Almathea and the donkey had been walking for a few hours. The sky was now tinged with pinks and purples. Not once had the donkey strayed from the path, despite Almathea not touching the reigns.
However, she was contemplating whether they should look for a place to stay for the night. Despite them having walked for so long, she still hadn't encountered any other people, let alone finding a small village or town to spend the time in. It would be a lie if she said that the thought of her being the only human alive had not crossed her mind more than once. In her defense, it was completely plausible.
She jumped off of the cart and walked next to the donkey, feeding it an apple she had found in one of the lunchboxes. The donkey continued to eat as they walked. "Hey, do you think we should sleep out in the wild as barbarians do?"
The donkey, as expected, did not answer her but kept on walking slowly. "So you think we can make camp in the forest as well huh. I agree. Let's find somewhere to stop for the night then."
For the first time, she pulled the donkey out of the path and strayed into the shrubbery. They had only walked for a few minutes away from the path when Almathea heard the splashing of water.
Forgetting she was pulling on the reins of the donkey, she ran to where she could hear the water. The donkey had to speed up to keep up with her.
Just like she expected, there was a small river just a little bit forward. Almathea nodded to herself. This was a good place to stay for the night. At least she did not have to worry about giving the donkey water from her water bottles.
She untied the donkey from the cart and tied it near the river. She patted its head before going back to the cart and removing one of her lunchboxes from the backpack.
The food had long gone cold. However, to Almathea, it was one of the best things she had ever eaten.
When the sky turned dark, Almathea hugged her hands to her knees and counted her breaths to sleep.
She did not know how to light a fire to keep herself warm and she did not think she could sleep on the ground. Sleeping in the cart was her only option.
The night was silent, with the exception of the rustling leaves and trickling river. Once or twice, there was the hooting of an owl.
Almathea wasn't a light sleeper. So when she heard footsteps running towards where she was sleeping, she pulled the knife that she had stuffed into her shirt out and held it tightly in her hands. She was alone, without someone to look after her in case something happened to her.
She doubted she had ever used a knife to hurt someone, but she felt that she needed to do whatever she could to survive. Without her memories, she was literally just no one. So if the person coming wanted to harm her, she was not going to allow it.
The sounds of heavy breathing were the next thing to reach her ears.
Almathea had readied herself to jump out of the cart and most possibly injure the person who was coming towards her using the small knife. A few seconds passed, and the person who was running neared. However, before Almathea could act, the body of the person fell onto the ground with a thud.
She had to take a few seconds to steady her breath. The person had fallen before doing anything to her, so maybe the person was sick? Her head popped up from the side of the cart. The sky was still dark, with clouds covering the moon, so she was unable to see who or what it was.
The only thing visible to her eyes was a figure that lay close to her donkey a few feet away. The donkey had also been startled awake by the person suddenly falling next to it, so it had jumped to its feet.
She thought about whether to get out of the cart and help the fallen figure. However, she did not know if the thing was dangerous. And she only had a knife to protect herself. She had no idea how to use the gun that she had found in her backpack.
She curled herself back into a ball, falling into a light sleep.
Immediately day broke, Almathea woke up. The sun was not yet bright, and Almathea could feel that her body was a little wet. She poked her head out of the side of the cart to look at the figure which had fallen next to her donkey.
Thanks to the sunlight, she could tell that it was a person. This time, she dragged her body out of the cart. Her hand was still holding the same knife from the night before.
She took light steps to the sleeping figure. On walking closer, she saw that the person who was sleeping had long tresses of dark curly hair that framed her face. It was a girl!
Almathea took a few more steps forward when she made sure the girl would not suddenly jump up and shove a knife into her stomach.
If she was being honest, she did not know why she was so cautious either. On one hand, she craved the company of another person apart from herself. On the other hand, there was this nagging feeling that she should be cautious of everyone she met because they could very well kill her.
Almathea did not understand the conflicting feelings in her in the slightest.
She took a few more small steps towards the sleeping figure and bent over her. On noticing that the girl's face was obscured by her hair, she pushed away the strands of hair using her knife.
The face behind the hair was beautiful. Even with the eyes closed, and some blood splattered onto her chin, Almathea still found that the girl was gorgeous. Her skin was dark and her eyelashes formed a small shadow over her cheeks and the shape of her face was a small heart.
There was one problem though. She looked so young. If Almathea were to guess, the girl looked to be thirteen or fourteen, if she was not guessing from her height alone.
However, she still felt that she was not one to judge someone's age. When it registered in her mind that the girl could possibly be injured thanks to the little drops of blood that marred her chin, a few minutes had passed.
Almathea did a full body check on the little girl, looking to see if there were wounds on her body. She sighed in relief when she realized that there weren't any other signs of blood.
Her stomach began to rumble lowly, so she went back to the cart and pulled out a lunchbox. There were only three full lunchboxes left, so the next thought she had was that she had to ration lest she dies due to hunger.
She ate a small portion of the food in the lunchbox, only until her stomach was no longer rumbling, and stuffed it back into her bag. When that food was over, what would she eat?
With her stomach better, she turned back to the sleeping little girl, and picked up a twig.
If the girl did not wake up, she would definitely leave her here to die. Her eyes went to the sun that had begun to make its way up the sky. She would begin her journey once the sun reached a tree she spotted a little in the distance.
.
S/T:
Almathea: (Picks up a stick to poke the girl who had fallen next to her donkey.) Are you going to wake up any time soon? It is almost time for me to leave.
Little girl: (Grabs onto Almathea's hand and cuddles it)
Almathea: ...