We split up, Alex and Rich going off in the direction we were originally heading in, myself heading in the opposite. It's nearing dark after a while, so I start to make my way back to the library. I walk by small groups of trees a few times, nearing our meetup spot. As I pass the 4th set, I quickly backtrack, my ears picking up the sound of someone's heavy breathing. I silently creep forward.

"Aubrie?" I whisper, peering into the shadows of the trees. "Are you there? Is that you?"

"He-hello? Is someone there?" I hear the voice somewhere to my left, so I turn towards it, slowly, carefully, making my way forward.

"Yes," I rasp, "I'm here. It's Teagan. From Shared Worlds. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Her voice is extremely quiet, almost silent. I can barely understand her. "I'm okay. I'm just a bit cold, and tired, and kinda scared."

I can see a shape moving slightly, her figure curled into a ball and leaning against a tree. "Hey, that's perfectly okay. But we need to move and get back to the library, the others are still looking for you, or are already waiting for us."

"The others?"

I move closer, lightly rubbing her arm as I respond. "Yeah, Alex and Rich are here too. We'll explain everything once we find a safe place to rest. Are you awake enough to walk?"

"Oh." I feel her shrug, "I don't know."

I smile slightly. "That's fine, that's kind of what I was expecting."

"Do you want to get on my back? It wouldn't be to hard, it's not much longer of a walk. And you could sleep on the way. I'd wake you when we need you to be up." I bend over slightly and crouch down to get to an easier level for her to manage.

"Okay." She nods her head. "That would be nice."

She climbs onto my back with some assistance from me, and I bounce her a couple of times to get her more situated and secure on my back. I turn and start walking out of the trees and start down the sidewalk towards the library. I sense her nodding off on the way.

When we get there, I see Rich and Alex already waiting. They shrug and shake their heads, holding out their empty hands. I smile and turn sideways slightly while walking, revealing my passenger. They both grin. Alex silently motions to ask me if I want to switch carrying her. I nod, and they bend down to my level, and we carefully slide her from my back to theirs. They surreptitiously shift her, bouncing once or twice to keep her higher and secure. They're about 4-6 inches taller than my own 5' 6"- 5' 7" height, so they had to bend down pretty low to get at the right angle at my level.

We set off on the sidewalk, and I whip my head side to side as I try to find a safe dry place for us to stay. I spot some trees with a dry spot underneath, and start to head over to it, motioning to the others. "We can stay under these trees for a while, though we might want to move a slight bit deeper in order to stay better hidden."

Rich gives me a confused look. "Why would we need to stay hidden?"

"Because I don't know this town very well, therefore I don't know how high the risk is for muggings or other such things."

Alex nods their head. "Makes sense. So, how you want to do this?"

"Right." I move around the semi-dry shelter, shuffling some dry-ish leaves and dead grass around on the floor to make a small pillow. "You can put Aubrie on here, head on the pile. I think the ground is pretty dry."

As Alex does so, Rich starts to create three more. I quickly stop him. "Wait, wait, wait. We only need two more. I'm going to be taking first watch."

"First watch?"

"Yeah, first watch. As in staying up to make sure no one tries to come and mug-slash-hurt us."

"Sounds alright to me." I jump as Alex speaks from behind me. I hadn't heard them approach. "I'll take second. What time do you think I should wake everyone?"

I look up at the mostly covered sky. "A little after the sun comes up. We need to get to the school to enroll and such like that."

"Okie dokie. Where ya gonna sit?"

I make a vague motion to the trees above us. "Somewhere up there where I can get a good vantage point of the stuff around us as well as still being able to watch over you guys."

They nod once, and I slowly turn to gaze at the trees around us, before deciding on one with decently low branches nearby. It's far enough away that I won't drop dirt on them or risk falling onto them while they sleep if I accidentally fall.

I walk over and stretch quickly, clenching and unclenching my hands, getting ready to climb. I've always been good at climbing trees, ever since we moved to Virginia and we had a mini forest in our backyard. I slowly pull myself up, cautiously testing each new branch to see if it can hold my weight. Once I'm about ten feet up, I stop at a larger branch and get comfortable for the night. It's far enough up that a threat won't easily see me, but close enough that I can still jump down safely.

I lean my head back against the tree and begin reciting songs and stories in my head to keep myself awake.