My brother and I are cooking marshmallows over a fire. Mine burns and I start to cry so my brother gives me his.

"I like mine burnt anyway." He claims, but I know he doesn't. He's just nice like that.

I look into the fire as I take a bite of my s'more. The gooey chocolate makes my mouth taste sweet and some marshmallow gets on my fingers, making them sticky, but I don't care. I keep watching the fire, dancing it's strange little dance. I always liked fire. It's so beautiful. I remember wanting to be a fire elementalist, so I could control such a thing.

"Hey Go-Go."

I turn around, a smile on my face, as my brother calls me by my nickname.

"What, Slow-Slow?" I ask in my squeaky little voice, my smile still intact as a I call him by his nickname.

My brother's white-blue eyes sparkle as he rolls them. Suddenly, he grabs me around my middle, making me squeal in delight, and lays back, setting me down next to him so we lay in the grass, side by side. I press my face into his chest, looking up at him, wondering what he was going to show me.

He shows me lots of things. Whenever he acts like this it means he's going to teach me something new.

"You see that star up there? The big bright one?" He asks, pointing.

I follow him finger to see a bright star. I nod.

He points out a shape with his finger, "You see how it makes that shape? The four that form a rectangle of sorts and the others that form a line coming off it?"

I nod again. This is like connect the dots except with stars!

"That's called the Big Dipper, Blitz. It's a constellation!"

I smile.

That's pretty, how it forms a spoon. It's like it wants some of Dads homemade chicken soup. That's always good.

My brother points out some other constellations which I quickly learn, laying beside him underneath the stars, the cool night air rolling over us and the green grass tickling me.

. . .

When I wake up, I don't know how long it's been. I don't know where I am or what happened either. The only thing I do know is I'm laying on something cold and hard in the dark. The comfort I had gotten from my memory-dream fades and is quickly replaced with fear.

I try to sit up and look around but my body is instantly searing with pain. I groan and fall back, clenching my teeth together as I wait for the pain to fade. I try to remember what happened. All I can come up with is the fire and the arm that saved me.....but who did it belong to? I can't remember anything after that.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I feel myself relax as Terro's amused voice reaches my ears.

I roll my eyes as he walks over and comes to a stop next to me, "I can do what I want, thank you very much."

I can't see him but am almost certain he just rolled his eyes.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, mister!" I scold.

"How did you know I rolled my eyes?!?" He says in shock.

"I'm psychic."

"Not funny."

"It was to me."

"You have an awful sense of humor."

"It's better than yours."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Oh quite your bickering!"

I smile as I hear Ignis intrude in what could have become a full out argument. A fire illuminates the room and I see we're underground.

I still can't turn my head because of the pain but I hear Terro inhale sharply.

"What?" I snap.

"Geez. You look awful!"

I roll my eyes, "Thanks. Just what I wanted to hear after almost being burned alive."

I think Terro bowed but I'm not sure.

"Blitz!" I hear four people chorus.

Seconds later the entire team is standing around me and I managed to sit with Kin propping me up. Everyone looks beat up and sore. They all have bruises and scratches everywhere, and I'm sure I'm just as bad if not worse. Nero has a bump on his head and Kin's knee is stabbed over from what looks like a deep but not wide gash.

"Are you okay?" Neve asks me.

I raise an eyebrow at her, "Do I look okay?"

She winces and shakes her head.

"So what happened?" I ask nobody in general as Nero gives me some water in a metal cup.

"Terro ran ahead and made a tunnel we could hide in. Everyone was close enough to see except you so Terro had to pull you in when you came by." Anemos explains. He winces, "You have some bad burns."

"Great. How long have I been asleep?" I ask, taking a gulp of the water Nero provided, relishing the cool liquid as it slides down my parched throat.

"Four days."

I almost spit out the water, but I manage not to. I do end up choking on it, however, and having to cough a bit before I can speak again.

"Four days?!?!" I exclaim in shock once I compose myself.

Kin nods nervously.

"That means...." I say, doing the math in my head, "we only have three more days left! Seriously?"

Everyone nods at me, beaming.

Three days! We get to go home soon!

I smile a genuine smile, barely feeling the small pain on my face at the action. For a couple minutes we all stand there, beaming like idiots, before Anemos frowns, "Wait.....how will we know who wins?"

That makes the smile's slip off our faces. For some reason the question rattles me. How will we?

"Maybe the Black Serpents didn't.....didn't survive." Neve proposes.

I shake my head in disbelief, "No....the leaders wouldn't let them die....right?"

Nobody answers.

"Maybe they'll decide who survived better?" Kin suggests.

Everyone quickly agrees but I stay quiet. How will we know?

I have a bad feeling about this, but just shake it off and decide I'll figure it out later, hiding my thoughts with a smile.

For now we need to heal.

. . .

For the rest of the day and all of the following two days we try to get better. We had lost most of our fish and berries in the fire but some survived. We eat what we have left and drink lots of water, hoping it'll help. The forest outside is completely gone, but some smoke still lingers there so we try to stay underground.

By the end of the last day most of my burned skin has peeled off but some parts are still lobster red and screaming. Almost all of our cuts had scabbed over and our bruises had faded, but we were all still tender and vulnerable.

We all lay down on the floor next to each other, so close our shoulders touch.

"Are you guys as worried about tomorrow as I am?" Nero asks us quietly.

For a moment nobody does anything, but then we nod.

"It's all ending tomorrow, one way or another." Terro whispers.

I don't say anything. My thoughts drift to where they have been going a lot recently; Dad. Where is he? Is he fine? What if I can't help him? Will he die?

I shake the bad thought away like I do every time and try to focus on the good things. It's almost done. We're almost done.

Nobody speaks as we drift off into sleep. I quietly pray that our injuries will be better tomorrow before I drift into the world of dreams.