The air was cooler now. The blood pumping through my veins slowed down and my heavy breaths with intermittent gasps eventually slowed down as well. I let out my first calm exhalation. The whole morning I had used up in order to get a sense of the landscape town, or rather the landscape of the woods surrounding it, and I used up the past few hours for what I aimed to be a light nap. But then three hours turned into four hours, and four into seven. Before I knew it, I was waking up at 5 o'clock in the evening, sweat drenching my sheets, and images of my dream gently teasing at my recollection. "At least it wasn't real," I said to myself, trying to focus on the coolness of my body rather than the heat burning through my head. But I knew, deep down, that the events that transpired within that dream were, at one point, my reality.
I rose from my bed. There was no need to spend the rest of my evening staring at a random spot on my ceiling, contemplating the justification for my being. The town still had much to be explored, and I wanted to be back inside before nighttime. I changed out of my shirt, put on one that wasn't soaked in sweat, and threw on some shoes and pants before heading outside of the homestead to see the town. Preferably, I would have liked to accompany Adrian on his endeavors, but perhaps my sleep caused me to miss him on his way out. I didn't bother looking around our new homestead to find him, I was sure that wherever he was, his antics would lead the way.
"I'm heading out!" I yelled back into the homestead before closing the back door. I didn't know if anyone was inside, but wanted to make sure that if they were, they would know of my absence. Of course, by "they" I was primarily thinking about Ronnie. She was like a sister to me now, and that made me afraid of a number of things. But perhaps my greatest, though very irrational, fear was that I'd leave the house one day and that she'd wake up thinking I was no longer there for her. I paused at the door for a moment, wondering if I should just take a quick peek back inside, but then decided I was being silly. "I should just get going," I thought to myself, "Ronnie can take care of herself..."
"Ronnie!" I yelled back into the homestead after reopening the back door, "if you're in here, just know that I'm heading out! I'll be back before sunset!" With my worries brought to a minimum I closed the door again. I wasn't even sure if she was in the homestead, but now my mind was again at ease. I hurried down the steps of the homestead and began on my way to town. The sun wasn't far away from setting and I still wanted to check out a good portion of the town. "Maybe I should have checked if Adrian was in the homestead before heading out," Ronnie wasn't the only one who worried me. "Have I always been such a worrywart?" I thought in my head, "must be the town."
I then headed towards town......after yelling back inside to Adrian, then Lou, about my whereabouts in case they were still in the house.