Congratulatoins! You are no longer under status effect Exhausted!

Hell of a good morning Ai squinted at the blue box. Her eyes felt raw and puffy, but her body was magnificently well rested. Her muscles didn't spasm with every movement and her rash didn't bother her nearly as much. The bath had done her wonders.

She was, however, still sweaty. Tal still held her hand tight, and something caught in Ais throat. Swallowing thickly, she looked away. She could hear someone moving about in the kitchen/dining room. She assumed in must be Brandi, up before anyone else to cook breakfast.

Ais stomach once again demanded food.

Somebody knocked on the front door. Ai heard the sound of it opening, then Brandi speaking to somebody. A guy by the sound of it.

She wriggled her hand out of Tals. She was far more thoughtful than Ai first thought. She couldn't imagine herself putting up with babysitting someone.

That was when she noticed the scratches. Four angry red lines on the upper part of Tals arm, the blood from them had dripped on the floor. There was only one way she could've got those scratches. No matter how hard she thought back to the night before though, Ai didn't remember lashing out at her. All she really remembered was a soothing voice then circles being rubbed on her back. A hand holding her own in the darkness.

Abruptly, Ai came to the decision she hated feeling guilty. Guilty over the Fonq, over the goblin, over sleeping in Tals house, eating her family’s food and now over the way she had harmed her host. It, coupled with the paranoia that followed her every step, threatened to eat her up. She couldn't live like that.

She had to do something about it. Had to.

Tal sighed then curled into a ball, her back to Ai. Ais ears were definitely drooping on her head as she got to her feet. Opening the door quietly, she slipped into the kitchen/dining room. Main room, she decided to call it.

Brandi smiled hello to her, while the guy next to her simply stared. He looked as bad as Ai felt. There were dark rings under his eyes and he opened his mouth, about to introduce himself, when he was cut off by a yawn.

Ai knew how he felt.

"Hello." She attempted to smile at him. She didn't think she pulled it off.

"Hello. You not dou Ai. I on Ermine." He greeted her.

On got added to Ais mental dictionary as am.

Ai nodded at him, and he smiled at her. The smile changed his entire face. He was very attractive, Ai blushed. With the way he was hunched it was hard to tell, but a smile seemed to light up him from his emerald eyes to his messy, braided hair. His smile was slightly crooked, and for some reason that made

Ais heart beat faster.

She shook off the feelings. The last thing she wanted to do was go from being completely on her own for days to jumping a random guys bones. There were more important things in life.

Like Tal.

Still unsure what the guy was doing in the house, she turned her attention to Brandi. It took a while to get her to understand what Ai was asking for. Eventually, however, she clapped her hands together and left the room to rummage around in what looked like a food pantry. Ai hadn't noticed it the night before. In face, she hadn't noticed a lot of things the night before. Other than her and Tals room, there were only two doors leading further into the house. One went to the pantry, so the other must be Brandis and Keles bedroom.

Brandi reappeared with a small pot. Popping off the lid, Ai studied the sparkly red gel inside. Odd, but she could work with it. Thanking Brandi she nodded awkwardly to the guy before escaping back to the bedroom. Tal was still asleep, with her injured arm up. Scooping out a generous dollop Ai smeared it over her arm.

Tal woke up immediately, jerking away from the cold liquid. She stared at Ai blankly for a moment before looking at her arm. Her immaculate arm, with no scratches to be seen. Whatever magic had just happened, Ai had missed it. She almost wanted to cut herself just so she could see it heal, but that would be weird. She would do it later when nobody was watching.

"Thank you." Tal said. She didn't seem angry at all the excess gel, so Ai wiped the remainder off her fingers into the pot before popping the lid back on.

Very much awake now, Tal moved incredibly slowly towards the free standing hangar next to the window. Another thing she had missed last night in the dark. The window was made of slightly uneven glass. Clearly, they weren't as advanced a people as hers.

That thought bought Ai to an abrupt halt. She remembered something. Perfect pieces of glass, polished and square cut. Nothing like the botch job on these windows. Her society - wherever she came from, it wasn't here. And they had more technology, or skilled laborers, that the Spirit People did. That was a more important clue than anything else she had learned so far.

More questions got added to her ever growing list.

"Drou'oqlot!" Brandi called from the main room.

Tal's stomach gave a long rumble and she gave an embarrassed grin. It must have been the first time Ai had seen her embarrassed, she was beginning to think that it wasn't possible.

A few moments Tal was dragging Ai to the main room, and enthusiastically greeting Ermine. Ai got the feeling that they knew each other well, and that his early morning visits happened a lot.

The food was good, but not nearly as heavenly as it had been the night before. Everyone spoke to one another and Ai tried to pick up words where she could. She didn't make much progress. It felt like as soon as Tal had seen Ermine she had forgotten that Ai even existed.

Ai wasn't sure quite how that made her feel. She wanted to feel pissed off, but she didn't feel like she could. Like it would be ungrateful.

So she kept her mouth shut and shoveled food into her mouth.

It was only once Brandi was taking away their bowls to wash that Tal seemed to remember her.

"Rho'n. Laad. Rho'n." Each word was accompanied with an image. Hunt and food.

Then Tal gestured to all three of them. Ai couldn't say she wanted to go hunting. In fact, she wanted to hole herself up in their hut and never come back out.

But she would not be a coward. Maybe if she confronted the forest, the killing, she would overcome it. Or at least get use to it.

So she followed Tal and Ermine out the door even though her feet dragged. Tal chatted to Ermine the whole time, oblivious. Occasionally, Ermine would send a look over his shoulder at her. He was hard to read, but she couldn't imagine it would be anything other than concern.

Maybe he just thought she was a weirdo. Either way she refused to meet his gaze. She didn't care to investigate either option.

It didn't take long for them to reach the gate. Kele hopped down from his perch atop the spiked wall. There was a small platform there for him to sit on. Watching for monstrous creatures, she supposed.

Tal and Ermine greeted him quickly before entering a small hut. Ai was going to follow them, but Kele caught her arm.

What did he want?

"Ai hunt dab?" He pulled back the string of an imaginary bow. "Tbou'or?" He made some sort of overhand throwing motion. "Tbard?" He pulled out a short sword from his waist, swinging it in the air.

A bow, a spear, or a sword? Those seemed to be her hunting choices. She wanted to go for one of the first two, distance from the target would make the kill less brutal.

Which it why she chose the sword.

Kele gave her a speculating look. Apparently she had surprised him. She didn't think the way they met was working in her favor.

Being chased by a giant bird didn't exactly scream 'courage' or 'strength'. Well, she was going to prove him wrong.

Tal and Ermine emerged from the hut just as she was entering it. Kele was pulling a sword out of a rack, but something else had caught her eye.

Two daggers hung from the wall. The handles looked worn with use but the blades were still sharp, and most importantly, shiny. Ai had a weakness for shiny things. The sword was great- sure, but it wasn't daggers. Daggers would be easier to control. Lighter. She could easily move around with daggers, but she would worry about skewering herself on a sword.

"Kele." He turned to look at her pointing fiercely to a pair of daggers.

His expression got even more doubtful than last time, but he nodded anyway. Ai pulled out the daggers. They felt good in her hands. Lighter than she had imagined, and the metal gleamed in the light.

She had made the right choice.

Kele watched her almost hop out of the hut, and rubbed his hand against the stubble on his chin. The girl had gone from pale and grim to almost flushed as soon as she got her hands on those daggers. They weren't a warriors weapon. In fact, they were quite the opposite. Nobody had used daggers in a long time. Not with the stigma people had attached to them.

Did the village elder really know what she was doing? He had saved her, she was his responsibility, he wasn't denying that. But that didn't require him to take her into his home or treat her like one of his own. Nor did it require him to teach her how to hunt and survive in the wild.

Food, shelter and warmth for a season and a day. Just a season now.

The village elder, otherwise known to him as Oadira, had been remarkably obtuse about any questions he had. Change the girl would bring, but when, to whom, and if it would be positive or negative she hadn't answered.

He just hoped that the rest of the village wouldn't have to pay for Ais safety in blood.