“My feet hurt!”

  The trio migrated south, as the bird had suggested. The frozen ground around them gradually turned into a translucent sludge with the climate becoming ever-so warmer with every few miles crossed.

  “Your feet hurt five miles ago,” Wayne remarked with closed eyes, “And they’ll keep hurting for another five.”

  “That’s easy for you to say! You get to be dragged everywhere!” Evic pouted.

  “Evic, I apologize, but we cannot keep taking breaks.” As suggested, “The sooner we get to the Red Woods, the sooner we’ll be able to relax until our next movement.”

  “I have an excuse. My foot is broken.”

  “You said it’s been broken for three weeks! It should be healed by now, right?” Evic stared down at his own feet, trudging with his head down.

  “It takes longer to heal a broken bone.”

  “And why are we going to the Red Woods again?”

  “Evic...” As huffed as he pulled his own weight, “Firstly, I understand wilders travel there to live inside the decayed logs and trunks of the forest, and secondly,” As slowed to a stop, “We’ll take a break just for you. But! Go collect some firewood from that tree patch over there.” As looked off in the distance.

  “What?! Why?”

  Wayne butted in, still with annoyance in his voice, “We need some,”

  “Hey! I don’t see you workin’!”

  “You said you would help us, and all you’re doing is complaining. Be quiet.”

  “Look who’s talkin’!”

  “You two!” As raised his voice over theirs, now facing their direction, “Disagreeing won’t do any of us any good. Evic, are you well in hunting?”

  The weasel shook their head side to side.

  “Alright. I will hunt some, you go get some firewood, Wa- eh, Kevin, you can stay here and watch Evic from afar to make sure he does his job. When we get to Red Woods, we can have a meal, calm ourselves, and be transparent with one another.” He turned more towards Evic, “We must have rules. You may not enjoy them, but we need to stick together, agreed?”

  “Agreed to disagree...” Evic grumbled as he walked towards the toothpicks that As had called a patch.

  Once out of earshot, As mumbled, “I’m beginning to think this was a bad idea.”

  Wayne barely heard this, “You think?” He said flatly. His eyes were still shut, attempting to get some sleep. “I was being rocked by the movement.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,”

  “No, rocked to sleep... We had to stop...” A nasal breathe drew in and out.

  After twenty-five minutes, Evic arrived back to Wayne, who had not kept a close eye, having had partaken in microsleeps.

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  “Sticks?”

  “Well it’s a lit’le difficult gettin’ wood without an axe.”

  “I guess you’re right. Well, it’s something.”

  “I got some perch! I’ve never had one!” As returned to the group.

  “There’s fish underneath the ice?”

  “Thankfully, the ice wasn’t thick. I only needed to crack it.” As saw what the weasel held in his paws; he became disappointed by their lacking effort.

  Placing the gatherings into their rightful containers, the three continued their wandering at a steady pace. Evic, much to the other twos’ surprise, remained mostly silent. To break this, As suggested relaying to them the Owarr kingdom charter to pass the time.

  “I don’t wan’na hear that garbage.” Evic sounded disgusted and bored.

  “It is not garbage. It is a way of living! It’s words to live by!” Adamantly, the owl began the long passage, reciting it by heart:

  Help me be a channel of thy peace.

  That where there is hatred, I may bring love;

  That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.

  That where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

  That where there is error, I may bring truth;

  That where there is doubt, I may bring faith.

  That where there is despair, I may bring hope;

  That where there are shadows, I may bring light.

  That where there is sadness, I may bring joy;

  That I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted.

  That I may seek to understand than to be understood

  That I may seek to love, rather than to be loved—

  For it is by self-forgetting that one finds;

  It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

  As if on cue, when the charter was finished, only one word was said,

  “Blegh,”

  As’ face changed, from confidence to dissatisfaction.

  Contrarily, Wayne sounded appeased, “I liked it. It sounds very nice!”

  “Thank you.” The wind broke the silence following, “We just have a few miles to go, hopefully.”

  The nasally voice lagged behind the two in front, “Hooray...”

  As contemplated, At least someone I trust appreciates me...