It was... cool...

Elanore's eyes fluttered open, grainy with the residue of sleep and heavy enough that she would likely be able to sleep through the night if she allowed herself to fall back into slumber. But... no. She wanted to stay awake, and make sure Kyoko was going to stay okay. It had been a few days, and the nurse said she would be fine with rest and continued treatment, but... after events in the desert, she /refused/ to leave her friend's side.

Sleep was long gone in another moment, and she straightened, wincing as her back protested the movement. Long red marks stretched across her arms, where she had been resting against the metal arms of her chair, and tangled clumps of hair slid over her shoulder, somehow free of her ribbon... but at least she could think.

And it was blessedly /cool/, thank the gods. They must have either fixed the air conditioner, or finally turned it on in the infirmary. Either way, it made her much happier.

"Thought I was supposed to be the one who snored..."

Elly halted in the middle of her stretch, cracking an eye open and glaring at Kyoko through a screen of strawberry-gold hair. "You're lucky you're sick right now, you know that?"

An insolent grin met her gaze. "Exactly. You didn't think I would stop from taking advantage of being an invalid, right?" Kyoko grinned, crossing her arms behind her head and leaning back against her pillows. "Besides, you /do/ snore. A little."

"Do not." She picked up on the stretch again, gritting her teeth as more muscles decided to rebel against her. "I think you're having those weird dreams again."

Her friend snorted, shaking her finger. "Like you would know. You were asleep, remember? The Nurse and I had the honor of listening in."

The steady, humming vibration of the ship was broken quite suddenly, and a shudder ran through the ship, jerking the deck and nearly sending Elly - balanced precariously on the edge of the cushion and still trying to stretch - out of her chair.

She was on her feet in an instant, stance wide to keep balance, and her reflexes pulled taut. But she relaxed a tad when the ship shuddered back into a somewhat steady rhythym, though her eyes were flickering over the room as if some part of her thought the culprit was within the throng of patients.

Just what was that, anyway? What was going on? The ship was slowing down, and even the nurse and her staff seemed to be confused as to what was happening. If /they/ didn't know...

Well, someone had to, right? She knew nothing about sand cruisers - not of this size. But it was a safe bet Marien knew something; he'd been on this ship a lot longer than she and Kyoko, and even if he didn't know what was wrong with it, he probably knew someone who did.

The problem was... if he wasn't available... then she was going to get lost looking for him. Elly had no illusions about her knowledge of the Yggdrasil's layout. She had only just learned the /name/ of it a few hours ago.

"Uhh, Elanore...?"

She twisted around to look at Kyoko, straightening and listening with a little apprehension as the ship continued to slow. "What?"

"We're... not under attack or anything...?" Kyo jerked her eyes to the chair, and Elly obediently took a seat. "I know what you're thinking... We might as well stay here until he comes to us. He's probably going to be busy anyway." She fell back against her pillows, tapping a nameless beat on the metal siderails. "It better not be the air conditioning..."

A smile broke through Elly's thoughts. "Yeah, I know what you mean. That was miserable..." Air systems rarely caused huge vehicles to slow down like this, though... she could barely hear the engines anymore, and that could only mean that they were going offline. Why? "I don't think that's the case, if it makes you feel any better."

"Everything okay over here?" The nurse stopped at the foot of Kyoko's bed, white-gloved hands wrapping around the bar. It was the day-shift nurse -- the one that looked almost deathly white in the slate-blue uniform she was supposed to wear. Elanore's nap hadn't been as long as she thought, apparently.

Elly nodded, rubbing her right shoulder. "A few wrenched muscles... it'll teach me to stretch in chairs like that..."

The nurse graced her with a tired smile -- pale or not, she /was/ a nice person -- and began to move on, to the next bed.

"Ahh, wait..." Kyoko pushed up into a sitting position, waving her hand until the nurse halted again. "What was that, just now? It almost threw wonder-girl out of her chair..."

The girl caught sight of Elanore's glare and stifled a giggle. "It's just one of the effect fins, I think... They're put out of commission sometimes when we hit uncharted obstacles under the sand. We'll be back in service within a day... I don't think Gebler ships come out this far, so we're safe enough."

"Not that Gebler would come anyway..." Elly whispered under her breath, smiling at the nurse and turning a more meaningful glance to Kyoko. The entire ship knew what had happened to Bledavik... No reason for them to be afraid of Gebler /now/... but there was still Kislev.

"At least we're okay, Elly... I'm sure they'll keep us safe until, we get to Nisan, at least..." She shrugged, resting back again as if drained from the mere action of sitting up. And that might have been the truth -- she was still healing, after all. "I know you've never been there, but we'll definitely be safe in Nisan. Even if we have nothing, the people there will try to help us out until we can get on our feet. And you can even call your friends from there, if you really want to..."

Nisan... The name was like a bell-tone, ringing in her head and jarring all of her thoughts out of place. She believed Kyoko... Even if she hadn't heard, living in Aveh, that it was a haven... she knew it was. It must have been something she learned back home, even though it didn't seem the sort of thing they would say in a country that named surface-dwellers after animals.

She /wanted/ to go to Nisan... wanted to go very badly. When Marien had told her that was their destination, it had been a thrill, like something she'd always wanted to do, but never known until right then.

"I believe you, I believe you." Elanore rested her hand on Kyoko's shoulder, tapping her fingers on the collar of her nightgown. "I just hope the others can find us there - especially Darius. He's not very familiar with this area either..."

The color of Kyoko's smile changed, and she gave her friend a -look-. "He's probably following us right now. Just as lovesick as y--" She snapped her teeth shut, contenting herself with another insolent grin rather than finishing her sentence. "I'm sure he's fine."

For a moment Elly considered pulling the blankets over Kyoko's head and tying them to the headbar, just to show her that being injured wouldn't get her out of the consequences of taunting, but... She smiled to her friend and leaned back in her chair, head falling back to rest against the wall. That was a Jugend bunkie prank... and it worked best if the person in question woke /up/ to it instead...

Her smile lasted a little longer than usual, before fading away and leaving the two in a tired silence. But blessedly cool. She hadn't known just how much she loved the air conditioning systems back home until now.

It would have been nice if she could remember the /rest/ of home...

But Darius.... No, she couldn't do much about him either, could she? He /had/ to be safe... she wasn't sure why, but he /must/ remain safe... If she were with him she could have seen to it, but this way? What if he did run into more danger than he could handle? Nothing she could do from here would help him...

And she wanted to help him...

It was silly that she was letting this get the better of her. There had been a time, she remembered, when she had laughed at girls that attached themselves to other people, be they men or women... And now she was doing it herself. And with far less reason.

Just where had these feelings come from? She'd known Darius for what, a month now? And she was already thinking... that she might...

The world was thrown into darkness as Elly snapped her sapphire eyes shut. Enough already... She couldn't think about this now -- she had Kyoko to worry about, and herself, until they managed to reach Nisan and find some available comm equipment. The crew wouldn't allow her to use theirs, and she understood that -- their safety would be on the line, and their desire to protect the ship was something she could respect. She would have said the same herself.

So she would just have to wait. They would all be reunited, somehow... She wasn't particularly worried about the Elements, and somehow she doubted Kislev /or/ Gebler would get the better of Darius... that left only the time, and the place.

She hoped both would be soon. Because she had other things to take care of, once they were finally reunited and safe. Like that girl...

Perhaps that was silly as well, but she deserved thanks, and an apology. Whoever she might be...

(Summary: The Ygg hits submerged debris and resurfaces for temporary repairs. Elanore finds a few things in her head that she's not ready to admit to yet, and looks forward to arriving in Nisan.)