Claire's POV
The flight to the Forest of Alm was a long one. I personally asked that we don't be teleported there so that we might enjoy a flight to the island. We did have a month to train. That came along with the time to calm our nerves on what had just happened. At first, we'd tried to merge when we were leaving on Obsidian's back, but that had proved harder than I could have thought.
Gary had never been this out of sync before and there was nothing I could do to help. In fact, everything that I tried was rejected immediately. His vocabulary had been reduced to short replies and acceptance of everything that I decided we do. Emotions no longer flowed out of him and he did nothing to improve his situation. The constant brooding was getting on my nerves, but there was nothing I could do about it.
