Henry continued reading further.
"Far in the distance, was a massive trail of smoke. There was no doubting it, there was a fire. It couldn't have been mine, as I had been camping at a new location for a few days, and knew it that the embers of my past fire wouldn't burn that hard.
Of course, I had to investigate it.
It was quite a while away from me, so I packed everything I had, and begun the journey. Rakh'el doesn't allow you to wander in peace, so if you need to get to something specifically you need to keep your eyes on it, which is what I did.
I never took my eyes off that smoke, not once. Until I got closer.
I was scared, what if it was a monster, or a trap made by the city? The anxiety dug into me like a dagger, yet I continued. I chose to makeup for it by camouflaging myself with a mix of dirt, and stone crumbles, it made my complexion much grayer, and made me blend in with the stone, if you were looking from a distance.
I was glad to learn from those at the academy.
As I got closer, I became more careful, moving behind cover as I came up to the source of the smoke.
I saw Henry.
Sitting there next to a campfire, messing with a pile of rocks. I was ecstatic I wanted to run, to him, and scream about how lonely I had been how terrifying it was to be in these ruins without company. But before I could, something…"
Immediately Henry heard shuffling in the next room, and footsteps coming towards him, he rolled the skin up and held both of them as if he were just about to start opening them.
Lumora stormed into his room with wide eyes.
"What are you doing."
Henry tried his best to look innocent.
"I was just looking for where you kept the stories, I got bored and wanted to read."
She looked at him with slight discontent.
"Sorry, I didn't ask, I just didn't want to bother you while you were training."
Using the most innocent face he could muster, he pumped his lower lip out to make a pouting face. It was the most embarrassing thing he ever did, but what would be worse was getting caught reading through her personal writings, especially when something that she had been hiding from him was sitting on them.
Lumora walked up to him and snatched them out of his hands.
"Next time, ask. Don't just take anything. Even if I'm busy, ask."
Henry nodded, looking her in the eyes, as she slowly turned around, studying the skins. As she exited his room, she turned around and glared at him, using all the composure he had in him, Henry made the best "I'm innocent!" Face he could. Which seemed to satisfy her, as she turned around and continued back to her room.
Henry let out a massive breath, along with a sigh of relief.
'That was intense.'
He made his way to a corner of his room, where she wouldn't be able to see him.
'Why does she want to hide that so desperately… and why did she not tell me that she had found me earlier, in the first month nonetheless!?'
His mind raced with thought of betrayal, and a pain in his heart that this whole time, he could have not been alone.
'How-how could she!?'
Henry kicked a rock across the room, it made a loud crash as it collided with the other side.
"Sorry! Fell over!"
He yelled out to cover his frustration, he didn't want Lumora thinking he was suspicious of her. Henry didn't want to be suspicious of her, she was his best friend. He had no one else besides Lumora, and Marlon. Yet Lumora was lying to him. She had left him alone for another fifty days, some of his darkest moments, and she chose to leave him there.
Henry's breaths became rapid, and his heart pounded in his head.
'Dammit!'
Henry slammed his head against the back wall, it hurt, yet the pain helped him stabilize his thoughts.
'She must have a reason'
He didn't want to not trust her, on the contrary he wanted to trust her more than anything else, but… then why couldn't he.
Henry decided that he would keep an eye out and see how things continued in the coming days. Maybe she had a good reason, or potentially there was something that stopped her.
Relief filled his mind with the excuses he had come up for her. Yet, there was a fear, in the back of his mind, that Lumora, couldn't be trusted.
***
Before the fog rolled in, Henry made his way to the main room of the camp, and sat next to the fire with Lumora. She had a habit of just staring into the fire, sometimes writing, yet most of the time she just watched it. Lost in thought.
"Hey Lumora?"
She snapped out of her trance and looked at him, with confusion.
"Yes?"
Henry gulped.
"Well, I was wondering if I could borrow the stories you wrote down, just to read. I thought it might be nice, is all. I know you're probably mad at me for searching through your stuff, bu-"
She threw a folded up skin at him.
"No problem, I just don't appreciate you going through my things, they're mine."
'Scary.'
"I know, and I'm sorry, I promise I didn't read anything if it was private, I just grabbed them before you caught me. It won't happen again."
Henry mimicked a salute at her, and looked down at the stories in his hands. He would have to find a way to read the rest of that message, without her looking, but how could he do it?
As he was thinking, something within the fire caught his attention.
At the base of the fire were two large animal skins, eerily familiar, burning. It was the two he had taken earlier, Lumora was burning them away, along with all the knowledge on them.