"Survivors are often called the cowards of warfare but, when you get down to it, they survive and the others don't."
No Man's Land.
#
IX. Grateful Grotto- Part I.
There are the odd placements,
you can use them to your advantage.
But don't overstay your welcome,
the wildlife here are vicious during the day.
"Now just one second," Kurt was yelling now. The ever frequent and paining tone of the two bickering people drilled into Deela's ears with a most incessant quality. "You are accusing me of being of no help to our cause when, no longer than an hour ago, abandoned us," Deela didn't have to look behind her, she knew Kurt was glaring at her before returning his scolding look back at Melina, "at the first sight of danger?"
The ever ubiquitous silence of Melina trying to come up with a retort filled the air while Deela brushed away a wiry strand of blue-tipped blonde hair from her eyelid for about the fifth time that minute. Ever since she had announced that the meat from the boar-like mammal looked too tarnished and rotten to be edible, Kurt and Melina had begun arguing. Deela, seeing no way to break them up this time (even after trying to), stalked over to Emily's currently unconscious form and knelt down beside her, giving nothing but her back to, what seemed to be the old married couple of the group.
Her head, now bent, staring at the somehow still green grass beneath her outstretched knees, forced gravity to pull her mangled locks down into her face. Deela could barely hear the heated conversation going on behind her, but she wasn't toning it out at the same time. She was in one of those zones where you recognize your own thoughts as salient, hear everyone else, only, you don't process their sounds into meaning. She had been in deep thought for a while now, wondering about what has happened back home, how long has past, what's happened and, most importantly, whether or not Emily will wake up or not.
She's been unconscious ever since we found her, Deela's mind was beginning to wonder to where she knew wasn't safe. Thoughts travel fast, however, and before she realized it she was falling back to the same pessimistic solution, what if Emily isn't just unconscious...
A quick check of Emilys' slowly rising and falling chest rendered Deela's pessimistic thought train to derail, if only for a moment. She's alive for now and that's all the matter for the time being. We can worry about everything else later, just as long as you're okay, Em. Please, wake up soon.
Still no sound, nor action, from the unconscious corpse. Tears started to well up in her once strong eye's. Her mind shouted at her to not lose it, to hold on to her pride and keep a steady face. If not for her, and Emily's sake, than to seem strong in front of the new found comrades. However, after the first stream of liquid started to roll down her dirt ridden face, the wall was broken. Without a sound from either Emily, or Deela, tears dived to her chin and rolled off of her cracked lips with a kind of sadistic elegance and beauty one might find at a funeral of grievers.
What if there's something wrong with her? What if she has a horrible affliction, wilting from the inside out? She wondered sorrowfully before realizing that it was out of her hands. She was unable to do anything to remedy her childhood bestie who, now, lay in front of her. Deela had no knowledge of medicine, nor herbs. Even if she did, she had doubts that it would apply to anything on this alien environment. The only thing worse that Deela could see happening, was if Emily had her arms folded on her chest. Helpless... Just like when her parents died.
She hadn't noticed Kurt and Deela's argument had faltered by this point. Kurt was now standing on his back leg, arms crossed, but eyebrows raised in concern behind Deela's hunched form as her body shook erratically in time with soundless sobs. Melina was a good foot behind Kurt, staring off into the majestic tranquility of the pool. She seemed bemused at the irony; here, in front of her, is a pool without a ripple now. A soft blue hue tapping the surface of the crystalline water. Calm, and peaceful. Whereas to her immediate left, there was a scene of morbidity, loss, and just overall negativity. "Pathetic," she mumbled to herself, head cocked to the exact opposite direction of the drama.
Kurt knew that Deela needed something to take her mind off of the ever-standing feeling of helplessness settling in the unperturbed surroundings. He knew that all he had to do was distract Deela for the time being, to take her mind off of everything and just make her think. If you're busy in concentration about something else, you won't have enough brain power to lucidly ponder other emotions or, in this case, other- and potential- situations. Those are what dreams are for.
"Hey, Deela?" Kurt asked, his thumbs dipping into his pockets allowing his elbows to dangle freely about, smacking into his sides.
Even though he had heard the sorrowful sobbing that easily pierced the snapping cold of the night air before, it came a shock to him when Deela didn't so much as respond to him. "Deela?" he called again as if to reinforce his own concern.
"W-wh-what?" She snapped over her shoulder. Kurt could barely make it out however, due to the excessive wavering of her normally steady voice.
"I was just wondering," the cloth material his pants were made out of suddenly became interesting to his questing fingertips as he searched for something to keep them busy, "why did that rock halt the laser on that dudes shoulder... I mean... It's a rock... They have a melting point..." Deela had stopped sobbing at this point or, at least, it seemed to Kurt like she had, so he continued with his hopes that he's easing her mind.
"I'm just wondering why that rock didn't melt to the metal of the chamber. Instead, it just blocked the pathway and..." Kurt paused to motion toward the scorched stain of earth- or dirt, rather- that still lay on the ground despite their wanting to upturn that small portion.
"I-i... I don't know, K-kurt." Deela spoke, her voice almost mechanical in the way it seemed to repair itself so hastily. Although it still wasn't her normal, confident (appearing) tonality- not even close- it had begun to remedy the soft level increases and decreases that occur with intense core emotions.
"It m-might of just been because the laser d-didn't heat up en-enough, or-or... something else," Deela started to stand up, twisting her direction away from the unconscious form of her bestie and rubbing her puffy red eye's slowly. Even though her face appeared dry in the light of the post-zenith, it was obvious that she was holding them back with all her effort.
"Something else like what, Deela?" Kurt replied formally as if afraid to use any colloquialism in case it sets her off in a fit of rage- something they cannot afford at this point. Their food and medical supplies are next to nil. If someone threw a tantrum and hurt someone else, or themselves, than that could jeopardize their lives permanently. Especially in this dog eat dog hierarchy of wildlife.
It was a few moments until Deela responded again, as if she was thinking it over or, if you prefer something more drastic, attempting to switch her minds resolve from that of her friends' safety to the potential threat of more of those demonic beings and how they can easily dispatch them. When she finally did speak, though, her voice was like burnt honey. Silky smooth, but chunky in some area's. "It could have been the fact that we only know that Earth stone has a melting point of whatever d-degree's Celsius. We don't know what kind of melting point, or even material, that we are standing on this very second," she paused, even though her voice wasn't raising a single decibel, and started to breath heavier, almost panting like she was heavily out of breath. Kurt shrugged it off as a side-effect of severe malnourishment.
"So," Kurt started, "you're suggesting that the rocks and earth- erm... dirt, soil, and other environmental things are all comprised of different mathematical extremities?"
"Essentially, yes," She replied with an easy flipping of her hand to rest on a cocked hip, suffering a barely audible sniffle from a congested airway, "Everything here should have a completely different chemical make-up than back home- not that we'll be able to get there anyway." Deela added that last part as an off-side comment, but the ever acerbic pace and fervent glow in Melina's approaching eye's told a whole 'nother story.
"I'm sorry, did I hear you correctly?" She spat venemously.
"Hey, give her a break, Melly," Kurt thankfully interjected, however awkward his nickname for her, "she's in a rough spot at the moment..." His voice trails off next to Melina's hoarse yelling.
"Did you say that we were not going to be seeing back home? That we were not going to ever be able to get back there?!"
"Yeah," Deela replied weakly, almost fed up with even trying to fight back against the obnoxiously rampant woman, "I did. But hey, it's kind of true. I mean, look around. I don't see any technology-"
Melina ever kindly interrupts with a click on her tongue against the roof of her mouth, popping a quick tsk."We're in the goddamn forest. Of course there is no technology."
"I don't see any technology around and we haven't even found a town, city, or village yet. Not even a single outpost. The only things we've found so far are a creepy and most likely haunted cabin, and a.. a... I don't even know what it is!" Deela exclaimed, wringing her hands so they appear like bones near her shoulders and throwing them down in exasperation, "And, even he tried to kill us! So, yeah. No technology, no knowledge of where we are in our own star system, no knowledge of where we are even on the small planet-" The memory of standing over the edge of the cliff, seeing those other floating pieces of land as if she were on some giant magnet, or gas giant where the gas was just thick enough to hold these islands stable, shut her up quickly.
"Uhh, stars, maybe?" Melina scolded bitterly. Her incessant ignorance made both of the others feel unwelcome, but only Deela had the courage to stand up to Melina verbally. Kurt was courageous in a fight, not in a test of linguistic operations.
"What...?"
"The stars, duh. Constellations and stuff, they can tell us which way earth is!" Melina held her hands in her armpits, arms folded in front of her chest as she turned away from them subtly. Non-verbally, she was closed off to everyone elses opinions.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but no, they can't." Deela spoke in a soft whisper now, fearing the inevitably screech encroaching from Melina's sad excuse for an open airway- she wished it was a closed one.
"What do you mean, they can't?!" Even though she was expecting it, Deela recoiled slightly and opened then closed her mouth in silence for a few moments. Finally, she got the words to say something.
"They're the constellations on Earth because we view it from Earth. The constellations are visible to Earthians because we are one of the many points that they shine on. Now, if we're not on Earth, we cannot see the constellations because they would not shine on us. Even if we did, they may be backwards, upside down, or all jumbled up. So, no matter what, they would not lead us to Earth. I'm sorry."
A/N: Didn't I say that I'd barely have any of these Author Notes? Awkward...Hehe...
Aaaanyway~ After much, much, MUCH, delay. The 9th chapter is here and, surprise! It's a two-parter. You'll have to stay tuned to see what happens in Grateful Grotto- Part 2!
I know what happens... But I can't tell you... well, I could... but I'll tell you in Part 2, what happens in Part 2! See that sneakyness? Yes, that. Right there. That is why you love me.
Love and Laughter,
Cynder~
P.S., Don't forget to Review! Really! It helps a lot. A lot, a lot... It does! I swear I'm not greedy...
