The Next Morning

As Elmo opened his eyes as the sun started shining directly in them through the trees, he groaned. He couldn't understand why his body was aching. It wasn't like he'd actually did anything the day before. Although, he supposed the rash landing might have affected him more than he'd realized. It was at least a possibility.

Elmo looked around and couldn't help but sigh. Sonya's wing was good to use as a shelter, though with everyone under it, there wasn't much room for him to start a fire to warm them up. Especially with the burned sulfur odor from his Brimstone Fire spell. That odor was hard to get rid of, even as they got a good amount of firewood to get the fire going. Which Elmo wondered if maybe in the future he should avoid using that spell to start fires. Even when he'd the only one with spare MP on hand.

Grisha seemed to have been the least concerned about the rain that had been falling. Elmo wasn't sure if it was just that he didn't mind rain or that there was some other reason. All he could say was that there was something about Grisha that he couldn't quite place. That he wasn't quite as he appeared to be.

While he didn't feel it was his business to pry, he still felt like he shouldn't trust him completely. As he couldn't say why he wasn't telling them everything. Or even if that 'something' would prove to be something that would set Grisha as an enemy rather than potential friend.

Though, Elmo still wasn't sure how they'd managed to dodge the subject of the challenge that they'd mentioned around him and he'd inquired about it. Part of him suspected that Grisha really wasn't that interested in it, and was willing to let them have their own secrets, since he had his. Though, Elmo wasn't sure how far he'd be willing to go with that explanation.

Another part also suspected that Grisha didn't really care that much about the subject. Which, if true, meant that they wouldn't need to worry that much about it in the future. So long as they kept him from becoming interested in the subject, which Elmo wasn't sure if they would be able to avoid since he really didn't know what would draw Grisha's interest or not.

"You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you?" Elmo heard a voice ask as he sat up.

Elmo didn't have to look around for long before he found the source of the voice: Grisha. Or at least the person he could only assume was Grisha. As he hadn't really been able to get a good look at his features in the failing light the night before. Grisha had blue eyes that made him think of pure water and hair that made him think of the feathers that the people running the competition he was in had given them as a hint as to what creatures they were supposed to 'capture' to complete the challenge. Grisha also seemed to be about halfway between five feet tall and six feet tall and was wearing a sleeveless shirt made of some undyed material Elmo couldn't identify and a pair of pants of the same fabric.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he yawned.

"Just that not only are you using the wing of an injured dragon as shelter, but you didn't even bother with having anyone keep watch for possible threats all night."

Elmo couldn't deny that. Though, if he had a turn on watch, regardless of when it was, he was pretty sure he'd have fallen asleep on it at some point. He doubted that he'd ever had a future in any kind of military or security job. Not that it was a real newsflash to him. He never really pictured himself doing anything like that anyway.

"If I die, then I die," he merely replied. He wasn't concerned about Sonya being a threat to him, though he hoped that her presence would at least deter any predators that would have otherwise approached them while they slept. "It's not like I'd be able to do much about it."

Grisha looked at Elmo and then shook his head, clearly finding Elmo's frame of mind hard to comprehend. Not that Elmo cared. What Grisha found hard to accept or not wasn't something that he was especially concerned about.

"What're you guys talking about?" Bart grumbled as he sat up, looking like he wasn't completely awake yet.

"Just about how none of you seem to have any desire to survive out here," Grisha replied calmly, as if he was merely commenting about a tree in the distance.

"Hey, I woke Elin when my watch finished," Bart retorted. "I did what I could do. I'd kill myself if I tried taking all the watches."

Grisha nodded, as if he was making an allowance for that. "Maybe, but why would you sleep so soundly by a wounded dragon in that case? Even if it wasn't hostile towards you, they can be very temperamental when they have a slight pain, let alone such injuries as this one clearly has."

"Sonya?" Elmo asked. "She'll be fine. She just has a condition where she can't heal properly for three weeks. We're just hoping that she'll be able to wake up before that's over."

"You can't be serious," Grisha asked, looking like Elmo had suggested that they take turns doing something dangerous, like Elmo would sometimes see in movies when teens would gather together to do something stupid.

"Let's just say, she's not your typical dragon," Elmo replied, not sure how much he should tell Grisha. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she and Heather are an item."

Grisha opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. Elmo wasn't sure if there was anything else he could say to try and convince Grisha, nor was he fully convinced that it was in their best interest to do that as well.

"Can't you keep it down?" Elin asked, her voice indicating that she was just barely awake herself. "It's hard to sleep when you're being so loud."

"Uh, let's take this away a little, okay?" Elmo suggested, not sure if keeping this up here would be good or not.

While the rain had clearly stopped, Elmo didn't care to walk through the foliage which was still rather wet with leftover rainwater. Yet at the same time, while he wasn't concerned about bothering Elin or Heather, he didn't think that Sonya would be too happy if she felt like he was bothering Heather. So, while he wasn't that worried about being that close to Sonya while she was injured, he couldn't say the same if she got in her mind that he wasn't being nice to Heather.

"Yeah, leave us alone to sleep," Elin grumbled shifting her position as she slept.

Elmo looked at Grisha an motioned with his head to the side before getting up and starting to walk in that direction. Though, Elmo wasn't sure if Grisha would join him or not. He didn't have any reason to think that he would, but he hoped that he wasn't going to be walking a distance away from Elin and Heather by himself.

He was pretty sure that Elin and Heather would wake up on their own soon enough, but he didn't see a reason to make them get up at this time. Not when he was pretty sure that they'd do better if they were able to at least get a little more sleep. Since he was also pretty sure that they recovered their MP faster when they slept. Though, he didn't really have any exact evidence to base that theory on. It was just more of a hypothesis at the moment.

Though, after he'd taken a few steps away from the sleeping members of the group, he heard Grisha starting to walk in the same direction. Which Elmo felt satisfied with. He wasn't sure where this discussion would go, but he also was pretty sure that things needed to be made clear with Grisha if he was going to follow them or whatever as he continued his search for his sister.

Which also brought another point to Elmo's mind. Since his sister had been seen in whatever direction they'd come from, even if it was more than a week ago, Elmo would have expected that Grisha would have been more concerned with heading in that direction rather than sticking with them, even if it was just through the night. Although, Elmo supposed that Grisha wouldn't have just gone off at night when it was raining so heavily. As that would have just created more hazards for him as he traveled.

When Elmo was pretty sure they were far enough away, that a quiet 'discussion' wouldn't bother Elin or Heather, which was maybe a five minute walk from them, Elmo stopped and faced Grisha.

"Will you be heading out to search for your sister from where Elin said that she saw her at?" he asked, feeling like it would be better to start with that subject first.

Grisha didn't respond right away and Elmo didn't see a reason to push the matter. After all, he didn't see a reason to be antagonistic towards him. Doing so would just create more of a problem between them, which Elmo really didn't care to do. If there was even a problem between them, that is.

"I will once I'm confident my sister hasn't followed Elin to here," Grisha replied after a minute.

Elmo blinked. He wasn't sure he understood what Grisha was talking about. Although, as he thought about it, he did recall what Elin had mentioned about Kim's sword being able to try and locate his sister, though Elmo wasn't sure just how eager Kim would be to help out. As he wasn't really sure he understood her way of thinking in general just yet.

"Are you planning on waiting until that 'locate' ability will get used or is there some other means you plan on working with to tell if your sister is following Elin or not?" Elmo asked, not sure which he would rather be the answer.

Grisha shrugged like he really didn't care. "Well, even if she runs away quickly, if she meets someone, she'll often follow them for a while in secret. So, even if your friend won't use that ability to locate her, I can't be sure that she didn't follow you here to begin with."

Elmo opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. He didn't see a reason to try and debate the matter. It wasn't like he thought he'd be able to gain anything from doing so anyway. Besides, he found himself getting more interested in Grisha than he had been a moment before.