Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. For what reason, I can't tell. She blows the hat through the neighborhood as my legs desperately try to keep up. At some points we are close enough for Lana to try and grab it, however, the wind will kick it up high, just to bring it back down again keeping it away from our hands. If Mother Nature wants to keep up this wild goose chase, she has another thing coming.

As we continue chasing it down, I can't help but remember glimpses of the time I and Lana first met.

Back then I, a stubborn mule wanted to die for my mistakes, while she, the naive little scavenger saw something more in me. She lived inside the garbage and let me stay. I didn't bat two eyes until scum lower than any acolyte took her away from me. Back then at that moment, I set my guilt aside to save her, so maybe I could be that man she saw underneath the garbage. After that, she never left my side.

We continue to chase it for about a few miles until a tree branch catches it like an outfielder eagerly waiting for that ball to drop into their glove. I put Lana down to get a good look at what we are dealing with.

It's one of the tallest trees I've ever seen. Trunks of wood are that of a skyscraper, and nothing around could compare to its likeness. Sadly, Lana explains how this is the biggest tree in their quadrant of the valley.

Her eyes sink as we both watch her cap sitting idling along the top of the leaves. The tears from her eyes soon followed. I'm not going to watch her cry and let a tree be the reason for that.

There are many branches along the tree, perfect enough to climb to the top and reach the prize. I usher her to follow as we stomp through the mud that acts as the tree's molt. When I tell her how I'm going to climb it, her body jumps, and her voice explodes with fury. Claiming that she can't do it. Immediately, my eyebrow stands up a little following the words.

"Is that so?"

She throws her eyes into the mud while twisting her shoe, drowning it in the brown. Her mouth hesitatingly utters out "Joseph, can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course," I say to her, while my eyes make sure the cap doesn't pull a fast one. Like many others have tried.

She pauses for a moment then tells me what her mouth is trying to hide from my ears.

"I'm...I'm afraid of heights." She almost starts tearing up in the process. Her cheeks even flare hints of red.

Not going to lie, I must keep my jaw from flying open as she continues,

"I know what you're thinking, someone of my caliber, afraid? The nerve, but I... just can't explain it. Once I'm up high, it gives me the hebee gebees. Especially the idea of miss-stepping and falling downwards. Though I always wanted to learn to climb a tree, I never...got to it. Does that make me seem like a coward?"

"Oh no no, of course not." I blurt out immediately after she finished. That got her to look directly at me instead of the mud. Her tears were gone, not even a hint of a cloud. They only glow of whitening black. "In time you'll be ready, for now, you can watch my moves."

She bobbles her head, and I can see the slightest extension of her pupils grow. I smile and then begin my climb.

Passing the first few branches, even with the broken pinky, I knew this wouldn't be too bad. I've climbed on the side of buildings on missions more heart-wrenching than this, in worse conditions. The only thing worrying me is the fact that back then I had both my normal hands.

Now, I got this metal one that could shatter these branches like bones inside a grinder, and then on the other, a broken pinky that Luana insisted I kept in place. The world reminds me as I snap a branch into pieces. It does this to me once, luckily another branch is on its side for me to catch in its place.

The most surprising part still is that Lana or at least my Lana climbs stuff similar to this daily. I've seen her climb and jump from building to building to get scrap from roofs. I always assumed that Lana used to do similar stuff like climb trees before The Great Terror. Now I know it was The Great Terror that forced her to do so.

I noted to myself earlier how the tree looks to be at least 15 feet tall. I'm about halfway there when I hear pieces of bark peeling off below my feet. I secure myself near the center of the tree and look down. Both the biggest eyes and smile appear on my face.

What do you know, her tiny little legs swing 5ft below the ground as she carefully hops from one branch to another. She's copying every move I made to get me this far. In a way, it reminds me of when I tried to copy Lincoln within that Covenant building. However, instead of shining this time around, mud is dripping from her shoes.

Even from here, I can see Lana sweating pints of butter, especially as she almost falls from her last jump. One of her hands doesn't make the branch, however, her other hand throws her back onto stable ground. Her body then shivers faster than the wind ever could make her. Still, she would have made both Lincolns proud, because she sure did for me.

She remains upon that branch for a few seconds while the wind makes her dance. She must be in her own little world for her not to hear or see me come near with my hand extended at the ready.

A few more seconds pass before her eyes register my hand, she takes it, no questions asked. I put her back upon my shoulders like before, and not a moment later she lightly punches my shoulder. I guess I didn't expect it because my body reacted like it was hit by a grown man.

"What did you do that for," I childishly groan.

"You always ruin my surprises, it's no fun."

"Don't worry, you already surprised me enough. You have guts kid, but now rest. I'll take it from here."

She nods gracefully as the fire in her eyes slowly fades down. Throughout the rest of the way, Lincoln's words rattle around my head on repeat. Is this what he would want me to do? To make people see things in themselves that they couldn't otherwise? I know that is what he tried to do with me. Yet my mind could never look past the blood that remains scared upon my hands. Now with his blood.

My Lisa told me to trust her and Lincoln, yet I refuse to breathe the air that their words linger inside. I begin to feel Lana's hands tighten, presumably along with her eyes as we get further up. Luckily, those tiny eyes can't see the pity I see surrounding me. I don't have much longer to think as our heads pop from the tree line like groundhogs towards the top.

The red cap sleeps peacefully upon the tree's leaves, seeming like it hasn't been disrupted for centuries. I make sure to give it a rude awakening as I grab the hat and turn to Lana who along with me stabilizes herself upon the tree's branches.

Once the slight hue of red fills her eyes at the sight of my hands, she hugs that thing tighter than any child would for a teddy bear. My eyes on the other hand fill up with the hues of the yellow and orange sunset, glaring upon us both from the heavens.

Not a sapphire sunset, but I soon let the memorizing colors drift me back into holding her hands. They were soft and warm when she wanted them to be, yet around me, they seemed to be constant woodland fire. Sadly, as the sky always starts to fade into the moonlight, so do her hands. Her moonlight-skinned hands smooth in texture, taken away by another. By the hands of a single acolyte.

As fast as I went into her hands, I came back into reality just as fast.

"Wow the sunlight looks so beautiful," Lana says, with her tweaking pupils staring directly at the circular orb.

"Ah yes, it's a magnificent sight, especially from a height like this."

"Really?"

"You bet. Heights like these are the best seats in the house."

At this point, my back leans too far backward and I almost fall over 15ft inside its molt. I pick myself up just in time though that doesn't stop Lana from laughing, placing her hat to the side, and begins circling the sun with her hands.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right Joseph. When I see them on the ground with Lola they are so pretty, and now being up here, they are so humongous and even more beautiful."

The pupils in my retina aw at the sight of her still circling the sunlight. I let her watch me chuckle to myself, and as I expect; her face tightens itself in confusion.

"You know Lana there's one sunset that's more beautiful than this."

"What no way, you're pulling my chain." she says, solidly. "What's it called?"

"Oh yes Lana there is, and where I come from, we call them sapphire sunsets." Her face stops entirely with only her eyes shaking. I take that as my queue to keep going. "Now you see, these sunsets appear when the landscape is suffused with blush light. The ending results become a sky of blue surrounded by yellow and orange backdrops.

"Wow, I didn't understand almost a word you said, but it sounds super cool. Will I ever get to see one?"

I chuckled "Well maybe someday kiddo, you will."

I then picked up her hat which seemed to fall back asleep and planted it back upon her head. She smiles, making sure that her hat is turned backward.

"Now Lana hear me out. If you thought climbing up was the real challenge, getting down is a new beast altogether. With that in mind, I want you to hold on tight to me more than you did before, you got it?"

She once again nods gracefully and hops upon my shoulders. I knew then she was ready. I tell her not to look down because even after fighting bots, acolytes, and ghouls alike, something about falling and landing in the right spot for your death puts wrinkles earlier into my skin.

I wonder how much my metal arm could absorb.

With about 4 feet left before we reach the bottom, Lana tugs me persisting that she wants to try climbing down herself the rest of the way. Against every fiber in my mind, I let her off my shoulders only a few branches above me.

To my relief, she seems to be doing alright, copying my moves like she did before. However, my strength must have done a number to the branches above me. My worst fear comes true as I hear her screams following the sound of a single branch snapping.

I don't take any time to think before letting go of my branch. Somehow, I'm even faster than my hands are from saving my skin. It makes sense. I'm not going to let this life slip past my own. A life that I promised, I wouldn't let get hurt. Thanks to that, I'm able to catch her mid-fall clutching her harder than I thought humanly possible, and so does she.

With the ground approaching, I flip to my metal arm deciding to answer that question. To my uttermost thankfulness, it softens the impact. Can't say the same for the mud below. A small crack starts to form, and I become drenched head to toe with mud. None of those matters. I looked over to my other arm to see Lana who didn't have a scratch on her, only mud.

I call her name but panic when I hear no response. Then my lips start to taste a full-blown mud pie. In shock, my eyes slowly dawn on Lana who's giggling upon me seeing her hands, still warm with mud.

"Haha, I finally got you...Joseph?"

I don't say anything. All I can do is stare at the little girl whose eyes are becoming more terrified by the second. Instead of words, I laugh giving her a similar taste to a mud pie. As she starts laughing too, pies fly all around trying to give either of us a second taste. The best part is after a few minutes we continue laughing the whole way through our walk back home.

The scuff marks that Lisa's machine made are still inside the dirt making me start to waver underneath my skin. Especially when I note that Lincoln or his other siblings aren't waiting for us outside the door. They must have known that Lana has been gone for a while, and I know that they would care. I guess whatever they have in store for me lies in wait inside their den.

Before the dominoes start to fall, Lana leads me to a front porch bench right outside their living room window. I take a quick peek, and no surprise, no one is there. My arm shivers as if it were cold, yet the air still lingers with that warm autumn breeze. Lana shivers as well but only to shake the mud clean off like a dog who's been caught in the rain. Admittedly, I'm taken aback by how clean she becomes. Treating the mud as an old skin fur coat.

She suggests I take off my flak jacket and let it rest on the porch. Not wanting to shake like a dog, I do as she suggests. Lana's eyes then tilt along with her head as my body comes to terms with my old friend, resting peacefully as it should.

"Hard to part with an old friend there huh?" She says smiling while patting the top of her cap.

"Hmph, look at you already figuring me out."

My smile tries its hardest to contain itself, but nothing it produces lives up to hers. Such a sunny-side-up delirium smile she gives recounting our little adventure. Most of all, she thanks me once more, right before the yawns start knocking. My body jumps from the pressure of her head beginning to rest upon my leg.

"Thank you for being my friend."

Like that, she's asleep like a puppy curled up on its owner's lap. If I wasn't already floating inside a suspended sea, her words should have drowned me. The witch pot of emotions collides together, spilling through the bowl of my mind as I try not to think about my Lana, and what she might be going through.

That leads me to remember what she has done for me. She saw past that sorry sack of rubbish, who wanted nothing with no one, and she saw better.

Didn't she?

In the end, the innocent and hopeful don't have enough means to protect the world they deserve to be in. If that's any reason to become a resistance fighter, I've already signed up. And in this time, protecting this Lana is no different. I look at her, peacefully sleeping as the blaring sun starts to dim below the horizon.

My eyes start to go blind, but I continue smiling at her. Not caring if she is asleep, I whisper from the bowels of my heart.

"No...thank you, Lana. For being my friend."

Maybe it is my mind playing tricks on me, but it seems like as I said that, a little smile begins forming in the corner of her cheeks.