Secret Places {Private Hyper and Accalia}

[Accalia]

Aleila sighed at his reply, but as he tried to stand and he fell a shudder went through her and she slowly moved her head with a rigid motion to look at him, "Are you alright?" she asked a certain frantic tone to her voice, her eyes wide, she could have read his aura but she was beginning to sink into the regularity of social acceptance. However as he looked up to the sky her expression changed to one of patience, "what is it?..."

[Hypercube]

"I need you to know..." Xoren took his time before finishing the statement, struggling to find the appropriate words. "When I saw you get hurt, something inside me burned intensely. It was as if I, by lack of reaction, had done something to you. I hope never to feel that pain again." He turned his head towards hers, the sunlight dancing about her pelt as the leaves shifted in its path. "I need you to know that I cannot stand to be without you."

[Accalia]

Aleila's eyes were filled with a loving fire "Xoren it wasn't your fault.. I should have been able to stand for myself... I felt helpless without you by my side. I feel as if you sustain my life and my reasons and without you I am nothing..." she sighed and stared with large eyes up at him, his handsome features filling her view. "Xoren when I thought you had died I felt as if I should.... and I feel the same way; I cannot stand to be without you..."

[Hypercube]

Xoren looked into Aleila's eyes, doing nothing other than allowing himself to become lost in their brilliance as she spoke. When she reciprocated the feeling he had expressed to her he smiled and his mind became tangled in a million thoughts of his future and past. He was not sure how much time he spent pondering these scenarios, but when he finally re-entered reality, he snapped back into his empirical state. "We can't stay here for long," he said while his eyes searched the scenery, "whoever, or whatever that was could be back any moment to finish us off."

[Accalia]

Aleila watched Xoren as he appeared to be lost in his own thoughts and smiled at him softly. She could sense his feelings, but felt as if looking at them in detail would be wrong and so only listened to the jist of them. When he snapped back to current time so did she and she let out a soft giggle. "Mmmm, I know..." she sighed and stretched and asked slowly "Which way should we go?"

[Hypercube]

Xoren stood, wobbling a bit as he regained his balance. "We should head back to the water you found earlier," he said, completely forgetting that he had not told Aleila that he was following her, "we can rest there when night does come." Xoren was unable to see the sun, but the day had felt like it was dragging on forever and the few rays that penetrated the canopy remained strong.

[Accalia]

"How do you know I found water??" She said rushing to his side, her own stepps wavering slightly as she did so. She leant against him and let out a soft sigh "Sounds good." She felt as if it was an entirely different day upon which she lay in the cool water, basking in the sun.

[Hypercube]

Xoren kicked himself inside, annoyed with what he thought to upset Aleila. "I was worried about you" he said softly, "I wanted to make sure that nothing happened to you while you searched. It isn't that I didn't think you could handle yourself, I just..." Xoren continued to ramble in broken statements, flustered by his own mistake.

[Accalia]

She gave a slightly irritated sigh, but was too tired to act overly angry and so said quietly "You know I was fine.. But it is ok, you don't need to cover for yourself, im just slightly hurt.." she nuzzled him in the friend way and sighed, but gave him a soft smile.

[Hypercube]

Xoren felt a bit better knowing that while she was upset, their friendship wasn't compromised by his actions. As he walked up to the water, he did as Aleila had when he watched her, submersing himself in its coolness and becoming lost in its silky texture. If not for his lungs requiring air, he would have stayed in that floating state forever. As he resurfaced, he paddled back to the shore, shaking the remaining water form his saturated mane. "We should wait here for the nightfall, it should be coming soon" Xoren spoke in a less than convinced tone as he tilted his head upwards into the still glaring sunlight.

[Accalia]

Aleila took a small drink as Xoren went under the cool water and she surveyed the surroundings for any source of food. She found a small bush with small, dark berries on them but was wairy about them. She was hungry but their call was too low too menacing for it to be true food. She wanted to taste the berries even though her mind screamed at her not to.

The water droplets from Xorens mane startled her from her daze and she noticed she had taken quite a few paces forward. She tried to shake the luring voice from her head but she could only dull it to a soft hum. "Sounds good." she half mumbled

[Hypercube]

Xoren noticed the distracted tone in Aleila's voice and moved to her. He did not know if he could help with her predicament, but he was determined to at least try. "Something seems to be bothering you" he said softly, "what's wrong?"

[Accalia]

She looked at the berries again and wasn't sure to tell Xoren or not. "umm just these..." she trailed off shooting a quick glance at the berries taking another step towards them

[Hypercube]

Xoren walked to then, his mind opening like an encyclopedia as images and descriptions flew in front of his eyes. After some time in silence, he found the answer in a deep recess of his brain. "Those are elderberries, they contain a form of cyanide in them," he told to Aleila, "that cyanide makes it poisonous, but if we can find some way to cook them, the cyanide they contain will be dispelled and they would be safe to eat."

[Accalia]

She looked at him with wide eyes and her head was filled with their calls. "How are we going to cook them?" she felt as if screaming over the elderberries screams would get rid of them or at least her aching headache. She shook her head again and rubbed her eyes, exhaustion was starting to grab a hold of her and she would need sleep soon

[Hypercube]

"Well the first thing we need to do is find something that we can light a fire with" Xoren said looking near his feet. As he extended his search range, his eyes caught a small collection of rocks just on the cusp of the surrounding trees. He walked to them, examining them as he spoke to Aleila. "See if you can find some small dry twigs around" he told her, "or even some dead grass would work well."

[Accalia]

Aleila nodded and went into the semi-darkness surrounding the tree line. She bent down and found a small pile of dry twigs and picked them up in her mouth. A cold wind brushed across her back but she concentrated on not being overly scared, she straightened and began walking back towards Xoren, her paws not wavering at all.

[Hypercube]

Xoren shuffled through the pile of rocks, looking for the exposed an exposed black sheen that would make itself apparent in the sun that so perfectly shined on the stack. As he pawed around, a glint of light caught his eye as a large piece of flint rolled to his right. He rolled this piece beneath him so that it wouldn't become lost and continued to look for another as heard Aleila approach from behind.

"Good," Xoren said to her seeing that she had found a reasonable amount of kindling, "now we need some medium sized sticks, big enough to sustain a small fire but not to large that they wont light. If you see anything around that would catch extremely easy - like a fallen bird's nest or something - grab that too."

[Accalia]

Aleila nodded and smiled, dropping the twigs from her mouth onto the dirt floor. "Yea! Sure, I will." she rested her head against his shoulder, "I will be right back." she whispered. She walked into the tree line once more to search for anything that could be used as fuel for the fire.

She had been searching for a while, but after a while decided to go deeper into the woods as she couldn't find anything substantial. She continued to search aimlessly for a long time, she had gathered a couple of large logs and a small bird nest, however she didn't like the forest and she wanted to hurry back to Xoren. She was a long way inside the forest and she didn't have an exact sense of direction, but she tried all the same.

[Hypercube]

Xoren felt the same strange feeling he had earlier as Aleila's head touched his shoulder and heard her soft voice sliped into his ear. Again, as before, he did not fight it, rather he embraced its unknown quality and allowed it to bathe him in warmth. When he refocused on his search, Aleila had already left his presence and left what she had collected beside him. After pawing around the pile of stones for a bit longer, he finally found what he was looking for: large piece of flint that, luckily for them, had a slight concave shape. As he slid this find next to the other materials, he looked around the clearing to find that Aleila was nowhere to be seen.

"Aleila?" he called out in a calm tone, "Aleila, where have you gone?"

[Accalia]

Xorens voice was a dull call against the other sounds of the forest but she called back a slight unwanted panic filling her tone "Xoren Im lost, I will be fine, just stay there.." she said now running towards where she had heard his voice, the panic filling her body making her jittery. The panic she felt wasn't just because she was lost in the forest and had no known way back to safety, but it was also a deep longing in her stomach as if Xoren was her calm and safety and divided from him she was lost within dark water with no way out.

She continued running but felt as if everything was the same "Xoren?! I-I'm lost.." she half shouted before a tear fell down her face. She didn't know why she was crying nor why she felt like collapsing into a ball and giving up.

[Hypercube]

Xoren could sense the anxiousness in Aleila's voice as her voice echoed through the empty forest. "Aleila! Just don't move, I'll be there soon!" Closing his eyes, Xoren attuned his vision to see Aleila's unique aura as it burned brightly against the green backdrop of the forest. Knowing where she was, he moved quickly through the trees, pausing to leave a mark on the trunk so that they would not get lost again. "I'm here," Xoren said as Aleila came into view, "I'm right here." Once he reached her, he leaned up against her and let her tears continue to fall onto the already moist leaves.

[Accalia]

Aleila felt frantic and unsure as to what to do, she just let the tears continue falling down her cheeks. She tried to keep the tears and sobs down but it had been a long couple of days and it was flooding back towards her in a torrent of overwhelming emotions. As Xoren came into view her eyes widened and she ran towards him, burying her face against his shoulder "I was so scared.." she whispered trembling. She knew she had over reacted and she didn't want to be like this but her emotions had taken control of her and she didn't know how to get rid of them.

[Hypercube]

"It's okay..." he said to her not knowing anything else he could say to comfort her. Aware that she was not in control of her emotions, Xoren simply stood and let her lean on him as her trembles shook him to the core. Time passed, but it felt stagnant, as if while they spent minutes without as much as a shift the world around them did not move along with them and the glaring sunlight still danced around their faces.

[Accalia]

Slowly she regained control of her sobs and tears and looked up at Xoren with swollen eyes "I'm sorry.." she whispered taking a step back and sitting back down only to stand back up again and turn back towards where she placed the wood she found and picked them up and returned back to Xoren. "I found these, are they alright?" she asked, placing them before him. She suddenly felt alright as if she hadn't just spent many moments crying beside him. She didn't know what Xoren was to her, she didn't much mind about the title she gave him only that she was overwhelmed with relief and joy having him in her life.

[Hypercube]

"You have no need to be sorry" he said as she reclaimed the supplies she that had fallen, "and they're perfect." Xoren looked into her eyes and smiled at her, feeling overjoyed that she was now okay. "I marked the trees so we could get back" he told her flicking his tail in their direction, "we get moving, I'm starving!" Before Aleila had the chance, Xoren picked up her find and began to carry it in the direction of his first mark.

[Accalia]

She gave Xoren a shy smile and then widened it to a grin. "Xoren thank you." she said quietly, running up to catch him. She smiled up at him and saw a scratch on a nearby tree and giggled. "I'm starving to! Did you manage to find something to light the fire with?" she asked plodding along side Xoren, her eyes feeling heavy but his presence giving her a sort of energy.

[Hypercube]

"I did" he said to her as his eyes followed the etchings he had lain, "I found some flint in that pile of rocks I was searching that should be able to produce some good sparks." As he and Aleila reached the clearing, Xoren placed the supplies near the flint he was just discussing and looked to a smiling Aleila with a similar expression of joy and energy on his lips. "Ready to get this started?" he asked her, their eyes connecting by more than just a line a vision.

[Accalia]

Aleila continued to smile, she didn't know exactly why she was smiling so much but she guessed it was because they were so close to being able to eat. "That's good, thank you!" And as she saw the clearing opened up before them she walked beside Xoren and when he looked at her she felt her cheeks warm slightly and she wondered why. She nodded and said "Yes!" but when their eyes met her smile slowly left her maw and her eyes no longer felt heavy and she noticed how intricate Xorens eyes were, her blush grew, but she was unable to pull her gaze from his. When she finally was able to she blushed and looked at the pile of wood "I hope you know what you are doing... cause I don't." she giggled slightly

[Hypercube]

"I've done this before," he said with a tone of expertise, "just not with elderberries." As he spoke, he carried the bird's nest and the other small twigs and placed them down next to the larger piece of flint. Positioning his paw around the smaller rock, he was able to wedge it into a hold with which he could easily strike the larger. With his eyes staring intently at the kindling in below him, he struck the flint swiftly and watched the sparks as they danced around the dry twigs. After a few attempts, a few of the sparks managed to find their way into the middle of the bird's nest as it glowed with life. Acting quickly as to not allow the flame to extinguish, he quickly grabbed more twigs and surrounded the ball of flame as he blew a steady stream of air into it.

Soon later the repetition of this process produced a steady flame that quickly consumed the larger pieces of wood they had collected. "And that" he said as he pushed one of the logs into place, "Is how to build a fire."