Mattaniah emulated a tedious and sorrow-ridden sigh. He had occasionally attempted so hard to extirpate the thought of that incident away from his fragile mind. However, he couldn't seem to bring himself to do so, no matter how hard he tried, it was simply impossible. As he could still unequivocally remember it as though it was yesterday, he remembered every detail of it. He could still remember how numerous rotund, and husky maggots and flies were feasting on the rotten corpse of his family. He could only ponder about the unexceptional reason why painful and sad memories are always difficult to eradicate from one's mind, and while on the other hand happy and gleeful memories never last for long in one's mind. It was simply unfair in Mattaniah's point of view.
He practically couldn't fathom how envious he was when Andrea mentioned how much she was missing her parents and brother. He too basically wished that he had someone to miss, someone to return to, someone to look forward to meeting again, and even someone who would worry about him, and even worry about the fact that he was missing.
However, other than the police, seems no one else would care about the fact that he was currently missing.
Since Mattaniah was someone who barely had any friends, talkless of a best friend or even a girl friend. He had always lived his life alone in this big world where he had no one. Perhaps his family's relative would've cared for him when he was little, but then his parents too had no parent.
His parent both grew up in an orphanage. Matt himself wasn't sure about his parents life story, simply because they always avoid saying anything about it, and since they were happy without saying anything about it, Mattaniah didn't bother about it, and besides, he knew that since they didn't want to say anything about it, it must've been quite an arduous journey, and additionally, Mattaniah was still little back then to have cared about things like that.
And now that he was older. He could presently relate to all those things. He too as a matter of fact would never want to share such a melancholic and sorrowful story with his children if he ever had one. So it's quite understandable.
Snapping out of his delusional trance, Mattaniah forced himself to stay focus on their current pilgrimage. His eyes were already slightly fluxive and red. Making him wonder if ever he could ever get over the fact of loosing his parents and siblings. He knew that there was no point in shedding tears now, normally he had often had a strong self control for things like this.
It appears that since he was back to his sixteen year old self again, seems his strong will and sufficient self control had also lessen along with his age. If he wasn't careful, seems he would start crying like a baby anytime soon.
Mattaniah then hardened his heart and stayed even more focus on the journey. Soon enough he began to whistle so as to keep his mind away from such thoughts.
Precepting that Mattaniah was whistling Andrea who was two steps ahead of him turned her gaze towards him, and that was when her eyes acquainted Mattaniah's red eyes.
She instantly paused her feets, and moved back a little towards Mattaniah, then she lifted her hands and attempted to touch Mattaniah's face with it.
Mattaniah hastily jolted backwards as this happened and this made Andrea's hand halt in midair. And Mattaniah awkwardly glared at Andrea's hand and at her prettily sculpted face that was close to him.
'Was she just about to pull me in for a kiss?' Mattaniah thought with uncertainty, however he doubted that Andrea would want to do such a silly thing.
Acknowledging the plain look of disapproval on Mattaniah's face, clearing her throat, Andrea spoke first as she withdrew her hand away from midair:
"Are you feeling okay?"
Mattaniah was a bit confused.
'Is she kidding me? She tried to kiss me and she's still asking me if I'm okay. Am I missing something?' He thought.
Eventually replying, "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"Your eyes, they're red. And also you face look extremely pale. I wanted to feel your temperature earlier, I thought that perhaps you might be having a fever."
Mattaniah finally realized what was going on. Seems he had totally assumed wrongly and got everything all twisted.
"Oh that. I'm fine, I think I got something in my eyes that's why they're red. You don't have to worry, I don't have a fever. I barely have those, even when I was a kid, I didn't often have one."
Gathering her waist length blond hairs behind her ears, "That's a relief." Andrea smiled trivially. She thought for a while before speaking again, "Shall I blow them for you then?"
"No need, they will be fine soon."
"Okay then," Andrea nodded gently, before looking away and focusing back on the journey at hand.
They both continued walking.
'How stupid of me to think that she's that petty!'
As they advanced, Mattaniah thought about his system. He didn't know if he should inform Andrea about it. Not that he didn't find her trustworthy, she was kind, reserved, caring and thoughtful, infact Mattaniah couldn't have picked a more better person out of the three of them to be sucked in a place like this with, other than Andrea.
But then, he didn't know how Andrea might deem it as. He didn't want to burden her with too much, and also he wanted to be fully sure about the whole system thing before discussing it with anyone.
So therefore, it's decided that until he was fully certain that he could trust and depend on the system then he had to keep it to himself for now. But then at the same time, they only have eachother in this unwonted place, so they needed to understand what they are both each capable of doing so as to be able to create safety for eachother when needed, and besides Andrea might even have better understanding and proper knowledge than he has, since people shouldn't be underestimated so easily. However, Mattaniah still knew he had to keep it to himself for the time being. Perhaps in the future he might reconsider.
Mattaniah sluggishly ran his hand across his already scattered raven black hairs. He stared forward at the tree which was still faraway. It was as though they were walking backwards instead. It didn't look like they were making any process.
He was pretty tired already, however there was nothing he could do, knowing fully well that staying in one place would only mean that they would starve to death, which wouldn't be good either.
The duo continued walking against all odds, with their little feet leaving footmarks on the snow they walked on. Mattaniah knew by afternoon or evening then they would arrived there, now the only thing that they had to hope for was that the pink colored tree should possess fruits which would be suitable for their consumption.
If someone had informed Mattaniah that he would be where he presently was few days back then he would've doubted it, however, here he was in a thick and formidable scary forest, circulated with enormous snow covered mountains, and trees almost ten times taller than them and with different varieties of wild beast scattered all around.
The only tangible thing they presently have at the moment was hope. And as things were currently going, they also now seem to be running out of hope too.