Torch

Friendship

     We ventured throughout the "spring" section of this mystical land for a long period of time. This was a drastic change from the polar climate we had previously been in. The dirt ground was always wet and muddy from the around-the-clock rainy weather. Beads of sweat dripped down my forehead caused from the mugginess if the air.
     "Are you tired?" Skih abruptly said after a long period of silence.
     "What?" I asked, for I wasn't ready for a question.
     "I said, are you tired?"
     "Well yeah, I guess," I muttered
     "Let's set up camp here." She said already scouring up useful supplies. I reached for my bracelet, wanting to change it to night, in hopes of cooling the humid air. I too late realized that the wicked girls of the SunLock tribe had snatched the piece of jewelry, when we were at our weakest.
      While I was doing all of this thinking to myself, Skih had somehow pitched an impressive campsite. There were two sheets of large jungle leaves opposite of each other, that I assumed were playing the role as our beds. In the center was a pile of logs that we would soon later have to ignite.
     "See ya!" Skih called as she trotted into the jungle.
     "Where are you going?" I hollered curious to know if she was ditching me in this unknown land.
     "I'm going to get food, you are hungry right?" She yelled as she disappeared into the darkness of the jungle. I walked over to the nearest layer of leaves and laid down, staring at the gray sky. I heard deep rumble from the sky. Dark red streaks began to form on the sky, coming from the center of all the seasons. I slowly stood up and turned around.
"Skih," I called nervously, "are you there?" I turned around slowly and saw the same thin man's shadow I had seen in the cave.
"Please don't hurt..." I started but was soon interrupted. All the talk jungle trees surrounding me slammed to the ground, blowing air at my face.
Another tree began to tip and I somersaulted under it as it slammed into the ground where the shadow was. Once the tree made contact with it the shadow disappeared for a second then hastily reappeared. That sparked an idea into my mind.
I sprinted around the shadowy figure, circling him like a hawk. When the trees fell on top of him, his image would waver and fade. After a few minutes of this I realized there soon would be no tree close enough. The shadow image began to regain his darkness, and grow larger nearing my muddy boots. I darted to the edge of the forest where Skih had gone and called her name repeatedly, "Skih, Skih!" I screamed my throat on fire. I heard the wet, squishing sound of mud behind me and Skih leaped next to me, ready for action. I glanced over at her. She looked very refreshed, grinning ear to ear even though her was drenched in cold rain and she was covered in leaves and mushy dirt.
"Follow me!" She said as she charged the figure. She ran straight through him when she was engulfed in the shadow I saw her, not as Skih, but as a lethal member of the SunLock Tribe. Her hair inky black and her golden sun-like eyes dotted with flecks of black looked full of rage. She quickly exited the other side and began to scale jungle tree.
I shook the evil image of her out my train of thought and followed. I decided to run around the shadow, not wanting to become a worse reflection of me. I skidded to a halt at the jungle tree's damp, orange trunk and began to climb. The course texture of the wood scraped my plans and the all-to-familiar red liquid slowly ran down my hand and on the trunk. I pulled myself up to a sturdy branch next to Skih. She jumped up and stood on the branch looking over the other trees.
"What can you see!" I screamed over the loud rain.
"The closest portion of the land is summer!" She yelled with a scared voice. I didn't blame her, that's where the girls from the SunLock were camped out.
"It's out only choice," I said to her but I was pretty sure I was just giving myself confidence without looking like a complete fool.
Skih plopped back down next to me, shared with me a stressed face, then swung down onto the ground, which was more of an ocean of mud. I looked to where the shadow was and it had somehow vanished. I glanced up at the rain-filled sky and noticed the red streaks in the sky hadn't disappeared, for they had grown more vibrant, which I hastily assumed was bad.
I hopped down too, following Skih, who was standing under a tree, avoiding the rain.
"So..." I awkwardly said, "did you find any food?" This question popped out of my mouth because I hadn't realized how hungry I truly was.
"Yeah," she said with a laugh,"over there." She pointed to where she came out of the woods. Half-buried in mud was a large chunk of meat. It was difficult to tell what it was, but it didn't matter to me, at this point I was willing to eat mud-coated meat.
"That's impressive!" I said in awe.
"What?" She says with curiosity
"That!"
"The meat? She said in a flabbergasted voice," I hardly think that's...."
"No!" I said with a loud laugh. "It's impressive that you got it and skinned it that quickly."
"I know, I know, I'm just that good!" Shih said in a snooty accent as she tossed her knife into the air watched it tail then caught it, then we both immediately broke out into laughter. I could tell that we were becoming true friends, not two people who are forced to be each other's company. We were actually enjoying each other's presence.
After about twenty minutes of rapidly cleaning up the camp, hanging up the meat to dry now that the vigorous rain has subsided, and getting our selves prepared to head to the summer section of the land. After all this had happened, we began our journey toward the summer land.
"So, which part of the summer section will be going to, the plain, the cave..." I said but Skih quickly interrupted.
"The waterfall." She said without emotion.
I stopped in my tracks, after hearing those words.
"That's were the SunLock Tribe stays!" I said in true fear as I continued to walk alongside her.
"Exactly," she said with a sly smile and we continued to head toward the deadly land.