[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/be913d0f-6ea0-4943-bd00-f7149a871868.png[/img] with [img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/95072e97-1119-4768-90ef-d0c6e18c345d.png[/img][/center] Kaitlyn hasn't even left yet and Hannie already feels alone. Eyes squinted against the glare of the unending flames, streaming with all flavors of distress, the girl looks up into the slitted eyes of her cartoonishly beautiful unwanted savior and waits, tense all over, for the ground to swallow her again. It does not. Too much time passes while Qingshe merely smiles, almost to herself, before kneeling over and offering a clawed hand. [color=39b54a]"We don't have to take [i]that[/i] way out, Hannie dear,"[/color] she purrs. Hannie looks around at the edges of the straining Wall, seeing no traversable gaps in the flames. She looks back at Qingshe, her expression unchanged - maybe there's just no room for more anxiety. "O... okay," she whimpers. She reaches out to Qingshe like she might bite her. In a way, she does - the serpent's hand almost swallows hers. The first step is the hardest. Hannie looks like all she wants is to go back to the ground and curl up again, her free hand covering her head as if from a bombing, while her escort turns back to give Kaitlyn a grinning, casual wave goodbye. [color=39b54a]"I promise to take [i]excellent[/i] care of her~!"[/color] she calls over her shoulder, and then returns her attention to the destination ahead - the edge of the dome, towards the city and barracks where they became acquainted. They walk slowly, neither of the two in a hurry to get anywhere. Qingshe hums a tune that Hannie doesn't seem to appreciate, and finishes the song shortly before they reach the border. Hannie's eyes are all but shut. The glare is very intense at this proximity. Qingshe looks down at her charge once again. [color=39b54a]"You don't mind the dark, do you, Hannie~?"[/color] Hannie doesn't respond for a while, until she realizes Qingshe is genuinely waiting for her reply. She shakes her head no, accompanied by a weak murmur of "it's okay." Outward, through the barrier and the blaze, extends that increasingly familiar bubbling green-flecked shadow which hasn't yet had the chance to feature in Hannie's nightmares. Then, in a flash of movement, the fire above it is wiped away - cut off from its source and dying rapidly in an inky-black tunnel. Crossing the barrier and traversing the already comfortably cool tunnel is easier than the first step had been. The two spend the remainder of their walk unseen under cover, with Qingshe occasionally chirping simple questions, earning back simple, soft answers. Maybe she's getting somewhere with this girl?