The desert was vast, incredibly vast. No matter how far she walked, the landscape did not change. Everything was sand, earth, mountains in the distance and sky above. The sun rose and set, giving time for day and time for night, only the night was not much less clear than the day, and the day was not as clear as in her world. She could see everything perfectly, but unless she looked directly into the sun she did not feel dazzled.

Otherwise, she felt excellent in that place. As soon as she recovered from the wounds and pains, she began to walk with the elongated animal at her side towards the horizon, away from the mountains.

—I have to flee from the Chainer and his people- she concluded, after much thought -get to a city and gather information about the place where my dad is.

The same place she had seen in her dream; the castle in the center of the city plunged in darkness, under which was the chamber containing the enormous and peaceful chains. That place must have had a strong relationship with that Chainer.

"Chainer" That title seemed very strange to her, she doubted it was a real word.

She was thinking about this as she walked along with the little animal, when suddenly, something grabbed her leg. Erica looked down, surprised, and found some kind of lizard hiding in the sand. It was trying to bite her leg off.

The girl stared at it, ignoring the pain in her limb, while the lizard did its best to make its prey fall.

—You're hungry, aren't you- she said -Well, so am I.

So he grabbed the lizard by the jaws, opened them to pull out its leg, and then yanked it out of its hiding place under the surface. In no time she killed it and skinned it to eat, later she gave some to the little animal.

—Come to think of it, I don't know what your species is called- she confessed.

He looked at her for a while, turned his head and then continued eating. Erica pondered for a moment.

—How about Stela?

But the animal shook its head. Erica was a little surprised, but then tried to think of another name.

—Snowflake?

But the animal shook its head again, now with more force.

—Argh, it's hard!

They went on like this for the next three days. Erica would propose a name and the animal would totally reject it. They did it while walking, while hunting, while playing and even before going to sleep, until the girl got tired.

—Enough!- she exclaimed, and then pointed at the animal -From now on you will be Papel!

The animal looked at her like he had smelled something rotten.

—Don't look at me like that! You're the one who's hard to please, silly Papel!

Erica continued walking. Papel could do nothing but follow her. After all, he couldn't talk, he was an animal.

------------------------------------------

One day, Erica was hunting a giant monster; a kind of snake slithering across the sand that had tried to devour them. With some effort she killed it and took out some meat to eat it, but then she noticed that Papel did not approach her to ask for his share. She looked everywhere, but could not find him. He was nowhere to be found.

After that she looked around for him, but he had completely disappeared. Erica became worried, she thought that another monster had eaten him while she was fighting with the snake. She remained distressed for several hours, until she fell asleep.

Two days later she had already made up her mind that Papel had died. While traveling, she noticed some huge rocks in the middle of nowhere. She decided to climb them to look around from above, maybe she could find a city in the distance. She quickly climbed them, jumping and clinging to the corners. As she was about to reach the top, a little white head popped out and greeted her with a squeak.

—Eeeek! -exclaimed the beast.

—Papel!- Erica jumped up, so surprised that she almost let go of the rocks.

In no time at all, she climbed what was left and looked at the animal in front of her. It was circling lively and then jumped on top of her to run all over her body. Finally, Erica took it in her arms to get a good look at it. She had never seen another one of its kind, and she could have been wrong, but at that moment it seemed to her that this animal was Papel. At least he looked the same, and he trusted her a lot for a stranger.

—Papel?- she called again, hesitantly.

—Eeeek- he shrieked.

They both stared at each other for a long moment, until Erica tapped him on the head with a finger.

—That's for running away without warning- she snapped -How did you find me again? I've come a long way since we parted.

But Papel did not answer, perhaps because he could not speak. Erica sighed.

—It's okay, I guess you have your life too... whatever it is you do.

With nothing more to say, she left him on her shoulders to snuggle comfortably. There she petted him. She didn't understand how an animal had known where to find her after two days, but it didn't matter anymore. He was fine.