{chapter 5}
Tuuri grimaced at the map she now held in her hands. "Uh, Lalli..." She whispered, tapping her cousin on the shoulder. An irritated 'Mrrr' drifted from the scout as he started to wake.
"What do you want, now?!"
"Use Swedish, you have to get used to it."
"What, do, you, want?" He growled, a pause between each word. It was still a bit of a struggle to speak in the odd language.
"I need help figuring out your notes," Tuuri gave him the map. She pointed to three circled areas, three different possible camps. "I can't remember what one of the three..."
Lalli shut his eyes tight, trying to remember, as well. "This." He pointed to the circle on his right. He went back to Finnish to scold her, "Now let me sleep, Onni will probably be panicking now that I was woken up!" Tuuri just grumbled something and showed the location to Erika while Lalli huffed and leaned against Emil's shoulder, trying to contact his cousin once more. Reynir had perked up at the familiar name, and decided to try and sleep, too, he hadn't seen the Finnish Mage in awhile.
"You guys are fine." Erika nodded approvingly before pointing to the next circle, which was quite close. "That one is our camp, so we wouldn't try to burn everything over there. Yet, anyway."
"Well, then let's move! It's almost noon!" Sigrun clapped her hands together with a wide grin. "We might have time to drop off you three if we hurry! Emil, help me pack up!" Emil glanced at the scout and then at Sigrun with a sigh.
"If he hurts me I'm blaming you, for the record." He announced, carefully moving Lalli. The attempt failed. Lalli hissed and ran in to the tank with a curse, probably hiding in some dark corner. With the scout out of the way, they were able to gather their things, finally, and cram in to the cat-tank. It was, most definitely, a bit tighter than usual. That should probably have been expected with three other people joining them.
"So this is what you spent allll winter in?" Erika questioned, peeking through the the doorway in to the sleeping quarters. "All of you? Whole group? All winter?"
"Yyyes... Why?" Emil muttered and pushed past her to sit on his own bed, barely noticing the scout hiding underneath it. Lalli was staring at them all with a look of pure death. Erika shrugged and gingerly stepped inside, gazing around the room.
"I don't know, no reason... Just seems kind of small," She leaned on the wall, not noticing Lalli's hand reaching out from beneath the bed.
"Not really, but it only feels small with nine people and a cat... Or sometimes it's like eight people and two cats." Emil joked, letting out a small chuckle.
"I'm guessing the night scout is th-AAH!" She was cut off as she was spooked by something moving at high speeds inches from her face. Quick as lightning, Lalli had fled the room.
"Wha-LALLI?" Emil called after him. He looked out the doorway to see the mage glaring at him. The ice blue eyes were haunting. Emil tried not to flinch. "What was that all about?"
"No trust!" Lalli managed to say before running away to the front of the tank. Tuuri looked at him quizzically.
"Thought you were sleeping?"
"But then the braid one showed up." Lalli hissed in Finnish, pointing to a sleeping Reynir. The Icelander was laying on his side behind the couch, as if he had fallen over. Sigrun, Mikkel, and the two cleansers sat on the couch, having some sort of dull conversation Lalli didn't care about.
"Well then why did Emil yell at you?" She patted the seat beside her. Lalli grudgingly sat down, promptly curling up and putting his head down with his eyes clamped shut.
"Doesn't matter."
"At least tell me what made you come running out here?" Tuuri pleaded. Lalli let out a low 'Mrrrr'. Erika peeked her head around the doorway.
"Uh, Lalli, was it? Just, uh, sorry for whatever I did to upset you, I guess?" She stammered, looking down as the scout gave her another death glare. Emil peered around the doorway just above her, switching the glare to him.
"Oh come on, what did I do now? Your the one who did wrong, this time." Lalli put his hands over his ears and Emil threw his arms in the air in defeat, walking back to the sleeping quarters. Erika frowned and joined him. Sigrun glanced between the door and the scout, their conversation disrupted by the young cleansers and the occasional Finnish mumbling.
"What's up with them, fuzzy head?" The captain asked, putting her arms behind her head. Tuuri tensed.
"Lalli doesn't want to talk about it, but I'm sure Emil or Erika will, later. " Tuuri mumbled, glancing briefly at Lalli, who still had his ears covered and eyes shut. "Someone could be sleep deprived... Or maybe a bit jealous..."
Sigrun snickered and narrowed her eyes with a smug expression. "Oh, once these three are gone it should be all fine, then, right?" At that point, Lalli had just moved his hands from his ears to his mouth as his face tinted green.
"We should not assume such things. I'm sure we will figure out just what the problem is, sooner or later." Mikkel shook his head with sigh. And with that, the scout ran off, looking paler than usual.
*******
Emil woke up to a blunt pain on his forehead. Lalli was glaring down at him in full uniform, a rolled notebook in hand. He quickly grabbed his coat and went to pull on his boots.
"What was that for? Couldn't have just said my name or something?" He tilted his head and grabbed his gear.
"Captain is already outside. You didn't wake up." The scout grumbled with difficulty. He wandered out of the room and returned the notebook before bringing Tuuri's mask to her and putting it in her hands. Then he swiftly retreated out the door and darted through the buildings, scanning them for any sickened beings or undead.
It was a few minutes before the scout finally returned and gave the all clear, sliding his dagger back in to his belt. The cleansers were still there, they would have to spend the night as it was already pretty dark. Lalli narrowed his eyes as Erika reached up to rub the back of her neck, asking Sigrun something. There was some darkness about her. Something like the trolls. He didn't want his cousin to be anywhere near this diseased cleanser.
