"Wait!" She Lunges Forward To Grab His Arm. "Look, I Really Appreciateeverythingyou've Done For Me So

"Wait!" she lunges forward to grab his arm. "Look, I really appreciate everything you've done for me so far. I'd pretty much forgotten what personal interaction was, and you helped remind me." She pulls him into a soft hug. "I'm sorry for making things awkward for you. I like you to, but I don't know how much. I really do want to be good friends with you, I'm tired of being alone."

She takes a reluctant step back from the embrace, still holding one of his hands "You haven't bothered me. Despite everything, today's been the best day in a very long time. I can't thank you enough. If anyone should be sorry for anything today, it's me."

She smiles to him, subconsciously leaning in just a bit "Really, I don't think I'll mind staying here while I heal. As long as you let me help out to make up for all this hospitality."

Soaring Skyward

"I'll be fine, we're almost to the bottom, really." She looks to him and sees she's not winning this argument either, so hands over the bag with several days worth of supplies.

"Don't you hurt yourself either. I already feel bad enough about this."

Soaring Skyward

As soon as Rider steps into the hall he bumps into Gale, sending both crashing to the floor in a tangle of limbs. "Oh crap, I'm sorry! I was just coming to check on you, you were in there a long time. I was kind of worried since you did strain yourself catching me."

She quickly gets to her feet and helps him up. "I also wanted to thank you. I couldn't have gone as high as I did today without knowing you were there to catch me." She has a hard time looking him in the eye, cheeks still a bit flushed.

"Anyway, need any help making dinner? I don't want to completely mooch off you." Her stomach growls just a tiny bit and her blush gets even more intense "Guess I am hungry after all."

Soaring Skyward

"You're the first person to call me beautiful since before my curse..." she hugs her legs to her chest. "I've had to abandon everything so many times because of it..." a tear rolls down her cheek.

"Yeah, some of them I manage to keep in contact with through letters, but it's just not the same. I couldn't risk facing them. I guess that's the true burden of it... I could probably never stay with someone for long. Even someone as sweet as you."

Soaring Skyward

"Wow, that's impressive. I hear a lot about how tough military life is." she shudders a bit "Makes me sore just thinking about it. And no, that's not my back complaining at me." She laughs a little and looks around.

"I guess I do have one other thing I can tell you... I'm cursed. Happened years ago." her head falls a bit "Nothing I've found can break it, it's just too strong. Best I've managed to do is learn how to keep it contained." The corners of her eyes tear up a bit. "But it's still there, I can feel it. What it does to me... it's horrible..."

Soaring Skyward

Gale shivers and rubs her shoulders "That's worse itching than my first molt..." at that point she sees just the scale of this place. "Wow, this place is huge. Where are we? If we're near the city I'm sure I would have spotted it before from the air."

She gawks at everything, forgetting the disorienting teleportation.

Soaring Skyward