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The ranger closed her eyes, unknowing that Micheal had also, and slowly sucked in a breath of air, holding it for a moment before letting it release; the same followed a few more times.

"What is Kiru? Tainted dragon or vampire?" she asked, the words coming with one of the outbreaths. Her mind, still trying to process all the scattered pieces, had latched onto the one fragment like a weedseed would catch a pantleg, the vision of him as a dragon one moment and a tall human-something being one of the more played out sights in her thoughts

Had Kiru been a dragon, there might have been a chance, however slight it might have been and her shoulders slumped a little at the thought.

The ranger did not look up at the question, but remained sitting with her head down and eyes closed. The answer probably mattered little now and she may as well be upfront.

"At best, they think lesser of us in their own world. At worst, they steal souls and burn villages. Be it the fault of the mages or dragons that brought them to this, it matters not to me." There was an odd, almost disturbing upturn at the corner of her mouth for a moment. "Funny, I never though much of 'souls' unless it involved dragons."

Then a sudden chill went down her spine as a picture of herself and Kiru flashed in her mind, standing together, both with a similar hatred....

"Honestly, you distaste dragons so? You might be useful indeed then."

Jay's eyes shot open and she turned her face away from Micheal.

The ranger could not look up as Micheal hurriedly left with a heavy foot. She let the door creak and stay open for a time not feeling any energy to move, her injuries seemingly making more noise than before but not enough to drown out other memories.

She remembered trying to remain still as she learned there had been a vampire sitting before her.

She remembered the following day sitting on the bed, waiting for the worst that had never come.

Suddenly she felt like the vampire who had told her secret - except this time, the person who heard it had left.

When the ranger couldn't bear her own thoughts any longer, she forced herself to move. She swapped out the oiling supplies for the healing kit, touching up her elbow and arm again, her hand, and the bruise on her hip when the sword kicked back from the leap of the dog. When finished, she packed everything away and tossed on her armor before sitting back down on the bed again, now ready to face her thoughts once again.

She knew she would be leaving and had an idea of what she was going to do, beside deal with the shirt thing, but she was still trying to solidify the plan.

Just one thing at a time, the ranger reminded herself sadly, repeating earlier words as she stood up with her belongings and left the room, shutting the door behind her, not bothering to lock it as there was nothing inside to need it locked for.

She walked down the hallway, unknowingly past the room Micheal was in, and through the front door of the waystation to the stables. With it being eve, there were probably few people she could inquire with about a shirt and she wasn't going to stoop down as low as to 'borrow' it from someone. Maybe from someone more well to do, but most people here probably only had one or two shirts as it was. For now, she would work on her other project, and for that, she needed to find the part of the creek that ran near here.

Quietly she saddled up Dulcimer and hopped up into the seat, riding down the dirt street toward the edge of town.

"Go away," the ranger said under her breath, continuing the pace set toward the creek. Her heartbeat picked up again but not as much as previous times. She still needed to get to the water.

The beat picked up touch as the unnatural sound of his voice set off her nerves though her paced breathing was holding it down lower than it could be.

"What a world," she said as she straightened in the saddle to shake off the feeling. "What's your real reason for being here? I'm sure it's not the city sites." She finally turned her head to look at the rider to her side.

"So you hinted before about the dragons, though you never said why. What's your beef with them? I would think a tainted might be of some use to your kind in small numbers at least. Too much to hide in large numbers," she commented, slipping into a topic that more familiar to her. She needed more time and this was as good a way as any. She looked away at the mention of Micheal and Dark though.

When the branch supposedly came close to hitting Kiru in the face, Jay did all but roll her eyes. "Close? I doubt that."