Survival

The Forest Continuation

As the two set on a journey to look for a good camping site, Quinn decides to take this opportunity to know more about Emilio.

"So uh, how old are you Emilio?" Quinn tries her best not to sound rude by suddenly asking his age but thankfully he didn't mind. "Oh, I'm 18 right now. You?" He asks in return. "I'm 17 though I look younger. I honestly don't know why." That's when Quinn hears Emilio chuckle slightly. "What? Something funny?" Emilio waves his hands in front of him apologetically. "No, no, I just.. It's a bit obvious why people think you're younger. You're like, what, 5'2?" Quinn lets her jaw drop in offense. "Emilio! I'll have you know I'm 5'3 and 2/4!" There was a small pause between them and soon after the two started chuckling at each other. "We're gonna get along just fine Quinn." She looks at him with a slight smile. "You betcha."

 After a few more minutes of walking, Emilio decides to ask a question instead. "Hey Quinn.. You think we'll make it back alive? And if we do, what'll be the situation back home? I mean, we did disappear all of a sudden.." Quinn takes a moment to think of a response. "Well Emilio. Honestly, we can't know for sure about the future but what I can say with certainty is that... We'll definitely try. Our lives depend on it after all. If you're ever feeling like you won't get through it, just think about the things you hold dear to you that you had to leave behind. It'll help you strive for your future. Plus, it's like you said. We're in this together. So don't think you have to do everything by yourself." Emilio' s eyes widen slightly, then he smiled. "Thank you Quinn. I appreciate that a lot." She puts a hand on his shoulder. "Anytime man. Feeling helpless is the worst thing we could do right now."

After a few more minutes of walking around, they finally stumble upon a river. There was a small clearing where the river was but since the trees branched over the river, the sky still wasn't visible. Thankfully it was a grassy clearing. Compared to all the leaves they were walking on, the grass would serve as a good change of scenery for the two. Once they got next to the river, the duo sat down and took off their shoes, dipping their feet in the cool running water. "Oh man, now this is the good stuff right here. After walking for so long, this water feels so refreshing." Emilio agrees with Quinn's remark. 

"Hey Quinn, you hungry?" Quinn quickly snaps her head to Emilio and slams her hands on the ground. "Am I hungry?! Dude, I haven't eaten anything since lunch! Which I had pretty early... So I'm starving.." She melts down to the floor, laying down. Emilio chuckles at her antics and gets up, shaking his feet to dry them as much as he could. "Well, I could make a spear from a decent sized stick. We could eat fish for dinner. How about it?" Quinn nods and stands up as well. "I'll help. It'll be faster. Though I don't know how good I'd be with catching fish." She laughs nervously. "Thanks for the offer. Then, let's hurry and find some sticks and a sharp rock before it gets too dark." Quinn looks down at the shadows of the light coming through the leaves. "Yeah.. Telling by the shadows, it's about.... 4? No.. 5 p.m.. We better start working then." They went their separate ways to look for what they needed and after a few hours, dinner was ready.

" You're pretty good with all this survival stuff Quinn. First you found out the time, and now the fire? I didn't even know you could make fire like that!" Emilio looked surprised. And honestly, Quinn was too. "Yeah. I didn't know all those survival videos would be useful. I'd usually binge watch them at like, 2 in the morning." Emilio finally picks up the sticks with the fish on it and hands one over to Quinn while sitting next to her. "Well, thank god for the YouTube algorithm. It saved our butts." They laugh a bit at the statement and start digging into their food. "Mmm.. I like it but it's a shame there's no salt. Maybe we'll find some in other biomes. We could definitely get some from a beach shore." Says Quinn. "Yeah but, we're lucky to find food. Maybe we could go for birds next time? Or snakes? We could eat the cockroaches but I don't think it'd be very pleasing to the eye." Quinn gags at the blue eyed boy. "That's so disgusting... How could you even suggest that.." Emilio just shrugs his shoulders. "It might come down to that point. You never know."

Once they finished their meal, the two got ready to sleep. The fire was still going since Emilio put more wood in it prior to going to bed. Quinn was not at all comfortable. After all, back at home she was usually in her bed watching YouTube. Oh man, this is gonna be a hard night.. As Quinn was tossing and turning in her sleep, not being able to lay her head down right, Emilio slowly woke up by her small grunts. "...Quinn..? What's wrong..?" He asked in a raspy voice. Quinn also woke up. "O-oh, sorry Emilio.. I didn't mean to wake you. I just can't seem to get comfortable." That's when Emilio sat up and started taking his cape off. "Here, use this as a pillow. I'm sure it'll help." Instantly feeling bad, Quinn started denying the offer. "Well, I don't think it'd be suitable for you to sleep on me since we just met. Just take the cape. I was sleeping fine and the fire will keep me warm enough." Quinn gave up and took the cape, thanking Emilio in return. "Sleep well Quinn." He went back to laying down. Quinn doing the same, she bids Emilio good night.

The next day came and Emilio woke up early. Letting Quinn sleep a little longer, he stretched and washed his face and mouth with the water from the river. He then went to the nearest tree and started climbing it. The clock was there. It was counting down from 10 hours. He quickly climbed down to tell Quinn about the clock but when he started to reach the bottom, Quinn was gone. Confused, he looked around a bit, then he heard his name being called from behind him in the trees.

 "Emilio! Where are you?!" Then he became concerned. Quinn sounded panicked. Emilio immediately ran towards the voice yelling her name. Quinn turned her head and ran towards him, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him gently. "Do you know how worried I was?! I wake up and you're gone. I didn't really think much of it but when a few minutes passed and you still weren't back, I started panicking.. I thought something happened to you. I know I shouldn't be so scared but with our current situation, I can't afford or bare to loose someone right now." Emilio, surprised at Quinn's outburst, removed her hands and hugged her by the shoulders, rubbing her back. 

"Hey, hey, I'm sorry, I just went climbing up one of the trees to get a look of the clock. We've got around 10 hours." After a small pause, they broke away from their hug and started walking back to their little camp. They sat down to think of a plan. "So, what are we gonna do? It's not like we know what's gonna come. You think the Forest Master would give us a hint?" Emilio shrugs. "I don't know. It didn't really give us much information about the stages. Just that they're gonna be hard. Though I'm assuming we'll maybe have to look forward to creatures attacking us? This is a rpg survival game. Plus, I don't know if you saw in the display pictures, it showed some monsters. We might encounter them." Quinn nods at his statement but quickly goes into confusion. "How are we gonna battle those monsters with the tools we have now? We'd have to upgrade with some stone tools right?" Emilio nods his head and crosses his arms. "We'll upgrade. It won't take long since there are plenty of rocks around here that we could attach to our sticks but..." He looks at Quinn. "How are you with defense?" Quinn scratches the back of her head and looks down. "Yeah.. Figures. I'll just have to teach you the basics then."

And with that, they began preparations.