The large feline crept to the side, its eyes glued to the winged boy.

Angelo stood outside the forest of grey trees, ready to bombard the creature in a moment's notice.

Each chirp and whistle caused the charred monochrome beast to flinch and shift uncomfortably. Every so often it would peek at the sky in anticipation.

A moment that felt far longer than it lasted later, the cheetah like animal leapt, raising dust on the bare dirt. It tussled back into the grass and fled deeper.

Angelo breathed a sigh of relief as his feathers eased back down. He turned back to Duncan who stood against an extensive gray trunk.

"Uhhhhh" Duncan cried as he slid down with shaky legs and curled up. "... I wanna go home and play mobas..." he muttered.

"I'm so sorry!" Angelo sped towards the survivor, gilt painted on his face.

"Does it hurt a lot?" he fell to his knees next to Duncan. "I got my first friend hurt..."

"It's fine... Just stings a little... A-and it's not your fault." he paused. "Are... you okay?" his face was buried in his knees.

"Yea, I'm okay. Used a lot of fuel though. But it's okay, I just need to eat a lot!"

"Should... we go?" Angelo asked.

"Sure, just... let me catch my breath." he sighed.

"Alright!" the winged boy stood up. "Let me carry the backpack for you."

"Okay." he removed the plum backpack from his healthy shoulder and left it on the ground next to him.

The angel picked up the sack and attempted to equip it. As he slid his hand in the other strap, the dark green backpack got stuck on the opposite wing. After struggling a bit, he let go and decided to carry it on one side. However, the backpack kept slipping from his shoulder, he couldn't bring it up high enough due to the wing's stem. Eventually he conceded and carried it in his hands.

'Pfft.' the boy watched Angelo in amusement.

'... I need to get stronger. This place is... brutal. There's no way I'd survive otherwise.' his scratch mark pulsed with stinging pain.

The survivor unfolded and looked up towards the massive dark canopy. The inside of the forest was slightly darker, the sun had fallen further and the air felt a little colder.

"Let's go?" he got up and addressed the winged boy still occupied with handling the backpack.

***

The journey back to the hole in the tree was short and uneventful. The few small animals and insects nibbling on the fungi ignored the boys. The only sounds were those of light chilly winds.

Angelo plopped the dry bark panel on the ground, opening the way into the base. Inside rested Duke, his legs folded and his body resting on the floor. The robotic dog's lights flickered, it began to move and rose up. It scanned the two survivors' faces.

[You have returned, and as expected by prediction parameters, with missing pieces.] it beeped in a pattern resembling a laugh.

"Whatever, talking lamp. Did anything happen while we were gone?" Duncan asked.

[Other than the absence of grand idiocy, no, talking failure.] the robot replied in a split second.

'... Just ignore it.' the boy took a deep breath and headed for the corner of the room.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Thank you for keeping watch, doggy!"

[And thank you for leaving me alone.]

"Geez..." Angelo went over to Duncan after leaving the sack by the entrance.

The survivor picked up a small bottle from the assortment of neatly organized items.

'Ugh, it's pretty much completely gone. There's only a few drops left. Did it all evaporate over the last one thousand years? No way!' the boy held a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

'Screw it.' he opened it and poured what little was left on his injury.

He rubbed his wound with gritted teeth.

"Will it be... fine?" the winged boy asked.

"Yea, it's just a surface level scratch... Nothing to worry about."

He folded his sleeve all the way to his neck and stuck a few bandages on the coagulated skin.

'Gonna be honest here, I have NO idea what I'm doing. Preventing infection or something?' he placed his sleeve back into place.

'Honestly, I'm more worried about my clothes. Like, what will happen to them by the end of this? Will they be full of holes and rips? Ugh.' he peeked over to Angelo.

'Now that I look closer, he's pretty ragged up too... And I didn't grab any sewing stuff...'

"If you're all okay now, wanna unpack and count everything?" Angelo softly asked.

Duncan nodded and went over to take the drone.

"Gah!" Duncan yelled, holding the drone in his hands.

"What's wrong?!" Angelo ran up to him.

"It's broken!" he presented the machine and pointed at one of the four rotor blades that was bent in an awkward angle.

[Much like you.]

"Oh no!"

"Ah, well, it might still be able to fly?" he carefully pressed the screen a few times and gently settled the contraption down.

The machine shot up and whirred wildly for a second. It then stabilized as it floated in the air, oscillating up and down to the side. The crooked blade did not spin.

'My poor drone...' Duncan held back tears. 'I must've hit it while fighting with those damned birds.' he extended his palm for it to land on.

The drone struggled, but it landed in the boy's hand.

"Well, at least it isn't fully broken..." the angelic boy said.

Duncan let out a deep sigh as he detached the phone from the drone.

"L-let's see how much we gathered." Duncan said. "And this time... let's not count them directly. I think it'd take too much time... Maybe we should count handfuls?"

"Sure thing!" Angelo beamed, but his smile melted when he looked at the survivor's wound.

***

'That was quite a lot of stuff, have no idea how long it'll last us though.'

The backpack was fully deflated and everything was neatly sorted in its place.

'I'm kinda thirsty now...'

"We should get water next!" Angelo suggested.

"Yea, from uh, the water bugs right?"

"Right!"

"Um, question. Why don't you just keep a bunch around here? It'd save a lot of walking... I think."

"I want to... but they always run away! I've tried all sorts of things but it never works out."

'Uhhh! I was too busy worrying about if he'd kill me or not to think of filling everything up with fresh water while we were still there!'

"I see... Then we could bring back just the water. I have a bunch of bottles and..." he looked over to a small stack of cans. "Maybe we could use those too?"

"But what about the food? Oh, we'll just eat it right now?"

"..." Duncan silently took a can opener and an aluminum can.

"Oh my-" he gagged at the putrid smell emanating from the half open container. "Nha." he headed for the entrance, holding the tin far away from his body.

As the boy passed by, Angelo pinched his nose.

Duncan emptied the contents of the can outside. Viscous wet glop sloshed and splatted on the dry plant matter below.

'It still stinks...' he looked at the empty can. 'Ughhhh, well, can't waste any metal right now...' he reluctantly brought it back and made sure the lid stayed firmly on.

"I- I'm not sure if it'll ever be clean enough, but we could try with enough water?" the survivor said.

"Yea... Is the rest of the food like that too...?"

"Probably, it's a thousand years old after all."

"Oh, then let me empty the rest! We can fill them all up!" Angelo hopped around.

"Okay, sure..." he handed over the can opener.

'The last water bottle I tried was horrible, maybe the others are good...? I really don't want to walk again, even if it is a few minutes away.' he held one of the three water bottles and uncapped it.

'Nope! Smells like salty slime!' he quickly spun the cap back into place. 'Isn't nearly as bad as the can, guess I could wash them real quick so they aren't that smelly.'

***

The boys packed everything they needed and got ready to set off.

"Aw, let me carry it!" Angelo said.

"But, um, you can't... Your wings get in the way. It's fine, let me do it." Duncan didn't meet the angelic boy's eye. 'This is like the only thing I'm good at right now! Don't take this away from me!'

"Hrmp, alright." Angelo crossed his hands. 'I just want to make up for getting him hurt...'

"And uh, I'll bring Duke along this time. He would've been helpful when we picked those berries, maybe he'd help now too."

[I'm always helpful, hopeless creator. Acknowledge for once that you are nothing without me.]

"Ugh! Fine! All hail the great snarky mechanical `miracle`! Are you happy now?!"

[I cannot feel happiness. My creator did not know of it. He could not bless me with what is an alien emotion to him.]

The angel giggled, causing Duncan to redden.

'Ahh! I shouldn't have snapped at the dumb freaking robot like that. How embarrassing...'

"L-let's go!" Duncan's voice cracked.