Chapter 3, A new Home.

For hours Lili followed the river upstream, all the while getting further and further away from the two voices calling out to her. Until then she came to a small dam.

Walking around it, Lili then came to a small dirt road that moved across the dam somewhere into the forest, and it also went left where it moved alongside the long lake that she now found herself before.

Choosing to go along the dirt road to the left, Lili walked for a long time along the lakeshore. Looking around she could see that to her right there were small forest covered mountains, while on her left the forest seemed to be going upwards towards what she guessed was another mountain top.

From all this Lili figured that she now was within some green mountain valley. On both sides of the valley there were long forest covered mountain ranges, while down where she was there was the long lake and the road that she walked on.

Soon Lili then stopped as she came to the end of the dirt road. She had barely walked a few hundred meters, and yet there was still a long way to go till she got to the very end of the lake.

Though not wanting to go backwards towards that man and woman who wanted to take her to the army, she just continued onwards into the forest. She wasn't going to go back to the military ever again, not only was it scary, but all she ever got for her work was some praises and really bad food. The only positive thing about the military for her was that she could meet new people and heal them as well, she after all liked helping people, although she only got to heal people if the Sargent let her do so, which wasn't often.

In fact the Sargent wasn't much of a nice man ever. He was strict, and he smacked her on the head often if she said or did something that he didn't like. Although in the end he did save her by taking out those infected that were chasing her, which was really the only positive thing that she could think of. Then again it was his fault that she was in that mess to begin with.

Distracting herself with these thoughts of the past, Lili wondered through the forest next to the lake shore, she jumped over little streams, went around trees and happily hopped on rocks. But most of all she found herself getting annoyed by the big green bushes that were everywhere.

Constantly she had to push through the bushes, and no matter how much she tried to look there wasn't anything edible within the forest that she could recognise. Her stomach was already starting to feel a bit grumpy, there was sweat on her face, and she was getting a bit tired after walking for so long.

She really would have liked to have something to eat, but all she could do was take some leaves and grass in hand, and eat it. It wasn't good ,her stomach didn't like it, but it was something. Also the water within the streams that led to the lake was crystal clear, and cool which she happily drank as well.

Now there were no voices calling out to her anymore, only the sounds of birds and the rustling of the trees by the wind could be heard. It was peaceful within the forest and the further she walked, the more at ease Lili felt herself becoming.

Gone was the plague song, the sounds of slaughter, the screams, the crying, the thundering of the guns and so many other bad things. Here there was peace and quiet to her relief.

Then Lili came upon a larger stream of water that flowed down from the mountain to the lake. Sadly she didn't know how to swim, so she did not try and cross this stream in fear of falling in, so she looked up towards the mountain and headed up there.

For a few hours Lili walked upwards, the progress was slow, but eventually as the sun was already starting to set, Lili then made it past the point from where the stream began. Though as she got there she began to wonder what was up at the top, what could she see from there?

And so she continued to the peak of the forest covered mountain, and there she found the tallest possible tree that she could find, and then she climbed up it. Her body was tired, it lacked muscles, plus she was really short, but luckily she had experience and she was light as, well she was light as a really small girl.

Then from the top of the tree, she managed to see a lot of beautiful green forests that covered two mountain ranges as far as the eye could see. While down within the low lands there she could see lots of farmlands and little towns.

Or more specifically, within the east, between two long forest covered mountain ranges there was the beautiful valley from where she had come. And within that long valley that stretched into the distance she could see many small towns of wood, some farm land, roads going north to south, lakes and overall just a magically beautiful mountain valley scene.

And to her left, within the west, on the other side of the mountain that she was on there was flatter land. It was much the same, but there were more farms, more fields, much larger towns, and there was one especially large town situated next to a large Inland body of water.

Then to her front and back the mountain range that she found herself on went on for as far as her keen eyes could see. And between the lower parts between the mountain ranges, she could see what looked like many paved roads with little cars, while in the air there was a few planes that's models she could not recognise, but where was the Library, this she didn't know. Or where was she even to begin with?

Lili couldn't recognise anything here, this world was somewhat similar to the planet of Achios, and yet it was so different. Here there were no huge cities with buildings that reached up into the heavens, or no Library that she could see.

On Achios even being but an agricultural world the Library there had been absolutely massive. On the front many long steps of marble led to the large front doors, while at the side statues of warriors seemingly stood guard of all the libraries vast knowledge hidden within.

Huge columns held the first 6 floors wide, white, marble roof up, and on those 6 floors was tons of historical museum artifacts, millions of books and scrolls, and many people studying there. Then on the next 84 floors of the building there were floors for research and studying where many great advancements were made. While deep underground the most precious of all things, the original copies of ancient texts and documents were stored safely.

Though all of this was just something that she heard from another soldier. She as a medic simply just didn't have any reason to ever go to the Library. She merely stayed by the Sargents side, kept quiet and followed orders. So she really didn't know what she was looking for anyway, but what the soldier had described clearly at least wasn't here.

Still as it was getting dark, and seeing as she had nowhere good to sleep the night, Lili then set her sights on a lake not far away from the mountain top. Situated north between two mountain peaks the lake looked to be nicely tucked away from the world with the mountains covering it from all sides except the east side.

Also there she could see a single paved road coming from the East up to the lake, where there was a simple wooden house with three stories from what she could see. And around the house there was what she really desired, there were fields of something that was surely edible.

Climbing down the tree and heading down the mountain, Lili only as darkness came managed to make it to the field close to the lake. There were lights on within the house next to the lake, and there was a small garage by the looks of it.

Still she didn't know who these people were, and so she stayed hidden as she sneaked into the fields. And there she found red berries, from the imperial records she could recognise them to be strawberries, a thing that was grown on Achios.

Also on some peas were further within the fields, and even tomatoes by the looks of it. The field lacked organisation by the looks of it. Plants were scattered about and grass grew in between.

Eating her fill of strawberries, tomatoes and peas, Lili filled her pants and hoodie pockets with them, and then ran into the forest, keeping close to the lake there. Walking around the lake within the dark, Lili went all the way around it to the northern side where she then finally found a batch of grass close to a small stream that came down from further up the mountain to the lake.

Laying down there on the grass, Lili looked up into the stars that she could not recognise. Eating a few berries she then slowly began to fall a sleep under the clear starlit sky.

***

Lili shivered as the cool night breeze hit her skin. Unconsciously she hugged herself for warmth, then a drop of water fell upon her cheek, then another droplet came upon her face, then another and another.

Dark clouds had come to cover the night sky, and soon a heavy rainstorm came, totally taking Lili off guard. No more could Lili despite her exhaustion ignore the rain and so she was rudely awakened as she then ran.

First she went under a tree, but with drops of water still falling past the tree leaves, she was forced to look for some better place. Getting up, Lili then ran further up the mountain in search of a place to hide away from the rain.

Going to the house only briefly came to her head, but she didn't. It was dark so they were probably asleep within there, and she didn't know them so it would have been quite rude to go knocking on their door.

Lili would handle her own problems on her own, and would not be a bother to others and so she ran. Her clothes were already all wet, as were her kitty cat shoes, but then she finally came to a small pool sized lake close to the top of the mountain. And there close to the pool of water was a rock wall hidden away behind trees and bushes, and within the wall Lili found a hole.

Looking within she found it to lead to a small cave room. It was dome shaped, small, but on its back wall there she could also see a small hole leading further within the cave.

Using her powers she sent light within her eyes, letting her see better in the dark as she headed within to see if the cave was safe. Going within the first room and past through the larger opening there, she found herself having come within a second larger room from where the cave seemed to lead somewhere further within to the earth.

Not daring to go further within to the dark, Lili stopped there and returned to the first room. There she found a small stone and seeing as nobody was around she poured her magic within the stone and from it gained some light and warmth like from a candle light.

From the outside she then gathered dirt and leaves to build herself a small bed within the cave. Though with her clothes soaked through she found no comfort atop the wet leaves and dirt.

Instead Lili took off all her clothes and placed her light stone atop of them to heat them up, and in time hopefully dry them. After that she started slowly gathering dirt from the outside to the first room. And upon her gathered dirt she intended to plant her newly found strawberries, peas, and tomatoes.

With her body shivering out of the cold she didn't find any sleep that night and merely kept on moving to stay warm. With her bare hands she dug and dug, and carried all the dirt that she could within to the cave, until eventually exhaustion over took her, and she fell to the cave floor out of exhaustion and went into a deep sleep.

Only once the sun had risen high up into the sky did Lili finally wake up with a little sneeze. The rain had passed, but she felt absolutely horrible and a bit feverish.

Rubbing her nose, Lili then crawled to her clothes only to find them still to be quite wet. So with a frown and a hungry stomach she went outside to find warmth from the sun, and something to eat from the ground.

Like in her past within the ruins of her old home city, her eyes only looked down. Because from the ground dead or alive she knew that many small bugs and creatures that she could eat, could be found.

Along with this she made sure to keep carrying dirt into the cave, so that one day she could have a garden there for herself. Also water was dripping down from the cave's roof, which was great as it would keep her garden moist.

To her the cave and everything around her was like a dream come true. Bugs and especially worms were easy find, the cave was spacious enough for her and way better for building her garden than the old metro tunnel had ever been. Also the Empire was not bombarding this planet, it was green and quiet here, it seemed really safe.

Honestly she really didn't want to find the Library anymore, she didn't even want to find civilization or anything. If she could just live in peace within the mountains on her own, and not have to face war or anything bad ever again, then she would stay here and be happy because of it.

Plus once she poured more of her magic within her light stones they would grow stronger, then it would be warm within the cave and she would have everything there that she could ever have dreamed of.

Thinking of it all, Lili now felt determined to see this pace be made into a real good home for herself. And with a home there came a name, and so she named her cave simply to be, Lilis little cave.