“The grass won’t catch alight, we will need to find something… drier,” Sin said, glancing up at Noa.
His eyes lingered on her feral hair.
Feeling his gaze, she touched at her hair and then growled, her voice filled with murder. “I’ll kill you.”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Sin replied, but grumbled under his breath. ‘Such perfect tinder, but sadly inaccessible.’
He debated killing her, again.
He grabbed the dull sword and the arrow and walked past the wary woman into the shade of the monolith.
“So, what now?” Noa asked, touching her hair gingerly.
“Now, you need to give me some information,” Sin sighed, resting against the monolith on the floor.
His shoulder throbbed with pain.
“Didn’t you say you needed to suture my wound? Well, do it while we talk. It’ll save some time,” Sin said, gesturing for Noa to sit near him.
He also threw the sword and the arrow a few meters away to show that he meant no harm.
She hesitated for a second, her eyes glimmering in cautious thought, and then obliged. Taking her pack from her shoulder, she produced a needle and thread.
Sin glanced warily at the needle, suddenly feeling regret. “Tell me what you’ve seen in these plains,” Sin said probingly.
“Grass, the monolith, you…” Noa said, not providing much as she threaded the needle.
“Have you been to the boundary of the plains?”
“…Yes. I-I couldn’t escape,” she said. She seemed ashamed. Then five seconds later: “Hold still.”
She removed the bandage and poultice from earlier, exposing the wound to the air. Then she stuck the needle beneath his skin and began to stitch it closed. Sin gritted his teeth, looking away. It was painful, but not as painful as when the arrowhead had been removed.
When she was finished, she re-bandaged the shoulder and then looked at him expectantly. He looked at his shoulder to study her handiwork and then up at her. Sin suddenly realised how close their faces were.
“Ahem,” he coughed and looked away, attempting to dispel the weirdness. “Which way did you come from, and which part of the boundary did you attempt to cross?”
“I came from there,” she said, pointing to the east. “I tried to cross there, into the mountains, but to no avail. I could hardly even keep my mind intact…”
Sin nodded. “Much the same with me, but instead I was trying to enter a grove to the south. The grass pulled me back and also attacked my mind.”
Noa sat back against the monolith too, getting more comfortable.
“Do… do you know how you got here?” Sin asked cautiously. He didn’t know if he wanted to reveal that he didn’t remember anything about himself.
“No. I woke up here. Before that… I can’t remember,” Noa said slowly.
Sin watched her expression. Her eyebrows had gone down in a slight frown, and a pondering look was on her face. He smiled at the sight, and then quickly wiped it away.
“I can’t remember either. I couldn’t even remember who I was before now. All I know is that my name is Sin.”
Noa gazed into the distance plains, watching the grass sway. “Did the Voice also speak to you?”
Sin was surprised, but then realised he shouldn’t be. It seemed Noa and him were in the same boat, so it would be normal that the Voice had spoken to both of them.
“Yes. It said that the Trial had begun and that I needed to survive.”
She nodded. “It said the same to me…”
They both sat in silence for a while, watching the suns begin to fall beyond the horizon in the west, to their left.
“Alright,” Sin suddenly said, breaking the silence. “In the east there are mountains, in the south there is a grove. We don’t exactly have time to explore the north and the west, so I guess we will have to decide on which of those to escape into.”
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Noa was silent.
“Our main priority is a source of water and food. The grove will offer us plenty of food, if there are small critters to hunt. But the mountains will most likely have a few streams, offering us plenty of fresh water. However, the mountains will be harder to both traverse and hunt in.” Sin finished his summary on their two options, finding himself unsure.
Food or water? Water would secure them for the short term, but food would soon become a big issue. Food was also very important, but they wouldn’t even survive long enough to hunt for it if they didn’t find water.
“I think we should try out chances in the mountains,” Sin said.
Almost at the same time, Noa said: “The mountains might be the best choice.”
They looked at each other, surprised, and then nodded.
“Let’s rest for the night, and then go during the day. It seems the grass is weaker then, and I’ll also be able to fully formulate my plan of escape,” Sin said, quickly lying down.
“I’ll take first watch then,” Noa said.
‘Oh… Man, I really suck at this caution thing. I just have no experience in it at all…’ Sin realised, having not thought about night watches at all.
“… Thanks,” he said, closing his eyes.
He ran the day’s events through his head. He had been shot with an arrow, fixed up and discovered fire. He felt those events weren’t exactly in the right order.
‘I’m sure the cavemen discovered fire before tools, right? Or was it the other way around?’
***
He hadn’t even realised he had fallen asleep when Noa woke him up for his watch. He stood up groggily and watched her silently lie down on the grassy floor, using her pack as a pillow.
She seemed happy to have him keep watch. Perhaps him sleeping first, and putting his life in her hands first, had actually been a good choice.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked up at the grand expanse of the night sky, reminded of when he had first arrived here almost two days ago. Then, he had been confused and afraid.
Now, he was still confused, albeit a little less afraid, hungry, thirsty and tired. And also injured. He glanced moodily over at the now sleeping form of his attacker.
The stars twinkled down at him, visibly fewer than when he had arrived. He knew they weren’t stars, he just wasn’t sure what they were.
‘It’s us, I think,’ he pondered. He wasn’t entirely sure who “us” was, but he was sure that both himself and Noa were up there in the form of a star. He guessed the others were other people thrust into the Trial. When they died, their star would probably sputter out and die.
He sighed, dismissing his thoughts. He had a lot to think about, but right now he had to go over his plan of escape.
When the two suns rose lazily in the east, illuminating the grass plains in splendid warm light, he woke Noa up.
Sin went to grab his sword and the arrow, while Noa watched him cautiously.
‘I could’ve killed you during the night, you paranoid woman,” he thought, shaking his head slightly.
‘Wait, why didn’t I?’
He had been wanting to. So why didn’t he? Truthfully, he found her company comforting. Also, he suspected that she would be a great help to him in his plan of escape.
“Alright, here’s the plan…” he started, and Noa listened intently.
Her eyebrows furrowed in thought. Eventually, she said: “I think that might just work.”
With no more words to be spoken, they set toward the east, where the mountains were waiting for their arrival.
As they walked, they felt the wind pick up and the grass grip at their feet softly. The signs of apathy were starting to rear their heads too.
However, the duo’s resilience was strong, and although they never spoke, they could feel encouragement from each other’s presence.
Sooner than he had thought it would take, the mountains suddenly appeared hazily in the distance. They were enormous, spanning upwards of hundreds of meters, causing the monolith to seem like a child in relation to a giant.
As the mountains drew closer, watching the two humans with solemn indifference, the wind picked up even more, and the grass gripped violently at their feet.
Noa took out pieces of cloth that she had used as bandages and leaves that she had used as a medicinal poultice from her pack as they trudged through the vehement grass plains. She held onto them with a strained expression. She was having trouble keeping her mind in check, trying to desperately remember what they were doing.
Sin, too, was having trouble. The wind swept him from all directions and whisked away all his emotions and thoughts, causing him to struggle to remember his desperation to leave.
They continued to walk, the mountain much closer now. They could see where the grass plains ended and the rocky lands began, sloping into small hills and tall mountains.
‘Just… a little…. farther,’ Sin thought with all his might.
And then, they could walk no more. Both him and Noa were unable to fight against the pull of the grass anymore.
They didn’t fight for too long, but they did not succumb either. They held strong, resisting the pull of the grass. That pull would drag them far away from the mountain if given the chance.
Gritting his teeth, Sin glanced at Noa. She was standing steadfast against the battering wind and tall grass. Her green eyes shone with determination, but they were dimming.
‘I need to hurry.’
He kneeled slightly, creating a sloped platform with his thigh. Noa was near to him and when he put the arrow down, its point facing away from him and hanging over the edge of his knee, she held the other end in place. With her other hand, she held the bandages and leaves in a bundle, the drier tinder at the top. She kept that hand close to the arrowhead.
‘Please. Please, work,’ Sin begged.
With a grunt that was stolen by the wind, he raised the dull sword high up into their air. He brought it down on the arrowhead, and it glanced off without a sound. Or rather, the wind had torn that sound away and they never heard it.
There was no spark, but a second later Sin brought it down again.
Again, no spark.
“Come on!” he screamed, his voice unheard.
Clang!
A tiny spark flew from the arrow head, almost caught in the wind and whisked away. However, Noa was ready, and caught the spark on the makeshift tinder.
The wind fuelled the spark with wonderful oxygen, spelling its own doom. From that spark came a flame, and soon the entire patch of tinder was alight.
Noa threw the burning bundle of hope forward, into the grass. The wind, at that moment, suddenly changed direction, and blew the bundle straight toward the mountain, exactly where Sin wanted it.
In a second, the entire world seemed to be consumed by an overwhelming blaze.