『A Slope In The Forest』

They ran and they ran, hearing the forest collapse behind them and the bug's ringing.

They were getting closer and closer to a clear opening, however with a slight misstep Nanabe began tumbling down a mountain side. The path was not one that led to freedom. Nanabe was once again made to suffer because of Sam's stupidity.

The tough rocks scraped his face and bruised his ankle and elbow, he had lost his backpack to a sharp stone as all his belongings followed him tumbling down. Sam was rolling next to him, he was also bleeding. However in a sense of bravery, Sam forced his body to roll over to Nanabe by asserting more strength onto his left.

He tumbled onto his partner and grabbed onto him. He hugged onto Nanabe's smaller physique, shielding from the rough rocks and scattering twigs. They continued to crash down the mountain slope, Sam protected his partner all the way till the end.

They fell onto a soft, pillow-like tree, nesting on the top like birds. In reality, it had razor sharp leaves and spiky branches. In their minds, they were just thankful for this unbelievable luck, a true miracle.

Nanabe chuckled as if he was losing his mind. He decided to stay still for a while, resting on the tree top. Sam decided to jump down, shaking the entire tree as he did and causing Nanabe to fall off as well.

Nanabe fell onto some shrubs while Sam stood on his feet, achieving balance from a ten meter fall.

'Come on!' Nanabe exclaimed silently.

'This forest is haunted.' Sam said in a fearful tone.

'Well isn't that obvious.'

'We need to get out of here.'

'We might have done that more easily if you did not piss off the monster!' Nanabe finally admitted, to the shock of Sam.

'I was trying to save our lives there!' Sam argued.

'Well look at how well you have done.' Nanabe mithered in annoyance, he began realising that for most of the day, all he ever felt was annoyance and anger.

'You know… All you ever do is complain about things, and yet you never offer up any solutions!' Sam said as if reading the mind of Nanabe.

'I am not the one who always gets in trouble, you know. It was never even my idea to go on this adventure whatsoever in the first place.'

'I saved your life twice.'

Nanabe was furious. His hand was broken and it seemed as if all hope was lost for them to find a way out. Sam was acting a fool, and worse an ignorant fool, Nanabe felt like a fool himself for ever daring to go on an adventure. He felt sad that his own actions caused the destruction of a forest and the death of a monster which was devoted to protecting it.

Perhaps it was of his own doing, yet it didn't seem right to him. Sam caused all this to happen, he kept on thinking, it was his fault and his fault alone.

Yet it seemed that he was always belittling him. He often teased him and thought of him as nothing but a hindrance. This sudden realisation of events made him squill in embarrassment.

Sure, he had destroyed a forest and acted as nature's antagonist, but the fact remains that he did this all to protect himself and him.

Nanabe quoted the bear monster in his mind. Having a noble cause rids any crimes. Is this not true, he wondered. Isn't honour the best motive to act on? Then he reminded himself of one point: He is human, that is how humans think.

'I'm sorry.' he suddenly apologised, stunning the bemused Sam.

'What are you sorry for?' Sam genuinely asked in pure curiosity.

'You hated to be treated like an idiot, didn't you.'

'At least I am not as stupid as you are.' Sam mocked, trying to lighten the mood.

Nanabe laughed.

'We are still friends, are we?' Nanabe asked.

'When did you ever question that.' Sam said something that was so embarrassing with a straight face.

'Well the fact that I followed you on this quest basically makes what I just said sound stupid.'

'So… Here we are, standing here whilst impending doom lurks about us in the form of bugs.' Nanabe said.

'We are getting out of here.' Sam declared.

'How are we going to do that?'

'I don't know. We need a plan.'

'What is your genius plan?'

'I don't know that either.'

'Then what do you know?'

'We need to find something that helps and that we need to work together.'

'Oh surely that will help.'

'It's better than doing nothing.'

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