Ellie and Dina walked towards the horses who were hitched along the tree line. It was a nice day to go riding, as the sun was high and the road they were going to take had many shadows coming from the forest. Ellie glanced at her for a moment, seeing her feeling excited. All she could do was shake her head to stop focusing on her.

"You okay?" Dina showed concern by leaning forwards to look at her face.

"I'm good." She said bluntly.

"Do you want me to say sorry, hm?" Dina jokingly jumped in front of her and clasped her hands together, "I'm very, very, very, very, very sorry, Ellie."

"Real funny, Dina." Ellie shrugged and removed the rope of her horse off the tree, "You know how to get on one, right?"

"If you clean 'em, you better know how to get on 'em." She shared.

"Then why haven't you..." She paused for a moment and grunted getting up the horse, "learned how to ride one?"

Dina, on her horse, looked at her with squinted eyes, almost speechless. "I guess I'm just new here?"

"New here?" Ellie scoffed. "Any more excuses?"

"Seriously? I've only been here for two months. Isn't that a good enough explanation."

"Fine, I'll give you that." She sighed and shuffled both of her legs to one side of her horse, so she was facing Dina. "First thing you have to learn, is that you need to stay calm— at all costs. It could tell if you're tense or not. Don't flail your legs around."

"Got that." Dina assured, as she adjusted her waist to get comfortable. "Two?"

"See the reins? Try not to tug on it too much—if you're not looking to fall." Ellie chuckled silently, glancing to the trees, "Guide the horse. It'll follow with a small tug."

"Calm legs on the side and simple strides. Got it." She repeated.

"Lastly, don't wing it. Always feel what the horse feels. If it's tired, take it's easy. If it's energized, wear it out."

"Seems pretty basic," Dina tightened her grip around the reins. "I think I can do this."

In a matter of moments, she was already turning her horse to a pathway in the forest. Ellie shook her head while trying to stop smiling, but she finally broke and made a wide grin. Dina had already started to make her way into the forest, prompting Ellie to follow her.

"Come on, Blair." Ellie patted down her horse.

By the time Ellie was right behind Dina, their horses were both galloping seamlessly as they manoeuvred across the thick and bright forest. Birds started to rise from sleep and fly above them. Some lizards were hanging from branches, waiting on their next prey. It made Ellie pause for a moment to take it all in again after working inside for so long. She began to notice the distance that Dina placed between them. Being an experienced driver, she managed to quickly move up to her side, her legs barely hitting Dina's.

"Quick learner, huh?" She acknowledged.

"It may be that I have a thing with horses, don't you think?" Dina smiled at her, making Ellie lose balance.

She almost fell of her horse, but Blair veered to the right to maintain her stance, "Shit!"

While Ellie tried to regain her grasp on the restraints, Dina bursted our laughing, "Was it that face that I was making?!"

"Oh, shut up, Dina." She said, locking her feet deep into the mounted area below. "I just got off-balanced."

"Who knew the teacher would get outclassed by the student?" Dina boasted by lifting her neck, "Strange times?"

"Just because I almost fell off my horse doesn't mean you're a better rider than me." She argued.

"Then what's the need of quarrelling over that?" She pointed out.

"Look..." Ellie peeked at Dina, who was riding firm but managed to look so free. Her hands maintained a good grip while her body followed the horse's emotions. "you're doing great, okay?"

"Nice change of pace for you, hm?" She recognized. "Say, you got your personality from Joel, huh."

"How do you know about - " Ellie paused and widened her mouth, "Oh right, you met him before."

"Not exactly met," She corrected and raised her fingers to explain, "It was more of a greeting."

"Quite the greeting to the place, hm?"

"All the lights, all the food, all the people. It feels like an actual home. Something that hasn't happened over twenty years."

"Do you ever wonder?" Ellie asked as they galloped through the cold air.

"What?"

"Life before the outbreak? All the shit before this."

"I do, sometimes. My father - well, he... he told me stories when I was very young. Around four."

There was silence as Dina continued to reminisce in her head. "Nobody got to tell me before I met Joel. There was," Ellie sighed as she took up the memories, "too many things that he told me."

"I could tell, just by talking to him, that he's a great guy."

"He's always there for people. He's always helping. I'm glad that we have each other's backs."

"I wish I had someone like that." Dina started nodded to herself. "I do have a friend... or partner, back in camp."

"What's the name?" She wondered.

"His name is Jesse." She tilted her head, "He's a strong guy. Enough to get by."

"Well," Ellie chuckled slightly and went into thought, "we need people who are enough to get by. It's a tough world."

"Tell me about it," Dina laughed. Her horse started to neigh, which made her come to a halt, "Oh, shit. What's happening."

Ellie stopped alongside her, moving Blair towards her direction, "Don't worry about it, he's just tired. C'mon, let's take it slow."

They ended up on a cliff overlooking the vast mountains in the distance. Directly below them was a lake, leading to the river that covered most of Jackson. In the air, crows flew in packs as they moved northward. They flew over the packed and dark forests where the most unusual noises were being emitted throughout the area. Multiple cable lines stand untouched in the distance, vines growing off of it as the structure barely stood. Dina traversed too close along the cliff for Ellie's liking.

"Hey, you might want to scoot a little bit away from the edge." She warned.

Dina glanced at her and squinted her face, "Are you afraid of heights or something?"

"No, I - " She stuttered for a few seconds, thinking of while making silly gestures with her hands, "I have just seen too many people die."

Dina scoffed while shoving her hand towards Ellie's direction, "Come on, Ellie. You can tell me."

"I can't swim, okay?" Ellie admitted, thrusting Blair to a reasonable distance from the outline of the cliff. "And there's a lake down there."

"You? Can't swim?" Dina began laughing. "For a day, I thought you were one tough son of a bitch."

"Just because I can't swim, doesn't mean I ain't tough like you expect." Ellie grunted in frustration. She began to shake her head for still being unable to swim, "Believe me, I want to learn how to swim. I'm training."

"Hey," Dina leaned towards Ellie, "I guess I owe you a favor for teaching you how to ride."

"Being able to swim would be pretty nice, you know."

They paused at a very sharp turn of the cliff to look at the complete view of Jackson. There was a very long river running across with beautiful mountains for miles just like what they experienced earlier. This time it was even more magnificent view. Dina was as close to the edge as you could be. To break silence and her fear, Ellie, while riding Blair, approached her and sat right beside her.

"I wish times were simpler." Dina blurted out.

Ellie rested her body towards her direction, "Can't deny that view though."

"You're right. Damn." Dina nodded in appreciation.

"As much as it was a pain of an ass to get out of work today, I'm glad that we got out." Ellie smiled by towards her.

Dina's mouth began shifted, "You - uh... look good... when you smile."

She stared into her eyes, "Why thank you. Might be the nicest thing I'll get out of you today."

"Bet on it." She tugged at Ellie's arm. "You lost your fear or are you scared of being alone?"

"I'm not looking down." Ellie stated. Her hands were still shaking, as the reins connected with the horse's skin making noise. "I think we should head back."

Dina glanced at the mountain range one more time, "Yeah, we should."

The ride back to town was peaceful and enjoyable, things Ellie thought were extinct from the world. The environment seemed more lively and friendly, as animals just watched as they galloped by without intervening. The lush vegetation stroke at their skin as they passed, giving each other looks to see their reactions. Ellie extended her arms, feeling the grass touch in her hand.

In a matter of moments, they reached the outskirts of the town. The kind people opened the gate for the two women and they entered the streets of the safe haven. People were more hard on work that day, as they were rushing pass them to grab their items for their jobs. By that time, Dina and Ellie arrived at the stables where Dina was living near at that time.

"Dina!" A man called from inside the stable. He was a tall and young. He was wearing a sweater during Spring, which seemed odd to Ellie. The man was already sweating heavily from his head and there were grey spots on his clothing. "You finally learned how to ride?"

"Yeah!" She slowly and carefully got off the horse and walked over to him, "I got some tips from the girl over here," Dina grinned as she pointed to Ellie.

"Hey." Ellie shyly waved her hand at the man. "Name's Ellie."

"Nice to meet you," The man extended his arm to give a handshake, "It's Jesse."

"So you're the guy Dina talked about earlier." She acknowledged while glancing between the two of them.

Jesse looked to Dina and smiled widely, which made Ellie feel somewhat uncomfortable, "You've been talking about me? C'mon, Dina, you can't put my word out."

"It's only good words, Jesse, don't worry."

"That's a relief." Jesse grabbed a towel off the stable wall and wiped his face, "We have a long day ahead. We still have some horses that are heading back."

"It's your turn, Jesse." Dina shrugged while approaching Ellie. "I had a whole day of cleaning yesterday."

"Yeah?" Jesse opened the gate of the stall and exited it. "I just cleaned twelve stalls. Get into some of that action." He handed over the rake over to her.

"Really?" Dina hesitated to get into the stall, "But I still have to go out with Ellie."

"We do?" Ellie uttered.

"Stop trying to get out of work." Jesse sighed and focused on Ellie, "See, that's why she was free today. She wanted to walk away from work."

"Don't we all." Ellie added.

Suddenly a group of men arrived on their horses. Ellie moved out of the way of the two, and walked forwards to the two men that were on front of the pack. Joel and Tommy got off their horses and came to the teenagers that were standing there.

"Ellie," Joel's eyes widened seeing her. "I thought you were helping Maria?"

"Dina asked me to come and teach her how to ride a horse. I promise it was a quick lesson." Ellie explained.

"Nice to see that your opinion has changed." He lightly tapped her shoulder and glanced at Dina, "Glad to see that you two are getting along."

"Me too, sir." Dina responded.

He pulled Ellie closer to him, "Come on, Ellie - "

"Cut it out, Joel. Girl's just having fun." Tommy remarked.

"It's just that we have strict orders, Tommy. That's all there is to it."

"Yeah, well, save that for later." He put his rifle back into the holster on his horse and approached them, "Are you free later, Ellie?"

"What? Why?" Ellie stepped back to get a clear view of the brothers.

"We found a group of new raiders that came into town. We wanted to have a look but realized there's too many. We're going out again later to go find where they live." Joel calmly expressed.

"Hell yeah, I'm coming." Ellie nodded in excitement.

"Great." Tommy began to laugh in joy. He peeked over to Dina and Jesse conversing, "You two, you want to come and join us?"

"Join?" Jesse pointed at the both of them.

"Yeah. I thought," Tommy leaned on the wooden pole, "Maybe it's time to stop the washing and go on the raid. Joel and I have seen your work and marksmanship. You two would be pretty good scouters."

"We would love to!" Dina exclaimed.

Joel was already looking in dissatisfaction as he turned to Ellie, "This is a bad idea."

"What? Scouting?" Ellie argued.

"We have a big crew as it is. Adding these kids, like you, would be putting a risk on this whole thing." He stroke his beard. "Best we keep this to ourselves."

"Joel," Her eyes were heavy and looking at him with disagreement, "We have potential scouts. We'll be fine. I can handle myself. You've seen me handle a rifle before. What can't they do?"

"Swim." He joked.

"Oh, ha-ha." She playfully smacked Joel in the arm. "So, we're doing this?"

"Well, we should get some rest."