"Let's just find a city shall we?" The young girl whom I still don't know the name of said as we casually move on from the fact that I had been walking in massive, somewhat humiliating circles…. At least she's somewhat sparing my pride by moving on from the subject although if I'm being honest I've never had a good sense of direction.
"How are we supposed to find a city if neither of us knows where we are? Just go in one direction and hope for the best?" She said we should find a city but I seem to distinctly remember her saying she doesn't have a clue where we are, and since this isn't my world I don't have anything to draw from here either.
"Actually yes, that's exactly what we're gonna do, but we're not just gonna be hoping. Based off the terrain and the scientific level that lab was at it's pretty obvious we're still in Auruem don't you think? And you know what that means." She's not gonna find it completely out of the ordinary that I have no idea what she's talking about is she? Because I have no idea what she's talking about.
"Mind giving me a refresher?"
".... It means that as long as we go south we'll run into a city eventually. If we're South of the capital it'll probably only take us a few days tops to get to Auruem port city. But if we're North of the capital….." Thank the good lord in heaven she just thinks I'm an idiot. I really feel like this is a lot of stuff I should be writing down right now though….
"What does it mean if we're North of the Capital?" I ask oh so naively.
"It means it could take us potentially a year to get to the capital." ....
"….. A year?..."
".... Yes a year....."
".... Is there anything between wherever we are and the capital?...."
"...…It's possible...."
"..... Will we die on the way?...…"
".... It's possible...….."
"....."
"...…"
We both sat in silence for a few moments as the wind lightly blew South almost as if it was telling us to get a move on.
"We should probably start walking right now huh?"
"That would be wise yes." And with that we started walking in what I guess was South cause honestly how am I even supposed to tell when this planet could have the directions completely different than on Earth. Anyways.
==========
The girls pov
After having walked for a little while I look over at this boy and his…. Honestly very aloof sort of nature and wonder how in the world this is the same guy that did all of… that….
I remember seeing him from the room where they kept me. A dark room with only candles on the walls as light, as well as a single window on the door too the hallway. I saw some of the scientists in the hallway through that window looking…. Afraid… of something, something evil…. And then just as quickly as they came into my vision they disappeared, but I don't mean they ran away. A dark, glowing lightning bolt flashed past them and engulfed their entire bodies and they were simply erased.
At that exact moment the same energy erased the door to the room I was kept in, along with all the other doors on that hallway. Some of the other scientists and even the guards tried to run away but at the end of the hall I saw a boy standing there, this boy, wrapped in the same energy that erased everything else. And the moment I escaped my cell and laid eyes on him he disappeared and either decapitated or gutted every person in that hallway, simultaneously destroying the door that appeared to be the way outside.
Hence how we got to this point. Come to think of it…..
"What's your name?" I guess if we're going to be traveling possibly for a year together it would be appropriate to get his name.
"Oh right yeah, I'm Shinko, sorry I forgot to introduce myself before when you…. Oh wait nevermind you kicked me in the nuts I'm not apologizing….. What about you what's your name?" That was a bit of a rollercoaster of a thought process he just blurted out.
"I'm Kia, nice to officially meet you."
"Yeah nice to meet you too."
==========
Back to Shinko's pov
Later that night we set up a sort of camp with basically whatever we could find... which was nothing but that's besides the point. We have a fire going and that's it. She has her sheet that's been covering her as a blanket but I personally don't feel the need to sleep. I don't feel tired for some reason so I just sit by the fire watching it flare up in the dark.
It's a bit chilly right now and we're surrounded by what look like pine trees to me, there's nothing but a sort of blue moss on the ground. I initially wondered if I might be able to make some sort of blanket out of it but ultimately failed because it was too frail. At the very least it's comforting to know that things are mostly similar in this world as on Earth. Of course not everything is the same but nature being so similar like this almost feels like some sort of divine intervention that makes it so nature will always be nature no matter what.
Something happened…..
In that exact moment Shinko tried to remember what happened in the lab when he blacked out. But he was blocked. His mind was turned off.
And then it was morning.
What happened? Wasn't it just night time?
My vision is…. Blurry. I see someone standing in front of me, waving their… tiny…. Insignificant hand in front of me…. Looks like they're picking something up…. Like a, bucket?
"Take this you stupid rat that wants to ignore me even though I see your eyes wide open!" Kia threw the basket she made before at Shinko's head successfully waking him up completely.
"Ouch…." Shinko rubbed the spot on his head that was hit with the basket he admittedly didn't even know she still had. Why does she still have that actually?
"Why do you even still have that…. Or rather why did you have that since it's broken on the ground now."
"I thought it could be useful on our potentially year long journey to the first city we see." She stated with a somewhat annoyed tone.
"Why are you so mad anyway? I was obviously asleep…." Shinko looked up at and was surprised to see a somewhat disgusted look on her face.
"... you sleep with your eyes open?..."
"….. not that I'm aware of but maybe it's a new thing since I got experimented on and everything….."
"…. Let's just get moving you weirdo…."
"Why am I weird for sleeping with my eyes open? There are plenty of people that do that." And then it came to him…. What if it was some kind of evil omen taboo type thing that was viewed as extremely evil/unlucky in this world?
"I know i just find it weird is all…. It looks funny…." Guess not….
As they're both walking through the forest although it's mostly silent there are some noticeable noises in the background such as birds chirping in the trees and maybe something akin to cicadas making those stupid little cicada noises in the forest as well.
And although they weren't constantly talking over the hours the two would have a conversation about something random or a comment about something around them…. Or a really really bad joke that Shinko thought was good until he said it out loud and he'll probably randomly remember that he said that at night and have nightmares about that moment.
The weather started out a little chilly and the sunlight was low however as time progressed…. As one would expect the sun rose higher and higher and the air got warmer and softer however Shinko has started to notice something off about the day as he stops dead in his tracks after having walked for at least 12 hours.
"What now? Please don't tell me you need another break….."
"How is it not close to sunset yet? It doesn't even look like we're half way through the day based off where the sun is…." Shinko observed the sun as best he could without blinding himself while also realizing what this could potentially mean.
"Shinko…. Please…. Please stop making it painfully obvious that you've had zero education in your life…. It's only been 12 hours since the day started. It takes 120 hours for both suns to fully rotate earth. 48 hours for one sun, 24 hour night, and then 48 hours for the second sun."
"Second…. Sun?"
"I'm starting to get second hand embarrassment from having to teach you all this stuff…. You should visit the library….. if we find one before dying…."
"Second sun?…. What does she mean? What second sun? Earth shouldn't have two suns….. if this planet had two suns it would look like a desert planet but it's so nice…. What does she mean second sun?"
"What do you mean by second sun? There's only one sun right?"
"Ohhhh you're one of those people. Yeah that was the running theory for like the past almost 5000 years until the Root cults champion flew above the atmosphere and with his crew and proved that there were two up there. It was just hard to prove before cos they're always on opposite sides of the planet and by the time you get to the other side to see if it's day time at the same time…. Well it just takes to long to get there. So nobody believed it."
Shinko was in absolute awe…. Mostly at the fact that there's two suns for one planet but also that someone flew to space in this world.
"… I wonder if I can get that high up too…."