I'm back!

Please tell me if any of the character's are OOC

"Are you sure you won't stay the night?" Terra asked them.

"No. No. We're all good." Dimitri said. "Thank you for the meal."

Edelgard waited.

Now that her stomach was full, she felt slightly better, but she still wanted to get going.

"Okay." Terra looked disappointed, then nodded. "If you won't stay the night, I insist on packing you some supplies. Just some blankets and food and other essentials."

"That would be very welcome. Thank you." Edelgard said, smiling politely.

She wasn't going to turn down free supplies. They desperately needed them for the journey ahead.

She looked at her glowing mark. The long, long, journey ahead.

Terra bustled around the room, grabbing a backpack and gathering various things.

Dimitri was chatting with Shale, asking questions about the village. Edelgard figured that he was just being polite.

Suddenly, she realised that two little pairs of wide eyes were watching her.

It was the children; the son, Pebble, and the daughter, Marble.

She huffed and met their gaze.

The two children widened their eyes even more and started whispering to one another, then Marble shook her head and waddled over.

Edelgard almost told her that she wanted to be left alone, but she didn't have the heart to.

They were just children…

"Have you ever seen a passenger before?" Edelgard said softly.

Marble shook her head.

"I know the feeling. I had never seen a train before- before today."

"Really?" Mabel said, completely awed.

"I think I'm going to see many more unbelievable things."

"This train is amazing!" Mabel cheered. "We sometimes get visitors. I saw a talking dog once!"

Edelgard smiled brightly at the little girl, pretending to be interested.

Pebble appeared next to his sister.

"Can I see your number?"

"Sure." Edelgard held out her right hand.

Both children peered at her mark closely.

"It's very high." Pebble leaned back.

"How are you going to get it down?" Marble said, looking up at her.

"I have no idea…do you have any ideas?" Edelgard said, slightly mortified. She was asking a child for help.

Marble's eyes flickered to Dimitri, then back to her.

"Are you friends?"

Edelgard hesitated.

"Not really."

Mabel smiled.

"There's your starting point. I'm friends with everyone in the village!"

"Nuh uh. You're not friends with me." Pebble declared.

Mabel glared at her brother.

"We're siblings!"

"That doesn't change anything."

The children began arguing.

Edelgard sighed and looked away.

Terra came over with the now-full backpack, giving her children a reproachful look.

"Marble, Pebble, don't argue in front of guests."

Both children stopped, glaring at one another.

"Either go and play outside, or help clean up."

They both ran out.

Terra released a breath and addressed Edelgard.

"Children. They're so troublesome…but in my opinion, every moment is worth it."

Edelgard stared listlessly at her.

Terra quickly caught on.

"I've packed all the essentials. There's even some flint and tinder if you need to make a campfire. Just be careful with it." Terra fussed. "I also cleaned and packed one of Shale's more delicate brushes. I noticed your lovely long hair, Edelgard. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing."

Edelgard blinked. She hadn't even thought about her hair. Not with everything else going on.

"Thank you. I really mean it. Are you sure you want to give us all of this?"

"It's no problem at all. We're a community, so we share everything anyway. And I'm sure a trader will come through soon- we can trade some fish for more supplies." Terra said warmly.

Edelgard opened her mouth, then closed it.

Terra was treating her like a child. It should upset her, but it wasn't.

I can't even remember my own mother. And I barely spend any time with my father. Edelgard thought.

"Are you okay?" Terra said.

Edelgard raised her head and nodded briskly.

"Yes. I think we should get going. We shouldn't intrude on your hospitality anymore."

She went up to Dimitri and tapped him on the shoulder.

"We need to get going."

"A-are you sure?" Dimitri said, taken aback by her forwardness.

"Terra has packed us some supplies. We have everything we need." Edelgard insisted.

"Very well." Dimtiri conceded, taking the bag from Terra and hoisting it over his shoulders.

"I'll lead you out. I want to make sure you're both a hundred percent ready for the journey." Shale said.

Dimitri waved the kids and Terra goodbye, while Edelgard just spared them a passing glance.

It was dusk by the time they headed out, meaning they only had a few hours before they would need to stop and camp for the night.

As they approached the door, she developed a fluttering feeling in her stomach.

I'm…actually excited. She realised.

Balling her hands into fists, she took a deep breath and calmed down. She had to be focused. She couldn't let her emotions distract her.

"I didn't want to say this around the kids, but don't linger between the cars. There are monsters out there in the desert. I'm sure the conductor warned you about them." Shale advised.

"What kind of monsters?" Dimitri pressed.

"I haven't seen them. But a traveller told me that they look like insects and they can fly. Though they didn't actually attack him."

Edelgard cocked her head.

"Does that mean that they only attack passengers?"

"It wouldn't surprise me. It's probably has something to do with your numbers."

"The Conductor told us to run away if we saw them, and not to fight them." Dimitri said.

"Sage advice. Just run to the next car and get away from them." Shale said.

"Yes. It's better to run than to fight." Dimitri looked away, his face oddly blank.

Edelgard peered at him closely. Bizarrely enough, she couldn't read him at that moment.

She knew the prince put on a…princely façade to hide his emotional troubles, much like she did, but she didn't know what specific demons plagued him.

At least now she had plenty of time to figure him out...

"I'll get the door for you." Shale said, not commenting on Dimitri's behaviour.

He flipped the handle and the door opened, revealing the alien world outside.

"Thank you for everything." Edelgard said one last time, then motioned at her companion. "Dimitri?"

Dimitri took a deep breath and smiled brightly at Shale.

"Shale, you have done us a great service. I will never forget you or your family."

Shale smiled back at him.

"I hope your journey goes well."

"It will. Edelgard and I, we'll work together to get off." Dimitri declared, pumping a fist in the air.

Edelgard chuckled lowly.

"With my brains and your brawn, we'll get off this train in no time."

"That's the spirit!"

"Good!" Shale cheered, then sobered up. "Be careful out there."

"We will." Dimitri promised. "Edelgard, ladies first." He bowed and swept his arms towards the door.

Edelgard took him up on his offer.

"I'll go ahead and get the next door open."

The next car was long and narrow, with two platforms at either end, separated by a large, black abyss.

Edelgard eyed the abyss warily, remembering that the car was a "puzzle".

She looked behind her.

There was a pile of heavy looking white puzzles pieces next to the door.

They would have to build a way across.

An arduous task.

She groaned just as Dimitri entered the car and shut the door behind him.

He studied the obstacle before them and then regarded her with worried eyes.

"Edelgard, now that we're alone again. Can we talk?" He sat down against the door, putting the backpack down.

"Fine. But not for long." Edelgard said, sitting a good distance away from him.

"First of all, our numbers…how are we going to get them down?" Dimitri raised his glowing hand.

"I have no idea." Edelgard lied, recalling Marble's advice.

"Neither do I." Dimitri lowered his hand and smiled at her. "So, we'll work it out together."

"Anything else?" Edelgard muttered.

"We have enough supplies for a couple of days. When we run out, I'm sure we'll come across some friendly denizens or at least find a place where we can forage for food."

"We shouldn't want for anything. Except for an exit home." Edelgard said darkly.

Thanks to her second crest, she didn't have much time left already. And she wasting even more of it on the train, stuck with someone she had once tried to kill.

"That's correct. But- "Dimitri fidgeted. "-the two of us have been through worse than this. If we can survive battles, and death, and everything else, we can survive this."

Despite everything, Edelgard felt her spirits rise. Dimitri was right.

They'd both been through worse. Much worse.

She nodded sagely and clambered to her feet.

"Let's solve this puzzle."

Dimitri grinned like a little child and jumped up excitedly.

Edelgard pointed at the pile of jigsaw pieces. "You can lift those, right?"

"Easily."

"Start spreading them out. We need to figure out which pieces fit together and make a bridge out of them."

Dimitri grabbed several pieces, as if they were nothing, and followed her instructions.

"I'll do the lifting, and you do the directing."

It took hours to build a bridge across the gap, but they managed to do it.

As soon as the last piece slid into place, a loud click reverberated around the carriage.

It was music to Edelgard's ears.

She rushed to the door and opened it, basking in the fresh air.

Well, it wasn't really fresh, but it was still air.

"We can't linger outside Edelgard. Remember what Shale said; there are monsters out here." Dimitri said after a few moments, looking at the darkening sky. "And it's night. We should find a place to set up camp."

"Are you sure we should stop? We only covered one car in what, three hours?" Edelgard countered.

"Let's just see what the next carriage is like." Dimitri said.

It was a jungle. A glowing jungle.

Everything was either purple, or blue, or both.

Edelgard spooked a parrot as she shoved aside a bush.

At least this carriage has wildlife.She thought, glancing at the sky.

The moon was blue.

"Hey! I found a cave!" Dimitri suddenly yelled.

Edelgard followed his voice and found him studying a small opening at the bottom of a hill.

"Is there enough space for both of us?"

"I think it opens up further in. C'mon!" He crouched and went into the cave.

Edelgard sighed and looked around, watching a number of vibrant lizard's scurry past her, before following him through.

Sure enough, the cave opened up to a decent sized cavern. There was even a small pool of water in the far corner.

Dimitri felt the ground.

"It's surprisingly soft. Should be comfortable enough to sleep on."

"So, we'll camp here overnight and set off early tomorrow morning." Edelgard nodded. "Right, leave the bag here and go and gather some wood and rocks for a fire while I sort everything out. Terra left us some flint and tinder."

Dimitri laughed heartily.

"What's so funny?" Edelgard raised an eyebrow.

"It's nothing."

"Tell me."

"It's just- you haven't- "He bit his lip and laughed some more.

"This is the longest time we've spent together. Alone. At the academy, we only ever trained together, orsocialised, on rare occasions, and there were always other people present. Even during that fatefulencounterfive months ago, when we snuck away to do some private training, Claude was still with us. Then we ended up meetingByleth-"

"Dimitri, please." Edelgard said tiredly.

"Sorry. I just wanted to say that I'm enjoying your company."

"You're enjoying this? Being stranded here?"

"No. No. That isn't it at all." Dimitri winced. "It just made me realise that I should've approached yousooner-spent more time with you back at the academy. I was being a coward. We could've been great friends."

"Why…" Edelgard said, only to trail off when she saw his number fall.

It now read:

[350]

"My number fell?" Dimitri muttered, gaping at his hand.

"By seven."

Dimitri grinned.

"If it's that easy, then we'll be off this train in no time!"

"Dimitri, we're goingto behere along time." Edelgard said patiently.

"I know." He shrugged off the backpack. "I'm going to get stuff for a fire. You set up camp." He hurried out.

Edelgard started sorting through the bag, trying to take her mind off of things.

She thought about Marble and her childish advice again.

Maybe she's right.Edelgard shook her head.

She couldn't get close to Dimitri.

All she had to do was tolerate him.

She grabbed the flint and tinder.

Yes.

Tolerate.

Howzat?