By the next morning, Fuyuko had decided she was ready to work on dealing with her issue. When she told her parents, they were a bit skeptical at first but then Papa said, "You might be rushing more than you need to, but perhaps that is for the best. If you are this dedicated to the issue, then I don't need to worry about you running away from death."

It took a moment, then she realized he was talking about what could happen if someone was seeking immortality from fear of dying. "Oh, yeah, that," she said sheepishly. "I didn't even consider that." Fuyuko didn't think that it was quite the same thing for her, but it was close enough that Mordecai was probably right to be concerned.

After breakfast, Fuyuko asked where Amrydor was, and Mama M told her that he and Gou were starting up the earth zone.

Well, that was convenient. She could just wait here, but that just felt like a waste.

Instead, she went down to the stone city and walked the 'wrong' way into the combat path of the earth zone. Fuyuko wanted to practice hiding and stalking someone who didn't know she was trying to do so and it would be fun to see how close she could get before they spotted her.

The weather and the shifting terrain provided plenty of cover for her to work with, and even more shadows for her to use as needed. It also made her 'prey' a little harder to find, since they were starting at the opposite end and the zone was wide enough to possibly miss each other.

Scent and sound were enough to let her know when she was close, and Fuyuko worked her way closer while listening to their conversation. They weren't saying a lot at first, mostly some occasional conversations about tactics and the creature they were fighting, but then Gou said, "So, you are looking forward to holding hands with the pretty girl?"

Fuyuko nearly stumbled.

"Please don't," Amrydor said with a sigh.

When Fuyuko recovered her balance, she decided to pace them instead of trying to get closer. Why did he say that?

Gou continued with a teasing tone, "I mean, I agree she's really cute, but in your position, I'd be awfully worried about getting close. She might do more than just-"

"Yugo!" Amrydor said sharply, "Don't be an ass."

There was a beat of silence before Gou calmly replied, "Then tell me what's actually going on. You've never been this cagey about a girl you liked before."

The sudden change in tone confused Fuyuko for a moment, then she realized that Gou had been baiting Amrydor.

"Fine," Amrydor said in a flat tone, "but I'm not going to try delving at the same time."

"Yeah, I was thinking this was the perfect place for us to pause for a conversation."

Fuyuko thought Gou had chosen well. The two of them were on a section of flat, hard ground with no cover, which would make it easy for them to watch for approaching danger.

She was hiding behind a boulder in an adjacent area and she could only hear them this well because she was already downwind from them. Even with her hearing, she'd have to be closer without that aid.

Amrydor took a moment before he spoke. "Well, let's get part of this out of the way first. I don't think she's just cute, I think she's beautiful, and the way she moves when fighting is incredible. When she shifted during her fury, she was more savage but just as beautiful."

"See, I knew you had-"

"Yugo," Amrydor said with annoyance, "just listen, because that's not the important part. She, well, I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but she's absolutely not interested. No, more, she seemed completely unaware. Her father asked me about my intentions right in front of her, and she just seemed to be confused for a moment before ignoring it. Like she was so used to being confused by certain things that she's learned to not think about them."

Gou sounded a bit confused as he asked, "Are you sure? That's, I don't know, kind of odd. She seemed pretty sharp and aware to me."

"I don't get it either, but I don't need to. I'm just going to do my best to be her friend."

"And?"

"And nothing. That's it. I have no plans or ideas. I can be her friend and it doesn't matter if we're ever anything more. Don't give me that look, I mean it. I don't know what's going on, but she's uninterested in anything more to the point of being oblivious to the idea. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't."

"Huh," Gou said thoughtfully, "so if you're going to be just friends, you're still going to see other girls? Because you seemed to be smitten by her pretty hard yesterday."

Amrydor groaned and said, "Why'd you have to ask that? Alright, yes, just not right now. If she's not interested, she won't care. If she decides she cares, she can tell me. It's out of my hands."

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"Why are you giving up so fast?" Gou asked.

"Because," Amrydor said, "I think I'd hurt her if I did anything else. I don't get it either, but I'm not going to risk that. So, friends it is. And friends help each other, so I am going to help her. That's all."

"Alright, if you say so."

"I do. Now come on, there's plenty more to do."

Fuyuko waited for a moment while they moved further away, and then started working her way around them. She decided she didn't want to meet them down here after all, waiting for them up top was fine.

It gave her time to think.

She was probably the only one who had not noticed that Amrydor wanted more than being friends. Fuyuko felt a little dumb about it now. That's why everyone was staring at him when he'd talked about touching her hand.

Was that just something he was trying to do? No, he couldn't have lied, not there.

One thing he said just now was bothering her more than all the rest. Fuyuko didn't like the idea that she was missing stuff because she ignored it, but when she thought about it she was certain he was right. She was uncomfortable with the topic because she didn't understand what everyone else was feeling. Great, another thing she had to figure out.

Maybe she should talk with Mama M. She knows this sort of thing, right? But not right now. Especially as there was something else she had to think about while she waited.

When the pair were done, they found her waiting on a bench near the entrance to the stone city. Amrydor didn't look the least surprised, though Gou looked a little startled at first. Hmm.

"Hey," Fuyuko said as they got close, "Um, I think I'm ready to start training. But, I want to ask something else first. Yesterday, you said you can sense death stuff and tell what's alive and dead and such. Does that mean you can also tell when there's something living near you?" She couldn't help but think of how quickly he'd reacted to her attack from behind.

Amrydor nodded. "Yeah. Especially if it's someone I paid a lot of attention to. Um, if I do that, I can feel their life from further away."

Fuyuko considered that a moment and then asked, "So, there's something different about everyone's life the way you see it?"

He smiled a little and said, "Right. Some people are really distinct immediately, like you. But a lot of your inhabitants feel the same at first until I look close enough. Um, not the kobolds though for some reason. Most people are somewhere in between."

She thought that might make sense; their inhabitants were mostly raised recently from animals. The kobolds had all been old before they joined the dungeon. "So," she asked, "you would be really hard ta sneak up on then, right?"

"Yeah."

As she thought. That was embarrassing, especially with everything he'd said. But if he'd known it was her listening, she didn't think he could lie easily. Which meant everything had been true. She could work with that. Some of what he'd said was stuff she'd have to think about more if he'd said it while knowing she was listening.

For now, she just smiled and said, "Right then. Friends it is. I like that."

Gou finally figured out what was going on and looked flustered. Fuyuko considered letting him suffer, but she didn't really feel mad at him. So she let him off by saying, "At least ya called me pretty. I do like that, just not all the stuff a lot of people add after that, alright?"

"Um, yeah, sure. I'm good with that." He replied.

"Good," she said. "Um, I was thinking about where ta go, and I think it's just best if we go up to the tree. We can sit in the main room."

"Er, you two go up without me," Gou said. "I'd just be sitting around anyway, might as well see what's down here instead."

That felt a little awkward too, but his sisters had already been escorted down to resume their delves last night, so there really wouldn't be anyone for him to talk to.

At least she got to enjoy watching Amrydor's reaction to the floating mushroom cloud. That part was always fun when she got to introduce a new friend to them.

Fuyuko showed Amrydor where he could go get cleaned up from his delve and then made a couple of sandwiches each for them. He seemed to eat as much as she did, so she put lots of meat into all of them.

After they ate, she said, "So, yer the teacher. What do we do?"

"Um, right." He seemed uncertain as he looked over all the chairs, then shook his head. "Let's make it easy. Let's sit on the floor. Over here."

He had her sit first, and then he sat down facing her, but off to the side. Then he put his hand on his knee, palm up. "When you're ready, just touch my hand. You can, um, use just a finger or something if you want."

They went slowly from there. It took only the slightest touch of his aura to make her breath catch and her skin prickle.

Fuyuko had never done anything quite like this, but she'd spent more than half a year both training and learning how to train herself. That included figuring out what she was doing wrong. It was a little different here as she picked at her own thoughts and feelings, but the process was similar.

His aura was quiet and serene death, whether in the silence of violent aftermath or the somber stillness of a well-tended graveyard.

There wasn't a threat of death, for death had already come. What was to die was already dead. It was what she had felt in what seemed like her final moments when she was bleeding out. Hope was already gone, there had been nothing left to fight for life with.

That was why it was so terrifying when actual danger was not. Danger was only a threat, a possibility. Threats could be struggled against.

She couldn't accept death like that, not if she had a choice. Feeling his aura was feeling like that last moment all over again, but lasting for as long as she was exposed to it instead of for a few seconds.

Understanding her panic helped, but even after several hours Fuyuko could only take a small amount of his aura for about ten minutes. It was also exhausting to keep dealing with the waves of panic trying to take her over.

Fuyuko stubbornly refused to stop or admit how tired she was until she found herself swaying, unable to keep sitting upright. That was when Amrydor called off the training. She tried to get up, but Amrydor had to catch her and carry her to the couch.

She didn't even remember him setting her down.

When she woke up, so found a blanket over herself, and over Amrydor who was curled up on the floor. There was also a dragon on top of each of them; Carnelian Flame was on top of her while Thunder and Lightning were on top of him. Naturally, this meant that moving in the slightest would draw a complaint from the sleeping dragons, thus letting Kazue and Moriko know the moment either of them woke up.

At Fuyuko's insistence, Amrydor stayed for dinner, which was enough to also get Gou to accept an invitation up. From there, the boys could be pressured into accepting a couple of guest rooms. The rest of the group had already begun delving down; Amrydor was staying behind mostly because of training her. Gou was keeping him company for the moment but was waiting for a time slot where he could attempt a solo delve and see how far he got.

She wondered how they were going to react when the new zone was claimed in a couple of days.