Cauldron, Part 21
9/19/08
---
Tillandor replies to Kristof, "Do you imagine it might lead us toward the children?"
Kristof shrugs, "Only one way to find out."
Kristof peeks through the door.
Jiona keeps her hands to the stone corner to the southeastern corner of the trap, the stone shifting and and compacting under her will, starting to clear a passage.
Tillandor cups his hands around his mouth and calls down the corridor, "Is anyone there?"
Calico gives Jiona space to work.
DM is now In-Character. (IC)
Ethkin explores the North-West corridor.
The hallway is silent, a lone voice calls out, "Who's there?"
* The stone shifts, but is still barring passage.
Tass figures that the Gnome does not have much in the way of valubles and passes him, emerging out of the darkness, strolling affter Ethkin in his explorations.
Calico also follows Ethkin, the passage she was exploring being blocked.
* Kristof rolls 1f20+10: -10,10 = 0.
Tass says, "I think there might be a trap ahead." to Calico and Ethkin.\
Tillandor watches Jiona work.
Calico freezes in her tracks.
Ethkin tries to peer ahead...
Calico carefully eyes all in view from her current position.
Calico asks, "what kinf of trap do you suspect?"
Kristof cries out in pain, albeit somehow seemingly a further distance away.
Tass solwly walks down the hall.
Calico dashes towards Kristof.
Tillandor's whips toward the sound, then back to Jiona.
- head
The third man rushes over to where Kristof cried out.
Jiona stops in her work at the sound, her ears flicking back, and she gives Tillandor a startled look. Seeing that he heard it too, she abandons this project and starts running around the corner to see what has happened.
Ethkin stops and turns, "Kris?!?"
Tillandor follows.
Tass is pulled out of his concentration on the trap in front of him to look into the darkness where the crys were eminating from.
Kristof grunts and seethes in pain.
* For those peering into the room Kristof entered... there is a deep pit, hard to see down in the dark. You think you see a glint of metal down there.
Tass runs to the aid.
Calico dashes close to Kristof.
Kristof shouts, "Get me out of here!"
Calico asks, "Someone have a rope?"
Jiona carefully kneels down at the pit and peers below, trying to see further. "How far down are you?" she calls.
Tass exclaims, "I have rope to reple down if need be!"
Kristof looks up slowly, focusing on the dim light above. "I don't know... maybe 20.. 30 feet?"
Calico says, "No, I think lowering the rope so we can pull him up."
Kristof grimaces. "I don't know that I can pull myself up. I have something in my leg..."
Ethkin wanders over to the throng...
Calico says, "hand me an end of the rope."
Tass hands 50 ft of silk rope to Calico.
Calico ties one end around her, "Now someone take the other end and help me down."
Jiona considers several options, and volunteers, "I can anchor one end in the ground, if that would help." She doesn't look away from the pit right away, though, and her ears are flattened against her head.
Calico looks around for someone to hold the rope and help control her descent.
Calico hands the rope to Jiona, "I'm not climbing down there unassisted."
Jiona takes the free end, makes a foot-deep divot in the stone about five feet away from the pit, drops the rope end all the way down, and seals it back up. "There, anchored."
Kristof groans, "Oh my leg...."
Tass Holds the slack, to ease the decent.
Calico begins a careful climb down, secured by the rope.
Ethkin sees that everyone has Kristof's rescue in hand, and goes back to see what he can 'see' of the trap Tass mentioned...
Calico pauses just short of the bottom, and looks for space to set down.
Kristof grumbles, "Whatever is this direction must be important for them to put an illusion, secret door and a trap in the way..."
Tillandor says, "Perhaps, perhaps."
Ethkin's keen ears pick up Kristof's grumblings, "Aye, they were hiding the way out from escapees."
Calico slips between the spikes, and with her footing firm looks at freeing Kristof.
- In the darkness, Tass's face lights up at the prospects of finding something... valuble down the way.
The entourage just stands and gapes at Kristof's situation, as well as Jiona's blatant use of magic.
Tass grunts, " I am going to need help hauling these two up."
Tillandor cracks his knuckles. "Not to worry, I'm here."
* Calico rolls 1f20+dex: 17,5 = 22.
Kristof gasps, "Its... the thing went through my leg..."
Tillandor grabs the rope and lends his inconsiderable strength to the task.
Calico says, "Not quite yet."
Calico prepares to quickly stop bleeding when she pulls the leg free.
Kristof grits his teeth.
Tass gives Till an incredulus look. "Jiona, can you help as well?"
Calico pulls off a sash to use as a bandage, then attempts to lift Kristof's leg.
Jiona is too focused on what she sees to notice the crowd's reaction to her abilities, still looking worried. Nodding to Tass, she replies tersely, "Yes, I'll help, but Calico has to deal with that spike first."
* Calico rolls 1f20-1: 2,-1 = 1.
Calico catches her breath and tries again.
* Calico rolls 1f20-1: 17,-1 = 16.
Tass nods, and stands at the ready until he is signaled to haul.
Calico pulls the leg free, swings it down clear of the spike, and quickly bandages it.
Kristof groans in pain as the leg tears free.
Calico unties the rope and secures it around Kristof, "Ok, give it a heave."
Tass exclaims, "On the count of three every one!"
Kristof clutches Calico with both hands.
Tass exclaims, "One... two... Three!"
Tass hauls on the rope.
Calico finding herself clutched, hangs on tight.
Kristof lets go of Calico just before the count.
Tillandor pulls with all his might.
Jiona holds onto the rope and pulls, but her eyes narrow in a somewhat familiar look of concentration.
The says, "Anyone hauling, roll a Str check."
* Tillandor rolls 1f20+1: 3,1 = 4.
* Tass rolls 1d20+3: 3,3 = 6.
* Jiona rolls 1f20+2: 7,2 = 9.
* Kristof feels a light tug on the rope.
Calico says, "Kristof, let me go second."
Tass exclaims, "Ok, again!"
Kristof nods.
* Tillandor rolls 1f20+1: 3,1 = 4.
Jiona braces herself better, and tugs again, still concentrating.
Tass exclaims, "one...two... THREE!"
* Jiona rolls 1f20+2: 19,2 = 21.
* Tass rolls 1d20+3: 1,3 = 4.
* Tass rolls 1d20+4: 5,4 = 9.
Ethkin thinks it's because some of you are pulling _on_ 'three', and others just after...
* The three pull with all their might. Tass stumbles, but manages to catch himself. Jiona manages to pull Kristof up to the ledge while Tillandor tugs with his wispy limbs.
Kristof catches onto the ledge with his hands and attempts to drag himself over the edge with everyone's help.
Tass tugs again to see if he can help get kristoff over the ledge.
* With another tug, Kristof is up over the ledge, on the floor in great pain.
Kristof rolls over, groaning for a moment, then starts fumbling with the knots in the rope.
Tass unties him, and throws the rope back down for calico
Calico secures the rope around herself and braces for the ascent.
Tass attempts to pull Calico up himself.
* Tass rolls 1d20+3: 19,3 = 22.
* With Tass's help, Calico scampers up the side of the ledge easily.
Kristof puts himself upright, still panting slightly from his ordeal.
Kristof winces gingerly as he extends his leg.
Calico reaches into her pack for a vial, "Now, do we use this on you now, or save it for later?"
Kristof looks at Calico, wondering what exactly she means.
Tass starts rolling up his rope to put away, finding it lodged in a wall.
Jiona is already moving over to the anchor point as Tas starts coiling the rope. Pressing a hand to the wall, the rope-end is quickly freed.
Calico says, "A healing potion. I'm out of my own magic."
Tass was upset by prospect of cuting his precious rope, ( he paid good gold for it!) but is soothed when Jiona removes it for him.
Tass goes back to the trap he was working on before, not wanting to get in the healers ways.
Calico examines the new wound, and hands the healing potion to Kristof, "I'm thinking you'll need this before long."
Tass meets up with Ethkin.
Jiona grins to Tass. "You just moved a little too fast. Anything I can trap, I can release," she assures him. With that taken care of, she moves back over to Kristof, and grimaces at the injury. "It's important to get out of here quickly, but I think a little more care would be a good idea," she comments, if rather needlessly.
Ethkin turns to Tass as he approaches, "I fixed it... well, broke it really."
Kristof grimaces. "A momentary lapse I assure you which I will not care to repeat."
Kristof takes the healing potion from Calico and gulps it down.
Calico says, "next time you want to explore out front, don't."
Kristof frowns.
Calico gazes across the pit trap, pondering how to safely cross.
Jiona looks curiously at Calico. "I don't think quite *that* much caution is warranted." To Kristof and the others in general, she says, "I think there was still someone down that last corridor of cells."
Calico says, "a direction I hope we don't have to go."
Calico again follows Ethkin.
Tillandor nods. "There was, certainly. Any chance you can get through that block, Jiona?"
Jiona gives Calico another frown - aren't they supposed to be rescuting people? - then shrugs as the cat wanders off. Nodding to Tillandor, she says, "I was almost through. Let's go back."
Tillandor follows, glancing back at the others as he goes.
The entourage mills about for a moment, but then most of it follows Tass and co. Deven and Coryston follow Tillandor and Jiona.
Jiona moves with some haste, not wanting to be down here long enough to attract additional attention, and immediately starts carving out the last few feet of stone.
Tass says, "Look out Calico, we are double checking to see if Ethkin disarmed this trap."
Tass says, "He thinks it's another falling stone."
Calico says, "Was going to ask about that."
Professor Drundlesput raises a gnomely eyebrow, "Another trap?"
Tass says, "Yeah, in the celling."
Calico looks for the signs that tipped her off to the other trap.
Calico asks, "Yup, another deadfall. Perhaps some stops to hold it up?"
Calico edges up just short of the trap.
Tass broods, analizing."Ok, I know a way to test this but I am going to need a pole arm and ALOT of space. Everyone back."
Ethkin says, "Like I told Tass," he grins, "I fixed it, or rather, I broke it."
Tass shouts to the room, "Anyone got a pole arm? And Ethkin, I'd rather not risk it."
Ethkin shrugs and moves back, sighing, "No one ever trusts the blind man."
Tass says, "Unless you want to walk through. Go ahead, be my guest."
Tillandor watches Jiona work. "If only we'd know the trap was here, you might have averted it with a well-placed bit of stone."
Calico backs off as bit.
Tass says, "Make sure to step on the pressure stone while you are at it." snidly.
- snidely
Deven, right next to Tass, offers the spear in his hand, "There were a bunch in the other room."
Tass says, "Thanks." and takes the spear, but waits to see if Ethkin falls for his goad.
Tass says, "Back more Calico."
Jiona nods to Tillandor as she continues compressing stone as quickly as she can manage. "Disabling that sort of thing isn't too hard for me, but I don't really have much practice noticing them."
Ethkin shrugs and 'boldly' shuffles forward...
Calico backs some more.
* As Ethkin steps on the plate, it clicks downward and stony thud sounds from above. But nothing appears to happen.
* Kristof rolls 2d8+3: 2,8,3 = 13.
Calico approaches the trap and peers around the corner.
Tass atempts not to be even a little dismayed that Ethkin did not, in fact get squished proving him wrong, but goes ahead to check for more traps.
Calico says, "We got more cells this way."
* This corridor stretches for nearly a hundred feet, ending at a blank wall. In the east and west walls are several six-foot-tall, two-foot-wide iron doors kept locked by iron bars. The iron doors are typical except for the six-inch-wide, three-inch-tall windows set into them at eye level.
Tass he keeps the pole arm, however.
Deven looks crestfallen.
Calico gingerly steps across, avoiding the pressure plate.
Ethkin scans for life in the cells.
* Jiona finally carves through the wall to the other side.
Tass pokes a nose in the iorn window to check for life in the first cell.
- to the right.
Calico also checks cells for life.
Tass moves to the next, shaking his head.
Jiona moves into the southern hall, and calls again. "Anyone down here?"
* As Jiona moves down the hallway, she hears muffled whimpering and a voice say, "Hello? Who is that?"
Tass disapointed that the cells are empty, Tass follows the sound of Jiona's voice back.
Kristof gets up gingerly and tests the weight on his leg.
Calico also turns towards the south cellblock.
Kristof noticing everyone having departed, goes searching for the rest of the group.
Jiona calls back, "We're rescuing prisoners," using the sound of the voice to identify which cell it's coming from. "Stand back, and we'll try to get you out of there."
Kristof hearing Jiona's voice, heads towards her.
Tass enters the hole Jiona made.
Kristof waits for Tass to go through, then follows.
Tass comes out and looks to see what the sitch is.
Tass asks, "Need some help with those Jiona?"
Calico leads Ethkin to the hole.
Tillandor shuffles among his robes, and comes out with a keyring.
A soft voice inside the cell says, "Okay..."
Another voice comes from the cell next to it, "Hello? Help, it's dark in here."
Jiona steps back, and makes a very clear 'after you' gesture to Tillandor.
Tillandor steps forward, and tries each key in turn until one fits.
A third voice comes from down the hall, this one only a horrid whimper.
Ethkin deftly slips through the tunnel.
DM says, "Err... horrified"
Calico easily slips through the hole to join the group.
Tillandor swings back the door, and moves on to the next cell.
* The cell door swings open, a small girl stumbles out in dirty rags.
Ethkin scans the cells.
Calico gives the girl a quick look over.
DM BLINKS.
DM says, "Hold a sec..."
Tass notes that the girl is in desperate need of a bath and a change of clothes, and it shows in the disgust on his face.
DM returns, "Ahkay. Resume."
Tass crosses to the next cell and looks in.
* The little girl clings to Jiona, without a word.
* Just as Tass goes to look in, Tillandor manages to get the door open...
Jiona kneels down a little, giving the girl a reassuring smile. "We're here to take you home," she tells her. If the smell or looks bother her at all, she gives no sign of it. Her smile widens as the girl clings to her, and she gives the child a quick hug.
Tillandor tugs the door open, and moves down to cell from whence came the horrid horrified whimper.
* A stumpy little dwarven boy sits on a slab in the cell. He looks up and smiles gruffly around his peachfuzz beard, "Glad to see ya." He gets up and walks out into the hall, looking a bit weak.
Ethkin tries to block the yet again resurfacing childhood memories the whimpering invokes.
Tass goes quickly to the next ocupyed cell, not giving the boy a second look. He seems to be looking for something.
Calico gives the children a look over.
Tillandor says through the grate in the door, "Fear not, we've come to take you home."
Tass pushes infrot of Till to look in the next cell first.
Tillandor grumps, re-seats the key in the lock, and turns.
Ethkin scans the room that Till is looking in, hoping he's not correct about the state of the occupant.
Tass as soon as Till opens the door, Tass rushes over to a figure culed on the floor, and with a quiver in his voice, whispers, "Mother?"
* Tillandor opens the door, despite Tass being in the way. The woman curled up in the corner does not budge, nor does she react
Kristof looks on anxiously from behind.
Tass starts stroking the figure, trying to get a better look at her face.
Calico, not seeing anyone walk out of the cell, dashes over for a look.
Tillandor steps back to clear the doorway and moves down the hall, glancing into each room.
Tass says, "Are you alright, Mama? It's me, Tass. Don't be scared, please don't be scared of me."
Calico steps in and looks at the occupant.
- Having checked each other cell, Tillandor returns to Jiona's side.
Tass looks pleadingly at Calico. "Help me, my mother's hurt. I think she's mostly starved, and I can't get her to calm down."
Jiona watches Tass dart into the cell with some surprise; while she can't see what's going on, she can still hear, and doesn't follow. She looks up at Tillandor with a smile, and gestures to the girl. "I seem to have gained a passenger," she says softly.
Calico eases in besides Tass, and looks over the older woman, providing what care she can.
Ethkin curses quietly, knowing somehow that he's all out of juice, much as he'd love to help this beaten and nearly starved woman.
* Calico rolls 1f20+6: 13,6 = 19.
The dwarven boy walks up to Kristof and stands there, staring.
Tillandor chuckles and ruffles the girls hair, then glances toward the other cell with a serious look.
Tass begins singing a local tune, a lulaby. A tear comes to his eye as he cradles the broken woman.
Kristof smiles and reaches into his pack, then pulls out some rations and extends them to the dwarven boy saying, "Here, I bet your hungry."
Calico pulls out a water skin and some rations for the woman.
The boy grins a toothy grin and walks over to take the rations.
Calico returns to the hall, "Any acute healing needs?"
The woman shudders, her eyes distant.
Tass starts trying to gently work the rats nests out of her hair, still singing with a quiver in his voice.
Jiona listens in, also worried about what she hears from Tass, and asks Calico quietly, "Is she hurt at all?", meaning Tass's mother.
Tass is to focused on the woman to hear Jiona's question.
The woman quiets a bit, her eyes still distant. After a short while, she falls fast asleep.
Calico says, "She needs food and water. And family."
Jiona looks slightly relieved, "We can provide all of those. But... we still need to get out of here. Did you find any other prisoners?"
Calico yawns, "Shall we setting in for a night?"
Ethkin turns his head in Tass's general direction. Having no eyes to learn such things with, Ethkin has never learned to acquire a 'poker face'. Thus a look of supreme envy fills his now.
Ethkin's expression is mixed with great pity and simpathy as well.
- sympathy
Tass gently cradles the woman in his arms and takes her out of the filthy cell, into the hallway. He lays her down gently, and near a wall, makes his bed roll and lies her in it.
Calico sits against a wall and begins purring.
The woman's sleep, at first fitful, calms quite a bit once she is in the bedding.
Jiona looks at the other members of the party, then observes, "...I suppose we are resting here. If so, I should at least make this place safe first."
Tillandor says, "So it appears."
Ethkin shuffles off up the hall...
* Ethkin slips out through Jiona's tunnel.
Jiona begins heading north to do so, but frowns as Ethkin slips out through the tunnel. "Um. I wonder where he's off to," she says to no one in particular.
Tass sits with his cloak wrapped around him and the head of the bed roll, watching his mother sleep. He strokes her hair,not sure if it is to sooth her or him.
Calico's purring assumes a complex but almost hypnotic rythm.
Kristof gets out his bed roll, then suggests, "This still isn't a safe place. We should setup watch shifts."
Jiona turns back, and tells Kristof, "I can seal off this corridor easily enough, but Ethkin left."
The first man taps the butt of his spear against the floor, "I'll take a watch."
Kristof sighs and goes off in search of the wayward monk.
Kristof calls out over his shoulder, "I'll be right back."
Deven says, "I'm alright taking a watch too."
Kristof calls out, "Ethkin?"
The young dwarf follows after Kristof.
Jiona settles down to wait for Kristof and Ethkin, trying to find a cleaner space down this hall to rest on. When she finds a suitable spot, she asks the girl softly, "What's your name, dear?"
Ethkin hears, but does not reply.
Kristof looks around and sighs.
The little girl sits closely next to Jiona, "Evie. What's yours?"
Kristof walks back the way they came all the way back to the room with the cards.
Jiona smiles warmly, and replies, "That's a nice name. I'm Jiona." She looks up as Kristof returns alone, and waits expectantly.
The girl leans on Jiona quietly, "I like your tail. It's big."
The says, "Kristof has not yet returned, by the way. It's only been a few minutes, though."
Kristof holds up a hand with a single index finger in front of his mouth indicating silence.
- In the intervening time, then, Jiona giggles softly, and brings her tail around to brush Evie with it. "Warm, too," she replies.
Tillandor chuckles, watching.
Evie flops into the tail, wrapping her arms around it. She giggles into it.
Jiona looks considerably more relaxed than she has for a while down here, with the constant threat of danger and time always against them. She plays for a little while with Evie and her tail, then asks, "Are you hungry or thirsty at all?"
Evie lifts her face out of Jiona's tail and frowns, nodding.
Ethkin, in his hidden corner, dreams of tunnels as he now preceves them, twisting back on themselves, as he is hounded by the sound of childrens' sobs, and is unsure if they are following him, or if he's trying to find them to comfort him...
- comfort them
Kristof whispers harshly, "Ethkin?"
Kristof moves towards the monk, grabbing his shoulder and giving it a light shake.
Ethkin (ooc) "Hang in a minit..."
* Tass's mother sleeps deeply, and seemingly more comfortably than she has in some time.
Jiona gives Evie a smile, digging into her backpack for a minute, and pulls out her waterskin and one of her packs of rations, offering them to Evie. "I have extra, so have as much as you want. Just don't overdo it - you don't want to make yourself sick." She grins thoughtfully, and says, "Maybe there's something else I can do for you, too. Would you like me to try a trick?"
Evie nibbles on rations gingerly and sips the water. "What kind of trick?" She suddenly looks a bit nervous.
* Kristof rolls 1f20+10: 11,10 = 21.
Jiona smiles reassuringly. "Nothing bad, I promise. I thought you might like to be cleaned up a little. We can't actually have a bath down here, but there's still something I might be able to do."
Evie still looks a little dubious. She thinks a little, holds out a dirty little doll she had in a pocket, "Show me?"
Ethkin sleeps the slumber of the deeply hurt. Lost in his nightmare, he does not sense Kristof until hie touches his shoulder. With the reflexes that made him a wonder at his Monastery, he has Kris's hand off his shoulder, is on his feet and has thrown a punch that could have stunned a yak. Only Kris's own reflexes saves him.
Calico continues to purr like a very relaxed kitty.
Kristof dances back from the crazy monk and says, "Ethkin what are you doing!"
Jiona grins warmly, and nods her head. "Sure," she replies, and reaches out a hand to delicately touch the doll. Her face briefly shifts into that expression of concentration as she releases some of her power for something that's never occurred to her before now.
Ethkin is now full of adrenaline, yet still exausted. It takes him a moment to 'turn on' his new eyes and see that it was only Kris.
Ethkin asks, "Oh! Wha? Kris? Where are we?"
Kristof asks, "What the... what happened to you?"
Kristof asks, "We are in Kazmojen's stronghold remember?"
Ethkin says, "I was just laying down for a moment."
Kristof says, "We are going to close up the gap between the stone so we can rest safely for the night."
Tass falls slowly falls into a fretfull sleep. He mutters occationaly, and if anyone bothers to listen, he is apologizing about stealing cookies, and how he knew they were for guests but he'll put them back and mommy will come back, right?
Ethkin blinks unseeing eyes, "OH! Right..."
Kristof says, "Come along, everyone is waiting for you."
Tillandor sits up alertly. "I hear combat."
Calico ceases purring and stands with a jerk, "Fighting in the distance."
Kristof offers a hand to Ethkin to act as a guide back.
Ethkin tiredly rubs his face, "Awrite, alripht... Let's go." He shuffles after Kris back to the other hall.
Calico dashes trough the hole to hear better.
Ethkin takes the hand greatfully, and turns off his eyes, too tired to keep it up right now...
Tass muttering in a small voice, "no, I can make it ok....HUh, *snork* What's going on?" He wakes up and says sleepely.
Kristof guides Ethkin back to the rest of the group, looking slightly perturbed.
Tass the redness under his eyes is no longer just because of the khol he wears.
Calico grins, "we may have fewer goblins tol fight through if we wait a bit. I think they're turning on each other."
- Before the others return, as Jiona concentrates on the doll, bits and pieces of dirt lift off the surface and drift down to the ground in a fine dust, leaving the doll cleaner, if not with the same results as a full washing would provide.
Kristof overhears Calico as he walks back and smiles. "Indeed, it appears some of the favorite 'pets' of Kazmojen are out of control and fighting the goblins."
Ethkin crawls into fetal position in the corner near Jiona's 'door', and hopes he'll sleep better now.
Kristof says, "I would suggest that whatever we do, we do it quickly."
Evie watches in total amazement.
Kristof moves through the opening and nods to Jiona.
Tass asks, "Oh, huh, ok, that's good... Wait, how will we keep them out?"
Ethkin also hopes that a good night sleep will help him be his usual jocular quirky "Are you sure he's a Monk?" self again tomorrow.
Jiona looks up as Kristof finally returns with Ethkin, and decides now is not the time to ask. She smiles to Evie, and tells the girl, "I have to make us safe. Give me a few minutes, okay?" She then stands up, and makes sure she's okay with that, and her food and water, before actually heading back north.
Calico is the last through, and resumes meditating, seated against a wall.
Evie follows Jiona.
The remaining 10 ex-prisoners all find places to sleep in the hall. Not a one tries using one of the slabs in the cells.
Tillandor props his head on his backpack, and settles in.
Jiona giggles softly, but doesn't protest Evie's desire to follow her. Moving up to the corridor, it takes her several minutes to reseal the corner she carved out, and she adds a few more feet of stone to brace the trap in its closed position.
Tass blearly watches her, still confudled.
Calico's rythmic purring is almost like a lullaby to tired travelers.
Kristof goes back to his bedroll, arranged everything neatly and easily within reach, then falls asleep.
Jiona eventually finishes sealing the wall, and settles down somewhat near Tillandor, pulling out her cloak as a thin blanket, and settles down to rest herself, at long last.
Tass quickly falls back to sleep, seeing that he and his mother are indeed safe for now.
Evie curls up next to Jiona, using her tail as a pillow if possible.
DM pulls the parking brake.