- Mandie picked up her pace as she neared another small settlement. Her eyes fell on a sloppy sign that had been staked into the ground. Welcome to Tokyo. Funny, funny, she thought. Signs like this had been pounded up in almost every village she'd gone too.
Almost like everyone expects to be living here the rest of their lives, she thought. Well, she didn't. Maybe if Ryan was here, however, she could stand it.
'Tokyo' was a bit of a work in progress. People were tearing apart elf-built houses and using the supplies to build their own.
Don't blame them. I wouldn't want to live in anything an elf had built, thought Mandie, a familiar surge of hate washing over her. She dodged a man carrying a pile of boards and approached a group of teenagers.
"Hey, I'm, have any of you seen my brother?" She asked, straightening her shirt as she held up her tablet. A girl who'd dyed her hair black and white shook her head and everyone else shrugged and resumed chatting. Sighing, Mandie started to slump out of the settlement. This was proving to be hard.
8 billion people, she thought in dispair. Will I ever find him?
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Is this really necessary?" Asked Ari as Ryan tied a blindfold around her head. After a spirited argument, he'd finally won.
"Yes. If someone finds my place I'm dead."
"You know, I could live with that actually."
Ryan ignored her and finished knotting the back. He picked up the rope dangling from her cuffs. "Just follow me."
"Yeah," said Ari. "I totally trust you not to make me trip over a rock or something."
She took a step forward and stumbled. "Hold it," snapped Ryan, using an arm to steady her. "You're following me, remember?"
Ari bit back a snappy retort and took cautious steps behind Ryan. She heard the clack of Bliss' hooves, meaning they were probably walking on rock. Add the echoes she'd heard, they were probably in a cave.
Ari tried memorizing the turns Ryan was taking, but soon have up. Where are we going? She wondered to herself. The centre of the earth? Finally they came to a stop. Ari heard a loud grating noise and suddenly the blindfold was taken off.
"Welcome to my lair," said Ryan, cutting through the cuffs with a knife. They were in a cave, the only light coming from the flames. In the corner sat a pillow and Bliss' bags. The ceiling was only a few inches above Bliss' head.
"Where are we?" Asked Ari, looking up. She couldn't see an entrance, but then again, it was probably blocked by the large stone a few feet off. That had been the grating noise.
"That's for me to know and you not to," replied Ryan, staring into the flames with mismatched eyes. Ari stepped over a chunk of rock and leaned against the wall furthest from him, sliding down until she was in a sitting position, knees bent.
Ryan pulled up his pillow to reveal a larger canvas bag. He opened it and rummaged around for a few moments, his pale hand emerging with a water bottle. He tossed it to Ari in a chest pass and she expertly caught it.
"I'm not drinking that!" She snapped. "You probably poisoned it!" Without glancing at her, Ryan took it away and gulped a few mouthfuls.
"Satisfied?"
Ari crossed her arms and refused to look at him, staring at her knees instead. Ryan ignored her and stretched out on the cold stone floor, head on the pillow.
"Why didn't you steal a blanket as well?" Asked Ari, knowing he probably got all his supplies from abandoned stores.
"If I need to escape, I can't do it if I'm curled up under blankets," he replied. Ari nodded and felt her eyelids droop. The events of the night had wasted her energy. Before she knew it, she was laying against the wall, sound asleep.
Im having a pretty derpy day 
