[SM] Her element

Neo was running downstairs with a big grin and almost run into someone along the way-- "Rubi! Come along!" He said then continued running, only stopping by the wardrobe to get warmer clothes.

Rubi was slightly confused but also curious about what might be behind his big grin and decided to follow him. She, too, got warmer clothes and finally asked: "Is there a reason we go outside?"

"Uh-uh! There is!" Neo said and with a coat and boots on, he ran towards the doors, pulling them open and letting a gust of chilly, dry air inside. The sun was brightly shining and only a few white clouds were scattered on the sky. "It's not far," he said and leaped out.  

Having put on the coat and boots, Rubi followed Neo outside, closing the door behind her. "The weather is so nice," she mumbled as she looked up at the sky.

"I know right?" Neo laughed and briskly walked along the house, then made a turn for the backyard and headed straight over it to enter the forest. He almost slipped on some frozen puddles along the way.

Rubi was fascinated by the frozen puddles since she didn't get to see many until now. "Watch out, Neo!" she called as Neo almost slipped on one of them.
As they entered the forest, Rubi was more confused as she still didn't know what Neo wanted to show her.

As they walked a sound of flowing water could be heard and they soon came out by a small bridge leading over a river. Neo walked over it and headed into the forest again.

It was the first time Rubi has reached this area. "Neo, where exactly are we going?" she asked, still following him.

Neo passed through a bunch of smaller fir trees and behind them was a big, wide space of frozen water. It was merely a deep puddle frozen solid. Under the frozen surface you could clearly see moss, some frozen mushrooms and cranberry shrubs. "Here!" he said with a grin and stepped on the ice, sliding over it before he he slipped and caught on one of the small fir trees to keep balance.  

Rubi's eyes sparkled, totally excited. "A giant frozen puddle!" She stepped on the ice, trying to keep balance. But it was harder than it seemed and the next step she took, made her slip and fall to her knees. It hurt a bit but as soon she got to see everything that was beneath the ice the pain faded. "So beautiful!"

Neo choose to slide on his stomach instead of walking to get close to her and looked at the place as well. "It is, right?" he grinned brightly.

Rubi looked up and laughed, seeing Neo sliding on his stomach. "You really are great when it comes to finding places!" She smiled brightly and tried to stand up but failed miserably,  this time falling on her butt.

"Uh-uh, I'm a lucky dog," Neo said with a grin and slid over the ice to look at other things hidden under it.

"You really are," Rubi said and tried one more time to stand up, very slow but she could keep her balance. She slid over the ice, slow and safe, while looking down.

Neo got till one of the fir trees and got up there, then stepped back off the puddle. Then ran back a bit and jumped on the ice - sliding right over it, he lost his balance at the end though and barely remained standing by grabbing onto a tree trunk. "This is fun!" he laughed.  

Rubi looked up and watched Neo having fun. She stepped off the ice and took a few steps back, sprinted the few meters and jumped on the ice - on her stomach - and slid over the ice, reaching the other side of the puddle. "So much fun!"

Rubi looked up and watched Neo having fun. She stepped off the ice and took a few steps back, sprinted the few meters and jumped on the ice - on her stomach - and slid over the ice, reaching the other side of the puddle. "So much fun!"

"OH! That's a good one!" Neo said and stepped off, then jumped on the ice the same way she did - sliding all over it on his stomach, then rolled around and started laughing looking up at the pure blue sky.

Rubi rolled around. "I wonder if it's going to snow soon," she said, eyes sparkling.

"When it clouds over--" Neo said. "Though for now it's great to just have sun, too much clouds lately--"

"Hehe, you're right. The weather wasn't so great the last few days ago," she giggled. "The snow can wait for now."

A fuzzy cloud passed and sun shone right at the them - making the ice around them sparkle. "It's so bright--" he said and put his hands on his eyes, only peeking from in-between his fingers.  

Rubi looked down on the ice. "It's almost blinding..." she said and looked up again, for it was too much for her eyes. Still the scenery was quite beautiful in her mind.

"It is!" Neo said and laughed and another cloud passed, hiding the sun for a little bit. He scrambled to get to another spot, where things don't sparkle as much even with sun out. He blew his breath on his fingers. "Want to head back? A cup of hot chocolate would do me good right now. Have you met the new chef already?"

"Ehh?! We have a new chef?" Rubi asked to make sure she heard right. "Hot chocolate sounds nice, and it's a good way to meet the new chef-- so yes!" She nodded.

Neo smiled. "She's a super nice person!" She scrambled to get off the ice and on his legs. "Want to race till house?"

"Hehe, can't wait to meet her!" she smiled and walked away from the ice. By hearing his offer, she nodded. "Sounds like fun."

"One, set, GO!" Starts running, but being fast doesn't help him much, when he's stumbling on every fifth step or so.

After the signal, Rubi dashed off. She was surprised that she was ahead since she was only ordinarily fast, so she looked back and saw him stumble quite often. "Try not to fall, Neo!" she shouted.

"Kay~" Neo said, but still fell a couple of times before reaching the house a fair while after her. They had gotten back fast, even if Neo totally lost the race.

Rubi panted but still managed to laugh somehow-- she really had to do something about her stamina. "Hehe, I won!"

"Uh-huh, you did!" Neo rubbed his nose and brushed the dirt off his clothes. He didn't seem to be out of breath at all, running around all the time did something to stamina. His eyes lit up then. "I have something I need to try-- it might be boring for you, though," Neo said and started walking towards the entrance.  

Rubi tilted her head. What was he about to do? She stood there and simply watched.

"See you later!" Neo waved to her, since she wasn't following.

Rasa had been sleeping on a windowsill again, but the weather outside was just too nice to not head out and stretch legs. She went to get a coat and boots and on her way there she stumbled into Rubi. "Yo--"

Rubi turned to the source of the voice and noticed the blue haired girl immediately. "Hey!" She greeted with a smile. It was a rare sight to see her awake.
"What are you doing?"

"I plan to go for a walk," Rasa said and put a coat around her shoulders. "Want to come along?"

Rubi glanced out of the window, nodded and took a coat out of the wardrobe. "Seems like the weather is on our side today!" She grinned and walked towards the door and held it open for Rasa.

Rasa went out and sneezed at the bright sunlight. She liked it, though, and nodded at Rubi's comment, then waited for Rubi to come out as well, so they could start the walk.

Rubi went out and closed the door. "Alright... let's go?"

Rasa nodded as well and went to the road to continue walking in the same direction they had on the day when they stopped during the mist. It did interest her, where the road lead to. On one side it went to Degate, but where it lead on the other side, she hadn't discovered yet.

"That's the road we once took," Rubi said as she remembered the road. The reason they stopped was because of the movements in the mist they saw that day. So the movements in the mist were just lost priests and cumimis...? she thought while looking sideways.

"Yeah," Rasa said and walked sideways as well, where the mist had been, now it was merely a beautiful forest with sun shining in through the gaps. For a longer while after that the scenery didn't change much - they passed a low bridge to cross a river and continued walking - the forest didn't end.

"I wonder if there's actually anything ahead of this road," Rubi said, her gaze focused on the trees.

"There must be something out there," Rasa said and after a while they came to crossroads. The sign that meant to explain where each road went was broken off and gone. "That's something--"

"What should we do now? Splitting up might be convenient but we don't know what's ahead..." she thought loud, thinking of various possibilities what the roads could lead to -such as cities, sea and forests.

"We better stay together," Rasa said. "We can always come back and go on another road later on."

Rubi nodded in agreement and looked at the different roads. "Which one should we take first?"

Rasa stared at them with eyes squinted, she couldn't seem to decide. "Whatever-- let's try right, left is probably going to the sea."

Rubi nodded and headed towards the road on the right side. "If there are signs of danger, we'll turn back immediately..."

"Yep," Rasa agreed. There wasn't any need to risk their necks and as she followed down the road, she kept her eyes open. What awaited them ahead was a forest with even higher pine and fir trees, like no one had come here to clean the forest out for a longer time.  

Rubi looked around --mainly looking up. "With those trees I feel smaller than I already am," she chuckled.

Rasa felt the same way, even if she didn't usually consider herself to be small. She continued walking and soon enough spotted a half-destroyed building among the trees further ahead. And that was not the only one - there was a whole part of a town - abandoned and partially destroyed hidden among the huge trees.

Rubi walked towards the building and peeked inside a window, from which the glasses were broken and a part of it lying on the ground. The funriture were untouched for a long while, dust covering them and plants were growing on the ground. The girl stepped back and looked at the other buildings, a small frown growing on her face. Just what happened...? she thought.

Rasa wandered a bit ahead and almost fell into a circular hole - almost like the ground was made into cheese by something or someone-- but it didn't look like a bomb had fallen there. "Battlegrounds?" Rasa mumbled seeing some rusty bullet shells nearby a house. She turned around to head back to Rubi, but a click-- she stepped on something. A click could only mean one thing-- Rasa paled.

Rubi kept looking around until she had seen enough to realize that the town was really abandoned. She walked back to Rasa, stopped a few meters away, seeing her pale face and ran towards her. "Did you find something?"

Rasa breathed in, breathed out. "Don't move--" she said and put out one of her shadow arms to lift Rubi high up in the air. She had no idea what Rubi's ability was, but now was not the time to ask that-- carefully, carefully, she put another shadow arm down on the ground, pressing on the place where the click came from.  

"Wha-- R-rasa?!" Rubi panicked as she was lifted up all of a sudden. She looked down at the ground to see what was going on, but couldn't see much due to the height.

The shadow arm held onto the mine and as Rasa lifted herself high up in the air as well - next to Rubi -  she let the place go. The mine exploded with a loud sound disturbing the birds around. "I think we better go home--" Rasa said looking a tad shaken.

The explosion frightened Rubi as she realized how dangerous the place was. She gave Rasa a small nod, trembling slightly.

Wishing to get away from the place as fast as possible, Rasa flew them both home, taking less then five minutes on the road that took them two hours to walk and put Rubi down by the doors of the house.

Rubi was relieved to have left the town and stopped trembling, knowing that the house was a safe place. She wondered, though, why there would be an active mine in the town. It seemed to have been abandoned for quite a long time... Rubi tugged on Rasa's sleeves, her face showed barely any emotions. "Let's go inside?"

Rasa nodded, still distraught and went inside. Slowly she started to calm down and her breathing went back to normal.

Rubi followed her inside, closed the door behind her and took off her coat. "Let's take the other routes another day. I guess that's it for today," she said and took off her boots.

"Mhm," Rasa nodded and took off her coat as well - deciding to go up-stairs to sleep. Too much activity for one day.

Jan was sitting in the study room and reading, not seeming to notice anything that was happening outside or around him.

Rubi went into the study room to enjoy the cozy atmosphere and stopped midway when she spotted Jan. Instead of going to the windowsills, she approached the boy from behin. "Hello, Jan," she said, though he didn't seem to react. She tapped on his shoulders, "Jan?"

Feeling the touch, he startled and fell off the sofa. "Don't... scare me like that," he said and got up. He tried to act nonchalant, but very faintly a tint of red flushed his cheeks.

"I'm sorry... I didn't know you were so focused--" she stopped and looked at what Jan was doing a moment ago and continued, "...on your book."

"It's fine--" Jan said after that, guessing that the girl might have called out to him before and he simply failed to notice. "I'll go get some tea--" he said and looked at her before turning around and heading towards the drink dispensers. It was almost like he asked if she didn't want something too, even if he didn't voice that bit out.

Rubi guessed that he offered her some tea and nodded with a smile.

Seeing her nod, he created some porcelain cups out of thin air and put them below the dispensers and pressed the buttons a bit differently than you would usually. He never liked drinking from paper cups, so he had taken some time to figure out how to make the dispensers not put them out.  

Rubi watched and wondered what kind of magic Jan did to conjure those cups - she's never seen a creator's ability before. Eventually she stopped trying to figure out how the cups appeared and just admired the cups and Jan.

Jan carried the cups to the small table in between the sofas and put them both down, meaning for Rubi to sit down next to him. It was a simple red hibiscus and rosehip tea.  

"Thank you," she smiled and took a seat. The tea was still too hot and she didn't have a book or anything else so she just stared at the cup, enjoying the smell of the tea.

Jan created a porcelain sugar bowl with some white cubes into it. "It's not sugar," he mentioned after taking one and putting it into his tea. "Acesulfame potassium, it has a different aftertaste than sugar."

"Aces...uf--...You really know much, Jan," she praised him and took a cube and inspected it, licking it before putting it in her tea. "So you can create things out of nowhere," she mentioned and sipped the tea.

"Yes, that's basically it," Jan said. "I wish it was more efficient against grays, though. Your type is--?"

"Deva," Rubi continued his sentence."Everything can be useful if used correctly-- not that you don't use them correctly! I mean I haven't even seen you use them against grays..." she mumbled the last part, afraid that it might hurt him in some way. By no means she would want to hurt him, especially with words.

"When that gray storm came to the last gray, I created a machine gun and tried to shoot the gray, that didn't do anything," Jan said simply, he thought it was just right he said that. He didn't look, nor he was, hurt.

"But I'm sure you were able to help with your shooting. I bet we couldn't have dealt with the gray without your help, Jan," she said in a soft and comforting voice and patted his head.

Her gesture surprised Jan, but he didn't mind. It wasn't a bad feeling-- being patted. "...who knows," he said.  

"Your comrades know," Rubi said and reached for the cup, taking another sip of the tea.

It actually didn't matter all that much if they knew or didn't. But the experience itself had a value. It's as valuable to know what doesn't work, as it is do know what works. Jan breathed out and sipped more of his tea as well, cheering up a bit.

"Still, you were already great by getting to the gray... I couldn't even fight against the wind, " she laughed nervously and put the cup on the table.

"The wind was not so strong in the beginning and I was close by," Jan said simply. "When I got thrown back in it later, I couldn't move at all either."

Rubi had a feeling that she should not ask how he got thrown back or why and kept quiet.

Since Rubi didn't say anything, Jan concluded that their conversation about Gray Storm events was over. "You said you were Deva type. What can you currently do?"

"Hmm..." Rubi thought for a moment. "I can lift things up," she said and demonstrated it by lifting her cup of tea up. "Maximum height is... around five meters and weight... weight... I-I don't really know yet." She wasn't exactly good in estimating those things.

"Can you lift me?" Jan asked.

"Yup," she replied and lifted him about a meter up. She was especially careful to concentrate only on Jan so that he won't fall.

Jan looks deadpan, but is actually a tad freaked out-- even if it's the second time someone has lifted him. "I see, can you put me down?"

Rubi nodded and put him down, carefully. "It can be quite useful, this ability-- but not necessarily with grays," she smiled.

"It should be useful against grays," Jan said calmly, feeling better now that he was on the floor.

Rubi shrugged and drank the tea empty. She inspected the cup again; Jan really was good in conjuring them.

Seeing her shrug he considered explaining why it would be useful, but since the girl didn't ask, he didn't impose and  choose to have another drink himself.

Rubi put down the cup and stared at Jan. "Is there someone you like, Jan?" she brought out of the blue.

If by 'like' you mean 'finding someone agreeable, enjoyable or satisfactory', then there are some cumimis that fit that mark - Valen, Holly, Neo, Alicia, Laela, Rasa, you too.  

They got called to lunch after that, so their conversation stopped at this point.