Nira Seritoka
The Chariot
It took the Nira a moment to realise what was happening - her mind being preoccupied with the imaginary horrors of all the worst things that might possibly happen as a result of her ineptitude - when the carriage door was practically thrown open. She blinked several times as the other passenger - other
moving passenger - spoke. She didn't quite catch everything he said at first, but got the general idea as she repeated his words in her mind.
She simply looked blankly at him for a moment or two. Not only was someone else simply standing there as if some higher power had seen fit to answer her plight, but this was the first time since these 'events' started happening that she had seen somebody who didn't freeze up who wasn't her. For weeks she had paniced, worried, fretted and feared before simply coming to terms with the fact that during times like this she was alone, and now here was proof to the contrary standing right in front of her.
She wasn't quite certain of what she thought of that - times like this were unnerving, but had proven quite safe to date.
"Oh thank goodness!" She gasped suddenly - relief flooding her and helping her momentarily neglect the fact that even with another person beside her, she was still not in much of a better situation than she had been two minutes ago. Regardless, here was somebody else. She wasn't alone any more.
"I don't know what I was going to do, did we crash? No, but... that can't be right. Wait, your not frozen! Did you do this... no, that's just silly. Of course you didn't, but..."As her babbling became increasingly less coherant, she stopped herself and took a breath. Everything was going to be okay - Taro would know what to do, they would be fine.
"Sorry." She said meekly with a weak smile and a half shrug. She took the tentatively reached for the outstretched hand before grasping it tightly - as if starved for human contact after the brief amount of time she had been alone for.
"I'm Nira. Nira Seritoka. I... I think I'm fine, I just bit my tongue or something."Finally disengaging her hand, she raised it to her mouth briefly before glancing at her fingers. There was a trace of blood on them, but nothing that particually concerned her.
She wasn't hurt, she was fine. She wasn't alone, she was fine. She didn't need to make any decisions - nobody was relying on her or looking to her for support: everything was going to be fine. Slowly, her heart rate was slowing back into an almost-normal rhythm. As normality returned she began to feel the dull ache that must have been a result of the sudden 'stop' as the adrenaline began to leave her body. She looked around at the frozen surroundings and took a breath before peering up at her newest acquaintance.
Well, he looked fairly confident. A little disheveled, she supposed, but who wouldn't be given the situation? There was something about him that told her he was trustworthy, and while that was sonething she had admittedly thought about a number of people before, she had a good feeling about her judgement this time around. Besides, there wasn't exactly anyone who looked any more helpful nearby - being paralysed in time and all.
"Uhm... Taro, was it? What do you think we should do? I mean, when this has happened before I just kind of waited it out, but... something feels different this time. Don't you feel it too?"