NOTE: brackets indicate another language being spoken
It's in the late afternoon when they arrive at the village, the shadows of jungle trees hanging over it all like ominous reaching limbs.
There were mostly huts with redleaf roofs, but there were also a few buildings reminiscent of the city that had been left behind. Kaki looks over as Seventeen pulls the truck into a park, where she sees another truck - eerily looking as if it had been there for days, with dead leaves littering its canopy - parked behind a hut.
"I wonder if that's who Loquat meant," Kaki says to Seventeen.
"Maybe they're fine, and just decided to enjoy the remote wilderness for a while," Seventeen comments, trying to ease the eerie feeling this village gave him. They get out of the truck and unloaded their things, but the entire time it felt like little eyes were on them.
"Kaki..." he whispers. "Do you feel that? Something's watching us."
Turning around to where the feeling of gaze was coming from, a small creature about four feet tall, emerged from behind a building. Its eyes were red and bulging, and it looked like...a frog?
Kaki follows his gaze, only to also see those red eyes peering at them almost shyly. She blinks in recognition, where at the same time, the little Tatinartean emerges and begins to approach them.
"Oh. It's one of the locals," she tells Seventeen, in an attempt to ease.
The Tatinartean stops a few feet away and stares with a tilted head. They wear a loose shirt and trousers, but no shoes - perhaps with the webbing between their toes, they weren't meant for shoes.
{ Hello, my friend, } Kaki greets with a small wave. { We hear that your village has been having some problems lately. }
The Tatinartean stares in silence, prompting Kaki to blink. Then, she realizes - just as she thinks that they seemed a bit smaller for their race than she originally was led to believe - that they were just a child. She gulps a little, before speaking again, a bit more carefully this time.
{ Where are all the others in your village? }
The child takes a second to speak, and points behind them, to one of the buildings. In there… There's a man that's sick.
Kaki raises a brow. { Sick? }
{ Yes. } They kick their feet at the ground.
Kaki gives them a look of reassurance. { What happened? }
The Tatinartean child looks down. { He came with another a while back, in the truck. A few days ago they went with some other adults to gather food, but when they came back… There was only him. }
Kaki nods, before turning to Seventeen to translate.
"Two others came ahead of us," Kaki explains. "They went with some others in the village to gather food a few days ago, but only one came back. He's not well."
Seventeen nods. "Ask them to bring us to him because I'm trained in first aid," he says laughing nervously, remembering last time he had claimed to be providing first aid. "And maybe if we see what messed him up so badly we can get an idea of what we're dealing with."
Kaki nods and turns back to the Tatinartean.
{ Can you bring him to us? }
{ He can't be moved, } explains the child. Then, they motion for the two to follow.
Assuming there was a reason for it, Kaki grabs one of the bags with supplies and motions for Seventeen to follow. They're led to one of the more structured buildings, with lights and air powered by generators.
Upon stepping inside, they're greeted by a couple of other Tatinarteans treating a man, who looked almost human if not for the fleshy horns protruding from his forehead. His skin was desaturated and sweaty, and dark veins snaked from somewhere under his shirt, up his neck, and onto his face. Kaki lingers by the door, her eyes slightly wide in shock.
{ We have been trying best we can, } says one of the Tatinarteans treating the man, { but the wound has only worsened. }
Another removes a damp cloth from the man's forehead and grimly motions for them to approach.
Taking the lead, Seventeen goes to his side and begins to check him over. Holding the back of his palm up to the man's forehead, he notes he has a fever. He goes about the normal protocol of checking the man, though the dark veins are out of his wheelhouse.
Eventually, he's able to conclude that he's suffering from anaphylactic shock triggered by an incredible amount of venom in addition to the venom's normal effects. It's similar to what seventeen has seen on Monster Island, which is riddled with venomous creatures.
"Kaki, can you bring me the medical kit we bought? I think it has some antivenom in it."
It probably wasn't the right kind for this creature, because as far as the ranger could tell it had been mutated somehow. No creature, alien or not, could turn a person's veins black like this without some kind of biological enhancement.
"I have an albuterol inhaler in my backpack," he says, rising to take it off and digging around in it. "If you could check his body to see where he was bit."
Pulling out a pair of latex gloves, he holds them out to her. "And wear these, you don't want to get this on your own gloves. And don't touch any open part of your face or skin after touching him."
Kaki removes her gloves, putting them in a pouch attached to her belt before putting on the latex gloves he'd given. This wouldn't be the first time she would help in giving medical aid, but in her days in Freeza's Medical Corps, she dealt with mostly injuries related to war - never something as ghastly as this.
She kneels beside the man across from Seventeen. Her gaze lingers on the man's expression, strained in his suffering before she would quickly scan over him. She determines the bite must be at his abdomen and reaches to pull up the hem of his shirt.
She winces visibly at the site of the bite. It was black and smelled putrid from a combination of sharp-smelling venom and rotting flesh.
{ It came down upon him when my sibling tried to pluck a fruit. It has legs that look just like it, } says one of the adults from before. { A few others who went on scavenges before the last said it spreads nests of darkness here and there. }
Kaki grimaces.
"Whatever did that," she says, "was hunting them."
"It's an arachnid, I think," he says shaking the inhaler. "You can tell from the wound. See how it's gotten so dark, and he's dehydrated from vomiting, like a black widow bite would make you."
Gingerly, he holds the inhaler with a spacer attached up to the man's mouth. he's become semi conscious so making him take it would be easier.
"Hi, I'm Seventeen. I'm gonna help you. Just relax and inhale when I say so."
Pressing the inhaler down a few times, taking a few seconds in between, the man complies.
"Kaki, can you see if that med kit has any saline in it? And a butterfly needle? Oh, and I need the antivenom too."
He didn't know how the man's body would react to the antivenom since it probably wasn't for the spider he had been bit by, but there weren't many other options.
When they begin to make work of giving the man first aid, the two adult Tatinarteans whisper something about closing the gates to the village before nightfall, before quickly exiting, leaving Kaki, Seventeen, and the child with the ailing man.
As Kaki rummages through the bag, already having the saline and butterfly needle in hand, her mind hangs on Seventeen's words: 'it's an arachnid, I think'...
{ You - Um, what is your name? } Kaki asks the Tatinartean child, as she hands Seventeen the things he asked for.
{ Pepsi, } they say, watching the two work.
{ One of the others said... That it was making nests? }
{ Yes, } Pepsi confirms, tilting their head a bit. { Nests of darkness. }
What the hell did that mean? Kaki's brows furrow together in thought as if she almost had it. Possibly an arachnid... building nests of darkness... Suddenly, she makes the connection, as she remembers what she told Seventeen the day before last.
'It's arachnid silk. My people...used it before it was popularized by the Planetary Trade Organization.'
Her eyes shoot to stare at Seventeen -particularly, the shirt she had given him. Then, she moves to take the map from the pouch on her belt and turn it on, quickly looking for anything nearby that may have been marked. When nothing comes up, she turns back to Pepsi.
{ When Freeza's men were still here - did they build anything nearby? }
Pepsi thinks and then replies, { I think… it was a factory - but they closed it down a long time ago. I-I think they made… clothes... }
Kaki's eyes widen in sudden realization. "By the gods. It is an arachnid."