A tiresome sigh escaped from the young hidden runner’s muzzle, unable to keep his boredom from resurfacing. Nyero slumped down onto a rock and threw his hands up in clear frustration over the recent developments in his life that had completely exhausted him to the brink. He couldn’t stop the scowl from emerging on his face as he knew deep down that he was the only one to blame for his issues, no matter how much he would have liked to believe otherwise, the notion was firmly rooted into his mind and it wouldn’t leave not in any way.
He could feel his tiredness inside him, slowly but deliberately draining him of the will to live and keep on going like before, which was just another problem into his already growing misery with not being able to accomplish much of anything worthwhile in the span of two days. During the day he could hardly make any beneficial progress with finding a new land to call home now that he had left his previous one behind him. During the night he was plagued with vivid scenes of his family being slaughtered so mercilessly right in front of him. He could still see the image inside his mind as his father’s head was crushed by the massive jaws of one of the sharpteeth and hear the desperate cries of his mother and siblings, whom were quite literally later stamped while he was still watching.
Nyero shook his head, trying to make the horrific sights disappear from his mind, to no avail. They would always be rooted in his mind and no amount of willpower would ever change that fact. It was something he would just have to learn with to the best of his ability. His father had always lectured about the importance of knowing when to flee and when to fight, even if his kind weren’t exactly made for killing, they still made do with what they had and used their skills to surpass any possible obstacles they might have ever faced. But no one would survive out here long if they were by themselves, especially a young child like him would have almost to no chance of making it out here without help from others.
And yet no matter how hard he looked, he still couldn’t find one trace of a hint that there were others nearby his current location, so it looked like he was doomed to face the cruel and unforgiving world all by himself in the end. The sigh that eventually escaped from his lips was resigned and weary, signalling the end of deliberate effort and the start of a passive deterioration. It was a sigh so quiet that it went unnoticed by the hidden runner himself, the sound and its movement dissipated out into the vastness of the world and made no effect at all. And at that moment Nyero knew that he had well and truly given up on life. He had no desire to continue keeping up this pointless façade which believed that one day everything would be better once more. It was time to face the truth, his life was not going to get better at all. Not now, not ever.
Nyero had been so self-conscious with only focusing on his own hardship to take any notice of faint sobs emitting from somewhere near his position, but once he finally focused on the present again, he could at last hear those faint, but sad sobs hailing from somewhere nearby him. It was more than crying, it was the kind of desolate sobbing that comes from a person drained of all hope. He rose up and began to follow the desperate cries, regardless of any possible threats to his life completely erased from his mind. Now his only intention was to figure out whom this strange individual could be, it was nagging his mind to find out the truth and to sedate his curious young mind.
After a while, he came across a sight that not only took him completely by surprise as it was the first time he had actually seen someone else in this hellish landscape, but that the sobbing dinosaur was a longneck that appeared to be around his age. Or so Nyero surmised, as he wasn’t exactly an expert in figuring out other’s ages, therefore being completely blind in figuring out the logneck’s age by just merely looking at her features.
The other thing that took him by surprise was the fact how sad she seemed to look when she sobbed uncontrollably in front of him. She hadn’t obviously yet noticed his arrival, otherwise she would most likely had ceased in her weeping to take notice of the hidden runner whom had just invaded her personal space, even if that was unwittingly done. The more he looked at the weeping longneck the more he wished he could somehow help her, but wasn’t exactly sure how to out of fear for making things even worse than they already were. Even so, he could not just stand idly by and watch her suffer like this… he had to do something, anything to help this unfortunate soul. Nyero took a deep breath, and opened his mouth to address her, making sure that his tone of voice wasn’t too intimidating to the longneck.
’’Hey… are you okay?’’