This is Dragon Country

Chapter five

It was still quite cold when I woke up in the morning. Kim still had her head on my chest and was sleeping very deeply. I stayed as still as possible until she woke up. When she did she sat up and I got my first good look at her cheek since it first happened. She turned and looked at me so I could get a clearer view. Most of the right side of her face was black and her cheek was very swollen. I reached out to touch it. I could tell it was very hot before I even touched it, but Kim shied away. She went to touch her cheek but her fingers stopped just before she made contact and dropped her hand back into her lap. I picked up her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She looked up at me and and tried her best at a smile but it ended up as a grimace of pain.

As the day went on the swelling in Kim's cheek went down but she was still in a lot of pain. We walked all day, and like our first night in the forest, we slept in a tree. This tree had a large fork in it big enough to fit both Kim and I in it. We went on like this for a few days before we came across a cave that would be perfect for this winter. The cave was very deep and Kim said that we might be able to have a small fire in here if she was able to stop any smoke from escaping the cave.

We built a wall out of branches to cover up most of the entrance of the cave; we left a part of the entrance open. We set up our beds at the back of the cave, then Kim made a small fire and for most of the afternoon she was trying to make the fire stop smoking. Kim still had a dark bruise over her cheek, but it had gotten slightly lighter.

We planned to spend the whole winter in the cave. For the first time since leaving camp we had a proper talk about what we would do. We came up with a few ideas, then narrowed it down to two options. We could turn away from the den and live by ourselves, or we could wait build up an army of sorts and fight the Beast then. We decided on living by ourselves, because it was a lot easier and we wouldn't have to wait for the other unfortunate people to wander past.

Over the next few days we started to wander around the cave. Kim decided that she wanted to climb through a gap the found in the wall and so she did. I stood next to the little opening as she climbed through. She had only just gotten her shoulders through when something spooked her and she pulled her head an shoulders back through the hole, whacking her cheek on the edge of the hole on the way through. When she was out and away from the hole she started talking.

"Do you remember Levi?" She asked

"Yes, I think so. Wasn't he chosen a few years ago?" I replied, confused as to where this was going.

"Yes, four years ago."

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I think I found him," she said in a whisper

The thought of having a dead person in the walls of where you were staying wasn't one you want to think about.

"What are we going to do about it?" I asked, hoping she had an answer.

"I don't know," she replied bluntly. "We could try and find another place to camp, but I don't think we'll find a better place than this." Kim was now sitting against the opposite wall, the only colour in her face was the purple of her cheek.

"We should probably stay here," I said as I sat down beside her. I laid my head on her shoulder, the same way she did the night I met this terrible fate and the night she followed me on my way to hell.