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Default   #88   sylvanSpider sylvanSpider is offline
Weaver of Webs
Rosalind's eyes were immediately on the tall, thin woman, needing to look up to see into her eyes. Rosalind cleared her throat, “The male is Ogrunu, the female is Daoweian. Fundin' won't be a problem if ye can keep 'em alive. More if they come back in good condition.” She scratched the back of her head as she cast a glance to the open door, her red hair flying wildly as rain pelted her face. She hoped the rain wouldn't cause the wounds to bleed more profusely. Though she hadn't seen either of the wounded since take off, she feared the worst and couldn't even begin to imagine how much blood was lost between the two of them.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mendez sighed looking down. Of course he managed to fall for a woman who couldn't love him back, who couldn't feel love. It was just his luck. He'd suspected, but hearing it out of someone else's mouth seemed to cement it there for him. At least the sex was good. There was that. That, and he had a powerful ally should things go sour. “I'm...unsure of how she would take that, hermano. She might take offense and then I will die. But then, a punch to the face earned me a few more days of life, so I guess it's worth a shot.” He shrugged and clapped his hands together, trying to make it seem like he cared about the topic a little less than he did.

“Yeah,” Mendez muttered, “I suppose you're right about that. She will probably outlive me by a long time, but if I can convince her to like me, I'll end up surviving other people, if nothing else.” He laughed, making light of the fact that if he ever died of unnatural causes, it at least wouldn't be from anyone other than Atrix. If he was killed? There would be hell to pay on their part. “I'm not going anywhere unless she does, hermano. But there's money to be had here, what with Hyun and Rosa's deal and all. They were loaded between the two of them, and like it or not, they were both being hunted by the same people. Riola by the Edensians, Ashi by the Daoweians, and the two were likely forging an alliance which doesn't bode well for any of us. Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if Atrix tries to play both sides.” He shuddered, an image of Clyde popping into his mind based on Riola and Ashi's description of the creature. That thing by itself was enough to elicit fear, but two sets of bounty hunters as well? They might as well just gut themselves now. “As far as being Edensian goes? You can tell them that. Not that it matters much for either of us in their eyes, given the fact that we're men.” He shook his head, sighing. At one point, seeing Edensia had been his greatest dream, everything he'd ever wanted. Edensia sounded biblical. A garden of perpetual joy, beauty falling at every corner. That dream fell with his parents, later his grandparents. He'd inherited the gift of long life from his mother, but knowing that they died of old age didn't make matters any easier. He'd lost any place to call home, and Edensia was not going to welcome him with welcome arms.

The humans were scattered from one end of the galaxy to the other.

His home simply didn't exist. “Yeah, thank fuck for that. If he was straight organic? I doubt we would have seen him come through those doors. I do too. Fikri isn't the strongest of men I've seen, and Magali won't be of much help in that department...Ugh. If only we could find a way to stop his ears and block his vision.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fikri shook his head, taking her dagger-words with grains of salt. She's stressed, he told himself, bowing his head, ears pressed flat. “It's not that I don't want to help,” he explained, the pinnacle of patience for one who was on the verge of potentially losing her best friend, “It's that if my muscles give out and we drop him, that's not exactly the best for a man in his condition. Look at him, he can't take any more bumps and bruises. I'll... I'll help with Ashi.” The felis's voice shook, but he moved to the princess with resolve, glancing at Hyun and hoping her attention would be back on Shaldag, picked Ashi up. She grimaced, but placed her good arm around the back of Fikri's neck to aid him.

“I'm in no condition to kill you, Fikri, don't worry,” Ashi said, mustering a smile. Fikri, under other circumstances, would have returned it. Now, he just nodded and prayed that Atrix would accept Magali's request.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Magali stood there with wide eyes and a drooped tail, not sure of how Atrix was going to take her request. She'd dealt with female terskix before, somehow avoiding the males. Those were some of the species she was always drugged the hardest for, and while she could rarely remember what happened most of the time, she'd come out with scars – one in the curved shape of teeth on her side. It was a miracle she survived, she thought. But she closed her eyes with one of the hands reaching out to scratch behind her ears and even pressed into it as if operating on instinct. “Th-the situation is...situation is desperate enough,” Magali stammered, lacing and unlacing her hands and looking up to Atrix with pleading eyes, “The Ogrunu tried to get at Mendez after hearing his accent, so the Edensians can't help. Fikri isn't strong enough so he's helping with the princess. You're the strongest I could think of...”

She gulped, daring for a moment to look towards Nokra, shooting him a half apologetic look – not being able to stop and talk to him - and nodded, “They're this way. I'll explain to them that you're helping carry him...If I work as a messenger, that will make it easier, right?” Magali already turned to lead the way, all but running to the medbay. “She said yes!” she said happily, “It's raining very hard out there...I can try to block it off with a tarp or something?”

“There's a couple in the storage,” Fikri said simply, casting a look to the ogrunu, “But there isn't time. If you can just...I don't fuckin' know, hold a blanket up in front of him or something? Try to block the wind as best as you can?”

“Got it,” Magali said, nodding. With Atrix in to help with the burden, they could make it in. It would be hard, but they had to make it.
All that is empty in the drawing should be filled in, the teacher said to us kids. First you sharpen the pencil to fill in the thin whiskers, then you use the thick crayon to fill in the wings with brown, meticulously and without letting the crayon leave the page. Six feet can be traced below the soft belly. Now, breathing is hard to detect on paper, the teacher said to me when I asked, but it is easier to feel it in real life.

Even insects breathe.

-Rawi Hage, Cockroach
Old Posted 04-16-2018, 04:54 AM Reply With Quote