~ The first thing that Jaden did was grab his watch from where it was sitting on top of his backpack and put it back on. Andrew had his priorities set as well, and went right to surveying the options provided by the extensive meal Väinämöinen had laid out for them. Takyle moved over to the fire, and put her hands out to it, as if cold.
"You know I could get used to this kind of thing," said Andrew, after taking a bite of what appeared to be some sort of fish that had been sauteed, then lightly toasted and garnished with orange.
"Well don't," said Takyle. "After this we'll be back to eating powdered base proteins and desiccated fruit and grain meal."
"Yeah, don't remind me."
Jaden zipped up his bag and clipped his rolled sleeping bag to it.
"When are we going to move out?" he asked. Andrew raised an eyebrow and took a long sip of coffee.
"You in a hurry?"
"Well we are in a race!" snapped Jaden. Takyle sat down by the fireplace and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes.
"I could use a bit of rest, Jaden," she said quietly. Andrew immediately switched his attention from Jaden and his food to studying Takyle. He knelt down in front of her and pressed a glass of water into her hand.
"You alright there, Ta?" She raised the cut glass goblet to her lips and took a drink.
"Yes, I'll be ok. Just need to rest." Andrew looked skeptical, and then suddenly very protective.
"Just what exactly did he make you do, Takyle?" Jaden noticed that Andrew had managed to keep his voice impressively level. Takyle caught something in it though, because she cracked open her eyes to look at him. One corner of her mouth raised just the tiniest bit.
"Nothing untoward, Andrew. Just tiring." She closed her eyes again.
"Like...?" Andrew prompted, patting her knee to rouse her. Takyle shook her head, but spoke anyway, eyes still shut.
"The first one was another translation in a room, except that there was a glass wall with water behind it, and the water kept rising until it began to pour over the wall, and the only way to stop it was to finish the translation. It wasn't too hard though, so I got it done in plenty of time, but as soon as I did, everything changed.
"The next thing was a math problem. Algebraic stuff. Around the edges of the room the tiles of the floor disappeared every little while, working in towards me in the middle, but I finished that one in time too.
"It kept going like that though. As soon as I finished one thing, another would appear, and it kept getting harder and harder. Sometimes I didn't get them done quite fast enough. Once there was a riddle to answer and there was this fog near the floor and the longer I took the deeper it got until I couldn't help breathing it in, and it burned my lungs, and...I thought I was going to suffocate before I had the answer.
"In another one the floor cracked and lava began to seep out." Takyle paused for a long moment. "It kept getting hotter and hotter, and I couldn't make it stop." She absently rubbed her left arm. "The lava reached my feet and my lips cracked and I could feel my hair beginning to burn..."
Jaden saw a tear slip out from under Takyle's eyelid and run down her cheek. He suddenly felt like a gigantic jerk for acting peevish a few minutes before. Andrew saw it too and he didn't waste a second in setting aside the cup of water and wrapping Takyle in his arms. He held her and rubbed her back and murmured soft, nonsensical, soothing things into her hair. She didn't cry anymore. But she didn't pull away either. ~
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