"What are you muttering?" I ask the one guy I can talk to right now. Relaxing in front of this fire isn't possible with his noise. I mind where my hat and mask are, a sudden paranoia overcoming me.

"You heard me!" Cranky snaps as he glares toward the bag. I blink, not seeing much point in getting into a back and forth over this. Seems fairly obvious to figure out, anyway. He's bitter I had to put him back into the bag. Right next to Rose-sweerui.

I can't help that we needed to climb a mountain to get up here!

Honestly... The two wouldn't stop going at it the whole way up here. Rose didn't want to be touched by a root. Baltanthan didn't want her points jabbing him. The pair were like damn children. Blah, blah, blah and a wegh wah wegh!

Still, I'll give him the fact Rose's legs hurt, he's nursing a few bruises and the sounds of the culprit make me look up, "Oh, you two are back. Find anything?"

Rose puts some distance between herself, and Einervaene and I emulate the latter's reaction. Rose hasn't been open with me about her thoughts for too long, now. Whatever it is, it clearly involves Einervaene. The same worries that drove her to... Well, be her when they first met?

"We managed to find a small pool of freshwater. But it doesn't really have anything we could use to get it properly warmed up. So unless you are fine with a cold wash?" she explains and I mind how blood-excessive my filthy state is.

"Why not warm it up for us, Einervaene?" I ask, looking up from the fire.

"M-Me!?" she lets out, cheeks blazing more than our camp's central heating. Her blush only makes it easier to figure out what the embarrassment is.

"Don't worry, I'll share the bath with you. Keep you safe." I chuckle and she storms up to me, an adorable glare ruining her pretty features.

"No!" she squeaks, her hand grabbing the other as she closes up.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We leave you in the water with your magic. It will repeat -that- incident. But how about if you keep your hands near it?" I suggest, as then it's safe for her. She cautiously lets her guard down and raises a hand, flexing its fingers.

"I guess... I guess that can work." she says, sparks jumping between her fingers and sometimes even skipping over to the next.

"Oh, wait, I know!" I let out, getting up with a pain-ignoring hop. My claws rummage about the bag, looking for something to ensure Einervaene's safety. Finding the familiar solid, I grip it and pull it out for all to see. One of Rose's leg tubes.

Light flashes up in the corner of my eye and I turn, "M-My love... You can't be serious!"

The aelenvari speeds up to me, her hands snapping their finger jaws. My superior height keeps it away from her. Rose takes the out-of-reach hint and stops. Who knows what coming at me from her bulbs? I stare, as that's all I can do in the face of such incomprehensible... Speech.

"I am not saying we destroy it. We just need to use the metal as a conductor. Your tubes are best suited for this. Regardless, we need a way to heat the water up and get ourselves cleaned. We can't be going around covered in blood." I explain to her, my mind turning to all the problems a guard might have with seeing us-

"But why do we need to use my tubes!? We have other metal items!" Rose is quick to say, her temper probably the fastest thing here right now.

"She's right. Founding-Lord Brewbrt gave us pots and pans and so on." Baltanthan surprisingly points out despite the problems the pair have cultivated. His hand waves our attention over to the pile we sorted out while the girls were gone.

"But those are for our food. Cooking. Besides, would be a bit pointless to clean ourselves before we eat, no? One of you might be a sloppy eater." I say, shrugging and nearly letting Rose lash out for her tube. I stick my arm back up, eliciting a whine from her. She backs away, arms crossing over.

"My love, I was raised a petal. I am not going to spill food over myself." she huffs.

"I... I am the daughter of a noble. Table manners come as part of it." Einervaene contributes, her fingers pressing together. The pair turn to us, we boys still having not said anything. Baltanthan shuffles away.

"And I have actually useable hands and jaw," he remarks, and I put a claw under my mouth. All manners of self-conscious awareness wrecking my emotions. My mouth opens slightly, chitters growing louder.

"My jaw works perfectly fine!" I tell them as they all stare. I try to force my mouth-things to stop moving, but they won't. They won't stop!

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"My love, I have seen you eat. I've had to clean you up, even." she sighs and I glare with a twitch in my nose.

"I thought you were meant to stick up for me!" I complain, my self-conscious thoughts making me all too self-aware. I try to keep my tone exaggerated and my actions as close to the usual humour I might put in them. But, I slow to a crawl and stop doing everything. Their eyes won't move away. She approaches, a small smile on her lips.

"Stick up for does not mean that I must always agree." she corrects, snatching the tube out of my claw and spinning around. Her tail slithers across me and parts with a poking leap.

"I think we should at least check for anything useable, Nin-kischu. Surely we can set aside a utensil or pot for me to make the bath with? We won't be needing all the pans at once," Einervaene says, her voice turning down as my head keeps shaking.

"No! This is one of the few times I can actually eat a meal normally! A big meal... It needs to be something big!" I let out, clinging to the fact I can finally be something other than a masked monster. I can at least be open to myself right now. A scoff sounds off to my left and I turn.

"We have no means of refilling our supplies, and you want a feast?" Baltanthan lets out, his disbelief as vast as his stupidity as well, apparently. We're in the wilderness. Berries and roots are all around. Gods above guiding us, we can cook meat now, so we can hunt!

"We have the means to make a fire now. So no, we can get more food. I can come in, muscles bulging, a monster in my claws." I snap back as he continues to have a raised up, disgusted nose. Rose jumps at the chance, nodding and supporting my argument.

"That is true! With a means to cook it, we can reliably hunt now. And, even if we lose the tools, Einervaene's magic can light kindling." Rose adds on, a smile on her face as she closes the distance between us. Though not at an intimate level.

"D-Do I have to? Cooking like that always makes me uncomfortable as I am so close to hearing the meat go pop. I was hoping I could escape living like that..." Einervaene complains, her mouth doing an alright job at making the sounds of crackling bacon. My jaw adjusts with a wet smack. Mmmm, meat sandwiches.

"Surely stopping ourselves from starving is a little more important than how comfortable you feel?" Baltanthan goes, hand waving about.

"Yeah. Surely, our ability to stay clean is more important than one of your tubes!" I say, twisting the topic right back around to Rose's clothing. In her moment of disbelief, I snatch our heat conducting rod right back.

"Don't change the subject into ruining my clothes again!" Rose whines, a point stabbing the ground.

"Electricity going through metal isn't going to ruin it!" I point out, my mind going through every time I've had to deal with electronics back home. Hopefully, however, she isn't aware of arc welders.

"My love, do you not see how powerful this golden petal is? She'll ruin the metal when it's not designed for something like that!" Rose says, nearly covering the ground I wanted her to avoid.

"So what you mean to say is that these clothes are not worthy of a petal?" I disingenuously huff in an effort to derail this further.

Rose shuts up and glares, her head moves erratically, "What I am saying is I don't want them being used to heat up a bath!"

"Seems contradictory to go up here to hide our camp only to make this much noise..." Baltanthan mutters from the ground, and then he groans.

"But you are the one insisting so much that you need only the finest clothes fit for a petal. So surely clothes that cannot withstand a petal's power are worthless?" I argue and she scoffs, hand on a jut out hip.

"Being a petal is not a single standard! There are multiple layers to it!" she says, and my eyes roll.

"Then surely we should just get rid of what no longer matches your beauty then, no?" I shrug, rolling the item in my claw.

"I did that back when we left my flower! There's no need for us to do it now!" she nearly shouts, a finger raised high up in the air.

"You two... You two!" Einervaene intervenes before we all take this too far. Sighing, we both take a step back, but Einervaene still keeps her hands up. I let my shoulders relax and Rose turns away, hand playing with the end of her tail.

Still... We need a way for Einervaene to safely heat the bath.

"Look, all I am saying is we have two problems. We need a way for her to -safely- heat the bath. And, we also need to mind how much we'll have to carry as we have a lot of travelling left. You're getting more beautiful by the day, Rose-sweerui, so this is a chance to at least cut away something." I somewhat lie.

Rose stops and looks me in the eye, her cheeks matching her hair. She shuffles about, her posture relaxing and swinging. She looks down and away. Then, back to me.

"You really think so...?" she asks, a hand brushing back some of her hair. She starts to approach until she is up against me. A hand going up my chest as she rubs her front along me.

"I do." I lie again.

"My love..." she whispers, her face moving to my chest, no matter how bloody. A part of me roars at me for my behaviour.

"We should make sure the clothes you have fit your stature..." I say, my claw sending the tube away. It's not a cloth heavy one, anyway, we won't need to destroy it.

"We can wait until we get to Thrurstradtur, then." she huffs, snatching the tube back and striding off, an energetic bounce to her hips. I glare at her smirking face as my chittering jaw sounds off. Looking around for our metal deposits, I notice Einervaene is gone.

"Where...?" I ask.

"She took a pot and went off," Baltanthan answers, his head shaking. She took a pot to heat up the bath!?

"Oh, for the sake of the gods above..." I groan.

"Don't start chasing after her over a pot, Bug." Baltanthan groans himself as he imitates whacking me with a small stick he's found. I snort at him as he starts to look like a farmer herding his flock. He throws it at me. Then another and another.

"Stop it." I tell him, the sticks still coming.

"Quit being a child then, it's just a pot," he drones with an expression lacking in all joy.

"It's not childish to recognise it has greater importance with food on it rather than being used as a conductor!" I snap verbally and literally as I yank the next stick out of his hands. He hisses and whips his scraped hand in the air.

"Roll down a spiked hill," he swears, clicking his lips with a kiss.

"I'd rather leap off the mountain." I grumble, getting back to the seat I had before the girls got back. Rose comes around and leans on me, uncooked food in both hands.

"So what would you like, my love?" she asks, bouncing my options about as I continue to grumble incoherently.