A/N: guest: Thank you for all the reviews! I hope you're pleased with what they decide to do (or displeased, in a good way).
xix.
"Ugh, it's so boring right now," Sorano complained loudly. No one responded to her. She huffed again. A tiny huff echoed at her side, and she resisted the urge to snort. Her charge looked up and copied her pouty face. Lately, it was all the rage for Ultear to copy the people around her. She'd been doing it ever since Gray came and made her do magic. Sometimes it was cute, but since most of the time she ended up copying Sorano, she found it super annoying.
"Do any of you know when they'll be back?"
"It shouldn't be long now, oh yeah. I imagine they want to get the fire started sooner rather than later." Richard replied.
Sorano cupped her head in her hands. "Yeah, that's probably right. I wish Erik hadn't ditched us so we'd have a more reliable answer."
"Didn't he go on patrol?" Macbeth stretched his sore arms and walked into the area the rest of them were in. He yawned, most likely having woken up only moments ago.
"Who's going to be out in these creepy woods on such a miserable day?"
"Uh, creepy and miserable dark guilds? Don't you remember all the woods we camped out in before? This place practically screams dark guild hideout."
"Hey, I kept us from the creepiest ones. We camped in style. Plus this one is like, totally bare. You'd have to be crazy to stay here."
"Again..."
Despite Sorano's words, in truth, they'd come here on rumors that a new dark guild was on the rise around the area. Not that rumors mattered much when it'd been several weeks and still no sighting of anything substantial. Most of them were itching for a fight after nothing for so long, but that urge alone didn't magically spring together dark guild members.
"If we're patient, I'm sure something will come of all this," Richard said. Sorano forced back the desire to roll her eyes.
"Hey, guys."
Sawyer suddenly entered the campsite. Nobody had seen him for most of the day either. This fact wasn't particularly unusual. He liked to stretch his legs on runs around the area before gathering any plants or potential herbs for the camp. There wasn't much to gather these days, but he still liked to go for runs. His eyes lingered on Ultear as he walked up to them. Sorano frowned.
"Sawyer, did you happen to see Erik while you were on your run?"
"Nope." He always answered rather quickly, but this time his tone felt off. Sorano squinted at him, wondering if perhaps he was just being curt due to shortness of breath.
He paused as he stopped next to her. Ultear shied away from him. Even after several months, Sorano wasn't convinced she felt entirely at ease with him around. Not that he did much to help those feelings.
"Say, actually, there's something I've been wanting to talk to you guys about..."
"Hmm?"
His eyes locked onto hers, and all forms of casualness suddenly left his face. "I was just wondering...
"Why are we putting up with this again?"