Ba-dum...
How long has it been? Hours? Days?
I'm slowly walking through a mildly forested area with thin, long trees covering the sky and wet, muddy dirt below. Behind me is a trail of footsteps leading past the treeline and off into the distance.
Huff, huff, huff.
A large bead of sweat falls off my nose as Hana, who is slung over my shoulders, stirs awake.
"Mmm... Whewe we?"
To be honest, I have no idea where we are. Ever since I... Killed that demon and left the mansion we've just been walking, walking, walking. I've lost track of how long we've been walking, but Hana's stopped to sleep on my shoulders two times now, so about six or seven hours?
"Hmm, how about we take a break for a little bit? I think I hear some running water nearby."
"Okey."
It doesn't seem like it's too far. I don't know much about all this, but doesn't running water mean that it's drinkable? Shit, I really wish I had taken some sort of survival training.
Shaaa
The sound of the running water gets louder as we reach the source; it's a lush river covered in greenery and rocks and has clear, entirely see-through water.
Swoosh!
Although the ground beneath me is still very wet, it has changed from mud to grass, making it much easier for me to run towards the water. Even though it had only been a few hours since I last drank, I'd been walking nonstop since then, making me extremely thirsty.
Sluuurp!
I take a big sip out of the water as Hana hops off my shoulder to do the same, us both taking large swigs from the stream.
"Ahhhh~"
We both raise our heads at the same time and as I look to my right, I let out an involuntary laugh as I see Hana staring back at me with water dripping off her chin and covering her forehead.
"Ahaha! Wipe your face, you're covered in water."
"Hehehe, youw too!"
I reach my hand up to my face and wipe off the water. As my hand moves past my eyes, I unconsciously look up and see that the sun has almost fallen.
"Oh, crap! We need to set up camp!"
"Huh?"
"Uhh, just stay here by the water, okay?"
"Okey."
Oh god, okay, how the hell do I prepare for a night in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with absolutely nothing on hand?
I start blindly picking up sticks and throwing them into a pile while my worries only worsen every moment that sunlight passes by.
Um, um, um, what's the worst thing in a forest at night? Bears? No. Mosquitos? No! Uhh, the cold? I don't know!
I feel as if my now tall pile of sticks is sufficient, and begin picking up as many leaves as I can. Big ones, small ones, massive ones, wet ones, dry ones, anything I can find.
Ugh! I can't decide which one to focus on! Whatever, I'll just try to tackle them all at once. I could... Ooh, I could make a fire to keep away the animals and stave off the cold. Then, I can use leaves as a sort of bed to keep the dampness off us!
I quickly find a good clearing, arrange the sticks together, and place some dry rocks around them, as I saw in a documentary once.
Yaawn~
I look up and realize that night has fallen faster than I thought it would have, as it is already becoming dark.
Oh god, how do I light it again? I think it was something about using a stick to spin..?
I hold a stick in my left hand and another in my right and look at them for a few seconds before shaking my head and throwing the one I'm holding in my right hand away.
Whatever! I'll just use magic to start the fire. As they say, when in doubt, magic it out... euugh, why did I say that.
Fsh.
I point a finger at the tip of the stick and imagine the fire spell I'd been practicing for quite some time now, but for some reason the fire almost instantly goes out.
"Come on, don't fail me now."
Fs–
I try again, but this time, the fire lasts even shorter, so I try one more time.
Fshhh!
"Whoa!"
I deeply focused, pushing all the excess thoughts about everything which had been going on recently and dedicating my complete concentration to the fire. This caused the fire to shoot out quickly and much, much larger than any fire I'd made before.
Fsh.
Almost dropping the stick torch, I use it to light the "campfire", and place it in as well.
Crackle, crackle
"Phew, there's step one completed."
Now all that's left is to find some way to make the ground more comfortable to sleep on.
Shiff.
I arrange the largest of the dry leaves in a bed-like formation, attempting to make a sufficient place for us to sleep on, and manage to make a moderately dry spot.
"Alright..."
Finally finishing the preparation, I look around. It's now pitch black, and spring peepers provide a comforting feeling that reminds me of home, and Hana is playing in the water.
"Alright, Hana, time for bed!"
"Okey!"
Splash!
As she stood up and turned around, I thought saw something which resembled a small fish fall from her mouth and back into the water, but I could just be tired.
Shiff~
I lay down on one "bed" as she lays down on the smaller one I made a few feet away from me. She looks me in the eye as her eyelids start to close.
"Me cold."
"I know, we'll get back home soon, I promise."
Where even is home anymore?
I see her eyes close as a single tear runs down my left eye and onto the leaves beneath me. I raise my hand and wipe it off as another comes.
"Why am I..?"
Moments later, the tears flow from my eyes like water from a waterfall. Eventually, I give up on wiping them and just curl up on my makeshift bed and fall asleep after what feels like hours.
Blargh!
As I wake up, I feel an intense pain in my stomach, causing me to jump up and run towards the side of a tree. As I do, I vomit all over the ground next to the tree; it's painful, and I accidentally wake Hana up in the process.
"Haru?"
Cough, cough!
"It's okay, Hana, go back to bed."
"Okey..."
Finishing up, I wipe the remaining vomit off the corner of my mouth and spit anything left out.
Uugh, that water is definitely not clean. I should have thought to boil it first... At least Hana seems to be fine.
Caaaw, caaaw!
I look up and see a mother crow feeding two babies before jumping out of the tree and flying off.
"Cute."
Moments later, a raven comes from out of nowhere and knocks the crow out of the sky. Afterwards, it jumps on the crow and pecks at it until the crow stops moving.
"O-oh..."
Walking away from the Crow murder, I return to our "camp" and look around, surveying it.
Wow, this sucks. Looks like we ruffled this trash up quite a bit last night.
I find my eyes drifting off to Hana, sleeping peacefully as if nothing had happened the past day. but then look away.
Well, might as well fix it up. Having something over our heads would help.
I take a step towards our now extinguished campfire and look past it at the pile of wood too large or wet to burn.
"This could work..."
Grumble~
Crap, maybe I should get something to eat first.
Walking toward the river, I find something that I'd completely forgotten I had, my mother's knife.
"How did I only find this now?!"
It was buried deep in my pocket, and yesterday's insanity must've caused me to forget about it.
Ugh, on another note, I swear I saw Hana eating a fish yesterday, so it can't be that hard to catch them, right?
I stand near the river, trying to look through the clear water for a fish, and quickly find one. Taking out my knife, I attempt to quickly stab the fish, but it swims away before I get the chance to.
"How the hell did she do it!?"
Goddamn it, whatever, I'll just try it again.
I soon find another fish and attempt to stab it again, but as if it could read my mind, the fish swims away right before I get it.
"Tch."
Slowly growing angrier and angrier, I repeat the action of searching, stabbing, and missing over and over again until, after doing it for what feels like three hours, Hana wakes up.
"Wha?"
She looks up and sees me sweating, sleeves and pant legs rolled up, standing in the river, and blinks a few times before yawning.
"Dis how."
Standing up and soon joining me in the river, Hana visibly focuses, her yellow cat-like eyes almost glowing.
Splash!
Moving extremely fast, Hana reaches into the water and pulls out a medium-sized fish.
"How the hell did you do that?"
She looks at me like I'm stupid and shrugs her shoulders.
"Jus do."
I'm not the weird one here, right..? Right!?
Sigh.
"Well, at least it worked."
I return to our makeshift campfire, replace the burnt wood, and relight it.
Fsh.
"Alright, Hana, can you give me that?"
"Me do."
"Huh?"
Hana walks up to me, swipes the knife from my hand, and begins butchering the fish.
"What are you doing?"
"No bads."
No bads? Wait, Is she gutting it? No way, she didn't even have a name... So, how does she know how to gut a fish?
"How are you doing that?"
"Dunno."
Could it be a skill passed down from her parents? Or perhaps it's related to her race? Whatever it is, I'm glad she knows how to do it.
After gutting and cleaning the fish, she hands it to me and then sits next to the campfire, using one of my larger logs as a bench.
"Dere."
"Thanks..."
Did a girl who isn't even two years old just easily do something I've never done in my two lifetimes...
"Waah, whatever!"
Grumble~!
I reach over to the side of the campfire, grab a long stick, cut its tip, shaping it like a spear, and run the knife along the sides, removing the bark.
"There we go."
Afterwards, I flatten the other end of the stick and impale the fish on it. I then prop the stick above the fire using other sticks.
"Phew."
Crackle!
Hana watches as I slowly spin the stick with the fish on it, mouth drooling.
A short while later, the fish seems done, and I take it off the fire and, after letting it cool, let Hana have the first bite. Instantly, her eyes light up, and all of her energy returns.
"Mmm!"
"Is it good? Here, let me have a bite."
I take the fish from her hands and take a bite out of it. However, unlike Hana, I'm not very easily appeased.
Wow, that's super bland. I miss salt.
Ka-boom!
A loud explosion sounds in the distance, making us both jump, and my eyes widen in fear.