"Tents aren't gonna cut it, Yun," Ezra said, shivering in her soaked cloak. "We need a roof over our heads."

"It's too bad," Yona sighed, glancing up at the angry gray sky. "I was looking forward to seeing the lush, green land of the Water Tribe... but all I see is rain."

Ezra gave a discontented grumble. She didn't remember it raining so much the last time she'd visited the Water Tribe, and she hated moving about in wet clothes.

"Yes," Yun agreed. "We'll find an inn to stay at tonight."

"Woo!" Yona and Ezra cheered, giving each other a high five.

~~~

After another hour of walking, they found an inn at the Water Tribe port town of Shisen and rented their cheapest room for the night. 

As soon as they were in the room, Zeno shed his wet clothes and wrapped himself up in a dry blanket.

"I feel much better!" he announced happily.

Shinah followed suit, shrugging out of his wet robe. Ezra immediately turned away, cheeks flaming. She could've sworn she heard Hak laughing at her under his breath, but she was too preoccupied looking away to give him the knock on the head that he deserved. 

A moment later, Yona tapped Ezra on the shoulder to let her know the coast was clear. When Ezra faced the group again, Shinah had wrapped himself up in a blanket, appearing blissfully warm. 

"By the way, I want to change out of these wet clothes as well, so all the boys need to leave," Yona ordered.

"Fine, fine, we're going," Hak said with a roll of his eyes.

As soon as everyone but Yona had filed out of the room, Ezra gratefully changed out of her soaked clothes and wrung them out as best she could. She dug through her pack, sighing when she found that most of her things were damp from the rain. She managed to find a dry sleeveless tunic and a pair of shorts that she usually wore underneath her regular clothes, and Yona lent her a cloak to cover herself with. 

Ezra nodded to Yona, and together they stepped out of the room to let the boys back in. 

"I thought it'd be fun if we went together," they heard Jaeha saying to Hak.

Yona immediately snapped to attention. "Where are you going?" she asked.

Jaeha haphazardly slung his arm around Hak's shoulder. "To a shop with girls," he told her with an innocent smile.

"I'm not going," Hak said resolutely, glaring at Jaeha as he swatted the Ryokuryu's arm away from him.

Even a blind man would've seen how Yona's eyes lightened at Hak's comment. "Really?" she asked.

Ezra thought she saw Jaeha's expression fall just a bit, but his normal smirk returned to his features so quickly that she doubted herself. "Then I'll just take a stroll by myself," he said, burying his hands in his pockets and stepping away.

"Jaeha," Ezra called after him.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, eyebrow raised.

"Be careful!" Yona said before Ezra could respond.

Jaeha smiled and nodded, though his eyes were sad. He turned and strode off, and Ezra caught up to him a few paces down the hall.

"Would you like me to go with you?" Ezra asked, concerned about his strange behavior.

For the briefest moment, it looked as if the Ryokuryu might say yes. But then he tilted his head, a familiar gleam entering his purple eyes. "You would like to accompany me to a brothel, wearing that?" His eyes drifted towards her outfit. "I won't say no, but I'm certain you won't enjoy it."

Ezra let out a huff. "Forget I asked."

Jaeha just grinned at her and walked off. Even as his crude words echoed in her mind, Ezra couldn't help feeling like she shouldn't have let him go on his own.

She turned with a sigh to return to the room and found that Shinah was the only one left lingering in the hall. Her heart picked up speed.

Ever since they were interrupted on the street in the Wanderer's Market, Shinah hadn't spoken more than two words to her. It was almost as if he was avoiding her. Every time their gazes met, he would turn away with what Ezra swore was a slight flush on his cheeks. 

Just what the hell had she said after Hiryuu Castle to make him so nervous?

"Shinah--"

She was too late; he'd already turned and disappeared back into their room with the others. She didn't follow him. Gone was the easy companionship they had shared, and Ezra missed it more than she cared to admit. But she didn't know what to do to fix the invisible rift that was growing between them. 

Alone in the hall, Ezra wrapped her arms around her stomach and pressed her back against the wall, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. Even on top of her issues with Shinah and worries about Jaeha's strange behavior, something about this town had given her the chills, and she couldn't seem to get warm despite her dry clothes and the walls around her fending off the cold from outside. It reminded her of the same feeling she'd gotten when she first arrived in Awa, and she never expected to feel the same sensation in a territory whose beauty had once filled her with an emptiness so vast she'd felt compelled to leave almost immediately. 

Ezra shivered, feeling lost and cold and inexplicably on edge. It felt like there was a weight on her chest, squeezing painfully until she was nearly drowning in a sea of anxiety. Something just wasn't right.

Her eyes flew open. After everything that had happened once she'd returned to Awa with her friends, she should know by now to trust her instincts.

She rushed into the room, startling her companions.

"What's wrong, Ez?" Yona asked worriedly.

"Nothing," Ezra said breathlessly, digging through her damp belongings. She untied her borrowed cloak, in too much of a rush to care that she was showing her underthings to her friends, as she began strapping knives to her body. "I want to explore, but I'm not about to go out there unarmed."

Yun rolled his eyes. "I'm surprise that you bathe unarmed."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she donned the forearm braces that held her shuriken under the sleeves of her cloak. "I'll be back later."

She tied the cloak shut around her waist and stood, heading for the door.

"I'll go with you."

Ezra stopped short, glancing over her shoulder at Shinah in surprise. "Are you sure?"

Shinah's face was red as he nodded.

Seriously, what did I say? He can barely look at me now! Curiosity over what was making Shinah so nervous plagued her, even as she dreaded receiving the answer.

Hak leaned over towards Yona. "What's happening there?" he stage-whispered.

"I don't know," Yona stage-whispered back.

Ezra glared at them. "Alright. Come on, Shinah."

She turned and left the room, Shinah on her heels. They stopped by the inn's front desk to borrow an umbrella before stepping out into the rain.

Once outside in the miserable downpour, Ezra snapped the borrowed umbrella open, walking closer to Shinah to keep the rain off both of them. Ezra's face grew warm with the proximity and her heart began to pound in her chest.  Everything in her screamed at her to try to talk to him, to force him to tell her what was bothering him. She shoved the emotions down with a shake of her head.

Something was off in this town. Her feelings would have to wait until she figured out what. 

"What's wrong?" Shinah asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Do you feel that, too?" she responded, her eyes darting around the rain-soaked cobblestone streets. There were few people in sight, which was unsurprising given the current weather. "Something about this place is off. Similar to Awa."

Shinah nodded.

"And then Jaeha just left on his own and... I don't know. I don't have a good feeling about any of this."

They walked for another ten minutes in silence, observing the people around them. While they saw nothing out of the ordinary, the chill never left Ezra's bones.

Suddenly Shinah tensed beside her. "Jaeha," he gasped, his head whipping in the opposite direction.

"What's wrong?" 

"Jaeha... the dragon connection... feels strange," Shinah murmured. "We need to go to him."

"Lead the way," Ezra said, and Shinah took off running. She followed, silently praying that Jaeha hadn't gone and done something incredibly stupid.

By the time they rounded a corner and Jaeha came into sight, all hope of finding him safe and normal vanished. The Ryokuryu lay on the cobblestone street, eyes closed, clothes soaked to the skin. Ezra wondered how long he'd been laying there.

Ezra dropped to her knees beside Jaeha, gently shaking his shoulders. "Jaeha!" she called his name. "Jaeha!"

His eyebrows drew together, a groan escaping his lips. His eyelids fluttered.

"Wake up!" Ezra ordered, tapping his cheek. He showed no outward signs of injury, but she didn't want to hurt him if he bore some wound she couldn't see.

"Yo... na...?" he murmured, eyes opening.

One corner of Ezra's mouth tilted up in a half-smile. "Sorry to disappoint, but no."

The Ryokuryu's eyes were glazed in a way that made Ezra's blood run cold with worry.

"You're... never a disappointment, Ezra," he whispered, eyes fluttering shut once more.

"Hey! Stay with me," Ezra snapped, tapping his cheek once more. 

"Jaeha!" 

Ezra glanced up in surprise to find Yona, Hak, Zeno, Yun, and Kija running towards them.

"What happened?" Yona gasped, kneeling beside Ezra at Jaeha's side.

Ezra shook her head. "I don't know. Shinah said Jaeha's connection felt strange, so we came looking for him."

"Zeno and Kija said the same!" Yona leaned forward, brushing Jaeha's green bangs away from his forehead. "Are you alright, Jaeha?"

Jaeha didn't answer, his eyes still shut.

"Jaeha!" Yona shrieked his name, alarmed.

"Yona, calm down," Ezra ordered quietly. She pressed her fingers against Jaeha's neck, feeling his pulse beat slowly. "He's not dying. He just passed out."

"From what?" 

Ezra glanced up, sharing a troubled look with Hak. "I don't know. We'll have to wait for him to wake up to get the answer to that." Ezra stood, retrieving the umbrella she'd thrown to the ground in her haste to get to Jaeha. She had her suspicions about what Jaeha had done, and she had a feeling Hak did, too. "Let's bring him back to the inn."

Shinah helped Kija get Jaeha onto his back, and together the group turned and made their way back towards the inn.