{-Sharena-}

She didn't know how she explained it well enough that Anna, at least, understood what she was talking about but apparently she did. With any hope and luck Lekra was still trailing Alfonse. She just had to make sure she stayed close enough to them that they could still follow him. Whether everyone else was keeping up with her was something she didn't pay attention to.

"Do you usually lose your royalty?" Veronica remarked casually. "I'm sensing something of a pattern. Except this time I'm pretty sure they're going to kill him."

"He's not dead," Sharena mumbled. "Lekra said they weren't going to until they left the realm of the dead."

"You can still hear them from far away?" Fauna asked.

Sharena shrugged. "Well, hear might be an exaggeration. More like a thought, I guess? But it's not really clear unless I concentrate. I don't think they can hear me, though." The lack of a comment from Lekra seemed to be enough to confirm they couldn't hear her.

Of course Veronica was lost. "Who are you talking about..?"

"I have several questions as well," Eir admitted.

"Lekra's my shadow-nightmare-creature friend," Sharena responded. "We met a couple months ago, before the four of us went to Nifl."

Veronica blinked. "Are you insane?"

"Anna sighed. "Alfonse let her keep them if not solely because she would've done it anyway."

Sharena decided to completely ignore her. She stopped walking when she saw Lekra. "Why are you back?"

Lekra spoke slowly and cautiously. "I lost him."

"What do you mean you lost him?" Everyone else went silent. She'd said enough that they didn't need to hear Lekra, though her tone was probably enough to prove the urgency of it.

"I can only physically be in the same world as you," Lekra said calmly. "You're still here so I couldn't follow them into the other world."

"Then let's hurry and get to the portal!"

"You don't need to worry so much. They said they weren't going to do anything until they could 'pay tribute to the lost.'"

Her glare showed them that it was hardly enough reassurance. They started to lead the way again and she followed, everyone else trailing behind her.

It was clear they all needed to rest by the time they actually got to the portal. They continued until Lekra was able to locate Alfonse again, though. Their report was given to Sharena, who then carried it on to everyone else in the group.

"They stopped for the time being but they mentioned continuing after a couple of hours."

Anna definitely liked the news. "Perfect. Tell Lekra to keep an eye on them and tell you if they start moving again. All of us could use a break, too."

"But we could get to them—"

"And promptly get us all killed because we're probably way more tired than they are." Anna gestured at the other three. "Look at Fauna, she's practically dying already."

"I'm sorry…" Fauna mumbled, following orders and sitting down on the dirt. "I haven't walked this much in a while…"

Sharena knew she held no power to argue. "Fine." She sat down as well with everyone else soon doing the same.

"I know you're worried, but try to get some sleep, okay? You look exhausted," Anna said gently.

She nodded, but she was too distracted to actually do anything. The longer she stayed still and thought about it the more she realized something was wrong. It didn't sound like there were any animals, despite being in the middle of a forest; what little evidence there was of life looked like it hadn't been touched in a year or so. She was almost willing to convince herself it was just her before she realized Lekra's voice in the back of her head.

"Something happened here. I don't like it. It feels full of unnatural things."

Sharena took it upon herself to see if anyone else noticed it. "Does anyone else feel like there's something… off?"

Veronica gave it a moment of thought. "Now that you mention it? Yes, actually."

"There's not even a little bit of birdsong," Fauna mumbled.

"Kind of like we're the only things here," Anna agreed.

Eir let them contemplate it in silence for a little while before sharing her knowledge. "This is Líf and Thrasir's world. They experienced great… loss in their last few weeks of living. It is the reason they fight; Hel promised them that she'd give their people back if they could kill Alfonse. As to what happened to them… that tale is not mine to tell. If it ever should be shared with the living it will be by their will."

There was nothing more to be said between them. All they had left to do was wonder what might have gone wrong. The lost… maybe that was just their way to avoid saying "dead," or to give the impression that they won't stay like that forever. Could the dead really be brought back that simply? What could've happened that seemed to have killed everything? Did she really want to know?

She still tried to get some rest, but nothing came out of it aside from even more thoughts that she didn't want to consider. In a way, she was glad when she heard Lekra's voice and told the others their message: "They're moving again."

((A/N: I once drew Lekra for art class. When the teacher and a couple other kids asked what it was, I affectionately told them, "My shadow-nightmare-creature." I'm sure they didn't realize I was just talking about one of my OCs. My older sister pointed out later that Lekra, being a black human-shaped creature with red eyes, was basically a sleep paralysis demon. It's actually rather fitting despite the fact I did not have that in mind when creating them.))