Tya had climbed into the bed at his side without thought, and throughout the night the pair discussed the mysteries of Arantis and the possible answers to them. This was done in a manner she wasn’t used to, because most of it wasn’t legitimate theories, rather idle banter. The Gates of Elkihr that are said to tell the future and possibly the end of Arantis much down the line, was of course some sentient rock that just enjoyed gossip. Whatever loomed in the mists of Shiratori was clearly just a creature proud of its ability to count to four. That which caused the fate of so many at the top of Xora Mountains was clearly the cutest bunny one had ever seen, to the point they melted from joy on the spot. That was absolutely plausible!

This discussion lasted into the night, until his voice grew tired and he ducked himself into her thick blankets. Even as he started to fall asleep, he didn’t tell her to stop talking, rather allowed her to continue until his own musings lessened and eventually stopped. She wasn’t really surprised by the fact that she was able to lull him to sleep with her speech. Her voice was one of the first things she’d created, and had gotten many compliments on it before she took to the cave. It was smooth and soft, clearly feminine despite being just a bit deep, and even in anger her accent was soothing. It only firmed rather than outright bit, so it maintained its quality then.

That of her core was far less alluring, but she seldom spoke using that one.

After he fell asleep, she rose from the bed. Even with how comfortable she’d been with him in that moment, she couldn’t bring herself to really close her eyes and relax in the presence of something that could so easily kill her. Any of this could have easily been some kind of trick to get her guard down, and though part of her doubted that, the other part of her urged her to keep away from him.

That part drove her from the bed, and out the cave’s mouth with a basket settled over her arm. It was empty now, it’s former contents, a bunch of rags, folded and settled on the floor at the end of her bed.

Her fire lit the way as she strolled through the quiet woods, the sound of insects the only thing breaking the silence. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea, given her most recent enemies, but she wasn’t actually met with any unusual harm as she continued on through the night, picking at herbs, fruits, and vegetables.

As Venat began to peek over the horizon again, she made her way back to the cave, setting the basket on her desk and leaning with her hands placed on either side of it, to look over the organized collection.

She was sure the majority of it was safe for ingestion- as stated, she’d read up on such a thing so she could avoid any uncomfortable situations should she choose to eat in the presence of any observing people.

But some of the things she gathered, she moved to pull from the basket, looking them over with skepticism. Her time with Skye had been brief, but she could identify some of these from his shop, meaning there was a good chance they could sell.

She moved from the side of the desk, hunting down one of her more worn rags. She tore it with some effort- she was by no means strong without further fueling her fire-and used threads from it to tie off bundled bunches of herbs.

Once her bundles were made, she sat at her desk, and tried to find something to occupy her time. At first, she hadn’t really done more than stare at the cave’s mouth, waiting for the hint of light to be seen so she could wake The Man, but impatience quickly overcame her and prompted her to turn her focus on a book. It wasn’t as effective as she may have wanted, but soon enough she was able to fall into it again, happily reading along and playing the game she normally played with books she’d read a thousand times- she tried to recall the finer details of each that led to the next big event.

She easily distracted herself as she read through half of the book over the course of a few hours, but after so long she shook herself from her immersion and perked up again to see if The Man had woken up. Leaning, she could see the hint of light at the entrance. She set her book aside, committing to memory the page she was on this time around, and after peeking out, she returned to the inner sanctum.

A hand held out to nudge him, but she caught herself.

Would waking him be rude? Would he react with hostility? Would he be scared by her and try to attack? She withdrew with uncertainty.

Perhaps if she did it gently?

That was still a risk…

She turned on her heel as an idea came to her, grabbing a few of her books and shuffling to the curve in the wall that would lead out of the cave. She hid around the corner and peeked out, assessing the distance between herself and the sleeping man before reeling back with one of her books and throwing it at the bed.

She missed actually hitting him with the first, having the book slide across the rigid floor of her home. The second technically missed as well, hitting the wall her bed was pushed against, but as it bounced off, it hit his leg and jolted him awake.

She whimpered as he sat up quickly, slinking to hide behind the corner so none of his ice would strike her. Her eyes closed tight, and she crossed her arms over her chest, preparing for his returned attack, but it didn’t come.

In her own startled response, she didn’t hear the sound of him getting off the bed, grunting as he kicked the first book she had thrown. He grabbed the second, marching to the corner and leaning to look at her with mildly aggravated confusion.

“Why?” He shook the book at her, and she slunk away, a look of childish shame on her face.

“I… wanted to wake you, but feared you would be startled and--” she motioned to his hand.

He looked at it for a moment, the aggravation fading out to leave him only with tired confusion. Sighing, he lowered the book, his arm swinging as he yawned and rubbed his eyes.

“Why did you want me up?”

She wrung her hands together awkwardly, her gaze dropping to the floor as she sheepishly admitted “...I gathered things you can eat, and things you may sell…”

In his wait he’d absently raised the book to see what she’d thrown at him, only to pause as she said what she’d done. Brows knitted with a touch of confusion before he looked from her, back into the cave. “You did?”

She nodded hesitantly, staying still for a long moment as he stared at her expectantly. It didn’t occur to her at first, what he wanted, and when it did, she flinched at her own stupidity before hurrying to remedy it by pointing to the desk.

He followed the gesture, moving to the desk and setting her book on one of the towers as he looked at the bundled herbs, then the various berries still in the basket itself. He reached in, taking a few in his hand and looking them over, then up to her, then back. He hesitantly ate the ones he’d collected, and after he adjusted to the bittersweet taste, he picked up the basket and moved to sit on her bed again.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said between berries.

“I’m aware. I haven’t any idea why I thought to, if I’m being honest.”

He hummed at first, swallowing before saying “I am incredibly handsome, I do not blame you if you’ve become taken by my looks.”

“Is that what my reasoning is?” Though this was asked with clear exaggeration, she was a touch curious about whether or not that was true. He was relatively aesthetically pleasing, sure, but she couldn’t possibly be so easily swayed. Skye was gorgeous as well, and she hadn’t so easily fallen to do everything he asked of her.

“Yes, well, sorry to dash your hopes, my dear, but I’m uninterested in such things.” He commented, looking at the juice on his hand.

“Uninterested in what? My finding you aesthetically pleasing?”

“Oh- you’re welcome to find me beautiful- I’d be offended if you didn’t. I’m not the least bit interested in any sort of sexual endeavor.” He motioned vaguely to her body before drawing back his discolored fingers and licking them.

She couldn’t help but chuckle at that, shaking her head. She couldn’t very well admit to him she didn’t actually have the organs required for such a thing- she never thought to create them as she lacked interest in the activity. So she resigned to simply saying “I assure you, I share your sentiment.”

“Do you?” He questioned. “Then I have no idea why you’d be so inclined to treat me nicely.”

“Repayment, I suppose, for letting me ramble,” her hand raised absently as she said this, making a vague gesture back to the book of Arantis’ mysteries that sat on her desk still. Perhaps listening to her wasn’t really much of a chore worth repayment, but she always felt somewhat odd about talking and saying things that she wasn’t asked to say specifically. Unless they were rude comments, of course. So allowing her to speak freely on things she found interesting without shushing her was pleasant. “So then, after you’ve eaten something, we may go to town. I’ve woken you up early enough that we may make the trip there and back in a day though we may need to travel at night depending on a few factors.”

“I can’t imagine traveling at night will be as terrible with you to accompany me,” he dismissed as he popped another berry into his mouth. “You can light the way, of course.”

“And that is a necessity? Do you fear the dark?” Rather than standing and watching him, she turned to begin gathering what few items they’d need for travel. The basket of course would have to wait, since he held it, but she collected the extraneous bits of clothing she wore such as her scarf from her desk and some stockings that she wore beneath an asymmetrical cut brown skirt.

“I’m not a fan of it, I must admit.” He replied idly, watching her go from one side to the other and ultimately plop on the floor so she could slip on her stockings.

Securing them, then her pair of boots, she sat on the cave’s floor and stared up at him expectantly until he elected to get off the bed with a heavy sigh, stuffing his face full of some odd little green balls vaguely shaped like a teardrop and flavored like a sweet onion.

When he was ready, they set out toward town.

It had only been two days or so since she’d left, and she didn’t expect vast change to happen over that amount of time. Even if Lillia had officially taken power, there would still have been some sort of delay as things within the castle were dealt with, she assumed. It made logical sense that massive changes couldn’t be made abruptly among so many people. Research needed to be done, people needed to travel to places, Lillia likely had to sort through the copious amounts of papers Valya had been tending to. So on…

So upon approaching, to see the city as it was…

She didn’t like it initially. It had interested her, yes. She liked watching people, but it felt claustrophobic. There were so many even with the streets having been cleared with Valya’s lunacy. There was a lot of noise, a lot of things to see, and so many people.

But… In a way, she very much would have preferred that to this.

She placed an arm gently on the bend of The Man’s arm. A short distance from her home was the beginnings of many farms. The rolling Evolian plains were vast and much of them were covered in tilled soil that would breed the main food source of all of Evoles. Yet Venat had risen high overhead by the time they started to see the branching paths and distant farmhouses, and for the first few, she hadn’t been paying enough attention to notice anything out of the ordinary.

But as they became more dense, easier to see along the neatly rowed fields, she began to notice that there were no people out tending to them.

To her knowledge, farmers were up early, just as they had been, but would they have been done so quickly with their work that in the few hours since Venat appeared, to the time where she was above, peering down upon all of the land, they would have gone off to rest? Every one of them?

The chill of his flesh alerted her to the way she had taken hold of him without notice. She glanced away from the lands, then back up to him. “Something is wrong,” she said softly.

He arched a brow, looking away, then down to her. “Is it?”

Was it anxiety? Her last trip to the city had caused a problem for her, and now that she was free of it, she didn’t want to try to go back.

She had thought, at first… That perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad with him. With someone that understood and harbored the same ignorance as she did. But even her core was pushing back from the looming city in the distance.

“Perhaps we should… Try again tomorrow.” She muttered. “We can attempt to hunt once more today, so you are not too hungry. But I do not want to go.”

The Man looked forward, eyes narrowing as he tried to see what she saw to no avail. Regardless of whether or not he could place it, he softened, nodding in understanding toward her request. “Very well,” he said, setting a frigid hand over hers. Had she been a cat, she would have puffed up at the feeling, but she softened as she looked up to him only to be caught in a sympathetic gaze. She swallowed back the part of her that wanted to refuse such a sentiment and bolster her bravery to continue regardless of the sickening feeling.

“Are you alright?” He asked, slowly removing his arm from her grasp only so he could turn toward the small expanse of woods they’d come from. He offered his other arm out to her once set in the right direction, and though he cast another quick, suspicious glance back toward the city, he didn’t pay it further mind.

“Yes,” she answered. She wasn’t convinced, herself, of her own feeling, but she didn’t try to correct it as she placed her hand once more on his arm.

He was silent for a second or two, thinking, and when he decided to voice what was on his mind, he looked down to her once more. “Perhaps you can tell me of more mysteries,” he said. “I don’t remember many. Even what I can recall seems rather vague- I am sure you could certainly refresh it, yes?”

Tya bit lightly at the inside of her cheek. It took a moment to pull away from the awful feeling in her core, but if there was one way to do it, that was it. She couldn’t tell if she was wary or pleased that he seemed to know, but couldn’t be bothered at the present to dwell that far into it. Instead, she let out a breath to try and calm the shaking that had arisen upon momentary panic, and asked “do you know about Hephane’s Forest?”