With a twist and a click, the entrance to the Farelhan two-story building slowly swung open. Being considerate of his family, Kyle silently made his way inside, careful not to wake anyone up.

Once inside, he closed the door behind him and left the pair of shoes he wore by the entrance. Looking further into the hallway, he could see light coming from the kitchen, making him wonder.

‘Who’s up this late into the night?’, knowing there was only one way to find out, he slowly moved towards the kitchen entrance. There, leisurely hunched on a chair, the figure of a tall individual in formal attire was silently sipping whiskey from a glass while fiddling with his phone. His facial features, along with his short, brownish-copper hair were awfully similar to Kyle’s. And, if one ignored the pair of tired amber eyes, he looked exactly like an older and taller version of him.

“How was your trip?”, asked Kyle with a light smile on his face. The man placed the phone on the kitchen table and turned to regard him.

“Oh… Same as always, tiring… What about you? How was your day?”, he asked in turn and lightly patted a chair, motioning for him to sit down. “Do you even need to ask? I am sure you’ve seen it already.”

Kyle sat down and answered in a semi-sarcastic manner. It was no secret he played as Reizel in the Farelhan family and, regardless of his achievements, they all cheered for him.

“Well, failure is a necessity on the road to success.”, he said and finished off the last of his whiskey, the ice cubes lightly hitting the bottom of the glass. “Want a drink?”, he added playfully, already knowing the answer as he turned the whiskey bottle’s cap open anyway.

“You know I don’t drink, James…” and to that, James couldn’t help laughing. “Ku Ku Ku! A member of our Farelhan family who is unable to hold their alcohol? What a joke!”, Kyle glanced at James and sighed lightly, he was already used to this. After all, he was the only one in the family who couldn’t withstand alcohol.

Now, some of you might ask, is this even a reason to be made fun of? And the answer to that is no, not really. It’s just that their family has a small business centered on alcoholic beverage production, forcing them to taste test their products now and then, making Kyle’s inability to drink a small family joke.

Looking back at James, Kyle discovered the dark circles under his amber-like eyes. ‘He looks tired…’ and, true to his thoughts, James was quite exhausted indeed. “Will you stay over tonight?”, asked Kyle and drew James’ attention away from the whiskey.

“That’s the plan. If I go to Jess, she won’t let me sleep tonight!”, his brother exclaimed and let out a dry laugh. James turned 27 this year; he had been living away from home with his fiancée, Jessica, for more than two years now, and only dropped by now and then to say hi.

Kyle chuckled at that and, opening his backpack, fished out the contract he had been given. “Master took me to a start-up gaming company today. This is the contract I was offered.”, he said and passed the papers for James to read.

“Hmm… Let me see, let me see.”, James said as he lazily picked up the documents and quickly skimmed through them. “Looks good, really good actually. What about work hours?”, he asked and turned to look back at Kyle’s light green gaze. “Yes, since I’ll be working in-game it won’t take time out of my day. My presence will only be needed once or twice a week during the company meetings.”

“I see… Have you discussed this with mom and dad?”, asked James, and Kyle shook his head in return. “Not yet, I only received the contract this afternoon. I’ll let them know tomorrow.”, he answered, and his gaze wandered upwards, towards their parents’ bedroom.

“Is big sis upstairs?”

“Haha, nice one! Wait till she comes back, hehe. I’ve got it ready for her!”, said James with an almost evil grin on his face, the devilish grinning apparently running in the family, thought Kyle as he glanced back at James.

The relationship of Kyle’s two elder siblings’ was similar to that of oil and water, never mixing together. Oftentimes, Kyle found himself somewhere in the middle and, while being the youngest part of the family didn’t give him any boons other than the right to pick sides, it had already been ages since he’d gotten used to their sibling quarrels. At some point in his life, he’d discovered the best way of dealing with them was to simply ignore them and go his way.

And now, it turned out to be one of those moments.

“Haha, you two never change.”, he said with a similar grinning expression, before adding as he stood up. “It was a big day, I’ll go wash up and get some rest first, tell Van good night for me.”

“Sure, if I see her. I think… *Yawn* I’ll actually do the same, I’m too tired to deal with her tonight.”, James let out a big yawn and took another sip of whiskey.

“Suit yourself. Good night.”, uttered Kyle as he made his way upstairs.

“Night…”, resounded James as he let out another yawn.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“You found WHAT?!”, Reizel shouted and instantly regretted it as he winced in pain. Lightly rubbing the wound on his side as if that would make it feel better, he asked in a calmer tone. “Are you sure?” and to that, Zeke answered while rising up his shoulders.

“I don’ know if it’s the cave we are lookin’ for, but it is definitely a cave.”

A spark was ignited in Reizel’s eyes as soon as he heard the word ‘cave’. Alas, the following statement coming out of Zeke’s mouth made him frown. “However, I ain’t telling ya where it is until you heal up.”

“For f*ck’s sake Zeke, I am fine. This is nothing more than a scratch!”, Reizel exclaimed, pointing towards his ribs in a laughing manner. And to that, “If that’s a scratch, I tremble at the thought of what a serious injury would look like…”, returned Zeke without laughing at all.

“…”

Silence was restored in their little camp for a few moments; the tension hanging in the air could be felt from miles away as neither of them planned on yielding to the other. Finally, after glaring for god knows how long, Reizel let out a heavy sigh and mumbled through gritted teeth. “Ahh… Fine, you win!”

“Good. I expected no less.”, said Zeke, full of smiles. In the small span of time the two knew each other, Zeke had bonded well enough with Reizel to be immune to his icy gaze. Having witnessed his recklessness more than once, he knew better than anyone where to draw a line. After all, as his companion and friend, Zeke didn’t wish for anything more than their safety. And, if Reizel was safe, then his safety was almost guaranteed too.

“So, where’s the cave?”, asked the excited Reizel anyway. “Ya promise you ain’t rushin’ there until you are fine?”, Zeke asked back defensively.

“C’mon, I already said we aren’t moving unless I’m patched up.”, he further reassured him and Zeke finally spilled the beans. “Well…”

Long story short, while Reizel was out cold, he started trembling, leading Zeke to think it would be a good idea to start a fire for him to warm up, thus going to get some sticks from the forest. While searching for sticks, he discovered a small change in the forest’s terrain; the eerily flat ground actually began to curve upwards into a slope. Surprised at the change, Zeke decided to climb up the gentle slope and see where it led.

“And, after climbing for a while, I finally saw the sun’s rays again. Thinking it was another clearing or something, I hastened my steps and followed the light... Luckily, I recalled the time when I first discovered the lake and decided to take a more careful approach… You wouldn’t believe what I saw there…”, Zeke paused for a moment, not only to breath but to create suspense as well, and then glanced back at the expecting Reizel.

“And then?”, asked Reizel, his eyes gleaming.

“Another freakin’ cliffside! I almos’ fell for the second time! And this time ‘t was even worse! ‘t was like someone cut the freakin’ mountain vertically in half… Only rocks remained down below.”, exclaimed Zeke in an irritated manner as his accent marched full speed ahead once more.

“Haha, so where’s the cave?”, asked the impatient Reizel.

“I am almost there. After following the slope, I reached the hill’s side and looked around. In the center of it all was a hole going straight into the mountain…”, finally finished with his story, Zeke ceased speaking and glanced back at Reizel who couldn’t help adding. “So, did you go inside?” and to that, he received an almost immediate answer. “Are you an idiot? What would I do if a bear was hiding in there?”

“Fight it?”, Reizel said jokingly and Zeke chuckled at the ironic joke. “Anyway, rest up for now. I’ll fetch ya something to eat, we still have a little bit of frog meat with us.”, he said and pulled closer the makeshift backpack lying on his side.

“Great! I am starving!”, Reizel exclaimed happily and gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

“I bet ya ‘re!”

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

“We’ll set up camp here and then do a preliminary search of the cave.”, said Reizel as he glanced towards the rocky entrance of the cave. The rocky cliff side turned out to be a good spot for camping, and the two didn’t hesitate to take advantage of it.

“Should we smoke them out?”, added Zeke as soon as he heard Reizel’s thoughts. “I don’t see why not? I’ll go get the sticks for the fire, you take care of the rest here.”, he made up his mind and left for the forest without a second thought.

‘Of course, I get to take care of the rest… Of course.’, Zeke complained inwardly and moved along. Situations where he had to take care of the chores, were long since ingrained in his mind, poor him no longer having the energy to argue back, or caring enough to make a fuss.

It had been three hours since Reizel woke up and the sun was still shining bright light above their heads. It was definitely way past midday, but it couldn’t be called afternoon yet, adding even more time to their day. The [Severe Injury] inflicted on him had turned into a [Light Injury] after about two hours of resting and, since he could freely move about, the two moved in the cave’s direction. Zeke couldn’t help feeling suspicious at Reizel’s ability to heal, but didn’t make a fuss and led the way towards the cave.

After all, the prospect of leaving the forest was too good to refuse and, looking at how neither of them wished to sleep in there, they even hastened their pace, making the trip even shorter.

“I am back.”, Reizel shouted and made an entrance a few minutes later with a bunch of sticks and twigs tightly held in between his arms. Lightly stepping on the gravelly path, his mind turned out to be elsewhere as he wandered.

‘Broken bones shouldn’t heal so fast…’, even he couldn’t help feeling doubtful at his ability to heal. With a side glance towards his rib cage, the bruising had completely disappeared and only the flesh wound remained, making him shiver from time to time. But, who was Reizel to complain about getting better? The faster he healed, the more he could fight. One worrying Zeke was enough for him.

‘It has to be my body stat going up, right?’, he thought and placed the sticks next to Zeke who was making preparations for the fire. “Is everything ready?”, he asked, receiving a nod in return. “Good, let’s smoke whatever’s hiding in there out then!”

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

Several minutes later, the cave’s entrance was filled with dried leaves and weeds. Were they burnable? Definitely! Would they release smoke? There was only one way to find out.

Therefore, each with a torch in hand, they were now ready for the deed. “You remember the plan this time?”, Reizel asked skeptically. “Yea, whatever comes running out we bush it immediately!”, Zeke’s answer came without hesitation. Alas, Reizel couldn’t help feeling worried; he had tried to dissuade Zeke from participating earlier, only to get reprimanded in the end.

But who could blame him for it? The fight against the bears had gone awry before it even started. And to make things worse, at the time they knew exactly what they were dealing with. But now? Now, things were different. They had no clue what they would be faced with, making it even more dangerous.

“Are you sure you are up for it? I can still…”, before Reizel even had the time to complete his sentence, Zeke nodded firmly. His knees were shaking but he showed no intention of backing out. Why? It was quite simple actually.

Having messed up during the previous fight, Zeke felt he had to somehow redeem himself. Otherwise, he would always feel indebted to his friend. And, while it was true he had saved Reizel’s *ss in the previous fight, he couldn’t help feeling responsible for their failure. Who knows, maybe it would be better if he left all the fighting related stuff to Reizel? After all, he did give off this sense of ‘Ready to fight!’ at all times.

Shaking his head from left to right, Zeke tried hard to calm down while reminding himself of why he was doing this. ‘No! I can’t be thinking like this. I have to prove my worth here!’

In all actuality, Zeke wasn’t trying to prove his worth to Reizel or anything. If it was just that, he had already done it with his actions. Starting up a fire, cooking, getting things ready, and even toning down Reizel’s recklessness were more than enough to prove his worth.

However, fearful as he was, Zeke didn’t want to let the burden of fighting fall entirely on Reizel’s shoulders. That was simply because if, and only if, Reizel somehow ended up dying while he stayed in the safety of his shadow, he would definitely regret his inaction for the rest of his short-lived life.

With that thought in mind, Zeke firmly said. “I am ready. Let’s do this!”

“Phew…” Reizel let out the breath he was holding in for a while now. Having witnessed the firmness in Zeke’s gaze, he was now surer than ever. Sure, he could entrust his back to his friend, sure he could fight side by side without worrying about him all the time. And, with that in mind, he let out a devilish grin and said, as he threw the torch inside the dry pile of leaves and weeds.

“Let’s smoke those bast*rds out!”