[center][h2]~[color=fdc68a]Toni[/color]~[/h2][/center]

[color=fdc68a]"Oh. I see."[/color]

That was a lie, of course. A white lie, or more of an untruth. Harmless, yes; dishonest just the same. Sasha's response had left Toni only a little less perplexed, and bounds more intruiged. Maybe Sasha had a gift for using normal weapons against the Rue. Maybe she wouldn't even need a weapon. It was an interesting the thought. Next to that, the gun at her own hip felt like dead weight if angry Rue were all that awaited them on the way. [color=fdc68a][i]Can't be too careful though.[/i][/color] She wondered how well her own way of dispatching Rue would fare when the time came. It worried her to an extent, but that worry was now tempered by knowing that a companion could work off her. 

Learning about how others could interact with Rue would be an adventure all its own. 

The train jerked forward without much warning as it started down the tracks. Toni stumbled off balance and dropped gracelessly into the nearest seat. Other than the rough take off, the ride felt smooth to begin with. Even the prying sensation of the Rue floating about washed away as the station blurred and faded from the window. 

As she settled in, her attention turned once more to Yiya. The woman, almost clairvoyently, proceeded to address the very questions that Toni had begun ruminating on back at the station. The plant, the Trailing Bird, was somehow important to the Rue sustaining themselves. Naturally, then, for Yiya to have killed it where it had been would have done nothing to help her village. Though this raised other questions for Toni, the new ones were less of confusion than of curiosity. 

Even absent those answers, the job was clearer than before. They, the Howls, weren't just protecting Yiya from what she couldn't perceive or combat; they were protecting Echoh and, most of all, the Trailing Bird. 

It was a conclusion Toni hung on until Yiya began speaking again. This time questions of her own... to know what the Howl's she had recruited could do. 

[color=fdc68a]I... I could feel it... if that makes any sense.[/color] Toni blushed a bit as she explained. [color=fdc68a]I mean I can see them, but only vaguely,; they're like blurrs or clouds of smoke that are almost shaped like something. But it's the feeling that I get from them.[/color] She paused, staring out the window as if she expected to find something amid the glowing fireflies in the tunnel. Not looking away from the window, she continued. [color=fdc68a]"Most of the time it's just a prickle through my skin. Hairs sticking up. Other times it feels more pleasant, like drifting on a cloud... but then... sometimes it feels heavy. Like a burden. L-like something is pressing against me. That's... that's when I'n sure they mean harm.[/color]

She turned her head back towards Yiya and the others, pulling a wet sleeve off of her eyes.