A nice, long, hot bath had done nothing to improve her mood, but it did get all the blood off and out of her hair. She had left the door open to keep an eye on Jar-hidda, not for the previous fears that he would vanish on her, which really was his choice either way, but to keep an eye and ear on what he was doing and planning. The last thing she needed was for him to set up another 'test,' her imagination running with the thoughts that there was still a wolf pack of unknown size running around the area also very hungry.
Smaug was little comfort, sitting there quietly on the edge of the bathtub, but it was better than nothing. Once she was out, she bandaged her arm from her wrist to her elbow, pretty sure that nothing was broken but acknowledging that something was likely fractured. Jar-hidda apparently did not think these wounds were grievous enough to require that health shard this time around. That was alright with her. Her skin from the last use had been very sensitive, bruised, with a nice little circle of bleeding holes like she had been shot with the world's weakest shotgun. She had also developed some kind of rash around the injection site, where her skin was red, dry and flaky.
She should have thought of the possible effects of alien medicine before letting Jar-hidda stab her. But everything had eventually faded away. She didn't want to see if it would happen again.
However, Jar-hidda also did not give her a day to recover, and they were back up the mountain the next morning.
Hannah smoldered on her spot, favoring her injured arm, still sore at Jar-hidda, taking backwards glares over her shoulder at the ship within the cave. Several thoughts of taking vengeance had popped up in her head, and were dismissed after only a couple minutes of entertainment. There was literally nothing she could do to the alien. He had been shot point-blank multiple times in the chest and the bullets never went past the muscle. True, maybe her rifle, which was more powerful than a handgun, might do something, but on the chance it didn't, she'd be dead.
Besides, she didn't want to kill Jar-hidda, just get even. So She spent her time trying to think of ways to annoy the giant killer alien, which sounded like a bad idea in of itself. At the very least she was warm, Jar-hidda's gift never failed to keep her toasty, after the initial start-up shock, kind of like touching hot metal in the summer sun, at first shocking, but eventually the skin got used to it.
She shot another glare over her shoulder as she heard more of his cursing and something breaking. It was hard to feel sorry for him over the pain in her arm. Then the alien stepped out of his ship, materializing out of the steam and approached her.
She stood, turning in her spot so that she was facing him by the time he got to her.
"Can you go get more things?" he growled at her. She wondered how detailed his vision was, if he could see how pissed she looked, because he had asked in a rather polite manner. But she was in no mood to please. She folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow. He looked at her for a moment with those yellow eyes of his, before turning his back to her and walking back towards his ship.
Oil to the flame.
Her nostrils flared, she tightly set her jaw, grinding her teeth. She glanced down, and without really thinking about it, bent and grabbed a handful of snow, packing it tight. With all her frustration behind her hand, she chucked the mass of cold that he hated so much. She missed her intended target of the back of his head, hitting instead square between his shoulders, but he froze. She saw his shoulders stiffen as the snow melted and ran down his spine. He turned his head slowly to look at her over his shoulder, and she knew she was in for some real trouble. She stood tall and held her head high. No more pushing her around, no more turning his back to her, he was going to see she meant business. It was going to hurt like hell, but he would see.
He turned to face her slowly, shoulders square, all seven feet of muscle ready for an attack. She readied herself for the pain, assuring herself in her mind that it had been worth it. He stalked over to her, slowly, but she held her ground. She clenched her fists and her jaw. He got right in front of her, looked down at her, rattled. Then he lifted his hand and pushed it against her shoulder with the force of a jack-hammer, sending her sprawling in the snow. She grunted, feeling the cold against her skin between the lines of wire. She quickly scrambled up, only to have a huge amount of snow dumped on her.
She froze, feeling the cold trickle through her hair and down her skin. She looked over at Jar-hidda, shaking the melted snow off his hands before turning away again. She blinked once, wondering why he hadn't been rougher than that, then grabbed more snow and threw it at him, causing him to freeze again. He rattled a warning to her as he turned to glower at her. What he did next surprised her.
Jar-hidda bent his knees and spread his arms wide, but rather get into that familiar battle stance, he scooped a pile of snow into his arms, compacted it with a squeeze and held it over his head. His battle roar reverberated through the mountains.
Many thoughts crossed Hannah's mind at that moment: 'well, there go all the animals' as every bird on the mountain took off in flight, 'oh shit what have I gotten myself into?' looking at the large hunk of snow ready to be hurled at her, and finally 'wait, does he think I'm playing?' Rather than face her like he had the last time she challenged him, he was simply throwing snow back at her. This had turned into what would probably be the most brutal snowball fight she had ever gotten into. This was not what she wanted, she wanted him to take her seriously, to recognize that she was more than what he was treating her like.
She didn't have much time to think as a large heavy mass of snow fell on top of her. She was buried up to her knees in it, and shuddered at the cold, scooping up another ball in retaliation, throwing it right at his face and hitting his chest, and he bent down to continue the cycle. The world's strangest snowball fight raged for a whole three or four seconds before Hannah paused.
She heard thunder, but the sky was clear. In this area, it could only mean one other thing. She looked up above Jar-Hidda, above the cave to the top of the mountain they stood on. The snow was coming down. Her entire body laxed like she was going to pass out. It came as a surprise when she was suddenly struck against her middle and whisked off her feet. At first she thought Jar-hidda was unaware of impending disaster and had taken the snowball fight to a new level, one she had previously desired.
But she never hit the ground. Jar-hidda had her firmly under his arm, and was bounding towards the cave, avoiding what looked like to him, a giant wave of black hell bearing down on the both of them. He sunk deep into the snow with every step, all but taking a flying leap into the cave. A few seconds later, the opening was covered, and the snow piled in all the way up the ship's ramp.
Hannah dangled from underneath Jar-hidda's arm as he turned to face the snow, able to hear the wave crashing through the trees below. Hannah hoped the avalanche would settle before it reached her house. And then she was on her hands and knees on the ground, unceremoniously dropped by the alien. Jar-hidda walked away from Hannah and got to work removing the snow from his ramp, which was already melting and dripping onto the cave floor.
Hannah stood up, brushing off her knees and looked around the cave. She knew its underground system like the back of her hand, and knew that the only way out was through the snow. But with how warm Jar-hidda's ship was making everything, it was likely that the snow would melt and be thin enough to dig out of in just a few hours.
Then the odd thought cropped up. Why had Jar-hidda saved her? Wouldn't outrunning the snow be just as good a test as sicking the panther on her? She gave the alien an odd look as he made his way back up the ramp and into his ship. She stood in her spot for a moment before walking up to the ramp as well. She leaned over, peering inside, but couldn't see Jar-hidda. She turned her ear towards the inside of the ship to try to hear what he was doing. She could hear hissing and banging, seemed he had gotten back to work.
"Hey Jolly?" she called, "can I come in?"
The banging stopped for a moment, then started up again. Unsure if he even answered loud enough to be heard over the hissing, Hannah took a step onto the ramp and waited, hesitating before climbing up. Inside was very spacious. The ship itself was maybe just over forty-feet long and at the very least twenty-feet wide. Looking about, she figured this was like what she imagined living in a mobile home would be like, since Jar-hidda was alone.
In here was sweltering, and it was very humid. It was hard to breath, and the air had an odd taste to it. Immediately she found herself in some kind of foyer, with left or right being her only direction choices. It was difficult to discern where the banging was coming from, and after a short moment decided to go left. The hallway curved towards the front of the ship. The hallways were lit but seemingly not for her benefit. It seemed to be the same kind of infrared heat lights she used for her reptiles. Luckily it allowed her to see well enough not to trip over the various pedestal-like things she kept passing by.
A door came up on her right, a very wide metal door that looked like it may open down the middle, but that may have been just how it was carved. She moved her fingers along the seam, then held her ear to it to see if Jar-hidda was inside. Her body was already begging for her to leave for the colder and drier air outside, but curiosity was starting to get the best of her. She looked around for a way to open it and saw to the side a sort of panel with red symbols on it, the same kind of symbols on Jar-hidda's wrist gauntlet. She put her fingers on it and found to her surprise that where the symbols were lit up was actually warmer against her skin than where the rest of the panel was unlit. That was how Jar-hidda could read them; the symbols gave off heat.
Pondering the panel for a moment, she wondered if there was some kind of code she needed to input in in order to open the door. She decided to try poking the panel first, and like some kind of miracle, that seemed to work. The door opened by sliding into the wall in one solid piece. The room within was cast in the same red light as everything else, revealing a large open space. When she stepped on, the lights seemed to shift, to become more yellowish, and for a brief moment she wondered what kind of purpose the different lights served.
And then she froze.
Before her, on all three sides and the wall behind her. Skulls. Tons of skulls. A few species she recognized. One was a large bear skull, go figure. But others were alien. Literally. One such skull was elongated and oblong-shaped with a squat face that almost looked human. Another skull was almost spade shaped, and appeared to have no place for its eyes. The light gleamed off of each skull, polished white.
And to her right: the stuff of nightmares. Human skulls, at least ten of them, some of them had filed teeth, one was Butch's skull. Hannah stood still. The skulls stared back. Empty sockets warned and accused.
See the monster you're helping?
It was impossible to breathe, and the sweat could have been from the heat, or the cold horror staring at her in the face.
What the hell kind of creature was she helping?
She wasn't sure how long she had stood there, staring at the skulls. But she jolted out of her stupor in surprise at a vice grip on her shoulder. Her eyes stared wide up at Jar-hidda, who looked from her to the skulls.
"Good hunting," he rumbled and Hannah felt her heart stop. He rattled and clicked fondly at his trophies, then pulled her back, away from the wall and out of the room.
"You can't…," he growled, trying to find the words, "the… wind is bad for you."
"Air," she half-heartedly corrected. He repeated the word and half-lead half-pushed her back out of the ship. Hannah stood still for a moment before slowly sitting down on the ramp, pulling her knees to her chest and staring at the snow. She felt like her whole world had just come crashing down. What was she going to do now?