The Valley

David and Annie were lying on the ground panting; David's hand gripped his damaged arm tightly, blood oozing from it once more, though slower compared to when he had first gotten the wound. He glanced over at Annie, who appeared unscathed besides the scar and a small bruise on her cheek. David glanced down at his stomach, where a new puncture wound could be seen through a tear in his shirt. He let his head rest against the ground again then.

"Are you- okay?" he panted out. Annie groaned and rolled over onto her side, looking at him.

"No, but I'll live."

They had lost Ridley during the ambush, though he had told them to run and that he would handle the beasts. How could they not have expected the beasts to have been waiting on the other side?

David chuckled at Annie's honesty.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, knowing his wounds were worse. She covered a large bruise she could feel forming on her stomach with her hands, sitting up slowly. "The blood loss isn't getting to your head, right?"

"I'll live," David copied her words, poking his tongue out at her. Annie rolled her eyes and crawled over to him, helping him up slowly.

"Do you think we'll meet up with him again?" she whispered, brushing some of hair off his forehead. David looked up at her, slowly sitting up the rest of the way on his own.

"Honestly, I really hope not; I can't really trust him," he shook his head. Annie looked somewhat shocked.

"Well, I hope we do; I want to know if he made it out alive or not," she said. She stood up then, holding her hand out to David.

There was a short moment then where David looked at her hand, not really wanting to stand for a long while. He glanced down at his wounds, then reluctantly placed his hand in hers and allowed Annie to carefully heave him up onto his feet.

"All right, do you think you can make it back home now? I don't think I can continue on without you; I'd go insane."

David saw how truly vulnerable she was then, even with her outward strong appearance and how tough she was. He reached his hand out toward her, and she allowed him to tenderly stroke her cheek. The gesture made her stomach twist, though she found it oddly comforting.

Though she could see how tired he was, he said, "I'll be with you every step of the way."

Annie nodded, taking his hand and draping his arm over her shoulders. With her arm wrapped tightly around his waist, she helped him move through the trees.

Annie thought about the pretty glow inside the caves as the forest began to slowly light up with the rising sun. Would the creatures turn back to stone? She pulled David closer instinctively, glancing around constantly.

"I'm not going anywhere," David mumbled, his head slowly dropping to Annie's shoulder. His eyes were half-lidded.

"I know," she nodded. "But what if there's another ambush, and they stab at you again?"

"I'll be fine," David gently squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "Stop worrying about ridiculous things now."

"It's not ridiculous!" Annie exclaimed, grabbing his shoulders and turning her body to face him. "It could really happen!"

"Then we should keep moving, right?" David breathed, a light smile on his lips. Annie glanced around, then up through the leaves in the trees.

"You know, those monsters should be frozen solid again by now," she said.

"So?" David leaned forward slightly, though not intentionally.

"So, we should take this time to rest," she pushed on his shoulders lightly to help support him more and looked at his face again. "You... you better not slip into a coma."

"I'll be fine..." David's forehead collided gently with Annie's shoulder, and she could no longer hold his weight. They both fell to the ground, Annie doing her best not to end up on her back.

"Hey!" she shook his shoulders. "Get off!"

When there was no response, she turned his head slightly to see that his eyes were closed. Annie sighed and rolled her eyes, looking around at her surroundings. There was a tree not too far behind her, and she carefully pulled David with her to lean her back against it, wrapping her arms around him protectively as she eyed the forest.

"Annie," David was shaking her awake with his uninjured arm hours later. "Annie, come on; we're losing daylight."

She blinked a lot as she shifted back into consciousness.

"Wait, what? I fell asleep?" Looking around wildly suddenly and straightening up, she panicked- were they being attacked?

"Hey, calm down," David chuckled, grabbing her shoulder and holding her still. "It's been a long journey for the both of us, of course you fell asleep."

"I'm sorry," Annie hung her head, placing her face against her hands. "I was supposed to be keeping a look out."

"It's fine; we're alive, right?" David moved his hand from her shoulder and pushed her hands away, lifting her chin.

"Yeah," she nodded, batting his hand away.

"Good, now stop freaking out and let's get a move on," he stood up slowly, grasping his stomach. Annie got to her feet as well, and wrapped her arm around David's waist.

"I'm fine," he insisted, though he winced as he spoke. Annie didn't believe him, but she pulled her hand away.

"All right," she held her hands up in defeat and allowed David to lead the way.

Their pace was much slower than before without Annie helping David along, but he refused to let her help him again. She sighed and continued to watch him wobble and stumble.

A loud rumbling sound came from her stomach then, and she quickly wrapped her arms around it from embarrassment. David turned to look at her.

"You're hungry?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"No," she shook her head, turning pale. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Don't do it on me!" he raised his arm and backed away from her. "There, those bushes." He pointed to her right.

"Yeah," Annie nodded, her voice croaky. She quickly stumbled over to the bushes, and David covered his ears against the gagging sounds.

Much more painful than actually vomiting, Annie thought as she dry-heaved.

"You know, we've gone a long time without eating anything," David said, his back was turned to her. "This is probably actually from hunger; I know I'm hungry."

"I feel sick," Annie groaned, tears running down her cheeks.

"I'm not good with hunting, or picking out which berries aren't poisonous," David sighed.

"N-neither am I," Annie gasped out.

An agonizing fifteen minutes later, though they felt like years instead to both of them, and Annie was wiping saliva and stomach acid from her mouth.

"Are you okay now?" David asked, turning to look at her.

"Yeah," she nodded, though she looked oddly green in the face.

This time David wrapped his arm around Annie. Annie leaned against him, though quickly straightened up when David let out a pained sound.

"Sorry, I forgot," she said, wrapping an arm around him as well.

"It's fine," he ground out, his jaw tightly clenched. "Come on."

They continued on, relying on each other for support. Finally Annie began to feel a bit better, and then it was just David relying on her for support.

"How do you know if we're going the right way?" Annie broke the silence suddenly.

"I honestly don't; I'm just sincerely hoping that whatever direction we're moving in is leading us away from that weird place," David answered with a stone-cold expression on his face. Annie nodded, accepting that as a good enough answer.

If they did reach civilization though, what would they do with no money to spend? William certainly wouldn't be conveniently waiting for them at the nearest town, money in hand and ready to be exchanged for the tome the two had collected for him. And the longer Annie thought, the more she felt like she was sinking further and further into darkness.