Dragons, Dystopians, and Denial

She laughed again. Maybe he did have a personality after all. This was nice. She smiled mischievously. "Long term, sure. For now, I find 'not getting hit' tends to motivate most of the men I train."

"Hmmm," Elias hummed, plopping himself on the bed roll despite being a little sweaty. "Don't worry. The bruises you gave me will heal tomorrow."

He grinned at her. Something told him that she never trained a self-healer before. It was an amusing thought, and he tried to ignore the dark implications of what that could mean.

"Oh, I'm not worried." She grinned again, but it got a bit tense when she realized what he actually meant. She'd never trained someone who would heal themself with her energy. That was going to be an adjustment. She shook the thought off. They could cross that bridge when they came to it -- it's not like she was that mean to begin with. She continued playfully. "You're welcome to get as bruised as you like."

Elias's grin faded into a natural smile, and he wondered if his joke came across as too brash. He was used to self-deprecating jokes, but with Jerica knowing what he could do, now he was wondering it was appropriate.

"Maybe not too much, though," he said casually, not wanting to ruin the lighthearted moment. "Because I can't handle being hit by a teenage girl, of course."

"You know," Jerica grunted, settling back onto her bedroll. The night was clear and starry and she was glad for the gentle breeze that brought a freshness to the cool night air. She kept her tone playful. "If you keep calling me 'a teenage girl' I might have to show you what that means sometime."

She yawned.

Elias wanted to roll his eyes, but he stopped himself. "You admitted yourself that everyone thinks you're a monster teenager," he said, continuing the playful jabs. "Might as well own it."

If you only knew.

She was glad he didn't. It would take an act of the gods to hide that from him the entire trip -- but for now, she'd rather him believe her lame teenager excuse.

"Night, Elias... try not to do anything dumb while I'm asleep."

Elias kept watch while Jerica slept, and he was glad the night went along uneventfully. She was training him to use the sword, but honestly, he was still abysmal at it. And he was using a wooden sword. If anything were to happen, like if someone were to jump them, he wouldn't be able to do much. He could maybe scuff someone up by brawling, but if they had a sword? How was he supposed to compete against that?

When she woke up and told him to sleep, he suddenly felt much safer. Dumb, because he felt safe under a teenager's watch, but safer.

"Hey, wake up," Jerica said while he slept, and she poked him with a stick.

Elias groggily got up, realizing the morning sun was rising.

"Good morning," he said blankly with a deep morning voice. He rubbed the sleep out of eyes and got up to stretch as Jerica began to pack stuff away. He helped her roll up the bedrolls and put away the equipment as well.

"To Swaltou?" he asked when they were nearly finished. "Anything I should know beforehand? Like... not talk? Again?"

She was surprised by his questions -- but they were refreshing. Finally starting to realize that she was, in fact, the native of this realm. And was the one who knew what needed to happen and when.

"Mm-mm." She flopped the map down in front of Elias and threw a piece of bread at him. She started pointing at the regions on the map. "This is where Aerik lives. This is Elmira, which is the town we were in last night. It's the south east of Atraya. Here's a little town in Nykeria. We'll make it by nightfall. If all goes well there we can try to take this path."

She made a trail with her finger over the mountains into the edge of Lytias and then through Lutalya.

"If it doesn't, then we'll cut into Swaltou here." She gestured at the edge of the woods. "And follow it through here until we get to the coast."

She folded the map back up and slid it into one of the saddle bags, then threw herself on top of Evan. "And yes, don't talk. At all. And for the love of the gods, don't say my name or try to pretend you're from around here."

Elias caught the break and started chomping on it. He tried to savor the taste, but not to slowly that Jerica would find it odd. Not that she would find this particular thing odd, anyways. He was sure there were plenty of odd things about him... like his clothes from yesterday, since he was coming from Earth and all.

She started to point out places in the map, but he was too embarrassed to admit that he usually didn't look at maps. Most of the time, he followed other people. He was never the leader. He was never trusted to be the leader, but that as okay, because he had no desire to be one.

It especially didn't help that he naturally had an awful sense of direction.

While she talked, he fished out an apple from the saddlebag and began to eat it, hoping the silence would be reasoned because he was chewing. It certainly didn't help that he had no idea what these country names were. They were going in one ear and out the other, but he'll try to learn fast if she ever talked about it.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," was all he had to say about that before moving on to her next topic.

"And why can't I say your name? Can you say my name to others?"

Maybe it was rude to say your true name in front of criminals?

Your name doesn't mean anything. That felt a little harsh to say. She was silent for a long moment as they settled into an easy walking pace on top the horses, trying to think of how to explain it to him.

"Because if you say my name, we'll get a dozen sorts jabbed down our throats."

"It's a long story," she said at last. "I probably will not use your name when we are around others -- there's no point in letting people know any more about us than they absolutely need to. But even if I do, don't use mine. No one knows you here for your name to be recognized. You never know when one of my... colleagues, might be around. And I don't particularly want to deal with that."

Elias hummed over this thought. Swaltou was full of outlaws, and maybe hearing that Jerica, who had leadership involvement in the military, was around the town full of bandits, would not look good for them. It was fair enough. He could understand that.

He wasn't sure why she'd be wary that her colleagues—fellow soldiers—would be around, though. He was wary of his, but clearly Jerica was fit to be in the military, so she was different.

Maybe she ran away?

He barely thought it over before deciding to just blurt a buzzing question out loud.

"Can we make up a names, then? It can be like, I don't know, our spy names."

Jerica laughed. That was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. As if they were children pretending to be heroes from their favorite stories. "Sure... what did you have in mind?"

Elias pursed his lips in thought.

"We'd have to have similar names so we don't confuse ourselves," he thought out loud. He wasn't sure he'd remember if his fake name was supposed to be Arnold, for instance, especially since they had no time to prepare.

"So maybe, Jessica and Elliot?"

"Mm, maybe Jess," she answered. "Jessica is too similar... and even with these names." She gave him a pointed look. "This is just like, last resort. You still shouldn't be speaking, at all. Or using my name -- even the fake name."

She wished she knew how to make him take this more seriously.

"Did you do a lot of spying back on Earth?"