A/N 

This is such an iconic chapter to my friend's and I for the dumbest reason.

Herogi was unconscious for a while. Amante had dragged her up north for hours on end until the sun began to set. He found a cozy area and started a fire for warmth, though the fire kept going out and he was left in the cold. He had placed Herogi up against a tree trunk, hoping he had put her into an endless sleep. Dark magic was never good to use on a living being, for it could harm them severely. But he had been a bit desperate.

He also didn't expect a large cat to follow them, but it didn't seem to want to attack him. It just followed along at a distance, never leaving his sight until he'd gotten to this rest stop, where he now struggled to build a fire. The cat was now curled up next to Herogi, and Amante figured it was her loyal companion of sorts.

Amante worked to build his fire again, using his spear to strike a spark in the bits and pieces of the wood kindle he'd constructed. He occasionally glanced up at Herogi, making sure she didn't wake up. Her chestnut brown hair was snarled and matted, and it didn't appear to Amante that she bothered to take much care of it. Meanwhile, with his incredibly long hair, he had to manage it daily. It felt necessary to him that he kept it perfectly kempt.

Herogi eventually woke up after the fire Amante had built up again was blown out. She looked around groggily, looking rather beaten down. Likely a side effect of him using dark magic on her. She watched him lazily for a while, as he struggled to start up the fire again. She put her hand on the sleeping cat next to her, looking around with more confusion than before. She managed to stand up, which caught Amante's attention. She was too tired to fight. So she walked over, wondering what was going on. As she stood roughly a few yards away from him, the fire lit to life in an instant.

"I..." Amante looked at her, then at the fire, then back at her. "Did you do that?"

"Where are we?" She dodged the question. She gripped her leather skirt anxiously.

"Outside," he said stubbornly.

"I meant, where are we, other than outside?" she huffed.

"Why do you want to know? You can't go back," Amante said, inching closer to the fire.

"I'll find my own way then if you're just going to be rude about it. I know this land pretty well," she said confidently.

"Have you ever left Cretos territory?" he asked coyly. The large cat which had once lay near Herogi, lifted its massive head and stared at him with glossy elegant eyes.

"Uh... no," Herogi looked around herself.

"Yeah. We're way outside the Cretos borders," he chuckled, looking away from the cat.

"If you hadn't murdered my hatchet, I would kill you right now," Herogi folded her arms.

"I brought it, just so you know," Amante shifted over and pulled the pieces of the hatchet out from beside him.

"Why did you bring it?" she said with annoyance. "It's useless, and you're asking for me to just stab you again."

"Because I want you to try something." He handed it to her and she took it hesitantly. "Last night I saw you sitting on that stump. You were using magic to make a daisy grow."

"I wasn't very good at it," she said and sat down across the fire from him. "And I was trying for a rose."

"It was something. Impressive I would say," Amante smiled, showing his slightly crooked white teeth. She took notice of the light scar that traced up his cheek from his jaw, somehow more significant than the abundance of scars that ran up and down his arms. Herogi looked at him like he was crazy.

"Meanwhile, you just tore into the Cretos tribe and destroyed our stone ring, the heart of our village," she said with displeasure. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying, you might be able to mend your ax," Amante leaned forward.

"It's a hatchet," Herogi said. "I don't know what it's like for you guys in your village, but for us, the daisy is the absolute bottom. And it didn't even bloom. To advance in magic, you should be able to make a daisy bloom, then turn it into a dandelion. I'm nowhere near that."

"It's the same for us. Beginners in magic start out by turning stones into pebbles, by destroying them with magic," Amante explained. "I think you can do it."

"Why?" Herogi asked. "Why are you being nice to me?"

"Why are you being nice to me?" Amante smirked.

"Because I'm not a cruel heartless person." She pouted her lip, flipping the shattered gold face of the hatchet in her hands.

"So why is it any different with me?" Amante asked.

"Because you're a killer," she said. "I shouldn't even be sitting here with you."

"I'm not a killer. At least I didn't want to be," He frowned solemnly. They both went silent for a while after. Herogi continued to examine her destroyed weapon in remorse. "Your name's Herogi, right?"

"Yes," she said without looking up at him.

"Interesting name." He looked up at the sky, shielded by trees. "What's it mean?"

"Strong woman," Herogi answered.

"Interesting."

"Great grandmother spider! What the hell?!" Herogi exclaimed suddenly, dropping the pieces of the hatchet into the fire. The large cat jumped to its feet, looking around for any sign of danger. The ends of the broken weapon were growing, mending itself till it reached its original form. Herogi scooted back, while Amante leaned over it to see. He reached his hand into the fire as if unfazed by the heat, and pulled out the weapon, examining it in the light of the flame.

"And did you do this?" he asked in the same tone as he had before when talking about the fire. Herogi nodded in shock. A smile curled on Amante's lips. "I told you."

"I... how...?" Herogi stood up and snatched the hatchet from his grasp. "I've never..." She held back a smile. The cat strode up beside her and sat down. While sitting, it's head was the same height as Herogi. She ignored the cat.

"Go ahead and be proud of yourself." Amante laid back against the rock behind him, trying to ignore the cat himself.

"Wait..." Herogi placed her newly mended hatchet into its leather strap at her waist and looked at the ground. Just as she had the night before, she stretched out her arms and fingers over the ground. Slowly, a greenish bud poked from the earth, raising a few centimeters over the ground. It even sprouted leaves. Amante smiled from where he rested, as the flower barely revealed its petals which were a ripe yellowish color, only half-opened. Then it stopped, not growing any further, or wider. "It doesn't make sense," she said in defeat and picked the weed from the ground.

"What doesn't?" Amante asked.

"Making an inanimate object do something... Like that," she gestured to her hatchet, "it's something rather advanced. How am I able to do that, and not make a stupid weed grow?!" She ripped the flower in half.

"I think it depends on how badly you want it. And maybe, weeds just aren't your thing," he said as he closed his eyes.

"Are you seriously trying to sleep?" she dropped the remains of her creation.

"Well, while you were sleeping all day, I was carrying you over my shoulder for who knows how long, uphill. I'm kinda exhausted," Amante said, still not opening his eyes.

"And if I killed you in your sleep?" Herogi questioned.

"Then I die," Amante said as if he didn't care. Herogi scowled. It didn't take him long to drift into unconsciousness.

Herogi crouched next to him, in agitation. She fingered her hatchet at her waist, contemplating if she would actually do it or not. But she glanced down at his side and saw that he had the previously fresh wound open and uncovered. The dark shade of green leather that surrounded the area on his side was now a deep shade of red, almost black in color. How had he lost so much blood?

"We should do something about that, huh Belki?" she whispered to the cat.

***

Amante woke up in the cool morning air, feeling more than well-rested. He glanced to the side and saw Herogi was still in fact there, sleeping against the cat with her hatchet in her lap. She hadn't killed him, hadn't tried to escape, and didn't really do anything. He was slightly surprised, but he had suspected that of her nonetheless. She had, however, stolen his spear, which she held next to her hatchet.

He looked down at himself. Last night, the pain of his open flesh was enough to make him hope Herogi would somehow kill him in his sleep. But now, he couldn't feel any sort of pain.

He noticed that a variety of strange leaves were placed over the wounds, now crusted in his blood. He even noticed some of what seemed to be random herbs, inside the cloth as well. They were medical herbs, one to help subside his pain, and a different, more magically grown one that would quicken the healing process. Herogi must have searched for them.

The girl began to stir in her sleep. She opened her eyes lazily and yawned. She shook her head as she got up, looking over at Amante.

"I must have gone insane, but..." she paused, "I'll go with you. I thought about it last night, and if it really means my tribe will prosper, untouched by war, then I'll help you. But you must promise not to kill me."

"Why would I kill you?" he asked, getting up himself.

"Because you're Chaton." She shrugged, holding his staff tightly.

"That's just a stereotype," he said.

"And you're Amante, a guy so powerful and threatening that his tribe faked his death to fool us, to later use as a weapon. Am I correct?" She tilted her head.

"Ok, that may be true," he said after some thought. "But that's no excuse... never mind it actually is. You have my word, I'm not going to kill you."

"I still don't trust you. And you're not getting this back," she waved the spear tauntingly. "If you want food, I found some last night. Mostly vegetables," She pointed at the cluster of veggies and fruits lying by the fire.

"You didn't poison them?" he asked suspiciously, bending over to pick up a bizarre-looking piece of supposed fruit, though it was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

"I don't have the skills to do that," Herogi admitted.

"It looks strange, you're sure it's edible?"

"That's a pear."

"What's a pear?"

"I found a grove of trees near an open meadow area. There were pears, I think they're edible."

"You found a meadow?" Amante asked, skeptically inspecting the fruit Herogi called a pear.

"It's really big. I couldn't see the other side of it."

"Alright, I guess I have a general sense of where we are now," Amante stated, while deciding how one is to consume a pear.

"You mean you didn't know before?" Herogi asked in surprise. She looked at him suspiciously, watching him figuring out what to do with the pear.

"I mean, I had a basic idea. I was afraid we were too close to my village but, if you said you saw a meadow, that means we're far from my village. Just... don't enter the meadow. That's Tsiimin territory. And trust me, they don't take kindly to trespassers," Amante stated, and sniffed the pear with slight curiosity.

"Have you never seen a pear before?" Herogi looked at him in disbelief.

"I've never heard of it," he admitted, setting the fruit down.

"Well I didn't think they grew out here, it's interesting to find them. They grow in the orchards back home. How have you never had one?"

"The Chatons..." Amante looked up at the sky trying to figure out what to say about it. "We don't really have much food. We can't grow anything, no matter where we go. That's why we took to the coast, because fish are easier to come by than vegetation."

"What about natural vegetation?"

"Eh, over the years most of it has died off around the village. And without vegetation... comes no wildlife. That's why we relied on the help from the Sly Vulpes for so long. Most of us starve to death anyways," Amante explained.

"Why?" Herogi couldn't understand.

"Our magic, obviously. Plague, destruction, illness... nothing can survive around that now, can it?"

"Oh, that's unfortunate I suppose." Herogi picked up one of the pears. "Here, just eat it like it's an apple." He looked up at her with more confusion. "Don't tell me you don't know what an apple is..."

"Ok then... I know what an apple is... I've just never seen one, tasted one, or heard of one."

"Oh come on!" Herogi exasperated. She took a bite of the pear as fiercely as she could, to show some sort of emotion Amante didn't quite understand.

"Alright then." He grabbed a handful of the pears and other edible vegetation and stood up. "We're going to the Sly Vulpes."

"Don't they hate you now?" Herogi interrupted.

"Everyone does, you get used to it. They're up north, which is why we're headed this way."

"Are they going to do the same thing to us that the Cretos did to you?" Herogi asked.

"Probably," Amante shrugged. He adjusted his leather strap, causing the strange leaves to fall off of his open wound. All the pain from the previous night suddenly flushed back into his senses and he let out a quiet sound of pain.

"Oh yeah, those leaves were supposed to help you," Herogi sighed.

"Oh," He inspected his side, which had managed to scab over itself. "Did the leaves like... make it heal faster or...?"

"What? No, they just stop the bleeding and carry some medical properties to take away the pain. The scab is just normal," she said, looking at the scab. He shifted the stained leather he wore to cover the wound up.

"Uh... no it's not. You Cretos people are just freakish with healing, everyone knows that."

"We're not freakish! That's normal!"

"A scab would take a lot longer to form," Amante argued.

"It takes an hour at most!" Herogi rolled her eyes before remembering her own healing abilities. "I mean... maybe not. That may just be the Cretos, but still, we're not freakish!"

"Whatever you say," Amante took a look around him. "So I guess the field you called a meadow was that way," He pointed to the west.

"Yeah?"

"That means the Chatons are somewhere over there–" He gestured in the opposite direction.

"How close?"

"Not that close. The Sly Vulpes are across the Tsiimin territory but we'll have to go around it–the long way."

"How far is it?" Herogi already sounded reluctant.

"If we walk fast, we can make it in two days," He answered.

"I can't believe you're dragging me into this. If we die it's-"

"My fault? I know," He swung his spear onto his back strap. Herogi froze for a second, then she looked into her hand to see she was holding one of the pears, and not Amante's spear.

"Hey, how did you..." She looked at him quizzically.

"Dark magic." He shrugged.

"Don't use dark magic around me, it creeps me out," Herogi shuttered. She tossed the pears away.

"I can try. But no promises," Amante smiled. Somehow, Herogi felt as if people had been lying about Amante. Maybe he wasn't so terrible after all, and really was just a normal teen. A normal teen that used dangerous magic, and may have slaughtered hundreds of people. Totally normal!

"Right..." She nodded in dismay. "I've never actually been to their villages, you'll have to lead."

"Well, come on then!" Amante turned on his heels, walking backward to face Herogi. Herogi rolled her eyes and began to follow him, her cat joining at her side.

***

A day had already passed yet Herogi barely had uttered another word to the boy. Amante kept running up ahead of Herogi, giving her the fear of him sneaking up behind her, and attempting to kill her. But he never did, he would just run back over to her and report that they were headed the right way. Then they would walk in silence again.

Herogi didn't necessarily feel like talking either. But evidently, Amante had other plans.

"You know, I used to play with my father's spear heads as a child," he would say, then go on about how he got this weird looking scar on his left leg because of his silly actions with the small sharp points from his father's weapons. Herogi would nod along, silently. She was on edge, still not fully trusting him to keep his word.

"Did the woman tell you when it would happen?" Herogi asked, interrupting his rambling. He paused to think. "The old woman that is... with the prophecy?"

"She kind of left it open I guess." He shrugged. "Could be tomorrow. It could be in twenty years. All I know is that it hasn't happened yet and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Didn't you say the Chaton's would rise? You guys are already the most powerful tribe, what more would you even gain?" Herogi asked further.

"It won't happen so I don't know," Amante stated confidently.

"Well, why don't you want that to happen? If that were for my tribe, I may consider it," Herogi admitted. Amante fell silent, uncomfortably silent. Then he began to speak again.

"You've never been to my village, have you?" he asked quietly. Herogi's cat trotted up beside him and mewed softly.

"I haven't gone anywhere really," Herogi sighed, looking at her cat and gesturing for it to come back to her. "As a protector, I'm not really allowed to leave. I'm breaking the rules right now." Amante nodded understandingly.

"The Chatons... Well, it's to be expected it doesn't look as beautiful as your village. Nothing is really clean, and building anything to live in is a struggle. But they're too power-hungry to really notice that. If they were to gain control over Armonia, I fear there would be nothing left. They can't help it of course. It's just how we are," he explained.

"I'm sorry," Herogi sympathized.

"It's the opposite for you of course. I... Just walking with you everything is different. Last night your presence by the fire was the reason it glowed. That's how you found those pear things, and why your village is just so... big," he continued.

"I guess I never noticed that," Herogi replied.

"Sometimes, it's easier to see the negative things in life rather than the positive ones," he answered. The cat made another sound as if responding to him. "By the way... what's with the cat?"

"Her name is Belki," Herogi answered, "and she's one of the laziest cats I've ever met."

"Well... she's huge."

"No? She's a normal sized cat," Herogi remarked. Amante jumped forward, his body shrinking back into a small black cat.

"No, this is a normal sized cat."

"You look like a rodent."

"I do not!" Amante scoffed. He transformed back into his normal self.

"Eh, rodent enough to me."

Fun Fact!

Herogi's hatchet is crafted from the gold mined out of the Tri Peaks, the three mountain peeks crowning the Cretos village.

There is an Armonian myth which states the gold harvested from these mountains possess magic. It is believed weapons forged from it will allow the user to never miss their target, and will have a better chance at claiming victory and receiving protection. However, this myth is definitely a myth, aka, complete *bullshit*!