Young Writers Society

Evaline watched James set the pot aside. She pursed her lips, wondering what it would be like to permanently live off the land without guidance. She had to do this for a short while herself on Earth, but she couldn't imagine doing it permanently. But at the same time, she also couldn't imagine perpetually running away, and these things seem to go hand-in-hand.

It sounded lonely.

"Have you ever almost gotten caught?" she asked.

James held back a scoff, almost not wanting to admit how many close calls he'd had. Especially those first few months, when he was still trying to get out of the Moonlight Kingdom borders.

"Yes," he said quietly. "But I've escaped, time and time again."

And he had gotten caught. By Butch.

He started pouring the soup into his simple wooden bowl, and put his spoon in it. He would just drink his soup. It didn't really matter that much. Food was food.

He got up, and handed the bowl to her with a little smile.

"If I've learned one thing, it's that I'm hard to catch."

Evaline peered up at him and accepted the bowl. "Thanks," she said, leveling the bowl while shifting into a more comfortable position.

She swirled the spoon around the soup for a few moments, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "And you really haven't met anyone else since then?" she asked. "You've just been traveling alone?"

James sat back down by the fire and set his pot in his lap. The warmth was kind of nice and helped his muscles relax, and the smell wafted up to his nose.

He found himself looking back out into the storm again, scanning what he could see, before Eve spoke again.

The clouds were still dark, but now it was beginning to look like the start of night - not just the dreary curtain of stormclouds.

"Where would I meet anybody?" he asked softly, more to himself, and almost too quiet for her to hear over the rain.

He looked back at Eve, and shrugged, tilting his head to the side.

"Like I said, I stay out of towns and cities as much as I possibly can. Not a lot of people wander off the roads into uncharted forests, and the few people who do rarely have good reasons."

"Well, you met me," she said, but it came out more of a low grumble.

Evaline lifted the spoon to her lips, sipping on the soup. It tasted decent, although her expectations weren't very high to begin with.

"It just sounds futile." She paused. "To keep running, I mean. By yourself, with no end in sight. I don't know."

She took another sip.

James wasn't sure what to say.

She was right, and he knew it, but he had tried finding people. Meeting people. At least, at first. But they'd all proven untrustworthy. If he was going to have better chances of finding people who didn't care about his wanted status he needed to travel further north, but he hadn't been able to make it that far yet. Bounty hunters had kept him running in circles. He could only do so much.

He lifted the pot and tilted it, like a big cup, sipping and letting the soup warm his insides.

As he set the pot back down he gazed into the fire.

"Maybe someday," he said. "I'll find someone else like you, but from Nye."

He paused.

"That would be nice."

Evaline looked up to softly smile at him before looking back down at the soup.

"I hope so too."

She spooned the remaining bits of vegetables and followed his lead to drink the rest of the broth before getting up to hand the bowl and spoon back to him. "Thanks for the meal," she said. "And, um. Letting me travel with you."

And your clothes, and your food, and your other supplies.

She lightly cleared her throat and looked back at the mouth of the cave. The rain more gentle now, but it was still dark.

"So, the rain is clearing up," she said a bit awkwardly, wanting to change subjects but not knowing what to say.

James took the bowl and nodded, starting to clean up and pack things away again.

"You're welcome - and yes. I think it'd be best to stay here for the night. It might rain again, and it'd be best to stay sheltered."

He was also tired and wanted to rest. Swimming had been a brief relief, but he still was in pain.

"We can get going again in the morning," he said. "But for now we can rest. If you can, we should sleep in shifts, so one of us can keep an eye out. Just in case."

Evaline nodded. "Sure. I can take the first shift."

She knew he'd be tired from being in constant pain, and she couldn't imagine how many sleepless nights he must have had if she was the first one to travel with him and take turns looking out.

But more importantly, she wanted some time alone to clear her head and think while staring at the rain. It was unlikely she'd have this kind of environment again on Earth.

"Just let me know when you wake up," she said, walking close to the entrance to the cave before sitting down, facing out.

James grabbed a blanket, already feeling the pull of sleep with a now-full stomach.

"If I don't wake up myself, wake me in a few hours."



Morning came. The rain and the dark rainclouds had gone, and the sun was back, shining brightly in a clear blue sky, with only wisps of clouds remaining. Elliot was prepped, their bags and belonging were packed up, and they'd gotten a little bit of food in their stomachs before they got on the road.

But as James held Elliot's reins and stepped out into the sunshine, his stomach growled again. He didn't want to draw from his rations again, but he could use a distraction. Especially after everything they'd talked about last night.

James turned to Eve, with a small smile growing on his face.

"Hey. Do you want to do a little foraging with me?"

Evaline had reached up to stretch her lower back, just barely touching the low part of the cave ceiling with her fingertips. She turned to James with a look of suspicion.

"Foraging?" she repeated, lowering her arms. "Are we low on food?"

"Only a little. Nothing too worrisome. Just thought it might be fun, and give us something else to do with our time," he said.

If this was his idea of fun, she was concerned.

"Sure," she said, now curious. "Lead the way."

James had to hold back a smile and nodded, turning to lead the way in silence, afraid he might give anything away if he were to say more, or seem more excited than was logical for something so mundane. He wanted to surprise her.

He led them through the forest once more, this time keeping his eye open for the bush he had in mind. Evaline probably wouldn't notice it or think it much different from any other bush, but James knew the tint and the shape of its leaves - he'd learned them early on, as a young boy. Because, well, as a brother, you had to learn little ways to trick your sister.

For a while, he didn't find anything. He knew they were native to the area, but one of the cons to foraging (not that he was doing exactly that) was sometimes, you just had to keep looking until you found it. And that meant time.

About an hour passed, and they were walking in the general direction he wanted to be heading, still towards the town, but with enough space to increase the chances of finding it.

And finally, he did.

A small smile spread across his face as he hurried towards a collection of bushes at the base of a thick-trunked tree. The leaves were light green and round, and there were little berries that were faintly pink, almost white.

He rushed towards them, but then slowed, sighing.

"Oh, nevermind," he said, with disappointment in his voice. "These ones are inedible." Still, he picked a few, and turned around, showing them in his palm to Evaline, from a distance. "Oh well..."

Just as his sentence trailed off, he pelted the berries at her, and as they hit her shirt and her hair, they exploded into clouds of light pink dust.

They had been "foraging" for an hour with little results, and every time James passed her, she kept making up some kind of variant of "oh yes, you're such a master forager, we have foraged so much already" to teeter between teasing and complaining.

Eventually, he seemed to find whatever he was looking for. "Inedible?" she repeated, staring at the little berries in his hands. "Are you seriously saying we spent all this time to look for ined—"

Suddenly he threw the berries at her and there was pink dust. EVERYWHERE.

Evaline coughed as she waved her hands to air out the dust, blinking several times until she could see straight.

At first, she was furious. And as she looked up to shoot a deadly glare at James, she couldn't help but notice the silly mischievous grin on his face. A twinge of nostalgia pulled her chest, and her look softened.

She paused. Then she looked at the bush he came from, then back at James. Bush, James, bush.

A smug smile crept up on her face before she bolted past him to pick dust-exploding-berries off the bush.