Namura had accrued a rather impressive collection of elk steaks when an aetherborn suddenly charged into camp, swinging at Buama. They stopped just short of an attack, but the ranger was already on edge. She jumped up, holding only her dagger. "Oh, hey Kraithee,"  Namura's brain had trouble registering the words, they were so incongruous with the current situation. The aetherborn continued to prattle on, but talking never convinced the elf.

"Why the jukkete are you here?" Namura said threateningly, hoping the blood up to her elbows would help her look more scary. She advanced on the newcomer, dagger drawn. "Krai, do you really trust this one?" Her eyes remained trained on the new aetherborn, not looking back to listen to Kraithee's response. It was clear that they did in fact know each other, but trust was an entirely different thing.

Lero speaks from his relaxed position atop the fallen tree-trunk, "It's a renegade from the Dark Site. Dropped it off a couple months before we picked you up.... I wouldn't blame it for being on edge, would you?" He gives Quill a slight nod before continuing to pick some dried meat out of his mouth with his dagger.

"Tell us your story, one-born-of-aether. How did you wind up in our camp?"  

The convenience of Quill arriving just as they were getting closer to the Dark Site was not lost to him, and he still remained cautious of the aetherborn even if he had brief encounters with it on the airship. But the thought of falsely accusing another person of being in league with the demons caused him to throw all caution into the wind. We outnumber Quill anyway - I doubt it'd be much of a pain to remove its head from its body if needed.

Buama heard the running come up behind her and only manages about a half roll followed by an awkward jump to her feet. By the time she is facing the intruder the weapon is gone and they are talking to Kraithee like a friend. She blows out a breath in a bit of frustration and then starts laughing. She pulls herself back together quickly as she listens to the others reactions.

She keeps grinning as she holds out a hand believing that he was not there to harm them despite him initially wanting to cleave her head.

"I'm Buama. I'm glad you noted Kraithee because I like my head where it is. I would love to hear your story of how you wound up out here alone and obviously fearful of anyone you didn't know."

(Meta: rolled a straight 15 on a 20 for insight into rather the almost head hacker really had it our for her or was on their side)

Quill waved the raven off his shoulder, sitting beside the spot where Buama was. "Scary, that one," he said, indicating Namura as he pushed her dagger away from himself. "I was working on the Renegade's Aether collection site when we were attacked. Somebody decided to bring demons to the party, so we ended up being overrun. Thankfully, I was only captured, not killed, which is how I managed to make it this far. After breaking out of that joint, I wandered around some empty tunnels for a bit, during which he-" Quill pointed to the raven, which had landed in a nearby tree and was preening itself. "-actually proved useful. I managed to find you lot by chance. Though I wouldn't have expected Kraithee to be here. Or airship guy. I don't exactly know the rest of your names, except for Buama, since you just introduced yourself. Though the one with blood on herself should probably clean up. There are a number of vicious beasts that enjoy elk as much as the rest of you do." 

"You are from the Dark Site? Good, good. We are heading there, in the hopes of getting it back online, and we just lost our guide into the facility. I'm Flux, and as I'm sure you can tell, rather grateful that we have been able to make your acquaintance here, Quill."

Flux finishes fixing Turbo's inverted valve, and quickly activates and deactivates combat mode a couple of times to ensure that it has been fixed before standing up and looking right at Quill.

"She is the most vicious beast out here, I assure you," Lero says as he gestures to Namura with his dagger.

He then returns his attention to Quill, "Can you get us in there?"

"This particular vicious beast would very much like to rinse off all of this blood," Namura sighed wearily, dropping her dagger hand to her side. "But she cannot do that until someone steps up and volunteers to cook dinner." The ranger glared at everyone, her gaze remaining on Lero for a little longer than everyone else.

"I ate," he replies, returning her stare.  

Moments pass as the silence fills the camp, both of them staring at each other.

Finally Lero stands and makes his way to the Elk corpse, "You smell like a vanima - clean yourself up."

He then proceeds to pull his mess kit from his pack which contains a pot, and cuts a few steaks into chunks.

"Gather some herbs while you're out there... For flavor," he says to Namura before she leaves.

"Thank you," Namura said icily, taking off toward a stream she had found on her elk hunt at a sprint. People were exhausting.

When she arrived at the stream, she stripped out of her heavy armor and dove into the water. The bioluminescence of the nearby plants gave the whole forest a soft glow, and Namura did not plan to rush her bath. She took her time scrubbing the bloodstains out of her skin, eventually just floating in the water when she was sufficiently clean. There was nothing like a good swim to help calm her.

Except for a few birds, Namura was mostly undisturbed. She spoke to the birds a little bit, asking if they had seen anything strange. Birds weren't known for being very detail oriented, so the ranger didn't get her hopes up. However, they all noted that they had seen some weird beings pass by that made them feel uneasy, with one coming by as recently as yesterday. That particular revelation caused Namura's heart to skip a beat, so she decided to cut her bath a little short.

She returned to the campsite over an hour after she had left, no longer covered in blood. Namura had even remembered to grab a few familiar herbs during her walk back.

"Here you go," the elf dropped the handful of greens at Lero's feet. "Herbs, just like you asked."

Lero adds the herbs to the stew, which is already boiling at a decently high temperature.

"Give the stew a few more minutes and you can eat it as you like. It's no Lennir creation," he adds, "But it'll do."

He goes back to his fallen log and leans back against the tree. He closes his eyes, remembering a time when he'd wake up early just for the smell of Lennir's breakfast. The smell that proceeded the meal was always just as delicious as eating it. 

In response to Lero, Quill thought for a moment, and then nodded. "I should be able to take you there, once I figure out where here is. Uh..." Quill glanced up at the raven, who was now antagonizing a fellow bird for sport. "I need a name for you. How about... Allen? Allen, do your job and fly up a ways. Figure out where we are." As the bird took off, Quill noticed Flux staring at him. "Was there something you needed?"

"Namura's our guide. As much as she doubts herself, she never seems to get lost. I'm sure we'll find our way." Lero shrugs, "Anyway there's no reason to head to the monastery anymore."

He looks over the rest of the group, "Since we have someone that can get us into the Black Site, I suggest we all get some rest. It'll be a long trek to the swamp."

"That's me," Namura nodded her head, digging in to the elk stew. Truth be told, it was one of the best things she had eaten. "Although Lero is forgetting the week we spent in the tunnels and my uncanny knack for finding chasms to fall into."

At least this one wouldn't call her Tiger-Lily.

"Ah, sorry. I was just studying your body. It's possible to tell how much time one of us has left before their aether naturally dissipates. Can't get an idea of how long you have left though. How long have you been around? I'm only 5 months. We are about half a day south of Gonjibil."

Flux shakes their head, as they had spaced out while trying to discern the age of their new ally.

"Hard to say. I think I spent a year or two in that Aetherborn experimentation lab. Horrible place. After I got out, I met a... Well, I'm not sure what he was, but long story short, I'm living on borrowed time, in exchange that I do a certain someone a favor now and again. I think that would put me around 2 and half years." Quill shrugged, acting as if contracting with a strange man with lots of ravens in order to extend one's lifespan was a normal thing to do. He focused his attention on Allen, who was circling around 100 feet above him. Seeing through the raven's eyes, Quill was able to look northward for Gonjibil, which he marked in his mental map.

"Thanks for cooking, Lero." Buama gives him a thankful smile. Once it is ready she takes out a bowl, wipes it out despite it looking clean, and fills it with some stew. She moves over by her mechanical servant and pulls out Elto's lifecraft. She mutters to it between bites of stew and now and then puts the stew aside to turn the unit around to as her eyes examines things. She nods when her stew is about done and all sides of the unit have been examined as if satisfied. Some day she would have the time to put it into a body again. Once done with the stew she can be found drawing something in the journal she makes notes in often.

Kraithee doesn't know what or how to feel about Quill appearing in the middle of the Peema forest, they are probably the closest thing Kraithee has for a family but they didn't spend much time together after they were set free from that cursed place.

Kraithee does feel something good by the presence of Quill but it cannot understand that feeling completely, it never had a family, it was created by the Consulate for experiments, was freed by Tarlin and then lived in the City and working with the renegades, now he found ...what? a sibling?

Quill, I am glad to see you are alive and well and more so for being reunited with you. Since our rescue by Tarlin's team we got separated by the Conduit's will and now we are reunited.

That probably was one of the hardest things Kraithee said since departing for the Dark Site. The rush of emotions and thoughts are almost overwhelming. It then go join Namura close to the stew: May I join you Namura? I am sorry for how I handled myself back in the caves... I see that you brought the herbs for Lero to prepare the meal, I was wondering if you wouldn't might teaching me about the fauna and flora of Peema once we have some time...

 "I'm not the best teacher, but I'll do my best," Namura nodded. Kraithee would have been able to feel the tangle of emotions emanating off of the ranger from a mile away, and the elf was slowly realizing what that meant. "Krai, I want you to know that I'm not mad at you. I've never been good with emotions, or with people for that matter. I didn't really understand what it would mean for someone to be able to feel what I felt. I am a mess of negative emotions, but I can promise none are directed at you." The elf attempted a smile, trying to smooth things over with the aetherborn.

Our upbringing and race are clearly different but we, at least have one thing in common, we both have trouble being around other people and dealings with emotions. Kraithee's semblance is of welcoming and what could be felt as happiness. I try to never depend on other, and that might be a mistake but, when you are raised to be a experiment and for most of your life only know pain and suffering and feels the evil in others, that kind of thing clings to you... I think you will be a great teacher, I on the other hand might not be a good student but I would like to try it out at least.

That said, Kraithee observes Namura and the others eating, not being able to keep its eyes away from Quill... what do I feel about this... I still can't say what it is...

"I'm not one to depend on others much either," Namura admitted. "When I was young, I was a proud member of a pack. But when that was taken away from me... I'm still learning how to trust again." The ranger finished off her soup, allowing a comfortable silence to settle between the two.

"The stuff I grabbed was tulasee," the forest native began, fishing out one of the leaves and holding it up to the moonlight. "Leaves look like this, very green when they're on the plant. The berries are a beautiful blue in color, but they're poisonous so don't eat them..."