If I remembered correctly, she had tried every single berry bush in that forest, stumble across was a euphemism. He looked at her as if he was about to say something, but then appeared to decide otherwise as he replied, "they are delicious thank you, next time I'll get you something just as nice." Her face turned bright red as she replied, "its okay you already gave me something just as nice, the flowers are simply beautiful." His mood seemed to darken for a few seconds before becoming bright again and saying with hope in his eyes "then next time, we could go together and try to find some more?" Helaena looked at him with a baffled look in her face, she took a few seconds to respond and we could all see the wheels turning in her head as if she was trying to believe what he had just said, after a while Geros seemed to become anxious and added "only if you want, if you don't feel comfortable you don't have to say yes." The hope started to leave his eyes and his voiced seemed to falter as he spoke, Helaena seemed to understand and exclaimed "yes I would love to, I would really like that", the relief was palpable in Geros's face as he heard her answer. At that moment, I realised that everybody had eavesdropped the conversation, we all had a smile on our face, I exhaled a sigh of relief as we heard her say yes, it was obvious she liked him even if she was shy, I don't think she expected him to actually ask her out in a strangely indirect way like he had did, but I was happy she had said yes, after all, they looked so cute together.

After they finished their "private" conversation, we got out of the cavern and assessed all we had brought back from our two hunting sessions. Khail and Eisma were the ones who had brought approximately half of the meat, they had been the firsts to find a pack of Flaims running through the forest, they still had some blood on them, even after transforming it remained on them. Masov told them about the pond we had found earlier, so that we might stop there on our way up, to be able to fill our bottles.

The scent of the forest got surprisingly strong even if we walked on the trail outside of it, we entered the forest briefly to be able to access the pond. As I touched the cold water, I could feel an urge to splash some of it on my face, it had been so long since I had actually washed my face or any part of my body for that matter. I resisted for a few seconds, but as soon as everyone had finished filling their bottle, I kneeled next to the pond and splashed some water on my neck and my face, I let out a grunt of satisfaction as I felt the cold-water drip all over me.

The others copied me and kneeled next to the pond, Reain and Masov were the only ones that didn't keel, Nila and I looked at them with puzzled expressions on our face, weren't they hot? Upon seeing us looking at them, they looked at the ground and as they still looked hesitant, I said "the ground isn't going to eat any of you know? And the worst that could happen would be for you pants to get dirty. But if you want to suffer the heat for the rest of the day, its your choice." I could see their jaw tightening as they kneeled down next to the pond. I couldn't stop myself from nagging them, "see its not that hard, now stop pretending to be precious and refresh yourselves. Reain looked at me dead in the eye and said, "why don't you do it for me Lya?". With a grin, I immersed my hand in the water and before his smug expression even left his face, my hand was resurfacing with a load of water, the said water obviously ended on his face covered in indignation and fresh water.

Masov started laughing, but as he tried to speak, Nila sent him a huge amount of water on his face, before we even knew it, everyone was covered in water and was throwing water to somebody else in the group. We had ended up using almost all the water in the pond as our fight ended after approximately thirty minutes of receiving more water than we could throw, Khail was the first to abdicate as he stood up to go eat some berries, Geros followed him, then Rya and Vreia. Reain and Masov were next, and Nila and I followed behind. We were all drenched as we got out of the pond, we could feel the wind flowing through us as if we were a piece of paper.

We would certainly end up with a cold, but for now, it didn't matter as we had been truly free, even if it had only been for a second. We all needed to change our clothes, otherwise we could get sick during the night as it would cold down significantly, we couldn't be sure our clothes would have enough time to dry during the day, but we could still try.

I headed behind a tree that seemed to be large enough to hide me even if I was lying down instead of standing. I could feel the tissue of my wet jacket cling onto my skin as I took it off, I had a difficult time removing my shirt and my pants as I slid into another pair of pants and shirt, I also tried to control my body temperature by wearing my adaptable coat.

I then, went back to the part of the forest I had just left and met with the others. As we all finished changing, we agreed to continue searching for the mythical cavern. Vreia though we could be there by nightfall base on where we were and the destination. We embarked on the trail we had let the day before and continued to walk, after a while I didn't hear anything except for the animals running through the forest and communicating with each other, I could see the mountains that surrounded us and the forest, it was like a barrier that at the same time protected us, but also kept us prisoner.

I could feel my breath becoming shorter and shorter as my mind started to think about everything that could go wrong, we could stay stuck, imprisoned, we could get lost in the maze that were the Kuja mountains, it could be our last day, I could never live free of all worry or of regrets. The mountains seemed so big, so tall, so... unbreakable, I could feel the voices of the past whispering in my ears, "you won't be able to get out, you deserve it", "you monster, your parents shouldn't have brought you here.", "you're a killer, a monster", "die, devil, die". I could feel my control slip as I slowed my pace down to try to maintain my exterior, my interior had been broken but it didn't mean I wanted the others to know about it. I wasn't sure my mother even knew who I truly was, what I could do, she probably didn't, or she would've used me for one of her schemes, she had a thirst for power, and nothing mattered more, not even her children.

My thoughts drifted back to reality as I felt a drop of sweat falling down my back, the trail had become quiet, too quiet, I heard water rushing and colliding against rocks, I saw a sea of blue in the distance, spots hovering over it, and realized that it was probably the others taking a break and enjoying the water. I ran to join them and pushed back the feeling of unease I had just felt, putting it on the count of my panic attack, I could feel my vision coming back to normal as me breathing regulated itself, I rapidly entered the water as my coat was water proof and submerged myself in the cold water as I felt my pulse calming down, and my body temperature dropping back to a normal temperature.

The ringing in my ears had almost disappeared as I emerged from the water, I started swimming to change my thoughts, the water colliding with my body and the rapids following the curves of my body as I swam through them as if they weren't there, I could feel a gaze on me as I accelerated, the blue reflections of the water reminded me of drawing and painting of the sea I had seen when I was young, there weren't any gems in this lac on the contrary of the waterfall in the last cave, but I could still feel a surge of aura emerging from the water, it probably came from the others.

Everybody had emotions they were weaker to, some couldn't control themselves with strong emotions like anger, resentment or in rare cases, happiness. One of the persons in the group probably was the exception. We stayed in the lake for about an hour before preparing ourselves to continue walking to our destination, we were about to leave, when we heard voices coming from away, we all looked in the same destination simultaneously. Geros, Eisma and Vreia transformed and placed themselves in front of us, even if the group that was coming didn't know we were here, they could still harbor negative feelings for us if they discovered us and saw us as competition. Whether they were friends or enemies, we would still need to make sure we could win or at least survive this stage of the simulation.

I picked up my spear and placed my hand near my thigh to prepare myself if I even needed to access my daggers, there steps became louder as they approached and I could smell the fur of one of them, it wasn't a familiar smell. I couldn't see any aura at that distance, but I could see that they weren't ten, I probably wasn't the only one who realized that it only gave three options, whether they had killed some of their members, whether somebody else in the simulation had killed some of them, or the most likely scenario, they had been killed by wild animals.

We could hear voices laughing and talking even from our distance, we were in plain sight, except for the water, nothing could hide us here. I could see them approaching closer and closer and about as they were going to pass us, one of them turned his head toward us and said something to his comrades, they turned their heads and smiled, whether it was a good thing I couldn't say. They came towards us and yelled "Hey ! How are y'all doing? You passed the first week, right?" he whispered back to one of the guys standing behind him "they don't let the ones that failed the first test here, right?" The guy behind him chuckled and said "I sure hope not" he lifted his face, and I recognized it instantly, didn't his team go East at the beginning of the task? What were they doing here?

I smiled at him and was about to move towards him when a wave of memories took me by surprise, I could see him, except he was younger, laughing and next to him, crawling in the dirt was my younger brother crying silently and looking down at the fruit he had started eating, I could remember looking at Jax, and emotions took over, before I could even think I had his throat between my hands and he had joined my brother in the dirt, the other kids had gasped and started advancing towards my brother, I could see Jax's wicked smile as I lifted my hands to protect my brother, the kids started kicking me as I tried to cover my little brother with my body, to this day I still had some of the marks they had left on my body, I had been lucky, in the next days, my brother got attacked again, this time he lost his right eyes, they had told him they didn't like the way he looked at Jax the day before.

Jax had moved a few years before my sister gave us the possibility to become a changing family, I never through I would see him again.

I could feel my nails penetrating my palms as I clenched my fists to prevent myself from launching myself at him and hurting him.

I couldn't yet, I needed time, time to make sure I would punish him accordingly and that he wouldn't be able to escape it.

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Thank you so much for reading my book! I really hope you enjoy it until now and don't hesitate to guess what's going to happen next!