Forest Bound

'Home' Alone - Damien

"You want to come? Why?"

"Might see something tasty, the berries were nicer than that meat you tried to give me, but... bleh,"

Ty looked at 0 as she cleaned up the remnants of that day's breakfast. Damien spoke up from his spot of putting out the campfire, vaguely waving his hand.

"Guy's barely eaten anything, just take him with you,"

"Yeah, yesterday was fun but we all need to eat up,"

She handed the basket to P; she had taken out the leftover berries from last night, figuring she might find some use for it. P smiled at her before turning back to Ty, not changing his expression.

"I am, very good at finding edible things, so you can just leave me to my own devices, you won't even notice that I'm there,"

"... Okay, I'll see you later, then,"

Ty and P wandered off into the forest; 0 looked back to Damien as he stood up, dusting off ash from his pants. He looked up at her and smiled, tossing over a stone he had (probably) picked up while on his daily fight-walks with Ty.

"Hah? What's this for?"

"Rock tower, tower of rocks,"

0 stared at the rock, cracking a smile before bursting into laughter, looking around the campsite, before settling on a spot to place the rock, beginning the rock tower, tower of rocks.

"Well, it begins! I expect more rock sacrifices to rock tower, tower of rocks!"

"Oh you'll get your rocks, slowly, day by day,"

There was silence for a moment before the two began to laugh. Damien's arm wrapped around 0's shoulder, and she wrapped her arm around his waist, supporting themselves against each other.

"Heh... you know, i know that this trip hasn't gone uh... you know... normally-"

"Frankly I think it's going swimmingly,"

"Oh- shut up you-"

Damien shifted his weight and leaned against 0, causing her to lose balance and topple over, bringing him down with her. 0 yelped as she hit the ground and coughed as Damien's weight hit her chest; he pushed himself up and laughed.

"As I was saying- I know it hasn't gone normally, but uh- I'm still glad that we get to hang out again. Even if it's under the case of... weird... forest... shit,"

"Yeah, it's nice,"

They laid like that for a few moments before Damien got to his feet, pulling 0 to hers as well. 0 dusted as much dirt off her dress as she could as Damien stood there, trying to find words, so they didn't fall into silence.

"You wanna help me mush up the leftover berries? We could use it for traps!"

"Oh- y- yeah! I can look through my bag for some baggies, or... something like it,"

"If it fails I can go to the river real quick and grab a rock-"

"Uh- W- well- acttualy Ty said he saw some weird... deer? Out there, so maybe I should go? He seemed pretty upset when he mentioned it and uh... kind of, said I shouldn't let you go alone,"

0 tilted her head to the side; he did remember seeing Ty talking to Damien after he went out alone to get some water. Ty had pointed at her quite a few times as if he was emphasizing a point.

"Plus I have a hard head, and you have, a soft head, as proven by your soft hair,"

"What, are you going to headbutt the monsters?"

"... Yes, was that not obvious?"

"... Right, you have fun with that, look for the baggies first, though,"

The baggies were missing, so some words of 0 trying to convince Damien to let her go to the river, him refusing the offer. Damien left into the forest, leaving 0 alone to readjust tents and clean up around the campsite. Make sure none of the berries had mold; throw sticks at raccoons that got too close.

She managed to distract herself for long enough for P and Ty to come stumbling out of the forest; the basket didn't have much, just some acorns. But blood dripped from the corner of his lips, and a cut ran from the tip of his nose, diagonally across the left of his face.

"Hey 0! Don't worry about the blood, the birds were dicks,"

"Where's Damien?"

"Holy crap P! Come here- let me at least wipe that up-"

P shook his hands, licking at the blood before he wiped it away, smearing the red across his face.

"It's fine, no worries,"

"Where's uh- where did he go?"

0 gave P a concerned stare before P slightly nudged Ty, causing the shorter one to speak a bit louder.

"Hey- uh- where is Damien? I thought he was supposed to be here with you?"

"Oh- uh- we wanted to make jam for traps but we didn't have any baggies, so he went to the river to find some rocks,"

"River? Couldn't he have just used that rock there?"

"That's the rock tower, tower of rocks, it cannot be touched less something horrible happens,"

Ty looked in the direction that led to the river, then back to 0, biting his lower lip before speaking again.

"How long has he been gone?"

"Oh, I uh, think like an hour? Time is fake here,"

"I- I'll go check on him, if I'm not back soon uh- P- P come look, please don't go into the forest right now, 0. Somethings in there- I- I don't like it-"

He was off into the forest before ethier of them could say anything; 0 looked back to P, who was licking his blood off his fingers again. P gave her a reassuring smile, reaching out and patting her back.

"It'll be fine, it was probably just a deer,"

"Am I the only one who didn't know he saw something?"

"Yes, yes you are,"