Encouragement

Sophia, who had been unprepared for the abrupt scenario, unconsciously tried to strangle Bryan by clamping herself against his neck in order to keep herself from falling. Meanwhile, the little girl's heartbeat took a sudden drop as she realized she was about to crash on the ground.

Wam—!

"Bryan!"

Quickly releasing her hold, Sophia flipped Bryan's body facing upward, and took the young girl from his embrace, as she spat and cleaned her face from the hot sand.

"Big sister... Is he going to be all right?" While spitting out sand and covering her face from the sun. The little girl asked, her voice full of anxiety.

"I don't know..." Sophia responded as she signaled to the little girl to calm down and refrain from yelling and shaking Bryan, who was in a critical condition at the moment. She then promptly examined Bryan's nostrils to see whether or not he was breathing.

"Thank goodness... He seems to be breathing... Now, what I need to do next is to loosen his collar in his uniform and unfasten his belt." Sophia's dextrous hands unbuttoned the upper half of Bryan's uniform and untied his belt in a matter of seconds after analyzing the situation for a brief moment.

"Damn... That's hot," Meanwhile, the blistering heatwave of the sun was continually beating down on their bodies, and she made a tiny tug so that a gap can be visible on the top of Bryan's pants alongside his underwear, allowing hot air to escape.

And fanning it lightly inside, to allow cool air, to go through it.

When the little girl saw that scene, she panicked and covered her face, but a little gap can be seen on her index finger, where an eye peeked through it.

After seeing that Bryan's skin was becoming paler by the second, Sophia attempted to lift his legs above the level of his heart in order to increase blood flow to his brain.

"Little girl... What I'd want you to do is help me in dragging Bryan to that shaded area over there. We can already see it, so I don't believe it will take that long to finish." While Sophia concentrated all of her attention on Bryan, she mumbled something.

"Okay..." The little girl gladly accepted the offer.

After wiping Bryan's perspiration away, she put the bag over Bryan's face to protect it from the sun's heat while keeping the nostrils open to allow him to breathe freely.

"Let's go." Sophia took a deep breath and dragged Bryan's right hand in the direction of the arc-shaped rock, while the small girl pulled Bryan's left hand in the same way as Sophia.

...

"Big sister... Are we almost there?" Using her weakened body, the little girl pushed forward while looking only in the ground, as she dragged the 90kg, Bryan, with all her might, as despair already sprouted in her heart.

While looking ahead, Sophia's heart clenched because the blurry arc-shaped rock that she had seen did not seem to be growing in size, but rather seemed to have remained the same height as it had been before they began traveling towards it.

"What exactly is going on?! We're plainly traveling across this desert and heading towards it, yet the gap between us and it doesn't seem to be growing any closer to each other." Sophia mused, her voice tinged with resignation.

"Don't look and don't even think about it! I'll do it. We're almost there! Just keep moving!"

"Big sister, I can't do it anymore!! This... I just can't!! My hand's already hurt!" The little girl shouted, as she dropped Bryan's hands and she then kneeled into the sand. "We're never going to survive! I..."

"Stop! Just stop! Stop doubting yourself you're doing fine!" Sophia right now carrying a tremendous amount of emotion bottled inside her body, yet she has managed to keep pushing ahead and maintain a tired smile despite this.

"Here take this..." Pausing to take a break, she took the covers in Bryan's hands, as she slowly gone over to the little girls' side and softly said, "Hold out your hands..."

The little girl seemed to have missed Sophia's words, as she despairingly glanced at the ground and seemed disoriented.

"LOOK AT ME!"

The little girl startled awake from her daze, as she glanced at Sophia with eyes that lost all hope.

"I said... Hold out your hands"

The little girl did as she was told, and held her right hand to Sophia. Instantly, Sophia spat some of her salivae into her hand's and she was shaken.

"Wh-"

"Don't be surprised, saliva's have properties that can aid in healing... Though some people might be grossed out by it, in this situation, we can't be picky." After spitting, Sophia bandaged the covers in the little girl's hand and continued,

"Do I need to do it again..."

"No, I'll do it." Immediately after, the little girl spits some saliva on her other hand, which Sophia wrapped together with her other hand.

"Look, we'll be able to get through this... I doubt a strong girl like you will be fazed by the mere sun... You've already survived you're previous ordeal, what's stopping you from surviving the next one? You know what I see when I look at you?"

"What?" In the little girl's vision, while slowly wrapping her left arm, Sophia softly encouraged her.

"At your age... You're countless times stronger than I am, I've gone through a lot, and I often wonder why this has all happened to me, but seeing you alongside me right now, I shouldn't complain about that minor inconvenience, and I know that you got what it takes in surviving this... Now, do you trust me?"

The little girl bowed her head as she attempted to weep, but tears didn't form in her eyes.

"Good!" As soon as she was finished, Sophia held the little girl's shoulder and whispered, " Don't let fear get a hold of you; just follow my voice and look down, and the next thing you know, we're already there resting."

"Okay..."

"Now, let's get moving..." With a nod of her head, Sophia returned to her previous position, this time accompanied by the small girl, and gently but steadily carried Bryan's unconscious body towards the arc-shaped rock.