Disclaimer: *sigh* only chapter five and I'm sick of disclaimers.
Chapter Five: Secrets Revealed
Sleep had come easily for Rhianne, but it hadn't stayed that way for long. Her body was extremely sensitive to changes in climate, and she knew, even in her sleep, that Knives had taken the blanket from her. Bastard, she thought bitterly as she opened her tired eyes.
She was used to waking up early in the morning, and could handle it, but keeping up a bulwark against something as immensely powerful as Knives took a lot of effort, so she had slept deeply and had almost completely recovered; but that didn't stop her from feeling tired. She may not have looked it, nor would she ever have admitted it, but she was both physically and emotionally drained after her little "battle" with Knives. It took a lot of effort to drag herself out of the half-sleep, half-awake stupor she had been stewing in the last few minutes, but was finally dragged up from her slumber by the unhappy thought of how Knives would wake her should she go back to sleep. Or maybe she wouldn't wake up. As her mind processed that last thought, Rhianne felt the nerves of her body come alive and she sat up, assuming a limb-stretching lotus position.
Only the first rays of sunlight filtered through the tiny window in the room. The first thing in the room she could distinguish in the gloom was Knives, who looked warm and snuggily under his stolen blanket. She resisted the temptation to walk over and rip it off him, deciding that probably wouldn't be the best way to start the day. She moved her head slightly and looked at the room. The window and door seemed like the only way to leave, but she didn't need to use any of the powers she had concealed from Knives the day before to figure out that Knives, being no dummy, would have set an alarm or something similar to that on both.
Rhianne caught her sigh in her throat. What happened if she needed to go to the bathroom? Then what? She would be stuck. Another sigh of frustration slid up her throat, but she caught it before it made it's way out her mouth. It was best to be as quiet as possible, she had no idea how well Knives could hear. And the smallest sound might wake him. He might even be awake right now, for all she knew. But Rhianne smiled at her silliness; if Knives was up, then he wouldn't have left her alone for so long. He didn't seem like the type to let someone get their share of decent rest, no matter how well-deserved it was.
She stretched slowly, her trained body making only the barest of sounds, as she pulled her legs back into their lotus pose on the bed. Gah, when did Knives plan to wake up? She wondered as she slid down onto the bed, laying on her stomach, her chin resting on her arms, and looked at Knives intently. It annoyed her to admit it, but Knives actually was really cute when he wasn't out for blood.
He had wrapped the blanket around his head, clutching with his fists so tightly that Rhianne could see the whites of his knuckles. She could see that he was quite warm. He was still fully dressed and had a blanket around himself, so he had to be, right? She watched his face contort and twist, creating lines on his brow. Something was bothering him, she realized. She had been around enough people in her lifetime to know when they were troubled, and Knives had problems.
She nearly snorted. It was obvious that the guy had problems. But it wasn't the fact that he was a homicidal maniac that bothered him, it was something else. Rhianne had already come to understand that Knives was quite proud of the man he was, so that wasn't his problem. Or maybe it was. But that was beyond her comprehension for now. She'd never been one to like invading people's private thoughts. Besides, if she went against her moral, Knives would have more than a hissy fit.
He was a hypocrite, Rhianne decided as she plunged her hand under the bed and fished out her clothes. Knives would probably kill her if she tried to read his mind, yet he figured it was his business what was in hers. Humph, she thought as she hauled her clothes onto the bed. It was cold, and underwear wasn't the warmest thing around, Rhianne decided as she began to get dressed. She sat up and pulled her turtleneck over her head. She slid slowly off the bed, trying to be as silent as possible. Pulling on her socks, she slid her bodysuit up her torso and buckled her belt around her waist. Lacing up her boots, Rhianne stood for a moment. She felt unclean, and the prospect of clean underclothes appealed greatly to her. But she had everything in her pod, and Knives probably wasn't going to let he go back right now. If ever.
She finally decided that she would just have to stick all this out until Knives woke up. But the big question was: when? He seemed quite involved in his sleep, and didn't look like he was going to wake up any time soon. So Rhianne did what she felt was the safest: she left him alone. Instead of sitting around and doing nothing, Rhianne walked to the small circular window and gazed out at the landscape.
Sand, sand, nothing but pale sand. It was boring, but beautiful. The suns were already up over the horizon on the far side of the ship, she could tell the by the shadow of the ship stretching along the ground. her gaze traveled to the sky. It was beautiful. An impossible blue that was still laced with the golden lights of the rising of the suns
She wondered what it to live out there, amongst the sand. She knew that there were a few large cities, and she pondered the struggling lives of the peoples living there. Did they realize how lucky they were to be able to even survive on this harsh planet? Probably not. According to the computers in her pod, 137 years had passed since the crash of the Seeds ship. Why? She wondered. According to the data she had, the ship had been in stable condition, but someone had changed the trajectory. But who would have? All the humans would have been killed if not for Rem Saverem, Rhianne thought sadly. But most were anyway. She pitied them. Her life had been long and wondrous, and she had witnessed many a thing in the span of her lifetime. It was quite a shame that they never had a chance to experience anything. At least they had died in their sleep, Rhianne thought. But she took little comfort in that. Families were all "shipped" together, on the same transport ships. No one wanted to be alone, not sure if your family had survived the trip or not, and special care had been taken to make sure families were together for the long haul that had lay ahead of them. But not all had made it, Rhianne thought as she watched the sand drift lazily over the never-ending dunes. The thought of a small child climbing out of a ship and looking frantically around for their mommy and daddy made tears well up in her eyes. How could someone be so cruel as to split up families like that? A small noise from behind her caused Rhianne to look around, and her eyes were level with Knives' blazing ones.
"Just what do you think you were trying to do, vermin?" he demanded, his voice filled more with annoyance than anger. Rhianne turned to face him.
"Just thinking." she replied simply. Knives eyed her and motioned to the bed "sit."
Rhianne suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and walked back to the bed. She sat at the head of the bed, her legs crossed once again in her lotus pose; while Knives sat cross-legged at the end. They sat for a moment, not saying anything, until Knives broke the silence.
"You avoided my questions earlier, but you will not today. I want to know how you eluded my barrier." Rhianne inhaled and closed her eyes for a moment.
"You see Knives, before I left home, I created a mental shield around my ship. It not only concealed me from anyone's mental 'nets', so to speak, and made my ship able to break through any barriers without the creators noticing. That, Knives, is why I didn't realize there was a barrier around Gunsmoke, and why I was able to get through it without you noticing." she paused, and moistened her lips.
"But I made a miscalculation when I created my barrier, you see Knives, you're an extremely powerful plant, (Knives looked quite proud of himself here) and I hadn't counted on a plant as strong as yourself to be on this godforsaken planet. So my ship's computers malfunctioned and I crashed, and that's where you come in."
Knives blinked stupidly for a moment.
"How do you know I'm a plant?" he asked warily. Rhianne laughed, but cut herself short when Knives' face clouded over.
"Because I can identify one of my own species." she smiled. Knives blinked stupidly for a moment. "What did you say??" he asked, his voice filling with wonder. Rhianne laughed again, a light, girlish giggle.
"Let me put it to you this way Knives" she said, speaking slowly as if to a child.
"I. Am. A. Plant."
*So? So? See that coming? ^_^*
