A Rare Find

[Felix Lucas]

Felix rode hard across the planets surface, wary of being found by the natives. His bike thrumming beneath him as he soared over the treetops. He was out of the cities of the humans, looking for something. A rare ore, though he wasn't sure where he might find it. He released the throttle, slowly to a stop above the forest beneath him. Cupping his hands around his eyes he looked around himself, spotting an irregularity in the distance. Not too far from where he sat the forrest ended, becoming a wastelands of sorts.

Pulling his shirt off of the lower part of his face Felix scowled in that direction, turning his bike to face it. He slowly approached the wasteland, wondering if he would find what he was looking for out here. N.O.R.M rode behind him, and leaned over to the side, looking past Felix. "Are we really going to that dreadful looking place master?"

Felix snorted, smirking slightly, turning to look back at his companion he nodded. "Why not, what have we got to lose by exploring a bit? It's not like I know where the thing I'm looking for is."

He rode down to the surface, hovering a couple inches from the surface, delving deeper into the wastes. He stopped randomly, and landed his bike, powering it down. He stood up, swinging his leg over the bike, and stretched. He looked over at his robotic companion, and smiled. "Alright Norm, let's get to work."

[Aetra]

It was decided then. Aetra had been sitting in this wasteland for months, with naught to guide her to safety. The skies were all wrong, the air felt thicker, creatures that escaped imagination resided here in abundance.... Well, until she showed up. In her months here of study, aside from giant creatures that resembled Wurms which could slither through the dirt like a fish through a sea, most fauna was actually very small, no larger than a house-cat in general size. But as time went on, and this great predator's meat proved to be toxic, food became a scarcity. Water was no mean feat either, but thanks to the box, it wasn't as big of an issue. Either way, it was decided, this place could no longer host a life like hers. It was time to leave.

She packed up her things, not that there were too many, and stuffed them all into a travel bag of sorts. Upon stowing the bag inside of a hatch in the cockpit of Nuye, her mechanized suit, she surveyed this barren home once more before resolving to go. Nodding at her own calculations, she jumped into the cockpit of Nuye, as the metal hatch overhead slowly covered her within. Almost like a giant metal coffin, save for the monitors and controls at her hands and feet. The lights quickly thereafter blazed on, a faint red light designed for minimal energy consumption. With that, Nuye blared to life. It began system checks, initiated the breathing cycle, and readied sensor telemetry. Using data she'd acquired from her ventures in the wasteland, she plotted a probable course towards civilization, assuming there was any and she wasn't in some nightmare. Taking the controls, she leapt onto a rock nearby, and looked out for a moment, before darting off into the distance. She chose to run, not fly, as flying took more energy, not that the box ever had much trouble with that. When she'd first arrived the box did in fact, not have any stored energy. She realized this is probably what caused her to be here in the first place. The box did recover, and seems to have abundant energy now, but she didn't want to take any chances with energy.

She stayed her course, looking around as she sprinted at an impressive, but not maximum, 80 km/h. Despite all of her attention, it was rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Nothing at all interesting on the way. To be fair the noise would likely scare anything short of one of those wurm's away, but even so, the lack of any interesting scenery made it hard to not dwell on better times.... After 15 minutes or so of sprinting, she slowed the speed to about 50 km/h, and left the unit in auto pilot, heading for her marked destination. She kept her eyes on the monitor, but didn't really focus on it, as she lost herself in thought.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix pulled out a device from his toolbelt, holding it out at arms length in front of himself, scanning the area with it. It detected materials, and he had it tuned in on the specific ore he was looking for. He began to walk from his ride, not concerned about losing it, since the tracking device was already active. He struck out in a random direction, N.O.R.M at his heals, making running commentary on anyone foolish enough to venture to this place, and how they themselves should get back on the bike, and take off. Felix chuckled, and went back to his monitor. A faint blip on the monitor gave him a sudden burst of hope.

He looked up in the direction of the blip, spotting nothing on the surface to distinguish the spot from anywhere else. However his monitor showed that it was a couple Km off, so he went back to his bike, and recranking it, hopped back on. Felix had to wait for N.O.R.M to seat himself behind him, before lifting into the air and speeding off in the direction the monitor indicated. Reaching his destination Gearhead once more landed his bike, then paused, hearing a faint, but consistent noise. He scowled. it sounded like footsteps of a giant beast. Felix elevated his bike several meters above the ground, and looked around, spotting a moving dust cloud off in the distance.

Curiousity warred with caution, but in the end caution never stood a chance, as it had never stopped him in the past. Gearing up the bike he threw it forward at full throttle, hoping to catch up to whatever it was that was making the billowing cloud of dust. As he got closer, being on an intercept course, he realized that it was not so much a beast as it was a giant metal... thing. His eyes widened, taking in the craftsmanship, admiring the work and effort put into such a creation. This was something worth discovering more about, more rare than the ore og which he had forgotten. He dropped lower, trying to get as close as possible.

[Aetra]

Aetra continued on her course for some time, unwary of the world about her for the most part. She continued only to daze off, lending itself to dozing off before she realized it. It was only the abnormal blipping of her unit giving her telemetry saying another... something.... comprised primarily of metal was making it's way over towards her, and was even attempting to get close. This did shock her awake, as she'd never before seen anything above ground comprised of metals, let alone moving on it's own. Perhaps it was a construct? Maybe someone took her research and made use of it?... There was no telling, but in a world that largely hated her, wariness took over. She carefully observed the object, intentionally stopping in place and facing towards it, angled slightly away, but Nuye's head locked right on to it. She began to analyze it.

"It would appear we've got guests, Nuye...."

Looking for a moment revealed that there was someone atop this contraption. And while she didn't get a clean look at who, it didn't much matter at the moment. The technology was far more fearsome than any person or magic could ever be. She began having the tails study details of the unit, everything from armament, to power supply, structural weaknesses, estimated top speeds, unknown factors.... She stood there, unmoving, staring with the red eyes of Nuye at the new face. She wanted to express joy, but having survived such hell for so long, she wanted to be absolutely sure this wasn't a threat.... or a dream....

[Felix Lucas]

The moment the construct stopped moving Felix killed his own momentum, hitting the brakes. He breathed heavily under the scrutiny of that red eyed metallic gaze. He swallowed, hoping that thing didn't have a reason to attack, since he didn't have any of his weapons on hand, though that was easily remedied. He raised his hands from the controls, both human and metal arm, in a universal sign to show he was unarmed. Hopefully this meant something to that thing, or whoever was controlling it.

Felix was rather enjoying being able to admire the craftsmanship up close for sch a length of time, but his concern slowly grew along with the admiration, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to keep up, let alone outrun that thing on his bike. His best shot at this was too not piss it off. He didn't make any sudden movements, no random motions, just sat perfectly still.

"If you can understand me I mean you no harm." He called out, hoping against hope that it spoke his language, or at least didn't take offense at him speaking. He sat in silence, taking deep calming breathes.

[Aetra]

It would appear that the rider was just as curious as she was, maybe this was a decent opportunity. Perhaps this was her chance to find a civilization, but it would be unwise to come out unarmed, worse traps had befallen her before... But the church wasn't wont to use technology to further it's ends, and would likely never know how to figure out the basics, even with her notes.
She finally made a decision, assisted by the raising of the pilot's hands. She would treat this as a guarded encounter, and allowed herself to show equal peaceful intentions. Against many red flags in her judgement, she pulled on a lever, leaving the unit on in the event she needed to retreat immediately. The hatch above her opened up, and revealed her form to the world around her.

"I'll hold you to that promise..."

She directed this comment at the figure, referring to his promise of peace. She sat up on her unit, and stretched out some, before rummaging the unishield out of her bag and latching it onto her wrist. Staring at the figure ahead, she waited for his move. Her unblinking gaze was intended to be intimidating, but she knew her features were too soft to intimidate anyone...

[Felix Lucas]

Felix watched as a hatch on top of the structure opened revealing the pilot hidden within. He examined her curiously. When she spoke her exhaled loudly, slowly lowering his hands. Though the fact that she stared at him, as if trying to intimidate him, plus the strapping on of whatever it was she attached, sent off slight warning pings in Felix's head. He slowly drifted lower, landing his bike, and stepping off. He looked back up at the woman. "Care to come down, just to talk."

N.O.R.M approached Felix's side, looking up at the other person and then back. However, gratefully, he stayed silent. Felix clasped his hands together in front of himself, watching and waiting. Gesturing to the giant metal contraption he spoke up again. "This beauty yours? Cause thats one hell of a piece of machinery."

[Aetra]

He seemed friendly enough, although he was accompanied by a silent companion. Looked armored no less, hopefully just a uniform. Seeming to be safe enough, she decided to lower a ladder she used to scale the creature, and disabled the power supply. The creature slowly lowered it's posture as power could be heard escaping it. She descended the ladder, shield still equipped, and watched the company, who seemed to be both examining her and Nuye intently. Upon closer inspection there was no way a normal Hyledian could fit into that armor, perhaps it was a creature? Or mayhap it was a robot, just like hers. The man inquired about her machine as she finished descending, and it was with restrained pride that she replied.

"It is. This is Nuye, my means of getting from here to there."

She intentionally left her description abstract, there were pressing matters at hand here. Firstly she needed to discern this person, who they were, what their intentions were, etc... Then she would need to figure out location, and lastly, if there was a safe place anywhere nearby.

"And you are...?"

She said this, gesturing to both him, and to the... accompaniment.... that was standing there, observing as coldly as Nuye would observe a person. She couldn't help but notice the person's lack of tails, or third eye.... interesting to note they had one more digit on their hands at that. Most peculiar...... She would figure it all out in due time. One matter at a time.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix watched her climb down a ladder, noting instantly the tails as she did so, his eyes widening slightly. However he knew it would be rude to bring it up so bluntly, so he just waited as she climbed down. He nodded, noting a hint of her pride, one he could easily identify with, sharing the same towards his own creations. However he also caught the vague description, and knew she was hiding something. Though upon further reflection that made sense, why tell someone you don't know everything about your gear, you just give away your advantage.

As she inquired as to him Felix smacked himself on the forehead lightly. "Sorry, not used to dealing with company I haven't built. My name is Felix, and this here is Norm, or more specifically Non-Organic Robotic Man." He introduced them both, bowing very slightly as he did so. doing so he noticed her hands, how her fingers were longer than his, and how she had one less per hand. His brow furrowed lightly, and an eyebrow arched up in fascination. Turning his eyes back to her face, he smiled lightly. "And you?"

[Aetra]

Given that even though no one knew her face, her name was probably one of the most famous ever. The Grand church made sure to plaster it all over every misdeed the world ever faced. While she didn't care to lie, it was prudent to invent a new identity. It took her a second, as the names of all of the seasons and guardian deity names swam like wisps of smoke, uncatchable within her head. Finally she managed to bs an answer.

"Let's skip the formal names shall we? In these parts everyone only knows me as the wanderer anyways."

Sure, robotics were banned in most circles, and yes, often hunted by the Grand church. But she'd heard the tale of the wanderer as a child, an almost fairy tale like man who created new types of magic from both deep in the earth, and from the elements. Yes, it was an obvious quip, but if he'd a sense of humor, then he'd know it was a joke, which would buy her time... Given his appearance though, she was very far from the influence of the church, she'd never heard of a person that was less tails or eyes for extra fingers. If this really was a dream, her answer wouldn't matter anyways... But if she was somewhere new, the wariness of her visitor, if he had any, would show that he can call her bluff. This would then tell her that there is either a civilization nearby, but no wanderer, or that this was truly a person-less place.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix scowled at the womans reply. He found it very rude how she asked for his name, but wouldn't give her own. Exhaling slowly he shook his head. He had never heard of this wanderer garbage, and who was she talking about being 'around there parts' No one lived out here. This wasn't something Felix was going to let go. He sighed, and placed his hands on his hips. "Look, if you don't wanna tell me your name, just say so, I get it you don't know me, I don't think we are even the same species, and clearly you're not from around here. Otherwise you would no that no one lives near here."

He tilted his head to the side, and gave her his best glare, which was formidable. He crossed his arms over his chest, purposefully laying the metallic one over top. Norm turned to him and shook his head. ]"Be nice master, no need for hostilities."

Felix could have hit the droid, had he not found the thought of harming his droids sickening. He turned to his friend and fixed his glare on him for a moment. The robot put his hand up in a consolatory position.

[Aetra]

Obviously quite upset, she got the answer she was looking for. It was time to shift the gears of the conversation. Maybe honesty would work here.... But a quiet honesty, no sense explaining everything so readily.

"Forgive me, I did not mean to offend you... I specifically chose to say that to get a few answers to some of my questions out of you. Yes that is manipulative, but I've got alot to be worried about right now."

She sighed and her composure became a hint less guarded. She replied while looking at the ground, only bringing her view up to him partway into speaking.

"I am, Deuas Aetra moe nus Veirennia nixnes. Or Aetra, as I'm sure you're aware. I am a famous heretic, and I'm being hunted. And, as you can see, I've very little reason to let my guard down when everyone I ever knew is seeking my hanging....."

She slumped back against Nuye, seemingly ready to give up. Apparently these words and her first contact with people in ages brought back emotions she'd thought she'd dealt with long ago. She was broken down now, and ready to just die. Hanging her head she began to shed mostly quiet tears.

"I'm sure... you're here to.... to turn me in...... Why else would one trek.... out to.... the middle of nowhere to find me?...."

This wasn't like her, and she was actively thinking it too, since when does the church give her a breakdown? Why was she crying? This was nonsense, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. It was hard to speak there, bouts of crying interrupting her speech.... What on earth had gotten into her?....

[Felix Lucas]

Felix nodded as she spoke, asking for his forgiveness. He listened to everything she said, explaining her incredibly long name, then shortening it incredibly, thankfully. He had never heard such a long name before, nor had ever heard of her, yet she seemed to think he would immediately register the name and recognize her. Either he had been shut in and missed something important, or this person was very far from home indeed. When she slumped against her machine Felix finally had the opprotunity to speak again. "I don't know the name, though you seem to think highly of yourself."

He instantly regretted the words as she had an emotional meltdown before his eyes. Felix didn't know what to do, but she was crying her eyes out, saying that he was there to take her to her death. He was so confused, and out of his depth and comfort zone. "Look, I don't even know you, or that you would be out here. I was here looking for ore to build with, and stumbled upon you purely by accident. I don't intend to take you anywhere, if you don't want to go."

In a spontaneous act lifted her chin up with his hand, smiling lightly at her, meeting her eyes. "I told you already didn't I? I mean you no harm."

[Aetra]

What on earth... was about the only thought she could muster anymore. Despite whatever she wanted to do, she couldn't. She was quite frozen in place, resigned to death apparently. It was then the curious man picked her chin up, making it vastly harder to see for one. His one real eye had a sense of genuine kindness to it, something she'd feared she'd never see again.
It took her a moment, but she slowed her tears, and soon enough her bout would end. Just as she began to regain composure she replied to the man.

"I'm sorry. I am quite alright. I don't quite... quite know what came over me.... I think I'll be okay."

She stood weakly, resting against Nuye, and tried her best not to hang her head. At this point she was too exhausted to care, but that sense of trust from a moment ago carried her words for a while, spilling more information than she'd usually like to under more normal circumstances.

"Well, I can't say I know much about the ores here, but I do know that there is an alpha predator out there, a wurm of sorts. It likes to devour large colonies of creatures at once, and slides through the dust much like a fish does water...."

This was intended to be a warning to the man, that there were quite powerful dangers out there... Perhaps out of desperation for companionship after such isolation, she asked one more question.

"Would you like for me to accompany you? I have faced them before, I know some methods of handling them...."

[Felix Lucas]

Felix's smile broadened as her tears slowed to a stop, listening to her say she was okay, smiling as she stood, nodding encouragement. He had never had this kind of interaction with another person before, and it felt strange to him, considering how he knew he treated most people he met. Mentally shrugging he stuck his hands into his pockets. As she spoke about not knowing anything about the ores in the area Felix smiled, and pulled out his tracer. He turned the monitor towards Aetra. "See that little blip on the screen? Thats one of the deposits I'm looking for, so I know where it is, I just need to get there and get it, but these... worm things sound troublesome..."

If it came down to it and he was attack Felix most likely would be able to take care of it, just summon in some support, but he didn't have any tech in the area to work with, that wasn't his bike. His head popped up as she offered to accompany him. He thought about it for a moment, but a fellow gearhead around might not be such bad company, and maybe she said she had dealt with these things prior, so maybe that large vehicle of hers had some nice toys hidden on it afterall. He nodded. "Sure, you can come with if you want, it's not that far off."

With that he gestured to Norm, and they hopped back onto his bike, cranking it up and hoving slightly above the ground, waiting, a rare genuine smile on his face.

[Aetra]

So it would seem that she'd have a distant wish granted this day after all. A real person, granted, a very bizarre looking person, but a real one. Thrilled for more reasons than she understood, she gave a short nod before watching him hop onto his device. He smiled over, and she couldn't help but smile back some. It felt like a dream, meeting another person after all of this time. Whether or not she was hallucinating at this point no longer mattered to her, as long as she could be happy, even if for a moment, she didn't care.

"Right behind you....
Alright Nuye, let's ride."

She stated with a slight uptone to her currently derelict machine. She very quickly ascended the ladder and mounted back up, her legs resting aside and behind her neatly on the pedals. She pushed the lever from before back in and leaned forwards as the hatch closed overhead. The usual dim red lights and monitors blared to life, and Nuye shuddered a moment before coming to it's natural active pose. The unit then turned and looked over at the other person.  She manually adjusted Nuye's head to nod for a second before returning it to an automated targeting mode. She was ready to ride. Grasping the controls, she was ready to dart after him whenever he moved.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix pulled his goggles over his eyes, revving his bike as she climbed back into her ride. He ascended to the same height as its head, waiting for her to be ready. The moment he saw the mechanical head nod he twisted in his seat, turning his bike, and shot off in the proper direction, holding nothing back. He tried to look back to see if she was following, but the wind made it difficult, as it kept blowing his hair into his face. He turned back to face his monitor, fine tuning his direction to place the blip dead ahead of him.

He smiled broader, loving the speed and handling his latest upgrades had improved. He He released the clutch, letting himself drift a moment, reaching into his belt and pushing aside his mask, which had been digging into his side uncomfortably. He looked once more at his instrumentation, and took off again, however he began to lower his altitude, being so near to his destination.

Landing next to the blip Felix killed the engine on his bike, swinging off of it, and dropping down to one knee, running his hand over the ground. "Doesn't look like anything special... best start digging."

[Aetra]

The man took off, shooting off at a fair pace. Aetra followed closely by, using her tail cameras to survey the land as they moved to store telemetry of the landscape. The internal mapping system would add it to it's databanks. It wouldn't be long before they'd reached their destination though, as present company dismounted their transport and landed quite showily. He exclaimed that there was nothing notable, and that digging would be required. This was one tool Aetra did not have on her, so, she used the next best thing. Cracking her knuckles she grabbed the controls and had Nuye start clawing the ground aside. Small rocks and dirt began to slowly shift and eventually pile up. Now that the hard ground was broken, Aetra decided the rest could be done by hand, as the soil here was (Hopefully) softer.
Dismounting in usual fashion, Aetra came down and began to use her unishield to scrape up the... somewhat... softer dirt. It wasn't perfect, but at least it was a good shape for digging.

"So what does.... this ore.... look like?"

She asked as she continued digging a few feet away from where felix landed.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix watched with great admirationa and appreciation as Aetra used her Machine to break the top soil, and begin the digging. He nodded to her as she exited her mount, and began to scoop the looosened soil up with what looked like the shield she had been wearing earlier. Felix frowned, and walked over to his bike, grabbing the handle of two shovels. He held one out to Aetra, smiling lightly. "This might work better, plus you're less likely to damage this than your.... shield, or whatever that is."

He then bent his own back to the work, stabbing the shovel into the dirt, tossing it over his shoulder and out of the way. He thought about her words, shrugging. HE actually didn't know what it looked like, he was going off of a vague definition from a book. He chuckled before turning to face here. "to be honest, I don't know.... I've never actually seen it, only read about it. Supposedly this ore is reputed to smelt into some of the strongest metals known to man."

[Aetra]

She grabbed the shovel, and put her unisheild to the side. At least the hilt was longer, she wouldn't have to crouch over to dig. She began shoveling as she listened to his reply to her question. He didn't know?.... Well that was quite adventurous, but also seemed to be a tad detrimental. For all Aetra knew, they could've already cast it to the side amidst the dirt. At his comment she couldn't help but cease shoveling turn her head in confusion, her expression changed to one of disbelief.

"Assuming the device you're holding is tracking this mineral, can you give us an idea of how deep it is? If not, then we don't know what it looks like, are we sure we aren't casting it to the side right now? "

It was a lot of questions all at once but it seemed foolish to just throw dirt everywhere with no thought involved. But, it was true, the idea of an incredible metal did intrigue her greatly. It could be fashioned to give Nuye more resilience, not that she'd needed it yet, but it certainly couldn't hurt...

[Felix Lucas]

Felix turned to Aetra as she stopped digging, leaning on his shovel which he left stabbed into the ground. He thought a moment. She was right, this was kind of reckless of him, he was looking for god knew what, and for all he knew he could have already cast it off to the side like she said. Unfortunately his scanner did not indicate depth. pondering a moment Felix smirked, and handed his shovel to Norm, telling him to hold onto it for now.

Going over to the scanner Felix pulled out a pair of gloves from a pouch on his belt. He slid them on, and adjusted the wiring to fit properly on his fingers. He inhaled deeply, and pushed the small syringes in the palms into his hands, wincing as they broke the skin. He shook his hands a bit to help quell the stinging. Gesturing at the scanner he twitched his fingers up, and the scanner rose.

He broke it closer to him, tilting his head slightly to one side, as it exploded into it's base components. Felix quickly began to grab and reassemble certain parts, tweeking other with his mind, changing the scanners functionality. Now not only did it track the ore, it also recorded depth. He smiled at his work, and signalled for norm to get back to digging. "Not far now, but still a bit deeper. Trust me, from the description though, we'll know it when we see it."

Felix turned back to Aetra and the hole, checking his scanner again, and nodding. Not far now at all

[Aetra]

Intriguing, it seemed the man could assemble and disassemble that device at will, maybe there were other devices that could do that too? It would be harrowing then, to see what he'd do to Nuye if she ever got on the bad side of this man. It seemed that he added some features to it, which indicated depth, judging by his comment. Lowering her crossed look to only one of a raised eyebrow, she resumed digging. It may not be long before they'd found what they were looking for after all, judging by his comment.

"Alright, I trust your instincts here.... Not like I've anything better to do...."

She resumed with a slight smile, she was talking to someone besides Nuye, who didn't return talking. Even though she knew that, and the person looked bizarre as she'd ever seen bizarre look, she was still strangely surprised by how happy she was for the company. It was probably the long months of isolation, they've been known to mess with even some of the greatest of minds. She had half a mind to hug him on a few occasions now, just to hold on to the company, make it real, but she kept her air of quiet professionalism... aside from the prior outburst. Just thinking about that she was probably blushing about how embarrassing that was. She started to shovel faster, to get her mind off of it, and to help her to cease blushing.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix chuckled lightly at Aetras comment. Normally he was horrible with people, but they had something in common, and that being their machines. The only reason Felix was even being kind to her was because of Nuye, as she called it. He glanced over at the machine, envy written all over his features. The things he would do if he had something like that. Though, he aldready thought of a few ways to improve on what he saw, not that he knew its complete list of capabilities, so for all he knew the things he came up with would be, in fact, downgrades.

Felix's attention was dragged back to Aerta as she began to dig faster for some reason, and he noticed a slight redness to her face. Assuming it was from over exertion he walked over to his bike, and grabbed a bottle of water. He held it out to her, smiling lightly. "Here, your face was getting a bit red from the work, I thought maybe you would like a drink."

He took the shovel from Norm, and began to dig himself, the monitor hovering in front of the diggers, so that both he and Aetra could see it as they worked.

[Aetra]

She continued digging on with expedience, only to find that he must've noticed her pace. He walked over and caught her attention as he offered her a bottle of what was presumably water. He commented that he saw her face was red, but also assumed it was from the strain of work. A slight look of surprise betrayed her otherwise calm demeanor before she fell back into a more normal pose.

"Oh.... thanks."

She muttered somewhat as she replied, and took hold of the drink. Resting her arm on the handle of the shovel, she unscrewed the lid and took a drink.... Alas it ended up being more than a drink, she nearly downed half the bottle before she caught herself and stopped. She must've been more thirsty than she'd thought. Given the recent turn of events her own needs had gone neglected it would seem. Not that the dry wasteland air helped any with that.
Her redness didn't quite disappear, as she was quite sorry to have taken over half of the man's drink. She cast her gaze off to the side some, rather indignant of herself. She held the bottle out, waiting for him to take it.

"Sorry, guess I needed that more than I knew..."

She grasped the shovel once again with her remaining hand, and readied to continue digging. She was making a fool of herself to a random stranger, in the middle of a wasteland, the gods know where exactly. It was all so ridiculous, she reconsidered the whole dream aspect of it, this was a bit too bizarre to be real... but then again, those days lived... those months in solitude.... were those a dream too?... She occupied her thoughts with these comments, and despite all of her dwelling on it, couldn't come upon an answer. She decided to wait until they'd finished this... objective... before finding out where she was exactly.

[Felix Lucas]

Felix noted the look of surprise on Aetra's face, and when she thanked him he merely shrugged. It was really nothing to him to share with her the water, afterall she was doing a lot of the heavier lifting work, while he sat around fiddling with his inventions. He watched her drain half the bottle and his eyebrows rose fractionally, though considering where he had found her, out in the wastes, she might not have had a drink in a while. He really didn't mind, since he didn't exactly plan to be out here for an extended period of time, so really she was welcome to the whole bottle.

When she went to hand it back, apologizes for drinking so much of it Felix just waved a hand at her. He honestly didn't care, and it didn't bother him in the slightest. "Its fine, keep it, I can easily get more once I go back home."

He smiled at her, and watched as she grabbed hold of the shovel, though seemed to just stop, lost deep in thought. Felix didn't say anything, or break her concentration, knowing full well that when on a mental role it was better to just go with your thoughts and let them lead you to a logical, or illogical, conclusion. It was the way a lot of his brilliant ideas came to be. He just kept an eye on her, glancing at his instrumentation once before going back to the digging, getting really close to their, well his, objective.

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