>Then we'd best get started before we lose anymore daylight.
>Once we coax some more life back into us, do what we need to to prepare for more hiking.
>After a few more minutes of feeling weighted down to the ground, you drag yourself upright, force down a few morsels of food, and resume moving westward.
>The day's journey is... not as good as yesterday's. Whatever energy you managed to save up on the ferry is long gone now, and only a couple hours into the day's journey, you already feel like you're dragging your feet forward. Breaks are frequent, breath is labored, muscles throb. If time were not so vital, you would honestly have packed it in by lunchtime. Instead, you nibble on a tiny bit of cheese, splash some water on your face, and try to look less dead on your feet than you're staring to feel.
>Kyouko is... worried. Though she still puts on a cheerful face, the cracks in it are showing more and more. You're not eating right, you're stumbling too often, you're too slow to respond to her words, and too easily confused by them. She lends you her arm, which helps a little with one of those problems, but makes it even harder to pretend you're okay. And when she looks at you with those eyes....
>You don't have time to think about that. You don't have mind to think about anything, really. Just keep moving, Nazrin. Just keep moving.
>By nightfall, you're growing uncertain of your bearings. Even obvious landmarks are hard to see without Kyouko's help, and your navigational skills are being slowly devoured along with the rest of your mind. Sometimes, you think you can even feel it happen - parts of yourself being lost. And when you find yourself staring at your compass for several long seconds before you can remember which way is marked west, you have to force back tears. You're not going to make it, are you? After all this, after all this
struggle, all you're going to accomplish is dying out here in the middle of nowhere. You may not know where you are right now, but one thing you
are sure of is that you haven't covered nearly enough ground. Another five days of this? A week? It feels like a cruel joke. The universe just wants to torment you one last time before it finally kills you.
>"Are you... alright?" Kyouko asks softly.
