Jack and Rad's Heroic Journey

The days had turned colder, the sun was now gone for longer periods of time. The nights were much darker. I looked out into the darkness of the night, at the moon that was barely visible. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, savouring the smell of the fresh autumn air. Everything felt so still and silent. Suddenly, I heard a loud rustle behind me, I opened my eyes quickly and sprinted towards Rad.

"So what you doin'?" Rad asked casually as he walked over to me with his hands in his pockets.

I laughed and shook my head, "Nothing."

He smiled and we stood there for a moment in silence looking out into the dark forest. I turned around to face him and he looked down at me with his bright green eyes. "So how are your legs?" He asked tilting his head a little bit to look up at me from underneath his long black hair.

I shrugged and flushed slightly, "Not too bad."

He frowned and sat down on the forest floor beside me, "Have you been using the ointment?" He said looking up at me while he spoke.

I nodded and pulled my bandana off over my head, running my fingers through my sweaty hair. "Yeah it's fine," I said trying to brush it off with a laugh but Rad didn't seem convinced by my answer. "Seriously!" I said more sternly as I leaned forward placing my elbows on my knees and looked down at him seriously, "It's fine," I repeated with more confidence this time. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair nodding slowly as if he believed me.

"How about you? How is your back?" I asked leaning back against a tree trunk behind me, sticking my feet out in front of me to prop myself up onto two thick roots that poked out from under the ground next to them.

Rad shrugged as he took off his backpack and rummaged through it before pulling out a new bottle of ointment and unscrewing the cap off of it before handing it to me. "It's fine," he said waving his hand dismissively as if it wasn't a big deal even though he couldn't even bend over properly without wincing in pain anymore because of his old injury that had never healed right after the wolves attacked him so many years ago when we were younger.

I shook my head at him but accepted the ointment anyway, unscrewing the lid off of it with my teeth and taking some out onto my fingers before rubbing it onto both of my legs where they had been hurting recently more than usual because of our walks through these woods getting stronger with each day that passed by ever so quickly until we reached our destination which may be sooner than later if all goes well...