She had made up her mind to follow the Reishund; its pleading voice spoke to her and she could not find it in herself to turn it away, despite its unexplained appearance. If helping it would solve the problem, then walking around with a fight-starved bruiser for an ally would be a small matter.

"Do you have arthritis? Because that's what it sounds like to me, with all the cracking." Aera didn't return his grin, her lips set in a neutral line. "You can have your cake after beating all these rotting flesh-bags. I just wanted a good night's sleep."

As the Reishund walked on ahead, Aera decided to throw it a question. "What is it that you want us to find? If you can't do it yourself, why can we?" She glanced at her new natrelmon and looked back at Reishund's formidable stance. "I'm just being realistic here."