Brand and the guard stared at each other for a second, both in horrified fascination.

The guard grabbed for his staff on the ground beside him. Brand lunged for it, having no weapons of his own. There was a mad scramble for it, but it ended with the man underneath Brand, pushing the staff up horizontally. Brand was above, pushing down. Brand had his whole bodyweight on the guy, but the guard felt ridiculously strong.

“What the hell are you doing?” The guard yelled as he struggled to push Brand off him. Brand heard a thud beside him. His bag landed about two metres behind him.

“Brand! The rope!” Yelled Tommen from below.

Brand had to think fast. He searched the guard's confused face before speaking. “Let us go. We don't have to fight you.”

“Let you go where!?” The guard snarled back. Brand wondered if this man hadn't got the memo. Maybe he'd be sympathetic to them and let them go? The guard's arms were weakening from Brand's pressure and the strain was visible on his face. The man on the bottom was strong, but not that strong.

Still, it was taking too long and Brand needed another solution if he was going to help Tommen. Brand ripped up with all the force he could muster and tore the staff out of the guard’s hands with all the force he could muster. It caught the floored man by surprised and the staff sailed out, landing several metres away from them on the wall, in the opposite direction of Brand's bag.

Brand sprinted away from the dazed guard and practically tackled his bag in his effort to get the rope out. He threw one end over the side of the wall and held onto the other end.

He could finally see below. The guard who'd followed them was still a ways away, but gaining on Tommen fast. Brand threw the rope down and it practically hit Tommen on the top of the head and he turned and grabbed it without a second thought.

The strain was heavy on Brand's arms, but he'd been working in the mines for years and was no slouch. The element stone thrummed at his wrist, releasing energy. It wasn't much, but it gave him enough of a boost to dig his heels into the railing and begin dragging the rope up as Tommen climbed.

The guard on top of the wall had run to grab his staff. In his half awake and recently assaulted state that was the only thing he could think to do. The guard below caught sight of him.

“Rookie! What the hell are you doing?”

The rookie guard straightened up into a sloppy salute immediately as he saw who was yelling at him. “Captain! What's going on?”

“Get these two traitors or you're done! You hear me? Done!” The guard captain yelled back.

The rookie immediately acknowledged what he said and headed towards where Brand was pulling at the rope. Tommen was most of the way up the wall as the guard captain reached it. With a monstrous leap he made it halfway up the wall, reaching just beneath Tommen, despite the young man having had the advantage in climbing. Brand realised they weren't up against a low level now. If that man got ahold of Tommen they were done for.

Thinking fast, he leaned over the wall, holding the rope with one struggling hand and grasped for Tommen with the other whilst shouting his name. Luckily the other boy realised what he was doing and grasped Brand's hand as they both let go of the rope.

The guard captain fell with his arm outstretched, reaching for Tommen's ankle. He landed hard on his back, but took no real damage, not even a brief winding. That solidified it in Brand's mind. This man was dangerous.

He pulled Tommen up and Tommen managed to grab onto the rim of the wall just in time as Brand took a heavy staff swing to the side of the face.

Pain exploded out from his cheekbone, which had taken the brunt of the hit. His vision was spinning, his ears were ringing and he was dazed. The hit had rocked him and sent him stumbling back. He vaguely saw a vertical staff swing flying towards his forehead, but it was interrupted as Tommen hurled himself over the wall and at Brand's attacker. The rookie wasn't ready for it and him and Tommen ended up grappling, both fighting like madmen and trying to throw the other one to the floor. Tommen jumped on the rookie's back to try and choke him from behind, but they were precariously close to the edge. A stumble and a trip took Tommen where he wanted to be - on the outside of the wall - and the guard went with him.

Brands awareness was returning as he reached out to stop the two falling, but was nowhere near close enough. He could hear the guard captain down below impotently screaming. “Get them! Get them!”

But Brand took little notice. He looked over the wall to see Tommen and the rookie still going, scrapping on the green grass outside the town. The rookie was on top and Tommen looked in a bad way. Brand grabbed his bag and stumbled to the edge, dropping it over. He looked down over the rim of the wall. It was a much steeper drop on this side, at least another six feet. Brand hesitated, but only for a second.

He was falling for what felt like ages, despite the ground rushing up to meet him. He landed well and rolled, despite his head spinning. In half a second he was standing again.

The rookie was on top of Tommen now, knees on either side of his chest, his staff horizontal. He was pushing down hard and Tommen looked like he was in real danger as the weapon was being pressed further and further down towards his neck. He turned his head to the side in a futile effort to avoid the beam pressing down on him and pushed with his legs to try and get the rookie off him to no avail. Brand could see his face start to turn red as he struggled to fight the weight and strength of the rookie on his windpipe.

Come on! Brand thought desperately as he searched through his bag like a madman. He was desperately tempted to abandon the attempt and tackle the rookie off Tommen but at the last second he found what he was looking for and pulled it out of his bag and its sheath in one move. It was the shortsword his father had given him.

Like a flash he was behind the rookie with his shortsword held to his neck.

“Get off him.” Brand hissed as metal rested against flesh and the rookie froze. The staff practically dropped out of his hands and Tommen began gasping for air, his face full of rage.

Brand took the man back a few paces, giving Tommen space. The young man stood up and was breathing heavily, hands held around his throat and eyes wide. It took a few seconds for him to cool down a bit.

The guard captain was still screaming on the other side of the wall. Brand could vaguely catch threats directed towards both him and Tommen, and at the guard if he messed this up. It was hard to focus. He didn’t know what to do. He had a sword at someone's throat! And he didn’t dare let go, lest the rookie turn it back on him.

He couldn’t kill someone over nothing. And he wouldn’t let himself be killed. He desperately thought for answers.

“If I let you go, will you agree not to chase us?” Brand asked.

“I promise. I won’t. Just let me go.” The rookie asked, terrified. Brand was shocked that he could inspire that level of fear in someone. He didn’t like it. The rookie was probably around his age, maybe younger.

“How do I know you won’t?” Brand continued, unsure if it was true. The man feared Brand, but only right now, in this situation. His bravery would return swiftly once he was let go. Even more so if he had a contingent of guards with him, all higher level.

“I won’t. I just won’t. I don’t want to. I’ve had enough. Please just let me go.” The poor guard snivelled.

Brand’s sword arm began to waver.

“Wait!” Tommen yelled. Brand’s arm reasserted itself. “I’ve got a way to stop him from following us.” Tommen snarled. He picked up the staff.

“What are you planning, Tommen?” Brand was unsure.

“I’ll take his knee out.” Tommen gave a few swings of the staff to line it up to the man’s knee. Brand could feel the rookie do the tiniest of flinches each time.

“What? No.” Brand told him.

“Yes.” Tommen replied.

“You just want to hit him.” Brand said flatly. “We don’t have time for this.”

“He was killing me! Of course I want to hit him.” Tommen growled. “But I don’t just want to hit him. It’s a good plan. It won’t kill him. He’ll recover in time, but he won’t be able to chase us.”

“I don’t like it.” Said Brand. “But you’re right. Be quick. Don’t mess around.”

Tommen readied for the swing.

“Wait!” Said the rookie. “Okay. I’ll let you do it. You can hit me. I’ll let you. Just move the sword away from my neck. Please?” It took Brand a second to digest that the guard was more scared of him than the one who wanted to hurt him. He had almost forgotten what he was doing. Now he felt ashamed for trying to take the moral high ground whilst arguing with Tommen.

Brand made eye contact with Tommen. Tommen nodded. Brand dropped his sword.

True to his word, the guard didn’t move, save for lifting up his leg slightly as an involuntary response. The staff hit his knee with a loud crack and he grunted heavily and fell as his face scrunched up in pain.

“Alright Brand, we’ve gotta go!” Yelled Tommen.

Brand had almost forgotten his sense of urgency. They had to get as far from these walls as possible. Especially now that he had a second to pick up on what the guard captain was yelling, over the sound of the rookie moaning in pain.

“I’m gonna get you! I don’t care if I have to drag you back across the wastelands! You’re gonna be mining in the bottom of the pit for the rest of your lives! I’m level 9! You can’t run from me! I’ll put you where you’ll never leave! Traitors! You’re mine!”

Brand shook his head. The logical part of his mind figured they were just empty words, but to the emotional part there was a certain venom in the guard captain’s voice that unnerved him.

He picked up his bag and apologised to the downed rookie, who looked up at him with an expression he couldn’t quite place. Anger, resentment, fear. Jealousy? Brand turned and left, following Tommen, who was keeping hold of the staff.

The land outside the castle was mostly lush meadow plains, commonly interspersed with many thick trees. It was somewhere between a grassland and a forest. The rookie watched as the two disappeared into the dark void between the trees.

_______

Their situation wasn't great. Tommen had left his bag on the other side of the wall, so the pair only had enough supplies for a few days between them and Tommen had no sleeping equipment. On top of that, they only had a vague direction with which to go in.

However, as Brand walked through the sparse forest, he could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief. They had done it.

A new stage of his life was unfurling before him, but he couldn't help but feel that the ghost of his past would be haunting him for a while. Certain things tended to stick around and he knew that Cabletown would occupy his mind often. His parents were kind, but would they really be okay without him? What about his younger siblings? And when they felt the urge to go on an excursion, would they be stopped?

Invisible chains connected him to Cabletown. He knew he’d be back. He just couldn’t imagine how or when. For now he had to focus on the steps in front of him, no matter where they led.

Some places were more dangerous after dark. The forest grasslands were not one of them. Originally they would have holed up somewhere and camped, but given the threats of the guard captain and the adrenaline still flowing through their veins they decided to keep moving onward. There were plenty of small villages and towns in mostly all directions, so they were spoiled for choice. They decided to head towards a random small town, Quartz Creek. It was one of the closer ones, so they could get there before running out of supplies, but it was big enough to get lost in, if anyone truly did follow them. Shingle City would have been the obvious one to head for but they didn't want to for that exact reason - the guard captain might catch them easily on the road there - they'd decided to take his threats into account for now, but they wouldn't let what could be empty blustering from an impotent guard control their lives, so they'd concluded that they wouldn't let it affect them after leaving Quartz Creek.

Besides, Brand wanted to find info about Kelvin and Ember. He figured a larger place would be better. Shingle City was definitely on their to go list, if Tommen and Brand were still together by then. They hadn’t talked about it, beyond the fact that they would travel together for now until they reached Quartz Creek.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Brand looked up at the sky with its strange vortexes of colour, bright pinks and purples and blues and greens and dotted lights scattered throughout. It was a grand tapestry of slow moving colours and it was beautiful. So much more beautiful than it was inside the city, where light pollution diminished its greatness. The wonders of excursion were already starting to show themselves. He’d never left Cabletown before. If he hadn’t left now he’d have never seen the majestic swirling colours of the sky at night. It blew him away.

He wondered what he’d do after reaching the town. He’d thought about catching up to Ember and Kelvin, finding them after all this time. What level would they be now? What adventures would they have had? And after that, what then? Would they want to stay with him, and babysit him while he caught up to two years of their growth? That’d be extremely long for them, whilst stagnating their own growth. But how would he even find them? They’d made no plans to meet up. He’d told them he wasn’t sure if he’d ever leave Cabletown, and they believed him. But they’d left him an element stone nonetheless. Just in case he ever went out to join them.

His heart was warmed at that and he subconsciously touched the vambrace on his left hand that housed the stone and pressed it deep into his skin. The hot energy thrummed from the stone.

He turned his thoughts to the person beside him. Tommen was moving, but beleaguered. He clearly wasn’t in great shape.

“Are you alright?” Brand asked.

“Yeah just about. Damn. That guy landed on me with his full weight and my back is absolutely killing me. I still can't believe he beat me after though. I was much stronger than him, I could feel it.” Tommen replied.

“It looked bad for a second there, can't lie. But we did it.” Brand encouraged him.

“Yeah. Too right. Thanks for coming back for me.” Tommen said somewhat sheepishly.

“What do you mean?” Brand was a little confused.

“For not just ditching when you were up that wall. You had your bag. You could have just hopped over the other side of the wall and made a run for it. But you dropped the rope down and got smacked in the face for it.” Tommen explained.

Brand rubbed the side of his cheek. It hurt a lot and there was a nasty welt forming. “Didn't even think of it, to be honest with you. Plus it probably wouldn't have worked out. That guard might have chased me and I'm not sure I could have taken him alone.” Brand said.

“Yeah, I guess.” Tommen replied. “You could have tried to escape though. You didn't hesitate. You didn't even consider it. Maybe the guard would have chased me up the rope, then we’d have had to fight two guards”

Brand felt a little embarrassed. He hadn't felt particularly heroic. He supposed it was loyalty that had made him stay. “We agreed to get out together. I'd have never got up that wall without you. And I'm glad to have you with me, even if it means sharing my food with you.”

“Ahh you had to remind me! My mother's homemade sandwiches were in my bag. I bet those guards are snacking on them as we speak.” Tommen complained.

“They're probably napping in your sleeping bag too.” Brand laughed.

“Oh damn, I forgot about that!” Tommen looked crestfallen for half a second before he started laughing too. “Gonna have to scrape together a bed of leaves.”

“I've got some groundsheets and a thin blanket you can have. Maybe we can alternate the sleeping bag every night?” Brand told him. He wanted to be accommodating.

“Nah you're alright for the sleeping bag.” Tommen shrugged. “Thanks though. I'll take the groundsheets and blanket. I've slept on worse, I'm sure. We’ll just have to resupply at the closest town. I've got a few BITs I can spend.”

A sudden cracking of twigs caught Brand's attention and he turned, shining his light to the right of him. In the centre of the light was a Databeast sneaking up on them. A squat grey creature on two legs. It stood about four feet tall, with a long beak and a plump round body. It had a yellow streak down its back and its feathers seemed to bristle with static electricity. Brand recognised it instantly as a Thunderkiwi. It was one of the more dangerous Databeasts this side of the grassland turf, and it usually only came out at night or dusk. It was aggressive but luckily it shouldn’t be anything they couldn’t both handle, despite their injuries.

Now that they were outside the walls, Brand’s shortsword was at his hip and his buckler hung loosely from his bag. It only took a second to draw it. For Tommen it took a half-second longer to draw his staff, as it was across his back, but that was long enough. The Thunderkiwi bristled with static electricity as it sprinted towards him, its long beak in front of it like a spear.

Tommen took several steps backwards and Brand rushed forth, swiping the beak of the Thunderkiwi away with his shortsword and crashing his body into the big bird’s. He braced hard and dug his shoulder in as he hit the Databeast and the Thunderkiwi was knocked back.

It rapidly righted, trying to spear him with its two foot beak. He blocked it with his buckler, once, twice and then felt his fist reflexively tighten as a static shock hit travelled off the buckler and onto his hand.

Just then Tommen joined the fight, finally getting himself together and circling round the back of the Thunderkiwi. He swung the staff hard and battered the Databeast in the back of the head with a huge overhead swing, but the aggressive creature just took it in stride. Brand knew it would have dropped the Thunderkiwi’s HP, but without a skill to stun it that was likely all that would be happening any time soon. But it had taken the Databeast’s attention, so that was good enough for him.

The staff was a useful weapon for bashing enemies and keeping them at range, but for a Databeast like the Thunderkiwi, piercing damage was far superior. Tommen only had to parry one of its attacks before Brand had buried his shortsword in the creature’s rump, all the way to the hilt. It cocked its head to the side and looked back at him inquisitively as its HP rapidly dropped to 0.

Then it seemed to vanish quickly as all that it was dissipated into the aether. Brand felt the element stone on his wrist warm slightly as it absorbed a small part of the energy of the Databeast. That would go some way to increasing its grade - but for a medium grade stone, he’d have to defeat a great many low level Thunderkiwis before he’d get anywhere near high grade.

His mental implant chimed as it registered that he’d received some BITs and EXP, absorbed from the creature also. He knew Tommen would have felt something similar. Just like it had never been there, the Databeast was gone. BITs, EXP and element were all that remained.

“Woah.” Said Tommen.

“Yeah.” Said Brand. “I knew it would happen like that, but it still feels…”

“Freaky.” Tommen continued. “Like there wasn’t a huge chicken threatening our lives just a second ago.”

“Exactly.” Brand laughed. “I guess we just continue on?” It was a unique feeling, going from danger to completely fine in a heartbeat. Oddly disarming.

“It feels weird, but yeah. Go us. Our first Databeast defeated!” Tommen cheered.

“Oh yeah! Now it's a proper adventure!” Brand joined in the celebrations. “Good work.”

“You too.” Tommen replied. “I need to be able to get my staff off my back faster. That's probably the strongest Databeast that we'll run into around here, so I'd say we're sitting comfortably.”

“You’re right. 50 BITs from just defeating one Databeast. And almost as much EXP as one day down the mines! If they'd just let us out of Cabletown when we wanted to we could probably be farming Thunderkiwis right now. But we need food.” Brand sighed.

“Too right. Which direction are we supposed to be going in? I'm all lost now.” Tommen replied.

Brand checked his compass. As ever, it pointed in the direction of the centre of the strange land they called home. The small town was centre-east from where they were. He pointed in that direction and they set off again.

After a few hours of walking they decided to set up camp. There was a suitable spot in a small copse, as they felt safe packed tightly between the trees. They crammed together in Brand's one person tent, with Brand on his bedroll and Tommen in a makeshift roll of groundsheets, leaves and a blanket.

_______

The sun woke them up the next day, though it took a while to do so - they both slept deeply after the chaos of last night, once they'd managed to get to sleep. It was the temperature that woke them, rather than the light. By about midday it had gotten hot and the atmosphere in the tent they were in was starting to get unbearable.

Brand got up and between him and Tommen they took the tent down and got moving pretty quickly, after eating some soup from the supplies reconstituted with stream water.

The whole thing felt surreal to Brand. Now that he'd had some time to let the events of yesterday sink in, it'd been quite the experience.

He'd actually been encouraged by his family to leave and taken them up on it, something he'd never thought would happen. Then he'd tried to leave town and been refused by the guards, then had to force his way out through extreme violence, which had really shattered the view he'd had of Cabletown. It had always felt like a mostly regular, safe place. Now the weirdness of it all seemed prominent and he was wondering what he’d missed that were lurking just under the surface of his town, if only he’d dug a little.

He felt pangs of homesickness, but the events of yesterday had cemented that he'd had to leave. He couldn't live in a place like that, and his heart ached for his family who was still there. After all that he'd beaten a Databeast alongside Tommen, who was fast becoming a reliable travel companion.

That they had both been labelled traitors also felt surreal. They'd given everything they'd got to the town, and so had untold generations of their ancestors.

Between their families they'd likely built that town. Now Brand didn't know if he could go back.

Partly because he wasn't sure if they'd let him in, partly because he knew they'd never let him out again.

They walked for a while before Tommen spoke.

“What Databeast do you think you'll get?” Tommen asked as they trudged across the grassland. Plenty of animals made their way around, and every so often they could see a Databeast. None of the Databeasts had attacked the duo yet, which meant it would be bad form to attack them first. Databeasts were highly aggressive to those around or lower than their level, though nobody knew why they were so violent. People speculated of course, but Brand hadn't read enough to weigh up the theories.

Of course it wasn’t an absolute rule, but given that Databeasts got stronger, learned techniques, and evolved from defeating other Databeasts and absorbing some of the ambient energy released, it made sense that the less aggressive ones would fall behind the more aggressive.

Certain Databeasts, particularly at the higher level, could communicate with humans and integrate into human societies. But this was by no means the standard Databeast who was mostly concerned with absorbing ambient energy from the air or taking it from their fellow Databeasts - or for that matter, a human with an element stone.

Brand had heard of certain strange nomads that travelled the lands without element stones. It was risky, as if they did attack you were done for. But Databeasts were much less likely to attack a target if they thought the energy wasn’t worth it. Conversely, they wouldn’t attack one who’s energy they could feel to be that much higher than them.

“What Databeast would I get? That’s a tough question.” Brand laughed. “I respect your optimism. I need to get to level 5 before we even think about how we’re going to manage to find a Databeast egg given their rarity...” He mused a little bit more. Tommen didn’t say anything. Brand continued. “Well part of it depends on where you get your egg, right? My stone is obviously a fire element. So if I got it from the grasslands it might be a big exploding beetle like Bombardiero. If it's a wetter area, maybe a salamander of some kind… I’ll take anything honestly. Getting a Databeast egg would be a dream come true, I'm not sure we can afford to be picky!” Brand laughed.

“A salamander! I didn’t figure you for a salamander tamer!” Tommen exclaimed.

Brand didn’t know what he meant by that. “What sort of tamer did you figure me for?” He asked, nonplussed.

“I dunno… you swinging that sword around like a madman, some sort of warrior! Maybe a goblin or a knight type.” Laughed Tommen.

Brand laughed too. “What about you Tommen? I'm guessing you chose the wind element because you want a wind-based Databeast?”

“That's right.” Tommen replied. “Had to spend a little extra for a wind one but I don't regret it. I already feel light as a feather.” Tommen bounced on his feet a couple of times as if to demonstrate, and then bounced forward into a well executed front handspring.

“That's because I'm the one carrying the bag.” Brand joked.

“I'll take it if you want.” Tommen offered. It wasn't the first time he'd done so, but Brand refused last time.

“That's alright.” Said Brand. “It's got my buckler attached and it's good to be able to grab that easily. Besides, I need the extra training. Gonna have to take every little EXP point I can get if I'm gonna catch up to your level 5.” Hard work fuelled growth. There were theories as to why. Brand was taught that your metabolism increased and your cells replenished faster, thus absorbing more ambient energy through food and the air.

“How far away from level 4 are you?” Tommen asked.

“Not far actually. I can feel the breakthrough coming.” Brand replied.

“That's great! We'll try and get you there as soon as. I don't mind taking a little longer to get to Quartz Creek if it gets you a level up. That'd be a big boost.” Tommen said happily.

Brand wanted to as well and agreed. He hadn't known Tommen much before this, but now he felt a strong sense of camaraderie.

They walked in silence for a little bit before Brand followed up on the topic from earlier.

“Which wind Databeast did you want? Maybe we can try and get to those areas.” Most wind Databeast were similar to birds or insects, though there were a fair few outliers.”

“About that… If I tell you, you'll laugh.” Tommen said.

“Oh well now you have to tell me!” Brand exclaimed.

“Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted some sort of drake. A wyvern would be best.”

Brand did laugh, but not unkindly. Truthfully, he was impressed. Everyone wanted to have a drake Databeast as a kid. They were the stuff of legends. They were exceedingly rare though, and usually only hatched to a Databeast egg from a strong area. Or so the legends said. Brand liked that Tommen was chasing that dream. The man had worked back-breaking labour in the deep mines to be able to take a chance at getting a dream he'd had as a kid.

“You know Tommen, anyone else I'd call crazy. But you just might be able to pull it off. You'd want to go to a mountains then. Very risky. You'd probably need a Databeast already just to survive.”

“Yeah I think you're right. There's a small chance I could get one from a regular Databeast egg, so I'll still roll those dice. But the Fool's Mountains is where I was going to head towards.” Tommen said, lost in thought.

Brand recognised the Fool's Mountains, named for the high levels of iron pyrite - fool's gold - in them. They were further than one would normally go whilst on an excursion, but they were slightly less dangerous than most mountain ranges, so were a good place to get used to the mountain terrain and to know how to deal with the Databeasts living there.

“You've really planned this out, huh?” Brand asked.

“For sure. I've been thinking about this for a while.” Tommen grinned. “What are your plans then? I'd be surprised if you'd jumped the wall to Cabletown with me just to have some fun.”

Brand thought over his words for a second. “Do you remember Kelvin and Ember?”

“Oh yeah, Kelvin was the shady guy and Ember was the crazy girl.” Tommen said. Then something dawned on him. “You all used to hang out.”

Brand laughed. “Okay, Kelvin did look a bit shady, but he's a great guy! Ember wasn't crazy, just high energy.”

“She tried to take my eye out once in sparring!” Tommen exclaimed.

“It's possible… I'm sure she had a good reason!” Brand joked. “But yeah we used to hang out. They went on an excursion as soon as they could. I'd always promised to join them. But then my dad got in a bad accident.”

“I think I heard about that yeah.” Tommen said gravely. It hadn't been life threatening, but it had been messy.

“Well I had to stay in Cabletown for a couple years to make sure my family did okay. Now that I'm out, I'm looking to find Ember and Kelvin.” Brand explained.

“Do you know where they'll be?” Tommen asked.

“I don't.” Brand told him. “They sent me letters for a while, but that stopped a bit under a year and a half ago. They were always on the move so I couldn't send any back. I know they were in Shingle City before I stopped hearing from them, and I know which hotel they were staying in. I'll work from there.”

“I'm surprised they haven't gone back to Cabletown in two years.” Tommen said.

“I'm not.” Brand replied. “Kelvin will probably never go back. Ember… I don't know.”

“I see.” Tommen didn't pry. “I hope you find them.”

“Me too.” Said Brand. “I just want to know they're alright.”

They walked on through the sparsely wooded grasslands in the direction of Quartz Creek, keeping an eye out for Databeasts.