Three weeks.
Three weeks went by.
No sign of David.
No sign of hope.
Daniel's sanity started to slowly fade.
He soon barely cared by the one week mark.
And by two weeks, he had gone back to the same careless person as before.
The same cultist man as before.
The only thing keeping him sane was gone.
_____________________
David had gone three weeks without food.
His fox friend, who he had named Todd, as a little thing to remind him of his favorite movie as a child, would bring him a mouse or something from a hunt.
David declined each offer for food from Todd, letting him eat instead.
He cared for animals to the point where he couldn't eat them.
He was slowly starving himself to the point where he was too unsteady to stand and he seemed sick.
He almost looked dead.
*****************************
Max had been searching for David since he went missing.
Nikki and Neil soon became concerned for their small friend. He seemed upset, and tired.
The offered to help and most of the time he declined the offer.
He wanted to find this god damn happy councilor.
-------------------------------------
Gwen easily lost any will to do her job.
David was missing, and she was paranoid.
Her mind stuck to the one option that David was dead.
Oh god she hoped it wasn't true.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Oh Danny, can I come in?" A happy sounding voice rang through the room.
"Sure." Daniel turned to the door as the poorly made Jen clone walked inside.
"Guess what! I know what happened to that idiot camp man!" She giggled as she stared at Daniel.
"Y-you do!?" A small glint of hope shined in Daniel's eyes.
Jen only nodded.
"I pushed him off a cliff." She burst into laughter.
"He was useless anyways! We didn't need him!" She laughed, not noticing that the man she spoke too was furious and was slowly walking towards her with a knife and rope.
He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out to the woods, shoving her to the ground.
"You killed him!?" Daniel stepped onto her chest.
The insane look never left her face.
"Yes I did! You didn't need that idiot anyways! He was useless!" She laughed.
Rage replaced the once empty feeling in his body.
As the insane woman was laughing, he pulled out his knife.
He stabbed her until she stopped laughing.
She laid there with a wide Cheshire grin, and three stab wounds on her chest.
He decided to go clean himself off real quick before he took one final search for David.
_____________________
David whistled for Todd, his small furry friend ran over to him.
He picked up the fox, hugging him.
If he was going to die, he didn't want to die alone.
He held Todd close, feeling the fox's cold nose press against his cheek.
He had given up.
He had lost all hope.
Suddenly he shot up.
He heard someone yelling.
It was getting closer.
They were yelling his name.
This was his last chance.
He started to yell back, being able to recognize the voice after a minute.
It was Daniel.
He forced himself up, holding Todd as well.
David could hear frantic footsteps come near him.
Soon he saw Daniel, and was soon pulled into a tight hug, crushing Todd in the process.
Daniel started to frantically apologize for not getting rid of Jen earlier, and didn't realize how sick and weak the man looked.
He also didn't notice the fox being crushed between the two.
Daniel pulled away, picking up David.
He was a lot lighter than before.
He needed to get him back to camp quickly so he could eat.
Todd followed behind, not wanting to leave David.
_____________________
Daniel placed David down at the table in the mess hall and quickly searched for something for David to eat.
Todd ran around as happy as could be.
Daniel soon found something for David, fruit, simple, and something he knew David wouldn't just reject and push away.
He set a bowl of cut up fruit down for David and he instantly started eating.
He finished in the matter of minutes.
Daniel seemed surprised.
But not by that.
This was because he had finally noticed the fox running around the mess hall.
He didn't question it.
Suddenly the mess hall door slammed open and two people ran into the mess hall, tackling David into a tight hug.
These people were Gwen and Max.
They were practically crushing David in a tight hug.
The two demanded answers of what happened, but David stayed silent.
The man was scared to speak.
He didn't know that Jen was dead.
He wouldn't speak in fear of her knowing he was back.
Soon Daniel explained what happened for David.
Both Gwen and Max seemed enraged by this.
"But there's no need to worry about her now, she won't be back." Daniel chuckled and leaned against the wall.
"Thank god.." David finally spoke.
"He speaks!" Gwen laughed.
"I thought you weren't ever going to speak." Max sighed.
"Well you were wrong." David picked up Todd and hugged him.
"David.. why is there a fox?" Gwen sighed.
"Because he's my friend." David looks at her.
"David, that thing could attack you." Max rolled his eyes.
"I've had him for three weeks, I can trust him." David said as he pet the happy fox.
"Whatever David." Max rolled his eyes.
David stood up and walked into the kitchen to get himself a drink, while Todd was curled up in his arms.
Max just watch in amazement as David carried the fluff ball around.
And soon enough the platypus came in and started hissing at the new animal.
Todd only hid.
Gwen sighed and put the platypus back outside and went to the campers to explain that David was back and to kinda leave him alone. He wasn't only starving, he was also beat up pretty bad as well.
Surprisingly, the campers all agreed to leave him alone. Some even smiled and were happy to hear that David was back.
Soon everyone went on with their day and David had some more food, happy to have something to eat.
Heck, even Todd liked the new surroundings.
He still had many mice to hunt, which was fun for him, and good for the camp.
And Daniel, he was just happy to see David alive and somewhat okay.
(Ha! Here you go! And yes, I named the fox Todd because of the fox and the hound! It was my favorite movie when I was younger and it's still one of my favorites! So I hope you all like the chapter!)
