Evaline smiled back him, but more so because she was glad that this conversation turned out better than she had imagined it being. They were finally addressing the note and doing so in an easy and slow way. Things couldn't be better.
"So you agree then? About the game, I mean," she said after a pause, drawing him back to the topic.
Well. They'd come to an agreement. James had to admit that he was still uneasy about everything, but he had a gut feeling the uneasiness was mutual, and probably due to all of the combined factors playing into their circumstances, not just the note. There were a lot of unknowns, and only so much they could do to prepare.
The rest of the day passed peacefully, and they avoided any confrontations with goblins, though James did notice a few more tracks later in the day. Fortunately, they seemed to be heading in the opposite direction, and that helped quell some of his anxieties.
When they settled down for the night, it was under a canopy of trees, shading and hiding them from the world, just a little.
As the sun started to set they got a small fire going and they kept it contained in a wall of rocks and dirt. James made soup again, and it was another simple meal, but it was filling. After cleaning up, there was only an hour or so until nightfall. The setting sun sent a bright orange light through the trees, but James knew that it wouldn't last long.
They'd have to sleep soon, but they had yet to do the game Evaline proposed. James almost waited for Evaline to bring it up, but after he put the bowls away in his bag and returned to sit by the fire, he didn't want to wait anymore.
They just needed to do it.
He took a deep breath.
"Okay. So the truth or dare game," he said. "How about you go first."
Evaline was surprised that James was the one who initiated the game. She was going to wait a little and settle into it naturally, but this worked too.
"Alright then," she cooed, getting comfortable in her position. She had a little bit of time thinking of possible truths and dares, but this first round wasn't going to be anything profound or significant. She really was serious when she said she would rather take it slow, even if this was probably not the most efficient way to go about it.
"I dare you to lick the ground, or I want you to tell me how you got Elliot."
Was this first response biased and silly? Maybe, but it drove a point.
She had fully expected him to go on this long tangent probably about how he found some kind of connection to Elliot when he was young, and he had been been with him since then, and he loves horses, et cetera, et cetera -- not actually lick the ground.
Clearly, this was not a simple beginner question, and she accidentally asked him something he didn't want to answer. Or maybe he was just messing with her. It was hard to tell sometimes, especially when he smirked like that.
"Well then," she finally said, shaking out of the 'that just happened' moment. "I hope the grass tasted good."
She pursed her lips for a moment, not looking away from him as she quickly thought this through.
Well, Evaline was definitely not going to sing. Her singing voice was shower-worthy at best, and the few songs she did memorize would be too embarrassing to say in front of James.
Yet again another reason why she preferred an instrument like the piano. They keys held a consistent frequency, and her fingers did the singing. And most of all, no embarrassing words and no embarrassing attention.
"Okay, fine," she said, leaning back on her hands. "My favorite piano song is actually self-composed, so you haven't heard of it."
Not that he would recognize any song or musician names from Earth, anyways.
James's eyes lit up a little, and he gave her a small smile. "Oh, an original? It's a shame we don't have access to a piano. I would've loved to hear it."
There was a second part of the question though. The why.
"Would you be willing to explain what about the song you enjoy?"
Evaline squirmed a little on the ground, starting to feel on edge. She tried to smile at his desire to listen, but it came out forced, and she started to deflect.
"It was written years ago. I'm probably not even that great at playing anymore."
She then scrunched her face when a thought occurred to her.
This game was not as slow as she expected it to be, but maybe at this point of their friendship, they were past the discussion of trivial topics.
But still, she wanted to take things slow. Slower. Slow down.
"Okay," Evaline said softly at first, deciding to think of the first trivial thing to pop in her mind. "I dare you to, uh... braid your own hair, or... tell me your favorite joke."
