“You poisoned me, didn’t you,” Radi0 said. “That’s why I’ve been feeling this way.” I dropped the snapdragons and took another step back.

“W-what?” I stammered. “N-no I didn’t! I would never do that to anyone!”

“LIAR!”

“I’m not lying! I don’t even know what you're talking about! How the hell would I even be able to poison you?”

“The fucking berries, Mud! The berries were poisonous!”

“But… I had them too… t-there’s literally no way!”

“You’re not human, Mud! Of course the toxins would work differently!”

“O-oh… oh my god…” I grabbed onto my hair. I poisoned him. Why didn’t I think that our reactions would be different? Why didn’t I think twice about giving them to him? I shook my head and stepped back. “N-no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I-I’d never do that!”

“Mud…” Radi0 said, his voice quieter than before. “Did you mean to?” I shook my head again and took another step back, tripping on a branch and curling up on the trunk of a tree. I wrapped my wings around my head, just trying to take this in. How could I do this to him?!

“J-Just give me a second…” I muttered, taking some deep breaths. I sat there.

I just tried to kill him… No, stop it, it was unintentional, it was just an accident. It’s fine, he’s not going to die! There’s no way those berries can kill a person! It’s fine!

I let out a breath and stood up, brushing myself off. I looked at Radi0. We stared at each other silently. I stepped towards Radi0 and wrapped my arms around him.

“I’m so, so, sorry…” I muttered. “I didn’t know…”

“It’s okay, Mud,” he replied, hugging me back. We stood there for a minute, exhausted from how these past few days have gone. At least, I was. We let go of each other and stood there for a second. I looked around for a way out of here until I spotted a breach in the trees. I looked back at Radi0 and pointed to the opening.

“We might be able to find a way out of this forest through there,” I said, then started to walk in the direction that I was pointing to.

“Hey Mud?” Radi0 asked. I looked back at him but didn’t slow down my pace. “What do you think the berries were?” I thought for a moment.

“At first I thought they were blueberries, but it makes more sense that they would be elderberries. They’re not extremely deadly, but they do cause nausea, weakness, dizziness, and numbness. Are you feeling any of that?”

“Uh, yeah,” Radi0 replied. “I am feeling kind of nauseous… and a bit weak… and dizzy… I’m not feeling any numbness though, is that a bad thing?”

“I mean, it shouldn’t be, if you don’t have a symptom, that would be good,” I said, but something whispered in the back of my mind that he wouldn’t have any symptoms if I had just stayed dead. I shook my head, trying to shake the thought with it, but it clung to my mind. I sighed and kept walking, hoping that this thought wouldn’t stay with me for more than a day.

As we walked the trees and bushes slowly got thinner and there was a small, old trail that led for miles in each direction. I looked to the left down the path and all I saw were just more trees. Then I looked right. It wasn’t close, but the path seemed to change from an old, barren path, to a busy, city street. I stepped onto the path. A city? Out in the middle of nowhere? It wasn’t just a small town, it was a literal city. Tall buildings, busy streets, people walking. And it wasn’t just humans walking on the side of the road, from what I could make out, there also seemed to be animals. Animals that walked on two legs, animals that walked on four. Winged humans with tails, scaly animals without tails. It was diverse, it was intriguing. I wanted to go towards the city, I wanted to explore, I wanted to talk to other people. I wanted to learn.

“Hey Radi0!” I called for him, then looked over. He was wrestling with vines that had somehow managed to get tangled around him. I walked over and carefully ripped the vines off of him.

“Wait, come look at this!” I ran back onto the path, Radi0 following close behind. I pointed. “There’s a city! We might be able to rent an apartment there so we can have a place to live!”

“We don’t have any money though…” Radi0 said. “What are we going to do about that?”

“Uh…” Shoot. I hadn’t thought about money. “M-Maybe someone will see that we’re minors without shelter? We… might be able to get a home then?” I sighed and shook my head. "I don't know… I'm not sure what's going to happen from here on out, but hopefully it'll get easier once we have a home."