About 12 hours later. Kye finally wakes up after both he and Kian had suddenly passed out. Smelling smoke in the air, Kye panics as he begins to remember what happened.
"Mom! Dad!" Kye winces as he receives a sudden sharp pain in his left eye. "Ahh!"
Hearing him scream, the already awake Kian rushes to Kye's side. "Are you okay? I heard you scream."
"Uh, I'm fine, sorry…" Kye looks around, noticing his father lying dead on the ground near him. "So it wasn't just a bad dream, huh." Kye's eyes begin to tear up again.
"No, it's all real. But I wish it wasn't.." says Kian, "Here, take this. I woke up a while ago and looked around for anything we could use."
Kian tosses Kye a shovel and a small backpack.
"What's the shovel for?"
"Well, we should bury Dad, shouldn't we? Is that the right thing to do?"
Kye wipes his eyes of tears and stands up. "Oh, right…"
"Come on, it's already getting pretty dark out."
The twins work together to dig a grave for Nicholas. After placing him in and saying a short prayer the village priest taught them, the boys head out to find shelter and food.
"I'm hungry…" says Kye, rubbing his empty stomach.
"It'll be okay. Check your bag."
Kye's eyes light up as he reaches into his backpack. "Why didn't you tell me we had f-" The happy expression fades from his face. "What am I going to do with a dagger? I can't eat this!"
"I tried to get back into the shelter for food, but stuff had covered the entrance. So we'll have to catch something to eat." explains Kian, "Just like when we went hunting with Dad before."
"I don't have the energy for that, and it's dark out!"
"In that case, let's sleep. We can catch something early tomorrow morning."
Kye frowns. "Hey… Kian?"
"Yeah?"
"How can you be so calm through all of this?"
"I'm not calm, but I have to seem that way so you stay calm." replies Kian, sitting down on a fallen tree, "Mom and Dad wouldn't want us to be panicking or sad. They'd want us to survive."
Kye sits down next to Kian. "Have you felt different at all?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, ever since we passed out, I can feel something flowing inside me. Like running water..."
Kian gets excited. "Now that you mention it, I feel it too. You don't think-"
"We totally unlocked our Traits!" gleams Kye.
The twins jump up and down, celebrating their achievement, trying to enjoy the only good thing about the horrible day. The next day, the boys wake up early, starving and thirsty, and continue their quest to find food.
"Ready to go?" asks Kian.
Kye stretches and dusts off his clothes. "My stomach sure is. I'm star-"
Kian covers Kye's mouth with his hands. "Shhh, stay still!"
"What is it?" whispers Kye.
"Look!" whispers Kian, pointing at a nearby bush.
The bush rattles, and a small rabbit jumps out and sniffs around.
"There's breakfast."
"How exactly will we catch a rabbit without a net, Kian?"
"Just hand me the dagger."
Kye grabs the dagger from his bag and hands it to Kian. "There's no way you can catch that thing before it runs away!"
"Shut up, you're going to scare it away!"
The rabbit hears the distant chatter and quickly hops away.
"Now you've done it!" Kian starts to chase the rabbit but is too slow. As a last resort, he quickly aims and throws the dagger at it but misses. Accepting defeat, Kian frowns, picks up the dagger, and returns to Kye.
"I'm sorry…" whispers Kye, "I shouldn't have talked."
"It's okay; we'll find something else to eat." says Kian, "The day just started. Let's get going."
"Yeah…"
For the next few hours, the twins fail to catch multiple small animals to eat, ending up far south of their destroyed village. They begin to grow impatient until Kye finds a piece of vine and has a great idea.
"Kian, look!" shouts Kye.
"What?" asks Kian.
Kye holds up the long piece of vine. "We can use this to make the dagger longer, like a spear! We just need a long stick to tie it to the dagger with the vine."
"That's a good idea!" Kian says excitedly, "Good job, bro!"
"Yeah, it is a good idea, isn't it." Kye brags.
Kian points at the nearby trees. "We can just cut off a branch of those trees over there."
The boys' stomachs growl.
"Let's hurry and do it, too." Kye insists, holding his empty stomach.
The twins run to the small forest and cut a branch off a tree. Kye then ties the branch and dagger together with the vine and hands Kian the hand-crafted spear.
"I'll be able to reach something before it can run now!" says Kian.
Tears start to run down Kye's cheek.
"Kye, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Dad taught me how to tie something together like that. Why did he have to die? What did he do to deserve that?"
"Kye…"
"And where's mom? Is she also dead? Why did this happen to us?"
"Kye…"
"Are we even going to survive?"
Kian drops the spear and hugs Kye. "Listen, you know I don't have the answers to those questions. I feel the same way, but we can't think about that now. We have to find food first, and then we have to find a village to ask for help. Right now, it's just you and me."
Kye wipes the tears from his face. "I know, but-"
"It's okay, Kye. We'll get through this together. I can't do this without you. Now, are you ready to find something to eat, bro?"
Kye picks up the makeshift spear. "Okay. I'm sorry."
After more searching, the boys find another rabbit, bigger than the one they saw in the morning, and attempt to catch it.
"Alright, I'm going in." whispers Kian.
"You got this, bro. I know you can do it."
"Right, here goes nothing." Kian takes a deep breath and sprints towards the rabbit, which notices him and darts in the opposite direction. Realizing that the rabbit is about to get away, Kian throws the spear, and fortunately, it hits and pins it to the ground. "I got it!"
"Great job, bro!" Kye shouts in approval. "We can finally eat!"
Kian picks up the rabbit but frowns.
"What's wrong?"
"Well, I just thought… how are we going to cook it?" asks Kian, "I don't know how to make a fire or cook."
"Oh… I didn't think about that. Maybe we can eat it raw. What's wrong with that?"
"I heard that you could get sick from eating raw meat." explains Kian, "If we get sick out here, we are going to die."
"So, if we don't eat, we die, and if we eat it, we might get sick and die." Kye removes the spear from the rabbit. "Sounds like a risk we have to take. We should skin it first, though."
"Kye, I don't think we should eat it." Kian insists, "It's too big of a risk!"
"What?! I'm starving!"
"I know, but-"
"I need to eat Kian. If I get sick, it's my fault."
Kye begins to skin the rabbit, but Kian smacks it out of his hand.
"What the hell is your problem, Kye? You're being selfish!"
"Selfish?! How am I being selfish? Wasn't this your idea in the first place?!"
"If you get sick and die, who will I have left?!"
Kye stops yelling at his brother.
"I know I said we needed to find food, and we did." explains Kian, "But now I'm telling you that we need to find something different and more safe to eat. You have to trust-"
"Okay, okay. You were always smarter than me, so I'll trust you." Kye drops the rabbit to the ground. "So, what else is there to eat out here?"
"We'll go in there." says Kian, pointing to a nearby forest, "Maybe there is some fruit or berries."
The boys search the forest for food for another two and a half hours but have little luck. They exit the forest and decide they can no longer walk, lying in the grass.
"What time is it?" asks Kye.
"I don't know, but it doesn't feel too late; maybe around five," Kian replies.
"I don't have the energy to walk anymore. I just want to lie down and take a nap."
"Me either. I guess we'll keep looking after we get some rest."
"Yeah, that sounds good." Kye yawns. "Kian, do you feel light-headed at all?"
"My head does hurt a little. It must be from the heat and all the walking. Just sleep it off."
"Yeah, okay. Goodnight, Kian."
"Goodnight, bro."
As he lies down, Kian's ears begin to ring, and he hears an unknown voice say his name.
"Kian… Carter."
"Huh, did you say something, Kye?"
"No, what's up?"
"Nothing, I just thought I heard you."
The next day, the boys had similar struggles but finally found some food and water. They stumbled upon a small pond with a singular berry bush. Celebrating their achievement, Kye and Kian stuffed their faces with tons of berries and drank pond water. After finishing all the berries, they continued their search for help and began waking. However, they quickly started feeling extremely sick and tired, so Kian suggested that they take a short break, and the two passed out near a tree.
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