Merely Us

As Ariana was walking away from her home, someone else was running as fast as his long legs could carry him towards his. This someone was one of the five children (as I'm sure you guessed) and his name was Liam. Liam was running towards his house in the outskirts of the Big City.
There were two reasons Liam was running to the Big City. One reason was that his parents had been on their way there when the fatal crash occurred. It was the night after they had dropped Liam off at his friend's house.
As Liam jumped over a fallen tree, he thought about how orphanages looked in books and movies. "As long as I keep moving," he said to himself, "I won't have to live in an orphanage. As long as I make it to the Big City before the police start looking for me, I'll be able to hide. Then I can go home and run the bait shop."
This is what poor Liam kept telling himself, but deep down he knew it would never work. How could he run the bait shop alone? He didn't know how to work the money. And with customers coming in, surely he would be recognized as a "missing person". Although these flaws made the plan completely impossible, Liam ignored then entirely and kept running. Because like most children who are alone, he had no where else to go but home.
It was getting harder and harder for Liam to see the branches that seemed to appear in front of his face. He could sense night surrounding him like a blanket, but he didn't stop. He feared he would lose the adrenaline which was the sole reason he could keep moving.
After a while, Lim finally had to take a rest. He say against a lichen-covered tree and looked up at the sky. It was difficult to see through the leaves of all the trees, but Liam concluded that it was an unsettling periwinkle color. Soon the forest would be so black it would be impossible to navigate.
Liam sighed and pulled a miniature flashlight out of his pocket. He didn't have many possessions with him, but what he did have was important. A blanket, a pocketknife, a jar of peanut butter, a few slices of bread, a can of beans, and a few apples. He also had a photo album his mother had made. It all fit in his knapsack.
As he swung his flashlight around the area, he looked for a good place to lay down his blanket. Suddenly, he heard the snap of a twig and the crunch of a leaf. The sounds of footsteps. Liam started to panic. What if it was the police? Or kidnappers? Then he realized the footsteps were too light.
"It must be an animal," Liam said out loud. "Surely a friendly one," he continued not-so-surely, "But friendly or not, I don't want it near my food."
Liam tried to think of a plan to scare the animal away. It would probably run from a loud noise. He found a rock and threw it in an area near where he heard the footsteps. Nothing happened. "I'm not scared of you," he yelled, "Show yourself, beast!"
When a small girl with a blonde braid and hazel eyes appeared from within the shadows of the trees, Liam just stared in shock. He hadn't expected anything to respond, especially not a person!
For a moment there was silence as the two children waited for each other to speak. Finally, Liam realized he was going to have to go first, and said, "Sorry I called you a beast. I didn't know you were a person. Because I couldn't see you, you know, and you were in the dark. Um, anyway, I'm Liam." So much for good first impressions.
"That's alright," the girl said in a tiny voice, "I'm Ariana."
Liam shifted from foot to foot like he always did when he was nervous. "Uh, if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing in the middle of the woods?"
Ariana frowned slightly and said, "Well, I could ask the same of you." She looked at the ground and fiddled with her long hair.
They stood there for a moment, silent again. Neither wanted to reveal their information first. Then, Liam sighed and spoke up.
"Let's both say what we're doing on three, okay?"
The little blonde girl nodded and looked at him with her large hazel eyes, waiting.
"One, two, THREE!"
"I'm going to the Big City."
One answer, two voices. Liam gave Ariana a puzzled glance, and she stared back at him in shock. Liam didn't know what to do. He couldn't just leave her all by herself, not now. And they were both going the same place.... "Um, would you like to, er, I mean, it would make most sense if, uh, we just," Liam cleared his throat, "if we went together."
Across the clearing, Ariana looked up at the sky, appearing to be deep in thought.
Liam wondered if she had heard him. "Um, I said-"
"I heard what you said," Ariana's eyes snapped back to Liam's. Her stare made him want to run back into the forest, to hide behind a tree where no one could analyze him like she was doing. Whenever he looked at her, he felt he should be better than he was.
"I'll come with you." The words were quieter than anything else she had said. They were barely audible above the sounds of the forest at dusk.
Liam gave her a quick little smile before he said, "Okay. Um, do you have anything with you?"
"Yes!" Ariana swiveled around and walked to where she had been sitting earlier. As she picked her huge basket up and brought it to Liam, she said, "Let's put all our food in the middle so we can see how much we have."
Liam agreed and both children starte to empty their things onto the ground.
Suddenly, Ariana began to search franticly through her basket. "No, no," she muttered. She turned the basket upside-down and dumped all of its contents out. She sprung up and said, "I-I've lost something. I need to go find it," Ariana spun around and dashed towards the dark trees.
"Hey, wait!" Liam shouted as he stood up. "Ariana! You can't go without a flashlight." He jogged to catch up with her.
"Thank you," Ariana said, "Now come on!" She grabbed Liam's wrist and pulled him along as she ran farther into the forest. She let him go and started to inspect the ground as she walked.
"So, what is it that we're looking for?" Liam asked.
Ariana sighed and said, "My sock monkey. His name is Dude."
Liam laughed until Ariana shut him up with a glare. "Okay, well now I know what to look for." Then, he turned his head away so she couldn't see him smile. "Seriously," he thought, "Who names a sock monkey 'Dude'?"