Crash in the Northern Crater [Elena]

Tseng was rather cold. It was a bit of a relief feeling a bit warmer when she shifted closer to him.
"I was thinking the same thing, to be honest." He frowned a bit. He really hoped he was not dead. If he was, he hoped that things would be better than this. That it would be warm with familiar faces at the other end. Not a cold barren wasteland. Not practically reliving one of the worst moments of his life. She explained the obvious and he nodded. They were both fine and seemingly unharmed. They just needed to stay warm and make it through the night.

He was watching the flames as he felt a little warmer staying close. That is, until Elena picked up a branch and moved to a wall. The Director sighed a bit. He wanted to warm up and get some rest. It wasn't like they had anything to do till the morning.

The Director finally convinced himself to shift to his feet and move over to what she was babbling on about. He wrapped his arms around himself. She left the jacket she'd dropped on the ground. He picked it up and moved to put it on her shoulders as he got closer, looking at what she was. "I don't understand what the fascination is...." He commented as he listened to her ramblings. It was feeling oddly like the Temple of the Ancients all over again. "...It's a weird handwriting...but...I might be able to." He responded as he shifted closer to get a better look. It was a bit odd to be honest.

"I don't know, Elena..." He frowned at her excitement about finding this chicken scratch on a wall. But, she probably needed something to distract her from the cold. He could not deprive her of that. He could translate it for her. He accepted the branch and leaned in with a faint sigh.

To be honest, it was an odd form of writing. It was almost like a dialect that he wasn't too familiar with. But, the general shape gave him an idea of what it said. "It's actually a bit odd. The characters are shaped and draw a bit different, and it's not just their handwriting." He explained as he moved the branch to read all of the wall. "It says something along the lines of 'here we conjured the great wall of' .... i'm not sure of this word.... but, it's a variation of area or nation... then it continues to say that soon they would take control of the entire area, not just the wall." He explained. It was a bit difficult to read.

"It's almost a variation of wutainese... but not a dialect I recognize. Nor the area that they are attacking... wherever we are... this is the word for it." He explained as he gestured with his free hand to the character on the wall. "It I real the character directly... it's read /China/" He explained, speaking the secondary language. "But, I am not able to translate it properly to Continental." He added as he glanced over at the blonde turk.

Tseng shook his head as he stood, rereading it a few times. The scratches in the wall were not very well written. It was honestly surprising they found something like this. This cave had housed many people in the past too. Returning to sit beside Elena again, he placed the twig back with the others to keep warmer. ”If you take the way it sounds in Wutainese literally, yes. It does sound like that I suppose.”

Elena had his jacket wrapped around her. At least she would be warm for the night. It would get a lot colder. He simply prayed that the fire would keep it at bay. With outstretched arms, he warmed himself again before glancing back at the wall. He really had nothing else to add to it. ”In the morning, we focus on figuring out where we are. See if we can get to a town.”

The director laid his back against the cave wall and folded his arms to try and conserve heat. He closed his eyes briefly before reopening them. ”I’ll take first shift. Get some rest. I’ll keep the fire going....” He’d keep it going and let her rest. Then he’d rest during her shift. It was less sleep, but they wouldn’t freeze to death.

Tseng was sure with the small pile he'd collected that it would be fine. He only started with a small amount to start so that they would have enough for the evening. It was going to be a long night, that much was for sure. But they would make it through. They lasted longer in the Northern Cavern with less and under torture.
One night would not kill them. The hardest part would be finding out which section of the mountain they were on and how they were going to contact ShinRa to get them home safely.

That's when Elena decided to be more than stupid. It made Tseng sigh when he couldn't comment soon enough. "Elena..." He didn't like what she was doing in the slightest. She really could be a rookie sometimes. This was the perfect example. "....All you just did was guarantee that you're going to end up sick." All the sock would do was burn warm for about a minute then it would get cold and her foot would be vulnerable to the cold. They still had to walk through the snow in the morning and the sock was keeping her foot warm and the snow out of her boots. The Director could only shake his head at her. What was she thinking?

Tseng shook his head at her giving him the jacket back. He was warmer than her normally. She didn't give off very much body heat. But, he was not even going to say anything. He wrapped his jacket around himself and stayed settled. That's when she brought it up and he sighed. This was not a discussion he wanted to be having. She had to ask when he was trapped in a room with her. It's not like he could send her away or walk away from it.
She had asked a few times and he always avoid the topic. It was fragile.

"I don't have an answer for you, Elena. Maybe when we get back.... if we get back." He responded. Everything had been a mess since he'd asked her. They hadn't had a moment to even discuss it to be honest. It was one conflict or issue after the other. Every time she mentioned, their lives got worse. It was almost like karma for trying to have a normal life outside of the Turks. "Have you noticed that every time it is brought up, things seem to get worse for us?" He asked her, making sure to make eye contact with her. "A coma... torture...." He half answered. "If you don't want to rest, then you can take the first shift. Wake me up in about four hours..." He expressed, shutting his eyes. He did not want to discuss this anymore.