Wiping the sweat off my brow, I glance up towards the horizon and see that the light is beginning to fade behind the mountains. 'Hmm. It's getting pretty late, it might be time to settle down for the night.'

"Hey guys.", I say, speaking up from the back of the group, to which the other members soon turn their heads towards me.

"Do you want to settle down for the night? It's getting pretty dark.", I say after having their attention.

Sophie looks up at the sky, nods, and then replies for the rest of the group, "Sure, it seems to be about time to stop for the day." She then turns around and walks back a few steps to get in behind Bruno, and calls our attention, *ahem* "Everyone search around this area for a place to sleep for the night, a cave, or a cliff overhang would be preferable: come back to me if you find something. Also don't stray more than a couple hundred feet from the river. Wouldn't want to get lost in the forest, now would we?"

Scattered confirmations can be heard from the other members, besides myself, as I stay quiet not thinking anyone is going to find anything.

'I might as well try though.' Bending down I pick up a decently long stick, around 2 feet long, and begin walking up to Sophie.

"What is it?", she asks seeing me moving towards her.

"Sophie I just wanted to ask if I could borrow your sword.", I respond.

"What for?"

"I wanted to make a torch so I wouldn't miss anything."

"Alright then.", she replies, pulling out the sword and handing it to me handle first.

"Thanks.", I say before unbuttoning the first couple of buttons on my shirt and removing my left arm from its sleeve. Then holding onto the sleeve's cuff I bring the sword to the shoulder portion of the shirt and slice upwards, cutting the sleeve off. Handing back the sword to Sophie, who then re-sheathes it, and I wrap the now cut sleeve around the end of the stick. After making sure the cloth is secure, I start up my chant and use 1 mana to start a small flame that quickly spreads over the cloth, creating a bright torch.

"Well I'm off Sophie.", I say to her, walking into the forest.

"See you, I'll be here if you need me."

Giving a wave back at her, I continue walking into the forest.

***

Holding my torch in front of me I scan around the are looking for any spots I might have missed. 'Still nothing. I've been looking for at least half an hour now. There must be no place to sleep out here after all, well except the trees. I begin walking back to the river bank where Sophie should still be. Soon after walking back for around a minute I can see the river bank and a rock beside it with Sophie nodding off, and another two members of the group sitting around the area; Dylan and Lee.

"Did you find anything.", Dylan calls out to me.

"No.", I say, still walking towards the river, where I insert half burned torch into the water, and a hissing sound can be heard. Then walking back a little, I sit down near the rock, and wait to see if the others found anything.

After around five more minutes Alice, Bruno, and John are all back with the group, and all of them found nothing as well.

"Does anyone have any ideas on where to sleep tonight?", Sophie asks.

"What if we slept back to back in pairs so we don't have any blind spots, to help prevent us from getting attacked?", said Dylan.

"We only have seven people Dylan, so it won't work. Anyone else have any other ideas?"

"I do.", I replied.

"Well go on then.", said Sophie.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"What if we slept in the trees, so the slimes probably can't see us, and even if they did they wouldn't be able to reach us... probably."

"What are we, squirrels? There's no way we'll be able to stay up in those trees all night without falling.", Dylan said.

"I think it sounds good.", responded Sophie. "Let's get to it. Everyone go pick a tree."

Walking forward to a nearby tree I can hear Dylan muttering to himself, "...t's never gonna work. Everyone is going to fall out of the tre..."

'At least I have some practice.' Looking up at the decent climb ahead of I prepare myself and start rubbing my hands together to get rid of whatever moisture is on them that would make me slip. Jumping up to grab the lowest branch I can find on it, I grab on with both my hands and do a pull up, and swing my right arm over the branch followed by my left. Then pushing myself unto the branch I then repeat the process 4 more times until I am near the top of the tree, in the area before where the branches start getting too thin to support my weight. Finding a decent nest of branches I settle down in them testing if the are sturdy enough, and when I am confident enough, I lie down into that nest.

Glancing down at the ground I can see Dylan still struggling to get to the first branch, and I let out a slight chuckle.

"It is pretty funny, right?", I hear to my left. Glancing in that direction, I see Sophie in a nearby canopy.

"...Yeah."

"So where did you learn how to climb trees?", she then asked.

"Practice. What about you?"

"The army, had to learn mountain warfare, which includes knowing how to climb trees."

"You were in the army? You don't look like you were."

"Yep, for about a year."

"Then how did you land yourself in jail, from being out there in the army?"

"...Maybe I'll tell you in the future. What about you, why were you jailed?"

"Carjacking."

"That's all I get?", she says.

"It was for money. I lived in Detroit, in the not so nice neighborhoods. Stole cars to make some money to keep me afloat."

"Sounds like a tough place to live in Ryan."

"I've heard the army is worse, with all of the soldiers who were crippled physically and mentally."

"...Yeah. Well goodnight then."

"You too."

***

"Aaaaah."

Dylan's scream can be heard ringing throughout the treetops, and a loud thump can be heard soon after. Opening my eyes, the darkness of the night is still lingering throughout the forest. Shifting my position, I look over to the tree where Dylan was sleeping in and start looking around the canopy his silhouette. After scanning the tree a few times no sign of him can be found.

"Dylan are you there?", John calls out, but there is no response to be heard.

"Hey, everyone; get up. We have to look for him and make sure he's still alive.", he then says.

'I wonder if he's still alive? Maybe he got eaten by one of those mutant slimes that tried to get me in a tree before.'

Getting up from my laying position, I stand onto one of the more solid branches that I used to climb up, and I can hear rustling coming from some of the other trees as well.

'Hmm. What's that noise?' Turning towards my right, where the noise came from I can see Alice still sleeping while lightly snoring.

'Should I get her up? ...I should. This is too important to be sleeping through.'

"Hey Alice.", I call to her, but the snoring still continues.

'This isn't going to work.'

Looking around I pull of a smaller stick from the branches I was sleeping on before and toss it at Alice. It hits her right on the head, causing her to jerk upright immediately. Looking around for the culprit her eyes come to face me, and a glare forms in her eyes. The stare-down between us continues for a few seconds before I start speaking.

"I had to get you up; Dylan let out a scream and no response can be heard when we called out for him. I'm actually surprised you didn't get up from all the shouts we let out."

Still holding the glare, she turns her eyes downwards and starts climbing back down the tree, and I start doing the same. Upon reaching the ground, I can see the others crowding around Dylan's body with Sophie checking if he is alive and breathing.

"Good news; he is just out cold. It should only take around a minute for him to get up naturally.", she said after her examination.

Around a minute later, just as she said, he started slowly waking up. Leaning upwards slowly his eyes begin to open slowly, but suddenly he lets out a sharp breath of air and starts rubbing his neck.

"What happened.", I ask him.

"What do you think happened? I fell out of the tree. I told you I wasn't a damn squirrel."

*Pfft* is heard and looking over at Sophie, I can see her struggling to hold in her laughter, before shortly breaking down in it.

"It isn't funny you know.", Dylan says angrily staring at Sophie, which prompts everyone else to begin laughing as well, including myself.

After around a minute or so, with only a few scattered chuckles to be heard, Sophie then says to the group, "Get back to sleep everyone, we have a big day tomorrow. Oh and Dylan, try not to fall out of the tree again."

"Screw you.", he says, before turning around and trying to climb back into his tree.

I then start walking back to my own tree, and start climbing it. After a few minutes I'm back in my nest of branches, and I begin feeling drowsy almost immediately. After closing my eyes, the only thought wandering around my empty mind is, 'I hope tomorrow goes well.'