Training must be brutal. Layana thought as she hitched a duffle bag over her shoulder. Nyla had insisted she carry the bag with face cloths. After their two nights' rest at the kind men's humble abode, Nyla and the others decided it was time to pack up and find Maribeth. The plan has tilted ever so slightly now, and they'd need a person from the past as an ally. Layana figured Maribeth was this someone, the someone who could quite possibly know a secret tunnel or a secret authority they'd need. They're clinging for scraps now. Just a little help to find Cathy.

As their past missions to go back to the headquarters were both very dangerous and cost lives while staying for only a small amount of time, they'd need leverage. If a veteran of someone going to and fro on the enemy base could be of help, they'd need it.

"Alright, we go on intervals," Nyla had explained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"The village would be on the other side of the island. Hidden. We don't know exactly where, but we know it's on the other side." She hitched a duffle bag over her shoulder. "Which is why, one day will be spent on trekking past the rocky mountains. The next day would be lent for training and eventually, rest."

"I have a question," Layana announced, holding up a hand.

"Of course you do, fire away."

"Why don't we just lend the whole journey for, well, journeying? Can't we just train once we get to Equimaire?"

"Great question, but the problem is that," Nyla raised her head toward her. "We can't be too fast on trusting the people there. It's been so long since I've been to Equimaire and we can't be so sure about their welcoming."

"Oh, okay."

Now, they set foot for another journey. Layana jumped over a fallen log. "So, you know a lot about these 'surviving in the wild' things?" Layana asked, slowing down beside Nyla who was leading the group silently, a long walking stick in her hand. Layana's eyebrows furrowed and she pointed at the unnecessary walking stick. "Why do you even need that anyway?"

"To complete the look," Nyla answered. "And I do know a lot."

"Ha," Layana said, sounding like something halfway between a hum and a snort. She established that Nyla has been living like this for a while now, away from civilization. Was the civilization that God made really that terrifying? Suppose Nyla was trying to escape the prophecy of destruction? Layana shook the idea off immediately, 'that's impossible. Nyla believes in God.' "Who taught you?" She asked instead.

"That's private," Nyla sulked, a slightly offended look on her face.

"Ha got it," she smiled as if saying she understood. "What do you think about Maribeth?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't always have the answers. But I do know her name was etched on one of Pa's daggers."

"Why..." Layana was about to ask why but she knows Nyla would only tell her she doesn't always have the answers. "I learned about Maribeth through a piece of paper."

Nyla was silent.

"How did you know about her? Cathy?"

"That was my pa's first and last mission for me..." She stalled for a minute, probably contemplating whether she should tell Layana. But wait, Last? Nyla looked straight forward, eyes distant and said, "to rescue the children under Cathy's care. He told me the details, how, where and when. But I never got the chance to ask him how he knew all this."

Her voice was stone cold. Not a single emotion etched on her face. As if she were only stating boring details about their journey.

Layana withdrew herself from asking another question; the lack of emotion in Nyla's face told her enough. Sighing, she stayed quiet throughout most of the trek.

~~~

'The next day is training day.' Andriette couldn't have repeated those words more. She wondered how they would train. It didn't occur to her before she was already feeling a giddiness in her heart. What was this? Excitement? It's been so long since she's felt it.

She could see from the corners of her eyes Layana who was skipping her way to Nyla. Eyes aglow with excitement, she wondered if she looked the same?

Whatever, it doesn't matter.

She woke up the next morning feeling a whole lot like a beaten pulp. They had walked for miles and miles all day and only settled down at noon. The makeshift tent wasn't exactly ideal either, they had to make two tents out of extra tarp, sticks and stones. Andriette had to bunker down with Sally and Layana while Mason and most of the bags stayed in the other. The blinding sun rays hit her eyes. Nyla groaned from under a tree, shielding her eyes away.

'Alright, time to show these kids how to survive.'

"Alright," Nyla exhaled, eyeing the four in front of her. Andriette was rubbing her eyes, Layana and Sally awake and attentive with a bright smile on their faces while Mason is slumped on the ground, sleeping heartily under a tree. He snuffled, bringing the stone closer.

"First you need to wake up."

A few moments later, screams rang through the forest.

Cold water splashed against the pebbled banks, followed by a jumping pair of bare feet. Mason screeched, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" He wiped cold water out of his face, brushing wet blond hair out of the way.

Nyla with an amused grin, said with a slight snicker, "you'll get used to it soon!" Mason promptly glared at the older woman, a cold breeze sweeping over his soaked body. Mason shivered, teeth gritting. "If you won't learn how to wake up early, then you will never get used to it, " Nyla lectured, leaning over and waving a single index finger.

"At least you're awake now," a warm woven blanket draped over Mason's shoulders as his eyes slightly went wide. Andriette patted him, glaring when he turned to her with a gobsmacked face. "What?" She seethed, Mason only grinned wider.

"This is too small," Mason whined, picking at the blanket's seams.

"It's not like we have a choice!" Andriette reprimanded, glaring harder. "Choosy brat," she whispered under her breath.

"Hey!" Mason blubbered under another onslaught of water.

A few moments later, they are back where they were before; the four children stood still as Mason squeezed water out of his shirt, grumbling. There was a fresh one by a smooth rock, Layana assumed it was Andriette's peace offering after the unnecessary water fight. The forest air was cool and crisp on their skin, Layana inhaled, feeling the light rays of the sun on her bony face.

"And secondly, you need to know how to make your own weapons," Nyla started once Mason was finally dressed in clean clothes.

She whipped out a long stick, sharpened blades on both its ends, "today you need to create something that looks like this. Remember that it must be able to cut through flesh." She instructed.

Plopping a bag onto the ground, the woman revealed blades and daggers, ropes and strings. The children quickly gathered around and started their work.

For the next hour, the five children had crafted weapons nonstop; except for a few water breaks, Sally's near-death experiences, Mason's hopeful remarks–which often comes off a bit sarcastic in Andriette's perspective. ("You can do it! Yeah!" Mason beamed.) Andriette worrying ("Do you really want to slice me in half? Be careful!" She said whenever Sally accidentally knocks her over and sends blades and sticks careening her way. Andriette was mortified.), and Nyla's constant witty remarks. Though she did save them from most accidents throughout the day.

"I've threatened you all enough," Andriette said in a shaky voice after Layana accidentally pointed a spear in her direction. Again.

"You shouldn't have walked closer to me," Layana defended, a frustrated brow already cocking upward.

Andriette produced an uncharacteristically over dramatic gasp. Mason clamped his mouth behind her, trying to stop the teasing chuckles before it reaches her ears. "And now it's my fault?" She roared.

"Was it supposed to be mine?" Layana was gritting her teeth, but she managed to act calm and tighten the rope that held the daggers together instead. It continued to stubbornly slip from the spear everytime she tested it. And Layana was getting frustrated, pulling at the threads like she's pulling the life out of Andriette.

Said girl continued to blubber along, her mouth was her best weapon, Layana was certain she could hunt animals with it.

"Can you help me with this instead?," Mason diverted the attention. Layana heard Andriette huff, but grabbed Mason's spear anyway, "let me see."

Layana grunted, pulling at the threads all her might and tightly wrapping it around the dagger's hilt. She straightened, bringing the spear close to her face, 'that should hold it.' Confidently, Layana approached a tree, raised the spear and bashed it with all her might.

The blade didn't even touch the wood before it already fell and clinked against the stones.

Layana held a flabbergasted smile on her face.

"Die! Die! Di-Disintegrate!" She stabbed the tree with the dagger, task completely forgotten. The clearing was silent save for her screams, everyone else gaping at her terrible work.

Nyla blinked, had she been a bad coach? Layana sharply turned around to face everyone, breathing intensely. Andriette gulped. "You said I just have to slash at the tree right?"

"Yes but with the spear!"

"The blade won't stand still!" She screeched.

"U...um," Sally stammered, everyone turning to her. "How have you been doing it anyway?" She chuckled nervously, a completed and working spear already standing at her side.

"H--" Layana choked. "How did you--?"

~~~

Nyla managed to calm Layana down a couple minutes later. They continued their craft, with Layana relentlessly not giving up on her watered down and totally not effective technique. It had been from pure lack of ideas at first, but seeing everyone else finish theirs with their own touch, it had deviated to keeping her ego intact. She never once asked for help.

Andriette, a couple minutes before their argument, could not finish anything for the sake of her. She had simply looked at the materials, soul slowly deflating. Thoughts were overriding her system and she could not, at all, start working her way with it. Andriette was overthinking. Worried. Unmotivated. A scream within her head.

It was Mason who had managed to calm Andriette down, and have her think in a more stable manner. She was rational, at least, but she lacked the will. Nyla noticed.

For Sally, she had help. Layana was observant, for sure, but she let her pride get in the way of her, that was what Sally had realised then as she observed everyone. Mainly the commotion Andriette and Mason made. She had been observing Andriette's technique, patiently and hopefully tying the strings together. She had finished roughly the same time as Andriette, raising the spear to her line of sight.

Sally deflated. She looked back to Andriette's work, then at Nyla's who'd mastered it years before them. It was not the best. Sally heavily considered starting over again, but Nyla, perfectly on time, managed to stop her before she could pull a Layana.

Mason, however, cheated. It was barely noticeable, he was sure even Nyla missed. With calculated timing, he stole one of Nyla's. He knew he won't be caught, he's sure of it as he had observed carefully. The spear he stole remained unnoticed in Nyla's stash, he felt quite sympathetic toward the lone spear.

So with guilt in his hands, he took off with the craft.

From noon to evening, they crafted weapons, tested it, and trained with it, Nyla offering them careful advice along the way.