"Einervaene!? Are you alright? Einervaene!" Vadei said to me as she roughly shook me about.
"What!?" I responded with as I shot up, a chilling cold all over me. I had been sweating heavily by the looks of it. This was the kind of cold you only felt if you were wet.
"You were... It looked like you were having a panic attack!" Vadei explained to me. Clarifying what it must have been like from her perspective.
"It's alright, I... It was just a nightmare. Some self-doubt being dreamt about..." I say to her as I slowly stood up. My initially dazed state slowly going away as I stared at the mountain Nin was in. The place he was being held hostage was right before me. But was I ready to do this?
My magic might not have fully recovered, let alone my body...
"Do you still need to rest some? It can only end badly if you just go in there."
"You can't seriously be asking me to be patient when he is right there!? I can save Nin right now!"
"If you go in so recklessly you will just get killed and Nin will never get saved!" she told me bluntly. The passion that had built up in me suddenly being put out when she said that. She was right, if I was not ready... Only the worst would come.
"How am I meant to rest more, though? It is surprising enough we haven't been discovered given how exposed we are!"
"We are at the mountain where Nin is being held, Einervaene. We can go down below, below the clouds and rest there, at least for a little longer." her finger sharply prodding at where the lower mountain would be.
"And... How much longer would you say we would have to rest?"
"For the rest of the day, no longer. Get something to eat if we can. Then you can go on up. We can meet up again at this mountain. The tree here makes it stick out."
"That long...?"
"Einervaene... You need to rest some more. If not yourself, at least, give Nin some time to recover."
"Alright, are you ready to go down then?" I ask her after sighing. A nod coming from her before I took her hand. Striking us down into the ground and also hitting a lonely creature on the way.
"Here I thought it might take a bit longer to find food."
"It helps to have a birds-eye view." I say with a very light sprinkling of smugness. That was one advantage I had that very few I knew had. My ability to just get a near-limitless line of sight at a moments notice. To become one with the sky.
"Time to dig in then, I suppose." Vadei slowly says with a shrug before she then began to pick away at the cooked animal. Her sharp nails substituting in for knives and forks as she took it apart. Meanwhile, with me, I was extremely hesitant. Eating with my hands was extremely undignified!
"Hold on, let me find a stick..."
"A stick? You cooked it enough that it just falls apart! Whatever this is," she says before putting another piece into her mouth and chewing, "Slightly tough." was the comment that followed just after.
"I'm not soaking my gloves in grease and blood." I say to her before I snapped off a branch from a nearby tree. A nervous glance briefly going up just in case a wyvern was above.
"That branch has just stained your black gloves pale green with moss..." Vadei pointed out as blood went down her chin. Blood that soon went onto her arm as she wiped it off.
"Moss cleans easier." was all I had to say before I began to stab into the dead animal. Carefully moving the branch about until it brought off some meat. And once it was out again, I held it carefully in front of me before I started to take careful bites. Not wanting my chin to be smeared with blood like Vadei's.
"Poshie..." she then huffed out with a snort before she focused on her meal. My mouth moving about much slower than hers as she just devoured portion after portion. I, on the other hand, was cautiously avoiding the bits on the branch itself and treating it more like a cobbed vegetable.
"Mannerless commoner." I shot back with, something she didn't take kindly to.
"Hey!" she let out as she glared. An innocent look on my face as I looked back at her.
"What? Just saying what I see." I tell her before I hid my smile behind my food. Taking a little bite out of it to hide the smile more.
"Just what you see? Alright, I understand, saggy chest."
"I beg your pardon!?" I let out as I dropped my food and stood up. Taking great offence at the mere suggestion.
"Well, why else would you have such tight clothing? To hide your sag!" she said, once again pressing down on that button of mine.
"They do not sag!" I firmly stated, barely restraining myself from kicking my foot into the ground.
"I bet they do!"
"They don't and I'll prove it!" I told her before suddenly going quiet and red. Her sudden outburst of laughter making me feel even more embarrassed.
"I can see why Nin likes to do this." she says with a chuckle before she goes quiet.
"Nin doesn't lie about my breasts..." I mumbled with a pout before I sat down and hid my face.
"No, not that, just teasing you in general! You need to relax a little, Einervaene. Not take everything so seriously."
"I don't take everything seriously... I make plenty of jokes."
"More so that you are the joke." I was told before a gently shove was applied to my knees. Knocking me over but not revealing my face.
"Well, this joke is about to save your chances at seeing your family again..." I muttered into my knees.
"And I will be very grateful when she does." Vadei told me with a sweet smile as my head finally left my knees.
"Have you had enough?" I then asked as I returned to trying to eat something. Vadei's head waddled about before she ate a little more. A smile on her face as her cheeks showed off how stuffed they were.
"Stuhffey birhd!" she then said strangely as she kept staring at me with a full mouth.
"What...?" I said as I blinked at the fluffy-tailed woman. Just before she began to steadily swallow all that food in her mouth.
"Stuffy bird! It's a game I used to play when I was little. You would fill your mouth with food and say those two words! Whoever had the fullest mouth wins!"
"But why stuffy bird...?" I asked with a series of blinks.
"I don't know," she said to me with shrug, "I always assumed it has something to do with how we stuffed birds when we cooked them. A more childish version of how our mother's competed to get the most filling bird on the dinner table."
"We never really ate the bird as it at my home, we tore it apart and soaked it in sauces. Usually wrapping it up after."
"Sounds sickly."
"It can be if the sauce is too sweet or oily, but if done well, it is very nice. On that topic, though, I am more conscious of food now. It's all very simple here compared to back home. It just gets cooked and a lot of it is just the raw food on its own."
"Yeah, the people of this land tend to prefer strong flavours on their own. So like, rather than a complex lunch, they'd take some cheese and a pickled vegetable or something."
"Sounds like something a commoner would have as they cannot afford the spices necessary to make good food."
"Good food is food made with love. Even if the cooking isn't actually as good as you think it is, just the fact it was given to you because someone loves you makes it all the better."
"I don't know about that, my Mother loves me dearly but her cooking is awful." I respond with a shiver. Remembering the times my Mother and I tried to make stuff. Only for it to go horribly wrong because we normally had staff make our meals. Even now, Nin and the others are the ones who cook for me...
I might help out, but they are the ones doing the cooking at the end of the day.
"Such a poshie..." Vadei tutted out with a little smirk before I glared at her again. A smile replacing it before I stood up after putting down my food.
"I best get going now..." I said nervously before I suddenly stopped after taking a single step.
"Wait for your food to settle, first, eating before a fight will only hurt your chances."
"I can't just keep waiting..."
"You can't even walk, you're too nervous. Einervaene, sit down. Calm down. Then, go. Go save him then."
"But...!"
"Sit down."
"Fine..." I mumbled before I went towards the mountain and leaned on it. Frowning as I felt the stone and its subtle warmth. I could only hope it was a steam vent under the rock rather than that wyvern... Because if I let the idea it was the wyvern settle then my worries for Nin would only get worse.
"So, does your family own any land where the Jupirochii live?" I was then suddenly asked by Vadei.
"We own some land, more towards the East coast, though."
"Ah, my pack and that come from the west, near the canyon we are headed to. I just got curious as talking about food made me remember that despite we oxfuine technically being from the Land of Wind, the Great Land or the Land of the Greatest People as some like to call it... We don't have much in common with the humans of this continent. More so yours."
"That's very interesting to hear. I guess it might be because we are more outgoing as a people?"
"I am more inclined to believe it has to do with some of your floating islands falling into the ocean and getting washed ashore to this land."
"As I said, outgoing." I told her with a small smile. Making light of how sometimes our continent got smaller bit by bit. To the point some of our people became a new one entirely by virtue of their detachment from the home continent. But I suppose that is why we had good relations with the Jhermonikran people.
There was a hybrid culture between us we could communicate and learn through. Our bridge into the land of wind and mountains.