The tribe he'd found himself among, was certainly not a large one – or at least he didn't think it was based only on notes he'd read and stories he'd heard. There were no more than forty people living in the stone and wooden building, perched neatly over a couple of stone platforms suspended firmly from a cliff's edge above the seemingly endless glowing bluish leafed trees, and the underground lake. Still, the place could seemingly hold far more people still – and it stood to reason that that had been the plan when the building was constructed, because if the tribe had so eagerly adopted both himself and Ellie, then surely they would so willingly take in others after them as well.
For a place occupied by so small a tribe however, it was usually so noisy inside. Sounds of daily conversation traveled easily through the wooden walls, and under badly fitted doors. The doors themselves creaked endlessly. And so many people tended to slam them needlessly. There were footsteps, in heavy soled hide boots, on the stairs. And there were animals everywhere, mostly strange creatures, with oddly unnatural aberrant glows – each one making noises of their own. Large creatures lived outdoors of course, housed mostly in pens built annoying close to windows, usually kept open. But some of the smaller ones – mostly 'lightpets' which most of the tribes-folk seemed to keep simply as companion animals – lived indoors, and wandered, clearly quite content, through the base!
Ben – standing in front of a window, staring distractedly down at the blue water of the lake below – looked around, startled and too jumpy, when he felt something small and soft bump against the back of his lower leg. He looked down, mildly annoyed at first. But he let himself laugh just a little, when he saw the white and pale blue shinehorn, standing so self assured on its little feet and ready to head butt again with it's small horns. Ben felt a louder laugh escape him, when he saw the sprig of mejoberries, held in the animal's mouth, stems and all. He leaned down to pat the tiny goat on the head, and listened to its cheerful bleat in return. Quickly he straightened up again, gave a sigh of commitment, and crossed the large common room - a place somehow just as noisy as ever, despite being empty of people – and nervously knocked on the door of the tribe leader's small 'office.'
"You.. wanted to see me," Ben said, uncertain as he stepped inside the small cluttered room, at the sound of a mumbled invitation.
Jessie only nodded once, before he looked down toward Ben's feet and gave an amused laugh.
"I see you're making fast friends with the locals," the big man remarked. And Ben looked down to see what it was he was talking about, before he laughed a little again himself at seeing the little shinehorn had trailed after him, right into the office.
"I'm not sure who this one belongs to..." Ben explained, uncertain.
"Looks like one of the babies born last month," Jessie muttered, thinking. "Lightpets of any kind, if left to their own devices will breed like mad. Why don't you claim her, Boy? That one clearly likes you."
"Alright," Ben agreed after a moment. And he decided quickly he would indeed be glad for the company of the decidedly quite adorable, friendly little animal.
"I..." Jessie looked down for a long moment at the wooden table he sat behind. And his hands fidgeted on the top of it – so unlike the confidant but always fair leader Ben had just begin to understand. "I... wanted to tell you, Ben, just how sorry I am for the fate of your... young lady."
"Her name is Ellie," Ben said. Understanding at once from the leader's immediate nod of thanks, that he simply hadn't remembered her name. The nod told him he intended to remember it now. Ben took a seat on the other side of the table, and let himself laugh slightly when the little shinehorn hopped immediately up onto his lap, surprising him with her ability to jump quite that high in the first place.
"I've been told already that it wasn't my fault," Jessie said. He shook his head again, clearly conflicted, before he continued on, muttering a little now. "I suppose I see how it wasn't exactly. Still, as appointed leader to a group that trusts in me, I'm just not sure..."
"Ellie certainly didn't need to be involved in that fight in the first place," Ben said, not exactly so willing to agree with others in the tribe, over the assignment of blame. He thought about the morning, replaying it's events quickly, and feeling sudden frustration building again in his body. "Yes that.. that.. creature, was on a path right for the base. That's bad news, I get that. But not everyone went running with weapons in hand to deal with it, because we both know that wouldn't make sense either. And I don't see why she wasn't left behind up here!"
The tribe leader shook his head again, slowly. Clearly he was still so uncertain of his own judgment. And he looked down it his hands on the table top, silent for a long moment, before he finally spoke again.
"I've been calling her a girl, yeah. But we both know of course, she's a fully grown adult. And more than able to make her own decisions. She... answered the call for volunteers at the same moment you did. I had no reason to ever assume she'd be targeted... It's strange that she was, actually. Still.." the big man looked down again at his hands on the tabletop. "I question myself now regardless..."
Unsure entirely of what he was expected to say then, Ben just sat nodding understanding. He held his face set in a blank expression, not exactly willing to blame the leader for something that he did easily understand wasn't exactly his fault. But still, he was not exactly willing to just let the matter go either, because in his thinking, that would not have been right. He sat, distractedly petting the shinehorn, while Jessie talked briefly to someone, over his radio.
"Stella is on her way up, now," the tribe leader said. And Ben recognized the name of someone he'd often heard about but had not yet formally met. He remembered at once that any sick and injured usually ended up inside her small hut, across from the base, over the catwalks. The man smiled a little then, looking truly confidant for the first time in the conversation. "She has news. It sounded somewhat hopeful, because she'd certainly didn't say anything 'bout Ellie bein' dead."
Stella turned out to be a roughly middle aged lady, with dark hair turning to gray and a fully noticeable English accent. Her green eyes looked tired, but still truly compassionate. And Ben instantly knew she was exactly the sort of person who would pull any frightened, crying or distressed person she saw into powerful arms and hug them just to try to make anything better if it was all she could do. She shut the door behind her– closing it lightly instead of slamming it like so many of her tribe-mates surely would have done. And slowly, she sat herself down in the one remaining empty chair at the table.
"Good news then?" Jessie asked, right to the point. "'Bout that young lady I mean. I'd expected you would have come up here at least a couple hours ago."
"It took me a fair while with that one," Stella answered. Her tone was instantly so sad, so.. lost. And she sat for moment, silent and thinking while her head shook from side to side slowly. "She wasn't half as bad off as she looked at first, once I got the blood cleaned up. But then, you know it's usually not nearly as bad as it looks. Still..." She paused a moment. Then promptly she continued on, boldly. "The young lady woke right up, not long after you left her with me. Poor thing was very quickly crying her eyes out, from shock and pain and terror, surely. Prob'ly didn't help that she simply doesn't know me either. I should have called for some assistance perhaps. But I've already seen one too many people far too close to hittin' the floor... So, after I was sure she wasn't about to go dying on me at any minute, I decided maybe best to work slower than I'd often like to. It went better that way... that and chatting to her because she begged me at least twice to please keep talking. I finally managed to convince her to accept a good dose of narcotics, after I made it clear no one would force her to. She's finally sleeping again. Should be for awhile at least..."
"You could have asked me to help you. To help Ellie..." Ben said. His voice was shaky and he hated it. But he was fighting back his annoyance, certain that this woman should have called on him to at least try to be useful. He wanted to snap and tell her exactly how strongly he felt about it. But instead he held his tongue as a wave of lightheadedness hit him.
"You don't look so well, even sitting here in the base," Stella countered at once. And in the next second she was staring at him intently, her face filled with mild concern, as she muttered, "I think I'd like to see you in my cabin too. You absolutely are not looking good."
"No, thank you," Ben waved the woman off, and probably a bit too rudely. But she was right and he knew it. He certainly felt unwell.
His lower left arm stung with discomfort. And he looked down, studying the strange shinning metal implant attached to the inside of the wrist. He'd come to suppose no one had ever said a thing about it, because everyone he'd met so far had one of their own. It stood to reason, it was just seemed normal to them all, and no gave it any real thought. Still, he wondered exactly how long it was supposed to hurt so badly for, because his so often did.
"The boy's fine, Stella," Jessie said. And he laughed off her concern lightly, while giving a nod to hint at his understanding. "It only makes sense he'd be a bit shocked, considerin' his love interest is..."
"Love interest?" Stella's eyes widened suddenly. And Ben, despite his lightheadedness, still so clearly saw the Englishwoman blush red with her embarrassment. "I.. I 'd just assumed that was his sister! It's certainly not common. But it wouldn't be the first time we've had a pair of sibling wash up together..."
"I made a guess," Jessie said. But he was shaking his head a little, and questioning himself now. "Never thought much about it, and I can't say I ever thought to ask."
"She's nobody," Ben said. He shut his eyes against the worsening lightness of his head, and leaned back in the chair he still occupied, just hoping to feel better that way. He didn't. But realizing, far too slowly how wrong his words sounded, he sat up straight again, despite how bad he felt, and shook his head in disbelief.
"I mean.. Ellie is neither," he explained. And just a few words in he leaned back again. "She... I.. I met her maybe two days after I got here myself. Found her wandering by the river, wet and surely frozen... I sat her down by my fire, so she could get herself warm. We hunted a a dodo together, and picked berries to make a meal out of it. The next day we were both found and brought here together..."
"I'm amazed at how protective you are over someone you've known for less then three weeks," Jessie said, in a tone of both surprise and admiration.
"I... barely know a thing about her even now" Ben answered. He understood fully just how absurd the whole thing much have sounded when it was explained out loud. So he spoke again as quickly as he could manage to, trying to make it make sense. "I promised I'd protect her."
"Promised who?" Stella questioned, curious. Ben felt her place a cool hand on his forehead, obviously determined to assure herself at the very least that he wasn't burning up with fever. He didn't bother to shove it away, sure he'd get nowhere in arguing with this woman so determined just to care for anyone she saw.
"Myself," he said, decidedly. "I promised myself."
The horse's hoofs stomped hard against the worn and rocky path. And Ben, sitting in the animal's saddle, took notice of it's steps, more than well aware enough not to push it too hard, considering their steady path uphill. But the equis – a creature somewhat small and seemingly fragile compared to any horse Ben remembered somewhere in the back of his awareness – was sure footed and with energy to spare. Charlie could surely run for hours, uphill just as easily as down.
Ben found himself fully enjoying his time away from the constant noise of the base. And he understood then that he'd once loved riding. And it was easy to see that his success in managing to fully break and train this once wild small horse, was a result of some consciously forgotten experience in doing so before – somewhere in his old, long forgotten life. Charlie had been his companion since the third day in that place. And even his name, Ben knew – picking it simply because it seemed like the right thing to call the animal – was not entirely original.
Pulling on the reigns he steered the equis around a tight bend in the pathway, swearing under his breath at the sharpness of the turn and how easy it would surely be for anyone to fall over the edge were they not paying attention. But the pathway – made up mostly of narrow land bridges high up over steep and deadly drops, spanning great expanses through bio-luminescent trees and hanging vines – straightened out and leveled somewhat, up ahead, which made him feel safer again. So, after a fast but careful look around him, to be sure he knew exactly where he was and where he was going, he kicked the horse once in the sides of his body, forcing him into a fast trot forward.
Charlie's hoofs however, had barely reached that flatter much easier ground, when a large dirt clump churned up in his path, followed quickly by another, then a third. And Ben's attention was on the strange motion at once.
"Damn it," Ben exclaimed. And unsure of what else he could or should do next, he kicked the horse's sides again spurring him into just as fast of a gallop as the animal would dare run on the land bridges.
The shinehorn – who had learned so quickly to ride, perched on Ben's shoulder, bleated her alarm as the horse ran faster. And as Charlie - at Ben's urgent, hopeful prompting, leapt all too easily over first a fallen log and then two large jagged boulders - she bleated far louder.
Small creatures – animals? Ben wasn't sure that word fully applied exactly... Critters? Monsters? - jumped too quickly from their burrows underfoot. And they leaped into the air with impossible height for their small size, to nip at the horse's legs – and at Ben's feet as they hung from the saddle – with sharpened and terrible teeth. Ben knew he'd be bleeding badly in seconds if not for his sturdy boots made of parasaur hide. But the house had no such protection. Charlie kicked and whinnied his unease, before rearing up dangerously. He slammed his front hooves down onto the head of one terrible critter, causing a horrible cracking noise, before the horse reared again more than past the point of panic.
"Whoa. Charlie! Whoa, boy," Ben called out, holding tight to the reigns, and more than a little aware that he'd more certainly be torn to shreds by the deadly beasts still around his feet, if he was thrown from the saddle.
The fleeting thought crossed his mind to hope the horse would simply bolt with him still mounted. An he knew with some confidence he could probably stay on, at least for a while – perhaps long enough... Then he remembered the steep drops from the edges of the land bridges, and feared the great chance of a fall to his death. He yanked hard on the reigns then, pulling up desperately with one one hand, while the other patted the frantic equis. And that was the moment the panicked horse did indeed throw him off.
Ben landed with a terrible thud, on the hard ground. And he managed, somehow to break his fall, rolling once before it ever crossed his mind to try. He was safely away from any one of the nearby drop offs. And he took just a second to gasp out his relief, before he looked around again, frantically.
The creatures! He remembered at once that they'd been everywhere around him, just a moment before. And he jumped to his feet, not even bothering to consider that he could have been injured, ready to fight them off any way he could. But they were simply gone – or at least quickly going. He saw the last few of the horrible and hideous things diving head-fist into the little burrows from which they'd emerged. Charlie was still nearby too. He stomped his hoofs and snorted, still clearly uneasy and on the verge of bolting away. But the horse stayed still somehow, when his rider moved toward him, cautious.
Ben's hand grabbed for the animal's reigns quickly, understanding the urgent need to mount again quickly, to regain the trust of the animal, and mostly to get gone while he could. But a bleating, from the ground caught his notice, as he was about to climb back onto the horse. And he looked down again fast, only then remembering the poor shinehorn he'd just about forgotten. He snatched her up gently, as he leapt up into the saddle. And the tiny all too trusting creature once again took her place balanced on his shoulder – but not before he'd noticed the light beaming out from her tiny blue horns.
'Lightpet...' Ben muttered under his breath and to no one as he remembered the term he'd heard only once before. So, that's what it meant then... The equis was so strangely calm so quickly, just as though the whole horrible encounter on the path had never happened at all. And by the time the path reached its end, turning instead to a grassy clearing that lead to the river, Ben was almost convinced the animal had forgotten anything about it.
"I feel like there's probably a reason I don't see more people taking on the nameless on horses," someone said, from somewhere in a clump of tall and massive mushrooms the size of trees, as Ben lead his horse to drink at the edge of the river. He looked around quickly, startled. And in under a second he could feel how hard his heart was pounding, despite his instantly recognition of the voice as one of someone absolutely harmless.
"Ellie," he called back as he held the horse's reigns. God, he hated that was so jumpy. He asked himself in desperation if he always had been sometime far away in a life he couldn't remember. And immediately he doubted it entirely. "What on God's green earth are you doing in there?"
"Picking mushrooms," Ellie answered. She walked slowly out from the huge plants, leading her own favored mount – a gray colored raptor with bright red feathers on it's head – and held out the little woven sack, she carried in her free hand. "Jaxon wanted some of the big brown ones to add to a stew for tonight. I was happy to go..." she sighed, then laughed a little. "Perfect excuse to be let back out again."
"I wasn't sure if the mushrooms were edible, " Ben replied, more then well aware enough to be nervous around any unknown mushroom species. And there, they grew wild everywhere.
"Absolutely," Ellie said. "The people of this place eat them all the time. They're actually quite tasty too. And you can also eat the blue ones. Not the black ones though..." she paused a second, thinking, recalling important information she'd picked up since their arrival in that place. "And... certainly not the red ones, ever."
Ellie led the raptor to the water, and watched, her expression quickly growing in alarm as the dinosaur eyed the horse with the unmistakable glare of a predator.
"Chomper," Ellie said, commanding the beast with a call of his name, and a wave of a hand. She glared at the raptor, as he glared at Charlie. "Don't even think about it!"
"Good boy," she told the creature when he broke his gaze and turned back to the river. Her voice no different in the least from the way someone would address a beloved and trusted, harmless pet. When he stopped drinking from the river, she held up a hand and gave a sharp whistle, directing her creature's attention to a wandering fat dodo as it waddled down the rocky river bank.
Chomper pounced on the bird, in a blur of fast motion, and not a second after she gave a firm command to 'get it.' Soon, the deadly carnivore lay on the ground, his stance guarded but safe, as he tore into his meal.
"There are piranha in there," Ellie said, kneeling on the ground now close to the bank, to pick more of the big brown mushrooms, which quickly went into her sack. Ben nodded, because as soon as she said so, he recalled just how many of the horrible large fish had bitten at his legs as he tried to take a drink, the day he'd awoken by that same river. He moved far more carefully as he refilled his water jar.
"I don't know how you can possibly trust an animal like that to not turn on you and rip your arm off," he remarked, eyeing the raptor as it ripped the dead dodo's head off its body with barely a nip at the thing. He sat down to rest on the ground, giving the raptor a wide berth in doing so. But the beast – his bloodied faced now buried in the dodo carcass – was too busy to notice him anyway.
"Chomper's a good boy," Ellie said, unfazed, and dropping slowly to the ground herself. "I can't say I understand how it all works here. But I know he'd never even think of hurting me now that I've hand fed him, and trained him." She petted the creature lightly on his head and and each side of his body, while he ate, to fully prove her point. Ben just cringed and looked away.
"He's a... real live dinosaur," he muttered, because the idea of such animals alive and succeeding there, among the strange plant life and the vastness of the underground world, never had yet become truly real in his mind.
"Yeah!" Ellie exclaimed. She laughed for a moment loudly, before stopping so abruptly and cringing with discomfort. She fall silent then, just breathing slowly. And Ben found himself helpless, forcing away his frustration at her need to simply get on with... everything, while clearly so far from okay.
"It's absolutely crazy, ain't it," Ellie said. She appeared far more comfortable when she was sitting still. But still, she didn't laugh again, and kept her voice even, letting her wonder show instead in a smile. She cast a glance in Chomper's direction, and mused, "things like him are supposed to have been extinct for what... fifty million... a hundred million years already? And I know full well we shouldn't be able to saddle them and ride on their backs..."
Ben slowly got to his feet. And for a moment he stood, studying the raptor, carefully and cautious. Chomper was done eating now – only feathers and a bit of blood remained of the dodo bird. The young man crept slowly closer to the creature, forcing himself to take one step, and then another, getting close enough to touch him, before he could change his own mind. Slowly, with great hesitation and his hand trembling more then a little, he reached out to the creature. Chomper barely even raised his head from its place on the ground, as he gently touched him on the back, behind the straps that secured his saddle. The raptor made a strange sound, that made Ben jump back and yank his hand away. But he didn't move, and the sound, when he made it again at a second light touch, only sounded so clearly now like a content and co-operative greeting.
"Chomper's gonna be a father any day now," Ellie said, grinning her excitement. "His mate back at base, has eggs about to hatch. And surely you could raise and train one of the babies if you wanted too..." She sat, quiet for a long moment, absorbed in her own thoughts as she stared out across the river watching a pair of huge and horrifying giant crabs fight one another with their horrid snapping claws.
"Jessie wants me pretty much on baby rearing duties as my full time posting for now," Ellie chattered on again, quickly. "I was never terrible at it or anything... though it certainly is a lot of work when they're so little. He said today that a reaper baby is gonna test me on everything I've ever learned about imprinting, on a thing that nature surely never meant to trust us... The risk of it becoming uncontrollable and dangerous is certainly real..."
Ben shook his head at first – about to simply decline the offer of a raptor to raise as his own. He wanted to tell her, politely, that he was somehow only truly interested mostly in taming and training horses. But her words fully caught up to him, in his distracted state, after several seconds of blank staring. And he sat up straighter on the ground, his eyes wide with dismay as he stared at her, blinking.
"Ellie," he gasped in horror as soon as he'd managed to make himself speak again. "You... can't mean you're actually determined to attempt to see this.. this.. situation though to the end!"
"I.. I think so..." her voice was shaky, as she stared ahead across the river – wide eyed as though the gravity of everything was only then fully dawning on her.
"You cannot possibly let any of these people convince you to..." Ben's words died in the air again as Ellie shook her head, still so shaky but firm all the same.
"No one's ever forced," she said. "Jessie promised me that and I believe him. And the tribe is so divided... some say I'm courageous for trying. Others say bad idea, and they wish I'd purposefully walk into radiation because that's the easy way... Not that that's truly so simple or safe either. There's obviously a good reason they say never take your hazard helmet off down there..."
"Frigging hell," Ben muttered. He picked up a fist sized stone from the ground. And in his mounted anger he flung it hard toward the trunk of a huge mushroom tree.
'Might've been better off if she were dead...' The tribe leader's words had barely registered when he'd heard them said five days ago. And when he'd realized long after the fact, exactly what he'd head, he'd been so disgusted. Now, watching this young woman who'd been his ally from the start, shaking in her own growing realization, he finally felt he understood the reasoning.
"I don't know how you're not scared to death." he said, ready to pick up and fling another stone, before deciding instead to step closer to her, awkward and uncertain.
"You think I'm not?" Ellie questioned. Her breath caught a little and she looked at her feet, making Ben decide to pretend he didn't know how hard she was fighting not to suddenly cry. "You think I haven't spent the last few days so damn terrified, I can barely think sometimes. I can barely sleep because the nightmares just don't stop..."
Ben wanted so badly to speak then, but he couldn't find a single word to say. So instead he just stood, watching a triceratops a good ways down the river bank, banging its head against a tree just as though was a common bull.
"Jessie and Stella both told me the next two months are likely to be somewhere close to hellish existence," Ellie said, calmer now, and taking a slow breath, trying hard to stay that way. She got her feet slowly, obviously struggling a bit to do so. And slowly she stuffed the sack of mushrooms into her raptor's saddle bag. When she turned back to Ben, she was smiling again, though weakly now – shaky and determined.
"Today, possibly tomorrow or maybe the day after that, could be the last decent day I've got for now," she said coaxing Chomper to his feet before she hopped up onto the saddle. "I... I think I just want to have a great day out here while I can."
"Let's go exploring then," Ben said. He forced away his anger as he jumped up onto his equis, because anger would only ruin the day he now wanted to make great for her. "I'll race you to the end of the river! You'll see for sure if your crazy little dinosaur is really faster than a horse. And we can look for some of those blue berries you love! We'll bring a sack of them back with us."
"Me and Chomper are so winning this..." Ellie answered. She laughed in challenge even as she cringed again from the pain that laughing caused her, with what had to have been a couple cracked ribs at the very least. Already her creature's reigns were firmly in her hands and her feet were poised to kick him lightly into motion.
"Your hair looks.. nice, by the way," Ben said, knowing his comment was completely out of place, but determined to talk about anything other than his own overwhelming hopelessness just seeing her struggle. Her hair certainly was much better now, because clearly someone had fixed it up for her, cutting it into an even short style that could grow out again nicely.
"Thanks," Ellie answered. And she grinned at him, remarking quickly, "now we just need to get someone to fix up yours."
"Come inside," Stella said, the moment she'd shoved open the door to her small cabin. And Ben, suddenly so hesitant now, took a slow step to follow her.
"I'm... sorry to bother you..." he said, uneasy again as he looked around him, his eyes falling at once on cluttered shelves of various supplies that lined the back wall of the cramped space. He was tired of his own unease, and struggled hard to fight it back with frustration at himself. "I'm sure its nothing..."
"Nonsense young man," Stella answered. She gave him a kind, understanding smile as she motioned him to chair in the corner of the little place. "Nothing is ever so unimportant. And I'm certainly not bothered."
"Now," she continued, pulling up another simple wooden, and rickety chair to sit down on herself. Her voice was calm, and she smiled again with confidence. "What's the trouble then?"
"My arm," Ben explained, forcing himself to speak up, only because the pain had become so much worse then it had ever been yet. The pain – a relentless turning and throbbing that had woken him from sleep before the crack of down that morning – had spread now to nearly the elbow. "My wrist. This... this damn metal... whatever the hell this actually is..."
"MmmHmm," Stella muttered, as his words died away. Her tone alone said that she'd seen such a situation before, and more then enough times already to understand it at once. Ben allowed himself to wonder if that was a good thing or not.
She gently held his throbbing wrist in one gentle, careful hand. And she sighed with regretful compassion, when even that much made him gasp with discomfort.
"This musta been problematic for a while already, to have gotten near this bad," Stella muttered. She reached over to the self beside her, grabbed for a jar filled with pinkish liquid, and shook her head in disapproval when Ben admitted slowly that he'd never not been at the very least uncomfortable.
"Whoever it was that did this to us..." she mused in annoyance, holding up her own wrist for a second before shaking her head. "They knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it well. So advanced they were able to fully wire these things into our entire nervous systems and brains, and all perfectly too. They were so good at this. I can't imagine any reason they needed to have been so brutal and savagely careless about it!"
"I've barely even started to try wrapping my head around much of anything yet," Ben admitted. He cringed again, as Stella shifted her hold on him just a little, supporting the aching lower arm now by letting it rest on the open palm of her hand. "I... I'm not sure I want to understand much."
"You will, dear," Stella said kindly. She smiled assurance. "When you've been here as long as some of us have, you'll surely be ready to start figuring it all out. Can you bend your fingers at all?"
"It hurts so much to bend them," Ben answered, trying to anyway, and immediately regretting the attempt.
"This could be slightly worse than I thought," Stella muttered, still not unkindly as she uncapped the jar.
Ben watched as she slowly poured some of the pink liquid over the metal piece of technology attached to his left wrist. And he gasped hard, fighting every urge to yank his arm back toward himself as new waves of pain shot through his lower arm and hand.
"I'm so sorry, dear," Stella apologized. "Please hold still as you possibly can. I'll try to work quickly." She gave a loud, dismayed and frustrated sigh then that Ben understood was certainly not at all directed toward him. "I can think of so many reasons these things get so irritated, then start causing real trouble. Some are far worse than this one even, and who only knows if they'll ever fully integrate... Of course yours is showing signs of obvious infection from God only knows what..."
She reached around again to the shelf beside her. And this time she fetched a scrap of cloth – seemingly part of some torn clothing fabric. Quickly she poured a bit of the pink liquid onto it, before pausing, the rag held still in her hand, while she considered.
"You feel okay sitting up like that?" she asked, her tone of voice completely serious. And Ben just nodded, suddenly worried by the question. She set to work, wiping, gently as she clearly could at the edges of the shinning metal with the dampened rag. And he understood her questioning then, as the stabbing pain made his head spin with dizziness.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Stella said, apologizing again as she worked. Ben, shutting his eyes tightly and holding his focus on not falling forward, found himself feeling genuinely bad for the woman, who felt so truly horrible for causing him greater pain.
"How long have you been here?" He managed the question slowly, with effort.
"Oh goodness..." Stella muttered. "It's certainly been awhile, I know that much. I used to keep track far better than I do now. I remember back in the early days I used to mark sticks... I haven't done that in a fair while now, but.. its got to have been at least... hmm, nine or ten years now."
"Wha..." Ben mumbled. But he stopped speaking again just as soon as he'd started to, both because of a new wave of pain tearing through his arm, and because he could barely process the seeming impossibility of that passage of time.
"I used to miss my old life. I'll admit that." Stella said. Ben felt her pat his other hand gently, before returning quickly to her work, and he nodded his thanks, because it helped a little somehow. He listened as she spoke again. "I had my own medical practice then... small office... worst neighborhood in central London! Oh goodness, boy. Almost everyone I used to work with in residency said I could do much better. I told 'em someone had to practice there!"
"I only wish I knew a thing about my old life," Ben said. The worst of the pain was gone now. And he dared to open his eyes again, only to find Stella studying his lower arm again, her expression satisfied.
"That's looking so much better," she told him. She rested a hand lightly on his arm, offering support as he shakily stood up. "You did good. Just... try not to bang it or anything and you should be alright."
Ben just nodded his grateful thanks, to this compassionate woman. And when she returned the smile, he understood her resilience, determination and... regret? This was a person, he understood so well now, with the knowledge and ability to do so much more than the circumstances of this strange place allowed. She worked tirelessly away, seemingly to the point where exhaustion showed in her eyes, not because she'd been relegated to the place with endless work, in the form of sick, and injured and downright dying people, dropped on her doorstep. But instead because she herself would have heard of nothing else when it came to her place in the tribe. He clearly saw her helplessness at only wishing she could do far more for 'her' people, with what the place provided her.
Notes/ Well second chapter down... and this one was longer, which I wanted. Stella was going to be a barely mentioned 'extra' initially. But as they tend to do, her character has seemingly evolved into one that now has a true personality,a nd a growing place in the plot-line.
I feel like that got a bit heavy in a couple places. But I want to get it truly 'dark' in parts soon enough. In my mind it gets sooo much worse yet...
And thanks to those who have stopped to read so far. I only hope to keep this interesting enough, and do true justice to a game universe I love.