Unified

Chapter Fourteen: Unfriendly Companions

The moment their hands touched, a spark seems to run between them, leaving their fingertips slightly numb. Virgil pulls his hand back quickly, taken aback by the unfamiliar sensation. Roman stares at his hand for a moment before his gaze finds Virgil once more. That was certainly not something he's felt before. Strange.. Virgil meets his gaze before looking away. Logan clears his throat, "Sire, let us be going now."

His frigid tone made his opinion of what just transpired obvious. Roman ignores this as he steps forth. Without a word, the dragonwitches fall in line with them. Perhaps he was simply bewitched by the beauty in Virgil's eyes, but Roman swears there's more to it than that. He can't clear his thoughts from the sensation flowing through his hand when their skin touched. It was strange, but warm. A feeling he can't quite describe. Did Virgil feel it, too? He feels too awkward to ask. Whatever happened, it wasn't important. The only thing of importance is finding Roman's brother, nothing else can get in the way of that. No matter what.

The group walk in silence for awhile before Patton speaks up. He smiles softly, turning his attention to Virgil and the others, "I'm Patton, it's nice to meet you. What are your names?"

Logan glances back at Patton, frowning lightly but he says nothing and faces forward again. Virgil meets Patton's gaze and sighs lightly, "I'm Virgil."

"I'm Remus!" Remus grins and waves excitedly.

Patton smiles brightly and waves back, "Nice to formally meet you both!"

He glances at Janus, his smile softening slightly, "And you?"

Janus looks at Patton, his expression unreadable. Patton seems harmless enough, but Janus knows better than anyone that looks can be deceiving. Janus debates how to answer, given he's unable to speak the truth and the curse renders him unable to speak his own name. He averts his gaze and replies after a moment, "My name.."

"Do you want me to tell them..?" Virgil asks softly, catching the look in Janus' eyes. Remus looks between them and Janus shakes his head lightly.

"You're.. Not going to tell us your name?" Patton asks softly, his eyes widening lightly, "Why not?"

Logan's eyes narrow and he stops walking, turning to face them, "What are you hiding?"

"Logan," Roman frowns, turning back as well. He doesn't particularly like how hostile Logan is being, though he understands Logan's only trying to protect them.

"Logan, uh, Milord.." Patton stammers, "It's fine if he doesn't want to tell us his name.. We've only just met."

"Milord?" Remus snorts, "You some big important guy or something? You humans with your silly titles."

"My name is all of your concern," Janus sneers lightly, eyes narrowing.

"That," Logan scoffs, "Why do you speak like that? Do you think us fools?"

Virgil steps up in front of Janus, "Back off. You're the one asking us for help, remember?"

"This is getting out of hand," Patton urges, "Let's just keep going."

"Patton's right," Roman intervenes, grabbing Logan's arm, "Come on, let's go."

Logan purses his lips into a grim line, his dark, narrowed eyes lingering on Janus before he's forced to turn away. He pulls his arm free of Roman's grasp and adjusts his scarf. Roman sighs softly and crosses his arms. This wasn't going very well and they just started their journey together. Patton looks at Janus and smiles softly, speaking softly, "Sorry about that, he's just trying to be cautious. It's okay if you don't want to tell us your name. We've only just met after all."

Janus opens his mouth to speak, but thinks better of it since all he'll say are lies Patton won't know to decipher. Instead, he chooses to give Patton a gentle smile instead. Patton smiles back and the group walk in silence for awhile afterwards. The silence is somewhat tense despite Patton's earlier attempt to make peace between them. Logan refuses to speak with them and Roman is too engrossed with what happened when he and Virgil touched hands and he doesn't want to bring it up with anyone. Patton tries a few times to strike up conversation, but the only one seemingly willing to entertain the notion is Remus and after a few overly boisterous topics, Patton falls silent again as well.

They just don't seem to get along well for the time being. They walk the path until sunset when Logan, Roman, and Patton make effort to pitch a tent for the night. Virgil and Janus stand by awkwardly watching the humans work and Remus plops down on the sand, stretching his arms and legs obnoxiously. Patton looks over at them and his eyes soften lightly. He looks back at Roman and whispers, "I don't think they have a tent or anything."

Roman sighs softly, "We don't have an extra.."

"They can sleep on the ground." Logan states, moving on once the tent is up and secured.

Roman frowns and crosses his arms, really this hostility had to stop. Virgil steps up to Roman, a slightly amused look on his face, "That's a nice tent, Princey, but we don't need your help."

Roman sputters lightly, "What?"

"We can hear you," Virgil smirks, "We weren't standing that far away. Besides, we don't need your silly tent to sleep. There are trees close enough by to crash in."

"You sleep in trees?" Roman blinks and Virgil rolls his eyes, "You humans don't know anything about Dragonwitches, do you?"

Roman frowns to hide his embarrassment and crosses his arms instead of answering.

"We'll be just fine, you don't have to worry about us." Virgil states before turning and walking back over to Remus and Janus.

Virgil speaks to them quietly for a moment, Roman watching. He watches the Dragonwitches move and ascend a nearby tree in near fascination. The way they moved was something else entirely. Well, Janus and Virgil anyway. Remus apparently has the grace of a wombat. Roman turns away so they won't catch him staring and busies himself with helping Patton get a fire going. Once done, the three of them ate in silence, despite how clearly Patton wanted to say something. Afterwards, they retired to the tent for the night.