12

mr. smeet.

"Come on! Hurry!" Zumwraek insisted impatiently.

The four of them had been walking for nearly two hours and still hadn't found anything. Not a single soul had shown themselves and neither Smidge nor Dib wanted to believe that it meant that Zumwraek was correct; that everything was going to be alright. However the possibility of it never happening didn't seem very likely to either one of them right then. In retrospect, it made more sense to conclude that it was all just a bad dream rather than accept the reality of things. Even so, that didn't make it hurt any less, least of all for Dib, who didn't feel particularly inclined to believe that their nightmare wasn't real, regardless of what anyone else said or even if they told him otherwise.

Smidge, on the other paw, felt as though there was no choice but to believe it. There simply wasn't any other explanation for what they had experienced and she knew that there was no point dwelling on it. It would simply eat away at their minds if they did. For now all they could do was focus on the task at hand, whether that task involved searching or not. If they stopped looking, then what? Would they just give up and return to their homes and pretend that everything was normal? They certainly wouldn't. No, they couldn't afford to waste time thinking about that now, they simply needed to keep moving and try to find a way to live through the days ahead of them. Hopefully they weren't going to need to stay hidden forever; they'd only been living here for the past three months and hopefully the winter wouldn't last for too much longer. But it was unlikely since winter storms were becoming more frequent and more violent by the day and the roads were becoming far more treacherous than they had ever been before. That's what was bothering Dib though. The fact that they didn't know where they were heading; or if they were even heading anywhere. They couldn't exactly expect to just walk straight out to the edge of civilisation without seeing someone who could tell them what was going on and maybe offer them some supplies or even directions in return.

They eventually settled down on the grass to wait for daylight. It had seemed like an impossibly long day until now, although at that point it was more like an eternity with no breaks in between.

Zumwraek had left shortly after sunset and it had taken several hours to locate him after that, since the terrain was a bit harder to navigate on foot and he had gotten separated from the others along the way. He'd returned about half an hour after dark though, just in time for all of them to start preparing to set off on the road early the next morning, when darkness fell.

Once everyone had finished setting up camp, Zumwraek gathered them all around him and explained his plan. "Alright, everyone listen to me closely because I have something important to say. You all need to be extra careful tonight when you're hunting and I want you to pay special attention to the wildlife around you tonight. There might be creatures nearby that are bigger than a rabbit or fox but don't worry about them because they won't harm you unless you provoke them and try to attack them."

"But why do we have to be especially careful?" Smidge asked, glancing towards Dib for reassurance. He nodded in agreement, giving her a reassuring smile, however she could still hear the uncertainty in his voice and wondered what else he might be feeling.

Zumwraek glanced towards his siblings, trying to determine if it was safe to continue. "Because there is the chance that some people may be looking to take revenge on our family because of the chaos following the events at the battle. We must be extra careful."

"You mean we shouldn't go outside the village during the night?" Smidge asked.

"If you're lucky, yes," Zumwraek replied. "We'll avoid as many places as possible that might have guards lurking inside but still, I want you all on guard at all times