The two were on the verge of giving up, lying on the ground and letting the birds that had started to swarm overhead peck at their bones. Shun was beginning to doubt that Alice did know the way back to her village. But, thankfully, Alice spotted a dot in the far distance. A dot that was rapidly growing. A smile grew on her face as she started to pick up the pace. She grabbed at his hand and started to pull him.

"Alice, what're you doing?" He asked as he was being dragged, his mind too dehydrated to think properly and to stop her.

"I can see it. I can see my village" she told him her excitement clear in her voice with a grateful sigh he allowed her to pull him.

"Great, let's hurry and get there. I'm dying of thirst."

"I thought you were fine?" She asked mildly confused.

"I was, but the sun seems to have gotten hotter. I need a drink badly" he excused, hoping that made sense. It seemed to as she didn't question him anymore. Instead of questioning him she just pulled him faster, she wanted to go back to her village. It may have been a place full of chauvinistic pigs, but still it had her parents there. And more importantly food and water.

"Come on Shun, we're nearly there, pick up the pace" she pestered as she pulled him faster, almost so fast that he'd fall. He stared at her through his hair, she was strange. Always changing her personality. He wasn't sure if it was intentional or not but she was disinterested in her home one minute and now she was running there.

Placing a hand over his eyes he winced at the slightly burnt skin he pressed, he strained his eyes and tried to see the village. He could just make it out but the heat waves were obscuring his vision. He could see houses that looked bigger than the huts from the village he awoke in and they seemed to be made of something different too.

He did bear in mind that he could hardly see the village. He wanted to curse his vision, why was it back home his eye sight was considered better than average but here he seemed to be lapse? He almost thought that back here his eyesight would be considered bad. Squinting against the intense heat of the sun and the waves of heat radiating from the ground obscuring his view he tried to see people, to see if he could redeem himself, in his mind, in the quality of his eyes.

"What's wrong Shun?" Alice asked though he barely registered her words. "Shun? What's wrong?" She asked him again as she placed her hand on his arm and squeezed it to gain his attention. This time it worked and his eyes moved over to her.

"Yes?" He asked blinking his eyes quickly to remove the irritation of having them open for so long.

"What's wrong?" She repeated for the third time, but irritation didn't even touch her voice. She was a very patient girl.

"Nothing Alice, it's not important, I promise nothing is wrong that would require help" he assured her trying to end the conversation. Unfortunately, thanks to his tendency to stay out of conversations with his friend this didn't work.

"But what was wrong?" She persisted. Sighing he rolled his eyes

"Nothing, I was just trying to see if my eyes could be better. In my village they're better than average but compared to you I might as well be blind" she stared at him more than a little confused.

"Shun, I've always had good eyes. It stems from me helping my grandfather. I always had to find things he lost out on his little farm, it made me notice things better than everyone else. Don't feel bad" he smiled at Alice for that, her words did save his self-esteem a little. He didn't feel pathetic to the past anymore.

"Thanks Alice. At least I know I'm not as blind as I first thought. I was beginning to think my eyes had been badly damaged from all the stuff back home"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, there're some things back home that aren't exactly good for your eyes, and I'm around them a lot." He excused as he bit the inside of his lip. It didn't feel good to lie, especially as he was lying to a woman who was helping him. Thankfully though the answer seemed to satisfy her and she didn't question him anymore. Hiding the look of suspicion in her eyes at the odd answer she grinned as they grew ever nearer the village.

Shun had been right, it was made of something different from back at the village he awoke in, the dirt and what looked like straw mixture were a fairer shade and the houses resembled more houses than huts. Shun smiled across at the nearing village able to see the people far clearer than before. They wore strange robes, in fact, Alice seemed the only one wearing semi-normal clothes. He must have looked strange in his attire.

"Shun, I suggest that as we're staying here for a while to collect food and water we should also gather some clothes. I've been wearing these for the past week, and the dust and dirt of the land has really damaged them. I think they've lost a lot of colour." He nodded his head at her, understanding what she was saying, it wouldn't do to go back home wearing clothes that will be covered in dirt.

He had no idea how much would change back home but he knew one thing, he didn't want his friends seeing him in clothes that colour had changed to a dusty brown.

"I understand. I don't want to go back home looking a state and worry my friends."

"Then it's agreed" she stated as they finally reached the village. Heads turned at the sight of the bright ginger haired girl. Faces immediately grew smiles as they all but ran over and tackled the poor unsuspecting girl. Her eyes widened at the sight of people running to her and as soon as half a dozen arms wrapped around her she was struggling to breathe.

"Alice!" They all shouted, mixed with different words from everyone, but they all blended together so much that all it sounded like was a noise. Shun could pick out a few words. 'We've missed you' was a common one he could hear, but there also seemed to be a lot of 'I knew you'd come back'. He watched as she struggled to get enough space to breathe and contemplated helping her, but they all seemed to be so happy seeing her that he stopped himself.

It must have taken him five minutes of hugging and shouted words to finally lose the rest of his patience. Reaching through the mass of people he pulled the gasping girl out. Placing her hands on his upper arms and gulped down air patting his arms slightly in a way to thank him without actually talking. He grinned at her as she looked up at him stunned.

"Thanks" she breathed

"No problem, you looked like you were being crushed."

"I was, Shun, these are my friends from the village. Guys this is Shun" she introduced motioning to the tall teen who was quite a bit taller than the rest of the villagers. They all looked up at him, some, who were clearly older than him, slightly taken aback.

He'd heard that people were shorter in the past but hadn't thought that were true. He'd not been in close proximity to the people in the last village so it was hard to tell from them. But they'd looked normal height, and Alice certainly wasn't short. Apparently she was an exception.

"Hi" he greeted, awkwardly raising one hand in a failed wave.

"He's strange"

"Definitely not from around here"

"Maybe he's one of them?"

They all mumbled to the other making him stare at them confused before shifting his gaze to Alice who smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, they're a little paranoid about people" she explained, being deliberately vague. Not questioning it he simply nodded his head.

"Alright, I suppose I can understand." Alice took his hand and led him through the border of the village.

"Come on guys, me and Shun won't be here long, we need to get everything before we have to leave." She explained to them as they followed in step with each other.

"But Alice" they all started to whine before being cut off by the raise of a hand. With a clear signal to be quiet they followed behind. Creeping Shun out slightly by how she seemed to be able to control these apparently sexist people he followed silently behind. Looking at all the different people. They looked fairly young, by his standards, but here he guessed they probably thought their lives were almost over.

They did have faint wrinkles, like everyone their age did, but they looked nowhere near as old as the elder in the last village. Keeping his thoughts to himself, though, Shun merely watched as Alice navigated the people surrounding her again.

"This place is going to be weird isn't it?"

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