She merely stared at him for a few minutes when he came closer to her. She still sat with her back against the tree, quite relaxed to tell you the truth. Her face was emotionless, almost cold as she slowly pushed the thoughts of death from her mind. Why was Drake so full of smiles? She thought to herself. Why did he care to even try cheering her up? Such questions plagued her mind as she sat and stared at him.

She was reminded of someone from her past who used to be as nice as he was. It was strange, only one other had treated her the same way Drake was now. She couldn’t believe she was remembering this. Such an old thought she had since long forgotten. She had an extremely faint smile appear on her face for only a second as she remembered her old friend. Then like a flash the smile was gone again. She let out a sigh and stood up from her seat under the protection of the tree and dusted herself off. Her gaze then rose to the top of the tree above her and she wasted little time climbing to the largest, highest branch that could hold her comfortably.

When she finally reached the branch she sat down, again her back to the trunk of the tree. One leg rested on the branch while the other fell limply below her. The branch stemmed out, so she was directly above the spring’s deepest area. The steam that rose from the depths kept her warm while she sat in the tree. That faint smile slowly re-appearing on her face as she again remembered her old friend. He too used to sit right where she was sitting. She’d remembered almost everything by this point, including the half dozen falls her friend had made into the spring at her expense. All the thoughts made her a little happier. Shame her friend was probably dead too.

"Once upon a time i walked upon a demon who slept in a tree in much of the same way.His great wings reached to the ground and his tail clung so tightly to the branch it began to dig into it.His massive set of curled horns looked like off colored branches.Birds rested among the curls and his clawed hands held across his chest like he was mad at the world."

He climbed back out of the pool,dressed and used a little of his known magic to dry himself so his clothes wouldn't dry and constrict him.He looked up the tree and the branch were she shat and laughed as he made a jump and began to climb the tree.He took a seat in the branch a little off from hers and hung upside down by his legs to get closer to her so they could talk.

"I never did get his name though...."

Yotsuba glanced over at him once he made his way up the tree. All she could seem to think about was this demon he brought up. Did he know she was thinking about her old friend? That couldn't be. Considering she was telepathic she would have picked up on those thoughts, if he was seeping into her own thoughts. Her mind was boggled but she pushed it aside for now.

"A Demon" She started. "I've known many, but none that sounded like the one you're describing" She shifted her weight while she was still well balanced on the tree branch. "The demon I knew, he was. . . Well not entirely a demon. He was an outcast, which is why I felt so connected to him" She smiled a little while beginning to reminisce about her friend. "But that is all in the past now. . ."

He chuckled for a moment and shook his head at her response.

"I don't think most demons carry these tho atleast i don't think they would."

Reaching into a small pocket he pulled out a small think looking crystal that seemed almost so then it was hard to tell the difference from his skin and its own transparent color.

At first she didn't bother moving, she tried to act uninterested to say the least. But there was something about that said crystal he was trying to show her. It had an ancient yet creepy aura about it which caused her to look over at him and then glance at what he was holding in his hand. Aside from the aura seemingly stabbing at her heart causing her to go cold she was intrigued by the fact that Drake was able to stay upside down like that and not drop the crystal.

She shivered a little as she went back to thinking about the crystal itself. She was extremely uneasy and she couldn't tell why. She felt like she'd seen such a gem before but her memory was fuzzy. What was it about that gem and why did it make her cold? Even her breathing had become a little shallow. She let out the smallest sigh she could muster. "Where did you get that?" She mumbled as she looked away from the crystal for a few minutes trying to regain herself.

With ease of walking on flat earth he release his legs from the branch he was on and fell to the on below it and below her as well.Useing his free hand to keep him balanced he replaced the stone back into its pocket and leaned back a little bit to look up to her.

"from the demon i gather...i think it was buried under his skin.In his sleep he scratched his arm and it feel to the ground.Strange thing was as soon as it left his body he began to stir and wake up.I did not watch to see what happened to him after i grabbed the crystal and took of into the woods once more for safety and I did not want to mistaken for another hunter of the damned."

"Under his skin?" She mumbled again. She was starting to remember a little bit. Very few of those crystals still exist, at least in this dimension. Could the demon that crystal came from really be who she was beginning to think it was? It couldn't be, or could it? She was starting to feel a little faint from the prolonged exposure to the gem. She had not been around one in such a long time, and it was difficult to keep her composure.

As soon as Drake started to put the crystal away her energy came back to her rapidly, like water at it's boil going over the edge of the pan. Her face became extremely flushed and she couldn't control the rate at which her energy had returned to her. She briefly leaned over to look down at Drake and lost her balance completely and slipped off the branch. She plummeted towards the water quickly, falling past Drake and directly into the springs hot water.

As she began to fall he shook his head for a moment as it seemed unlikely she would fall off the branch so easily.By the time he went to reach for her all he could catch was her tail and that even slipped through his fingers.

Wasting no time he dove off the branch behind her.He closed his eyes long enough to break through the water and opened them as soon as he was in and latched onto her body.He continued to swim down until he reached the deep middle and pushed back off to get both of them back to the surface.As he reached the surface he began to swim to the edge and pushed her body onto the edge of the pool.

He pulled himself up,throwing off his riding jacket and shirt to stop hindering him.He lowered his head to her mouth to see if he could still feel her breathing.

Normally she would have flinched when someone grabbed her tail but she was far too faint to respond to it. As she hit the water her body was hit hard with the smack into the steamy water. She sank like a rock towards to the bottom of the spring that is until Drake had grabbed her and pulled her to the edge. Once out of the water her skin had to appear burned; It was red from the fall and even more so from the heat of the water. She was clearly still breathing but it was faint. Given a few minutes to adjust she could easily start breathing like normal again.

He gave a sigh of relife as he slumbed back onto his butt.The fell of her breath was a relife to him.He had noted the coloration of her skin but his was the same and fadeing so he didn't worry about it.
He patted her thigh a moment and gave a small chuckle.

"you gave me quite a scare...i thought you could swim.

He tried in a sad note of a joke to relief of the moment and wondered if it wasn't now a better time to head back to the monostary"

She shifted slightly while she laid on the ground, a chill came over her for a moment and she shivered. Which wasn't exactly normal, she had adapted so well to the area that no temperature change ever effected her but for once, she was chilly. She slowly opened her eyes when she felt his hand at her thigh. She stared up at the tree branches and sighed. "I..i..can swim.." She mumbled in reply to his comment. Joke or not, she wasn't ready to laugh about it; She felt drained from the flash of energy.

She slowly moved, reaching her hands up towards her ears. She wrapped her fingers around them and tried to brush the water from them. They had been dripping and the water that had settled in her ears made it a little difficult to hear what Drake was saying.