The ground felt a bit unstable when they landed. Looking around both quickly saw they were perched high atop a rocky cliff, mere inches away from tumbling over into the depths below. Quickly scootching back away from the edge they turned to see the rest of their surroundings weren’t looking much more promising. Cracked rocks made up the scenery as the two appeared to have landed atop a wide plateau, with no clear way down in sight.


    “Don’t suppose you see a creak or stream hidden somewhere, do you?” Jake asked as he set his bag to the floor. Alice shook her head no, keeping her voice to herself. She’d been quiet for a while, barely speaking a word since asking about his family. She’d spent the rest of her day in the valley laid back and silent, eyes covered.


    Jake cast her a worried look a moment before returning his attention to his bag. He wasn’t an imbecile. He may not know the finer details of her past, but he could guess based on her questions about his family, and her extreme reactions, that it was likely more horrid than Jake first imagined. Exactly what had happened to her Jake couldn''t say, and he was fine with keeping it that way. His curiosity and worries be damned, it wasn’t his place to try and pry into her, try and crack her open and force her to share her darkest secrets.


    Part of him wondered if asking her about it might somehow help, might somehow relieve the burden. He didn’t know. He didn''t know anyone who’d ever gone through half the shit she had. Still though, when he saw her so depressed, so lifeless, he couldn’t help but wonder. Couldn’t help but be tempted to try even if it wasn’t his place to pry. Anything to try and help cheer her up.


    “We have any water left?”


    Interrupted from his thoughts, Jake pulled the near-depleted waterskin free from his pouch and took a short swig, barely a mouthful. The rest he tossed to her. Leaning back to allow his weight to fall evenly to the ground, his hand felt the remains of rain, cool and slick, still clinging to the rock below him. A disappointed grunt escaped him. They were just barely too late landing on the plateau, they couldn’t have missed the rain by more than a few hours.


    Polishing the last of what little water was left in the skin, Alice felt terrible. Her pounding headache may have faded away now, leaving her as she faded off to fitful dreams polluted by memory and regret, but still, her body ached with pain. Her arm still screamed in agony every time she moved it. She’d felt so out of it recently it was hard to tell if she was making any progress recovering, but it didn’t feel like it.


    She worried about the strings within her. Those frayed and cut within her arm remained damaged. She guessed that was the main source of her pain, she doubted the tiny needle of the blood collector had the power to cripple her otherwise. The damaged strings themselves felt as if they were trying to repair themselves, trying to reconnect and rebuild, but so far their progress in doing so had stalled. What had caused this delay, whether it was her inebriation or the recent loss of her emotional stability, she couldn’t say. She could barely feel the string’s efforts as it was, let alone understand them.


    Worse though, more than the pain coursing through her body were the memories. It had felt sickly sweet listening to Jake talk yesterday. She’d been able to imagine herself living in his place, imagine herself living with her sister. She loved it. Yet as soon as he finished talking, soon as the cruel reality of the world crashed back upon her it hurt even more. Still hurt now the next day as her night was filled with nothing but dreams of the dead.


    Regret filled dreams of her sister’s voice, calling to her. Her sister’s hand reached for hers before fading away forever. A trick of the eye that let her see Betsy slip away from the corners of her sight, always out of reach. Yet even now as the hurt of the night''s torment clung to her, she couldn’t say she regrated letting Jake talk, regrated unearthing Betsy’s memory.


    At least she got to see her again, hear her again. Briefly hold her hand again. Even if it was only a fading trick, a cruel joke her mind played to torture her. With a pained smile on her face, she found herself in silence unconsciously rubbing her hand exactly where Betsy’s had been the night before. Exactly where she always used to hold.


    “Here, what’s left of the food. You never ate much yesterday. Can’t say it’s still good though, so don’t say you weren’t warned.”


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Awakened from her sleep-like stupor, she refocused to find Jake passing her a bundle of cloth wrapped tight, bits of cooked meat nestled within. She recognized the bird she’d been forced to avoid the day before along with bits of the leftover hare-like beast they’d kept from a few days ago. Raising the bundle of meat toward her noise she gave it a quick Wiff. It didn’t smell too off, though it was a bit hard to smell anything coming from it. … should be fine.


    Lowering the bundle, she turned back toward Jake to thank him only to be distracted by what she saw him doing. He was busy digging through their bags, pulling out small bundles of scrap wood tied together with orange lengths of cloth torn from their discarded prison suits. Setting most of these bundles to the side, he grabbed two and untied them beginning to arrange them together in a small pile.


    “What are you doing? Where did you get all that stuff?”


    “Made them while you were resting yesterday after we talked. Ready to burn campfires. That’s the idea anyway, perfect for places like… well like this without any wood. I’ll spark it when it gets darker or colder, I just wanted to get it set up before I forget.”


    “Neat…” She replied before their conversation died, an awkward wind of silence blowing between the two. She realized that had been the most they’d spoken since his stories yesterday. It felt odd, she’d grown so used to traveling with him, so used to talking with him. Even if, when she thought about it, they’d lived most of their lives apart. What was it he’d said again? Adapt or die?


    Thinking back on it this awkwardness was mostly her fault. She’d been the one to curl up in her shell, been the one to close him out and ignore him. She just… she’d just felt so overwhelmed. Trickles of guilt ate her conscious as she considered what to do. Did she owe him an explanation, owe it to him to share about Betsy?


    … no. She owed that to no one, no matter how close. No matter what she felt or how much time passed. In part because she’d begun to feel so close to him, she didn’t want to bring her up, didn’t want to anchor herself to him with such a dark chapter of the past. Still, she felt bad for just ignoring him. And she hated this uncomfortable silence that had sprouted between the pair…


    “Hey, greenie…” She waited till he turned her way and saw a slight note of surprise cross his face at the sudden address. “When I was a kid. Real little, young enough I hadn’t started crumbling yet, there was this guy. He seemed ancient to me at the time, cracked and crumbling and always grumpy. Thinking about it, now he couldn’t have been much older than me, maybe he was my age. Never got a chance to ask. Anyway, he’d always brag about being able to read, being able to write. Would tell anyone and everyone how much better off he was, how he could understand what the guards were posting up around the district so he could prepare accordingly.”


    “I didn’t really understand why he was bragging about it at the time but over time I got it in my head learning to read and write must be the greatest thing in the world. Must be amazing if it let him brag like that. So, I started hounding him, following after him every day, clinging to him, and begging him to teach me. He just kept refusing though, kept getting annoyed.”


    “Other kids started clinging to him too though, and soon he had about ten of us following him, pleading and begging. He finally gave up; and told us he’d teach us the basics of the basics if it would get us to shut up. Slowly though, the other kids gave up. Found it too boring or pointless. I found it boring too, but I stuck with it, kept following after him and making him teach me. He’d always complain and grumble and call me a little urchin or flea but still, he taught me."


    "He kept going too, went past the basics, and kept teaching me everything he knew. Complained every second too. Still, he taught me everything he knew!” Alice finished beaming at Jake.


    She hoped her overeager smile would hide the true end to the story. Hide that the last time she came to find him, his skin was more scar than flesh now. His limbs had deteriorated and hardened to a point where he couldn’t move anymore, could only lay there waiting to die as he slowly crumbled more and more. How he smiled at her, the first time he’d ever done that. How he’d told her she’d go far, complimented her for the first time in her life. Told her to leave to flee his home. Told her his death wasn’t something she should see…


    Alice felt her smile slip a bit as she realized all her stories were like this. Either the beginning, middle, or end were all marred by the district, marred by the treatment forced upon her by the Unbroken. She’d wanted to emulate what Jake had said before, one fact about his life for a fact about hers. A story for a story. But she found she couldn’t tell the whole truth, not yet at least.


    Over time, her stories would probably get closer and closer to the truth. Layer by layer she’d expose the truth of herself to him, the past she’d rather run from. Right now though… right now she’d much rather hide those truths. Live free and on the run, even if for just a single moment longer. Smiling at his face, which was quickly turning from rapt attention listening to her story to one of complete confusion she added,


    “What, I thought we were taking turns right? One thing about you, one thing about me? I think it’s your turn, right? Got any more stories?” A look of embarrassed understanding dawned on Jake''s face.


    “You''re still on that!”


    “Oh come on greenie, don’t spoil things.”