Duncan's mind went blank as he felt his body speeding for the hard ground below. He closed his eyes as he braced for impact.

He felt his body violently jerk and then stop. As he carefully opened his eyes, he saw the winged boy's mortified face below the bright blue sky.

"Wahhh! Are you okay?! I'm so so so sorry!" Angelo said, gradually descending.

"I- uh... I think I'm fine..." he looked around. "Wha- DON'T FREAKING PRINCESS CARRY MEEEEE!!!" he reverberated across the silver forest as they landed.

When they reached the ground, Duncan wiggled himself free of Angelo's hold.

"S-sorry..." the angelic boy drooped, his head to the ground.

"I-it's fine... Just forget about it!" he went over to equip the backpack resting by a glossy silver trunk.

"Um, but... It was easy to carry you like that..." Angelo mumbled.

"Huhhhh?? I'm not getting princess carried!"

"Ah- um, yea... Sorry..." he grew quiet. "Then... can we just try it one more time?! Pleaseeeee! I promise I'll be reeeeeaaaaally careful this time!" the winged boy pleaded.

"Guh..." the survivor contemplated for a moment. "Fine." he threw the rucksack back down.

"All right!" he ran over. "Hold your hands like this." he positioned himself behind the boy and put his hands into a t-pose.

"Okay..." Duncan held his hands in the air.

Angelo tightly wrapped his arms around Duncan's chest and spread his wings. "Hold on tight!" they began to float in the air.

'Why did I agree to this...' Duncan silently thought as he was slowly lifted up.

As he arose, the boy would sometimes look down and have his stomach sink from seeing the height. 'He seems to be holding his balance right at least.' he looked over to the horizon.

Duncan was awestruck at the scenery. Fantastical colors and shapes filled his view, all illuminated by the bright sun. "It's beautiful..." he muttered, slightly agape.

"Right? I really wanted to show you this!" the winged boy chuckled.

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'Okay but, this is so uncomfortable, I can literally feel him breathing down my neck. Never agreeing to this again, I don't care.'

"Let's try flying forward now!" the angelic boy's feathers pointed away from him.

With a subtle woosh, they inched towards the grey forest. The movement made Duncan slightly dizzy but he persevered.

"You okay? Can I go faster?" he asked.

"Yea, I'm fine."

"Alright."

As the two gained momentum they began to rotate. Their backs pointed more and more towards the sky while their faces pointed towards the ground.

While Angelo elegantly held his body parallel to the ground, Duncan awkwardly dangled from the winged boy's arms, making him have a distraught expression.

"I'm gonna try a really fast push!" Angelo yelled.

"What?" Duncan couldn't hear him due to the wind wooshing at his ears.

With a quite bang, the two blasted forth.

'AH!' Duncan coughed and chocked on his own breath as colorful static built around his peripheral vision. "STOP STOP!" he wiggled his dangling body.

"Ah!" Angelo lost balance as they began to spin in the air.

After much yelling and struggling, they regained control and were landing back where they started.

"Ughhhh" the survivor knelt on the ground.

"Alright! I know exactly what to do now!" the angelic boy said, fixing his cloud white hair. "What do we do now? Head back?"

'Man, I don't want to go back to the base. Honestly, I'd rather sit here if it weren't for all this weight. The air there is so stuffy.' he got up.

"Yea, sure."

***

"Hey so, remember the pod I showed you?" Duncan asked as he and Angelo traveled in the silver woods.

"Hmmm... Yea! What about it?"

"Well, you said that you saw others like it around, right? But where? We didn't run into any while we were out foraging or near the base."

"Uh, the last one I saw was really far away from here. Before finding the base, I flew everywhere I could to try and find mommy, so I'm not really sure where it is. Though, when I did see one, there were always a lot of others nearby."

"Huh... Is that because those were the spots where the suspension centers were? Man I wish the maps still worked... Wait I never actually checked if they do." he took out his phone and opened the map app.

"Oh, let me see too." the winged boy leaned over.

"Of course... Wait but, the GPS seems to be working?" he looked closer. "Weird. I'll test this out later." he put the device away.

"Hm, does this mean we can find more friends?! If all the pods are near each other, maybe there's more people close to where you were?" Angelo said.

'Guh, I don't want more friends tho!' he thought. "Probably. But my pod is too far away, I don't wanna go right now."

"Okay! I could fly over too, just to check."

"Oh, if you do, you could make a video from above so we have something like a map!"

"Oh good idea!"

***

They continued to discuss as they reached the hole-in-tree.

"Ok so, I really wanted to try this." Duncan said. "Let's make a fire!"

"Okay!"

They went out and gathered an assortment of dry plant matter in a heap some ways away from the entrance.

"Let's clear out a little circle around it so it doesn't spread." the survivor said.

Using Angelo's discarded feather, they set the pile of dry plants ablaze. The flame flickered, lightly illuminating the dark grey forest.

"It's time to cook!"