Nate found himself once again cursing Beth’s name. Something that had become a bit of a mantra over the last couple of weeks. He and Pauline had made very slow progress with frequent breaks. This meant that more foraging was required to feed them which slowed them down further. It was a cyclical mess especially as he was having to do all the heavy lifting. Something he knew wouldn’t have been the case if she had stuck around or made more of an effort.

Pauline was making progress and improving but that progress was slow and she was still a long, long cry from where she had been before the whole process began. She was cooking now though which felt like a win. Nate dreaded to think what her dad would think, would he blame Nate? Hell he dreaded to think what his own parents would say. He’d failed the ritual, something that hadn’t happened in his village as long back as he could remember. He’d failed to suitably protect his team and not only had Pauline fallen apart but Beth had abandoned them leaving the team fractured forever.

He wished it had been a lost pampered tourist he’d met all those weeks ago at least they wouldn’t have pretended to care while secretly believing they were better than him. Instead he could have abandoned her to her fate, safe in the knowledge he had done a service to his village.

He understood her reasons, he was even confident by now they were valid, they still weren’t home and Beth had had a strict timeline she was working to. But she hadn’t even tried to help, she’d decided the situation was helpless and had ran away, literally. Leaving him holding down the fort. He kept his cursing under his breath though. Pauline had already apologised many many times and clearly felt this was her fault, which it might have been on paper but Nate had been through enough by this point to know that was far far from the case.

Maybe that was what had gotten him so riled up. Deep down he knew that if this had happened within the first week. Hell probably any time before the first mountain, he possibly would have done the same thing as Beth, after all he’d made Pauline run away crying day one and if he was honest hadn’t cared in the slightest how upset she was. But he was a different person now than he had been then, he feel like all three of them had grown. Or at least he thought they had before they were abandoned. He knew Beth hadn’t taken the legends of the sisters as seriously as he and Pauline had but he hoped she would have at least respected the obvious lessons the sisters had taught them. There was a reason people in the village weren’t considered adults until they completed them.

Not that he would be considered an adult any time soon. He couldn’t complete this alone, he knew that now and the rules would require him to complete it with the same people, one of whom he doubted he would ever see again and the other who remained non-verbal and who Nate was worried about getting home let alone bullying into heading out again.

No he would just have to come to terms with never being a proper member of the village. He’d still get to watch his little sister grow up, he’d still be able to scout the way he had previously, he would still have access to Trials, at least he hoped he would. His parents would still love him. Right?

They wouldn’t just leave him behind as a failure. As he glanced at Pauline, who was in a deep deep sleep he wiped away his tears. No he wasn’t a failure, abandoning Pauline to die and going with Beth, now that is the thing he would never have forgiven himself for. It would just take him a little time to adjust to his new destiny. A destiny that was a lot less vibrant than the one he had imaged for himself. He just hoped he’d believe that would be enough at some point.

They were still in the ravine town. They’d been there for almost a full week by this point but he still wasn’t willing to depart yet, Pauline kept telling him she was okay and ready to travel on, but he still saw the slight tremor in her hand; the way she resisted closing her eyes to fall asleep as though worried she would wake up and everything would have shifted once again. At one point he had moved her slightly, just to put her in a slightly more comfortable position while she slept and when she woke she radiated such terror he eyes so full of panic as her surroundings changed that he was sure he’d undone any improvements she’d made.

It was another fortnight before they finally made it back into the general area of their village, around six weeks since they’d left. He was sure Beth was gone by now after all she’d expressed her two month time limit several times and that had expired a couple of days ago. The deadline passing had felt like a final nail in the coffin for Nate, obviously he knew she wasn’t coming back, she’d given no indication she would, but up until the moment it became truly too late he’d held out a small piece of hope even if he’d never admit it. That she would come back and apologise or help, or magically fix everything or something. Anything that would prove to him that the several weeks they’d spent together hadn’t been a lie. But that time had passed, he and Pauline were alone.

Well not quite alone, as they approached the boundary of the village they could hear a lot of noise coming from the centre of the village, something they normally avoided. They both picked up their pace at the noise in alarm, they jumped down through the foliage to find themselves surrounded by people cheering and clapping. They both stood there in shock as their friends and family cheered them on around them. Nate had barely noticed Pauline getting swept up in a hug by her father when he himself was almost bowled over by a small bundle of energy that could only be his little sister, Winnie. He swept her up in his arms and allowed the applause and praise to wash over him. Enjoying the delusion that everything was okay. Did they not know they’d failed. He walked over to his parents with his sister while the applause died down a little. His parents both swept him into a hug lifting him and his sister into the air. At that he let out a sob and whisper cried into their ears.

“But I didn’t do it. I failed.”

They put him down and his mum brushed away his tears.

“You didn’t fail, you did exactly what was right. Exactly what the Sisters would have wanted. I couldn’t be more proud.” Nate started crying again and this time the tears fell freely.

“Will Pauline be okay?”

This time his father answered him.

“I hope so, Donna has kept us up to date and we have people trained in this kind of thing. Obviously there is no guarantees with these things but we have some of the best here.”

He looked over to Pauline, she was clutched to her dad’s leg as he chatted to Donna. He shot her a weak smile that she returned just as weakly. Hopefully now they were home things would be okay. They had to be.