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Tianara barely heard him. Although she was too far away now to respond, a sad smile came to her face, very briefly. If she was right about what she'd seen growing in her brother's eyes, there wasn't going to be enough time for Joshua to help her. That was why she'd told him to focus on Nezik and Jinx. They were more important.

Idly, she wondered if she ought to be more frightened. She knew she would be, if and when the time came, but at the moment, she felt...distant. Detached.

The others would be safe, and that was all that mattered.

~

The other three mermen seemed to confer at the edge of the plane. They remained there for quite a while, speaking rapidly in the bubbly tongue of the merfolk. Then they split up, each going a different direction. None of them so much as glanced back. It was evident they had no intention of returning, at least not until Kistad did.

And that, considering the circumstances, would probably be a while.

It did not. There was no heat in the airplane, and indeed, it was almost abnormally cool to the touch. Not enough to hurt, but still quite cold. Perhaps the heat had not been a spell after all - with all that Narcis had been throwing at the barrier, it was possible that the metal had reacted to all the magic going on inside its borders.

Without Tianara there to watch the doors, Joshua would have to be careful. There was no guaranteeing, after all, when the mermen would or would not come back.

((OOC: Short post. >.<))

The door creaked ominously as it swung open - and a veritable mountain of junk came pouring out the door. Obviously, only the door had been holding it all up. The entire plane was full to brimming of sharp, splintery, or heavy-looking objects. Getting in would be hazardous, to say the least, and getting through probably close to impossible.

It looked as though they must have spent some time planning this - how else could so much stuff have gotten in there in such a short period of time? Getting enough out to get through would take a good deal of time, time that Joshua probably didn't have.

And with no one there to help him, it would just be more difficult.

There was no reply for several long minutes, only the creaking of the door as it shifted back and forth in the current. Apparently the prop was enough to keep it from swinging shut, but not enough to hold it entirely still. There was the occasional dull thump as something in the massive pile of stuff fell or shifted.

But finally, there was a reply. It was so mumbled and incoherent that no real words could even be made out, but it was a response. "Jshaaa? Whaasit? Satiuu?"

There was another long lag before a reply, but this time, the words were a little more understandable. "'Kay. Not both. Hurts." The conversation itself made no sense, but the words at least were actual words instead of jumbled syllables.

As Joshua sifted through the piles of stuff, he must have accidentally found the one item that most of the rest was resting on, as suddenly, with a thunderous roar, the whole mess shifted downwards. It was rather reminiscent of a dammed waterfall that has finally broken through the barrier. And it startled the voice exceedingly.

"Whassat?!"

It hadn't. In fact, it had actually done a great deal more of the work for him. If he was very careful, he might be able to worm his way through the open area at the top of the plane, and find his way to Nezik and Jinx.

The voice seemed satisfied with his explanation, as shortly afterwards it fell silent. For a little while, anyway. Then it spoke up again, nervously, cautious. "Tia? Where's she?"

Nezik or Jinx, of course, had no way of knowing what had just occurred, and couldn't know they were just dumping salt into the wound.

"Why?" the voice questioned, sounding surprised. There was a long silence, and Joshua might get the sense that his most recent memories were being...riffled, somehow, like a set of photographs being flipped through. Then the voice, much smaller now, whispered, "No." Just that. No more.

The sound of cracking from what had once been the tail area of the plane might catch the boy's attention, if he was listening. That was where the voice had been coming from, and the fold-in doors (that were, of course, now folded out and closed tightly) were creaking. It sounded like someone was trying to break them down.