As the ice that appeared from my hand froze Cole, I let out a scream in victory. I was able to restrain him while keeping Maple safe, thank God. I was able not to lose anyone else. I ruo Maple to see if she is ok. I will eventually che Cole, the frostbite he should get from that will be the start of my punishment for all his as.

  I check Maple’s body to see if she had sustained any injuries that needed immediate attention, but she seemed to be fi was just the impact that knocked her out. Still, I will have to hahe mental damage this situatiht. Her father died, and if she feels anything like I did when Capti did, it will shatter her heart.

  As I get up, I turo Cole, I see his fist moving to his chest. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!,” I shout as I dash over to him, trying to stop his as. I see his hand smash his heart ahe words, “Sorry, Lio, I am the worst ever”. He spits up blood as I arrive at his body.

  “Why would you do this, you idiot! Not only did you betray us, but then abandoned us like this, you idiot.” Seeing his dition, I ot do anything but watch him die. As I see his lifeless body, I rex for the first time today.

  On my knees in exhaustion, the full gravity of all the events happening around me finally nded on me. All the Vilgers have been kidnapped. Maple is both unscious and iional distress. But worst of all, I let both Sequoia and Cole die due to my carelessness. Thinking about all this made me throw up all the food I ate yesterday.

  I messed up bad. Everything Cole said about me is correct, but as I wipe the leftover vomit out of my mouth, I get up. I don’t have time to bme myself. Every sed I spend doing that, is one sed further everyos from me, so I must act, but first I have something.

  I dig graves for both Cole and Sequoia. I dug Sequoias in the vilge and Coles outside, and I bury them, giving a little prayer at both.

  “Cole, I don’t think I truly bme you for your as. I have been your so-called friend for a year, but I never saw this side of you. I had eyes, but I wasn’t looking. I ’t trol your as, but I trol mine. I should have reached out to you, but I didn’t, and we’re in this situation; this is as much your fault as it is mine, and for this, I am sorry.”

  “Sequoia, I am truly sorry for being uo save you, but Maple and I are about to ve for the first time. When I thought about this day, I had always hoped everyone would send me off with a smile, but the reality isn’t so kind to us; heless, please wish us luck.”

  After burying both of them, I started to worry for Maple. In all this time, she hasn’t woken up. Cole couldn’t have hit her enough to keep her unscious all this time, so Maple please wake up soon.

  With Maples’s body, I head over to the st person who help us. I hear a giant roar as I am greeted by Willow the 2nd. As I go over to him with Maple’s unscious body, he starts ag erratic.

  “Don’t worry, boy, she is ok, just asleep.”

  I go up beside him and say to Willow, the 2nd in the legend song, “I need your help. Everyone in the vilge has been taken far away, and I won’t be able to reach them in time by myself, so will you allow us to ride you so we catch them? Please, I beg off you.”

  Willow looks very angry at my suggestion, almost as mad as when we first meet.

  Seeing his rea, I say to him, “I know you haven’t left this forest in almost two thousand years. You told me you want to honour the memory of your race by surviving out here, but please, I beg you, I o rescue everyone and their family. I ’t lose them, so please, I will do anything for you iurn, so please help me.” I say with tears in my eyes.

  Hearing my words Willow the 2nd es down and, with his nail, writes in the saviour’s song on the ground. When I read it, it says, “I will help you.”

  Seeing this, I jump and hug Willow the 2nd, saying, “I love you”. After this, I pnt both me and Maple on Willow’s back. Willow has healed all his injuries since our first enter, but as a trade-off, he has also shrunk quite a bit. If he eats enough, he will return to full size, but he is still plenty big now.

  “WILLOW, I will need you to move exactly thirty-seven degrees northwest from our current position.” Hearing my instrus Willow, the sed, takes off at full speed.

  This is the best way to catch up to them, and by following their st, I should be able to get back to their base. I find this to be a more reliable way of reag them rather than following the instrus of the bandits that could lead me to who knows where. I am ing to find you, everyone.

  -Break-

  Φ I don’t want to wake up because if I do, I have to accept that all that has happened is my fault. I ighe rules of my vilge and brought both Orb and Cole into it. If I had takera precautions, I could have made sure if Cole was awake or not, but I didn’t, and due to this, everyone is gone. Our home, built for thousands of years, has beeroyed, all of Orbs mementos from Capti where taken, and worst of all, my father died.

  So, I wish I could stay in this dream world forever, all I do is face it. So, I open my eyes and see Orb holdiight. “Thank god you’re ok, I didn’t know what was going on with you.”

  As I look at Orb, I realise how fast we’re going. After looking down, I see where riding on Willow the 2nd. “I missed you, Willow, however. I guess you ’t uand me,” I say as I rub his feathers. “Orb. Willow is fast isn’t he,” I say with a smile.

  “Yeah, he is surprisingly fast. It seems getting smaller helped with that. Willow, tur about 25 degrees.” Following my instrus, Willow turns.

  “Why did you do that, Orb.”

  “Because that’s the dire I smelt the st from.”

  “I see.”

  Φ I am surprised, Maple looks a lot better than I thought she would. I guess I am just a worrywart.

  While Willow runs, we start seeing predasaur corpses.

  “What happened here,” Maple says.

  “The people who went through the forest must have killed all the predasaurs we see before us.”

  “All their bodies are going to go to waste and freeze here. What a pity.”

  “I truly is, but I do have an idea. Willow, if you’re hungry, grab a snack, but you have to eat while running.”

  Excitedly like a child Willow uses his rge mouth to rip apart and devour the corpses of the predasaurs around him. It must be fun to hunt again for him, since retly we have been doing all the hunting for him, I guess he enjoys being active rather than sitting on his ass.

  After Willow ate some of the corpses, his speed increased even more and in no time, we ran right out of Fimbulwinter, and we were greeted with a sight we had never seen before.

  An endless ndscape covered with green grass filled with flowers with more varied colours than my hair, the nd is filled with not only predasaurs but with actual animals; I saw an actual cow, but it started to run aon seeing Willow the 2nd. I look over to Maple to see her g profusely.”

  “Maple, what’s wrong,” I say, worried.

  “I have always dreamed of the day I would get to see these sights. I thought about it repeatedly, I wao tell my dad about all these things, but I ’t now. It’s just too mue.”

  While tears well up in my eyes, I say, “I know how you feel. I hought that I would see this under such dire circumstances. It is a sick twist of fate, but it is still so beautiful, so let’s show it to everyone, ok Maple.” Tears are entirely falling down my eyes.

  “Ok, Orb, let us go get them all back.” Maple says as she hugs me. “From today, I won’t cry anymore.”

  “Why is that.”

  “Because you cry when you’re sad, and from now on, I won’t ever let myself be sad. When I meet my dad again, I will tell him hoy my life was.”

  “That is good to hear, Maple also if you tell anyone I cried, I will cut you.”

  Φ Orb’s hair turned Blue “Huh, why. Does it embarrass you”

  “No,” Orb says as his hair turns lime.

  “That looks like your lying.”

  “No, I’m not. I am just hungry.”

  “Ok, then, I believe you, princess,” I say while giggling.

  “That doesn’t sound like you do!”

  -Break-

  Φ We tio run around the ndscapes for days resting for the bare minimum of time before setting off again. We survived off of nature like usual, but it retty hard to find Willow any form of food. He was too big, and all the animals arouoo small. Though sometimes we did run into animals that had wandered from Fimbulwinter, which gave Willow something to eat.

  As we explored the outside, I felt a great sense of wonder with Maple there with me, but it was all u by the increasing levels of worry we had for everyone. Where have they gone? What has happeo them? When will I be able to stop smelling the st? As far as I know, I could have gotten them mixed up with something else, though things started to get worse when we reached a s.

  The intense smell made it extremely hard to find the st, and my noise did not respond kindly to it. As I was looking for the st, I started to panic, so to try and circumvent the issue, we ran out of the s to see if I could pick up on the smell from outside it, but it was to no avail,

  Though I also wasn’t able to smell any of the stench from the s outside it, which meant that the smell had either faded or their base was in the s.

  So, as I head back to the s, we start to look around to find any hint of where they could have gone, but we couldn’t see any.

  I hear Willow let out an enormous roar. Looking over to see what’s wrong, I see him looking at a gapotamus in the s. They are extremely slow and are known for being very meaty.

  I looked over at Willow’s face; I see drool ing from his mouth. He must be hungry. We haven’t fed him in a while. So, I see Willow charge at the gapotamus, but the gapotamus stores rge amounts of gas in its bellies, so using all it’s gas, it propels itself into the air causing Willow to hit his head into a giant roearby.

  Seeing this, I was terrified, the rock was so big he would break his skull on impact, but whe it, Willow went right through, running over to him. It seemed the rock was hiding a secret entrao a giant cave.

  Wonderbeast: These are a higher evolution of animals and are sidered almost magical by some. Predasaurs all where wonder beasts before there mutations.

  Name: Gapotamus

  Height: 190cm

  Type: Herbivore, Wonderbeast.

  Description: They are semi-aquatic mammals, with a rge lumpy body, short legs and an enormous head.

  Fact: The gas they produce to propel themselves, is know to be one of the three sti substances in the world.