Meant To Be

Chapter Ten

The shelter began to warm up as the metal was heated up by the sun, the warmth seeping into the metal box. Hunter woke up but didn't move, revelling in the bliss of this moment. Even though they had agreed to begin walking as soon as the rain stopped, it was too tempting to just stay like this for a while longer. The only thing in the world Hunter wanted was to just stay in this dreamlike state forever. This is what it's like to live... I'm not going to give up without a fight, rot. She gently stroked the back of Artificer's head, earning a contented sort of mumbling from her. "Good morning," she said, slightly opening her good eye and smiling. Hunter smiled back, finding her sleepy face absolutely adorable. "Did you sleep well?" "Better than I have in a long time, actually. I had a dream about my pups, but it wasn't the usual one where I watched them die again. In the dream they were back with me and they were fine... I almost believed it was real."

"I should let Five Pebbles know that I'm going to be leaving for a while. He might act like he doesn't care, but he gets worried if I leave for too long without saying anything!" Artificer told Hunter before a light blue overseer popped out of seemingly nowhere. She began talking to it as Hunter fondly remembered the overseer that had accompanied her while she was travelling to Looks to the Moon. Believing that there was only one outcome for Hunter, the overseer had disappeared as soon as she had finished her quest. It had guided her to a den and then left her while she slept. While Hunter understood that she was only a tool in the eyes of her creator, it did still hurt that he didn't even want to try and bring her back home for her final cycles. Though, that didn't matter now since she had someone who did care.

The sun shone, evaporating the rain from the stone that soaked the old path they were following. Many iterator structures could be seen as they stood atop a tall building and Artificer wondered which one was No Significant Harassment. "So, which of them are we going to?" With a serious face, Hunter pointed to the farthest one of the structures and then shrugged apologetically. Artificer sighed, turning to descend from the roof of the building. "Well, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. We had better get moving before it gets any later." Hunter followed after her as they climbed down poles and then back onto the ground where a small swarm of batflies flew. Hunter crouched down low and approached the small winged creatures as they flew between patches of grass. Lunging forward with a spear in her hands, she grabbed a few of the creatures and ate them before they had a chance to do anything. "Food might get scarce, so we should attack any creature we see even if we aren't hungry; we could save the meat for later." Artificer nodded in agreement as she too grabbed a few batflies from the air and ate them.

They continued onwards until the sun reached its full height and only then did they take a break. Sitting down in a clearing free of predators, the slugcats shared the orange lizard they had taken down together. While it had been heavy to drag with them, the shortcut they were taking was teeming with enemies and it hadn't been safe to stop until now. Amidst some rubble, Artificer spotted a shelter. "Look, we can settle in there for the night!" While the idea of calling it a day after so much walking was tempting, Hunter shook her head. "Sorry, but I don't think we'll have enough time to get to No Significant Harassment unless we make the most of all the daylight we have. We just can't afford to waste any time." Artificer looked surprised as Hunter said that. "I thought you said it would be about ten more cycles until the rot got really bad. Well, nine now since you told me last cycle, but how far away is it? Surely it won't take more than five more cycles to get there," she said as she looked into the distance at the giant structure. "Well, you'd be right if we were going there directly, but the surface is pretty much impossible to get across because of all the rubble. So, we're gonna have to take the underground path."

I'm so sorry this took me so long to publish I was working on Halloween stories and wanted all of those to be out by the deadline which I failed to do but will still be working on those stories even though Halloween is over. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! I only have a few major plot ideas for the traveling part, but please let me know if you have any ideas or things you'd like to see for the next few chapters. Also, cover art not by me. With that, I will be getting back to work on more writing!