Only a few hours had passed since their departure from the safety of Bastion's walls, and they had already found themselves at the end of a short brawl with the locals of the forest.
Cleaning his blade of the remains splattered over its surface, Damian reached to the ground as he viciously tore the soul shard from the desecrated corpse in front of him.
He looked at the small shard as it pulsed with essence between his fingers, drawing a breath in and crushing it in his hand. Oh, how he had longed for that sensation over their rest, he even had to dive into his special reserve in order to satisfy his need.
He looked over at Jasper as the younger man was silently gutting another abomination to get to its core. They would have liked to use the meat from these smaller bears, but that would attract the larger ones much faster.
Quickly activating his Awakened ability to allow the blood to fall to the ground as he walked, he went over to Jasper to help him. He felt like it was truly a shame that Jasper's flaw only allowed him to feel the rush of inhuman strength, whilst the young man moved of his own will.
After fishing out the core for Jasper to absorb, they picked up the supply packs that they had hastily thrown to the ground moments before the fight.
The supplies were nothing major, rations, sleeping bags, small cooking utensils and a few items for entertainment. It wasn't much, but these would make their journey far easier in the long run.
They didn't know what they were looking for exactly, with their only form of direction being to head southward, so they had decided to follow one of the rivers that led out of the great mirror lake, the very same one they had travelled to reach Bastion after splitting from the Prophet's followers.
They didn't know if they would be able to find any trace of them after all this time. Even after all these months, they had not heard anything about them both in the waking world or the Dream Realm, so they were not optimistic.
Walking across the river's bank brought up many memories for them both. For Damian, it was the battle of the lake, a fierce uphill struggle for survival against the horrors that claimed the water as their home. For Jasper, it was the disapproving stares and embarrassment of having missed such a pivotal conflict.
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The hours turned into days, and over those days they had trodden over ground they had once believed could be their tomb.
They had visited the remains of both of the former camps, salvaging what little resources they could find or that were small enough to carry.
The remnants of the sleepers killed in those terrible days had long since been scavenged by the locals, as all that remained were a few loose bones here and there scattered senselessly over the plateau of vibrant grass.
As they exited the camp from which the boats were built, Damian turned to Jasper as he spoke,
"This reminds me of when we first entered the Dream Realm all those months ago. All the pain, confusion and suffering hanging in the air as no one had any idea what to do or where to go."
His expression turned more sombre with every word he spoke as he continued,
"When I first got here… it wasn't long before I found a fellow sleeper. He was a younger man, much like yourself, like everyone else, really. Yet fate wasn't kind to him like it was to us, he died horribly, devoured by the forest before I even arrived. If I had slept sooner, if I had let the Nightmare consume me, would he still be alive today?"
Jasper looked to the ground, not really sure what to say, but Damian wasn't done yet,
"Soon after that, I managed to find a set of tracks leading away. I followed them, and I discovered another young man. Gaut and horribly sickly despite his status as a sleeper."
Jasper's eyes widened slightly as he looked up and muttered a single word,
"Jest…"
Damian nodded as his face held a strange emotion across its surface,
"Correct, Jest was the first sleeper I found alive, barely but alive nonetheless. I wanted to introduce myself, but I hesitated, instead deciding to stay hidden by his side. I didn't want a repeat of Javier after all. There was something in Jest's eyes, it was the gleam of a killer, it made me uneasy."
"Even now, the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not looking. It gives me the creeps. As if the friendship we have built together is nothing more than a means to an end for him. I don't know, maybe it's just the stress finally getting to me."
Jasper looked at Damian with sadness beneath his gaze.
He had never once taken their friendship with Jest, Warden and later Taisiya into consideration. He was willfully naive and wanted to believe in the good that people could bring about together, and that their continued support for one another would lead to a better future for them all.
He waited a moment before he spoke in turn,
"I don't think Jest has your worst intentions in mind. He knows how you feel about him better than anyone else after all, no matter how you try to pretend with him, he will always know due to the nature of his aspect."
"I think that you're right about the stress, and it's not just you. Everyone in Bastion, no, all sleepers and Awakened alike, is under immense stress at the moment. But it's up to us to relieve that stress for them. If Warden's plans take root, the world will become a better place for us all.
Jasper snorted as a soft, silent laugh made him smile,
"Besides, I don't think they would have told us about them expecting a child if they didn't trust us."
After a few silent moments, Jasper said,
"I know you're worried about them, the ones you left behind, but you need to look ahead. We will not get any answers by looking back on things we did or did not do. The choices we never made ourselves. We will find a way back to our world, no matter what it may take from us."
Damian heard these words, yet he had failed to process their meaning at least for now, as his attention was drawn elsewhere.
On the bank of the river, just at the edge of where his eyesight could pierce, he saw something. A shattered mess of wood crashed against the shore. The once carved sides smashed into splinters, which lay scattered. The remains of the Prophet's fleet.
The two rushed forward at incredible speed before stopping a short distance away to approach with caution. There were no signs of life anywhere nearby, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Approaching the splinters, they slowly crept closer and closer until the entire area became clear in the morning sun as it rose higher into the sky.
There were no remains to be seen, but the clear signs of a vicious battle much like their own were clear.
Impossible to tell what had caused the damage, they decided to proceed with caution. Nightmare creatures were territorial creatures after all, who knew if the abomination was still lurking nearby, awaiting its next prey.