Evan blushed from Swift's kiss, responding with little more than a small wave and a meek "Yeah... see ya."
With the underground team on their way and the rest of the gang looking ready to go, Evan offered Jen, Darien, Andromeda and Aether encouraging grins. He kept his eyes on the latter in particular. "Hey, I won't be alone. I'll have Carter here."
"Yeah, what am I, fried onions?" the dog humorously huffed from where he sat on the couch.
"Hopefully we'll have some good news for you when we get back this time," Darien mused, heading for the door. "In the meantime, you take care of yourself. I think you've earned it by now."
"After a week like this, definitely," Jen agreed, slapping her brother on the shoulder. "I'll catch up with you later."
"No problem, Jen. See ya guys!" Evan called as the crew stepped out into the hall, off to pursue Rainflower however they saw fit.
And just like that, it was just the keymaster and his dog.
Evan took a deep breath and slumped down on the couch next to Carter, staring almost forlornly out the window. "Welp... now I just gotta figure out a way to keep myself entertained until they return."
Carter raised a brow. "You say that like you're already bored."
"I've been cooped up in this apartment for three days now. I kinda am."
"Well, y'know you don't have to stay here the whole time. Only thing holding you back is your self-esteem."
"I know, I know..." Evan leaned back into the cushions, pondering the suggestion. He was still loath to show himself in public in his current state, but sitting around inside for another whole day didn't exactly appeal to him either. At least yesterday he spent most of that time asleep. He wasn't tired now. He was anxious.
"Okay, well..." Carter offered, sitting up and nudging Evan with his hind paw. "How about we just try a simple conversation and see where things go from there?"
"Okay. You start."
"Alright." Carter turned away and cast a playfully innocent expression at the ceiling. "What did you and Swift do last night?"
"
Ugh..." Evan rolled his eyes. "Start with something else."
"Pfft. Fine. Is there anything else you can tell me about that monster Swift and Ace were talking about?"
Evan let out a sigh. This wasn't going to distract him from Swift's situation, but at least it wasn't a personally embarrassing subject. "Aside from what we already went over with you guys, all she really gave me was a fairly more in-depth description. I think she said it had a Stegosaurus body, lamprey head, tentacle mane, something like that..."
At that, Carter perked up, staring intently at Evan. "That... sounds kinda like an Elder Beast to me. I sorta had a feeling from the start."
"An Elder Beast...?" The moment Carter said that, realization dawned on Evan.
That was why Swift's description felt so familiar. That sort of chimeric amalgamation was commonplace for Elder Beasts, especially considering the tentacles. Still, even though his deja vu had been explained, he still couldn't quite fathom the idea. "But... I thought that Elder Beasts couldn't survive on a physical plane."
"Most of 'em can't," Carter confirmed. "But when they're young –and I mean
really young, like in their infancy– they're sometimes small enough that they won't get crushed under their own weight if they're subjected to earth-level gravity."
"But then why would it try to
eat Swift and the gang? Elder Beasts don't consume physical sustenance."
"Ya got me there. I'm just throwing out my two cents," Carter grunted, jumping off the couch to stretch. "Who knows? Maybe it wasn't looking to eat them. Maybe it was just trying to talk and being way too aggressive about it."
Evan's eyes widened. He knew Carter wasn't being wholly serious with that last quip, but his suggestion nonetheless sparked something in Evan's mind. The details from Swift's recap of yesterday's hunt fell into place. The repeated run-ins the crew had with the monster. Its show of presumed hostility when they tried to speak to it. The fact that every trail to Rainflower led to it instead. When viewed from the new perspective Evan had been provided, it actually did start to make some amount of sense.
It was only a hypothesis... but it was one that Swift and the others needed to know.
Evan rushed into the kitchen and grabbed his phone without a word. He opened Pesterchum, quickly scanning the most recent posts on the bulletin board before preparing to share his latest insight.
Then, after a few seconds of staring at the screen and holding his thumb above the keyboard, Evan turned his phone back off.
"Carter? I need the key."
"Hold on,
what?" Carter immediately deduced what Evan was thinking. "You're going down there??"
"I'm tired of waiting for fate to come to me!" Evan sternly responded, marching over to his dog and retrieving the Paramount Key from the pocket on his collar. "Everyone's out there busting their butts for my sake and I'm just sitting around like some lazy slavedriver!
I'm the one in this mess!
I wanna get myself out of it!"
"Heh..." A smile crossed Carter's muzzle. "I know I should be shocked that you're putting your fat *ss on the line like this, but honestly, I'm just happy to hear you say that."
"I'm gonna disregard that flagrant use of the f-a-t word and just be glad you agree with me." Evan smirked back at Carter and stood up straight. "I still don't know what Patrick and Van's new plan is. Maybe Van figured out the same thing we did. It's worth a shot, figuring out if this thing really is an Elder Beast. It could open the door to a whole lot of answers if we're right."
"Knowing Rainflower, I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow made friends with one of those aberrations," Carter huffed, scratching behind his ear.
"And if they did... maybe it really is just trying to lead us to them." Evan nodded, then held the key out. "Only one way to find out."
A few turns in the open air, a few soft but audible clicks, and just like opening a door, a portal appeared in front of Evan and Carter, granting them passage to Rainflower's subterranean home.
"Let's finish this madness already."
