Dragons, Dystopians, and Denial

"Information," Elias said slowly, trying to understand. "What kind of information?"

Jayk rubbed the back of his neck, glancing around again. "Whatever kind I can get... we have eyes and ears everywhere. And I keep my thumb on the pulse of criminal activities... without my men knowing about that. To them -- and to you -- I'm Jayk the Snake: criminal mastermind that pisses off nobles of literally every single country. Understand?"

Elias didn't fully understand, but he let out a small chuckle at Jayk the Snake.

"I guess so," he said, then hummed in thought. "I guess I'm just confused on why you're gathering information. You seem to know a lot of secrets. What do you do with it?"

"Heh." Jayk took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. He considered giving Elias an actual answer, but, he still didn't know anything about this boy, other than the fact that he couldn't be trusted to hold Jerica down when asked. "Lotsa things. At the moment, looking more to collect than to share. Who are you and why are you here?"

Well, that seemed kind of one-sided. Clearly Jayk knew more than he did, yet he was still fishing for answers. Elias breathed out in slight irritation.

"Great question," he said. "I don't have a straight answer, but since you seem to know a lot, maybe there's something you know?"

Jayk raised an eyebrow at him. Boy was sorely mistaken if he thought he was in control of this situation. "There's a reason you're with Jerica. I want you to tell me what it is."

Elias thought that this snarky man would think his snarky comment was humorous, but apaprently not. The grin on his face slowly faded.

"I... well, really, I don't know," he said, shifting his position on the log. "I mean, I just kind of just appeared in front of her, if that's what you're asking. It's not like I pointed at her and said, 'yeah, I'll travel with her today,' you know?"

Jayk nodded slowly, softening his expression when Elias seemed to get the hint. So, it'd been some sort of bizarre malfunction with the portals. He seemed to genuinely not know how he'd gotten here. "But why not just turn around and go back through? There's something keeping you here."

Jayk was digging a little deeper, and Elias wasn't sure how to feel about it. It wasn't like he had anything to hide, especially since no one here was from Earth, but still. It seemed strange to be interrogated like this and have him pry for information he wouldn't normally even give out to his friends.

He let out a nervous chuckle. "Good question... Uh. I guess I was confused. And thought I was in... some kind of weird training room. I don't know. It's not like I walk through portals everyday."

Jayk hummed. He wasn't getting the information he wanted, but he was trying to be patient. He also wasn't planning on sharing secrets, so the hesitancy made sense. But was still annoying. "You're dancing around my question. How did you get a personal escort from the most feared assassin in the realm?"

"First of all," Elias began, feeling the need to defend himself, "I didn't even know she was an assassin when we first met. Ae--... erm, you-know-who set me up with her. I really have no clue what's going on and barely know anything. Honestly."

Jayk rubbed his face. This was a disaster. He sighed deeply. "Fine. I'll ask her when she recovers. How long have you been on the road?"

"Sounds good," Elias said a little too quickly. Better her than him, yes. "And it's kind of hard to hard to tell with time when you're just living in nature, but... maybe two weeks?"

Jayk nodded again, trying to think of what path that meant they'd taken, to get right there, right then. "Did you cut through--" He cut himself off, realizing Elias probably wouldn't know the answer. "Is the Scelinon the first trouble you've had? Or was there any before that?"

Elias didn't think much of it when Jayk seemed to change his course of thought midway through. He was kind of hoping he'd pick up that he truly didn't know much, and then would stop asking him questions and finally answer the questions he had. But for now, he'll trudge through his thinning patience.

"That scorpion thing was the first monster," he corrected. "But we've had some run-ins with people. And, you know, I'm traveling with Jerica. So... yeah, trouble."