“Okay a bit longer and it’ll be done.” It smelled good, and Hope had watched on as she had dropped the ingredients into the pot. A lot of it looked familiar, what she was putting in. He could imagine the labels on the containers, back at home, where his mother handled most of everything in the kitchen because, Hope… well, he knew how to read the recipe, and follow one, but it never turned out right. (Especially when things caught on fire. That had happened once or twice when he first started trying.) He admired anyone that could cook, because of course he couldn’t. Instant dinners had saved his hide more than once when he was left at home by himself on many an evening.

"You know... I can use healing spells myself. I have a gear set for white mage... Since that was originally what I started out as. I picked up the sword somewhere down the line because I wanted to learn how to be a bit sturdier... I wanted to be able to take blows from the enemy and be able to rush in first...... At least that's what it feels like. I could try and teach you how to fight despite being weak physically. So long as you have at least a single offensive spell and a sleep spell you're golden. You'd be surprising how well healers can fight sometimes."

He looked from the pot as he listened to her, his eyes widening a bit as she continued to tell him about her being a white mage. “I never thought about… sleep spells, or anything like that.” Hope had just thrown out a lot of things that… seemed basic, to be honest. Status effects like sleep, he hadn’t ever thought about because it was never brought to him mind. It didn’t ring any particular bell in his memory, and he scrunched up his brow. “I don’t think I’ve done a sleep spell before,” He didn’t know much about knitting, but what she was putting together seemed to be turning out nicely. Nice and fluffy looking.

“Won’t be sleeping on an empty stomach today, Hope.” His stomach gurgled, reacting to them smell. It made scarlet stain his cheeks for a moment, and he sniffed the air a few times again. The bowl that was offered to him was cradled in his hands, and his mouth started to water at the flavorful scent rising up from it.

It was smelling even better, after some time had passed. “Smells real good,”

“Eat as much as you want, it’s only going to get wasted when we leave so you may as well fill up.” Hope wasn’t all that big an eater, but wasting food that had been prepared by someone else that he’d just met didn’t settle well with him. It’d be a challenge, but he’d see how much he could swallow down, and not make himself get sick. Maybe it’d put a little bit of meat on his arms too.

He watched as she ‘switched’, getting a good look at the… stick… thing that she had. He gulped a little bit, eyeing it out of the corner, his face speaking volumes of, ‘What the heck is that?’ and ‘Is it possessed or something?’ He kept it to himself, though, and filled his agape mouth with the spoon real fast.

"Okay so listen up Hope. This is lesson one. When faced with multiple enemies, what you should do is sleep the ones you aren't fighting. Don't be afraid to take a hit or two so long as you know they aren't fatal, you can heal yourself and get rid of those wounds. So don't worry too much about taking a cut or two in order to win. Yes. It's scary at first but you get used to it after a while.”

A few bites later, and he was more immersed in what Razz was saying than the bowl. Take a few hits? He didn’t like the sound of that but… if it got the job done in the end, what was a little pain? … Okay, I take that back—Hope thought with a grimace. He’d admit freely that he was a bit of a wuss when it came to pain, because, well, it was pain.
"Tell you what, on our way to Provo you can practice. I'll stay back and be ready to step in if you can't handle it. Sound good?"

Not really, but… “I, yeah. It does.” At least he wouldn’t be going in at it entirely by himself? He didn’t know how he felt about going toe to toe with monsters though, but he’d have to stop running away some time. Better now than never.

Another spoon of stew into his stomach, and his bowl was empty. That had been real good food, from just what they had on them and from the forest. Maybe him getting almost ambushed by the Bandersnatch hadn’t been all that bad, after all, if it gave them this.

"Hm... I wonder if it'll be a cold night... Either way I hope you rest well when you do sleep."

“I,” He paused, pulling his scarf around his neck some more. The trees would make it cooler, and it’d probably be a cold-sort of wet in the morning, for his turn in shift. “I’ll be fine.” Hope returned the smile sent his way with a shyer one, the bottom half of his face hiding underneath the mint-green material around his neck.

"But do you have any questions? Who knows questions might be able to help me remember things."

Oh, he did. There were lots of those. Better to start with the most recent, though, and so Hope did. “That, uh, fire shard I think you called it. What was that?” There weren’t any from where he was from, and he wanted to know. They looked to be pretty useful, and who knows what all could be done with them if applied correctly. Oh, the possibilities.

"That's fine, I'm sure you can learn." Hearing her say that reassured him. It felt better to trust something solid, rather than echoes of whatever was in his head telling him random things in battle to do that, really, he just couldn't seem to put together quite just yet the way it wanted him to.

"Earth, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water and Wind. These shards, are all tiny solid crystal like things made of Aether. Aether, is the energy of the world I come from, it's the source of life, where people like me draw power from too cast or fight. I guess in essence the very soul is made up of Aether and when people die? The body releases that aether. But these little things are elemental crystalizations of that energy, so when using one? it use uses the element itself. So if I wanted too I could've thrown a couple of water shards in that pot instead of boiling some water from a stream to clean it and make it safe for drinking."

Hope looked over the crystals that she had set out, leaning forward to get a better look at them. "We have crystal at Cocoon, but I haven't seen any with the personifications of an element before. Sure, different colors, but no one's ever..." he trailed off, catching himself before he went too far. "It seems like those are real handy, then." How were they gathered? Was there a special way, and that's why the people from his world didn't use them in the same applications? "I don't recall hearing about Aether in class, so it might be special to your home,"

"Here, why don't you take them. You can study them that way right? Just don't waste them. I've only got a few hundred of each and although naturally occurring, I don't know if they'll be around this world." Hope's eyes lit up, and he reached forward to pick one up and look at it between his fingers.

"I'll be real careful with them," he promised. If they weren't natural in Zephon, then he'd need to make do with these that she had given him. That wouldn't be hard; it wasn't like he was going to go throwing them around to see what would happen. "Maybe I can figure out if there's any here, or, or--" Well, there wasn't that much in the way of researching that he could do with them, with what he had now in his inn room. But he'd try, until he could round up the things he'd need.

"Just fire as many questions as you want at me by the way, I'll try and answer them in order, but once I do answer, since it's starting to get dark now, you should probably get some rest. I'll keep watch during the dark hours. This is certainly going to be interesting I suppose, but, there's no use in crying about it I suppose, it's not going to solve anything even if it'd make me feel a little better."

"Then..." well, she said as many questions. Does that mean, any question? He was interested, so... "Your tail, is it prehensile? What about, how the scales guard you? Are they pretty tough, or are they soft? Do you know what caused them to form, are there more people with them? I don't think there's anyone in Cocoon with reptilian-genetics. Does it give you certain aspects of one as well?"

"Hope, don't worry about that, I'll be able to figure that out on my travels, I can mine after all so it'll be easy for me to recognize." Hope took the black leather pouch off of his belt, and opened it up. Pulling out a handkerchief, he set the crystals in it and wrapped them up in the mint-shaded material. Slipping it back inside the miniature-pack, he closed it up and laid it to the side with his boomerang.

He tried to not look as embarrassed as he felt at the moment, finding it hard to keep his face from turning red, once more, as she began to laugh. His questions weren't turned down, though, it seemed, and he watched the small performance she put on with her tail, his attention once again captured by something she had done. So, it had been. That must be useful.

"As for my scales here, see for yourself. if they're soft. They do help where protection is concerned though, maybe it's an evolutionary trait to have them on our throat to make it harder for predators to hit vital blood vessels, not sure." Hope felt the scales against his skin, half of his attention diverted by what she was saying and what he felt. They must be useful, then, for someone that fought up close like she did. Or fought at all; they were sure to be a nice extra guard to have.

"I am what's called... Au... Ra.... I think?... It's a little foggy but there are others like me. I know there were two tribes, I sought adventure and left mine at a very young age."

"Au Ra?" He echoed, his head tilting a bit as he tasted the word on his tongue, much like a baby bird--a fluffy, silver, baby chocobo. "and there's two tribes?" It wasn't odd, to have separation within races, much like factions. It was common in most circles, in the wild and among civilization. He wondered what it was like, leaving home to go on an adventure. He didn't think that he could do anything like that, just days ago, but now here he was, wandering about the continent and doing just that.

"This is part and parcel of my race though, we are born with scales I believe. As for if we get certain aspects, I suppose we probably do, I mean the horns are used to help with spacial awareness, tails can help with balance and I think if my tail were to be cut off it'd probably grow back after a while."

With a small wince at the, 'cutting the tail' off bit, Hope would form a thoughtful line with his lips as he'd process what he'd been told. There were a lot like lizards, from what she'd told him. The horns were a nice bit, and as he looked at them, he'd come to the conclusion that this Au Ra was a very pretty group of people.

"You're really in to your science aren't you? Tell you what if I remember more? I'll tell you if I see you again. If I lose any scales I'll give them to you so you can study them."

Hope's eyes lit up, and he beamed up at Razz, still sitting in front of him. "Yeah! I do, um, really like it. I mean, it helps a lot of people." It was fun, as well. Searching through deep codes of genetics, numbers, words--everything with the word 'discovery' in it made him excited. "I'd like that, you visiting to talk." He didn't have that many friends here, after all.

"Y-you'd do that?" He looked ready to jump forward and hug her, but seemed quite content with bubbling in excitement where he was at.

"You can, uh, come talk to me whenever you want though, when you feel like it. It doesn't have to just be for you remembering something." Did that make sense? Hope was just as awkward at times with talking, like his father was. "I don't leave very often, so I'd be in Provo a lot of the time."

Razaphale hugged him, and Hope stayed still in a shocked stupor. "I promise, I'll visit you okay? More so once I've got a steady job, hunting. Means I'd have a reason to come back to Provo really, and someone'd know I'm still in one piece." That... this felt nice. The muscles of his face relaxed, and he smiled. An expression that was stretched as she pulled on his cheek, turning into some odd grimace-grin of sorts. His mom liked doing that too, and always said that he had the perfect cheeks to pull on.

"I'll be looking forward to your visits, then." A lot. A whole lot, now, because there'd be a lot of things to be looking forward to that would come with them. Stories, information, and companionship. Hope didn't know how much he'd been craving that, despite seeming keen on avoiding anyone that seemed to be in the same situation that he was in.

"Now come on you, off to bed, may as well get as much sleep as you can while you can. Who knows when you'll end up woken by big ol' nasties." Being sent to the side, Hope would settle down on the soft makeshift bedding that had been earlier made. On his side, curled up in a fetal position, he seemed to fall asleep moments later, to the sound of humming and the faint cackle of the fire.

He dreamed of flying, that slumber. The first dream that he had dreamt since coming here. Flying on the back of a great beast through the air, the sound of companions behind him a mixture of good fun and something salty. He didn't stir, didn't murmur, but seemed to be in that sort of deep sleep that he'd wake up feeling better from, or very tired.

His mind gave him mercy, and Hope woke up feeling better than he had when he went to sleep, when the time came. His green eyes slowly opened, and his body shuttered a little. One leg slowly stretched out, and he seemed to curve backwards like a cat being woken up from its nap. "W-where..." he started, slightly disoriented. Everything came back to him though, from earlier, and he sat up to a still-dark sky.