Soon enough, Alis and Ei spotted the river, and Alis dashed to it. Ei was bumped up and down as Alis ran, and he complained, “Stop! I’m going to throw up.”

“Ah, stop with the complaining, Ei.”

Alis stepped into the water and let Ei down. Ei instantly yelled, “Cold!”

Alis frowned and stared at Ei, and Ei grew concerned.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Alis picked up Ei and threw him into the water, and Ei couldn’t even comprehend what happened. He was staring up at the clouds above, and his ass cried out with pain from hitting the rocks. Slowly he turned his head toward Alis, and his anger burned. Alis laughed a little, and Ei sprinted toward him, and Alis dodged away, but then Ei leaned down and tackled him by his knees and toppled him over. Alis’ face was submerged underwater, but he could still see Ei’s smirk. Swiftly Alis shot up, but Ei got away and dashed deeper into the river. Alis coughed wildly from swallowing water, and then he saw, standing across the river, a large bear looking back at him. Ei furrowed his brows and asked, “What? Did you swallow a rock?”

Alis shook his head swiftly from side to side, and then Ei turned to see where he was staring. He saw a large bear with brown fur and a hump on its back. Its black beady eyes were enshrouded in mystery, as neither Alis nor Ei could figure out what it was thinking. A small noise came from Ei’s mouth, and the bear twitched. Alis ran toward Ei and threw him over his shoulder, and the bear started sprinting toward them.

Ei cried, “Run faster! Run faster!”

“I’m trying!”

Alis made it to shore, and his legs cried out with agony, but his adrenaline was pumping high, forbidding him from falling to fatigue. He looked behind him and saw that the bear was nearly across the river, and he dashed into the forest. The bear made it to shore and sprinted after them, and Ei stared at it directly as it rapidly approached them. Alis wasn’t nearly fast enough to outrun the bear, and Ei felt like his heart wasn’t even beating. Everything was happening too fast, and Ei couldn’t catch a breath. All he could do was stare at the beady black eyes and wait for death, but he couldn’t do that anymore. He couldn’t die as easily as he wished to, all because of the idiot trying to outrun a gigantic bear. Suddenly, he felt something within him lurch out, and his head dropped. Alis turned around again and saw the bear running away, and Alis stopped running and huffed in and out as his lungs nearly burst.

“It’s running away, Ei,” Alis said.

Ei didn’t respond, and Alis slowly let him down, and Ei nearly fell over before Alis caught him.

“He fainted?!”

Ei’s eyes were closed tightly, and he looked to be in a deep sleep. Alis lightly slapped Ei on his unbruised cheek, but Ei didn’t even flinch. Alis laid Ei carefully to the ground and put his head on his chest, and he could still hear his heart beating. Alis huffed a breath of relief, and then Ei’s eyes suddenly opened without warning, and he sat up swiftly, pushing Alis off of him. Ei dashed into the bushes, and Alis followed him confusedly.

“Where are you going? Ei?!”

A branch whacked Alis across the face, and he cried out in pain, but Ei didn’t even turn around. Ei stopped before a clearing, and Alis ran up to him and looked to see what he was staring at. There was the grizzly bear, lying over a spiky stump that was lodged into its chest. 

“Good, it’s dead,” Ei said with a sigh.

Alis turned to Ei and asked, “Did you do this?”

Ei blinked languidly and said softly, “Probably,” before he passed out again.

This time, Alis didn’t catch him.