Angelo closely observed the boy wrapped tightly in the sleeping bag. Duncan's gaze was awkwardly adverted to the side.

"Alright..." the winged boy stood up. "I'll go break some walnuts for breakfast." he glanced back one more time before grabbing a rock.

'Man, WHAT WAS THAT DREAM?! Geez!' he recounted his experience. 'So weird...' Duncan wiggled his aching body out of the sleeping bag as the crunch of seeds rang in the background.

He scratched and haphazardly brushed his messy brown hair with a yawn. His baggy eyes darted across the small dark room lightly illuminated by the open door and Duke's faint light.

'I look so horrible...' he used his phone like a mirror. '... Uh, when will I get to shower? How will I shower?! I'm not THAT type of moab player! Aargh!! This SUCKS!!!' he lightly tapped his shoulder. 'Well looks like that healed at least. I'll leave the bandages on just in case.'

Angelo cracked open the fist-sized nuts on the ground, eating every other one and leaving every second to the side. Duncan sat a distance away from him, murmured his gratitude, and reached for the shattered kernels, but stopped right before he touched them.

'My hands feel too grimey...' he got up again and headed for the entrance.

"There's a bottle I used by the door." Angelo said from behind.

Duncan saw a small bottle of water by the hole in the tree leading outside. Using it he quickly washed his hands and returned, this time eating the white kernels.

After eating what was left, the messy boy took a stone and joined Angelo.

***

"I'm full!" Duncan announced. 'Seriously, these things are so filling for some reason. Like I think I only ate like what, around fifteen? Twenty?'

"I'm still hungry..." Angelo said, looking troubled.

"Alright, I'll help you break them. You, uh, need a lot of fuel for those wings, right?"

"Mm, thanks!"

***

'H-hey, hold up! We're about to run out of them!'

The pile of dark green jagged seeds had been reduced from a small heap to only a handful.

Angelo ate the last few fruits. "... I'm still hungry..." he said in embarrassment.

"Well, um, we'll just have to go get more?"

'It's so over, I haven't even fed the bots. We're officially death spiraling! Hurrah! But okay, no need to panic. People can go, what? Two to three weeks without food? We'll be fine...!'

"..." the winged boy had a pained expression.

"H-hey, uh, don't feel bad! You probably just wasted a lot of fuel saving me all day... Uh, thanks for that. We'll figure something out! I mean you did do fine all on your own all this time, I'll give you my share if that's needed, we won't starve!" the survivor rambled.

Angelo's amused giggle turned into a warm smile. "Yea! Hm, I think I'll go get some sky candy! You don't mind waiting for me?"

"Nope! Not at all."

"Okay, you want me to bring you some back?" he headed for the hole in the tree with unfurled wings. "Oh and, does your shoulder still hurt...?"

"Uh, no thanks- Actually, maybe a little... I want to test out some things. And nope, it's fully healed. Don't worry about it!"

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"Alright!" Angelo ran outside, spread his wings and blasted off into the twilight of the forest.

'The hell do I do now?' he scanned the room.

His eyes locked onto the single piece of toilet paper.

'... This is my opportunity.' he grabbed it. 'Hm, it wasn't this used before...'

"Duke, don't move."

[Affirmative. I shall follow the masterful and extensive example you have set in the past, shut-in creator.]

"Ugh, shut up." he murmured as he ran outside.

***

'AAAHHHH! I HATE THIS!' Duncan went back in. 'I SWEAR! If I'm dying from anything, then it's definitely gonna be from sanity loss! Holy- how long will I have to live like this!? I can't do that!' he returned the roll of toilet paper that was now thinner. 'What the hell happens when this thing runs out?! Huh?!'

'Ughhhaaaghhhhh.' he sat down. 'I should probably worry about not starving first. Honestly, I think we can live off of those fruits indefinitely, but only if we can actually get enough. And the biggest problem with that is how the other animals are also trying not to starve by eating us! Actually, can't we just eat them...?'

'... Bleh, no way. There's no chance I'd be able to eat an animal raw or like butcher and prepare it, hell I don't even know how! And then there's the risk of catching some horrifying new parasites. I think I'll pass!'

'Maybe there are more food sources? Like that forest to the other side. Or the jungle looking place? I'll have to ask him...'

Duncan heard the crunching of footsteps from outside. Turning, he saw Angelo carrying a large neon green lump in his hands.

"I'm back!" he yelled and entered.

He dropped the lump on the ground. "So, what did you want to do with these?"

"So, isn't it like weird how they can just float?" he picked out a fiber and threw it in the air.

The thin green fiber floated aimlessly near the direction it was thrown.

"Then I thought, there must be some sort of gas letting them do that, since they crunch and make you burpy. And, the only two gasses I could think up of were hydrogen and helium."

"Ohh, okay. Wait, doesn't one of them explode?"

"Exactly! If they have hydrogen inside they'll blow up if we set them on fire!" the boy found Angelo's discarded feather. "Let's try it!"

"Sure!"

The two went outside and placed a small clump of sky candy on the ground.

"Uh, ok so, how do we set it on fire from a distance?" the survivor asked.

"Hm, I can't use my feathers... Oh! How about this?" the winged boy gathered any dry plant matter he found and made a small line of it leading to the clump. "The fire can spread from one to the next!"

"Good idea!" Duncan joined and together they strung a sizeable length of scrap.

"Here it goes..." the angelic boy pulled on the feather's thread, causing it to expel a small flame. He carefully ignited a small piece of bark at his end and watched.

The fire spread between decaying masses, from the previous to the next. The flame continued to about half the length before extinguishing.

"Aw! Come on!" they rushed to inspect the flame.

***

After some trial and error, the flame was now right next to the compressed fibrous clump. The boys watched in anticipation as the fire flicked across the hairs of the green lump. The clump began to smolder and smoke, and eventually erupt into flames. It burned with a low yellow flame that illuminated the forest.

The boys looked at each other in confusion, their expectations betrayed.

*BANG*

An ear rigging explosion accompanied by a pale fireball burst from the piece of sky candy. The explosion sprayed dirt, gravel and embers over the surrounding tree trunks. The gray barks resisted the heat as the embers died out.

"Holy gwakamoly! Did you see that?!" Duncan yelled.

"Yea!"

"OhhhHOOO! I have so many good weapon ideas now... Also, it looked like there was a delay before they blew up. I wonder why?"

"I dunno, maybe it's because they're tough? There are animals that eat these in the sky, they also breathe fire!"

"They what?"

"Breathe fire and eat sky candy!"

"... Okay. I think we should go get food now. Enough playing around."

"Sure thing! Let's get prepared!" the winged boy ran inside with excitement.

"Soo..." the boy said following the angel. "We're going back to that grassland? There aren't any... other sources of food? Like what about that colorful forest on the opposite side?"

"There's food there too, butttt, it has a ton of those orange monsters everywhere. And they're really dangerous. Plus, it's way further away from the base." Angelo picked out items.

"Ack... Those ant wolf things... Hm, why don't we call them alfs? You know like A-nt wo-LF."

"Sure! I like that name." the winged boy beamed.

'Sigh... Here we go again into that green hell...'

"If we're going into the grassland, I thought up of some tricks to get around in there. I'll tell you about them on the way there. Also, let's take Duke with us again, I know how to use him to make everything faster now." the survivor paced.

[I agree.] the machine chimed in. [The only thing I cannot make faster is my inept creator's development. He is stagnant and cannot grow stronger or wiser.]

"Okay! I'm so excited!! I wish I had a friend before, this is so much fun!" he laughed with glee.

"Oh- I- uh, I'm glad."

"What else should I bring?"

"Hm, this too, I've got an idea, even though its broken."