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Chapter 2: Survival

A Cave in the North: Morning

Bard woke up slowly to the feeling of warmth as he opened his eyes to the tiger pelt upon him. He looked around and heard the sound of meat cooking as he discovered Esdeath cooking a chunk of tiger meat. He raised an eyebrow at the girl as he sat up. "Morning." He muttered.

"You're up, rise and shine and take a look around Bard. You and I are never going to see this cave again." Esdeath stated as she ate her share of the cooked food before cutting a fraction for him.

"What do you mean?" Bard asked as she tossed him the fraction of meat and he caught it. "You call this breakfast?"

"Yes. The rest I'm dehydrating so that we have ample supply for awhile." She explained. "First rule of survival my little captive. Always be prepared."

"Now what makes you think I won't run off?" Bard asked sarcastically as he tried to put a brave face on. That quickly disintegrated when Esdeath pointed her knife at him. "R-right, you kill me. I'd rather stay alive thank you. I'm too young to die."

"Good. Then we're at an agreement." She stated. "We stick together and I will make you as strong as me. Though it is going to take some work."

"What do you mean by that?" Bard asked. "What can a girl several years older then me, maybe ten or eleven-"

"Eleven thank you very much." She replied. Bard sighed as he went to continue his speaking.

"What can a girl who is two years older then me know about strength? Honestly?" He asked as he ate the meat and stood up to stretch his legs.

"I'm sorry, who is the one with no hunting gear and got nearly eaten by what he's eating right now?" Esdeath asks with an air of superiority. "You're just lucky I found you or else you'd have become tiger food, or frozen."

"But now I wake up to be ordered around by a girl." Bard thought as he tried to get another piece of food. Esdeath merely smirked and kicked at him, sending him backwards.

"Nice try Bard, but you'll eat what I give you whenever it's my kill." She said with a laugh. Bard could only grumble a bit at this bully he has to listen to if he ever wants to see the next day.

3 weeks later

The time passed by, and Esdeath and Bard's travels were filled with days training the latter on how to properly track game and how to avoid predators during the day. Esdeath would hit his head every time he did something wrong. She didn't start him on strength training just yet as she wanted to make sure he had the know how of survival in the wilderness should she ever separate from him.

She had some desires to leave him. But at night they'd swap tales and stories their respective clans told, neither one of them really touching base on the reasons one or the other were out in the wilderness on their own. To say Esdeath was growing accustomed to Bardulf's presence was a bit of an understatement. She enjoyed it, needed it. She wouldn't admit that it was a need however. Just as she wouldn't back down from her views on weak and strong.

Every night he'd ask, "So you still think I'm weak now?" Then Esdeath would look at him as if scanning for any improvement. Her icy stare would only last a minute before she settled on her back, covered in her half of the snow tiger pelt.

Then she would give her answer. "Yes, and as far as I'm concerned, you wouldn't last long without me Bard." With that she would fall asleep, leaving Bard looking quite angry at still being called weak as she chuckled to herself.

One day, the two young adventurers, if one would call them thus, were looking at a particular set of tracks. "I think they're deer tracks." Bard said as e braced for a potential bonk on the noggin.

"Correct, it seems to be a group of five or six at most." She explained. Bard sighed in relief for not getting hit on the head. "We'll track them for the next couple of days, and then we can restock our food supply when we hunt them."

"Sounds okay, deer sounds a lot better then tiger jerky." Bard muttered. Then the expected bonk occurred.

"Do not insult my dried meat! You're lucky I give you a share! Be grateful that I provide." Esdeath stated in a tough girl tone. "Honestly, if you don't like my cooking I can always kick you out or kill yo-"

"Don't do that!" Bard shouted. Esdeath eyed him again with a superior smirk. "Not the killing part anyway. I don't want you to abandon me." Her smirk dropped a little but stayed where it was.

"His tribe really did abandon him. Why? He seems fit enough to survive. He just needs a bit more teaching on how to survive and get some training for fights." She thought as she sighed and patted his shoulder.

"Why would I? You'd be dead without me around." The young girl of the destroyed clan said to him. She then leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Besides, who else would I be able to mess with that's not you? For example, like... this!" While Bard was flustered at her leaning close she took a branch of an evergreen tree that was right above him and shook it, causing the branch's grasp on its load of snow to fall on the poor boy's head.

"Hey!" Bard shouted as Esdeath began to run, laughing wickedly as she did.

"Come on Bard! Let's find a spot to camp!" She shouted as her younger friend gave chase to her.

Camp

"Come on Bard, don't be that mad at me." Esdeath stated. "A little snow doesn't hurt anyone. Unless it's an avalanche, then of course the weak-"

"Gets easily overpowered by the strong snow, right? Still a dumb saying." Esdeath glared at Bard's interruption but decided she tortured him enough for one day, however, she would find a way to repay his insolence.

"Bard, did they leave you for a reason or do you not know?" She asked. Bard looked at her with his amber eyes and raised a brow. "Your Clan, Tribe, or however you called it?"

"That's not really your concern Esdeath. Sure, I was abandoned by them. Talking about it won't feel any better. I don't ask you why you're here, right?" Bard said as he laid down and turned his back to her. The bluenette of eleven could only sigh as she walked to him and rolled him on his back. "Ow! Hey!"

"Bard, I'm going to tell you why I'm out here alone. I don't expect you to talk about what happened to you just yet, but I want you to listen to me." She stated firmly, which was received by a nod. "The Partas Clan, my clan, were a clan of hunters who faced danger beasts all the time, and sometimes of sizes that would make our little Snow Tiger friend look like a snow kitten. I was the daughter of the chief."

"Then shouldn't you be like, be back with them, kissing babies or what not?" Bard said as he received a punch to the gut and saw Esdeath glaring the most deadliest glare imaginable.

"Interrupt me like that again and I'll punch something more personal next time." She threatened as Bard squeaked and nothing more. "Now then, while your interruption was a good question, no. I didn't do the 'mayoral'duties of a chief's daughter as I was learning how to hunt and be strong. For the strongest survive Bard. Now are you catching on?"

Bard slowly pieced what she had said in his mind and his eyes went wide. "You're the last of the Partas clan?" He asked. "What happened?"

"Rival tribes decided that we were a threat. I was elsewhere when the slaughter happened. I doubt they saw it coming. But it seemed like everyone fought to the end, including my father. So I made a vow to become the strongest. That's why I'm going to the Capital to make a name for myself." She finished her explaining by sitting down next to Bard. "I don't expect you to follow me if you don't want to come but I'm still going to teach you on how to survive out here. I really don't know why. But maybe it's because we're both survivors and we're alone."

"I'll follow you." Bard stated. "You didn't deserve this fate. I'll follow you to the Capital and we'll both get stronger." He got up and stared at the fire.

"What do you mean this fate? It's not like I can do anything to you. Besides why would you follow me anyway, other then the fact if you ran off now you wouldn't last long?" Esdeath asked frowning at him.

"Because it's like you said. We're both alone, we need someone to talk to or this cruel world could swallow us whole, and drive us to madness." Bard replied. "I was abandoned by my clan, so having a friend wouldn't be too bad right now." He looked at her and gave the widest smile a young boy could give and chuckled.

Esdeath's eyes widened a bit before she felt a rapid change in her heartbeat. She contemplated on this feeling and nodded silently. "Yes, a friend sounds like a lovely thing to have." She stated calmly. They then did their usual nightly ritual of saying good night, snuggling into their respective sides of the snow tiger pelt she rolled up like a rug when not in use. But Esdeath made a silent vow that night so that Bard wouldn't know about it.

"When we're older, I will make you mine. You will belong to me and no one else. Bardulf, you will be mine. All mine." With those and other notions dancing around the young girl's head she could only smile to herself as she slept, and dreamed of what life coils be with Bard when they are all grown up.

Talk about kids just being kids right? I'm thinking next Chapter we're going straight into when Akame ga Kill starts. If you guys want an omake or two in future chapters seeing more antics of young Bard and Esdeath, please let me know! Also, holy smokes over 10+ likes and follows on this story already?! I know there's people who like Esdeath but I didn't think I'd get this much attention until I got this chapter up! Thanks so much!

Review Response time!

Chance Green G King: Thank you for being my first reviewer! I'll give it a look see!

Animefan260: I promise this'll be fun! I know it's not EsdeathxTatsumi, but I hope you like it just the same!

Imperial warlord: Thank you!

grither55: If only there was artwork of Young Esdeath with the pelt, haha. Thank you for the prompt and hope you enjoy the story as it unfolds.

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