JUSTIN: * Shane chuckles quietly at the exchange, and makes good on his promise to douse the fire, spreading the ashes and making sure there's a good amount of dirt to smother what's left of the embers when he's done. He finds his coat where it was left by his pack -- by Jo, no doubt, as he hasn't touched it since early the previous night -- and tugs both on in turn. "If I can deal with it, you can deal with it, bird." He mutters as he steps around to where the pecos are hanging on to their last moment of peace in stubborn defiance. "At least you were bred for travel, hm? Can't say the same about myself."

JENNA: * Jo unties her peco with a brief smile, walking it away a few steps before swinging on. The bird gives another squawk of indignation, and she pats its head absently. "It can be an acquired taste," she admits, glancing at Shane. "You seem to have settled into it fairly well."

JUSTIN: * Shane sighs lightly, favoring his peco with an arched eyebrow over his glare. "They've been doing it longer than I, and they haven't settled nothing." He frees the reigns from the tree, and rolls his eyes as the bird immediately attempts to trot around the trunk to escape its fate. Shane doesn't give an inch, however, and despite that it is undoubtedly the stronger of the two in a pinch, the peco wanders back in a circle toward its companion anyway. He mounts up, muttering indignantly at what is becoming a daily ritual.

JENNA: "That animal is going to trample one or both of us and run off someday," Jo remarks, bringing her bird around and starting for the river. Then she pauses, looking over at Shane. "Well, you know where we're headed ... lead the way!" She grins at him, amused by this reversal in their usual roles.

JUSTIN: * Shane smiles smugly, patting the book in his pocket, and snaps the reigns lightly with a twist of his heels into his birds feathers. It starts off immediately, head feathers bristling briefly into a crest, but otherwise remains quiet in its usual manner. "First to that waterfall of yours, and then we look for a mountain that we've never heard about. Oh, and we can't forget the cave." He turns a look over his shoulder at her, brows lifting in a teasing manner. "Hope there haven't been any earthquakes. Would be a shame if the cave was gone."

JENNA: "Awkward, to say the least," Jo mutters, following him and looking around at the trees and rocks before turning her attention ahead. "I don't know this territory very well.. so I wouldn't know if there's been any major upheaval lately." She trots up beside him, shrugging. "With any luck, not."

JUSTIN: * Shane grins, chuckling lightly again, looking ahead only to make sure his peco is going in the right direction, and no low branches are in his path. "Considering how old this journal is, any major upheaval could have happened over a century ago and still be considered old news." He clucks at his peco lightly, steering it to run in the shallows of the river instead, as the bank itself is becoming too steep for safe riding. "But in either case, earthquakes are a rarity in the Republic, as far as I can tell. So I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

JENNA: * Jo follows with a yawn, watching her bird ruffle its feathers again as it splashes through the water, creating much more of a stir than it really ought. "Well, the markings were still there, so it can't have been more than a few hundred ..." She scratches her cheek, shrugging.

JUSTIN: * Shane shrugs his shoulder lightly, watching the scenery around them absently as they go. They can't possibly miss the waterfall, so there's no reason to keep a close eye on their path. "That depends on how he made them, really. I don't know much about magic, but I know a little can go a long way. Maybe he didn't want those marks disappearing anytime this millenium."

JENNA: * Jo decides this is a terrible thought, but she doesn't voice her opinion, nodding instead and plucking boredly at her peco's feathers. With the pace they're keeping, it isn't terribly long before they reach the waterfall, which splashes on, merrily oblivious, and she trots partway into the pool, glancing at Shane expectantly.

JUSTIN: * Shane rubs at his chin in thought, stopping his bird in the shallows and looking back and forth over the scene. "Hm. Well, we can't scale the rock face, with or without pecos. We'll have to go north or south until we find a gradual slope. Probably won't take too long." Puffing a breath to blow some loose strands of hair from his face -- he really needs to plan for a haircut sometime soon -- he looks about again, then nods. "Let's cross here and go north. River is probably swifter up top, no telling if it'll be easier or harder to cross later." He takes the lead again, leading his bird deeper into the river, in spite its loud objections.

JENNA: * Jo nods, content to follow for now, and finding it leaves her much time to simply let her mind wander. "I wonder how old he was when he first explored," she remarks, glancing at the rock that splits the waterfall before nudging her peco to catch up with Shane. "He must have done a lot of wandering." The idea seems much more intimidating in a time before there were roads and maps.

JUSTIN: * Shane nods his head absently, glancing down now and then to make sure his bird has good footing as they trot back up the far bank and into the forest again. "Pioneering was an important career back then. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like, back when everything was still new. And fascinating, thinking about it. Hundreds of years ago, young men and women were walking through these very woods, documenting new plants that we take for granted today. It was all new back then..." His obsession with learning and knowledge, coupled with his insatiable curiousity, makes Shane briefly wonder if he wouldn't have taken that lifestyle, in another time and place.

JENNA: * Jo lets him talk, smiling briefly when he lapses into thought. "Hard to say how things would have been different," she says quietly, imagining that, even then, there was a place for thieves and bandits. "Still ... I wonder where he saw the mountain ..." She looks up, though she's unable to see beyond the treeline, and tries to picture something there.

JUSTIN: * Shane reaches back a hand, scratching the side of his neck and shaking his head. "That's the thing that's got me puzzled. It's entirely possible that he overstated the stature of a large hill, but his writing doesn't indicate that he's prone to exaggeration." He sighs quietly, shrugging. "Maybe we're in for a surprise, and there's a mountain under our noses that we didn't know about." The high ridge to their left continues to gradually lose height, melding into more easily navigable hill, and Shane eventually turns his peco to make the ascent.

JENNA: "Well, hopefully the cave isn't too hard to find, right?" Her peco balks at the hill, and she gives it a sharp smack to get it moving again. "Even if we haven't got a mountain to look for, a big hole might be just as easy to spot." She doesn't get her hopes too high, however, in spite of a strong desire not to be proven wrong.

JUSTIN: "Well, we can always hope, right? I already know where the quarry is that was used when Juno city was being expanded, so at least I won't make that mistake." Shane grins a bit, then concentrates on navigating the unbeaten path they're treading up the hill. The march continues back south toward the river, and from there they follow the instructions in the journal, keeping to the river for another hour before it waves goodbye and departs due south. From there, Shane tries to keep them heading as accurately northwestward as possible, the terrain beginning to slope downward shortly, and continuing to do so with increasing steepness the further they go. It doesn't take long for him to begin to recognize where it is they're going, and sure enough, the forest finally breaks to find them in the belly of a deep valley. A sheer cliff wall rises at the southwest, with familiar, overgrown stonework barely visible at the top. Even more obvious is the ominous, looming monster that is the floating capital city of Juno in the sky far above.

JENNA: * Jo stares quietly at the floating city, huffing a sudden, low sigh and scratching her head. "Well, back where we started, so to speak." She pushes forward, however, determined to at least have a look around before abandoning the effort completely.

JUSTIN: * Shane scratches the back of his head, arching an eyebrow at the dark object -- deceptively small -- in the sky above. "Guess so..." He quickly returns his attention to the ground, however, as Jo starts to leave him behind. His peco catches up easily, and the pair of them trot further into the bottom of the basin valley. He clears his throat a bit, feeling very sheepish for what he's about to say. "I, ah... neglected to say. He describes the mountain as resting on the edge of a valley slope. I figured it couldn't be referring to this one, but..." He stares up at Juno, then down at the craggy rocks lining the western edge of the valley. "I wonder..."

JENNA: "Doesn't hurt to check," Jo calls back to him, gaze flicking rapidly around the area in search of something that might be -- or might hide -- a cave entrance. She pauses, though, glancing back at her companion. "Say, Shane.. was Juno always floating in the sky like that? I mean.. did they build it that way?"

JUSTIN: * Shane tilts his head, considering the question. "Well... according to the historical records, the founding Sages gouged the base of the city from the valley itself. After it was severed from the earth, one side was made level, and then it was raised. There are power wells encircling the valley that channel strong magic to help keep it afloat. I believe they constructed the city after it was secured in the air, so there wouldn't be any stress to the buildings during the levitation."

JENNA: * Jo glances up at the city's underside, shaking her head a moment, and pushes on into the valley. "I don't know.. this valley doesn't seem near deep enough to make up for all that stone." She looks ahead a few paces, frowning slightly. The area is mostly cleared, with scrubby brush here and there, but she still sees no sign of a cave.

JUSTIN: * Shane's head tilts back the other way, and he continues to favor the far western slope during their search. It's slighlty steeper than the other walls of the valley, and certainly much more rocky. "I think we should look over there." He says quietly, still puzzling over the mystery in his head. "It just seems out of place. Like..." He trails off and looks up at Juno again, the craggy underside of the city the same dull color as the exposed stone clustered at that edge of the valley. "If there's a cave, it's likely among those rocks."

JENNA: * Jo nods, as it's as good a place as any to look, and she nudges her peco in that direction, pausing to look around. Eventually, she swings down from her peco and leads it, as the bird seems to take offense at her attempts to push it further. "I wonder if he actually looked in the cave, instead of just using it for a landmark," she says suddenly, though she doesn't feel particularly inclined to explore it herself.

JUSTIN: * As they near the rockier side of the valley, Shane slips down from his peco as well, leading it across the rough, precarious footing. "If he didn't explore it, someone probably has. I can't imagine nobody's looked around down here in all that time." He smiles a bit, glancing over at Jo. "I haven't heard any tales of cave-dwelling monsters living beneath the city, in any case, so if you want to give it a look..." He shrugs, smile becoming a grin. "Of course, I wouldn't want to sidetrack you from your treasure hunt."

JENNA: * She glances at him sideways, but she lets the dig pass, pushing ahead a little bit to clamber over some rocks. Glancing back at her peco, she frowns, then climbs back over and looks for a place to tie him up. "Well, if there aren't any monsters, we can probably leave the featherheads tied to a rock or something." She springs down, finding instead of a rock a low tree that suits her, and she ties the bird to it before resuming her walk.

JUSTIN: * Shane leads his bird over to the small tree, tying it up beside Jo's, and then begins to walk and climb over the rocky terrain after her. "Just watch your footing... I don't want you breaking anything." He keeps close to her, just in case. Common sense indicates that she doesn't need the warning or the help, but he's not particularly concerned about it at the moment. There's a sudden dip in the landscape, opening up into a craggy basin, shallow but wide on all sides. At one end, there is an almost path-like opening that leads behind a wall of sheer rock spikes -- beyond that, they can't yet see.

JENNA: * Jo glances at Shane, wrinkling her nose a little at his warning -- she doesn't /recall/ having given herself major injury by falling recently. The path-like opening seems as good a place as any to head, though she eyes the stone walls with a certain amount of suspicion. She doesn't like things falling on her any more than she likes falling off of things.

JUSTIN: * Shane continues to stick close, looking about at the jagged bowl of rock with equal suspicion. With nothing but stone walls on all sides, and no trace of the lush, grassy valley left in sight, it is almost as though they've been transported to some distant and inhospitable land. He clears his throat quietly, tugging his coat closer around him, and tries to put his overactive imagination to rest for the moment. The path leads down away from the stone and rock to a deeper part of the valley that was hidden from them before. Down below is a patchwork of dead, brown grass and scraggly, wasted shrubs, and -- surprisingly -- what looks like the remains of old buildings. The fallen, white stone blocks are browned with age and dirt, covered over in ivy and moss, but Shane can clearly identify the architectural style from historical records. What is probably of more interest to Jo, however, is the dark opening in the rock wall on the other side of the ghostly remnants of earlier settlement.

JENNA: * Jo casts a cursory glance at the ruins, wondering vaguely why the explore didn't mention them as well, but her attention is, in fact, caught by the dark opening, and she makes for it at once, clambering over fallen structures with more haste than care. She manages to keep herself from injury, however, halting in front of the cave with an air of triumph and turning back to look at Shane.

JUSTIN: * Shane's attention remains on the ruins for a short period of time, wondering why he never knew they were here, but Jo's enthusiasm drags him along with its sheer energy. He stares past her into the dark opening, slowly bringing his eyes to her triumphant face. "I guess we found your cave." He concedes, folding his arms over his chest lightly. "And Omar's mountain..." His head tilts back, and sure enough, Juno is still where it always is, a dark mass against the afternoon sun. "Has apparently migrated in the last few centuries."

JENNA: "Omar's mountain," Jo remarks, "is probably floating in the sky." She pauses to peer in the cave, expression curious, then glances over her shoulder at Shane. "So where to next?" she asks, affecting an air of innocence as she walks over to a nearby chunk of building and seats herself on it, watching him. "Guess we won't be getting lost for the moment, at least."

JUSTIN: * Shane ambles over, dropping onto the stone block beside her with a grunt and a sigh. "Well, let's see." He slides the book out of his pocket, quickly finding the page he last left off at. "Mmm... well, this could take five minutes or an hour, depending on how much he has to say about his stay here." He lowers the book again, arching an eyebrow in Jo's direction. "I hope you're comfortable."

JENNA: "I'm fine," Jo responds with a grin, watching him as he flips through the book. "It's not a bad little spot, lack of water aside. I wonder why he never mentioned the ruins ... unless they came after him." She looks at the fallen buildings, apparently finding this idea a little disturbing. She falls silent afterward, however, leaving Shane to his reading.

JUSTIN: * Shane crosses one leg over the other, folding one arm in his lap and holding the book aloft in the other hand. He looks for all the world like a noble in his armchair -- all he needs is a cocktail and a cigar, a roaring fire, and shelves of books spaced around pricey paintings, and the facade would be complete. This lasts for at least another half an hour, quietly turning pages without speaking, until finally he lowers the book to rub at his eyes. "Well, we need to go back eastward again. Due east, in fact. Omar likes to zig-zag, it seems. We'll be looking for a big lake."

JENNA: * Jo watches him with some amusement as he reads, getting to her feet when he gives their marching orders. "I guess that'll be easy to spot, provided it hasn't dried up." She looks skyward, where the sun is beginning to sink, and glances at her companion again. "Should we camp here or try to move out of the valley before it gets too dark?" She frowns slightly, as they really haven't traveled far today.

JUSTIN: * Shane tucks the book away into his coat, giving a quick stretch and then slapping Jo on the back lightly. "Rest? Rest is for the dead. We still have daylight, let's shove off." He doesn't wait for an answer before making his way back through the ruins toward their exit. He does glance back at her once, though, grinning lazily. "And don't worry. Even a dried-up lake bed should be easy to spot, if it's as big as he claims."

JENNA: * Jo grins, following him, and sticks her hands behind her head as they make their way out of the ruined city. "I wonder what he found at the end of all his wandering ..." She catches up with Shane, hopping over a couple of rocks and pausing. "Must really be something, if Teague was after it."

JUSTIN: * Shane's eyes are concentrating on the climb now, as it's a bit trickier getting out of the hole than it was to get in. He's making easy progress, though, if a bit slow. "Well..." He says when he finds a good point to rest at. "I wonder if Teague even knows what it is, specifically. The journal never says what it is." He turns her a weak, guilty grin. "Yeah, I read the end of the book. Curiousity, you know? Wanted to know what we were chasing." He begins climbing again, the slope becoming more gradual until the path spills into the rock basin again. "But it doesn't say. It's like Omar just stopped keeping entries after finding the location he was looking for... But it must be something epic, judging by how excited he was."

JENNA: "Shouldn't be boring, at least." Jo makes her way out with relative ease, pausing now and again to look at the ruins behind them. She pauses at the top, bidding it a final farewell before trotting around to see if the pecos have run off. The birds, however, are exactly where they were left, ruffling their feathers and squawking occasionally as if to make conversation.

JUSTIN: * Shane's whistling quietly to himself as they finally make their way back down the rocks toward the grassier side of the valley, and the noise alerts the pecos of their arrival ahead of time. The reaction is what should be expected -- Jo's begins to complain loudly, and Shane's becomes suddenly fascinated with something on the far side of the small tree. "Oh, don't give me that. You wouldn't want to stay here all day, and you know it."

JENNA: * Jo doesn't even dignify her bird's comments with a response, reaching up to untie it and tug it away from the tree in spite of its resistance. "Buck up," she says. "The walking should be easier, at least." It fluffs its feathers at her.

JUSTIN: * Shane corners his peco by a rock, and it doesn't have anywhere to go while it's tied by its neck to a tree. "You should be plenty used to this by now. You're supposed to be battle trained! Show a little discipline!" He unties the reigns and leads it away from the gravelly soil, back to the grass before mounting up. "Due east, due east." He says mostly to himself, checking the sun to get his bearings, and then turning toward Jo to wait for her.

JENNA: * Jo doesn't take long to catch up, mounting in similar fashion and smacking the bird lightly in the back of the head. "Well, they did all right in a fight, it's just the travel they don't like." She waits for Shane to take the lead, comfortably assured that he knows where he's taking them and largely elated that they get to go exploring.

JUSTIN: * Shane is quick to find their direction -- not exactly east at first, as they need to first get out of the valley, but once that problem is surmounted, he gets them lined up again easily enough. "A nice, big lake. I hope it's not all dried up." He glances back at Jo, then forward again, casual in the saddle as they move. "My parents used to take me to a lake during the summer, sometimes. Only way I could learn to swim. Not sure why they thought that important for someone who lives in a floating city." He grins, thinking back on the memories fondly. "Came in handy during that shipwreck, though, didn't it?" He peers back at her a second time. "No preparing for some things, so I guess it's best to take advantage of what you can prepare for. Even if it seems obscure to you at the time."

JENNA: "I can swim," Jo says seeming almost defensive at having to be rescued -- even if it wasn't entirely her doing. "I don't really remember when I learned, though." She trots up alongside him, smiling faintly. "Maybe it's the one Omar's talking about. I don't know that there are many lakes around here."

JUSTIN: "It may be." Shane nods absently, staring off into the forest with a very relaxed air about him. "I never did pay attention to where it was. Didn't much care about that sort of thing when I was young." He turns his head back around to look at her, cocking it at an angle. "Of course you can swim. I did find you in the river, remember?" A little grin twitches his lips upward. "Surprised I still knew what to do. I never went to the lake again after my parents died. I guess once you learn, it just becomes instinct."

JENNA: * Jo decides against arguing that she might have just stayed in the shallows to bathe, instead shrugging slightly. "Guess so ... sometimes a few of the guild members would go out to the oasis and swim for fun, but I didn't go very often." She scratches her cheek, smiling faintly. "I wasn't very social, I suppose."

JUSTIN: * Shane shakes his head a bit, shifting in the saddle and letting out a bright yawn. "Now, I find that hard to believe. You're so /good/ with people." He slides his eyes back to her, but his face stays forward, hiding the smile on the far side of his lips. "Though you do seem to do a lot of talking with your fists."

JENNA: * Jo gives a very unladylike snort. "Only when the people I'm talking to refuse to listen to me," she sniffs, making a face at him. "I had an ally or two.. that was really all I needed. I did miss running with my crew sometimes, though." She grins gamely, though she's somewhat alarmed at realizing how lonely she was.

JUSTIN: * Shane rubs at his neck, knowing he's probably guilty for at least half of the times she hit him -- though he's not about to admit it out loud. "What kept you working for the guild for so long? Did you ever think about moving on?" It's a fairly pointless question, since she's gone now whether she ever thought about it in the past or not. But either way, it makes him think about his work in the guard, which lasted long after he'd lost his taste for it.

JENNA: * Jo looks thoughtful, gaze drifting down as she considers the question. "I didn't really think about it.. I didn't mind the work, and it kept me fed ... and I got to travel. Can't say I cared for the company, though." She glances at him sideways, expression curiously flat. "What about you?"

JUSTIN: * Shane should have expected that obvious turn around. He leans back in his saddle, face somber as he thinks about the question. "I joined the academy at a young age. It was something my parents always wanted, and after they died, I couldn't think of anything better to do with myself." He goes quiet for a moment, staring ahead physically while his mind is looking back. "I rather enjoyed the work, at first. Saw it as a chance to make up for my lack of concern as a child. It didn't take many years to realize Juno isn't a place to expect gratitude. I was fine with it, of course. The work was its own reward, after all -- I didn't deserve or need recognition." He turns her a blank look, broken only by a weary smile. "That didn't last very long, either. Ten years in the guard, and over half of it was the system slowly whittling away my resolve." He sighs, rubbing at his forehead. "I don't ever regret trying to be the better person my parents hoped I would be. But... Mm."

JENNA: * Jo watches him silently for a moment, for the moment keeping her opinion that he should have left much sooner to herself. "Do you think they'd mind what you're doing now? Your parents, that is." She doubts her own are terribly pleased with her vagabond lifestyle, but she also doubts they hold it against her.

JUSTIN: * Shane can only shrug his shoulders, looking fairly hopeless at the thought of it. "Probably don't want to think about it. They were simple folk. I'm simple folk." He smiles vaguely, ducking under an approaching tree branch. "They wanted me to help the community. I doubt they ever even imagined that I'd be galavanting around the world, waving my sword and gun around and risking my life for a handful of zenny." He sniffs, scratching at his cheek, and again he shrugs. "But they won't have to worry about it, so I guess that's some comfort."

JENNA: * Jo nods slowly, then shrugs in turn. She feels vaguely as if she should apologize, but she doesn't. "It's an honest living.. even if it doesn't seem like it. More honest than my previous occupation, anyway." She looks ahead a bit, smiling briefly -- and a little wistfully. "I can't say I can think of anything that would be ideal."

JUSTIN: * Shane's solemn look breaks with a slight grin, and he turns her an amused look. "I suppose, in a manner of speaking, I've rescued you from a life of crime." He tilts his head, as if considering, and scratches at his neck. "I guess it isn't a total waste, then." He looks ahead again, sitting up in his saddle and trying to look more alert than he is. "At least the jobs keep us sharp. There isn't much else I'd be qualified for."

JENNA: * Jo rolls her eyes at his jest, but she eventually nods, agreeing on his final point. "This is really the only life I know. I doubt I'd be good at anything that kept me in one place." She glances at him, but nothing else springs to mind, and she settles for watching the darkening sky.

JUSTIN: * Shane smiles slimly, distantly. "We'll find something, someday. And maybe you'll even like it." He doesn't make any other promises beyond that, knowing she will hope to the contrary. As much as his thoughts want to wander around and dwell on each of these subjects in turn, he tries his best to keep focused on the present. He checks the sky every so often to ensure their course is correct, but is content to leave the conversation where he left it.

JENNA: * Jo remains silent as well, at least until she realizes it's gotten quite dark, and they'd be better off looking for a campsite than fumbling around in a forest. "We'd better stop," she says quietly, reaching over to touch Shane's arm and emphasize the point. "We can get moving early tomorrow."

JUSTIN: * Shane draws in a deep breath, leaning back in his saddle and blinking a bit before he looks over at her, like coming out of a daydream. "Hm?" He glances upward, as if only just now noticing the darkness, even though he'd been using the stars for guidance. "Mm, you're probably right." He slows his peco, looking about the nearby forest to see if there are any spots suitable for camp in the immediate viscinity. Luckily, he can make out what looks like a circular clearing not too far off their path, and so he steers toward it.

JENNA: * Jo grins at him, though he can't see it in the dark, and she swings down from her peco, tying it quickly to a nearby tree. "Want to dispense with the fire tonight? I just want to get some rest -- unless you're hungry." She swings her pack down from her shoulders, watching him questioningly.

JUSTIN: * Shane shakes his head a bit, dropping from his bird and lazily fastening the reigns to the tree. "I can pick at some jerky if I get hungry." He stretches, then rubs at his neck with a quiet groan. "Who knew riding all day could make you so drowsy." A small, silent yawn slips out, and he covers it with a hand before sliding his pack to the ground. "Too much thinking, I think." He pauses, then grins stupidly, shaking his head.

JENNA: * Jo nods, ambling over to lay her gear out next to his and settle on the ground, tugging her cloak out for cover. "I guess it was a busy day, even if we didn't go very far." She pauses to stretch, then rubs at one eye, looking skyward through the foliage and wondering vaguely to herself whether the sky was the same in Omar's time -- and whether the forest was around then. Eventually, however, she decides the speculation is mostly pointless.

JUSTIN: * Shane settles onto the ground beside her, turning to fetch his spare cloak from his pack. For the moment, he simply holds it in his lap, looking briefly up at the crescent moon. "Not everyday we leave the beaten path behind." He muses, then turns his attention to Jo's face, which is lit by moonlight through a break in the canopy. "To travel straight into the unknown."

JENNA: * She smiles at him briefly, then turns to her pack, wrestling it around to something more comfortable. "The unknown's healthy, sometimes. There'd be nothing new without it, anyway." She gives a final stretch, tugging her cloak around her with a sleepy smile. "Or something, anyway."

JUSTIN: * Shane slides his hat off his head, letting it fall to the ground between their packs. He spends a moment staring at the sky in thought, mind distant again for that brief time, and then he brings his eyes to her again with a fond smile. "I suppose I've been wandering in the unknown ever since I chased you out of Juno that first time." He reaches a hand over, grazing her jawline with a few fingers. "So it can have its benefits, if you give them time to develop."

JENNA: * Jo's expression turns surprised, face going slightly pink as she suppresses a shiver at the unexpected touch. "Unexpected benefits," she manages to get out, reaching up to catch hold of his hand, smiling faintly, though she goes a shade or two redder. "Not that I'm complaining."

JUSTIN: * Shane chuckles lightly, getting a bit flushed at the sight of Jo's pink cheeks. "I certainly hope not, after all the trouble we've caused each other already." For some reason he's feeling particularly brave this evening. Perhaps it's all the talking they've done throughout the day, or maybe he just feels safer with no light for her to see his blush by. Whatever the case, he tugs her close next to him, practically into his lap, and leans back against the tree. He's quiet for a brief moment, apparently debating what to do or say, and then settles on a quiet sigh. "I guess we'd better get that sleep we stopped for. Long day ahead of us."

JENNA: * Jo utters a faint sigh at this pronouncement, nestling against him with a very small yawn, as if to indicate she's perfectly comfortable where she is. "Maybe so," she murmurs, making no particular effort to disguise her disappointment. "The sooner we track him down, the sooner we start making money again." She does not, however, see fit to move just yet -- a game attempt to delay the inevitable.

JUSTIN: * Shane doesn't seem to be making any rush to discard her yet, either, in spite of his suggestion. His arms fold around her comfortably, the slope of the tree "just so" that he can recline without sacrificing support. He rests his head against hers, eyes slipping shut. "Mhm... at least we've managed to hang on to most of our extra profits. We should be fine for a while."

JENNA: * Jo nods very slightly -- not enough to unsettle Shane -- and curls an arm comfortably around his waist. "If it's as close as it looks, it'd be hard for us to lose everything on it." She sighs drowsily, yawning again and settling comfortably against him. It's another moment before her eyes drift closed, somewhat to her surprise -- though she's too sleepy to do anything about it.

JUSTIN: * With the comfort provided by Jo's proximity -- a strange turn from the usual anxiety it instills -- Shane is quickly losing his hold on wakefulness. It takes him several seconds to remember to reply to her statement, and then it is little more than a murmur of agreement and an unrelated sigh of contentment. With little warning, he falls completely asleep, the only sign for Jo being the slight decrease of pressure from his arms around her.

JENNA: * Jo's only response is to tug drowsily at his shirt, but she's too drowsy to do more than that, nestling down a little more before dozing off herself. Her sleep is comfortable and undisturbed, except by any shifting from her companion in the night, and her dreams are uneventful.