A/N: For those of you not familiar with my work, my stories often take a polyamorous turn. I have no idea if that will happen for this one. I can't wait to finish writing this to find out! But poly-relationships aren't for everybody, if that's not your thing, maybe move on. Otherwise enjoy!
Sentences in italic are being spoken in Trigedasleng. Therefore, Raven does not understand what's being said.
May not closely follow canon.
Special thanks to EverydayGeek who inspired me to randomly write this story. Without them, this tale would not exist.
Raven Reyes struggled to lift heavy lids, to no avail. They just refused to cooperate. A groan escaped her as she pressed a bloodstained hand to her pounding head. She could feel the slick stick of blood gushing down her face. It had definitely been a rough landing. With shaky hands, fumbly fingers undo the latches of her seat restraints. After a bit of struggling, they came free, and Raven plunged forward, crashing her knee against the pod's interface console, metal greeting bone.
The brunette cried out in agony. She was certain something snapped somewhere, pain shot through her as dizziness enveloped her and threatened consciousness, but she couldn't worry about that now. She had to keep pushing forward. She had to get out of that pod. Earth awaited her outside.
Okay, now just need to get to door handle, Raven thought.
Once caramel fingers closed around the cold metallic latch of the exit, Raven shielded her face and clenched her body tight, preparing herself for the unknown. With great effort, Raven jerked the handle downwards as hard as she could. The door hissed open, and Raven breathed fresh air for the first time.
It's colder than she's use to on the ark, but exhilarating. She took a deep breath of its freshness and allowed its calmness to fill her. A scent permeated the air, a sweet fragrance mixed with the smell of soil and things that grow. There was a thickness to the atmosphere that settled lightly upon her tongue. It's the forest, she realized. I'm smelling life.
Raven could feel sun rays beat at her lids; slowly, and forcefully, she willed them to open. Tears streamed as the light stung her eyes, she waited a moment for her vision to clear before her breath caught in her throat.
She crawled halfway through the doorway and gaped at the scene before her; it was surreal. Was this really happening? She could hardly fathom what her eyes were communicating to her. The sun shined high in the sky; trees surrounded her in every direction, the breeze actively dancing through their leaves, tiny beads of water droplets rolled off their ends and… were those birds chirping?
Raven's chocolate eyes widened wider as she took in the terrain, dirt covered the floor, no, not floor, ground. The earth's surface. She survived. She made it to Earth, alive. Mostly anyway.
Raven heaved herself the rest of the way out of the pod and nose-dived to the ground. She rolled onto her back, squeezing her eyes shut tight, teeth grinding as she seethed in pain. She rubbed at her leg, it had a widespread numbness and ached like hell. She could barely move it. As the waves of torture slowly began to deaden, Raven slowly opened her eyes; she was still in disbelief of surviving the crash and that those were soaked blades of real green grass tickling her skin just then.
She began to laugh hysterically, delirium taking over as she tried to convince herself this was all just a crazy dream. Her amusement cut short when she heard the ruffle of bushes behind her. Adrenaline raced through her, her heart hammered, and she struggled to sit up. When she finally managed to, she scanned her surroundings until her eyes landed on the bush to have startled her. Its branches still slightly swayed.
"Hello?" she asked in hopes of it just being her mind playing tricks on her. It wasn't.
Cautiously, two women stepped out from behind the bush. One was short with wavy brown hair; she couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen. She was slender and vigilant of her surroundings. Dark brown eyes constantly scanned their perimeter back and forth.
The other woman held the air of a leader, fierce hazels surrounded by dark makeup zoned in on Raven; those orbs had a look of authority, but despite their ferocity, the brunette felt a calmness radiating off of them. The woman was gorgeous, tall, with long, braided dark blonde hair and black roots. Leather gripped her lithe frame and busty chest. Her neck was slender but toned, pale white skin accented full, succulent lips and prominent cheekbones.
Raven stiffened when the glimmer of a sword blade caught her eye, one on each of their backs. She tried to stand but crashed back down to her elbows; she couldn't move her damn leg.
"What do you want?" Raven asked weakly as the pounding in her head increased. She definitely had a concussion; dizziness was beginning to set in, holding her eyes open was proving difficult. The women ignored her and began instead speaking to each other.
"What should we do with her, Heda?"
"She comes back with us."
Fighting desperately to keep conscious, Raven squinted toward the woman to have knelt beside her. As chocolate eyes gawked at swirls of brown and green for the first time, Raven couldn't help the flutter in her chest. She wondered if this was what a goddess looked like. Never had she seen someone so fucking gorgeous.
"Sleep," said Goddess Eyes as she put a strong, comforting hand to Raven's forehead. With an odd newfound sense of safety, Raven closed her eyes and allowed the darkness to consume her.
OoOoO
When brown orbs fluttered open again, it was night. Raven groaned as her head throbbed, she grasped it with one hand and noticed some sort of cloth bandage had been wound around her head. She rolled onto her side and scanned her surroundings as she tried to piece together what happened. She was definitely somewhere else. There was no sign of the escape pod she had come down in and the only forest she could see were the treetops against the starlit sky over a towering fence.
Raven laid on a fuzzy blanket of some sort a few feet away from a large, roaring campfire. She stared hard into the flames, watching the swirls of oranges and yellows dance and twist against the darkness. Fire was a rare sight on the ark since it was a hazard and consumed precious oxygen. She was so enthralled.
"Hungry?"
Raven jumped, startled by the presence behind her. Twisting in the direction of the voice, Raven is met with the gorgeous woman she had seen earlier.
"Hi, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you said."
The blonde looked at Raven carefully before speaking again, "I asked if you are hungry."
Raven was relieved to learn the woman spoke English. "Uh, yeah actually. I am."
The woman marched off without another word only to reappear a few moments later with a bowl. She sat beside Raven on the ground and handed her the wooden dish and an eating utensil. Raven felt a strong hand on her back as she strained to sit up.
"Thanks, guess that crash took more out of me than I thought. I'm lucky to be alive."
The blonde didn't respond; her expression remained blank and observant. Raven peered into the bowl, it looked like chunks of meat cut into squares; she couldn't identify the spice. They had rations back on the ark, not actual food.
Slowly, Raven poked a slippery piece of steaming meat and brought it close to her lips. It smelled okay enough, like heat and spice. Quickly she opened her mouth and shoved it in, squeezing her eyes tight and chewing quickly.
An embarrassing "mmm mmm mmm," escaped Raven without her permission. But as the sweet-spicy flavors leaked across her taste buds she couldn't help it. Flavor was heaven. She had no idea. She immediately began to shovel more of it into her mouth, eliciting an auditory smirk from her blonde companion.
Raven chuckled as she finished her chewing, she knew she must had looked amusing to the other woman. "Sorry, food's a little different where I come from."
"And where do you come from exactly? We saw you fall from the sky."
Raven finished the remaining meat in her bowl and set it aside. "I'm from a space station; we call it The Ark. I'm Raven by the way." The brunette held out a hand toward the blonde who looked at it with confusion.
"What are you doing?"
"It's customary for my people to shake hands when meeting for the first time."
The blonde narrowed her eyes but slowly raised her hand to meet Raven's. Smooth caramel fingers grasp strong pale ones; Raven held her stare a moment and smiled before letting go. She immediately missed the warmth and contact. The simple touch had elicited that fluttery thunder inside her chest all over again.
"You got a name?"
"I am Anya, Heda of the Wood's Clan." Anya stood abruptly, "If you are finished it is time for rest, can you walk?"
Raven tried to maneuver her leg but it was useless. The limb felt dead. She looked back up to the blonde and shook her head. "No, and I can't feel it anymore either."
Anya knelt down and in one quick motion scooped Raven into a bridal style carry. Raven threw an arm around Anya to hold on tight. She smelled of the forest and soap, it was intoxicating. She just wanted to nose-dive into Anya's neck and breathe deeply, and to lick and suck away that mind-altering fragrance. Heat pulled at her core and Raven sucked in a deep, sobering breath of the chilly night air. Control yourself, Reyes. She thought to herself.
Raven noted there were several tents set up across the camp along with a few wooden shacks. One looked to be a kitchen if the small makeshift chimney was anything to go by. Another, an outhouse judging by its size. The others she couldn't determine just by sight. Perhaps she'd ask Anya later.
The blonde, of course, carried Raven to the largest tent of the camp with two guards posted outside the entrance. They were giant muscly men that looked like they wouldn't hesitate to kill an old granny if she looked at them the wrong way. Raven cuddled closer to Anya and gulped while silently noting not to piss off anyone here.
Anya's tent was spacious, even bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. There was a long table to the immediate left of the entrance littered with miscellaneous objects, a pole in the center of the tent that plunged deep into the dirt surface. Several trunks and a few dressers framed the far end of the tent and to their right lay a large spacious mattress on the floor piled with animal furs. It looked comfortable. A small crate laid beside it with a lit candle.
But Raven wasn't placed on the bed as she had hoped. Instead, Anya placed her on the ground against the pole in a sitting position. The blonde disappeared behind Raven, ruffling through the contents of a nearby table before returning and gripping Raven's arm painfully. She clasped the brunette's wrist with a heavy cuff of iron, snapping it shut and wrapping it around the pole. It was thick, tight, and cold. Panic shot through Raven, "what the fuck, Anya? I haven't done anything to deserve this."
"You are an intruder on my land. That is enough. And I can do what I want with you."
So it was gonna be like that, was it? "My leg is completely gibbled, Anya. I'm not going anywhere even if I wanted to."
The blonde ignored her. Anya strolled over to her luxurious looking bed and stripped away her leather until she wore nothing more than a tank top and underwear. She slipped under the large fur blankets and blew out the candle.
Raven let her head crash back against the pole and immediately regretted it. Her sore head screamed at her for such foolishness. She shivered and rubbed her shoulders. She could just slip out of the cuff, what Anya didn't know about Raven was the girl was double jointed. She could dislocate her hands easily and they'd pop right back into place. But she thought better of it, she should keep that secret for the moment and save the skill for when she really needed it.
Awkwardly, she shifted to the ground and used her arm for a pillow. The dirt beneath her was smooth but crispy, tiny rocks prodded at her skin. She shivered as the cool night air blew through the tent flap.
"Anya, I'm fucking cold."
Silence.
"Don't make me start singing. Trust me, you don't want to hear me sing." Raven knew she might be pushing her luck but something about Anya just told her the woman didn't want to hurt her. She was rewarded a moment later as she heard the frustrated groans of the blonde. Then she felt a fur and pillow being thrown at her head.
"Thank you, Anya."
"Go to sleep, Reivon. No more noise from you."
Raven smiled to herself in triumph as she curled up beneath the soft heavy fur. The pillow was feathery; she was grateful to have enough slack from the chain to fully stretch out. It wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep.
