A/N: Offical chapter one! Yay, thanks, heaps to my two reviewers: BHBrowne and Yeyeyeye thank you heaps! :) I tried to take on your feedback I hope this chapter is better...

Chapter 1 - Between Each Branch

I crease my eyebrows together and wipe my fingers across my cheek squatting away whatever bothersome insect has decided to perch itself there. I return to my slumber when the prickly feeling of thousands of skinny legs returns and I go to graze the feeling away again when my hand hits something much bigger than an insect. The feeling I realize is too familiar so I know it's not any kind of danger. I roll my fingers down between two ears and further to the tip of the animal's nose.

He shakes his head, then his whole body and stubbornly pushes my fingers away with a nagging whine.

I feel hot breath pushing against my cheek and the creature moves its head back down to my face; its whiskers tickling my skin. I know from experience that he's not going to give up so reluctantly I strain to open my eyelids.

I get temporarily blinded by the checkered sunlight which shines down to the forest floor in beams, falling down between the many-branched arms. But through teary eyes, I focus on Aslan's happy greeting face which takes up my vision as he slobbers even more over my cheek. When I push him back he sits down carefree and starts wagging his stump tail feverishly, brushing pine needles and pine cones away behind him.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," I say as if he understands. I wipe the sand from my eyes and the dirt and pine needles from my clothes before standing up.

I quickly scan the area around me as my memory fills in the picture from the night before. When I slumped my body down to the floor out of pure exhaustion late last night I decided that I had earned a well-deserved sleep-in. I guess Aslan finally decided enough rest was enough…

I slide my tongue along the roof of my mouth and the dryness of my cheeks tells me to reach into my backpack and take out my water bottle. Aslan stands up at this action and trots over to my feet wanting the same thing as I.

When I hold the plastic, dented and twisted bottle to my eyes I sigh when I notice it's less than a quarter full. I unscrew the blue cap and drink most of it, leaving half a mouth full to Aslan. I pour the warm water into my hands and he laps it out.

When he finishes licking his black jowls he starts sniffing the floor beneath my hands before looking up at me as if asking if there's anymore.

I stuff the bottle back into my backpack and stroke his head.

"C'mon, we'll go fill it up again." He licks my hand and walks on my heels as I swing the backpack over my shoulder and we approach the side of the dirt path we constantly work to stay mostly hidden from.

Before putting my foot down I check both ways to make sure we're clear from being seen. When I spot no movement we cross it rather quickly, Aslan keeping his head high up next to my elbow.

Almost a minute of walking and we hear our first suspicious pop and snap of twigs being stepped on. I go to crouch down next to Aslan's side but I realize the footsteps sound too wonky to be human so I pull out my knife and I whistle lightly to encourage my dog to move forwards with me.

We only take a few steps when the expected dead body swings out from behind a tree trunk and gurgles loudly at us stretching out its arms.

Aslan growls deeply and takes a more aggressive stance, putting his ears back and spreading his feet slightly. I calm him and grip my knife tighter walking towards the walker.

I quickly jump forwards and wrap my fingers around its cold, boney, elastic-feeling neck to steady the movement of its head. Before it can get its scrawny fingers around my shoulders I push my knife into its skull.

Thick, hardly-red-anymore liquid spurts from the wound like a busting sprinkler onto my fingers. When I pull the knife out rather roughly the body tumbles and along with it an oozing stream of blood dripping from my fingers. I wipe my hand on my jeans and the body makes a squelching noise when Aslan walks over it.

A couple more minutes pass of my companion sniffing the ground, lifting his head, growling, then sniffing again and me yawning, cracking my knuckles and kicking along a stone. Until finally the familiar liquefied sound of time moving forwards greets our ears. The trees start to thin out and our eyes are delighted to see the ribbon of a river which flows mellowly through the forest.

I lick my dry lips and smile slightly at the scene. Aslan jogs ahead of me and marches into the water until it's up to his chest before he starts drinking.

I stand at the border and admire the scene for a second. No matter the chatter of the trees it is steady, welcoming, refreshing. It looks like glassy crystals when the light glitters off it, I can see tiny fish swimming in schools up to the surface before retreating back from my shadow.

I throw my backpack off and get out my water bottle, filling it with the liquid. When full, I bring it up to my eyes, it's clear which is surprising but I guess nothing has disturbed the water before Aslan and I. Sooner than I drink the water I worry of the bacteria and I think about boiling it just to be sure it's safe, but I remember how I've drunk from this river many times without getting sick so I skull it.

The cold water rolls down my throat and I feel it settling and spreading all through my stomach. I finish the whole bottle with streaks of water running down my cheeks into my shirt before I fill it up again.

I drink another half of the bottle before I feel like I'm going to choke and take long, heavy, gasps staring at the flowing water as I catch my breath. Same routine tomorrow, or tonight... and the next day, and the next day...

I fill it again and push the full bottle it into my backpack, then wash my hands in the water, digging my fingers into the gravel and pulling small stones from the ground for no reason other than inquisitiveness.

Suddenly I notice a lot of commotion from the corner of my eye and against the shimmering water I see Aslan jumping around snapping at the liquid, diving his head completely under. I pull out my knife worried, maybe a drowned walker or an alligator?

I stand and squint against the glittering, seconds past and he still doesn't lift his head so rapidly I march into the water shin high until I don't even reach him and he pulls his head out again.

I see that his teeth are clamped around a jerking fish, its tail flapping up and hitting him in the face as its long silver body tries to free itself from his bone crushing jaws. It startles him and he drops it but catches it again in a second.

All my worry disappears and instead I'm filled with an appetite I had been ignoring.

"Good boy Aslan!" I say, putting my hands on my knees. He perks up and starts wagging his tail, delighted for the praise.

"Bring it here boy, c'mon." I start pushing back to the water's edge, he comes running behind me, splashing around as he leaps through the water like an over excited pony.

We jog up onto the bay and he drops the rather large fish in the rocky sand. Its gills are wide open and gasping as it starts to jump away. Aslan wraps his teeth around it again and puts it back between us. I am suddenly very appreciative of the fact that he didn't just eat it himself.

Aslan starts pawing at it with his foot, each time the fish starts flailing and I have to give it mercy. I remember I'm still holding my knife so I push my hand down to secure the creature to the ground. It tries jerking out from under my palm but with a quick movement I dig my knife into its gill and separate the head and the body.

Blood starts oozing into the sand in a watery mess and the body keeps flapping around. I pick up both pieces and throw the head to Aslan. He catches it mid-air and carries it in his mouth.

I walk over to the treeline, pick up a rather large stick, sharpen one end of it and push it through the body of the fish. The nerves keep jolting against the wood as it penetrates the boy and I start to feel sick as small droplets of blood run down the stick to my hand. I put my knife away and carry the stick with me back to where we slept. Now that it's day making a fire would be more ideal.

With one last glance over my shoulder, we leave the river. Aslan still shaking his coat of water as we walk under the trees. The walk back is fast, faster than the time it took us to get to the river. Most likely because I'm eager to finally eat something after all of yesterday and all of the last night with nothing but my fingernails.

I look down to Aslan who still has the fish head in his mouth, drool hanging out the sides of his tongue. I notice I can see the fish's eye and I find myself staring at it. So much so that I picture it turning to look at me, but thankfully it doesn't.

I lift my head under the shadows of the pine trees. Between each branch, there is a fragment of blue sky some more cloudy than others that are telling me it will rain soon. Which, like I know, isn't uncommon lately. The sun will be high up in the sky soon, I woke up about an hour ago and it's not exactly midday yet so I've still got enough time to eat.

As I'm staring up into the sky a sudden pine cone falls to the ground a few meters in front of me and my eyes skip over to where it fell from. I stop walking and Aslan sees me stop so he does too.

I squint my eyes among the deep browns and dark greens of the trees and that's when I see the small twitching of a fuzzy tail.

I instantly drop my fish-on-a-stick, reach back and pull out my bow and two arrows, one I hold in between my teeth the other in my bow.

The squirrel looks at me and I see its beady black eyes scanning me for movement. I raise my bow slowly and pull it back to my cheek, it sees me do this.

Before I release the arrow the animal jumps from one branch to the next and runs over my head panicky. The sudden movement catches me by surprise and as fast as I can I trail the animal with the arrow tip and as the squirrel stops for just a second to jump again I let out a breath and release.

The wind splits in two from my face to the branch as I watch it go flying, but the animal makes a leap to the next tree trunk and the arrow falls low and gets stuck in the branch. But I see this happening before it does so I pull the other arrow from my mouth and fire again at the mid - in air animal. Time slows only for a second then I see the arrow tip go right through its neck.

"Fuck yes." I can't help but say as a smile stretches across my face. I've practiced with bows for the last two years by throwing up pine cones and then shooting them as they fall, it has definitely paid off. Aslan wags his tail at nothing but my mood.

The dead animal and my bow go flying into the next tree trunk and the arrow stays put in the wood like a dart. I see the red squirrel's small paws scraping the weapon terrified for a split second before falling loosely while its life drains.

I run at the tree trunk and using my bottom foot I propel myself up the trunk and wrap my fingers around the arrow before falling down and bringing it with me. I don't land on my feet but I do praise myself for having caught us an extension to our breakfast. Now we both are even.

I put my bow away and have to climb to fetch my other arrow, but once retrieved I have all of my six, the fish stick, so Aslan and I trot back to the trail.

Along my mind swirling with content and my mouth watering with desire the flooring beneath us changes from pine needles and twigs to dirt and gravel. And we take our first steps across the path carefree. On our third step, we stop and look sideways down along trail where our eyes meet with six other pairings.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Sry if I rambled on for too long... Or if this chapter was really boring but it's just filling in the bonding and what Clementine's life has been like for the past three years. If you want more or think I could improve in any way let me know! :)