Asen felt exhilarated in the first hours hiking along the rim out into the wilderness, but as the moons set and the night gave way to day, the reality of the situation began to set in. 

“how about we take a break here?” offered Asen. they were nowhere special, it seemed every mile of the rim was the same and any spot was as good as any. everyone responded in unison with a sigh of relief. 

“i didn’t realize walking so much would be this exhausting” sighed Edric as he leaned against a small boulder. they had kept walking along the edge of the rim, the trees grew thick as any forest, but stopped an even 10 paces before the rim consistently as they had walked down. it had seemed the natural choice to walk this way. but after the hours walking through the night despair plagued the tired travelers. Cobin dropped next to Edric leaning against the same boulder and called over to Asen who was standing closer to the trees looking into them. “this is starting to feel hopeless Asen, how are you feeling?”

“Hopeless?” Asen asked “well isn’t that why we are here? our lives are hopeless, as much as this sucks this is our way out. if we want to live our own lives, this is it”

“yeah i know” sighed Cobin “i still hate this.”

“i have a thought” Halver spoke up from the log he was sitting on “so i was thinking that we dont really have anywhere to go and we might want to set up a camp to hang out in right?” hesitantly everyone nodded not sure what Halver was getting at so he kept going “well it might be helpful to have some supplies?”

the realization struck through all of them, and Cobin burst into laughter rolling in the dirt, Asen laughed too, even Edric was finding the hummer of the moment, when Cobin calmed down and caught his breath he shouted still with a laugh in his voice “how did we forget to bring anything? we just thought we would run away with nothing?”

“so what do we do?” Halver asked.

“we go back” said Asen

“back?” asked Edric

“yes, we go back, sneak into town, grab a few things and come back out here” answered Asen

“oh boy, we walked all night away from town just to realize we need to go back for a few things.” the frustration was starting to come out in Edric’s voice.

Asen stood “yes we go back, but when we leave we will be much more prepared”