After a short walk, the fire in her hand fizzled out, leaving just some glowing embers. It was still tough to see, but hey, better than pitch ck.


    She crouched down, using the faint light to scrounge up some dry branches. While gathering firewood, she identally brushed against a few bugs, which totally freaked her out. She patted her chest, taking deep breaths. Even though she was scared, she kept searching for firewood under the trees. There wasn''t much else around, but there were plenty of dry branches. She quickly bundled them up and hurried back. Once inside the cave, she felt a bit more at ease.


    She let out a long breath, dropped the firewood on the ground, and noticed a few centipedes and some other creepy crawlies in the pile. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a stone and smashed the centipedes that crawled out, then tossed the other bugs straight into the fire. While burning them, she kept ncing over, worried her noise would wake Alexander.


    But honestly, she wasn''t being quiet, and Alexander didn''t wake up.


    Usually, he''d wake up at the slightest noise, but now he was out cold.


    Quinn hesitated for a sec, then carefully walked over to him, squatting down and reaching out a finger to check his breath. He was still alive.


    She let out a sigh of relief, but before she could pull her hand back, her wrist was suddenly grabbed.


    Looking up, she saw Alexander still had his eyes closed, just holding her hand.


    A force pulled her wrist, and she fell into his arms, where he held her tight.


    "Cold, let me hold you for a while," he croaked.


    Quinn stayed still, pressing against his chest and listening to his steady heartbeat.


    The fire beside them crackled, and she could smell the bugs burning.


    The fire was about to die out again, so Quinn had to break free and toss in more firewood.


    She nced back at Alexander, his brows furrowed, and his forehead still sweaty.


    Quinn walked back, reached out to touch his forehead, and found it still burning hot.


    But he said he was cold.


    She gritted her teeth and took off her clothes to cover him. She still had a dress underneath, though it was pretty torn up.


    Since there was no one else around, she took off one sleeve and tied the torn dress into a few knots, barely covering her chest.


    The firewood she had collected burned out, and it started to get light outside, making it barely possible to see.


    Quinn grabbed a dagger and headed out again.


    Finding food was a no-go; she was on the hunt for herbs. Besides mugwort, she didn''t recognize much else. She pulled up a lot of mugwort and found a cluster of peri on her way back. Quinn was kinda excited; peri seemed useful and maybe better than mugwort.


    She dropped the mugwort and ran over, cutting a big bunch of peri with her dagger. She even thought about taking the whole cluster back.


    But as she pulled aside the vines, a ck-and-white snake coiled in the grass, making her face go pale. She dropped the vines and stumbled back.


    She tripped over something and fell to the ground.


    She watched the snake slither out of the grass, her limbs weak. The peri she had picked fell, and she didn''t dare move, instinctively gripping the dagger.


    Quinn was ready for a life-and-death showdown with the snake, but to her surprise, the snake ignored her and slithered away.


    She let out a sigh of relief, trembling as she got up from the ground. She then picked up the fallen peri and, not daring to take more, hurried back with what she had.N?velDrama.Org ? content.