(A/N: I hope everyone thought the first chapter was good, or at least decent, and ends up liking this one. I'm not sure if it's going to be longer or shorter than the last one, but we'll find out at the end, won't we?
Warning: there will be some blood, brief nudity, and medical treatment in this chapter. It won't be too graphic, but definitely not to be taken lightly. There will also be what people might interpret to be unlawful imprisonment, but that should be it. Again, not to be taken lightly, but I wouldn't worry too much. Be very careful just in case.)
I-U-Y-*O~o~O*-Y-U-I
Kelani hiked through the humid forest for what could have gulled her to be for hours, although it had likely been only half an hour, or even much less. The sun had completely set under the horizon, leaving her flashlight as her only source of light. Her flashlight could only help her so much and it had been a while since she had been through the area in the dark, she had nearly forgotten how to handle the nocturnal.
She was beginning to think that what she had heard earlier may have been nothing at all, perhaps just someone trying to scare somebody with recordings from a monster movie. As unlikely a scenario as it sounded, it seemed to be likely, she was almost ready to turn back and go back home.
She was about to turn around, when something caught her eye. There was a vivid green glow a couple of yards ahead of her. She might have thought it was a bioluminescent animal or plant, but either one was more commonly found in caves, not in the open forest, what could it be?
It could be something very dangerous, or even something completely explainable, it was a risk on whether or not to investigate it. Nevertheless, she found herself becoming drawn towards it, perhaps she was intrigued by it and decided it was worth investigating. No matter what the reason was, she wanted to take the risk of it potentially being dangerous because it was a curiosity that drove her to.
Soon, she reached the source of the glowing green light, it was a fluid, and it was soaking into the dirt, it was only then when it was no longer glowing. She reached down and picked up a little of the fluid on her fingers and began to play with it.
It was the same consistency of blood, and after playing with it a little more she determined that it was blood. The glow, which at first glance almost appeared to be radioactive, was something she wasn't able to figure out at that moment, although she did determine that it was likely caused by something in the blood reacting to the exposure to oxygen.
Human blood was the exact same way, the reason it appeared to be red was due to the copper naturally found in the body and the hemoglobin protein. When exposed to oxygen, the high amount of copper in the blood turns it from blue to red. A crucial protein to blood, hemoglobin, contains a red-colored compound called heme, which carries oxygen through the body.
Why this blood was different and glowed like lights on Christmas was a mystery to her, but it wasn't one she was going to decipher. She needed to figure out where it was coming from, it was too dark by that time for her to see with her naked eyes. When she shined her flashlight, however, she saw a body lying just a couple of feet from her.
She went over to the body and the first thing she saw was the same glowing blood flowing out of multiple injuries. This was the source of the glow, and they appeared to be in critical condition, they weren't moving in the slightest.
Suddenly, she heard a gravelly, weak voice speak to her, "...Halkrath…"
Halkrath? What did that mean? Was that their name? Were they sending a message? Asking for help? Whatever the circumstance, she knew she had to figure out what was wrong with them and help them, it was her moral duty.
She held up her flashlight to get a better look at them, when she did the light reflected off of some type of armor. She couldn't make out all of the details, but she could see pauldrons, some kind of mesh netting, a plating over their crotch that resembled something similar to what was worn by samurai warriors, something under it that strangely reminded her of a penis sheath worn in ancient cultures, and a large mask that covered their face.
She wanted to figure out what this armor was for, it was intriguing, but when she saw a gleam in the blood caused by her flashlight, she remembered why she ran into the forest in the first place. She had made it her duty to find anyone who had been injured when she became a nurse, and she now had a new patient.
She looked at the areas where the blood was most concentrated and saw what she thought to be bullet holes, something she had seen a number of times in the emergency room. On top of a couple of these injuries, she saw some kind of mucus. It resembled the mucus that cloaked the flat bodies of stingrays yet it was different at the same time. She wasn't sure if it was something this individual could produce or if it was something else.
She didn't believe her new patient was a human, she didn't have to see all of them to know that. However, she somehow doubted the mucus was something that they naturally created, but she still didn't have the slightest idea what it could be or what they could be.
She did know one thing, she couldn't treat them there, there were too many risks for infection. She knew that if she didn't help them their chances of survival were very slim, she had no other choice but to take them back with her to her house.
The problem was how she was going to be able to. She couldn't see all of them, but from what she could tell they were quite muscular and very much built for strength as well as speed, just from what she was able to observe from looking at their legs.
Muscle weighs more than fat, and they definitely had a lot of muscle. Just based on that alone, she had to estimate that they could weigh as much as three hundred pounds, which would make them three times her weight. Of course, she could have been wrong, math was never her strongest subject in school, but that didn't help the fact that they were still considerably larger than her.
It would be easier if she had a stretcher or gurney, that way she could simply drag them along with her through the forest to her home. However, she didn't have access to either one at the moment, she would have to find a way to improvise.
One way or another, she was able to get them out of the forest and into her house. It took much longer than she expected to get home, it was after midnight, she would have to call in sick to work. It was a bit of a challenge to get them into the house, not because of their size, but because Darkshot was growling, barking, and jumping on her; she had to use a bone she bought him a couple of days prior to distract him.
She took them into a spare bedroom, laying them on a sheet on the floor as she got to work preparing the room for them. She had already bandaged the serious injuries with her first-aid kit, but they were bleeding into the bandaging, so she had to finish quickly.
First, she had to prepare the bed by removing the sheets, blanket, and pillows. While her new patient was considerably large, the bed was queen-sized, more than large enough; the room was actually the room her parents stayed in whenever they visited, which they hadn't done in a while.
She took out the bedding and got white, stain-resistant sheets and pillowcases, along with a spread of sheets made of rubber. She set them onto the bed and went to get leftover puppy-training pads from when she first got Darkshot.
Finally, she began to make the bed for them to lay on and for her to operate on them. She first laid out the stain-resistant sheets, then the rubber sheets over the lower half of the bed and the training pads over them, finally she stuffed the pillows into the new pillowcases and placed them at the top of the bed.
The bed was done, that was the easy part, but she wasn't done yet. It was only the tip of the iceberg of things she had to do, and that didn't even include taking care of her patient and making sure they didn't bleed to death.
All of this would be easier if she lived with someone, such as with a roommate or a boyfriend, but she didn't and, frankly, she didn't want to. She was a bit more of an introvert, despite being very friendly and lively around others. Also, she mused how she would have to explain to anyone about her non-human patient.
She would need room to work on them, there was a dresser and a television in the room as the only furniture, besides the bed. The television was mounted on the wall, she wasn't worried about it. She was more worried about the dresser, it was parallel to the bed and given the overall size of the room, she didn't have much space to work with.
She gripped the sheet her patient laid on and dragged it to the front of the room, in front of the closed door. Once they were out of her way, she got to work on pushing the dresser to the back of the room.
She had more to do but a strained groan coming from the floor cut that short. She had to act quickly and get them into the bed before it got worse for them.
She gripped the sheet again and dragged them closer to the bed. She lifted their arms and pulled them up to her body, grunting as she did so due to the heavy weight.
She had been mentally referring to her patient as 'they' or 'them', she knew that it was probably a little inconsiderate, but she had no idea what they were or if their species even had genders or was genderless or hermaphrodites. However, when the sheath-looking object on their crotch slipped off when she pulled them up, that question was finally answered when she saw their flaccid penis.
She blushed darkly and looked away, her heart rate suddenly accelerating, but not from embarrassment. It wasn't the first time she had seen a penis, she saw them every once in a while at work in the hospital, but seeing it reminded her of the first time she saw one. It was a bad day.
She carefully laid him down on the bed and made sure he was comfortable before she left. She came back into the room, ready to get to work, wearing a pair of scrubs and latex gloves, along with a small bag of medical equipment and medicine in her hand.
Tying up her hair and donning a facemask to prevent contamination, she started to evaluate the condition of his body. He was bleeding from several areas, she counted a possibility of half a dozen injuries. She considered it as a possibility because she wasn't sure if there were more or less because of all of the blood.
She cleaned off the bloody areas, which had long since clotted and stopped bleeding, and picked up her medical equipment bag. Using a cotton ball soaked with alcohol, she sterilized the injury on his shoulder and picked up a small razor and tweezers. She used the razor to reopen the injury, causing more blood to flow out, and dug into it with the tweezers.
The injury was deep, half of the tweezers were buried into it by the time she finally found something. She gripped it as well as she could and slowly pulled it out.
She was startled when she saw the size of the object she pulled out. It was a bullet the size of a person's thumb, much larger than the average bullet which was smaller than the pinky finger.
But that wasn't the strangest thing about it, no, the strangest thing was that it was cloaked in the same mucus she saw on his body earlier. What was this? She grabbed a sterile gauze pad and set it down inside of the bag.
She removed the bullets from the other injuries, she saw that they all had the same mucus on them, she put all of them on the gauze pad with the first one. She patched up all of the injuries using gauze pads and rolls and wrapping them with elastic bandages.
Taking the bullets and medical bag with her, she left the room. She stood in her kitchen and let out a long sigh as she lowered her head. She was tired, it was late, and she had no more energy left in her.
She removed her facemask and latex gloves, using the sink to scrub off the luminescent blood. She looked at her hands and arms as she did so, noting that her skin did not react negatively to his blood. The blood was likely not dangerous to humans, which indicated that his body was not a potential hazard for human beings.
She dried her hands and arms, seeing how irritated and red her skin was. That was one of the unfortunate things about a career in the medical field, dry skin was not healthy skin. She would have to take care of it, but not until later.
She put on a clean pair of latex gloves and got a plastic bag from one of the drawers. She opened the bag and carefully slid the bullets and gauze pad into it, sealing it. She planned to take the mucus on the bullets to be tested to find out what it could be from.
She returned to the room, checking on him and to see how well she did, major injuries were not something she personally bandaged every day. Now that she wasn't making sure he didn't bleed to death, she finally had the chance to look at her new patient.
He was very muscular, his body was very well built, he could give a professional athlete a run for their money. He was very tall as well, perhaps about seven feet or more, but it was difficult to tell from her standing position and his position laying on the bed.
His skin was strange, for one it looked similar in color to a Caucasian human yet it was also tinted an odd combination of yellow and an ashen gray with a very light hue of pale green. His arms, legs, shoulders, upper chest, and the sides of his waist were blotched with dark green, almost reminding her of the scaly skin of a snake or lizard.
Also on his shoulders were what looked to be small spikes, and there were more along both sides of his collarbone. She wasn't sure what purpose they served, perhaps some kind of protection? To ward off predators? To appear more attractive? Perhaps all or none of the above.
He had dark tresses that were similar in appearance to dreadlocks with metal bands in them. She called them tresses because they were fleshy, made of a soft yet tough and leathery skin, not hair; and she doubted he had one strand of hair on his body. Their purpose was as much a mystery as the spikes, although she thought they might have a similar use to a lion's mane. The darker a male lion's mane is, the more desirable they are to females, she thought the same might be true for these tresses.
Around his neck were several rings that tightly clung to his skin. They didn't appear to be metallic, at least not fully, they were made with organic materials, natural twine and small bones from animals.
Finally, there was the armor he wore, she thought it to be for protection and perhaps that was true, but she wondered if there was an ulterior purpose. The armor on his body consisted of pauldrons, gardbraces, cuisses, greaves, and wrist gauntlets. The gauntlets were highly technical, nothing she had ever seen, and mounted on one of his pauldrons was a small cannon-like device that reminded her of an old gun.
Underneath his armor was the netting she saw earlier. It was rather hot to the touch, leading her to think that it was for regulating body temperature. The fact that it did not seem to have much of an effect on the fabrics of the bed led her to think that it might somehow be programmed to heat only skin, but nothing else.
He also had a mask over his face, it was really large in size, which may be a scale to the size of his face or head in general. It was metallic and shaped like a face, the eyes were what stood out the most, appearing to be made with darkened lenses.
She placed her hands on the mask, it felt like it was made of chrome, but chrome wasn't very resistant to scratches and dents in comparison to the more durable steel, she wasn't sure what metal it could be. She moved her hands upwards and felt what she thought were cords. She tugged on them and inadvertently detached them from something. When she did, she heard a hiss and a gas spilled out of it.
She immediately looked down at her skin, fearful that it could have some kind of toxic effect on her. However, her skin was fine, there was no discoloration that would indicate that it was dangerous.
She wondered if perhaps the mask was some kind of breathing apparatus because of the gas that came out of it. If so, that meant she could have very well accidentally killed him if he needed the gas inside of his mask to survive.
She tried to reattach them, but she couldn't see anything because of his tresses. If she couldn't find a way to reattach the cords to wherever they were previously attached to, then she could at least check to see if he was able to breathe alright.
And the only way to do that was to remove the mask, without knowing what to expect. Carefully and with some hesitation, she began to remove the mask.
What an unforgettable face! His face consisted of four mandibles that reminded her of a crustacean or insect with sharp tusks on the ends of them. His eyes were closed, but she could tell they were set deep into his skull. His skull was elongated and he had a flat forehead with ridges along the circumference of it where it appeared the tresses originated from. The skin of his face was blotched as well, although it was only along the edges, not centralized.
His face was nothing she had ever seen before and certainly not human. If there was ever any doubt that he was anything but human, that was washed away. However, that meant nothing to her, he needed her help and it was her moral duty to help the people in need of care.
Since it didn't appear that he was struggling at all to breathe, she set the mask aside. She started to remove his armor, including the cannon on his shoulder and his wrist gauntlets, but left the plating on his crotch; she set all of it aside with the mask.
She wasn't disarming him so that he couldn't defend himself if he felt threatened, she was trying to make sure he was as comfortable as possible as he healed. She left the armor in the room, putting it in the back with the dresser. If he wanted to leave when he awakened, he could, she wouldn't stop him.
She had her doubts that he would be able to, though. The injuries were deep and she had no idea what the mucus on the bullets could do to him, she even doubted that he would be able to move on his own.
For her own safety and the safety of her pets, she left to get something from her garage. It was a belt her brother had to buy during his time in the military. She remembered how much of a fuss he made about it and ended up leaving it behind and forgetting about it. She only kept it because she thought he would need it, but he never did and he was out of the military service.
She returned to the room and got down on her knees, hooking one end to an opening in the bed frame. She grabbed his right arm and wrapped the belt around his wrist, tightening it before placing his arm back on the bed. The belt was long enough that he could move his arm and short enough to not be able to reach her if he tried anything.
She didn't bother with his left arm, he was shot in his bicep and upper arm. She had her doubts that he would be able to move it very well, and even if he could she doubted that he would be capable of reaching her.
She felt bad that she did that to him, but she still had a life to live and a lot to live for. If he had a panic reaction to being in a foreign place, she at least had the reassurance that she and her pets would be safe, at least temporarily.
She left the room and him, going to her living room and sitting on her sofa. She sighed softly and rubbed her eyes, leaning her head back with her eyes closed. She didn't even bother to lay down or go up to her bedroom, she was too tired.
Almost immediately, she was fast asleep, never feeling so tired in such a long time. Darkshot and Bluegrey jumped onto the couch as well and laid down next to her, flanking her sides, falling asleep with her.
Halkrath was uncertain how long he had been unconscious, when he did regain consciousness, however, he found himself staring up at something blank. His vision was slightly blurry, but it was clear enough for him to be able to determine that it was completely blank.
He tried to move his left arm, but he wasn't able to; at least, he didn't think could. It was numb, yet it hurt so badly that the pain was the only way for him to know that he still had an arm.
He tried moving his right arm, but he wasn't able to lift it either. It hurt but it wasn't numb, why wasn't he able to lift it? He tried again and this time felt something holding it down. He turned his head, grunting as he did so, and saw some kind of strap restraining his arm.
He tried to free his arm using only his own strength, but he felt strangely weak, the weakest he had ever felt in a while. He tried reaching his other hand across his chest over to his arm, but the numbness and pain was still too great for him. He flared his mandibles in anger and frustration and grunted as he continued to try to reach the restraint, despite the pain it was causing his whole body.
Finally, he gave up, his body couldn't handle the excruciating pain. He was glad no other Yautja were with him to see his condition, he would really never want to return home. He almost flinched when he even thought about the possibility of returning to his home world, especially when he remembered why he left to begin with.
What happened to him? The last thing he remembered was the sound of a gun firing and his back on the ground, but everything else was either hazy or completely blank.
Against his better judgement, he started to relax, he was in no condition to free himself, let alone hunt down whoever brought him to wherever he was and kill them on the spot. He closed his eyes and started to breathe, he was taught that breathing was just as important as killing when it came to hunting.
He felt something soft under his body, to him it felt like a loincloth made of the softest material. However, he also felt something smooth under his legs, along with what he thought to be an odd mixture of paper and cotton, although he couldn't be sure.
He sniffed the air to at least get an idea of the kind of human the person who found him was. He could detect the smell of a feline and a canine, pets most likely, and also salt water, but he wasn't sure what that scent could be. In addition, he also smelled something else, something sweet. It was the scent of a female.
Males and females have distinctive scents to a Yautja, no matter what species they were. Males typically smelt of something earthy and sometimes of savory foods, characterized by the scent of sourness, spiciness, or brininess. Females, however, always smelt of sweet-smelling plant life, such as flowers, or even spices. Scents vary from each individual and they are often distinctive enough to distinguish one from another.
This female smelled of flowers, which symbolized gentleness and kindness, but the flowers were nothing he had ever encountered before. He could smell something warm and slightly spicy and a little metallic, and also an aromatic earthy scent, all of which possibly indicated she was someone who was strong-willed. This combination of scents was slightly unusual for a female, especially a human, but nonetheless rather comforting and pleasing.
He started to feel fatigued, he wondered if this was caused by his injuries or something else. He was about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard a creaking sound. His eyes shot open and he saw an animal enter the room, it was a canine.
The canine was slender and lithe with spindly yet still quite muscular limbs and a long snout with a broad head, almost giving its head a triangular shape. It had short fur that almost appeared coarse, which he thought would help to keep it cool while outside.
It seemed very suspicious of him and very hostile as well. It wasn't growling or barking, but he could see how tense and even a little fearful it was. He wondered if perhaps it came into his room in order to, in a way, show him that he was in its territory, not his own. In some ways, he respected that, he also suspected that it might have been protecting someone or something, most likely the female he smelled.
He then heard the creak of the door again and saw another animal enter the room, this time it was a feline. It mewled and rubbed the side of its face against the door as it walked inside.
The feline had a body similar to that of the canine, slender and lithe, with wrinkles and abnormally large ears. It at first appeared to be hairless, he realized that it did have fur when it stepped closer to him, but it was very short, most likely only a couple of layers.
It appeared very suspicious of him, just like the canine, and walked with its body low to the floor, as if it was trying to stalk him. It seemed strangely canine-like and seemed to be protecting something, also like the canine. That was unusual for a feline, a territorial tendency was not, but a protective nature over a human was. Perhaps felines were more loyal to their human owners than he thought.
The door creaked again and this time he saw the human female who lived in the house. The canine instantly became calmer and sat on the floor, sticking its tongue out as it panted, it almost looked like it was smiling at her.
She saw her feline on the floor and picked it up in her arms. She walked out of the room with it and the canine happily followed her. She came back into the room without her animals and closed the door so they couldn't follow her inside.
She went over to him and he saw that she was wearing a mask of some kind when she bent down to look at his condition. He thought she was wearing it in order to prevent contamination and infection, or perhaps she was wary of him and his physiology - she must have figured out that he was not a human.
She must have known that he was awake because she started speaking to him as she checked his injuries and redressed them, "They're starting to heal, but it will take some time before you'll be completely healed and healthy." He grunted quietly.
She was finished with his right side, but now had to examine his left side, and in order to do that, she had to lean over his body. There were no serious injuries with his leg, but he was shot in his arm, her body was bent over rather lowly as she examined it, her loose clothing was settled flatly over him and her breasts lightly touching his bare chest.
Her upper body was completely covered, yet knowing that his body and her genitalia was separated only by a set of thin clothing was oddly arousing. It was enough for his heart to start pounding in his chest.
Her body lifted up and she started to leave, leaving him feeling strangely cold. As she left, she removed her mask, but her back was facing him, he couldn't see her face.
But why had his heart rate spontaneously increased? Why had his body suddenly began to feel cold? Why did he want to see what her face looked like?
What did this all mean? What was happening to him? Whatever it meant, whatever was happening, he wasn't sure how he truly felt about it, nor if he wanted to know.
I-U-Y-*O~o~O*-Y-U-I
(A/N: Sorry this took me a long time, I was busy with a bunch of other stuff and, in all honesty, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with it because I had a really bad case of writer's block and that caused me to become very indecisive. So, because of that, some parts of this will be better and worse than others.
I'm not in the medical field, I only have basic emergency training and knowledge from years earlier and from watching a lot of television, so if I got something wrong or inconsistent, I'm sorry. Point it out very kindly and please help me out to improve upon it if you can.
Once again, I'm very, very sorry it took so long to finish this. It was all of the favorites and follows that got me motivated to finally finish. Hopefully, this satisfies you guys until I can write another chapter.)