Requiem

06

Snow covered barren forestry surrounded them as they made their way through the terrain they now found themselves in. A few times Liesel found herself slipping on the frosty, icy ground, only to retain her footing and plough on. Erik a few times found himself not too sure of his footing either, but unlike her, he never found himself falling or slipping to the ground below him. They had been walking for a few hours before Erik realised he was no longer being followed. Stopping and looking behind himself, he sighed at the sight of Liesel leaning up against a tree. She had managed to slip her boot off and rubbed at her foot before placing her boot back on and doing the same with the other foot. With a small huff she looked up at him, she casually shrugged before trotting over to his side.

Liesel wasn't alone in aching. Erik's feet were slowly loosing feeling. Before this his boots were quite durable, hard wearing and perhaps the best boots he had ever owned. But now, after having to live in them day in, day out, he was slowly finding the sturdy leather to be failing. No holes had appeared but he was rather certain if they continued on, there soon would be. It seemed Liesel was in the same boat. Only her boots were too big for her, and already battered and worn even before leaving the camp.

Exchanging a look they slowly nodded and continued onwards in silence. Everywhere around them was silence. There was not a sound to be heard. Their footsteps were crunching mutely on the snow covered ground, but that was it. There were no sounds of nature. No birds singing, and no animal calls. It was as if the animals knew to stay away. Soon hearing one step of footsteps again, Erik stopped and looked back. Liesel stood sniffling quietly and looking rather forlornly at him.

"We can't keep stopping." He said sounding slightly harsher than he actually meant to. Liesel flinched from his tone and picked her feet up with some difficulty and trudge her way over to him, again. It wasn't until he stood watching her that he realised the snow was growing denser, thicker and softer on the ground. Unlike him, Liesel was not in possession of a pair of long legs. Whereas the snow barely reached mid-shin for him, it was practically above that and then some on her. So hell bent on getting away, he was rather ignorant to the struggling which Liesel was going through to keep up. A small pang of guilt shot through him before he put a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, Liesel, it isn't fair me nagging at you every second to keep up...but you really must. We can't get separated out here, do you understand?"

"Of course I do." She said defiantly. She didn't quite like the thought of him believing her to be some idiotic girl. She knew full well if they somehow parted ways that it would perhaps lead to death for one or both of them. Either by the biting cold, or recapture, there would not be a happy ending if they split up. Erik merely nodded and kept a hold of her sleeve. If he kept a hold of her then she wouldn't have the option of stopping. It was rather cruel to inflict nonstop walking on her, but they really did need to get some distance between them and the camp. "May we perhaps pause for a break soon?" The question which had been niggling at her for the past few hours finally got spoken. She wasn't surprised by the highly thoughtful look which flitted onto his face. "Please, Erik...we cannot keep going without trying to reclaim lost energy. And the only way we can do that, is if we have a break. We have been walking for the past...three hours, is it? As yet no one has come for us, and to be honest...if you keep dragging me I will fall to the ground, and then you'd be wasting energy on pulling me around." Liesel said, she had managed to roughly calculate the time thanks to the sun through the clouds. But she was being honest, her legs ached from the cold snow so much she was losing feeling in them. She was surprised she was even upright still.

"I wouldn't pull you around," he muttered while letting go of her anyway. He mused over her words while scanning the area. She did have a point. As yet no one had come in search for them. Perhaps it was believed they had been shot down in the revolt which actually gained them their freedom. But whichever it was, they'd put enough distance between them and the camp to warrant a break, he supposed. Noticing a cluster of trees which seemed to collapse on themselves, he led her over. Hunkering down on the moss and snow covered ground, they wrapped their arms around their knees and looked out at the silent space before them.