It isn't all bad.

Really it isn't. Sometimes there are beautiful things in life that get covered up by the sad things. We forget there can be happiness, because we are so sad.

Sometimes, we even forget it is possible to be happy.

******

Walker watched Kal from the sky, a silent figure standing on nothing but air. Kal would have been shocked to see him - if he even recognized him.

Walker sighed as he stared down, his back bent and eyes aged.

"I wish I could do more for you, but it costs me too much to come here now" he whispered, patches of whitened hair falling from his head even as he spoke.

"I don't have the strength to come back again...the rest is up to you. From this point on, you will truly make your own path. It's a...tragedy about Tria. I had hoped..." but the words died in his throat.

And then Walker disappeared.

******

Kal continued on his way through the woods. He couldn't shake the nagging feeling in the back of his mind. The feeling that told him everything was wrong now, that Tria was supposed to be with him. That somehow, nothing could go right anymore.

What if she was the one who was supposed to help me find Mum? or Mel? What am I supposed to do now? Someone obviously wanted me to meet her...

Indecision tumbled about his head like pebbles in a washer, discordant and distracting. A gust of wind hit him from behind, the strength staggering with enough force to send him to his knees - if he hadn't caught support on the trunk of a nearby tree. When the wind died, he looked back.

There was nothing there anymore. The valley, the giant trees...it was all gone. Behind him was simple the scene of a younger forest now. Even the oldest trees were less than a quarter the size of the trees he had been around just earlier. The light filtering from the leaves above now cast with an evening hue.

"Stupid world makes no sense" Kel muttered in annoyance. He huffed a moment and spun in a circle, before deciding a random direction to walk. He stomped off for a good thirty minutes before his annoyance lessened enough for him to think.

"Can't just walk in a random direction" he mumbled, orienting himself towards the now setting sun. And then doing an abrupt about face.

"No way I am walking towards the setting of the Sun, we are going East...If the Sun even rises in the East anymore." With a huff he started walking.

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Stupid days keep moving so fast. It's night, and then day and then night again.

He felt he had only been walking for a few hours, but night was fast approaching. His body felt like he had been going all day though. He was absolutely famished.

Kel stopped a moment, his emotions in turmoil. He then jumped with all his might. Nothing but a normal jump. He then proceeded to jump up and down in circles like a child, stamping the ground and screaming.

"THIS IS SO STUPID. I'M FREAKING HUNGRY!! AND I CAN'T JUMP COOL LIKE I DID YESTERDAY. AND I'M HUNGRY!"

He continued to thrash about, kicking leaves and stones, fuming and cursing the unfairness of it all. His world was gone. His family was gone. He was alone. Just yesterday it seemed like he had finally found something good. And then today it was back to normal.

He feel to his knees sobbing.

"Why..why is this happening to me?" he choked between sobs, tears rolling down his face. "Everything is all wrong. I couldn't protect anyone. I can't even keep the strength I thought I had found. All I kept is this stupid BLUE HAIR!" he ended up screaming again.

Then a sound like a growling bear erupted around him.

"...and I'm hungry" he finished softly, holding his protesting belly. He looked up, hoping maybe he would be the main character like in the stories he used to read. The ones who died and reincarnated and POOF there was magically food there. Maybe a secret supply bunker that just happened to be near.

There were a couple mushrooms next to him. Letting out a defeated huff, he cleaned them as best he could and ate them.

"I hope they aren't poisonous" he mumbled.

The forest was cold and his stomach was empty. Kel fell into a fitful sleep.

******

He awakened to birdsong, which was a nice surprise.

Before stomach cramps immediately took his attention.

"I need food. But more importantly, I need water." He remembered the same kind of pain when he was dehydrated after a long day of work. He needed water. Soon. And a bath. That would be nice.

Straining his ears, he thought he heard running water in the distance. Getting up, he slowly stumbled towards it. He had to walk a good 10 minutes before he finally stumbled across the stream. Maybe I got to keep some super hearing at least, I can't believe I heard the water from that far away he mused.

He fell down and drank the water gratefully, washing his face and finally just plopping into the stream altogether. It was barely a stream, hardly a brook really - but it was was water.

Desperate need of water? Check.

Randomly have water nearby in moment of need? Check.

Super hearing to just barely be able to find it? Check.

"Yup, definitely main character stuff" he nodded smugly, laying back down in the middle of the brook as the water flowed around him. "Too bad it's a tragedy I'm starring in."

He could almost hear the trees moan in exasperation at his continued moping. He knew he was moping. He knew it wouldn't help.

But he couldn't seem to care.

"I'M LOST IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS WITH NO IDEA WHERE TO GO. AND I APPARENTLY SUCKED THE LIFE OUT OF THE PERSON WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY GUIDE" he screamed at the offending birch beside the stream. It continued to sit there all silent and judging.

"OK MEL" he huffed at the tree, his vision blurring from the tears as he sat in the stream. "LOOK, I'M SORRY OK? I'M SORRY I MESSED UP. I'M SORRY I LOST YOU. I'M SORRY ABOUT MOM" he was screaming and crying now. In the back of his mind he felt like a whining child. Definitely not main character crap. But it was easy to read about the main character. It was a lot harder to live it.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know how to find any of you. I literally have no. Freaking. IDEA!!" He reached up to wipe his eyes in frustration, only to realize his hands were still dripping water and it did not good. For some reason, that only brought more tears.

He tried to wipe his eyes with his shirt instead, but that was soaked too. At this point, he would single handedly make the stream into a river. And the birch was still standing there doing what birches do.

Being a tree.

That definitely wasn't Mel.

He really missed Mel.

His eyes finally dried but the ache in his chest was still there.

I can keep crying, but that won't help me find them. He looked up through the canopy to try and find where the sun was in the sky.

Huh, basically same spot. I half expected it to be night again. At least time seems to have fixed itself he mused as he got up and started heading due sunrise (hopefully East?). A stroke of luck was that the stream was flowing in a straight line in the direction he had to go. And it was flowing down - which hopefully meant OUT of the forest.

Main character stuff he nodded to himself sagely.

******

It was a hard time for me, I'll admit. Thinking back on it now, I think it was really the thought of Mel that got me through it. Despite our arguments, I loved her more than the world. Love, sorry - I know she is still out there...somewhere.

And Mum. Mum too...

I still have words for Walker, but they aren't what the me in that forest would have said to him. How things change.