Away from comfort [NPC/ Ashelin]

[Rick]

He'd be lying if he said her threat didn't shock him a little. She looked dangerous, yes, but he didn't expect for her to fluff up with just a harmless request. As much as he wouldn't want to break his polite persona for dealing with strangers, threats never felt well to him.

"Take it easy, man. I just thought you could help me out. Which you did, so thank you for that, but no need to get aggressive over it", he said with a frown, then took a short step back.

"I'm sorry, ok. This is actually my first few days in the Omniverse and... yeah." She sighned.

Well, maybe he overreacted on his judgement, just as she did with his request. Some of the tension on his body slipped away.

"This place...", she continued, "I heard from a good friend of mine, Jak. We are in the Omniverse."

"Yeah, I know. I just read all that stuff up in the library. Glad to know I'm not the only newbie out there" He smirked at her, and relaxed his hands on his hips.

She nodded, and now with a less stern voice, she said "Let me tell you a funny story: I got summoned here during one of my old boyfriend's drunken dreams." She grumbled and looked down "Sorry for the threats, bad things had happened to me over time, it's a lot to handle."

"It's ok. We all lose our shit every now and then" As if it never happened to him... Rick glanced at the beach at the end of the street. "So, you and your boyfriend are staying here on vacation?"

She nodded again "Yeah, it's a long story. But my friend's not around, he left for a place called the Frozen Fields." She fell quiet for a moment, as she held out what appeared to be a photo. He couldn't see what it was about.

He broke the short silence, and pointed at the map on her hands. "And you're... heading up there?"

"No, I'm heading toward a desert-like place they called the Endless Dunes. I'm looking for a man named Damas, Jak's father."

No idea who those people were. "And you're doing that alone? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Yeah, unless you got some experience..." The woman scratched her neck "Ok, tell you what. Are you good at cars, racing?"

Oh lady... "You're looking at the Earth Prix grand champion for three consecutive years. I think that qualifies as good with cars and racing"

He smiled for himself; short snaps of many races and cups he won throughout his life crossed his mind. While he was probably getting carried away by sharing this part of him, it was imposible for him to not think about his life passion, regardless of how true that was at the moment.