At some point, Yuki’s eyes grew heavy, her head tilted forward and rested on top of Nana’s head. She, too, was very tired from the day’s events. The two girls slept quite soundly in each other’s embrace. The warmth that came off their bodies and radiated into the others was enough to make them feel secure. Even Yuki, who would never let down her guard like this, was able to sleep soundly while holding Nana. 

Only about an hour passed when the fire went out. Yuki opened her sleepy eyes to feel a slight chill. She looked down at Nana, who was still sleeping but shivering slightly, and sighed as she knew she would need to wake the girl up. “Nana….” 

“Mmm…” Nana pushed her face into Yuki’s developing mounds as she mumbled softly.

Yuki furrowed her brow slightly before shaking Nana gently. “Nana, wake up. I need to get the fire going again.”

    “Hmmm? Yuki?” Nana slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head. Seeing Yuki look back at her made Nana smile before nodding her head and slowly sitting up. 

Yuki helped Nana get up before standing up herself and then helping Nana sit back down without hurting her back too much. It had already scabbed over, and Yuki was afraid of the scab would break open and would start bleeding again. 

Once Nana was situated, Yuki began getting the fire going again. Once the flame was burning again, she took some demonic beast meat out of her space and began roasting it over the fire. “This will take a while to roast, so just wait. You need to eat to get your strength back and replenish the blood you lost.”

Yuki checked the clothes and found that her inner robe had dried and brought it over with her and placed it over Nana’s shoulders before having her part her legs some so she could sit down between them. She leaned against Nana’s chest and let the fire warm her body. “We will stay here until your wound has healed enough. Water and food I have so we do not need to worry about that. But clothing is different. I will give you my robes, while a bit on the small side, they would be better since you have a wound on your back. I will just rip up your robes to make a makeshift set of clothes when they are fully dry.”

Nana looked down at Yuki, who was now leaning forward, rotating the meat over the fire, and wondered just how lucky she was to make a friend who would care for her this much. “You are very kind….”

“I am only kind to those who I feel I can trust. To be honest, I do not even know why I risked everything. Normally I would just run away to preserve my life since my clansman who were taken away are relying on me to come and save them. But I still made the decision to stay behind and allow you three to escape. But I think it was a good thing that this happened. While we both got seriously hurt, it allowed me to realize that the world is not fully gray. There is color to be seen if you look hard enough.” Yuki flipped the meat once more before leaning back and looking up at Nana’s face. “And that color that has pushed into my gray world just so happens to be someone similar to me and is of the dragonkin race.”

Nana blushed. She reached up and poked Yuki’s cheek. This actually caused Yuki to smile for the first time. A true smile that bloomed like a field of flowers. Nana was stunned at how beautiful Yuki’s smile was that she got lost in it.

“While I can not show you my true form just yet. I want you to know, Nana, that I will stay by your side from here on out. The two of us will push forward together. I might not seem it, but I was also lonely. But I could not trust anyone. But I know in order to figure out who the humans were, that took my clansman, I will need to at least make connections which requires some form of trust. But you…. I can trust my life to you, it seems.” Yuki felt a wave of relief rolling over. She wondered if this was how Nana felt when she realized she was not alone. 

She reached over and pulled Nana’s hand in hers, and leaned against Nana’s chest. “Thank you for coming back….”

“Mmm…” Nana hugged Yuki. She started to get emotional again. Just knowing she would be with Yuki from now on allowed her to know she was no longer alone. They were no longer alone.

After a few more hours and a good meal, the clothes had dried. Yuki helped Nana get dressed before getting dressed herself. She ended up using the bottom half of Nana’s robes to make a skirt while tearing strips out of the upper half to wrap her chest up. It might not be what was considered modest in her current era, but that did not matter to her at this time. Right now, she was looking at practicality and nothing else. 

Yuki looked at the fire and her wood stock and knew she would need to get more if they were going to stay in here for a while until Nana healed. “I will go get us some more wood. Do not leave this cave for anything. I will only be going a few feet away.”

“Okay. But…. If you do not return in an hour, I will come looking for you.” Nana was not going to stay here on her own. If Yuki did not return, she would try to find her. Yuki had already become family to her. There was no way she would allow Yuki to go through danger on her own anymore.

Seeing Nana’s stubborn expression, Yuki knew there was no talking her out of it. So she could only helplessly give her a nod before leaving the cave.