Mai and the Eagle's Realm

"Mai!" a familiar voice called.

"It's me, Sugar."

"Sugar?" Mai said, confused. "Where have you been? It's been weeks since we last saw each other."

"I know, I'm sorry. Things got a bit hectic."

"Hectic? What do you mean?"

"Well..." Sugar began. "You see... I... sort of... fell asleep."

"What! You fell asleep? But how?" Mai asked with concern. "Did they finally find us? Are they going to kill us?"

"No no no, don't worry," Sugar replied, trying to calm down his friend. "They haven't found us yet." He paused and then continued, "I fell asleep while watching over you."

Mai was shocked by her eagle's words. "You've been watching over me this whole time? Is that even possible?" she asked, amazed by the idea of an animal who could stay awake for weeks on end. "Did you eat anything at all during that time?"

Sugar sheepishly looked away from Mai and answered: "Yes, well... I did eat and sleep for short periods of time on several occasions."

Mai was furious with her friend's lack of commitment but decided to let it go for now; after all, Sugar had saved her life more than once and deserved some slack. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down before continuing: "How are you still alive after all that? We can't continue like this, they'll find us sooner or later!" She yelled in desperation.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Sugar replied in an attempt to appease his friend. "We either need to relocate or find a safe house; I'm sure I can get one of my friends to help us out."

Mai calmed down and regained her composure, but there was something about the way Sugar said 'my friends' that didn't sit well with her. She decided not to say anything though and simply nodded.

The two walked through the forest for hours until they reached a clearing where Sugar stopped walking and turned around to face Mai directly: "This is as far as I can take you," he said solemnly. "My friends will be waiting for you here. Good luck my brave warrior!" he added as he flew up into the sky and flew off towards the sun setting in the West.

Mai stood still in front of the entrance to what seemed to be an old cave once inhabited by humans who were likely long gone by now due to war or disease; she took a deep breath and entered the dark cave without hesitation. Once inside, she could barely see anything due to the lack of light so she lit a torch in order to see better; once the torch started burning she saw there were many entrances leading deeper into the cave complex which appeared vast even though only part of it was illuminated by her torchlight; being cautious by nature, she chose one path at random and went deeper into the cave system. After walking for what seemed like hours with no apparent progress made except for deeper descent into the ground, Mai became impatient and decided she would just check all paths equally until she found something interesting; after checking each path she found nothing significant enough to warrant further investigation so she returned back to where she started from with hopes of finding another path when suddenly... *BOOM* a loud explosion shook the walls of the cave accompanied by rocks falling from above her head which almost hit her if it weren't for her quick reflexes; however, despite being incredibly lucky this time around something told her that going much deeper would probably not pay off so she decided it was time to get out now while she still could. She started running towards what seemed like daylight but unfortunately there were many side passages along the way which caused her to lose direction several times; soon enough everything became pitch black again so she continued moving forward until eventually running into a dead end which meant it was too late too turn back now...