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Tianara's lips curved a little, but she still looked troubled. "I'll feel better when we come back tomorrow to see what differences there are," she replied soberly, staring at the water. "Where's Nezik gone off to, now? We weren't gone for so long, were we?"

She turned a puzzled look to Joshua for a moment before resuming her scan of the water. "He probably went to join Sorry and Jinx," she decided after a moment or two. "In which case there's no point hanging around here. Should we try and find another route out? We'll have a hard time getting through that tunnel without Sorry or one of the others."

And she didn't want to stay in here any longer than necessary. Already she could hear the shifting of rocks behind and above her as the gnomes set to work.

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine," said Tianara hastily - almost too much so. It was clear that the same thoughts had crossed her mind. "He just went to join Sorry and Jinx before Sorry takes too much vengeance on him for what he did to her with Narcis, that's all." For the first time since they had come back down, she laughed. "He deserves it, too."

Looking at Joshua, she was at first confused by his apologetic glance. "Well, of course we cou--" And then she remembered. The cliffs. The path. That nightmarish trip.

"...Oh."

She took a deep breath. Her face set to cool determination. "Yes, we could use that way. Sorry and the others could bring the boat back. And I suppose we don't really have any time to waste waiting for them."

While she could easily have shrugged it off and swum out, gone and found the other merfolk, she wanted to stick with Joshua. For one thing, he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the storage room alone. For another...

Well, she just didn't want to leave him. That was all. That was normal enough for close friends, right?

She brushed back her hair. "Let's go. They may have gotten distracted by whatever it was they went to do. We don't know when they'll be back. I'll let them know about the boat once we're back, but they might be a good ways away. You're right, we really can't wait."

Tianara shook her head. "No," she said - not without a few seconds of hesitation, though. "No, I can't leave you to find your way to the storage area on your own. I mean, I'm sure you could...it would just take you longer, and there are some paths you shouldn't go along. You need me."

Once that was said, her stomach settled. That was really all there was to it. He needed her.

She would make it down the cliffs somehow. Not quite sure how yet, but she would figure it out.

And then...

"Are we going to have to go back to town?" she asked, frowning. "We'll probably need more things that we can move in for tomorrow, and the day after, and as many days as we have before they start arriving. There's going to be a lot of people, Joshua."

Also, she wanted to go back to the map store. She didn't think about why - refused to. Just curiosity, she insisted to herself. Just curiosity.

((OOC: I think we should make that move a little more, or else it's never going to happen. XP))

Tianara smiled back weakly. "I figured," she teased, trying to keep it light. "Let's go. The faster we get up there, the faster we can get back to town and..." she was about to say something, but then her eyes widened in realization. Instead, she quickly finished, "Get more supplies."

She was suddenly very eager to move, going straight across to the tunnel they required. "Come on, Joshua, let's go."

Maybe if she was quick enough, he wouldn't notice her slip. She was embarrassed to realize that she had almost spoken about...whatever it was...in front of Joshua. Why that bothered her so much, she wasn't sure - didn't friends talk about everything?

If Joshua asked, she would tell him, she decided. Because that was what friends did. But she wasn't going to be the one to bring it up, because it felt somehow...wrong.

Tianara dipped her head a little. "I'm...I think I'm okay," she said at last, hesitantly. Well, he hadn't directly asked about Adrian, so she didn't really have to discuss that quite yet. But she probably would anyway. She wasn't good at lying, not even little white lies.

"I was just...I want to go back to town," she admitted. Why it should sound so much like a confession, she didn't know. "I mean, I want to learn about it, and, well...some of the people there seemed really nice."

She hoped the tunnel was dark enough to hide the rosy flush that came up in her cheeks. Talking about this - even though they hadn't gotten to her odd, half-formed feelings about 'the people' - felt wrong. Especially to Joshua.

((OOC: ...Joshua r dense. XP Who did Tianara actually talk to, like two people? And one of them was, like, an old dude. XD))

Tianara looked away. "Well...maybe," she muttered. "I...he was nice. And he didn't make fun of me about the plass-tick - you know, when I went to touch it even though I wasn't supposed to. I like him." She was still pink, and her eyes were focused a little too hard straight ahead.

Though she didn't actually speak his name, Joshua would almost certainly have figured it out by now.

She gave a shy little shrug. "Sorry's always telling me that I have to get to know people, so I thought...I thought that, well, I might. That's all."

Pushing her hands into the pockets of the jeans that Joshua had lent her, she kept walking. It was a relief to get the thoughts off her mind, even though she also felt indefinably guilty for some reason.

((OOC: So...dense? XD I have male friends like that.))

Tianara turned to glance back at him, her dark blue eyes unreadable. She didn't say anything, and that uncomfortable silence persisted for the rest of the walk up.

Once they made it to the storage area, she rolled her shoulders slightly - they felt stiff and uncomfortable. "We should hurry," she said quietly. "It'll be dark in a few hours, and I want to be able to let the others know about the boat."

She headed towards the tunnel through which she could see sunlight shining. For reasons she couldn't even explain to herself, she felt angry and sorry and guilty all at the same time. Could it really have something to do with those awkward few minutes of discussion?

Unhappily, she pushed it aside. They would deal with it later.