>>50690606I promised the Commander that I'd take her along, though, and it's far too late to go back on my word now. Besides, it'll be nice to have company on the job for once. She seems awfully silent though, I haven't heard a single thing from her mouth this whole time—well, she is just a rookie, maybe she's just shy?
"Hey Rookie, is there something wrong?" I ask as we trudge through the snowy fields of Hisui. "You seem pretty quiet, are you feeling alright?"
Erika stops for a moment to look at me; the look on her face is stone-cold serious, like I just told her that the world is ending. After giving me a quick grunt, she looks back to the ground and continues walking alongside me.
Great. I'm always stuck with the weird ones—she even smells like she hasn't taken a bath in weeks. "Well, we're almost at the campsite now, we'll be resting here for the night," I say, rolling my eyes.
After a couple more minutes of walking, we arrive, and I quickly start setting up my tent; the sun is starting to dip down over the horizon, and soon enough the temperature will drop even lower—if that's even possible to believe. Looking over my shoulder, I can see Erika sitting on a damp log, staring off into the forest; it's like she's lost in a trance or something. Pointing towards the trees, she speaks up for the first time in over an entire day, "Cave." Her voice sounds gruff, not what I expected from someone so petite.
"Huh? Cave?" I ask her, a bit confused at her sudden outburst. "What do you mean?"
She looks over at me; her eyes are wide and unblinking—they remind me of a beast's. "Warm!" she barks, and then turns back to stare into the woods. "We can warm inside cave!"
I think I'm start starting to understand what she means, here, if the way she's saying it is a bit messy. "You want to sleep in a cave for the night?" Part of me thinks she could actually be right, here. It is going to be cold tonight—and windy; I'm not sure if a tent will suffice, we might get blown away.
