As Armin walked up the beach, he felt the light of the sun beaming down on his back. It was warm, almost to the point of discomfort, but still welcome after spending all morning cooped up in the cave. He supposed he could have left earlier had he felt the absolute need to, but considering the beach had already been thoroughly explored and entering the forest, even in the daylight, was a worrisome proposition to him, he had spent the morning inside, tending the fire and complaining about mangos.

‘I suppose I do need to at least stretch my legs a bit,’ Armin thought to himself as the water that soaked his feet from the surf was quickly absorbed by the drier sand further up the bank. Zaida trudged behind him. He looked over his shoulder at her and remarked, “I don’t suppose you have any idea where we might find anything that could be useful to us?”

Zaida grinned, “Absolutely none! But we’re bound to find something if we look! Into the trees with you, doggy boy, I’ve gotta pee. Naked or not, I’m not letting you watch.”

Armin sighed and did as she requested, moving deeper into the trees to give her privacy while she squatted behind one just within the treeline. He also took this time to relieve himself, making sure to stand a good deal away from where she was. After both were finished, they made their way to the spring and took turns drinking before figuring out where they wanted to search.

“The options are really quite limitless at this point,” Armin mused, “I mean, we’ve barely stepped foot off the straight shot through the trees that takes us here. Anywhere we look will be a place we haven’t yet been.”

Zaida nodded, “I think our best bet would be to look for some kind of animal we could trap or something. We need protein; mangos won’t cut it alone for much longer.”

“Unfortunately, the only animal we’ve come across so far has been that dog.”

“That’s it!” Zaida snapped her fingers, “The dog has to be eating something, it’s a carnivore. I say we track the dog and see what it’s eating, or at least see if we can follow it to other smaller prey that lives in this forest.”

Armin stared her dead in the eyes. “You mean you want to go looking for the animal that tried to kill me and Esther?”

Zaida shoved him, “Oh don’t be such a baby, that dog could at best have just given you a bite on the arm or leg, you were never in any real danger from it.”

“Bites get infected and we have no way of sterilizing wounds or even binding them at this point. If the dog itself didn’t kill me, disease would.”

“Whatever, let’s just go. C’mon, before it gets dark, and we can’t see anymore.”

Armin tried to argue more, but Zaida shushed him, grabbing his arm and dragging him around the spring, finally letting him go when they were on the other side. Then the pair walked deeper into the forest.