They reached a small dirt driveway that twisted and curved it's way back into the woods and Kyla turned down it. They hadn't been walking down it that long when they reached an orange, rusty, metal gate set between two wooden posts. She didn't really know what the purpose of it was though because there wasn't a fence attached to it so you could easily just walk around it which is what they did. Maybe the point was to keep cars out? However that didn't make much sense either because the driveway ended giving way to more woods just a couple feet past it.

They'd just made it past the gate when they heard a loud neigh behind them. Josiah spun around and started to run towards them smiling from ear to ear. Jen grabbed his arm and immediately pulled him back. It was one thing when they'd been on the other side of the fence but without the fence what was to stop them from trampling her precious little boy?

"Oh no," Kyla said, running her hand through her hair.

"What do we do?" Jen asked, her voice became shaky when the horses walked up to them.

"Well, I could chase them off. But they might just come back... and as big as they are they could attract attention and lead someone right to us...," she said, thinking out loud as she reached up to pet the antsy mare.

Jen looked down at Josiah's pleading eyes then back at Kyla, "And if we take them with us?"

"We can't feed them, but they might be able to find enough on their own," she said with an unsure shrug.

"Would they hurt us? Would they hurt Josiah?" she asked. She was scared of them, but Josiah was totally lost over them, and Kyla seemed perfectly at ease with them.

"No, they're known for their calm gentle nature, perfect for children. If anything they'd become protective of him."

Jen looked down at Josiah again, "I guess it'll be okay if they go with us, besides we don't want them to lead anyone to us do we?" she said, smiling at him.

A huge grin broke out on his face and Jen immediately knew she'd made the right decision. Josiah walked towards them with his mother holding tightly onto his shoulders. She sucked in a breath when the horses lowered their head to him in beautiful unison. He grinned and reached out to pet them both. Kyla and Jen shared a secret smile.

Kyla looked up at the sky and guessed it was probably about midday, "Okay, we really need to get going. We have to find a safe place to sleep for the night."

"Okay, come on Josiah. You can pet them later baby"

"Are you sure they'll follow us?" he asked, looking back at them doubtfully.

"I guess we'll find out won't we." Jen said, scrunching up her nose and smiling at him.

Josiah took his mothers hand and they followed after Kyla. Several times while they were walking Josiah would look back over his shoulder nervously to make sure the horses were coming -not that he really had to as loud as they were- while he was doing he noticed they were ruffling through the leaves and finding grass to eat. He smiled to himself, Kyla was right they'd be able to feed themselves.

They'd been walking for a while when Kyla stopped to give everyone another break. This was their fifth one, and she agreed they needed them but she looked up at the sky nervously and wished they didn't. They needed to find a good campsite before dark and they were starting to get low on time.

"Okay y'all ready," she asked after they'd been sitting for about ten minutes.

"Yeah sure, let me just get Josiah," Jen said, standing up.

"Where'd he go?" Kyla asked, standing up.

She'd been too busy in her own thoughts she hadn't been paying any attention to her surroundings. Now that she looked around she noticed the horses had wandered off too. She wasn't worried about them though, the way they'd been following them they'd definitely be back.

"He found this half uprooted tree and wanted to play in it. I didn't see the harm," she said, walking over to it.

Kyla followed her over to check out the tree herself, but she saw more possibilities in it than just a playhouse. "Oh my god! That's perfect!"

"What?" Jen asked, confused.

"We can stay here. Well for the night at least. I'll have to scout the area tomorrow to see if it could be longer than that."

"Really! We're finally done walking?" Jen asked, excited.

"I think so," Kyla said, bending down to look inside the big hole.

Josiah turned to see what had blocked his light and smiled at them, "Isn't it cool," he said.

"It sure is angel," his mom replied.

"Do you want to stay here Josiah?" Kyla asked.

"Oh can we?" he responded gleefully.

"Yep, I think we can," Kyla said with a relieved smile.

"This will do nicely for a little while if I dig it out more. If we stay here longer than the night I'll have to find a way to cover what the overhanging roots don't," she said, to Jen already picturing.

She stood up and turned around to see the horses coming back up a hill towards them. They were soaking wet from the chest down. Awesome she thought to herself, if that water source was a mile or less away they could stay here for awhile. They couldn't have been luckier if they'd just struck gold.

"What should I do while you're digging," Jen asked, as they took their packs off and set them together on the ground.

"Ummm, well there's flint and steel in my here. Ever used it?" Kyla asked, digging into her bag.

"A long time ago when I was in girl scouts at like age seven," she said chuckling nervously.

"That's better than me 'cause I was hoping I could just figure it out on the go," she said, returning her laugh.

"Okay I'll get started on that then. Josiah, you wanna come help mommy find sticks baby?" she called to him as she walked off.

Josiah climbed out of the hole and Kyla climbed in with a metal bowl to start digging. As she dug it out more she made a pile of dirt just outside the entrance, she had plans for it that she'd hopefully get to tomorrow.

Jen walked around picking up twigs and sticks that would be the right size to start a fire with. She chuckled when she saw Josiah picking up every stick and twig in sight. When they had a decent sized pile she sat down and made a little teepee of sorts with the twigs, then she pulled out the flint and steel and started striking them together. Occasionally she would get a spark that would shoot off and land on her organized pile of sticks but it quickly went out it just wasn't catching. She was getting pretty tired and her sparks were landing where she wanted them less and less. By complete accident one landed on a pile of leaves Josiah had been playing with beside her and a flame flared up. Her eyes lit up in surprise. She smacked her palm against her forehead, of course. She needed leaves to help it catch duh. She got up, collected a few handfuls of leaves, and came back to her spot to add them to her teepee. After what felt like forever -and a couple of heartbreaking failed attempts- Jen finally got it. The sight of her little fire filled her with joy, it made her feel accomplished and a bit relieved.

"Good job," Kyla said, from where she was sitting at the entrance of the new den.

Jen turned around to respond and started laughing, "That is a lot of dirt," she said through her laughter.

Kyla looked at the pile next to her, "Yeah it's a pretty decent pile," she said looking proudly at her mound of dirt.

Jen laughed even harder, "I'm talking about you silly."

Kyla looked down at herself and chuckled, "Oh, yeah. I better find a change of clothes. I wish I knew where that water was the horses cooled off in."

"The horses found water," Jen asked, turning serious.

"Yeah they came back wet earlier. We can go look for it tomorrow."

"Okay. Are we ready for bed now?" Jen asked, hopeful.

"Almost, but we'll have to take watches to keep the fire going for tonight. Tomorrow I'll seal up the entrance so nothing can get in when we're sleeping, but right now we don't have that luxury so we need the fire," she answered, as she grabbed three cans of beanie weenies from one of the bags along with a grey tarp and some spoons.

"Okay, no problem. Do you want me to go first?"

"No that's okay. I can go first, I don't think I could sleep right now any way."

"Okay if you're sure. Let me know when it's ready for us," Jen said, handing an open can of beanie weenies to her son.

"I just have to spread this tarp so y'all don't have to lay in the dirt and it'll be ready," she said, standing up from her spot by the fire.

Kyla placed her empty can next to their backpacks and headed back to the den with tarp in tow. She pushed the tarp into the whole and crawled in after it smoothed it out as she went. Then she crawled back out and went to get their bag. She carried them to their new sleeping place and took them inside. In her bag was a small fuzzy blanket. She pulled it out and spread it over the tarp before crawling back out of the whole.

"It's ready," she said, coming back to the fire.

"Thanks. Josiah, are you ready for bed," she asked.

"Yes," he said drowsily, handing back the empty gatorade bottle he'd been drinking from.

Jen started to toss it into the fire. "No, stop! We'll need that to store water in!" Kyla informed her.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think about that."

"No big deal. Now you know," Kyla said, smiling at her so she'd know she wasn't mad.

Jen stood up and led Josiah to the uprooted tree. "Goodnight Jen."

Jen stopped, "Kyla... my name isn't Jen. It's Lily."

"Okay, goodnight Lily," she said, not the least bit surprised that she'd lied about it before.

Kyla sat in the dark thinking about the huge changes that had been made to her original plan, and how grateful she was for them. How grateful she was that she wasn't alone.