During the sub ride to Cydonia, Clarice hides the letter back to her bag while she leans back on the subway chair right in between June and Don, they've fallen asleep during the whole ride, though she couldn't help but notice that majority of the people riding in the train are construction workers wearing their hard hats and safety vests.
Despite being the start of the day, they still have dust marks on their clothing, industrial grease and debris are still smeared on their faces, she looks closely at their faces - these men and women were visibly tired, as they can barely keep their eyes open, you can see the eyebags droop down to their cheeks, as she was looking at one of them she accidentally made eye contact, swiftly - she looks away.
[Now arriving at Cydonia Perimeter Terminal]
Clarice aggressively taps the both of them, waking them up as she whispers
"Let's go!"
They keep squeezing past the workers standing inside the carriage, while they pass by, Clarice was ahead of them with each pass she softly says "sorry" "excuse me" "pardon me" while the other two just follow her silently, with their eyes still squinting.
The carriage doors hisses while the workers inside visibly scooch aside as students got off the, each student struggling; squeezing past the workers standing
As they got off the carriage, they witnessed other students or should I say; candidates along with their own friends, some had many, and some were only treading this path alone. June suddenly bumps her on her arm as she says "Ooooooooh~ somebody's excited!"
Clarice clutches the strap of her backpack saying "Not really, I honestly feel like I'm gonna hurl"
Donovan walks in as his bag makes clanking sounds exclaimed "Oh! I think I still have some paracetamols packed up"
Clarice shakes her head "No I don't think I'm sick, I think I just have performance anxiety"
A loud sport whistle is suddenly heard as it startled every student in the terminal
It was sister Gertrude, wearing full tactical uniform "Gather around with your friend groups children! I hope you all know why you are here
As you may know I have always served as the overseer for such trials - your mission is simple, loop the entirety of Cydonia's barriers"
The students began to whisper among each other
"Silence!" She shouted as her stick smacked on the floor, she snapped the students in place "Fall in a single-file line now!"
They scramble around as they struggle to form a straight line, they nicely fall in place except for one student. It was the same student that Clarice has seen walking alone - sister Gertrude noticed that he was out of line, it's the same kid that was walking alone. It was Nicodemus!
Gertrude smacks his leg, forcing him to snap in place with her stick as she shouted "Proper line please!" Clarice suddenly felt something warm climb up her chest, but she soon found out that she was about to throw up, she fortunately closed her mouth at the last minute. Sister Gertrude immediately snaps her eyes towards the sound, giving Clarice a thousand yard stare. Clarice couldn't help but swallow it back in fear.
A brief moment of silence ensued as the students were visibly nervous as their sweat began to bud on their faces, with their eyes centered on Sister Gertrude.
She sternly walks in front of them perpendicularly, eyeing them like a hawk
Clarice on the other hand, is visibly confused, as she thought to herself 'Wait, why is he here?'
"Here are your objectives; you are to circle around the city of Cydonia, candidates may form a team, candidates are allowed to walk alone, however; teams with existing candidates who have forfeited will result in a loss. Candidates are allowed to work together with the teams of other candidates
You must loop the city for 3 days, that includes your companions. By all means necessary finish the loop and you may continue to the next challenge
Failure to do so will result in expulsion, that includes your companions
Are we clear?"
The students square up as they shout in unison, but Clarice is clearly unable to follow their vibe "Ma'am yes ma'am!"
"In that case; candidates, hand over your letters, I should see the signatures of your teammates present within the letter
The students sternly stand in silence as Gertrude looks around them confused.
Mind you this silence lasted for a solid 15 seconds
"Well what are you all waiting for? begin now!" she shouts as she smacks her stick to the floor.
[Day 1]
As the students approached the start of the wall, the red sand beneath them began to transition into soil, as they look straight ahead they see the lush forest of the Cydonian perimeter filled beyond the brim with purple vegetation, the sound of shallow water can be heard in the distance, the chirping of insects engulf the biome, particles of plant life can be seen glistening against the light beaming through the forest leaving clarice in awe as she looks around "Woah~ I think this is the first time I've seen trees this big densely packed"
June replies as she leans onto Clarice's shoulder "Huh, you really are a princess, you don't go out that much do you? The school we're in is literally next to a forest, you can see that in the playground!"
She tugs her bag up as she answers "I don't think you're allowed to go outside of the orphanage perimeters"
June and Don look at each other in utter disbelief as they scoff out giggling "Wait you've never once tried sneaking out at night? Not even during lunch time at least?"
She only shook her head
Both of them look at her in disbelief "Oh you are missing out!"
Clarice stops them both by pushing them aside as she asks "You guys didn't; by any chance - saw Nick- Nicodemus while we were falling in line didn't you?"
Both of them looked at her weird, June just shook her head and asked Don "Yo Don, did you bring any ingredients with you?"
Don puts his bag in his front as he starts scouring inside, you can clearly hear the pots and pans, including the utensils slightly peeking out the brim "ah lemme see what I got here… um…"
June asks nervously "er… what the matter?"
He looks a the girls with a straight face "I forgot the ingredients"
June's jaw dropped while Clarice stretched her face with a facepalm. June looked at Clarice as she put her fists on her hips "Well princess looks like we're hunting!" after that she spots a stick nearby, it was a bit taller than Clarice, she throws it at her horizontally as she exclaimed "Catch!"
She did tried to catch it, but it just hit her in the chest as she audibly squealed and flinched
June pouts as she crosses her arms, she said "Come onnn… you're gonna learn how to catch if you really wanna get through the trials - also you need to bulk up, you shouldn't waste your height you know; now use the knife I gave you and sharpen that stick, bonus points if you manage to tip the spear"
She picks up another stick nearby, pulls out a knife from her waist as she says "C'mon guys, time's not stopping"
As they started venturing forth, Clarice and June were busy sharpening their sticks, while Donovan was foraging for wild edibles - crouching down to reach rooted herbs - stretching upwards to pick low hanging fruits and berries.
While walking Don notices something on the forest floor, it was shards of beer bottles scattered far on the ground, he says "Uh guys you might wanna look at this" he says as he picks up the glass shard to show it to them
June quickly snatches the shard off of his hand as she exclaims "Nice! This'll be great for a spear tip!" Clarice smiles along
Donovan stands up as he picks up more, he says "That's cool and all but…"
Clarice, visibly confused, asks "But what…?"
Donovan replies with dread in his voice "Someone has gotten here before us, with these amounts of shards? Jammed onto the forest floor? Still wet with liquor? Someone didn't want us to come"
June leans her elbow on Clarice as she says "Bah, that's probably the nuns trying to scare us, ain't that right Princess?"
"Shh!" Donovan exclaimed as he covered both of their mouths "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Asked Clarice. Suddenly the trees began to rustle around them then suddenly a net underneath them sprung up, lifting them off of their feet, leaves and little shards of glass were snagged along with them. The three of them are visibly startled, Clarice clenches the net around her trying to pull it apart.
Then her face lit up as she looked at her waist - her sheathed knife that June gave; she pulled it out as she tears through the net like butter. But suddenly June yells "Stop! Wait! Look down!"
Don and Clarice looked down as they see that the glass shards sparkle underneath them
As a dark-skinned person in a ghillie mantle dropped down from the tree, Clarice looks sternly as she tries to make out who it was. As the person decided to take off the hood it was revealed to be
"Nicodemus?!" Yelled Clarice
He hisses with "Shh! Not so loud, you're gonna attract other predators!" He began to pull them down as Clarice asked " Wait, you're part of the Welfare Trials?"
Nick answers while he lays them down on the ground as the net creaks "Didn't I tell you I'm a candidate for headmaster last night?"
"Wait, really? I don't remember"
He scoffed "And I thought you had a great memory cap"
She implied "-photographic memory Nicodemus, also can you like, brush away your glass shards on the way down?"
"Glass shards?" Nick looks down while his mantle rustles around as he says "These aren't mine!"
As he reels them down and covers the glass shards with his own mantle as he hoists them down as soon as they drop down, Clarice asks the two "June, Don - how come you guys didn't tell me he was a part of this?"
The both of them looked at each other in awkward silence with brief moments of looking at Clarice out of embarrassment. Nicodemus lays his arms on her as she says "My bad girl, it was my idea - I just didn't want you to feel in danger, so I asked them to look after you"
Clarice blushes as she timidly says "T- thanks" suddenly he looks at her straight in the eyes as he reaches for her face, making her blush more.
Turns out he just took a leaf from her hair while he said "Sorry it was driving me nuts"
"Yo! You guys, get a room or I'm eating both of your rations! And let's go while the day is young!" June exclaimed as all of their stomachs started to growl
Then Nick says "How about we grab some brunch first?"
June asks while she puts away her knife "You got anything with you Nick?"
He implied "What makes you think why I was out laying bushtraps?"
While walking towards their collective goal Don adds "It doesn't need to be big, I've already gathered enough herbs and veggies so meat's really the only thing we need, unless you guys are vegan?"
Suddenly Nick stops them from going further as June asks "What is it?"
He points to a place farther from the Cydonia walls, as he spots a dinosaur as big as a cow
He began whispering "Follow me, and stay quiet"
They begin to tip-toe towards their prey, it walks through the thick canopy, as leaves brush along its sides - partially blocking the team's vision. But as the light outside the canopy hit their face, they've soon discovered a herd of dinosaurs. The dinosaur they've been following was actually small, turns out - the ones that are as big as an elephant are denser in population. June holding her makeshift spear, charges forward as she whispers "What are we waiting for? Let's shank one!"
Nick immediately stops her as he says "Hold on! Look at those things!" As they do so he followed up to ask "What do you see on their bodies?"
Clarice first answers "Their mouths look like spatulas"
June second "They're as big as an elephant"
But Don asks "What are they called?"
Nick looks back and says "You two are right, but err… Don" He puts his hand on his shoulder "I'm gonna have to answer that question alone with you"
"So Nick, what's the plan?" June asked
Swiftly he answered while preparing his ghillie mantle "We're gonna kill a baby" the three of them are visibly shocked as Nick followed with "A baby dinosaur!"
The three of them let out an "Ooooooooooooh~" while nodding in agreement to each other
Fast-forward through the day, as the sun is almost directly striking the surface of the planet - towards the thicker parts of the forest, the team has already prepared personalized ghillie mantles and glass-tipped spears. They crawl within the thick brushes as they follow their prey.
"Aight, we're gonna jump on him all at the same time; your spears are ready?" They showed their glass tipped spears as Nick nodded "Aight team! Let's have adobong dinosaur for brunch!"
Hidden in the leaves, Nicodemus leers through the bushes. As he signals them to move forward, it's revealed that they're wearing ghillie suits that blend perfectly within the environment, they hold their spears over their heads as their arms are ready to strike. Each time the dinosaurs started to look back, they would stop on their tracks and lie down - pretending to be foliage.
Sweat was dripping on their skin as they crawled towards the lone juvenile dino. Their hearts start pounding as they're eerily close to their target.
"Now!"
They spring up from the ground - their spears point at the dino, ready for the taking, as they pounce in unison, but before they could strike, something was in the water, because within a second it stood up.
First it showed its snout, as it protruded from the water - it could easily be as long as two grown men. Then CHOMP! It bites down the poor dino's body, easily overpowering it. The herd of dinosaurs spirals into chaos as the beast bashes its prey on the ground. The blood and the water mixes on the lake as it wrestles the juvenile creature, but then suddenly.
Harpoons get launched from all directions, lodging through the predator's skin. The predator reveals itself to be a crocodilian creature. As it tries to escape and attack the 4 stealthier hunters, a battle cry can be heard from the tree tops
"BALALALALALALLAA~!"
BOOM! Landing straight and stabbing it between the eyes, as it squirms around trying to wrestle her in a death roll. As it twists its body, the gator starts to pull the harpoon cables, 8 girls emerge from the bushes from each cable of the harpoons, digging their feet on the ground to anchor themselves against its sheer power. While the girl that mounted the prehistoric gator repeatedly stabs the gator in the eyes.
The other herbivores ran away in panic as a stampede ensued.
Blood splashes on the already red sand, as the droplets can be seen staining the main team's ghillie mantles. The beast finally slain as its body relaxes, blood dripped on the sand as it seeped through; reaching the water.
The girls equipped with harpoons panted in relief, as their uniforms are covered in leaves, branches and mud on their uniforms.
The slayer dropped down from its head, she's still wearing the Welfare's school uniform, but it's camouflaged with mud, and so was her face. Leaves and branches hang onto her hair, almost acting as a ghillie mantle - her vertically lined with mud.
"Holy shit!" Whispered Nicodemus
The slayer noticed Nick standing up as she squealed "*gasp* Nicodemus Brown!" she tackled him as she hugged him tight while the blood was still dripping down her clothes, then she kissed him on the cheek then she exclaimed "I knew you were invited to the trials!" She looks behind Nick as she notices the 3 of them taking off their mantle.
Oh you brought the whole gang too? Come one guys gimme some sugar" She says as she flaps her hands, first June clasped hands with her "What's up moongirl?" then hugged her gently.
Next was Donovan, they both tackled each other but she needed to jump so she could reach his waist as she said with a slightly muffled voice "Why's my big lovable himbo doing here?"
Then she glances on Clarice, visibly avoiding eye contact with her while she's rubbing her own elbow "Oh! Who's the new girl?"
Nick's face lit up as he answers "Oh that's Clarice Phoenix, I think she's-"
"Omg! You're Claire's twin sister!" She quickly approaches her but Clarice noticed the mud on her uniform, so she actively avoids contact while she squeals
The girl notices this as she stops, and just lets her hand out waiting for a handshake as she says "Ah my bad; Clarice Phoenix right? the name's Justine!" Clarice is hesitant to shake her hand, as she slowly reaches for it. Justine is just visibly weirded out as Clarice seems to be struggling to read the room because she's just touching Justine's fingers.
She took the lead by firmly shaking Clarice's hand, she steps closer to whisper to her "Sorry, I just don't wanna make things awkward" She steps back again just to say out loud "I think me and your sister have thrown hands one time"
Clarice, visibly baffled as she blushes out of embarrassment "Omagosh, I'm really sorry about tha-"
Justine lets go of her hand as she put her fists onto her waist "No don't sweat it, it was all fun and games, dang that girl can hit like a truck!"
Justine's teammates reel the gator's body out of the water, they're visibly struggling behind her as one of them yells "Justine a little help please!"
She darts her eyes towards them while she ran "My bad girls"
They're still struggling
So Nick and Clarice's team immediately helped
All of them were struggling, buds of sweat dripping down from their skin. The gator's body was slowly getting dragged off of the water, as it exits the water - all of them dropped down due to exhaustion; panting, sweating, and their butts covered in sand.
Justine panted "We gotta find a way to chop this guy up!"
Donovan stood up and drops his bag, he unzips as he scoured inside, only to reveal a massive meat cleaver
Clarice yells "You were packing knives this whole time?!"
Donovan corrected her to say "Kitchen knives, princess" as he proceeds to pull out more knives averaging the length of an adult's forearm
June yells "You packed a baker's dozen of knives?!"
Donovan looked at them from behind "Again: kitchen knives. Also I need a little help cutting him up since he's almost as big as a bus"
Justine stood up while pivoting her arm to warm-up "We'll help, right girls?"
One of the girls stood up as she exclaimed "You heard her girls, let's chop this gator down to bite-size"
June and Nicodemus stood up while Clarice was still sitting on her ass, before Nicodemus went on, he quickly looks and runs back to Clarice as he reaches out his hand to her "C'mon, that gator's not gonna chop itself!"
Clarice smiles as she grabs his hand, however as she stands up, her foot lodged into the sand and trips toward Nicodemus, thankfully he catches her on his chest as he says "Whoah, careful! There's some dead spots on the sand" Clarice just blushes and tidies herself up then she stuttered "Th- thanks" Her eyes are still darting back and forth towards Nicodemus
They walk towards the freshly slain beast, Donovan hands them some knives to help, Nicodemus has already started chopping it down, however right before Clarice could start.
Everyone's stomachs started growling in unison as they awkwardly stared at each other
June suggests to Don "I… think you should cook the already chopped meat, we'll handle the rest here
All of them cut down the beast while Don was cooking
The day passes what seems to be afternoon. Finally Donovan was done cooking, he rolled in a wide log as it slammed on the ground creating a faint quake.
He lays down leaves he found in the forest, they span as long as two grown men, he lays the food on the leaves. He prepares the rice, the meat, some eggs, and vegetables. Finally, he pours the sauce of the meat on the rice as she shouts "The gator adobo is ready!"
Don's face was glowing proudly, however the people that have spent the past hours cutting the creature down, are visibly drained, their cheeks hollow, their skin pale as paper, and their stomachs caved in, they basically look like zombies
Donovan visibly starts as he covers his face and screams "Don't eat me!"
They just pass by him as Nicodemus looking akin to a decomposing corpse - taps his shoulder and say with a raspy voice "Took you long enough"
All of them sat down on the grass near the log, everyone was drained and sweaty from dicing the massive beast. Clarice covers her legs with her skirt as she sat down on the grass.
Justine took off her uniform, revealing she was only wearing a bra and some shorts underneath. She sat next to Clarice, she was flabbergasted at the sight of her half-naked body.
Justine takes notice of this as she says "Oh! My bad, I can put my clothes back on."
Clarice implied "N- No no! It's fine, I should really hang my clothes too."
Quickly Nicodemus sits right next to Justine, who also took his shirt off to dry. Him and Justine sat really close to each other. Along with everybody else near the gator, they took off their clothes for a rinse. Nicodemus started to eat with his hands, as soon as he took the first bite - he audibly wept
"Hoooooweee! Damn! Who knew prehistoric gators would be this good"
Everybody gathered around to sit around the log to eat, everybody started eating with their hands, they made it look easy.
Justine just giggled beside him, and started eating with her hands as well; right beside her Clarice was just staring at the food.
Justine took notice of this, she swallowed her food first then she asked "What's wrong Reece? You're not hungry?"
She shook her head "No, it's just-"
June sitting beside her says "Wait, don't tell me you don't know how to use your hands?"
Everyone on the table stopped eating to look at her
They got real quiet staring at her, while Clarice's eyes darted across everyone
"I- I uh-"
Justine immediately cuts her off to say "Oh don;t worry I brought my utensils with me, brb!"
And they just resumed eating while Justine rummages through her bag
While everyone was eating and Justine was back searching in her bag, Clarice, visibly hesitant, wanted to ask Nicodemus "So um… Nicode- Nick, how did you and Justine meet?"
Nick answered while food was still in his mouth "Oh! *swallows down his food* We've known each other since we're young, she actually used to be my girlfriend but err…"
Clarice visibly intrigued as she leans forward towards Nick "But what?"
Nick leaned in to say "We uhh-"
Justine sits back in between them as she hands out the spoon and fork to Clarice "Here ya go Reece!"
Both of them get startled, Clarice just slowly takes the utensils, she goes back to eating, but she scarfs it down like there's no tomorrow. Along the way she snapped a piece of alligator skin off from the central leaf of the dining spread, she handed the crackling skin to Nick, biting it off of her hand without blinking, almost biting her fingers.
Justine grabs him by the shoulder to shake him while laughing, Nick tears off a piece of gator cracklings, he pulls a bigger piece and gives it to Clarice, she lets out a wide warm smile while she takes it off of his fingers.
The rest of them are having fun, the energy of the room was warm as they shared each other's drinks under the scorching sun, Clarice couldn't help but bask in the vibe.
Half an hour passed, the girls in Justine's team were cleaning up the log and the leaves after the meal. While Nicodemus and Clarice's team were packing up the remaining meat for the rest of the journey. While they were tying the meat making reptilian ham, Clarice notices that Nicodemus was carrying the huge chunk of meat over his shoulders, he lays it beside Clarice's tying spot, rolls it and ties it in knots.
For a moment she glanced at him, but Nick noticed too. She sighs and asks "So… about her?"
Nick looking around, confused - asks Clarice "Who- what? Who are you talking about?"
She tilts her head pointing at Justine "You know- Her? What happened? Why did you end the relationship with her?"
Nick sighs "I don't know, maybe I just got tired…? But I'm certain I was the problem there"
Clarice raising the middle of her eyebrows while finishing up packing her meats asked "Tired of what? Sorry I'm really not good at this, I shouldn't've asked"
He quickly grabbed her arm to stop her as he said "Wait! *ahem* Wait, it's okay-"
She looks at him straight into the eyes while her face turns a little red.
Nick said "Look, I know you're feeling uncomfortable with me answering that, but I promise, I'm fine… So just ask away. I'm used to being uncomfortable anywa-"
"Yo babe!" Justine yells, as Nick looks at her; Clarice soon follows. She walks towards the two while she says "Baby, I know that this is still a competition in the end of the day, but by the looks of it, we've got enough brain and brawn to get through the challenge.
And since we're practically the leaders of each group- no offense babe"
Nick just shrugged and say "None taken"
Justine lays the salted packed meats on the log as she resumes "As I was saying, I think it's better for us to team up, cause I know in Nick's noggin there's some more ferocious monsters out there, I mean even the girls I'm with couldn't hold down that refrige-gator, let alone a T-rex"
The girls she's teaming up with clamored, complaining and denying they were struggling in that hunt, Justine just dismissed them with "Pipe down! Who wrestled and stabbed the gator to death?"
The girls stood silent
Justine just crossed her arms facing them "Yeah! That's what I thought!"
Half of Clarice's face scrunches up to say "Erm… I don-"
Nick cuts her off to say "I don't see a problem with that, yeah you can join us!"
Clarice grabs Nicodemus by the shoulders, she blushes a little; twisting his body to face the rear then pushing him towards a secluded area as she nervously laughed "Ehehe~ Do you mind if I borrow him for a minute.
Clarice pulls his braids down as he exclaims "Nicodemus!"
Nick just raises an eyebrow "Clarice?"
Clarice just stutters, shaking her head as she brushes her face up with her hands "Okay I'm just saying this to get it off of my chest, Justine can't join us"
He tilts her head as he says "Why? I'm not really catching the signals here Princess you're gonna need to be less vague for me- wait, don't tell me you can't handle all that? Was she too much for you?"
She pulls his braids down to get to her level "Yes!"
Nicodemus' expression changed from condescending to surprised
Clarice implied "She's too much to handle! She's extremely hard to control, one second she's right beside you eating ice-cream and on the next you'll see her causing mayhem by beefing with rabid dogs on the street"
Nick's eyes softened for a heartbeat—then cracked into a shit-eating grin "That's sounds more like a 'you' problem"
Nick just pushes her aside as he says "No worries, besides she's a valuable asset to keep around"
Clarice ruffles her hair as she shouts "But you just said she's your ex! Doesn't that sit right with you?"
He ignores the question and went on his way, Clarice exclaims "Hey I'm not done-"
The both of them walk outside the grotto as Nick shouts "Alright Justine, you're in!"
Justine and her girls did a group hug while jumping out of excitement as she said "Alright darlings, let's pack up! It's almost twilight and we're not even 30% complete with the loop."
Twilight on the Cydonia perimeter was never gentle. The sun bled out behind the wall in slow, violent streaks of violet and rust, and the purple canopy drank it all until the air itself seemed bruised. Every footstep kicked up red dust that clung to their sweat like rust on iron. No one spoke much anymore; the meal sat heavy in their stomachs, and the day's adrenaline had curdled into a dull, grinding ache.
During the nightly walk, they've spotted another group of students with a lantern on each of their hand, Nicodemus signals everyone to change direction or the opposing team might tangle with them.
June and Don had fallen to the rear, trading quiet jokes about whose feet hurt worse. Every time June laughed, the sound felt too loud, like it might wake whatever was waiting in the dark ahead. Clarice walked in the middle, alone in the chain, clutching the strap of her bag so hard the weave left ridges in her palm.
The temperature dropped fast once the sun vanished. The forest exhaled cold, damp air that smelled of moss and old blood. Their breath started to fog. Someone behind her—probably one of Justine's girls—began to shiver loud enough that the whole line could hear teeth chattering.
Nick stopped at the lip of a shallow dell ringed by massive tree-ferns. Their fronds hung like broken umbrellas, dripping condensation. A thin stream cut through the center, no wider than a dinner table, its water the color of weak tea in the failing light.
Nick looks around, as the path ahead seemed too thick for moonlight to strike their path. "Alright gang, we'll camp here.
Justine's team found a giant hollow log as she says "Dibs on this spot!"
Nick tells her "Sure, knock yourself out!"
Justine rubbing her hands together as if she's scheming something diabolical "Ohohohoho! Somebody's about to sleep like a baby!"
Nick pulls out his freshly washed ghillie suit "Here Princess, let's share the blanket together"
June exclaims "I'll light the fire
Donovan whispers "Hang on I'll set up the tent"
As everything was set up, the 4 of them lied inside the humungous tent, as a dim light was hanging from the top inside.
Clarice the only one left awake, was looking at it, her eyes were weary, the middle of her eyebrows perpetually raised, as her body laid stiff under the nylon fabric. She closes her eyes as she softly shivered, she couldn't help but look to her right, only to find Nicodemus lying beside her, while Donovan was behind him. All she could do was close her eyes.
Suddenly Nicodemus hugged her from the side, surprised; Clarice couldn't help but feel comfortable as her shuddering stopped, as she felt his warm arm slowly tightening his grip.
She decided to hug him back to share the warmth, for this moment; she felt comfortable, she couldn't help but smile warmly - closing her eyes, as she falls asleep under the tent, enveloped in moonlight.