Gabriel knew that he they had to search somewhere to live. Even though they had the knowledge to live in the wild not only would they have more dangers to fight against, but they would also have to build everything from the ground up which would take time and with possible dangers on their tail it wasn’t something he was willing to risk.

Instead, they walked through forests, paths and meadows until they reached another town, but once they got to the market to first resupply their supplies, they heard some shouts and then people rushing to them. Gabriel looked at the people and seeing that they were armed, decided to leave the area before he could be attacked, had they been targeting him.

He decided to wait it out and see if he could do any purchases after they got tired of searching him, alas the moment he came close to the market he got attacked. A knife was sent to his face, and he managed to get away with only a scratch. Luckily there wasn’t any poison in the knife, otherwise he wouldn’t have managed to escape.

He decided to go for the next town which wasn’t only close, but it was also quite small, so the possibility of someone having something against them was basically nil. And so, they did. After two days they made it to the rather picturesque town, but it was quite late, and the shops were all already closed.

Therefore, they decided to search for a place to pass the night that would receive them and luckily it didn’t take too long. The room wasn’t the best in terms of size or quality, but it was definitely better than sleeping out in the wild. They managed to sleep quite well until the morning when they were woken up by force.

Someone had broken the door of their room, attempting to be quiet but it wasn’t enough as Gabriel managed to wake up and fend the attacker off. This time there was only one person, so he’d manage to defeat him and get information.

The fight was rather unimpressive from both sides, as neither were used to fighting in such a small space, but Gabriel managed to seize the victory and capture the attacker in order to get information. He managed to get that someone had asked for his head for quite a big sum of money and most criminals with the chance for it would try to get it.

He could stay in this town for some time, but it was a time bomb waiting there for someone to find him. He could live moving from town to town, but it would be a chaotic lifestyle and just these past few days had been very draining for them, so Gabriel wouldn’t do that.

The other option was living where other people wouldn’t see you and that meant living somewhere isolated, in the middle of nowhere. His sister probably wouldn’t like that, but the dog had followed them through, and she could have fun with it. Added with its skills to hunt, they had a chance to make it living in the woods or mountains.

And within two hours Gabriel had managed to get everything he could get in this small town to prepare themselves for the life in the wild that they’d have. Some tools such as axes and knifes that would be useful actively, but also some clothes for the different stages of the year are what he managed to buy, even if at high prices. Not that he’d need the money he had saved.

Gabriel knew that they needed to be at least relatively close to water, but too close would make it too easy for other people to find them. The forests nearby were also filled with high trees that had almost no branches below a certain level, so living there was also risky.

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Walking and walking through different sceneries and following the river, he passed by forests, lakes and even a cave, but no place convinced him until he reached a mountain from which the water flowed from. He decided to climb it as a challenge but also to observe the nearby terrain and decide where to go next to search for a new home.

His sister was already tired and bored of so much walking so while he was climbing the mountain, she walked around it and looked at the nearby flora and fauna. There she found a plant that was very, very long. It stretched all the way from a nearby pond and reached the mountain.

She followed it and it didn’t seem to stop. It grew around the mountain, and it even climbed a bit. On the way she saw other plants which looked the same, but she wanted to find the end of this one. Soon, she found herself in the entrance of a barely hidden cave that was quite light, given her observation of other caves she had seen, as if there was a source of it inside, probably another entrance.

But she was surprised as she saw many curious plants she had never seen, not even in books, yet she didn’t falter in her mission. Following the plant through multiple tunnels and inner clearings with some plants that glowed, climbing up and down at times to keep with the growth of the plant.

She ended up leaving the cave once more and she soon reached the end of the plant. There was a huge light-purple flower, with the diameter of a horse and the height of a child. She was curious about it and walked closer to it but was grabbed by the arm. Before she could make an annoying remark, she heard his brother’s voice.

- How did you get here? And why are you walking towards that big flower? It’s bigger than you! And me! We don’t know anything about it, it could be carnivorous, for all we know. – He greeted her and warned of the possible dangers. Arabelle sighed and simply left.

She felt that his brother took everything fun from her, even Piti, originally her dog, had been turned boring with him. But what could she do? Could she leave him and live on her own? It might be possible… but his brother would search for her anyway. And she had to admit that he was better in most things, so she’d have to be clever for her escape towards freedom to work.

- So? – Gabriel expected an answer.

- I was looking at some nice plants and followed them. They led me up here. – She answered, trying to appear childish as a long-term strategy to make herself seem dumber and so subvert his expectations when she escaped and catch him by surprise.

- I don’t think you can climb this mountain. It’s quite hard to climb, especially a section where both the ground and walls are light blue. Did you really do that? – Gabriel denied her skills and questioned his sister further.

- How else would I have made it here? And no, I didn’t literally climb the mountain, I went through some caves inside of it. There even are some beautiful plants that glow! – She answered, inwardly hoping for this useless interrogation to end.

- Guide me there. – Gabriel requested, but immediately changed his mind. – Never mind, I can follow the plant myself. Follow me, I don’t want you near to that plant so that you don’t do anything stupid.

But he didn’t follow the plant all the way to the base of the mountain. Instead, he stopped at a large clearing that had some holes on the walls but outside was only a cliff, so intruders would most likely not enter through there.

Other than that, “window”, there were only three more entrances to the room, something which he found acceptable. He told Arabelle that they’d stay there for a week, at first, and see how they fared. Then they’d evaluate leaving the place or staying there for longer.

First, they decided to make some sort of guide not to get lost trying to find their way back. Using the resources at hand, they left plucked petals that glowed on the way down until they reached the same entrance where Arabelle had once come in.

Because they were only planning to have a temporary shelter, for now, they didn’t go to wild with anything and ended up with a shabby looking tent made from some large sticks and leaves, together with a small fire to keep them warm. They even managed to hunt a bit and got two rabbits for dinner.

As the sun set Gabriel observed through the window for any human activities happening, such as smoke lighting up or big masses of birds flying away at this time of the day. But anywhere he looked it all looked like a painting.