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The girl turned around slowly, gripping the crystal pendant in her hand, unsure what she should say. J seemed friendly enough, but she wasn't sure how far that friendliness went. She wasn't sure if he actually saw the pendant or if he was curious as to what had held her attention.

Although, she hoped that he hadn't seen it. If he did, then there wouldn't be a way she'd be able to get out of showing it to him. Or at least that she could think of.

She hadn't realized that he'd finished discussing whatever with the bird, so she hadn't thought to keep an eye on him. So, now here he was and she wasn't sure how to continue keeping the crystal pendant a secret. A secret she wasn't sure she really wanted to share even now.

"Was I looking at something?" she asked, hoping he would let the matter go.

However, rather than saying anything, J merely held his hand out. Yet, she wasn't willing to admit defeat about the matter, so she looked behind J, hoping to see if she could see the bird.

Maybe there was a way she'd be able to redirect this situation.

"What were you talking about with the bird?"

She hoped he'd turn to look at the bird, but instead he merely shrugged and kept his eyes on her. "Nothing really, just about how much to tell you about who you really are as well as how to get out of the trap we've apparently fallen into."

The girl blinked. What did they mean 'about who she really is?' Did that mean that the reason J seemed familiar to her was because she somehow knew him? That he wasn't just some stranger who had taken a liking to her?

"Wh-what did you decide?" she asked, her throat suddenly dry, the crystal pendant in her hand completely forgotten.

J sighed, looking like he'd rather talk abut something else. "Well, apparently the bird doesn't think that there's a problem with letting you know all that I can tell you, but I'm not sure that there wouldn't be any backlash."

While she didn't like the idea of getting any 'backlash' from learning anything about her past, she was certain that learning anything about her past would be worth that risk. So long as she didn't end up dead because of that, but she doubted that was the kind of backlash that the stranger meant.

"Will you tell me anything?" she asked, unsure what to expect.

J merely sighed again, like he didn't want to say anything about it. Which the girl was pretty sure that he'd made that quite clear.

"Your name is Elin, my name is Jonas, and we got brought to this world to participate in some competition without being allowed to tell them to fuck off," J said.

The girl blinked. Somehow her name being Elin fit. She wasn't sure why or how, just that it felt… right. The other pieces she couldn't say as much about. The fact that J's name was Jonas seemed almost like it was a distinction without any real point. Though, with the competition thing, why wouldn't she just go home in the event that she got pulled into it? It didn't really make that much sense to her.

However, what she wanted to say wasn't what came out when she opened her mouth. What came out was, "If my name is Elin, then do I have azure hair?" She asked, the image of the girl in the crystal coming to her mind.

Jonas blinked. It was clear he didn't expect that kind of response. "Uh, yeah. You do. Uh, haven't you taken a look at it yourself?"

Elin couldn't believe she didn't think of that. Of course she could have looked. Especially with how much time she'd had. Even in the wagon. Why she hadn't thought of that herself, she couldn't say. Just that she could feel her face heating up with embarrassment and wished she could unsay that question.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "Though, why were you asking that? If you didn't know, then why would you have even thought to ask that question?"

"Because of the girl in the crystal," Elin answered without thinking. Though, as soon as she finished that sentence, she realized she'd said far more than she had wanted to.

"What crystal?" Jonas asked, his penetrating eyes boring a hole through Elin.

"This one," she said, unable to raise her voice above a squeak, as she opened her close fist, letting the crystal pendant been seen.

Jonas didn't react like Elin had expected. She'd thought that he'd have been either upset or demanding that she hand the crystal pendant over. While she still didn't like knowing the fact that Jonas was aware of it.

"May I take a look at it?" he asked, his voice more gentle than she had expected, making her flinch.

Elin felt like she should show it to him, at least since she'd already revealed it's existence to him, but she couldn't help but worry what might happen after that. Would he have a use for her after that? She couldn't see what use she'd have if she did show it to him.

So she shook her head as she put the pendant back in her hand and closed her fingers around it. "Sorry," was all she could think to say.

Rather than getting upset, she merely sighed a little before putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll eventually be willing to show it to me."

Elin couldn't say that she agreed with that sentiment, but didn't care to say anything about it herself. If she did show it to him willingly, then she wasn't sure what might occur to make her change her mind.

"Uh, ummm…" Elin hesitated again as she wanted to ask about another subject, but couldn't be sure if it wouldn't create other problems. However, she couldn't see a way out of it, so she forced herself to push through her doubts. "Wh-what trap w-were you talking about earlier? Uh, the one you said that you discussed with the bird?"

At this, Jonas did turn to look behind him. Why at this point, Elin couldn't really say. She wasn't sure if he was looking for the bird or something else, but after a minute, he turned back to face her

"Well, it seems like we're stuck in a kind of endless loop. However, it would appear that there's still only one of each of us, while there's any number of wagons and such around us."

Elin wasn't sure if that actually meant anything, but for some reason it seemed to make sense to Jonas. Even though she wasn't sure about any of it herself. Especially the part about there only being one of them while there's countless wagons. Which felt like he was merely making things up as he went along, despite how she knew Jonas was from the little she'd interacted with him up to now.

"So, did you get the basics out of the way?" the bird asked, landing nearby on a rock that was almost a small mound in and d of itself. "If not, I can get the rest taken care of."

"There's no need," Jonas answered. "I told her my name, her name, and a little about the current situation we're in. With all of us and the one that's just between Elin and me."

Ugh, you make it sound so bland," the bird griped. "Though, I 'm not sure what you mean by just the two of you having a situation that only you two are involved in. Nor do I really care."

"Got it, birdie," Jonas answered calmly.

"Birdie!?" the bird screeched, sounding and looking thoroughly upset. "I have a name you know!"

"Okay, what is it?" Jonas asked, piquing Elin's interest as well.

"It's, uh…" the bird trailed off and Elin wasn't sure if it forgot or if there was some other reason that it would eventually say. "You know, I'm not going to give you a name. If I do, then it could make it easier to learn something about me that I've been trying to keep secret since I somehow managed to escape from Douglass."

"Fine, we'll call you Ember then," Jonas said in an off hand manner.

"Just like that! Why not take time to think about it!"

"I like it," Elin said. "It really suits how your feathers look like they're flames instead of feathers."

The bird looked torn between being pleased at what Elin said and annoyed by it. "You know what? I'll deal with it. I mean, it's not like we're going to be together like this for much longer anyway. Once we figure out why we're the only ones around and why we're in the dead center of that, then we should be almost to the point where we'll part ways.

"Hold on, you said that we were in the center of all the multiple wagons?" Jonas asked, looking like he might be getting an idea.

"Okay, what're you getting at now?"

"Well, if you and Elin go in one direction and I go in the others, what're the chances that what's holding us in this thing won't be able to keep up with us?"