Chapter 3: But One Faulty Step

She was numb. All that occupied her mind was the face of her papa, completely still, none of his ever-present cheer there for her any longer. She had only realized her hunger when her stomach had complained to her so loudly that the Tenno's attention had been drawn to it, and after contemplating the significance of the sound he had set her below a tree and gone searching for food, leaving the Grineer weapon as her only means of defense. He'd been gone for a long while now, and the sun was again beginning to set. What creatures lurked about at night here? She didn't much care, mumbling again and again one thought.

"If only I'd never gone out on the plains."


He was still mentally kicking himself for not remembering sooner that Tashya would need food and rest. He didn't really tire, so he'd planned to keep moving until they came across something useful, while dodging any threats that might be out here. Were he alone, that would have been a viable strategy, even while injured, but he wasn't and now must account for the needs of his party. Now, he was attempting to dig through the fog oppressing his psyche, looking for any information that might help him here, how to identify poisonous plants among all the edible looking brush that he normally would have paid no mind. How he would carry them was a problem solved easily, Tashya had been willing to part with her animal skin pouch, or at least she had not objected, and so it was now looped around his arm by the carrying strings.

Planting the end of his staff in the ground again, he reviewed his current collection. It didn't appear to be much, especially if one removed the more questionable looking specimens. He'd need something more substantial, or he'd be bogged down doing this every few hours. Shaking his head, he leaned against the staff, attempting to quiet his mind. It wasn't as if he didn't have the time to give to the new logistical challenge, lost as they were. He was about to return to where he'd left her, when he sensed something. The sensation was familiar, like movement in the corner of his vision, only it wasn't connected to any of his primary senses. Curious, he turned about, trying to locate the source of the disturbance. It was difficult to localize, but eventually he'd settled on it either being behind a bush, or the rotted tree stump immediately to the left of it. Given a general direction, he slowly made his way forward.

With a distressed squeak, a creature he couldn't properly identify darted away. In a split second, he decided this was what he was looking for, and lunged, staff flicking out as if his own arm, and decapitating the fleeing animal before it could get away. The effort aggravated his wounds, and left him clutching his side and favoring a leg, but fighting through it, he examined the kill.

The animal wasn't especially big, but for its size it looked pretty meaty, especially the hind legs, which appeared made for bounding along with ease. The spines along the back were interesting, perhaps they'd do better than the pure wooden points he had on his shoddy hand-crafted arrows, a little testing would be in order. Cooking the kill would be another experiment for him, especially trying to do it in a way that minimized the trail they left, if that was even possible.

'Best be getting back.'

Pouch on his staff arm, and kill in the other hand, he turned towards Tashya's resting place. He may lack a map, but his sense of direction was good enough to surprise even himself. While he walked, jogging where he could, he mulled over the sensation that had lead him to the creature. It didn't seem like something he could control, and in fact the more he focused on it the harder it was to follow, like his conscious mind was muddling it. However, he now knew what to look for, and similar sensations occurred periodically, some of which he tracked to other creatures in the process of fleeing from him. Approaching Tashya's resting place, he felt another, stronger version of the presences he'd learned to spot.

'That must be her.'


It was only after startling awake that she'd realized she'd dozed off. A small fire burned in front of her, over which the Tenno held a headless animal corpse. Sitting up, her hand brushed against her pouch, sitting in the grass next to her. Inside she found an assortment of berries, a few of which she recognized, mother would have dressed up a stuffed bird quite nicely with them. Taking the pouch in hand, she savored what juice there was in them. What she would do for some water right now!

Excalibur seemed entirely focused on cooking the kill, though their usually confident demeanor seemed to be absent. Eventually, he shrugged, and passed the meat to her, which she wordlessly accepted. While it was a little over-done, she could hardly complain while she was so hungry, regardless.

While she ate, she couldn't help watching Excalibur, who had adopted a kneeling pose not unlike how she had first found him. He would occasionally look in a seemingly random direction, focusing on something beyond her sight in the encroaching night, but always his head would return to the same bowed position.

"What is it you see, Excalibahr?" Her voice sounded weary even to her. Her protector just shrugged. Something about his silence irritated her.

"Why do you not speak to me?! You are the only one here! Ay yo, if my mother went with another search party, perhaps you are the only one I have!" Her voice nearly broke, as the unwelcome imagining assaulted her mind. The Tenno seemed as infuriatingly impassive as ever, until…

"Speech, difficult. Like through fog," The words were quiet, almost imperceptible, and given in a raspy tone, but they also carried a hint of sadness. Instantly her anger quenched, though her grief prevented her from truly feeling apologetic. He wasn't ignoring her intentionally, that at least was something.

"Aunts, Uncles?" The whispered question nearly escaped her notice. The Tenno was giving her his full attention now.

"Few I know of, and none I really know. My Papa didn't have any brothers, and my Muma came from another village," She didn't even know her grandparents, lost to a sickness some days before her birth, or so she had gathered from others over time. Excalibur's gaze seemed to leave her, his head bowing.

"Unfortunate." She almost missed it, the word was said so weakly that if there was anyone else around she would have thought it wasn't him who said it. He didn't ask anything else of her, and she didn't much feel like continuing that talk anyway. The fire gradually began to burn low, and what little heat it had provided her was soon overtaken by the chill of the night. Curling up against the tree, she couldn't help but shiver. Before she dozed off, she thought she heard a rustle of the grass, and it seemed as if she could no longer feel the breeze.


When the girl awoke, it was early morning, the sun barely up, and what light there was remained obscured by the forest. She rolled over, confused, and looked up, finally seeming to notice where he was. Kneeling behind her, he'd acted as a barrier against the wind while she slept, and kept vigil against what might be lurking in the night. She had slept soundly, which was something at least.

'If only I knew where her people lived. Even if she doesn't have any family, surely someone would take her in? It would be better for her than staying with me, certainly.'

Shaking his head and dismissing the thought for now, he reached out a hand to help her up, then stood himself. Taking a final look around the camp site, he did his best to conceal the evidence of their resting here. While he was doing that, she wandered just out of view, presumably to accommodate some biological function he didn't possess but she did, he didn't give it much thought, if it had to be done then so be it. Though he was a little concerned that she'd left her weapon on the ground, again.

'She's no warrior, probably not even a hunter.'

He finished obscuring their resting place to his contentment, and she still hadn't returned. Deciding to make use of the extra time until it became a problem, he turned his efforts towards understanding the energy that had allowed him to save Tashya and himself from the Grineer. His reserves still felt fairly depleted, though rest seemed to have gone a short way towards regenerating them.

'Might be able to pull off one of those flashes, in a pinch. That can't be all I can do though, surely?'

Mulling over the benefits of using his limited pool for experimentation, he was startled by a scream echoing through the trees. His feet seemed to react before his mind could process the significance of the noise, as he instantly bolted towards the source of the sound, heedless of his festering wounds.

'Tashya!'

He was almost flying, pushing off of anything that would give him more purchase while he went, using the uneven terrain to his advantage at any opportunity. Almost as soon as he began his sprint, he recognized one familiar presence, and five unknown in close proximity to her. She was alone, unarmed, outnumbered, and probably moments away from grave injury, but if he could sense her, she wasn't too far away.


A pack of snarling rahd-eyed beasts had found her, a cruel reminder of why Excalibur insisted on her keeping that accursed Grineer weapon. She'd fallen in her initial surprise, and now was madly scrambling away, trying to get to her feet. If she could just get back to their camp site, she might have a chance, but the unfamiliar woods might as well have been the deepest of fog! Finally getting purchase, she rose and broke into a run, the growling behind her overwhelming her with primal fear. The beasts seemed to be getting closer, but she didn't dare look back. Suddenly one of her legs was wrenched out from under her, she didn't even have time to extend her hands to break the fall. A moment later she realized what happened.

One of the animals had its teeth in her, and by the Unum it hurt! If she'd had the breath to scream, she would have, and her chest hurt from trying.


He was in the air when he saw her, one the ground, encircled, and with one of the emaciated looking creatures about to tear into her. One of the five saw him, and gave a startled yip, but the warning was too late for its audacious pack-mate. Bringing his staff down, he severed its head, being sure not to go so far as to further wound Tashya's leg, and flipped into a landing between two of the other predators.

'Still too slow, dammit!'

It wouldn't take much to dispatch the pack, but he'd been unable to prevent Tashya from being hurt, and they were so close now that they might still be a danger to her. Fortunately he seemed to have their attention for the moment. Taking a defensive stance, he moved to place himself closer to the young girl, hoping to limit the chances for her to come to more harm, and waited for the pack to decide if they were hungry enough to risk it. At the moment they appeared wary, circling or fidgeting in place, torn between what might have seemed to be an alpha predator to them, and the wounded prey on the ground behind him. It felt like an eternity, but it was only a moment before the standoff was broken, and one on his right charged.

The attacker met the end of his staff forcefully, but its example had spurred on the others. Turning in place, the body of his latest kill flying off his weapon mid-swing, he opened the skull of one on his left. The remaining two were too close to stop with even a killing blow. Snapping back into a defensive stance, he took the bite of one with the center of his staff, and pushed it back even as it tried to swipe at him with clawed forelegs. The other on his right continued unimpeded, and went for his arm. When the animal bit down, a blue shimmer revealed itself. The sudden barrier surprised him, as he now noticed the insignificant trickle of power he'd been directing to its creation, entirely unconsciously. Unfortunately, it was too weak, and with a snarl the beast redoubled its efforts, and the hastily deployed shield broke. The bite couldn't build up much momentum though, and barely scratched him. Before it could try again, he threw it off, going one-handed with his staff and striking with only his left, using the follow-through of the throw to add force to the attack. He only grazed his target.

In the brief opening he'd gotten himself, he turned to look at Tashya, and saw she'd rolled onto her side, clutching her leg close, and eyes firmly shut. The injured limb was bloodied bad, he had to end this soon. Stabbing his staff into the ground, he retrieved his bow from his back, and nocked an arrow.

'Chew on this, you scruffy little-'

He let the arrow fly, and the shoddy thing did its work. His target recoiled from the impact, interrupted in the middle of preparing to leap at him again. Turning his attention to the last of the beasts, it had gotten far too close while he'd been busy, and was going after Tashya instead of him, trying to get at the meat and get away instead of fight him. He didn't have time to retrieve his staff or nock another arrow, so he again called upon his energies and lunged towards it. The flash exhausted his reserves, but it was enough. Blinded and deafened, it stumbled away, whimpering. Stowing his bow, he pinned the creature to the ground, straddled it, and swung, again, and again, and again...


The world was a cold haze when she finally opened her eyes again, the pain having dulled. She barely had the will to move.

'Where... where is Excalibur?'

Rolling on her back, her head lolled with the motion, and her eyes immediately fell on him.

He was sitting on a corpse of a beast.

His forearms were covered in blood.

'So much, blood…'


Replies

Shy911- I'm glad my amateur efforts interest you. Yes, Tashya's in a rough spot, (glances up at the last couple paragraphs) okay, understatement of the century, but I have a plan! I think…
Unfortunately this is something I'm doing in my free time, and I've got life stuff to contend with, so there is no release schedule. I won't abandon this entirely,
not willingly, but I can make no promises about how soon the next chapters will be.


Other Commentary

Excalibur's ability to sense the presence of nearby life forms is loosely based on the in-game mod, "Enemy Sense". I am aware it is not a default capability of the Excalibur Warframe, but then, normally the first ability you get is "Slash Dash", and here we have "Radial Blind". I felt a Void powered flash-bang would be easier to generate than a blade, even if it was mostly instinctive, but don't worry Excal mains, sword 'frame will get his sword, eventually.