Piers Garetson, Emilie Peterson

"We did a little bit of traveling, usually we'd go on a trip some where once a year when we were little. We'd go see mom's parents on the other side of the district, or dad's in the industrial district. Although we stopped going a few years before Selena and I started going to Signal. They really had to save up so we could go to school. Probably...should send them a letter or something, I haven't talked to them in a while..."

Unfortunately for Piers, he didn't pick up on Emilie's hesitation after she answered his question. "What was that one place like you said, the one that you admired?"

Emilie bit her tongue. She'd thought she'd sent the cue clear enough. Even though it was almost certainly her fault, she felt the urge to lash out at Piers. She stopped herself, and began to answer.

"Oh, um... it was..." she struggled to think of a plausible lie. "ummmm... it was a waterfall. My parents had taken me to see it as a congratulations for getting into Beacon." She said. In actuality, she'd only been able to see "her place" because she'd been forced to help transport a delivery to another shop. She only felt a little bad about lying to Piers, and quickly tried to change the topic.

"So..... parents? How were yours? You said you planned to send them a letter?"

"Yeah, I've been kind of, well...lax about talking to them ever since Selena dropped out." Piers sheepishly chewed at his bottom lip as he admitted his failing to talk to his parents. "When I graduated from Signal I originally didn't get accepted into Beacon. I really didn't want to tell them about Selena or not getting accepted so I just kind of stopped sending letters so often. My plan was to try another year at Signal and see if I could get my combat scores higher and try to get into Beacon later, so I didn't go home when I 'graduated'. But then just out of the blue some other people turned down getting accepted and I made it on the bottom of the list."

For a while Piers went silent. If there was anything he felt ashamed about lately, it was his failure to get into Beacon originally. It almost felt like he had tossed away all the money his parents worked so hard to get to put him through school. And now that he had made it he hadn't even taken the time to let them know. All because he didn't want to have to talk about Selena...

"Uh...if you don't mind, I'd like to keep the whole 'barely got into Beacon' thing between us, alright? Just one thing I'd like to not have to face down everyday."

"Barely in..." Emilie pondered. "How would I have turned out in the same situation?" Knowing herself, it was likely that she would've gone on a rampage in an attempt to prove herself.

"Yeah, sure I won't tell." She said. She sank into silence. She couldn't think of anything else to talk about. At least without making it somewhat awkward. Her legs went to autopilot, and she became alone with her thoughts.

"Thanks for that." Piers responded as they continued to walk along. It didn't take long for him to get lost in his own thoughts, thinking about the conversation they had and how much it reminded him of his childhood and his home.

When they made it out of this cave, if they made it out, he was definitely going to write a few letters to his family.

Maybe if he got lucky, there'd be a way to get in touch with Selena.

Emilie tapped Garetson on the shoulder.

"You hear that?" she whispered. "Be ready, we don't know if it's friendly or not." She held Splendor up in a battle ready pose. She slowly neared the bend, then peeked around. Ready to strike if necessary.

The sound of voices off in the distance jarred Piers out of his thoughts rather suddenly, making him jump in place slightly as he remembered that they were in quite the hostile environment. Wordlessly he responded to Emilie with a nod and readied his weapon as well. While Emilie covered the front, he made sure nothing was sneaking up behind them. Especially more bats, Piers had enough of those to last him a lifetime.