Alphine felt the rough dirt road beneath his feet as he was making his way to the village. He felt some sweat trickle down his face, “Alvar how much longer is it going to take for us to get there? it’s blazing and my feet hurt. ”The young human moaned in a child-like manner. Alvar turned to his now collapsed on the floor friend “It shouldn’t be too long, but if you want…I could carr-” the messy-haired human quickly replied without giving thought to what Alvar proposed, “Sure, anything is better than walking in this heat.” he replied.

The dark-haired elf started to lift the red-eyed boy much to his surprise, “Wha-what are you doing?” he asked while looking at the ground going further and further away from him. Alvar broke into a sprint while having his friend tossed over his back. The two were now going significantly faster than before.

Alphine could feel every step that his pointy-eared friend took because of the massive jolt up he’d get while holding his back for dear life. The young human was wondering how the town will welcome them, he started to look back on his past life, he was walking back from the convenience store, like usual he’d leave his house at night as to get grocery’s as well as to avoid people, he felt the plastic handle of the bag that held his goods in one hand while in the other he carried a can of soft drink that he took sips out of every now and then.

While walking home, he bumped into a group of teens that were walking on the same footpath, he spilled some of his soft drink on the shirt belonging to one of the teens. Alphine looked up to see all the teens glaring at him, “Sor- Sorry I didn’t mean to do tha-” his apology was cut short by a punch to the gut.

The man collapsed to the ground with his arms holding his sides, he was kicked a few times before the teens spat on him and began walking away “Learn how to walk you old cunt.” one teen called out soon he heard laughter from the other two. After a few minutes he got up and continued his journey home.

Back in the present, Alphine opened his eyes to a wooden floor, he sat up on the planks which created a creaking noise. He looked up to see Alvar sitting cross legged opposite him, “Oh, you’re awake” the elf said.

The messy-haired boy stretched his arms “So I guess the village accepted us?” he asked, the dark-haired friend shook his head before opening his mouth “Look outside” he said pointing to a window.

The human stepped over to the hole that was the window, he saw that most of the buildings were destroyed, the lucky ones had the frame of a roof, most of the walls were heavily overgrown with all sorts of greenery, the building that he assumed was a church could barely be called a ruin, it was a pile of rubble. He turned his head back to Alvar upon realising that it’s a ghost town, the dark-haired elf nodded seeing that his friend saw that there was no chance a person is here.

Alphine slumped down against the wall that had the window hole, “Okay so there’s no people, currently it’s night so we shouldn’t go hunting or gathering, what to do…” he thought before realising that there’s an ultimate trick to passing time, passed down by several generations of humanity, small talk.

“Nice weather we’re havin-” the human said before being interrupted by the water droplets that began to fall on his head. He quickly walked over to the side of the house that Alvar was sitting on, for it had a roof.

Alvar was cooking up some of the crab roots from earlier, he made a small fire before throwing the stone slab with crab roots on top of it, turning the plant chunks half-way through cooking allowing the parts to cook evenly.

Alphine turned to see his dark-haired friend cooking “How do you know how to cook?” he asked intrigued by Alvar’s skill to put things on a fire. “Oh I learnt it from my village” he replied with a smile on his face before turning to see his human blooded friend gesture for him to continue. “The village I was a part of wasn’t very rich, so instead of schools that taught kids how to read, write, improve at their sign - we got a school that taught kids basic survival skills.”

Alvar flipped the crab roots before continuing again “There were multiple classes a day like fighting, hunting and cooking which is where I learnt how to start a fire and how to use a stone slab as a frying pan.” The elf said before placing the stone slab with the crab roots in between him and his human friend.

Alphine nodded “So why are the crab roots so hard?” he asked poking the chunks. The dark-haired elf flicked his hair “It’s a trade secret of the Starlton family, care to guess?” he smirked, the human’s eyes widen “Oh fuck no, it can’t fucking b-” he thought before sighing “tough meals for tough people.” he looked up to see Alvar giving him confirmation by showing him a thumbs up “that’s right!” he announced with stars in his eyes.

The two ate their meal before going to sleep. The next day, Alphine got up to the morning sun blasting in his face through the window hole. He turned his head to see Alvar sleeping, the human decided not to wake him up in fear of being punched.

The red eyed boy walked out of the ruin Alvar and him were sleeping in, “I guess I should collect some plants…on second thought I don’t want to get bitten” he said to himself. The short human turned his head to a ruin that was a short walk away “I guess I can have a look inside” he said walking over to the building. Alphine was walking on the path he looked around the town, feeling bad for whoever lived here previously.

The human creaked what was left of a door open before walking into the room, he coughed because of the amount of dust in the air. It looked like the owner of the room feared cleaning the place more than the plague. The area looked normal with chairs, tables, shelves all in a good condition albeit very dusty.

The messy-haired boy walked over to a shelf and began to look through “Maybe there’s some food…” he said looking down to see his stomach growling. There was no food however there was a children's book on what plant you can and can’t eat called: "what won’t kill you, plants", by Julse Arakol.

“I guess it’ll help us survive and Alvar could cook something other than crab roots…” The boy shrugged before sitting down with the book in his hand. The first page was a basic list of names of plants you can and can’t eat. The human noticed that there was a hundred plants you shouldn’t eat from the area and about five that won’t kill you but will give you stomach cramps.

Alphine threw the book across the room before closing his eyes “why would anyone make a book like that!?” he asked himself. He sighed before decided to lay down on the floor, staring at the hole that was the roof, he heard the door open “oh hey Alvar I was just looking around the place for food but there’s nothi-”

“What are you doing mister?” asked a girl’s voice.