Jamona is lying face-down on the ground somewhere off the road to Hydlaa. Her skin is covered in a gray haze, which is hiding her true, pale skin color except for in a few spots, where the taint seems to have come off. From afar, she might easily be confused for a corpse; however, upon closer inspection, her whole body is clearly shivering.
Rhateru wanders nervously by the road, often glancing around. "Ah sure hope Hydlaa's close by," he says to himself as he approaches the Dermorian. Jamona doesn't seem to particularly care about the visitor, and decides to wait for them to leave while pretending to be dead. Rhateru looks skyward while moving closer to the pitiful unnoticed form, as if seeking help from the gods to find his way. "Waaaah!" he yells in surprise as he nearly steps on Jamona, and instead trips over her.
"Oh... s-sorry," Jamona mumbles at the ground. After almost falling onto the ground, Rhateru regains his balance and rises to a shaky stand. He turns around and stares wide-eyed at Jamona with his mouth open. Jamona doesn't move or perform any other sort of action, hoping that the creature would be either satisfied with the apology or too scared to approach a talking corpse.
Rhateru soon recovers enough from his speechlessness to say waveringly, "Yeeou don' look so good, missus." Jamona takes a while to realize she is being addressed, then another while to figure out what was said at her. Taking on a concerned expression, Rhateru crouches at Jamona's side and waits patiently for her response. Not quite understanding why a stranger would make such an accusation, she tries to argue, "oh? But I just took a bath..." Realizing that the bath was in hot tar, her voice trails off at the end, and instead she seems to come to a realization and says: "Uh, no, I'm good, no need for alarm."
Craning his neck, he squints in an attempt to see her face. "Ah don' think it was a real good bath, missus. ...Sorry Ah tripped on yeeou. Ah didn' even see ya thar!" Wondering if she's even awake, Jamona tries to open her eyes despite them already being open. Failing to exit the dream this way, she decides to deal with it some longer. Unable to lift her head, she turns it towards Rhateru, grinding her face against the ground. She stares at the ground in front of Rhateru for a while, trying to think of a response.
Rhateru studies Jamona's face. Deciding that she appears to need help, he gives her little chance to respond and instead moves onto more necessary matters in a kind, saddened tone: "Do yeeou need food an' water, missus?" Jamona attempts a smile, almost laughs and says: "Oh... no, you needn't worry about it. Frankly, I am already dead. The dead don't need food." She attempts to straighten her body to look less like she had fallen from exhaust and more like she was peacefully slumbering, but finds that she is too weak to move her body enough to do that, and gives up.
"Theeis ain' the Death Realm," Rhateru responds, "We're righ' near Hydlaa, or Ah sure hope so." He stands up and, scratching his head as he thinks about what to do, reveals a visage suggesting that he's beginning to take the current situation more seriously than his usual demeanor would indicate.
Jamona hesitates. She'd already given up. She'd thought she'd never make it. Surely she is not in a fit state to achieve her goal. And clearly, she can't take anyone's help either. Slowly, she begins speaking: "...what I mean is, I'm hopeless. I have no tria, no life, nothing worth fighting for. If you truly aim to help, get me one of those potions that will allow me to pass into true death." As she speaks this, her voice sounds frightened and sad.
Rhateru's eyes grow wide again. He becomes uncertain. Swiftly, seeming to be struggling to think clearly while paying little attention to his current actions, he rips a clump of grass from the ground with some effort. Taking hold of the back of her head with one hand, he attempts to push the grass into her mouth with the other. "A-Ah'll git yeeou somethin' ta eat, missus, an' then we kin figger out tria an' fightin' an' hope."
Jamona closes her eyes and starts chewing on the grass, greedily absorbing the little liquid it contains. She keeps on chewing, and after swallowing the bitter greens, she says: "Fool. Seeking to aid the hopeless will only waste away your own sanity. If there's any reason in your actions, you will flee, and leave me to rot." - "Ah'd rather be a fool," Rhateru replies in a moment of determination amidst his worry and fear.
Bent over in a patch of grass, he hurriedly parts the blades with dirty fingers. He manages to find an insect, which he grasps in a fist along with a few more greens, and then tries again to force-feed to Jamona in the same manner. Obviously hungry, Jamona does not resist and takes the strange meal. Some of the insect's internals squirt out of her mouth as her teeth penetrate its shell, and crunching sounds follow. In a failing effort to make out the stranger's features, she manages to lift her head a bit, before it falls back down to the ground. After swallowing, she says "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."
The Dermorian finds some relief in Jamona's compliance, and ignores her words. From his pants pocket, he pulls out what appears to be a butter knife, engraved with "Rhat," along with a few tria and a shiny blue stone. They fall to the ground beside the two. "Use theeis if anyone tries ta hurt ya. Ah'm gonna go git help." A moment after tearing up some more grass and leaving it beside Jamona's face, he runs away along the road in what luckily happens to be the way toward Hydlaa.
[Okay.... so I guess now it's not a single author story anymore... huh, this is awkward...!
...thanks to Rhat :>]
