{𝕰𝖛𝖎𝖑 𝕋.ℝ}

Chapter 22

Train us?

"I fucking hate you so much Riddle!" Azazel yelled as she ran behind Tom who was already way too ahead of her. He turned to see her and rolled his eyes.

"How can you leave me in the Inn? We were supposed to go together!" Azazel huffed as she stopped to catch her breath. "We were not. I never wanted you to come with me" Tom said matter of factly and continued walking. Azazel stomped her feet and caught up to him.

"Stop walking you long legged monster!" She held his wrist and bent down while catching her breath. She felt like dying and decided to never run again. "How much trouble you all cause to a old women" Azazel huffed as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead and scowled at Tom.

"I am running out of time. Stop your nonsense and either help me or just go back and wait until I am back" Tom said with a stern voice and Azazel sighed. Not the time to mess with the boy, he was serious. "Fine, lead the way" Azazel said and Tom started walking while looking at the map that was held in his hand. Even though he had memorized the whole map, he had to be sure.

They walked and walked and walked. That's all Azazel could tell because she was getting tired from all the walking. She had no idea where they were going and just blindly followed Tom. If the sun sets, the forest won't be safe. The creatures here were not ones to be messed with. Azazel pulled out her watch and checked the time to see it was almost four, which means only an hour or so before the sun sets. They have to find a place to set the tent to stay for the night.

"We need to set up the tent" Tom said in a mumble and placed the map into the small bag he was carrying. Azazel nodded in response "We'll walk some more and see if there's a clearing or something" Azazel said in a low voice, tried from all the travel.

They walked for another half an hour and came across a clearing. Tom gave her a look and Azazel looked back, both understanding that the tent will be set up here. Tom dropped his bag down and Azazel did the same. "I'll go bring some wood for fire." Tom said before leaving.

Azazel sighed and drank some water from the bottle she had brought along before pulling out the magically shrunk tent and starting to set it up. It was not big, the inside had a small bed and a bathroom. By the time Tom was back, she had finished up everything and was seated outside the tent.

No words were exchanged as Tom set up the campfire and the fire crackled. The sun had already started setting and it was almost completely dark. During the night, the forest was silent, like the silence that came before a storm and Azazel was worried. She felt something wrong was going to happen and her instincts were telling her to be prepared for anything. Tom, who had been inside the tent stepped out and sat opposite to her on the other side of the fire.

Tom had started reading a book with the help of the light from the flames. Azazel dozed off into her own thoughts and stared ahead of her.

The past weeks had been hard on her. She was sleep deprived, not that she didn't want to sleep or she didn't have time but because of the nightmares she's been having ever since Dumbledore showed her the future. It terrified her to think about it, think about Tom becoming something like that. As the pictures ran through her mind, she shivered visibly and moved closer to the fire.

Whenever she closed her eyes the nightmares would haunt her. Sometimes they were her killing Tom, sometimes him leaving her, sometimes the Harry boy killing Tom, sometimes Tom's future self torturing her. She had to appreciate her mind's creativity because the dreams were of all scenarios.

"I am going to bed" Tom said in a slow voice and Azazel snapped her eyes to him being pulled out of her thoughts. Had it been that long? She blinked a few times, seeing the boy infront of her, he was still Tom not that thing, she soothed herself and gave him a curt nod. "Yeah, okay. I'll be out here" she said and Tom left to get some sleep.