A full moon was above the forest with a cold but soft breeze being there to accompany him. The river ended up in what looked like a small pond before continuing a bit further away. Using the slower water, the girls swam to the side, dragging Lucas with them into one of the few open places that was surrounded by bushes for cover.

Lilly and Emma both held onto Lucas as they dragged him out of the water. Lucas didn’t move much as the girls seemed to shiver from the cold. Lilly let go of his arm, panting as she dropped down onto the ground. Her fingers felt like they were going to break soon due to the cold as her clothes were heavy from the water.

Emma dragged him a bit further away from the water before also dropping him and his bag. They didn’t know what had happened at first, only hearing someone yell. At first they thought it was Lucas until they saw the centaur stopping with his pursuit. The second centaur had followed them for a bit but with it getting darker and him having the occasional stumble due to the lack of visibility, he too gave up.

Lucas let out a soft groan as he rolled onto his back, eyes closed es he let the cold wind blow over his face. That didn’t take long though as it was quickly entering his soaked clothes, making him shiver as well.

He got up, wrapping his arms around himself as he looked up at Lilly and Emma. They looked exactly how he felt. The moral of the group was at rock bottom and they weren’t even close to their final destination. Deciding that the time to rest wasn’t now, he would get up and grab his bag, still being weak.

“Thank you for saving me.” He said with a soft tone, not liking that he had to thank them. But if it hadn’t been for them, he would’ve drowned. Everything was a blur for him, the water washing over him as the cold wrapped around his face. Water creeping into his mouth as he tried to stay afloat and breathe, the arms of the others grabbing his to keep him up.

Emma had been looking at her bow and counting the arrows she still had because she had lost some in the river. Hearing this made her smile, looking up at him. “What was that? Did you just thank us?”

Hearing that, Lucas stayed quiet, opening his bag and turning it upside down. The water immediately fell out as did his stuff. The full moon was helping a bit so he could see enough to be useful.

“Instead of getting smug, you could get some fire wood.”

He sounded irritated until both he and Emma heard Lilly groan. Looking up at her, they could see her grab her leg before quickly pulling away and wincing. “Fuck… it hurts!”

Emma and Lucas got up, quickly going over to her. As they looked down at her leg, they could see blood covering the bottom part of her leg and pants. Something in the water had ripped up her pants and cut her leg.

Lucas knelt down, grabbing the cloth and trying to move it to the side to be able to look at the wound properly. Sadly for Lilly, Lucas wasn’t a doctor so he carelessly pulled some cloth that had gotten into the wound out of it.

Lilly let out a loud yell of pain, grabbing her upper leg and squeezing it while Lucas inspected it.

“Don’t be such a baby. “ Was the only thing he said before getting back up.

That didn’t sit well with Lilly, looking angry. “What do you mean don’t be a baby? I’m bleeding out!”

“The wound isn’t that deep and most of the blood is actually water mixed with blood. It’s not too bad.”

Now that Lucas got up, Emma was able to take a look as well. Blood was still coming out but what Lucas had said seemed to be correct.

“You’ll survive.” She walked to her sister and gave her a tight hug, happy to have survived another attack.

With that being under control, Lucas walked back to his stuff on the ground, starting to look through it. The map was ruined so he didn’t give it another look, throwing it away.

While he was sorting through his stuff, Emma had gotten up walking back to him. She saw the food lying on the ground as well.

“Why did you put the food on the ground?”

“Hmm? Oh… I didn’t really think about it. Then again, I wasn’t really planning on eating that.”

He grabbed a piece of jerky, letting some water drip off as he looked at it. “I’m not sure that eating it after it got into the river is smart.”

“So we don’t have food anymore?”

“Seems like we don’t.” He said as he threw it away as well.

Thinking on what to do next, he grabbed the little pot and one of his little bolts. Emma took this as a way to know that he had shot his little crossbow at the centaur.

“If I have to be real, I’m rather surprised that your little crossbow was able to stop him. Did you kill him?”

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Lucas looked up at her, holding the pot into his right hand and the bolt into his left, slowly dipping the bolt into the clay pot.

“No…” He focused back onto what he was doing. “I haven’t killed him sadly. I didn’t apply the poison to the bolt.

“Then why did he stop chasing us?”

That question made Lucas stop as he tried to recall what he had seen. Sadly enough he hadn’t seen a lot. “I’m not sure. I must have hit something either weak or important.”

After having applied the poison to the bolt, he pulled his sleeve back to look at his crossbow, only to see it broken. He groaned, putting the bolt back down.

“It was a prototype. I guess it’s not good enough yet.”

“That sucks.” Emma turned to look at Lilly, walking towards her.

Lilly was still being too focused on her wound to really notice her sister getting closer. She was mostly mesmerized by the blood leaking out to notice much of anything, let alone the cold.

Lucas realized that neither of the girls seemed to want to get firewood. He let out a sigh before getting up and started to undress fully, planning on drying his clothes.

With Emma getting next to her, Lilly would look up, seeing Lucas getting fully nude. She sucked in some air, about to scream.

Before she could scream, Lucas saw this and shut her up fast. “Shut up! I’ve had it up to here!” He gestured to his head forehead. “I’m going to let my clothes dry . I don’t care what you’ll do.”

Trying to distract her sister, Emma would put her hand over her mouth before looking at Lucas, trying to focus on his face and not his bottom half. “Where are we?”

Having gotten out his anger, he started to feel a bit ashamed. He didn’t have much company in his life and always lived in relative peace so perhaps it was better to wear something. He grabbed his underwear and put it back on as he thought about the question. “I’m not sure. We’re further than I planned us to be but also with less food than I hoped.”

“And what about those hunters?”

Lucas looked at the sky, seeing it was already quite a bit into the night thanks the position of the moon. “Well, they’re much faster. If they went back to get backup, then they at least had to go for a while. One of them seemed to have been hurt and it’s night. They might be traveling in the dark. There are too many possibilities. I would suggest we sleep anyway as we need to get going soon.”

He spread out the rest of his stuff over a rock, letting them dry before getting up. From there, he walked to the edge of the small clearing. “Stay here.”

As he left, Emma started to follow his example and undressed. Problem was that he hadn’t given them bra’s as he didn’t have any. So when he came back around ten minutes later, she noticed him looking. She chuckled, not saying anything yet. Lilly saw this too and didn’t seem as amused as Emma. Her eyes wandering to her almost fully nude sister and then to Lucas.

“Could you maybe keep your eyes to yourself?” Was her reaction after Lucas got a good eyeful.

Lucas just now noticed what he was doing and quickly looked away. He wasn’t used to seeing naked woman and right now he wasn’t tied down. While Lily kept an eye on him, he disappeared again. Every once in a while he came back with firewood, noticing that Lilly still had her wet clothes.

“You really should let your clothes dry. They’ll slow us down hard when wet and you already aren’t the fastest.”

Lily laughed, shaking her head. “You must be joking. I’m not going to let you show my breasts.”

“Like they are so special. Your sister looks much better.” He realized what he said and blushed hard, seeing Emma snicker. Before Lily could get angry again, he started to talk. “We’re close enough to my contact. I scouted the area and found some clues to where we are. During the night I’ll send a signal to her.”

Having said that, he turned his back to her and sat down on the ground, starting to build a pile of wood to start a fire. It took him a while, but he managed to do it using his fire rocks.

As they all got around the fire, bringing their clothes, both groups seemed to be busy with their own problems. Emma had tried to bandage up the wound of Lilly while Lilly had been mostly busy with keeping herself covered with her arms. Lucas on the other hand had been looking at the smoke that the fire was emitting. Thanks to the full moon, it was rather visible for any other party involved.

Unbeknownst to the other two, the fire wasn’t really meant to heat them up as it was rather dangerous because of said smoke and fire. The fire itself was the signal for his contact, knowing it would be visible from where they would be.

After sitting here next to the rather big fire, his clothes were mostly dried. Emma her clothes were also almost dry but Lilly still had hers on. They didn’t get fully dried yet and were still wet. As they both got dressed, Lilly finally undressed, surrendering to the fact that dry clothes were worth it.

Lucas finally took action, thinking it had been long enough for his ally to find them. He grabbed his bag, getting up and walking to the edge of their camp.

Emma who had nothing better to do found it rather weird that he would bring his bag. “Where are you going?”

Lucas thought that they hadn’t been paying much attention. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “I’m just going to explore a bit. I have to see if anyone is coming to attack us.”

Emma didn’t seem to believe him. “Then why are you grabbing your bag? If they are sneaking around the camp to attack us, then having a back would only slow you down.”

He knew that what she said was logical but he wasn’t going to be stopped now. He had enough of them and didn’t want their burden of survival to fall on him. The near drowning experience had given him fear. He wanted to flee from all of this, not wanting to feel the pressure of the liquid around his head. Scared of the cold grip of death that he himself watch so many others go through.

“I’ve been your ally the entire time. If I was your enemy, I would’ve already killed you both. It’s time you stop questioning me.” Before she could answer, he would walk through the bushes.

This only made her believe that he was doing something suspicious stronger. “I don’t think you’re selling us out. I think you’re running.” She said that more to herself than him, knowing he wouldn’t hear it anyway.

Lucas started to walk in the dark. His head filling with thoughts of everything. After walking for a bit, he turned around. The light of the fire was being covered from this side by the bushes but the smoke was easily visible. He shook his head before turning around again, away from the camp.

”I don’t owe them anything.” He shook his head once more. “They tied me down…” He sighed as he stopped with was he was doing. “They’ll die without me.” He looked once more at the camp, slowly deciding what to do. He didn’t want them to feel the cold grip that he had felt either.

As he looked at the camp and was lost in his mind, he thought he saw a person standing right next to the bushes. He rubs his eyes, looking a bit better. As he took the time to rub his eyes, the person suddenly disappeared. Lucas had decided, quickly running back towards the camp, bursting in as he held his dagger.