A gift is a gift

"Oh you guys, I am going to miss you all so much, it was wonderful meeting you, and I don't even want you guys to leave, but I know that you have to, so good luck with everything you guys" said Alina as she smiled.

"Thank you Alina, we will miss you too" said Annie as she smiled.

"Yes we will miss you" said Matt as he smiled.

"I mean, who else is one of the best archers that I have met?" asked Ollie as he smiled and Alina laughed.

"Oh Ollie, you give me too much credit" said Alina as she laughed.

"He really does, even though you almost shot Curtis' head off, but oh well" said Maddie as Alina smiled sheepishly.

"I am still so sorry about that Curtis" said Alina as she looked at Curtis.

"No hard feelings Alina" said Curtis as Alina smiled at him and she handed Matt a very heavy looking bag that Lilith was holding.

"Well I will miss you as well, you are very nice, nicer than some people" said Maddie as Ollie just smiled and Alina smiled as she really didn't want them to leave, but she knew that they had to, this was just a stop on their very long journey.

"*Ahem*" said Ivor as he cleared his throat and everyone looked at him.

"It was nice having some guests for a while" said Ivor.

"I wish you all a safe journey, and you will find the answers that you are looking for" said Ivor as Aline nodded.

"Thank you Ivor" said Curtis.

"Annie, as a going away gift, please accept this from Alina and I" said Ivor as Alina smiled and she walked to Annie two wrapped gifts.

"What is it?" asked Annie as she could not tell from the way that the gift was wrapped.

"Open it" said Alina as she smiled and Annie started to open it was she was surprised.

"A bow" said Annie as she looked at Alina and Ivor in surprise.

"Yes it is a bow, it is your bow" said Alina as she smiled excitedly.

"My master made it just for you, he spent a long time carving it" said Alina as she smiled.

"I appreciate this a lot, but I can't accept it, I don't deserve it" said Annie as she looked at Ivor and she shook her head.

"You do deserve it Annie, more than you know, accept it" said Ivor as he smiled.

"I… but I am not so good with a bow…" said Annie.

"You have been practicing, and you are getting better" said Ivor.

"Just accept the gift from me as an apology for the way I behaved towards you earlier" said Ivor as Annie shook her head.

"Oh come on Annie, accept it, a gift is a gift" said Maddie as she looked at Annie.

"Yes Annie, Maddie Is right, it is for you" said Ollie as everyone else agreed that Annie should accept the gift from Ivor.

"Fine" said Annie as she sighed, because with the way everyone was looking, it would make her look bad not to accept the gift.

"Thank you Ivor, thank you Alina, It's a very nice bow" said Annie as she smiled, she had to admit that the woodwork was wonderful, she wondered how long it too Ivor to work on this, it was really good.

"I know it is, my master makes the best bows, and also I got you some arrows, a lot of them" said Alina as she smiled.

"Thank you Alina, you and Ivor have been so nice to us" said Annie as she smiled.

"Oh don't mention it Annie, good people meet good people" said Alina as she smiled and Annie smiled as she knew that she was right.

"Thank you Alina" said Annie as she hugged Alina and Alina hugged her.

"You are welcome Annie, be safe" said Aline as she smiled and she broke their hug.

"We will be safe" said Annie as she smiled.

"Maddie" said Alina as she looked at Maddie.

"Oh alright fine" said Maddie as she sighed and Alina smiled as she hugged Maddie and Maddie smiled as well.

"All of you be safe okay" said Alina as she smiled and they all nodded their heads.

"Well we should start going now, before it gets late" said Curtis as he already drew out a plan of where he wanted them to reach by nightfall.

"Alright, we must be delaying you guys, see you all" said Alina as she smiled.

"Bye Alina" said Annie as Curtis started to walk as Annie and the others followed after him.

"I will miss them a lot" said Alina as she looked at Ivor and she hugged him.

"And so will I" said Ivor as he looked down at Alina.

"Do you think that they will be okay out there?" asked Lilith out of worry, she had never been out of the colony before, she always thought that it was dangerous out there, which it was.

"Don't worry Lilith, they will be fine" said Ivor as Lilith really hoped so.

Annie, Maddie, Matt, Ollie and Curtis walked back the same way that they came, they walked on the bridge of the waterfall as they entered back into the forest where they first met Alina.

"Oh wow, it feels so good to be back in the forest" said Maddie in sarcasm as Annie laughed.

"I wonder how long we will be in here for" said Maddie.

"Not too long, Ivor gave me a map, and there is a shortcut out of the forest nearby" said Curtis as he led the way.

"Oh what a relief" said Maddie as she sighed, she really did not want to have to be stuck in this dark forest for a long time.

"Anyway, Matty boy, it's good that you are back" said Maddie as she looked at Matt and Matt laughed at her as he shook his head.

"I am serious, I never realized just how valuable you are, I mean you carry all our stuff and make it look weightless and easy" said Maddie as she patted Matt on the back.

"Is that the only thing that made you miss me? The fact that I carry everything?" asked Matt in disbelief.

"Well that was part of the reason" said Maddie as Matt scoffed, he could not believe this, Maddie could be so mean sometimes.

"Oh cheer up Matt, of course I missed you because you are you" said Maddie as she laughed.

"That's better" said Matt as he smiled and Annie laughed as she shook, these two were always so funny together.

"So Curtis, the journey to the top Caligo continues" said Maddie as Curtis turned to look at her.

"Yes it does" said Curtis as he replied and he looked ahead as he made his way through the trees as Annie carefully after him, and so did Matt and Ollie.

"So where exactly are we going?" asked Ollie as he looked at Curtis.

"Ivor said that there is another colony ahead, once we get there, we will be closer to the top of Caligo" said Curtis.

"Just great, and how long do you think it will take to get there?" asked Maddie as she sighed.

"A week, or two, you can't really say that a map is drawn to scale" said Curtis as Maddie sighed.

"Well I guess that we are back to living the life of sleeping in tents and being homeless" said Maddie.

"Oh Maddie calm down, you make it sound so bad" said Annie as she laughed and she shook her head.

"That is because it is that bad" said Maddie.

"No it's not" said Annie as she laughed and Maddie just frowned as the trees cleared out and it looked like they had finally come out of the forest into the barren land.

"You know what, we are back to being under the scorching sun, I am started to prefer the forest" said Maddie as the sun shined very brightly, so she removed her hair from a ponytail as she used her hair to cover the back of her neck.

"You can never be satisfied can you?" asked Ollie as he shook his head.

"And you can never shut up can you?" asked Maddie in anger as she threw the question back to him.

"The both of you shut up, and stop behaving like children, children are even more behaved than the both of you, if I hear either of you argue, you don't want to know what I will do" said Curtis as he was sick and tired of hearing Ollie and Maddie argue, it was very annoying.

"I apologize Curtis, I will be quiet now" said Ollie as Maddie scoffed, he was a suck up, Maddie did not say anything else, because she did not want to be at the receiving end of Curtis' anger, it would put her in a bad mood, which she wanted to avoid, it was too early for any of this nonsense.