Cleo stumbles when Ren pushes her, but she quickly regains herself, and looks around as the light illuminates the cave. Her eyes widen at the sight of everything, and she slowly walks forward, trailing her fingers over the armor. "Wow," she whispers.
Ren snorts, but internally chuckles drily.
"Just choose some armor already. We're wasting time here." she snaps.
Cleo rolls her eyes. "I am! I need to pick the right one! Give me a moment!" She browsed through and finally picked a battle armor set. She looked a bit more and found something else for, as Ren put it, sneaking around in the night.
Ren growls softly, and walks back out of the cave. She glares at the entrance, waiting for Cleo to come out.
Cleo eventually returned, rolling her eyes at Ren. "Alright, I'm back. No need to be so snippy," she muttered, wearing the battle armor and carrying the "sneaking" armor.
Ren continues glaring at Cleo. "Shut up."
She turns and strides away. Her leather armor was form-fitted to her, an adamantium-mithril alloy covering her torso, wrists, upper arms, shins and thighs over the black leather. The metal was light but nigh-indestructible. "Come on."
Ren's armor didn't leave much to the imagination, and Cleo couldn't help but stare. Cleopatra, pull yourself together! she scolded herself as her slightly shorter legs worked a bit harder to keep up. "Uh, where are we going now?" she asked, arching an eyebrow in question as she looked up at the demigoddess.
Without looking back, Ren says "Stop staring."
She turns one ear towards Cleo. "To a smaller bastion of these people. We'll be cutting them down at their supply chains first, leave them vulnerable. The attack on the citadel was a distraction. I left a surprise there, for anyone that investigtes."
As she's saying this, a loud, unnatural screech echoes through the valley, and Ren grins in satisfaction.
Cleo squinted her gaze. "Don't kid yourself. I wasn't staring. Not everything is about you, you know."
She flinched suddenly at the screech, drawing her sword. "The fuck was that?" she demanded.
Ren snorts. "I'm a demigod for a reason. I can feel you still looking at me."
She laughs. "A pet."
As she says this, a long jet of flame blooms against the sky and washes over the buildings. "Let's go. She'll catch up."
Cleo pulled her gaze away from Ren to watch the streak shooting across the sky. "A pet?" she asked incredulously. "What do you mean?"
Ren snickers. "Don't worry about it."
She turns away and starts walking again.
Cleo diligently followed and looked unamused. "Uh, you know that the second you tell me 'don't worry about it–'" she imitated Ren's voice, "that I'm going to worry about it."
Ren shrugs. "That seems like a you problem, not a me problem."
"And I don't sound like that." she adds.
"Oh please, yes you do!" Cleo countered. "That is exactly how you sound."
Ren whirls on Cleo. "Here's how it's done."
She imitates Cleo perfectly. "'Oh, I hate Ren, why don't they love me still, why, why why. Why did they leave me? It's not what you think.'"
She glares. "Don't think I can't read you. I've spent too much time around you to not be able to read you."
She turns and continues walking. And then her pet swoops past her and lands in front of her. She smiles softly.
"Hello, friend." she murmurs. It's a small dragon.
Cleo stops short in her tracks as Ren rounds on her. She narrows her eyes and opens her mouth to speak, but she quickly stops after hearing Ren speak.
"It wasn't what you thought," she mutters half to herself before crossing her arms. "And don't forget that you being able to read me is mutual."
She jumps a bit at the arrival of Ren's pet dragon. "Oh, wow…" she murmurs. "It's beautiful."