Allura didn't think twice before acting. She placed both hands on his chest and pushed, watching his body convulse with each shove. She counted five compressions, then held his nose, tipped his jaw back and sealed her mouth over his, breathing air into his sodden lungs.
She did this a grand total of five times before a reaction was achieved.
Keith's eyes flew open and he rolled to the side hacking up water. Allura never thought she'd be so relieved to watch someone throw up.
She fell forward and threw her arms around his neck. He cried out in pain, and the Altean backed away.
"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" she asked frantically.
"My…ribs…" he rasped. "I think…they're broken."
Allura lifted his shirt up and let out a gasp. His torso was completely covered with purple and green bruises. She realized that giving him CPR didn't help his case in the slightest.
"I'm sorry," she apologized again. "I'm so, so sorry. I forgot that human bones were so brittle," She reached out and gently felt his sides. He gave a suppressed groan when she touched him, but she didn't recoil. She discovered that several of his ribs were—in fact—broken. Perhaps not severely, but enough to greatly inconvenience him.
She took Keith's sword from his belt and cut his shirt away from his body before tearing it into strips.
"This is going to hurt a bit," Allura said. She tried to ignore Keith's cries of pain as she tightly bandaged his chest to set the bones.
"A-Allura," Keith said hoarsely. "You're bleeding." He lifted a slender hand and took her wrist. Blood had stained her uniform an odd reddish-blue.
"It's nothing," Allura told him, pulling out of his grip. "The thing bit me, is all. Nothing to worry about."
"What if…what if it's poisonous?" the Red Paladin asked.
"Why would it need to be if it suffocates its prey?" Allura replied. She used the last scraps of Keith's shirt to bind the wound. "Can you stand? We need to find shelter before it gets dark."
As she stood, Allura saw the serpent's fang lying beside her. A grotesque sort of pride filled her chest, and she picked it up and put it in the holster where her missing blaster normally would have gone.
"I think so," Keith said, attempting to push himself to his elbows. He grunted and fell back into the mud, gasping in pain.
Allura bent to help him, but he pushed her away. "I can do this…myself." Keith growled. Though it took several painstaking minutes, he managed to get to his knees.
"We don't have time for this! We only have a few hours until nightfall," Allura sighed. She grabbed Keith's arm and lifted him to his feet, holding him around the waist.
Grudgingly, the Red Paladin allowed her to support him as they slogged through the muddy water. Though he would never admit it, he knew that he would never have made it through the mangrove forest without her help.
They encountered no more trouble, save for a few monkeys that decided it would be fun to yank on Allura's hair, a bird whose nest they had gotten too close to, and a rather large colony of fishing spiders the size of dinner plates.
As twilight began to settle, the ground grew more solid and the trees stretched higher into the air. Mosquitos grew more vicious and further slowed their already tedious progress.
The birdcalls began to change pitch just as Allura spotted a Sanctuary tree growing from a pool of water. The inside was damp and musty-smelling, and the inside was filled with about a foot of water and silt, but with the terrifying night closing in and Keith out of action, she wasn't going to complain.
"H-how do you tell these trees apart from the others?" Keith rasped as Allura gently leaned him against the inside of the tree.
"I look for their spirits." the princess said simply.
"What does that mean?" Keith grunted. The interior of the tree began to glow as the gaps between the roots closed up.
"Alteans are very sensitive to the life forces of other beings," Allura explained. She rested her weary body beside his and gazed up at the glowing patterns of the tree. A small spider weaved its web in a niche nearby. "Different species have different life-forces, some of them stronger than others."
"And that's how you sense which trees are Maroalea trees? Because they're different?"
"Because they're sentient, Keith. Intelligent life forms always have stronger energy fields." Allura smiled. The Red Paladin frowned for a moment, as if in deep thought.
"Tell me something," he said. "When we first met, could you sense the Galra within me?"
When Allura looked at him, she saw his dark eyes boring into her. She held his gaze for a while, but then the coldness of his stare became too much to bear.
"No, because you aren't completely Galra," she replied carefully. "I knew right off the bat that you were different than the other Paladins…and at first I found it intriguing. I wanted to get closer to you, to find out why you were special. And when I discovered that you were part Galra, I hated myself for even considering the thought."
Keith's stoic gaze turned sad and somewhat vulnerable. Allura had seen that particular expression once before, when she had first begun to ignore him, and to see it once more made her heart twist in her chest.
"But when I realized that who you are is more important than what you are…I decided that I loved you and the Paladins more than I hated the Galra." A blush crept into Allura's dirty face, one that she hoped the Red Paladin didn't see.
Unfortunately, nothing escaped those piercing carbon-grey eyes, and Keith silently noted how cute she looked when red in the face. He had always thought of her as pretty and yet somehow untouchable.
As he sat beside her, filthy and wounded, he felt closer to her than ever.
"Thank you," he told her earnestly. His hand sought hers a "gesture of thanks" (or so he told himself). The blush grew on her face and her eyes went wide for a moment as she felt his fingers wind themselves through her own. Then, she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
A weary smile crossed his thin lips, and Allura found herself staring at them. She wondered what it would be like to kiss them…to push her fingers into his thick hair and hold him so tightly that they were closer to one entity than two.
Allura scolded herself for such thoughts and nearly ripped her hand away from Keith's.
"S-so, Keith," she squeaked. "Shouldn't the Red Lion have come for you by now?"
"I don't know," the Paladin said, suddenly looking worried. "I can't feel her presence anywhere nearby."
"That's odd…" Allura murmured. "Never mind," She shook her head to clear the troubling thoughts. "We should get some rest. I need you back on your feet as soon as possible."
Keith nodded tiredly, releasing Allura's hand as she moved away; he missed the contact the instant it was broken. He watched her as she carefully moved herself into a more comfortable position, upsetting a cloud of murk beneath her.
"Good night, Allura," he called softly.
"Good night, Keith," she replied, closing her gorgeous blue eyes. She was asleep within minutes, despite the uncomfortable circumstances.
Keith, however, wasn't so lucky.
A/N: Don't worry, not a cliffie. He's just not as good at sleeping as Allura. Will edit later to fix flow.
