36

~Akara

We walk for a while, in tense silence.

Eventually, Vaia's complaints become too frequent, so we have to stop, dead in the middle of the forest, with no civilization for at least an hour's walk from here. It doesn't bother me, though, because while I'm here, I'm not locked away in Tai's estate, and if I wanted to, I could run in a single direction and get far, far away from him.

"We are going to have to sleep under the stars tonight," Marek says, shrugging his long hunting coat off, laying it down across the forest floor.

"We don't have anything to sleep on?" Tai turns in a circle, looking distastefully at his environment.

I stare at him blankly.

Has he already forgotten what it was like to live in hardship? We did it for so many months together, and he rarely complained. It's as if those moments are lost on him now, having disappeared into an inescapable void.

"What do you want? To go to a village and maybe be torn apart by people who may not like you any longer?" Marek asks, k