The rattling of the flames eating away the firewood broke the otherwise silence that had settled between the two. Being given a small space by putting the automated cart between them and the others, Fleck was covering himself with a mantle a bit small for him, Hashi still with her crimson cloak and hood, as they wait for their clothes and underwear that were closer to the campfire to dry out. Almost no wind was blowing in the night.

A sneeze escapes Fleck.

-”Bless you.”- Hashi says.

-”What’s with you?”- Fleck replies, almost muttering his words.

-”Nothing…”- the rattling of the firewood continues -”I… I’m just glad to get a moment to rest.”-

-”I see… I have to agree with that. I need to get as soon as possible to New Arcadia, yet after all that, a breather is great.”-

A slight snort escapes Hashi -”I see I’m not the only one that needs to get to New Arcadia as soon as possible.”-

-”Is that so?”-

-”It is.”-

-”And why is that?”- Fleck asks.

Raising her eyes to the crimson sky above them, Hashi answers with a more serious tone -”I… need to find someone. When I was a child, he… he…”-

-”Revenge?”-

Hashi chuckles, covering her mouth with her left hand -”Yeah, it is revenge…”- After taking a deep breath, she adds -”So many nights I have seen him in my dreams, the large silhouette of his figure taking everything from me, taking me away, his huge hands that by themselves big enough to envelop my head completely… I have lost the count of how many times I had to puke the next morning, shaking uncontrollably, every time I have had that nightmare…”- Hashi’s words are weighted in by a small helpless tone in her voice.

-”I see… So it was that bad, uh? No wonder not even the Ether Storm stopped you…”- Fleck says, still fixated by the sight of the flames in the campfire, his body still chilling from the cold.

-”And you?”- Hashi asks, changing the subject completely -”Why do you have to be at New Arcadia as soon as possible? Enough to prefer to go through the Ether Storm instead of waiting for it to dissipate?”-

Fleck keeps silent, and behind them, the sound of small clashes between metal and wood, the bubbling of water and the whistle of a kettle can be heard.

-”Come on, Fleck,”- Hashi says as she stands on her knees and moves towards Fleck -”The tough guy act, I already know that isn’t you. You would’ve left me to die back there at the chasm if that were the case.”- With these words, Hashi gets right beside Fleck and pushes against him with her right shoulder, still covered with her cloak and hood.

At this push, Fleck was taken by surprise, falling to his left. With this movement, Fleck’s sword cuts through the mantle, his legs come out and his arms become exposed.

-”Ugh, I can’t… this mantle is just too small, I can’t get a comfortable position”- Fleck complaints as he sits again, covering his shoulders all the way to the knees. The sword is still sticking out of the mantle.

Hashi can only giggle at this sight, then she asks again -”So?”-

Fleck sights, and fixating his eyes on the flames once more, he says -”I’m… interested, you could say, in the shattered parts of the Gods. I’m going to New Arcadia because of the possibility of the part of a certain… goddess may be there.”-

-”Oh, wow”- Hashi says, incorporating herself and sitting right next to Fleck -”So you are a collector of some sort?”-

-”Yeah, I think that would fit me well enough.”-

-”A collector of parts of the Gods, uh?… Gotta say it, I have met my fair share of collectors out there, but you are the first one that collects parts of the Gods. Usually people use these parts in order to achieve stronger spells, long-lasting energy sources, achieve the unthinkable, fend off the Abyss… I guess you have the fervor of a true collector though. In fact, you may be the craziest one out there, facing an Ether Storm and all that…”-

Fleck only chuckles in response.

-”If so… why did you jump against the J’avo back there?”- Hashi asks.

Fleck’s shoulders jump, but he keeps silent.

-”I knew it… there’s more isn’t?”-

After thinking for a moment, Fleck says -”Indeed.”- struggling to return both legs into the mantle. The flames in the campfire were dwindling and Fleck started to feel cold in both legs, a cold that somehow reached his bones.

-”So?”-

-”I’ll keep it to myself. I don’t like to burden others with my issues, especially women.”-

Silence reigned once more between them, the crackling of the firewood little by little going away.

Maybe that was a bit rude… but well, that’s ok, no need for others to know.

Hashi’s voice reach Fleck once more -”Are your legs freezing?”-

-”Yeah, sadly the mantle Masha gave me is too small for me.”- Fleck answers as he just gave up and let both legs stretch forward, letting a sight escape.

-”I can help with that.”- With these words, Fleck feels how his mantle is pulled up, and at the same time, a large shadow appeared in front of him. Recognizing Hashi as the shadow, he sees how she pulls open her large cloak, the shadows unable to completely hide her naked body, revealing her large, firm breasts and her curvy figure, and makes a mixture of tackling and sitting right on top of Fleck, pushing her entire body against him, embracing him with both arms. A sound of a fabric being cut resounds.

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-”What are you doing?!”- Fleck exclaims as he puts both arms against the ground, being taken by surprise.

-”Letting you my cloak.”-

-”Then why the hell are you on top of me?”- Fleck asks, having taken a moment to calm and assess what happened while pushing Hashi away -”Besides, I have a mantle already.”-

-”No, you don’t.”- Hashi answers while raising her left arm, keeping the embrace with the prosthetic arm, revealing to Fleck what happened -”It seems that your sword turned the mantle into two hand warmers. Besides, this is a valid method of raising the heat of body that is freezing.”-

Fleck stops for a moment, thinks, and letting a sight escape, he stops pushing Hashi away, saying -”It is true.”-

Hashi giggles, letting a small -”Yay!”- escape in celebration as she resumes her embrace with both arms.

After some moments of silence and Fleck feeling how his entire body is heating up little by little, he says -”What are you waiting for? I know you already saw it.”-

-”What is this? You have such a beautiful woman pressing her entire naked body against yours and tha-”-

Fleck interjects -”There’s no person in the world who would not be taken aback by what you are seeing right now, beautiful or not. It is annoying so I make a great deal of effort to make sure no one notices it, but you now have, so it is becoming annoying that you feign not noticing and not bringing it up.”-

Hashi, after a moment of thought, puts both hands on Fleck shoulders and pulls away a little. Then, with her right hand, she skims with her prosthetic hand from his shoulder toward his neck, and then into the hole that is present just right before his neck.

-”It is like…”- Hashi starts saying, but Fleck completes her words saying -”A clay doll was just taken a chunk out of his body.”-

-”Yeah, exactly like that”- Hashi says, passing her prosthetic hand within this empty space, this wide hole that covered from the front of Fleck’s chest all the way to the back, going through his body, just millimeters above his heart, moving away multiple really small particles that after her hand passes, they come back into their place right away -”No blood, no bones, no organs… I can only feel as if it were clay, or maybe a continuous skin, as if you were born like this…”- then, gasping, Hashi pulls her hand away and says -”Sorry, it is my first time seeing a person with a hollow.”-

-”Indeed, there aren’t that many of us…”-

-”Since you said I should bring it up, I will ask… Did you shattered one of the Gods?”-

-”I did.”- Fleck says with a somber tone.

After moments of silence, Hashi asks once more -”Is it the one you are hoping to find in New Arcadia?”-

-”One of her parts, at least. That is why I can’t just wait the Ether Storm to dissipate. That part could go back into hiding.”-

After some moments of silence, Hashi finally says -”I understand. But then, wh-”-

Without realizing, Hashi had once again stood up on her knees, and once more fell right back into Fleck. At this, she suddenly stands up on her knees once more and exclaims in a somewhat sorrowful tone, looking down -”Come on! It didn’t budge even a little bit!”-

-”I’m a man of simple tastes”- Fleck says as he pushes Hashi back, making her fall on his legs, and reaching for her hood, he pulls it down -”and while I admit you have the body, it is just impossible for me to feel anything with a woman that every time her hood pulls down a completely different head appears.”- This time, a head with an angular face, big lips, green eyes, and straight blonde hair appears.

-”When did you-”-

-”Back there when we were running away from the J’avo.”-

After more moments of thought, Hashi giggles, and then says -”Still, you are making me lose confidence as a woman.”-

Fleck chuckles.

Suddenly, a voice reach them both from the other side of the automated cart -”Fleeeeck, Hashiiiii, you’ food’ re’dy!”-

Peeking over the cart, Selvin appears, and sees Fleck and Hashi, both still enveloped in Hashi’s cloak. His expression betrays his innocence, something that Ana, Selvin’s sister, understands well as when she appears beside Selvin, she lets a flustered gasp escape and covers his little brother’s eyes and takes him away.

Hashi then says -”We will have to explain this, don’t we?”-

-”Maybe it will be for the best, there’s a long trip ahead of us still.”- Fleck says, and then, putting both hands to the sides of Hashi, he moves her as he adds -”Now, move, I have more than enough heat, our clothes should be ready by now.”-

Hashi giggles, covering herself with her cloak and hood and raising her right hand to her mouth -”They were ready a while ago.”-

At these words, Fleck freezes, but after a moment he just lets a huge sight escape.