If I Had a Heart

"I'm quite happy with my own clothes," Elias said with a curt smile. "Better to be cold and wet than dressed in a robe that could be infected with who-knows-what."

"There was no infection," Morrick muttered. "No infection here."

"Even so."

~

Aeshan squinted down at the drawing, then nodded and pointed to the image of Raptor and Nikolai carrying the supplies.

Raptor put the chalk back into his bag.

"I thought he might pick that one," he said, getting back to his feet. Aeshan was frail; Raptor would have honestly been surprised if he had offered to carry his own supplies. Still, knowing Aeshan's choice wasn't going to make this easier. They would have to carry him, the ax, and the supplies that they had found here.

Ainsley chuckled to himself as the two bickered. The thought of Elias in one of the colorful robes did sound rather funny.

"You even have some options," he added, unable to resist poking a bit of fun at the doctor. "This green one would match your ribbon, but there's an entire rainbow of colors in here if you don't want to stick with the color theme."

"Rainbows," Elias scoffed. Really, what children they all were. "When I find something more suitable I can assure you I will get into some dry clothes. But those are little more than nightgowns! I won't be stripping to my knickers in a place this cold."

Mel scrunched her face at Elias. That man was stubborn. Without prompt, she dug through her bag and then forcefully chucked a green robe toward his face before turning to Morrick with a gentle smile.

"Do you want a robe too, Morrick?" she asked.

Elias had always possessed the athletic abilities of an overfed goldfish, so the robe caught him full in the face even as he raised his hands in an attempt to ward it off. Glaring haughtily at Mel, he left the robe where it was.
"Were you never taught manners, girl?" he asked.

Morrick backed away, shaking his head. "No. No robes, not from them."

"Nope," Mel said dismissively to Elias before drawing her brows in concern, deciding to ignore the whiny man and instead focus on what Morrick was saying.

"What do you mean?" she asked Morrick. "Who's 'them'? I don't think anyone will judge you if you want to stay warm and match with us."

Aumrauth rolled his eyes.

"He's talking about the cultists, obviously."

Nikolai shrugged. "Oh, well. There's got to be some way we can do this..."

If they had a small sleigh or something, this would be the easiest thing ever. They could set all their supplies down on that, and Aeshan would be able to sit and get a ride instead of being carried. And then Nikolai and Raptor would be able to take turns pulling the sleigh though the stone tunnels of the caverns.

The absurdity of the idea hit him suddenly, and Nikolai blinked as he was pulled out of that thinking. Why was he wishing for a sleigh, of all the things that would be useful right now?

"So," he said, feeling a little awkward. "How do we split this up between the two of us?"

Raptor crossed his arms.

"I can probably fit something in my bag," he guessed. He wasn't sure how much he could actually get in there, but it would be good to have at least one little thing taken care of.

He sighed.

"I wish I had my backpack right now," he muttered, more to himself than to Nikolai. It wouldn't have been big enough for everything, but it would have been better than an already in-use messenger bag.

Nikolai nodded, frowning slightly as he looked over everything they were going to be taking. There was just no way two people could do it, especially if they were carrying a third person. Even if they somehow managed, they'd be buried under their supplies.

His crazy idea was seeming a bit more reasonable by now.

"Okay, hear me out," Nikolai said, and he couldn't help but laugh a little at how insane he was going to sound. "We've got a huge wooden chest with nails, a wicked sharp axe, and way too much to carry. So, uh... I might have something in mind we can build using all that wood and assuming it didn't fall apart or something, it'd probably be useful."

Raptor glanced between the chest, the axe, and Nikolai. He was trying to figure out what Nikolai was planning on making, but he was pulling a blank.

Despite not knowing what Nikolai was planning, he did know that the chest had served its purpose. There was no reason not to use it for other things now.

"What were you thinking of?" Raptor asked, picking the axe back up and placing the top of it on the ground. Without thinking, he leaned forward and rested his hands on the very tip of its hilt. He even put his chin (which was technically covered by his helmet) on top of his hands.

It was something he had done countless times in his shared dreams with May, but he had never been comfortable enough around other people to relax his posture like that before. It felt so natural now that he didn't even realize what he was doing.

Ainsley suppressed a grin at the group's bickering. Sure, they weren't getting along as well as they could, but at least they weren't arguing about anything important.

"Morrick?" He started, dropping his voice to a gentle murmur. "Do you think you could tell us anymore about the culists? Is there anything we should know that you haven't already told us?"

Ainsley knew asking probably wasn't a good idea; it didn't go too well last time. However, they did eventually need to get answers. He hoped enough time had passed that Morrick would feel a little more comfortable talking to the group.

Morrick cringed, wringing his hands. "The keys...they hid the keys away. Left after that, went up above ground. We stayed behind, couldn't come along. She led them away, left a few with us to keep anyone from finding the Heart."
"And who is she?" Elias asked, crossing his arms. Morrick backed away from Elias slightly, shaking his head.
"You stink of wrongness," he said tremulously, pointing a finger in Elias's direction. "I have nothing to say to you." Turning to Ainsley, he tugged at his arm. "Why do you travel with this man?"

Ainsley frowned, laying a hand on Morrick's shoulder. He wasn't entirely sure how to answer his question. He admitted Elias was a bit off-putting, but he chalked it up to the unfamiliarity of the situation. Ainsley repeated this to Morrick.

"He was with us when we woke up, in the main body of the cave," he stated simply but made a mental note to keep a closer eye on the doctor. Morrick could be wrong, but Ainsley had a gut feeling he wasn't too far off.