it from it’s cloth covering and tossed it into the fire.

Immediately, a pungent medicinal odor assaulted his senses. He cringed backward, and to his surprise, so did the plants.

They peeled away, quickly slithering away from the flame like it was poison. He was bewildered by the occurrence, but more than that he was thankful.

He fell onto his rear, gratefully catching his breath. The girl fell to her knees as well.

The contents of the herb were dubious to say the least, but it didn’t seem to be poisonous to humans, not yet anyway. What he knew was that it gave them the opportunity to catch their breath.

He watched as the plants shrunk further and further away, even the canopy was opening up in an effort to avoid the pungent incense.

When the overhead branches cleared, an impossibly open night sky was revealed. How it was already night, he didn’t know, nor did he really care. The sight seemed to soothe his mind, reminding him that there was in fact a world outside those claustrophobic woods.

It was a feeling akin to exiting a cave and into fresh air, the feeling of suffocation was lifted and the tightness in his chest easened.

But after the brief moment of awe and relief, there was nothing left but silence. Long, uncomfortable silence. He periodically glanced at the surrounding foliage but they didn’t seem to be moving anymore, whatever the herb was, it was doing its job.

And because of this, they were granted a brief time of tranquility, for the better or worse.

Not knowing what to do, they both gathered sticks and dried foliage around them to use as fuel, but after a substantial pile had accumulated, there was really nothing else to distract themselves with.

They just sat huddled around the fire as darkness settled in.

They stared into the fire, taking occasional glances at one another.

“....so uh, you have a name?”

“...”

“....anything you want me to like, call you by?”

“...”

“...any hobbies or…”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Not much of a talker, huh?”

She probably could talk judging by her age, which meant she was probably just nervous (or suspicious).

Seeing as they weren’t getting anywhere, he leaned forward a bit.

“Alright, I’ll head straight to the point then.” That statement seemed to have caught her attention.

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

She nodded.

“Nice, now another one. Did you come here on a carriage?”

Although a little confusion showed in her eyes, she shook her head no.

“Thank god, okay next one. Are you lost?”

She shook her head.

“I worded that weirdly. Were you separated from your family?”

She nodded, her eyes growing a little downcast.

“Oh uh, sorry to hear that.”

He cursed himself internally, socializing and comforting people were not his field of expertise, not by any stretch.

“Don’t worry, I’ll try my best to get you home.”

She looked upward at Malt with hopeful eyes.

For someone that was practically mute, she could express herself awfully well with just her eyes. She was kind of similar to Alyss, who’s expressive face made it exceedingly easy to guess her thoughts.

“...by the way, do you know how to get to your home?”

She nodded, pointing off into the woods somewhere.

“Really? Nice! Do you know because of some kind of magic?”

She retreated back into her curled up position, wrapping her arms around her knees once again, obviously uncomfortable.

“Ah, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

“...”

Having asked all other questions, it was time to ask the most important, and risky one.

“...is it okay if I come to your village too?”

God I sound like a criminal.

He scolded himself internally for the offputting question. If he were to say the same thing back on earth he’d be hearing sirens right about then.

Seemingly unfazed by the question, she lifted her head contemplatively. Her brows furrowed and unfurrowed as she considered whether Malt was someone to be wary of or not.

After a long period of deliberation, she nodded her head.

He let out a heavy sigh of relief, “Oh thank god, I don’t think I can handle gnawing on roots anymore.”

Her eyes pricked up, she dug through her bag once again. After a few moments, she pulled out a thin strip of jerky.

Hesitantly, she outstretched her hand, offering the leathery piece of meat to him.

“Huh? For me? Oh- nah I’m good, that’s all you.”

She vigorously shook her head, nearly pushing the piece of meat into his face.

He chuckled slightly,

“Okay, I get it I get it.”

He took the jerky gratefully in his hand.

She produced her own strip of jerky and began nibbling on it slowly. He did the same, tearing off small strips at a time and savouring the strong smokey flavour.

While they sat, nibbling on their jerky and staring at the fire, a thought occurred to him.

“So how far are we from your village?”

“...”

“Do you think we’ll make it there by tomorrow?”

She paused for a second before shaking her head.

“...I only have a day’s worth of roots left, and I don’t suppose you have much jerky left do you?”

She shook her head.

“That’s...not good. We need to find more food along the way or we might not have enough energy to get to your village.”

He clicked his tongue in frustration.

“Fuck, I mean shit, I mean damn- darn? Maybe I should lay back on the cursing a bit, or is she okay with that kind of…”

She tilted her head questioningly, looking at him as if he was crazy.

He chuckled slightly, “...and I’m talkin’ to myself again.”

The rest of the night was relatively silent. They finished their jerky and soaked in the fire’s warmth, taking the time to unwind from the hectic events.

For the first time in a long time, he could truly relax. There was no imminent danger, his stomach was somewhat satiated, and having the presence of another human near him was a plus as well.

The bitter odor from the herb, while offensive at first, slowly lulled him to sleep along with the gentle flickering flame. His shoulders finally lowered as the tension in his body left him.

It must’ve had a similar effect on the girl as well, her head was repeatedly dipping down, only for her to jolt back up in an effort to stay awake.

“Ah, you can go ahead and sleep. I’ll keep watch for a little longer.”

She looked at him worryingly, still fighting off her sleepiness.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m used to this sort of thing.”

She reluctantly nodded and curled up onto the ground, using her bag as a makeshift pillow.

After only a few moments, she was out like a light.

Despite what he claimed, the gentle atmosphere coupled with his creeping lethargy was taking its toll on Malt as well.

He too, drifted off into a deep slumber.