He said it in such a cheerful tone but I knew it had to be a threat. I didn't get a chance to respond as he then turned his head away from me and left me alone in the tent. Once he could no longer see me, I gave into my body's urges to shudder. How can someone so cheerful and peppy be so frightening? I thought that kind of thing only existed in horror movies or... serial thought put a shiver down my spine but I forced myself to shake it off as I slipped out of the sleeping bag.

Well, whatever Ace's true intentions were, I didn't plan on sticking around to find out. I just wanted to get up and get out of here. The sooner I could do that the sooner I could ditch the creep. Preferably before he does something that makes me want to hurt him or, if his intentions were less than friendly, before he could hurt me. Fortunately I had slept in my clothes. So the only things I had to do were grab my sandals and reattach my dagger to my hip; which I had hidden within the sleeping bag so Ace wouldn't steal it.

"Oh, that was fast." Ace blinked when I stepped out of the tent in just a matter of seconds. "I thought I'd have to come get you for sure."

"I slept in my clothes. All I had to do was grab my sandals; how long did you think that would take?" I asked grumpily, rubbing my eyes as the rays of the sun harshly greeted me. Ugh, this is why I usually wait inside my tent when I wake up in the mornings; first morning rays suck.

"I'd thought you'd fall back asleep and that I'd need to carry you." He bluntly answered with a large grin spreading on his face. I expressed a shiver as I caught an undertone of disappointment in his voice, as if he had wanted to carry me. Before I could retort that I'd never let that happen, Ace laughed and flashed me a thumbs up.

"I must be a pretty good motivator."

Time Skip

Fallen twigs and branches snap under my feet as I made my way through the forest. Chipmunks and squirrels scampered across the ground looking for food, some already making their way back to the trees they lived in. A few birds were even singing in nearby trees, though some flew away when I came too close to their liking.

In any other situation I'd have found this really relaxing. I really do love nature and if I had access to plumbing and easy access to food, I would have lived in forests back home. The only thing I'd have to deal with were the animals and occasional hikers. The hidden space in the park I was living now, or had been until I had been kidnapped, was as close as I would have ever gotten to something like that, though. It might have been excluded and no one bothered me nor knew I was there, but it was noisy.

Anyways, as I said, in any other situation I would have found this really relaxing. The reason I couldn't now? Well, simply put, despite my best efforts I hadn't been able to get away from Ace. Ditching him was so much harder than I thought it be. Unlike last time he didn't forcefully pull me along but managed to convince me to follow him.

"Careful Alana, if you fall too far behind the bears are going to get you." Ace called, grinning at me from over his shoulder when he noticed I was falling behind.

Yay, the most inspired I've been in a while. Not sure how long this will go, though. I'm still working on stuff before the time skip. Originally I was going to end it before she stepped out of the tent but decided I wanted some more dialogue first. How in the first paragraph is bolded because that's where the new stuff starts