4 hours, you had been travelling for 4 hours and not one sign of civilisation. You were getting slightly tired. You knew that the chances for finding villages weren't too high, but you kept hope that you would find one soon. You sigh tiredly as you continue to walk along the river.

You hear twittering sounds and look to your left to see a flock of small birds hopping around on the branches of a tree. You smile as you watch their brown and red feathers flap excitedly as they chirp to one another.

'Can I-' Rose starts.

"No, you can't." you cut her off.

You notice Eridan look at you weirdly, but when he glances at Rose his face lights up in realisation and he looks forward once again.

You want to start a conversation, but you have no idea what to talk about. Because walking in silence the whole time would get boring and kind of awkward.

"So, did you always live in Skaia?" you manage to come up with a question.

There's a short pause before Eridan speaks up.

"No, I lived in another town, but I've forgotten the name," he starts, "I never really liked living there so one day I decided to run away."

"Well, I guess we're both good at running away." You reply, glancing over at Eridan.

"But you had a good reason to run, being kept by the people that killed your family," Eridan's voice was now sad, "I just ran away for my own selfish needs."

You don't know what to say after that, you didn't want to push him any further so you shut up.

"So what was your childhood like?" Eridan was the one to speak up next.

"Oh, well I grew up in quite a small town..."

You ran happily alongside your four siblings, you twisted and turned through the streets until you reach a tall tree on the edge of town.

"Hey (y/n), Dell, Fran, Carrie, get up here!" one of the neighbourhood children shouts from the top of the tree.

You giggle as you grab a hold of the easiest reachable branch and lift yourself up. You pull yourself higher and higher until you reach the other kids who were swinging from branches and joking around. The branches shook with every movement, causing leaves to fall to the ground.

"Hey (y/n)!" your best friend, Lila, called happily as she swung onto the branch you were currently sitting on.

"Hi Lila." You reply, smiling at the blond girl.

"Are you coming to the bonfire in the town square tonight?" she asks, swinging her legs as she looks up at you.

"Definitely!" you nod.

"Maybe your teacher will let you light it this time." Lila suggests.

"Probably not," you giggle, "old man will never let me do that."

That makes the both of you laugh.

"WE'RE PLAYING TREE CHASE, DEMIT IS IT!"

As soon as that sentence is heard all of the children scamper off to other trees. You quickly stand up on a branch and run across it. You leap off and grab onto another branch.

You hear the others kids laughing and squealing happily as they swung away...

"Wow, that sounds like a good childhood." Eridan says once you finished your story.

"Yeah, it was," you smile sadly, "until my eighth birthday, that is..."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Eridan says sheepishly.

"No, its fine," you smile, "although there are more bad times, I like to remember the good times too."

Unfortunately, the two of you fall back into silence once again. But you didn't really care; you were sort of trapped in your memories once again. You're snapped out of your thoughts when Eridan finally speaks up.

"I think I see something over there." He points towards the distance.

When you squint you eventually see what looks to be a distant village.

"How long do you think it'll take until we reach it?" you ask.

"I don't know, half an hour?" Eridan shrugs.

You sigh as you adjust the bag on your shoulders and pick up your pace. All you wanted right now was a nice place to rest at an inn.

"You seem excited." Eridan chuckles.

"Yep, I would really like a proper bed to sleep in tonight." You grin.

"Well then, we should pick up our pace."