"It's not the fall that kills you…"
Clint awoke suddenly, his body flailing out against the feeling of being dragged. The sudden burst of light and the endless feeling of falling upwards took its toll on the archer as he shook his head and look around to see Natalia had sat herself on the grassy ground next to him.
The archer looked at the drag marks leading back towards a small round pool of steaming water that Natalia had obviously dragged him from.
"Thanks" he muttered as he looked around. Everything about his new surroundings was off to Clint. "Where are we?" he asked.
"I don't know" said Natalia breathlessly as she herself took her surroundings in for the first time. Clint turned and glanced over Natalia's wounds, just in time to see the last of the wolf bites knitting themselves closed as they healed rapidly.
"Nat!" yelped Clint lifting her arm to watch the deep gouge down her back heal, leaving a perfect pink scar.
"No way" gasped Natalia, her eyes on the wound closing on Clint's shoulder. "What the hell?" she asked.
"Not a goddamned clue" said Clint touching the scar on his shoulder and rotating the joint. Feeling no pain, Clint gave a painless shrug and stood up to look around. Natalia groaned as she pulled herself standing next to Clint.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"Middle of nowhere" said Clint, "grass and hills in all directions" he said. With a glance upwards Clint looked towards to sun for guidance, only for his mouth to fall open. "Nat…" he said slowly, "I don't think we're in Europe anymore."
"You mean Kansas, right?" asked Natalia absently before following Clint's line of site and herself feeling speechless.
Wordlessly the pair took in the reality of their situations, the twin sun and the red moon making it all to clear, they were on an entirely different planet.
"Fuuck" said Clint slowly, drawing out the vowel.
Having taken whatever the requisite minimum time it takes to adjust to the concept of being in on a new planet, Clint and Natalia got practical. Clint leaned in and fed himself a handful of water from the small pool. He felt the heated water as it worked its way down through his body into his stomach.
"Okay?" asked Natalia dubiously.
"Yeah, pretty good. Just water" said Clint with a shrug.
"You really think it was the water that healed us?" asked Natalia taking a mouthful of water herself.
"Makes sense doesn't it?" said Clint running his hands over the runic markings on the smooth stone that ran the full edge of the pool. "The stone platform thing back in… back on Earth had the same markings" he said correcting himself.
"Either way, we need weapons" said Natalia standing up and looking around. "And food."
"Glad you got your priorities straight" teased Clint as he stood and looked around for any sign of civilization he might have missed the last six times he looked.
"So which way?" asked Natalia rolling her eyes at Clint's grin.
"This way" said Clint picking the direction based solely on the view of the red moon setting over the horizon.
"Right."
"This can't be happening" muttered Natalia as they passed over another hill only for more endless grass. "Maybe we're in purgatory."
"I dunno, I'm pretty sure we're candidates for the hot place" said Clint sitting down on the soft ground and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Natalia silently agreed as she sat down next to and let the cool breeze soothe her from the climb up the hill. "What time is it?"
"Its been nineteen hours" said Clint glancing at his watch. "Earth hours" he added with a chuckle.
"That joke stopped being funny twelve hours ago" snorted Natalia.
"Should'n'ta lost your watch then" drawled Clint.
"We need sleep" said Natalia ignoring his jab.
"Suns still not setting" said Clint in frustration to towards the pair of suns, still high in the sky.
"We'll have to make do" said Natalia rolling over and burying her face in her arms she wiggled around trying to get comfortable.
"I'll keep watch for a bit" muttered Clint, his eyes glancing over to where Natalia's jacket had ridden up her back. Natalia gave a murmur of acknowledgement as she quickly drifted off into an exhausted sleep.
Clint pressed a few buttons on his watch, setting it to vibrate every twenty minutes as he scanned the endless green. The cheerful ambience of the bright sun and the grassy fields became a strong contrast to the bitterness that Clint was starting to feel towards he and Nat's predicament.
Reaching down, Clint absently picked at a tuft of grass and began shredding it in his hands as the wind blew through his hair. He listened closely as Natalia's breathing softened before he let out a deep sigh that he'd been holding on for the last twelve hours.
"Clint" said Natalia, laying her palm gently on Clint's shoulder as he slept.
"What is it?" he asked waking groggily as he turned his head and blinked at the intrusive sunlight.
"Look" she said nodding towards the sky.
"The suns setting finally?" he asked as he turned over and shielded his eyes from the twin suns.
"No. That" she said pointing.
"Is that?" asked Clint trailing off.
"A spaceship" finished Natalia for him as the pair watched a small grey object descending harshly towards the ground.
The pair of assassins watched in silence as another ship appeared behind the white trail of the first ship. Green laser blasts fired from the second ship, striking the first causing it to turn sharply, smoke and billowing from its rear as it plummeted towards the ground.
"Nat?" asked Clint.
"I don't know" said Natalia, "we should get closer." Clint nodded in agreement as the pair took off running down the hill into the shallow valley where the smoking ship was soon to crash land.
