When I awoke the first sensation was warmth on my old scar. A hand rested on it which was not my own, but instead belonged to Taryn. The thought of that man brought my focus immediately to his sleeping form, a presence next to me that was as comforting as any other.

With a gentle touch I lifted his hand from my body, slipping quietly away from him. I didn’t need to wake him up, and he deserved a good rest after the previous night. Turning my back to Taryn I looked out over the ocean, hands resting on my hips.

The sun had only crested the horizon a few moments before, a brilliance peeking out over the blue sea.. I narrowed my eyes, staring out at the sun in all her glory, as a small smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Though my body was riddled with pain from the sunburns I had gained I still enjoyed the sun's arrival.

I ran my right forefinger over my dry lips, a reminder to myself of the worst part of our current situation. We had managed to handle two days on this western continent but even an idiot could survive for that long. Rocky had often told me that it was lasting past the eighth that marked a true survivalist.

Before Taryn woke up I checked on the remains of the fire that had burned for most of the night. It had proven helpful to ward off the chill of the ocean winds, though halfway through the night it had proven unneeded. I studied the ashes and embers, making note to not touch anything to avoid a fresh burn, while I thought of the possibility of a fire bundle.

“Probably not,” I admitted to myself, the resources at my disposal were far too limited.

With a shake of my head I gave up on the fire pit and instead took to surveying the beach. While I walked north and south, always keeping Taryn in sight, I checked for any crabs that we could eat. My steps were slow, a dull ache an ever present reminder to keep my haste in check, and I patiently studied the sands.

In the end I found nothing of use, not even driftwood or garbage, a clear sign to me that we were far from any place where others lived. A sigh escaped from my lips at the thought of how far from home we were. Even if the news of our ship not returning to port reached Alise it was unlikely she could come to our aid anytime soon.

“Lily?” Taryn called out as he finally stirred awake, perhaps disturbed by how I had paced up and down the beach.

“Good morning,” I responded with a smile on my face, my left hand unconsciously brushing at my long hair to push it back behind my ear. “Did you sleep well?”

“Sleep?” Taryn chuckled at that before he stood up. “Yeah, guess I got a little of that.”

“We need to talk,” I put my hands on my hips as though to punctuate the seriousness of the discussion.

Taryn paused in the middle of brushing off the sand to stare at me, his brow furrowing. “Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No, oh gods,” I couldn’t suppress the laughter that came out at his response. “You’re so stupid.”

“What’s the matter then?”

“Well...we need to find freshwater,” I waved in the direction of the jungle. “Which means we’ll need to head in there. I was hoping we’d find a river that fed into the sea but…”

“Can’t we,” Taryn started to say before he grew quiet, his gaze shifting toward the ocean. “Nevermind.”

If he had said that we should drink from the sea I would've hit him upside the head. Though I said nothing out loud, I made a mental note to have Shorty give him some basic survival training when we got back to the orphanage. What he had shown since our arrival on the continent made me worried for him in the future.

“Good, once we’re ready we’ll head in,” I told Taryn. “If we can find some water we should be able to live off of the fish and crabs on the beach.”

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

Our entry into the jungle was easy enough, while there was a good deal of underbrush and vines numerous trails traced their way throughout the interior. Multiple holes in the canopy above allowed a great deal of sunlight to come through and offered more than enough light for Taryn and I to find our way.

I wore the ragged remains of my clothing, the boots so stripped and damaged that they barely warded against the pricks of thorns. The fishing spear had been left behind on the beach, there would be little fish in the middle of a jungle.

We walked steadily through the jungle and headed along the path of least resistance. Taryn took the lead, one hand permanently on the hilt of the sword belted to his waist, while the other batted aside vines that came too close to his face.

All about us flowers blossomed in a variety of colors that constantly drew my eyes to them. Brilliant purple and fluorescent pink were the most common, though a few of the flowers had a mixture of black and red splotches.

Though I made no move to touch the plants the insects that crawled on them were noticeable. Most of the bugs were a dark or light green, but a few had unusual coloring that made me instinctively back away from them.

The trees that surrounded us reached upward so high that I could barely make out the tops. The canopy was littered with red and green orbs that could only be fruits, but neither Taryn nor I wanted to risk eating something we had never seen before.

Insects buzzed about us while small animals similar to chipmunks darted about. The jungle was alive at every second and never let up on proving that fact. Birds that I had never seen flew overhead while the plant life grew thick and clustered around our waists.

At one point Taryn nearly threw himself back into me, swearing loudly enough that I was certain any hounds nearby would’ve heard him. I managed to brace myself and catch him with one hand, before I peeked over his shoulder to see what had spooked him.

At first all I could see were bushes and grass, but then the plants stirred as a large figure slithered through the undergrowth. A snake with a width that easily equaled my own waist passed through as though it owned the forest floor. It paid no attention to Taryn and I and instead slowly meandered to the south.

“Is everything here huge?” Taryn wondered aloud.

“The bugs aren’t at least,” I pointed out to him before I gave a slight push to his back. “Hurry up, if we get caught in here at night it’ll be bad.”

We continued on through the jungle at a steady pace, while the sun continued to trek across the sky overhead. Whenever I could get a glimpse of where it was I was only able to make a guess at the passage of time, a fact that unnerved me since I didn’t care much for being unprepared for night.

The background noise of insects and our movements through the jungle was disrupted when Taryn spoke up. “Where’d you get that scar from?”

It was a question I hadn’t expected, one that made me reach for the scar he spoke of without thinking. My hand pressed against the ragged remains of my shirt and gently traced the old mark.

“I should’ve known you’d ask that,” I let out a sigh. His blunt approach to life would seem to apply to the secrets of my childhood as well.

Ahead Taryn’s movements slowed considerably, his head half turned to look back. “If you don’t want to…”

“It’s alright,” I reassured him. “I suppose you could say my father taught me a lesson.”

“A lesson?”

“When I was younger my father and I didn’t get along too well,” I stepped next to Taryn so he didn’t have to keep his head turned. “He never talked to me, and I felt it was because he’d wanted a boy.”

“That doesn’t really explain how you’d get a scar though.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“My father took some time out of his schedule to spar with me,” I unconsciously reached up to my scar, finger pressing against the shirt. “I chose some poor words and he lost his temper.”

“So he hit you?” Taryn’s eyes widened while his voice betrayed the shock he felt.

“Yes,” I looked away from Taryn. “I learned fast not to anger my father.”

“How could he do something like that?”

“Forget it,” I bluntly replied, hoping to push past this line of conversation. “Speaking of fathers though, isn’t yours a god?”

“Lily,” Taryn said quietly before he responded to my question. “Fine. Yes, Lanius is my father.”

“My teachers told me about him before, but they all said he didn’t exist,” I slowed down considerably as we walked past a cluster of bright green flowers attached to a single bush. “Is he nice?”

Taryn’s grip tightened on the handle of his sword at my words. While I had paused at the flower bush he continued on at his own pace. A few steps after he left me behind Taryn also stopped, turning around to face me.

“I wouldn’t know,” Taryn gave a shrug of his shoulders. “I never met him.”

“I’m sorry,” I took a step toward Taryn, feeling an urge to hug him well up within.

Taryn lifted up his hand to ward me off, his attention shifting away from me. Eyebrows narrowing, Taryn tilted his head to the side as though something had caught his ears. It was a soft noise, a trickling of water that was still quite distant, that had garnered his interest.

“Water!” we both exclaimed, the somber mood from before washed away in an instant.

Neither of us bothered with talking as we walked in the direction of the water. Our pace picked up as the noise continued to grow, and the thirst we had so readily ignored came to the forefront of our minds.

When we arrived at the source of the sound we were greeted by a pristine scenario. A small stream fed along the floor of the jungle, the width of it small enough that I could easily leap from one side to the other. About the stream itself numerous tracks could be seen while all of the plant life had been pushed down by the consistent presence of animals.

The clear water sparkled in the light that slipped through the canopy, as it flowed across the white stones in a northward direction. Neither of us cared much for caution as we walked over to the miniature river, bending over to reach into the water with our bare hands.

Taryn slurped his water noisily, some of it dribbling down from his mouth to his chin. I sniffed at the water I had picked up before sipping it. It was a cool liquid, one that tasted much like any other type of water, and I had tasted far better before. Yet as I drank the first water in days it was the most delicious thing I’d ever had.

It wasn’t a sound but instead a smell that ruined the enjoyment I had gained in that moment. An overpowering stench that reminded me of rotten meat on a hot summer day. I took a few steps away from the stream as I sought out with my eyes the source of the smell.

If not for the scars I never would’ve noticed the creature. A set of bright lines that ran across the torso of the thing stood out in stark contrast to the green forest around it. What was most impressive was how every other part of the body blended in flawlessly, with every movement I could see a shift in the skin that helped to continually conceal it.

Before I could raise my voice in alarm the creature had already attacked, as it jumped at the backside of the unaware Taryn. As the thing struck I could get a proper grasp of it’s size, a beast that was only slightly larger than a hunting dog. There was no hair visible on it, instead the entire body looked dry and leathery.

Whether it was the weight or the surprise Taryn still managed to end up face first in the stream, the large lizard on his back. Blood sprouted instantly from wounds carved into Taryn via the clawed feet. With his mouth submerged all I could hear was a bubbling noise as Taryn tried to cry out.

My own response was to dash to Taryn’s side. Once I was next to him I kicked as hard as I could into the exposed side of the lizard. As my foot impacted against the underbelly I could feel the sensation of a rib cracking. The monster let out a loud hiss as it sailed off of Taryn and was thrown a fair distance away.

I reached down and helped to pull Taryn up out of the stream. While he gasped in air I kept my gaze on the injured lizard. Even after it had been hurt the creature still managed to blend in with the jungle, a near flawless mimicry that was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

“What is it?” I asked Taryn, pointing at the lizard in order to draw his attention to it.

Taryn groaned as he reached to his back with his left hand, though he looked at where I pointed. For a short bit I could tell he wasn’t sure what I meant, his eyes probing at the plant life with an eagerness to see what had harmed him.

“Something ugly,” Taryn growled in response, his face a few shades whiter than normal.

The lizard rose up from the ground it had tumbled onto, an unsteady stance obvious with how much it shook. Pure black eyes glared at the two of us, the tip of a long tongue slipping free from the mouth to taste at the air. A few seconds later the creature slinked back into the overgrown jungle.

“Let's head back to the beach,” I gently placed one hand on Taryn’s shoulder while I eyed the wounds on his back. “At least there we can see if anything is coming after us.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Taryn stood up, his body shifting unsteadily, and took a few steps in the direction we had come from.

He managed to get a short distance before he collapsed to the ground, palms pressing against the grass laden floor of the jungle. Taryn gasped in air loudly while scarlet lines slipped down from his back and onto the soil.

“On second thought, I think I’ll rest a little,” Taryn gritted his teeth.

“Taryn!” I knelt down next to Taryn, eyes widening as a sensation of fright rose up within. “What’s the matter?”

“Venom, I think,” Taryn closed his eyes while he focused on his breathing. Already I could feel a hint of the pain he felt through our connection, though it was enough that it made me wince.

“Poison?” I murmured, before I looked once more at the wounds on his back. “The claws? We need to wash the cuts, make a poultice if we can!”

“No, no,” Taryn unlatched the scabbard that held his sword and shoved it at me. “I’ll be better in a little bit, but until then defend us.”

I accepted that sword, my gaze drawn to the mysterious weapon he carried everywhere. Even when it had been lost Alise had called on the help of Mathias in order to summon it back. Before I realized it I had already started to tug at the hilt, eager to see the white blade hidden within the scabbard.

“Don’t,” Taryn told me, before he collapsed fully to the ground. “Don’t use it unless you have to.”

“No!” my attention instantly snapped away from the sword and back to Taryn. With my free hand I gripped his shoulder, leaning in close to make sure he was still breathing. “It’s going to be okay!”

Taryn’s ragged breath was enough to prove he still lived, though as sweat started to dot his forehead the fact that he had developed a fever became obvious. Taryn’s body shuddered with small tremors while the venom of the lizard worked through his system.

In a state of intense pain Taryn lay there on the ground, while I could only watch on and clutch his treasured sword to my chest. It was only a few minutes later when the hiss of a familiar animal came from the shadows that surrounded us. A hiss that was soon joined by many more.