Author's Note: I don't own Soul Nomad.

Just before I get on with the last update, I want to thank a few people. My older sister for being my soundboard, Last of the Star Makers for being my beta reader for chapters five and six, and finally those who read this story and (hopefully) enjoyed it.

Epilogue

It was a strange sight that day on the mountains. It was strange enough that anyone would be up there in the first place but then again, there had been stranger sights up there. One had involved two voices, a gruff male's and a female's who seemed nice enough. This time also involved those two voices; only the physical deposition was much different…

The male was already mostly down the path while the latter trailed behind. He let out an irritated sigh before turning back. "Hurry it up already!"

"I'm going as fast as I can," she replied, wincing as her feet groaned. Her sandals had taken a beating from climbing the mountain twice already. Mentally she decided when she got back to the village she was switching to something more practical like boots or something.

Gig rolled his eyes and waited for her to clear the next set of boulders.

"You know, if you had better footwear or worked out more this wouldn't be a problem," he commented.

"Point taken," she answered patiently. "What about you? Aren't you tired?"

"Nah, not really," he shrugged. "Starving though."

"You're the one that that ate what little I had left. Just wait until we get back to the village."

"Don't remind me," Gig groaned. "That's like, half a day away from here. And at the rate you're going it'll take two whole days! We already wasted enough time because you wanted to find flowers for that grave."

"It's respect, Gig."

He simply snorted in response.

Revya winced again as she steadied herself on the steep worn down path. It composed of mostly dirt and flimsy roots of long dead plants so she had to move slowly to avoid slipping.

Meanwhile, Gig began inching ahead again glancing back on occasion to make sure she was keeping up. For the most part, they lulled back into a mutual silence. Aside from the occasional complaint or comment the silence was a bit of a blessing.

They had managed to return from the world of the Crimson Tear. They weren't bound by the curse anymore. Without those problems to distract them things had become...awkward. Neither of them had gone into much detail about what happened on their respective ends over what happened after Revya had been stabbed or when the building began falling apart. Gig had just quickly brushed it off, saying they'd talk about it later, after they got away from the 'cursed' mountains.

And after he grabs a few hotpods, she thought, rolling her eyes. That jerk.

Despite the nagging voice in her head, she agreed. Mainly because she wasn't sure what to say or how that that conversation would turn out. Her and Gig had set out to break the curse and now they had. She hadn't really put much thought about what would happen afterwards, it had just been an uncomfortable topic to think about. Aside from what had happened between them when they first come back-

She quickly brushed the memory aside. She'd think about it...later.

"What a pain," she heard Gig mutter. "The faster we get out of here, the faster we can avoid something else-"

As if on cue, Gig's foot slipped on a downward crevice. Revya reached forward to grab onto him but he had both the momentum and weight on his end and ended up dragging her down with him, swears and cries of pain exploding from both of them.

After scrapping against the dirt walls, they ended up hitting the cavern floor with a hard thud.

"-From happening," Gig finished sourly. He scanned around, pushing himself up with a dark look. "Tch, nothing good ever comes out of this place."

Revya glanced upwards. It looked like a natural chamber. Bits of sunlight spread through from the holes the roots created but aside from the crevasse they had fallen through, there didn't seem to be any openings. Just more tunnels.

"Do you see a way back up?" Revya asked.

"Nah, not really," he answered. "There's got to be some way back out. If worse comes to worse we can just try and scale out by our fingernails."

Revya shook her head. "I don't think so. The walls look too solid."

He shot her a frustrated look. "Then we better stop standing around and start looking unless you want to break a few nails."

She rolled her eyes as he wandered off in the opposite direction. Same old Gig.

Revya followed one of the passageways towards the right. The dirt looked more broken for some reason but there was more beams of light filtering through. Maybe it was another opening? As she got a little further she found a few stray leaves scattered across the ground. Around the wall she looked up and found a thin branch poking out of an opening. That single branch, she realized, connected into a long network of branches that crawled around the walls and scaled upwards towards lower crevice. If they used the branches they might be able to scale out of there…

Revya's eyes widened in surprise.

"Hey, Gig!" She called. "I found something!"

"What?" His voice echoed back. He was there a few short moments later. As he crossed into the opening his jaw dropped as he noticed what she had seen. "Holy hell!"

On the branches were growing multitudes of hotpods.

Golden coloured hotpods.

"Do you see that!? I told you it existed! Hah, and you were acting so skeptical about it!" Gig cackled, his eyes alit with ecstasy as he grabbed onto her shoulders. "Hahahahah! I can't wait to sink my teeth into them!"

And then he did the most surprising thing.

He leaned over and kissed her.

It was a brief, one he broke quickly before rushing back to his prize.

Revya was suddenly grateful for the cavern wall because when Gig let go of her she stumbled back against it. Her face was frozen in shock as she held a hand over her mouth.

Meanwhile, Gig was still letting out whoops of jubilation at their discovery.

It would only be later, after the adrenalin subsided, that he would realize what he had done.