After setting the coordinates for Delos, Drok'ti turned around to see why Strife was suddenly so quiet. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and her head resting on her knees. Maybe she was just resting. Maybe she was in pain again. He stood up and walked over to her.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded and put her head back on her knees again.

"You aren't in pain?"

She shook her head. He was confused. This is not the way Strife usually was. She was very talkative and happy most of the time. He put his hand on her shoulder and she jumped. He pulled his hand back and frowned. What is wrong with her? She wasn't in pain, so what was it? Maybe she realized that it was his fault this happened to her and she was angry with him. He went back and sat down in the pilot chair. He cursed himself silently for being so cruel. He ruined her chances of a good life, a normal life. Turning around to look at her he thought of something. She hadn't had a normal life to begin with and he doubted that she would want a normal life. She was so different from anyone or anything he had ever come across in the past.

They landed on Delos a few days later. Strife was still being very quiet and withdrawn. Drok'ti came to realize he didn't like this. He had liked the way Strife was when he first woke up to her watching him in her dwelling. She couldn't watch him anymore. His heart sank as he thought of this. He sighed and stood up. Lifting Strife off the cot he felt wetness on his arm where Strife's head rested. He looked down at her and saw tears running down her cheeks.

"Strife."

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

He took her outside and sat her on a log. He stood there and stared at her completely clueless of what to do.

"Something is wrong or else you wouldn't be crying."

"I. . .I. . ."

She dropped her head and put her arms over it. She mumbled something that Drok'ti couldn't quite catch. He grabbed her arms and pulled them down so he could hear her better.

"What?"

"I don't want to make you mad at me."

"Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know. I don't want you to roar at me anymore, so I'm not going to say anything to make you angry."

Drok'ti's mind started screaming at him, but the words weren't clear enough to understand. He shook his head and crouched down in front of Strife. He put his hands to her cheeks and wiped her tears away.

"I didn't mean it."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I didn't know what else to do."

Strife sat there motionless. Drok'ti wished she would smile. He hadn't seen her smile for days. He put his finger on her forehead and poked at it a few times.

"What is going on in there?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me. You can trust me."

"I want to stay with you forever, but in the past I've made you mad. I figure if I don't talk or do anything like myself that you wont leave me."

Drok'ti put his hand on top of Strife's head.

"I swear I will never leave you again."

A faint smile came across Strife's face. Drok'ti poked her in the stomach a few times and Strife started laughing. She put her arms over her stomach.

"That tickles."

Drok'ti kept poking at her until she was in a fit of giggles. She flailed herself backwards off the log and fell on her back. Drok'ti leapt over the log and crouched over her and kept tickling her. He liked this better than her previous state. Strife suddenly jumped up and tackled him. She landed on top of him and her face was very close to his. So many thoughts raced through his mind at that moment. What he wanted to do, what he knew he shouldn't do. He instead justran his fingers through Strife's hair and purred.

"That's a funny noise. You've never done that before."

"I've never had a reason to."

Strife made a funny face and stood up. She started sniffing the air. Drok'ti jumped up and looked around and listened.

"What is it?"

"I smell food."

"Where is it coming from?"

"I'm not sure."

Drok'ti watched as Strife started wandering off sniffing the air. She was about to run into a tree when Drok'ti picked her up and put her on his shoulder.

"I feel tall."

"Where were you going?"

"That way."

Strife held her arm out indicating her planned path. Drok'ti stepped around the tree and walked slowly through the forest.

"That way."

He turned to his left slightly and kept going. He could smell it now.

After about 20 minutes of following Strife's nose they came across a campsite. Drok'ti didn't like the looks of it. He listened as Strife's stomach growled. He didn't keep much food on the ship since he never planned to be on it for very long and he didn't have to eat very often. Strife was probably hungry. He yelled at himself for not thinking of that. He watched as a tell thin grayish colored alien walked out of a tent. It stopped suddenly when it saw Drok'ti.

"Um, hello. I didn't know you were here."

Strife was the one to speak up.

"Do you have food?"

"Of course, make yourselves at home."

Drok'ti sat down on a log and Strife crawled down off his shoulders. She sat next to him. Drok'ti watched as the being walked out with a plate stacked with meat. He set it down in front of Strife and started staring at her.

"I don't mean to be rude, but what happened to you?"

"The FBI."

The being nodded. Apparently he knows about the infamous earth government. Of course, many different races did. That's why they didn't make themselves known on that planet. Strife was trying to figure out the best way to get the food into her mouth. She couldn't pick it up with her hands in this state. The other being took a few steps towards her.

"Let me get that for you."

Drok'ti snorted when he thought the being was going to feed her. Instead the tall figure took her hands in his and a faint white light appeared. It looked sort of like smoke and water to Drok'ti. It gave off intense heat and he thought that it was burning Strife. She didn't seem like she was in pain at all. The being let go of her hands and smiled, then put his hands over her eyes and did the same thing.

"There, much better."

Strife turned towards Drok'ti smiling.

"My hands aren't busted anymore."

Drok'ti cut her casts off and she started flexing her fingers. She got over her sudden use of appendages and went for the food. Drok'ti had never seen anyone eat to ravenously before. Strife scarfed downTwo lbs of meat withinfive minutes. She stopped and smiled.

"That was really good."

"I'm glad you like my cooking. My companions don't seem to care for it much."

"They're just dumb."

The being laughed and sat down on his haunches.

"So what is your name?"

"Me?"

Strife pointed to herself.

"Yes."

"I'm Strife."

"What a lovely name. I am called Alvorus."

Drok'ti almost snarled at Alvorus. He didn't like the way he was being towards Strife. 'you're just jealous you know. You wished that you would have said that to her. You want to be the one complimenting her and making her smile.' Drok'ti shook his head to make the voice stop. He hated that voice.

"Alvorus, that's a funny name."

"I know."

Strife laughed and turned towards Drok'ti.

"Are you not hungry?"

"Not really."

"Oh, ok."

Drok'ti put his hand on Strife's head and patted it.

"I think we should get going. Alvorus probably has things to do."

"Oh, not really."

Strife smiled. Drok'ti spoke up first.

"Well we do."

He picked Strife up and put her back on his shoulder. He nodded a quick thanks to Alvorus and walked off quickly before Strife objected to leaving. They got back to the ship, but Drok'ti didn't take her inside. He instead put her back on that log. He sort of hoped that they could go back to their playing. Strife was so preoccupied with her working hands. She started feeling her nails.

"Wow, I'm going to need to cut those soon."

"Why?"

Strife laughed.

"I don't know. It's just something I used to do. I guess I don't really have a reason to do that anymore."

Drok'ti nodded and put his hand on Strife's cheek. He started purring. Strife smiled an took his hand in both of her own. She nuzzled his hand with her face. He was sort of shocked by this. He sat down next to her and she leaned on him.

"So what are we going to do here?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Well, I have my hands back now."

Strife got a strange look on her face and turned her head from side to side.

"Drok'ti, what does this area look like?"

"There's a thick forest to out left, a lake in front of us and the ship is behind us."

"I thought so."

"What?"

"I can see."

Drok'ti thought it was impossible. Strife turned towards him and he could feel her looking at him.

"This is really weird. Alvorus gave me my sight back."

Strife jumped up and started walking around. She started running around the log. She suddenly tackled Drok'ti and they went tumbling to the ground. Drok'ti grunted as his back collided with the ground. Strife was all smiles.

"This is so cool!"

She grabbed Drok'ti's face and brought her face down very close to his.

"Isn't this cool?"

Drok'ti laid there for a moment. Cool? He didn't understand. He snorted.

"What is cool?"

"Oh. Cool means good."

He laughed. Her strange language was suddenly funny to him.

"What?"

"You're strange."

"Yeah, but you like me."

He watched as she got up and started looking around. He missed the closeness from a moment ago.