Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

"That's good, perhaps we can stop by so you can see them once things settle a bit?" Starr said, wondering if she wanted to see her parents.

~~
Skye smiled then chuckled and nodded "Alright, that's a deal we can agree to."

Armin bowed his head. "ten years is a long time, a great amount has changed. I do hope everyone can contact their loved ones and set their minds at ease."
---

Esk shook his head, what'd you say? Sorry? Didn't seem good enough. "Did it on purpose.. the demon.. punishment. " A flash of anger ignited in his eyes. She'd played on his deepest fears to cause maximum damage.

"Yeah, I hope we can visit them. I like it here, but I'd like to see my parents too. They're... not getting any younger." Ellie shook her head. On a ship filled with people who aged slowly or not at all, it was unpleasant to remember how fast your own species aged. "How are your people doing?" she asked Starr, "The ones who weren't on Vestia, I mean?"

~~
"See you later." Ethan smiled oddly, and headed off toward the library to go fix more books or something.

~~
James nodded. "I'll tell him that. Man, that demon was awful. I mean we've encountered spiteful monsters before, but even so..." he shivered. "If we ever meet her in person, she's getting at least one iron bullet to the brain. Preferably more." A being as spiteful as she was deserved death, in his opinion.

"IF they even work.." Esk shook his head, grunting and going back to walking. It was difficult to talk and walk, talking took a lot more focus than it should really.

---

"I am certain that soon enough we will have the time to do precisely that." Armin was going to be optimistic, yep.

James sighed. "Yeah. If they work. Man, I miss the good old days when the worst thing I'd ever dealt with was a stupid Terran." He followed Esk.

Esk paused as they reached an empty lounge, finally, somewhere to sit down. He slumped into a nice comfy chair with a sigh and looked thoughtful. Trying to think took a lot of energy.

At length he finally got the sentence together. "Eva... gave me a gun, and bullets... if... if something happens to me... get it to someone with good aim."

James sat down as well, waiting quietly for Esk to speak. Normally James was such a chatterbox, so it was a little odd to be quiet, buy hey, he could do that.

He frowned when Esk finally spoke. "If the demon's still in your head, you mean?" he asked, not exactly sure what 'something' Esk was referring to at the moment.

Esk shrugged. "Or I don't... go back to being me." He shook his head. No, he wouldn't exist like this, he wouldn't tolerate being this useless. It was a fate worse than death.
He looked at James, his expression serious and grim. "Hate... hate to say it... but... don't let her find my father either..."

"We have many family members to visit once the kids are back here." Starr said with a smile. "I have spoken to my people both here and out there, they are mostly well, glad to hear from me again."

James winced. "Try not to think like that. We're going to do everything we can to help you recover." He nodded at the second request though, "No, if we can keep Hytar away from her, we will. He may be awful, but nobody deserves to be captured by a demon."

~~
"I'm so glad so many of the star dragons were freed while we were gone," Ellie said. "They must have been so happy to hear from you. I want to meet them all, I bet they're all amazing."

"i don't care what happens to him, just.. just don't want her getting what she wants. Has a reason to want him, doubt it's good." Esk shook his head. He gave zero shits about his father's fate beyond simply not wanting to give that bitch what she wanted, if that meant keeping Hytar hidden so be it.

---

Armin started to put dishes away to be cleaned while the others spoke.

"Fair enough," James said. Esk's complete hatred for Hytar was still there, not even the demon woman would change that, James supposed.
"We'll keep him out of her grasp if we can, preferably with you in charge of the mission." He didn't want Esk dead, nope.

Esk nodded slowly and looked away, falling silent.

James waited, but he couldn't help fidgeting a little. He wasn't much good at being quiet for long stretches of time.
His impulse was to fill the silence with random chatter, but he was perceptive enough to realize that would just overwhelm Esk probably.

Esk was having too much trouble with sentences and clear thoughts, it took too much energy. Besides, he wasn't the most chatty person anyway. Without his usual snark he didn't have much more to talk about.
He glanced over at James fidgeting though.

James forced himself to stop fidgeting. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. It was difficult to not fill the silence though, made even harder by the fact that he had been the one who held Esk under the water yesterday.
That wasn't the sort of thing you wanted to think about too long.

"You don't have... have to be here..." Esk told him. "Vestia's watching..."

James shook his head. "If I leave, literally every one of the other medics would slowly murder me in turn," he said. "Especially Kay. And I don't wanna be murdered by Kay, he annoys me too much."
He was trying to make this sound more humorous than it was, but the truth was that James was too worried about Esk to leave him alone. Esk needed someone magic resistant nearby, just in case.

Kooshie wrote:"I'm so glad so many of the star dragons were freed while we were gone," Ellie said. "They must have been so happy to hear from you. I want to meet them all, I bet they're all amazing."

"As am I, though it will be a while before we are all together again anyway. Probably not until we have decided on a home." Starr said with a small frown. Ugh, not something she wanted to talk about since there was so much unknown left.

Ellie nodded. "Something to look forward to, I guess," she said, although she wished they could meet the dragons sooner. She frowned, seeing Starr's expression. "You okay, Starr?"

Esk snorted in weak amusement. "Very annoying." He agreed.

--

Armin moved to Starr's side, putting a hand reassuringly on her shoulder. "You will figure it all out I am certain. You will not be alone in such decisions."

Starr touched Armin's hand again, holding it on her shoulder. "The future is still uncertain, especially for our home. Some want to remake it where it was, others want to find a new place to make it and some want to live on Vestia."

Armin nodded. He had to admit, it was a subject that caused him some anxiety as well. The thought of Starr leaving, of going with her and losing the people here, it was stressful. he'd come to think of Vestia as home.

"I mean, he'd probably lecture me about my work ethic while murdering me. I don't want that," James said. He shook his head, "I could beg Tori to take over if my talking is annoying you."

~~
Ellie nodded. "Yeah, there's a lot to figure out, isn't there?" She smiled a little, "You'll make it work. Maybe the dragons can live in more than one place or something."

She couldn't help thinking that it was so cute how Armin and Starr were touching. Hmm...

~~

Tala got up and took a shower, trying to wash the lingering scent of imaginary blood from her fur.

Afterward, she went looking for Rigel. Her mind was busy this morning, and she wanted to think about going into the Imperium and getting her mate back.

~~
Moriah might go looking for Ivor. She liked him, he was nice.