He glanced at the pair as Harris continued to whisper to the outlander. Ethan shuddered to think of what she might be telling him, but he could mitigate the damage later. He leaned back against the wall instead, tucking his hands into his sleeves. He hadn't felt so drained in all his life. Not during his training as a soldier, not during his vigils in the Bevelle Temple, not when he had run in a panic from the Calm Lands all those years ago. Before he had wondered how a single summoning could kill the one who called it; now he knew precisely why.<br/><br/>"He will," Ethan murmured, "but in the end he'll come with me anyway. Whether I want him to or not. He's a warrior, heart and soul. The tattoos on his head tell of his actions that led him here, his acts of valor and daring and skill. To sacrifice for something more than oneself... I think, once he makes his peace with the fact that it's me, he'll come around. And Harris, hell, she's already made up her mind, apparently. Nevermind that I haven't even thought about Guardians or whether or not I want anyone to come along with me."<br/><br/>He lapsed into silence for a moment, pondering the possibilities. The four of them had set out to sightsee more than anything else. It would be extremely unfair of him to ask any of them to join him on the path he had chosen. None of them really knew what it meant, the toll it would take to travel with him and get to know him and then be forced to watch him die. Throughout history Guardians had nearly as high of a mortality rate as the Summoners, though the reasons why were often much more grim than Sin.<br/><br/>Even so, Chiron would volunteer. He knew that as sure as he knew the sun would rise again. And Harris already had. What, then, of Amal? Privately he suspected she might go as far as Luca before splitting off from the rest. Travel by ship would be severely inhibited, of course, but she could find safe passage with some merchants or a caravan. Maybe he could even help her pick out a chocobo. He'd caught that flash of interest back on the trail, despite not being able to stop and indulge her surprising zeal.<br/><br/>"Y'know," he said rather suddenly, "the thing nobody really expects when they first meet a chocobo face to face is the smell. Gyshal greens are the 'bo's primary food source, they love the stuff, but it stinks to the Farplane and back. As a result the stench radiates off the birds, too. You get nose-deaf pretty quick, working with chocobos." He opened his eyes to glance at her briefly, then looked back away and out over the ocean. "The second thing nobody really anticipates is the smarts. They're clever animals, Amal, make no mistake. Once I watched a bird inspect the knot that kept it tied in place for a solid five minutes before it started tugging with its beak. In about three seconds it was free, and after another ten it'd worked out how to undo the latch to its pen and was running loose and wild around the Mi'ihen Al Bhed Agency."<br/><br/>Ethan caught himself grinning at the memory. "It took us the better part of two hours to get that witty bastard back under control. And I swear, once we had him pinned and secured in his own stall in the corral, that damned bird<i>laughed</i>at us. Normally it's one long, high cry, a single chirping 'kweh', but that one kept making the noise short and fast and soft." He shook his head again. "I was pretty impressed. Moreso when she picked me as her rider. Smiler and I rode the Highroads for a good while... she never did forgive me when I went to Bevelle instead of opting to spend the rest of my days as a soldier."