As Caron grew closer to the group of three, he noticed one of them looked very familiar.
Very, similar to a certain someone…
Uhh…
'Who is this person?Do I know them?' He squinted as he picked up speed.
This person..
This person…
Kind of looked like his sister.
Wait.
They just came back from the place his sister was suppose to be. And the person that looks like her is limping.
"Alex?!" He realized the identity of the limping person.
"Caron!" A voice, just like his sister's, replied.
"Alex!" After gaining conformation that this was indeed his sister, he cried for her again.
Finally, they were right on front of each other, both of them closed into a tight hug.
"Caron, why did you come here? You should have just stayed back where you were, it's dangerous out here."
Caron went silent for a moment, should he tell her what he had seen?
'There's no reason for me not to tell her.'
"I'll tell you once we get back." He said in a low voice.
Alex looked at her brother worriedly, nodded.
"So he's your brother?" Ana exclaimed
"Yeah."
"You look like twins! Wow, and he's younger?" She pointed at Caron
"12 years old, I turned 12 this year." Caron replied.
Ana smiled seeing the siblings.
"Let's go back." Alex said
"What about the food?" Caron looked up at her and tilted his head.
"…" Alex
"…" Ana
"…" Josh
"You forgot…" Caron said in a sigh.
"Yeah, sorry. A lot of stuff happened."
Caron looked at her rolled up pants and bandaged ankle, "I can tell."
"Should we take a quick trip back and get the stuff?"
Josh interrupted, "We have plenty of food in here, and there's a corpse back there, monsters are going to be attracted to it." He pointed at the comedically large backpack on his shoulders.
Alex nodded, and with nothing more to say, led them to their hideout.
———
"Ughhh Ms. Ana my back is killing me!" Josh complained.
He began to complain only a few minutes after they left, and even Alex was starting to become irritated.
"Josh I swear to god if you don't shut up I'm going to strangle you." And along with the constant complaints, were the accompanying threats. Which would immediately cause Alex's annoyance to dissipate.
Although Alex had only met them today, she felt like they were good people, even if one was annoying and the other was scary. But Caron, who had met them only 5 minutes ago, was suspicious of their every move.
'They act like crazy people, did they come from an insane asylum?' Caron narrowed his eyes.
Noticing his stare, Josh smiled and waved at him.
Caron flinched, and quickly looked away.
'There's no way such a good looking person can be good!'
"And we're here!" Alex said.
Ana and Josh followed the two before stopping at a narrow path, or what seemed to be a big crack.
Ana pointed at the entrance, "This??"
Alex nodded. Causing Ana to look back and forth between the entrance and Josh.
"What? Spill it already." Ana seemed to be in deep thought as she continuously shook her head from side to side. As if comparing Josh and the crack.
"Erm… How are we supposed to fit the backpack? It's too wide."
"We can just leave it outside."
"Hell no! What if it's stolen?"
"Who would be brave enough to come outside in time like these?"
Ana pointed at Alex, "Well she came out, what's stopping anyone else from doing the same?", "And that backpack had all our supplies, we might as well give up if everything is stolen!"
As Ana and Josh were bickering, Alex was trying to figure out a way to bring the bag inside.
"Couldn't you just take out what you need, then hide it somewhere?" Caron stood in the middle of the both of them, trying to give out ideas to at the very least calm them down.
They stopped fighting and went silent, both seemed to be thinking about it.
"Oh, that's actually a good idea." Josh said before taking off the backpack."But where do we hide it?"
"There's a lot of plants around for something that happened only yesterday, perfect place to hide things." Ana proposed.
And so the fighting ceased with one sentence, it seems like it would be a long time before they would be in peace finally.
Josh took out some food and blankets, while Ana took the bag and hid it somewhere. Finally, they went inside the hideout.
"Ooo, kinda roomy in here." Josh said.
"…" Everyone looked at him in distain.
"Kill joy." He grumbled before sitting in a corner.
Roomy? You should try sleeping in here for a day, then try telling me it's roomy. They quickly went to opening the canned food and eating it. Ignoring Josh's grumbling.
Alex and Caron completely devoured the food, and while they still felt hungry, it was best to only eat one can every day or so, to save food.
"Are you guys hungry? We ate it all, sorry."
"Nah it's fine, we ate enough food to last us two days, and we have plenty of rations." Ana waved them off.
They sat quietly, before Josh interrupted the silence.
"Wanna hear a song, it's from my hometown."
"No." Ana said.
"It's like a poem, I don't even need to sing it." He looked up, "You all are so quiet, it's boring."
Ana was about to shut him up, but Alex spoke instead, "Sing it then."
"Haha! I knew you weren't a boring person!"
"She said music, not talking." Ana said.
"Alright Ms. Sensitive."
"Just sing already!"
"Ok, it starts with…"
"Spirit of spring
Bless me your wings
Let me take to the skies
Spirit of time
Give me your time
So we can play every night
Oh little forest
Flowers and trees
Spirits and fairies play happily
Here comes the sun
Time to have fun
Out in the Zaroth light"
"See? I'm such a good singer!" Josh praised himself.
"Thanks…" Alex said
The song was like a lullaby, and caused her to drift off to sleep…
'Home…'