A tragic history of an unknown tribe is almost entirely wiped out of extinction 100,000 years ago from our present-day by a devastating creature within the Earth's core known as Calamity. This magnificent tribe who were known as the Novalites contai...
As the pair continue through the forest, the tension from the adventures before begins to dissipate. Nea suddenly leaps onto a log and stretches her arms out as she walks across it. Her steps are confident until she reaches about the halfway mark—she begins to teeter from side to side and slips—but Evan catches her arm just in time and smiles with relief as he helps pull her back up. He continues to help her the rest of the way, and she jumps down off the other side. She looks at him with a gentle smile.
Later on, Evan pauses and looks around, and sees a white-tailed deer in the distance. He leads Nea to some foliage quietly to avoid disturbing the animal and points it out to her. Her eyes widen and she makes a little squeal of excitement as a significantly younger deer comes out of the bushes and begins grazing on the forest floor.
Evan's gaze fixates on the father as it tends to protect the dawn, feeling relatable to what's happening with his situation right now. He thinks this could be the start of a heartwarming friendship. The father deer rubs its head on top of its child to push them in the correct direction but can't help but follow its own path with the father following on closely behind. Eventually, the deers both journey off away from Evan & Nea. Nea lets out a very tiny wave and noise as they leave.
The two continue onwards until the forest opens up to a large grassy area. The sun gently shines through the sparse foliage. Evan notices some rocks in the distance to train on, and gestures to Nea to head towards them. He attempts to mimic whips by throwing his arms back and forth wildly once again.
Nea, confused, laughs and does the same motion. Evan shakes his head and thinks a bit, before signaling for her to get on his back and place her special abilities through Evan. She climbs on his back and begins to channel her power. One last time Evan tries to demonstrate his intentions of bringing out the whips in hope she understands now that they're reenacting previous moments. Thankfully, a light bulb turns on in Nea's head as two large elegant whips appear from out of Evan's back. Relieved, Evan can't help but cheer and praise Nea with joy until he finally calms down to focus on the next step.
Evan takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. As he exhales, he tries to visualize the whips as extensions of his hands and tries to launch the whips at some big rocks set up. He frustratingly misses quite several times until eventually, he hits a targeted rock straight on, and it flies off into the distance. He moves to another rock, where he swings his arm downwards, completely taut. The rock is cleanly cut in half. For the third rock, Evan clenches his fist and moves his arm as if he were wielding a hammer, completely obliterating the rock. Perhaps there was almost too much zeal put into this motion, as parts begin to fly towards the two, and Nea has to put up a shield to prevent the two from being pelted by pieces of stone. Once the dust settles, the pair look amazed at what they did.
After a break, the duo uses their whip's power to climb up a tree like a monkey by wrapping around the branches and pulling up. Their main goal is to reach some fruit off a tree to collect and eat. When they climb near to the top, Nea starts to climb up onto Evan's head whilst still connecting her power to him through her feet. She reaches out for the fruit whilst Evan hangs onto the tree for dear life. Although she starts with a reasonable amount, greed gets the better of Nea and she picks slightly more than she can carry and she loses her balance.
"Hrk——" Evan panics. In the ensuing chaos, Evan tenses his arm too much and accidentally snaps one tree branch that he has been holding onto with one of the whips and starts to swing freely around the one remaining around a different tree branch. Nea, caught off-guard, hangs onto Evan's head for dear life. In an attempt to save the fruits, she desperately curls one of her arms.
Swinging back and forth, they swoop down close to the floor and then swing around the tree branch. Evan can't control the other whip and releases the other branch. He flips around causing Nea to drop one of the fruits within her grasp. Evan manages to land on the ground with both feet and one hand on the ground. At the last second, he notices the one fruit Nea let go of which is falling to the ground. As quick as lightning, Evan uses his other whip to reach out and catch the fruit without even thinking about it. Miraculously, he catches it perfectly. However, the amount of constant adrenaline has made him pant. He slowly brings the fruit into his own hands and looks at Nea.
"Haha!" Evan breathes a sigh of relief for both the fruits and their lives.
Evan then shows Nea that the fruit is edible and takes a bite out of the one he caught. Nea looks at the fruit for a second and then cautiously goes to take a bite. Her eyes light up as she tastes the sweetness. Evan smiles and goes to put the remaining fruits in his backpack.
Suddenly, the large tree branch that Evan had swung from before makes a concerning sound and begins to fall on them. When Evan notices, he closes his eyes and braces for impact. However, Nea quickly puts up a bubble shield, and the branch snaps into several pieces. Evan slowly opens his eyes after, realizing that there is no pain to accompany the situation, and looks at Nea. With a self-satisfied look, she has gone back to munching on the fruit and takes down the shield. She pats him twice on the head and gives him a look as if to say, "Good job" like a pet. Evan groans inside, realizing that even those innocent eyes can be patronizing.
The two stay in the area for a little while longer before Evan decides to move onwards. As they walk through the forest, they eventually come across an opening from the treeline. Evan notices the sun going down to the side of him. He looks over at the sun and admires the panoramic view in front of him, almost like a postcard.
"Wow!" breathed Evan.
Nea, leaning on Evan's shoulder, silently also appreciates the view. The sun is perfectly in the middle with a bright orange glow that spreads out across the entire valley and the sky before them. A flock of birds flies by as beautiful scenery which is quite similar to the one Evan saw from the coach is revealed.
As the sun dips down, Nea hears the gentle burbling of a stream and walks over. She then washes her face in the river, not having used a mirror before. She looks down the river and sees Evan filling up the bottle he brought with him from camp. He then takes a swig, and seeing that he hasn't toppled over yet, she decides to scoop a handful and drink it. She then detects movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly turns to see a frog jumping on the banks. She follows it until it seems to disappear under the mud, hiding in a makeshift home. She looks back at the water and stares at her reflection, gently glowing, and pauses for a moment. Home. Only then does a tinge of sadness appear on her face. The suffocating loneliness of being alone in an unfamiliar world without a home still haunts her internally, whether she is conscious of it or not. Right now, the boy beside her seems to be the only other person on her side, so she will put her trust in him. She doesn't have much of a choice.
Evan, seeing her simply observing the frog, stands up and smirks. Just then, he gets a sudden text message from his mother Carey. He holds his phone up and sees that it reads, "How're you doing honey? Hope all is going well x!".
His smile vanishes and guilt pierces his heart. To avoid doubts or worries, he will have to keep up this façade for now. It wouldn't make any sense to bring her into the mess that he has created. Besides, she would probably think he was joking—he could barely believe the situation he was in, himself.
"I'm doing fine, just got back to the campsite!"
Evan texts her back, praying she does not call the camp to check-in. He then places his phone down after it is sent and looks in the distance, troubled. He returns his gaze to Nea, who is staring right back at him, and wonders about the true scale of what he has gotten himself into.
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