"Hey," Keith awoke to Lance sitting next to him, his helmet in his hands. It was once again filled with water and held out in his general direction, "Thirsty?"

"Did you go out and get that?" Keith scowls, reaching up to take the bowl. His limbs felt like jelly, but that wasn't going to stop him from getting pissed that Lance- a blinded Lance, left without him there to make sure he didn't kill himself.

"Yes." he says defiantly, "Now shut up and drink."

Keith grunts a little but takes a sip anyway. The water really did taste amazing here- like it was pure of any bacteria and germs. When Lance tells him it was okay to drink it all he chugs a little bit of it, his throat horrendously dry.

"We need to get you help," Lance had managed to find himself a large stick while Keith was asleep and was using it to tap the ground in front of him. It pissed him off to wonder exactly how much time did Lance spend outside this cave without him knowing? He could have fallen and split his head open and Keith would have never known till he woke up. Even if that might be the kind of fate this idiot deserved, the thought bugged him…

"We need to get to higher ground- see if we can find some sort of civilization," he concludes.

"Yeah-" Lance holds out a blind hand. Keith takes it, hissing as he forced himself onto his feet. The pain had subsided a lot since Lance bandaged it, but the warm burn continued to shoot up his leg.

Limping out together, Lance paused for Keith to decide which way to go. He couldn't really tell which way would lead to the best spot to get a look around, but they might as well try a different direction from where they came from.

Together, using more teamwork than they've ever used before, they trudged West of the waterfall. If they couldn't find anything in a few hours they would come back to this spot- it was important to keep a water source close to you.

After a few minutes, Lance began to talk. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism for him in tough situations, but it was driving Keith insane. He wasn't even talking about anything relevant- just random garbage and puns about being blind.
"Do you ever shut up?" he grouched.
Lance replied with, "Do you ever stop complaining?"

"I'm the one complaining?" Keith scoffed, "Take a look in the mirror."

"I would love to but I can't really do that right now."

Catching himself, Keith frowned, "Can you just be quiet for a few minutes?"

"Well, how about you-!" Lance lost his footing and they stumbled. Keith threw his arm in front of Lance's chest, his other hand slinking around his waist to stop him from falling over.

Barely able to catch him, the two fell into silence, clutching to the other with all their might.

It was a stunned kind of silence that had them alarmed at how much fear had just pumped through their hearts because of a tree root that was sticking up just a little too far.

Lance, who had gripped the arm of Keith that had been placed in front of his chest, released it with shaky fingers, his brows furrowing slightly in frustration, "Sorry… I'm fine."

"Yeah…" Keith slowly retracted his arm from Lance's waist and moved his back to his shoulders and they carried on, both willing to act like nothing had just happened.

This situation was putting them both on edge- he couldn't even imagine how Lance must have felt. Even the slightest noise was probably driving him crazy!

He glanced to his right, running his eyes up and down the side of Lance's face. His head was held straight ahead- blindly following Keith's lead. Normally, after staring at Lance's Nose, ears, and lips for just a second too long, Keith would look away.

If there was one thing good about this situation- was oddly enough the fact that Lance… was blind. Now, Keith did not mean that in any bad way. He hated that Lance couldn't see right now. In fact, the thought had given him nightmares the night before. He should have been there!
He had seen the Druid but was just a second too slow to stop it.

Lance's scream was still echoing in his ears, gnawing away at his very core.

You see- it was good he as blind because Keith could- well….stare… at him. He could stare at Lance.

It sounded creepy no matter how he said, but he could just walk and enjoy Lance's facial structure. While a terrible flirt and obnoxious beyond compare, no one could deny that he had a very pleasing face.

His smile alone could knock anyone out. Not that it did that for Keith… often.

"At least-" Lance sighs, his Adam's apple moving in a way the Keith can't help but ogle at it. "Can you tell me what you see?"

With a dry mouth, Keith clears his throat, "Same purple trees."

"Jeez, I really want to see this," Lance grumbles. "You aren't messing with me, right? They are seriously purple?"

"Yeah."

"Worse timing ever to go blind. What else?"

Keith tears his eyes from the other long enough to stare around. Craning his neck, he says, "The sky is more of an aquamarine than just blue. I haven't really seen any animals or anything around. I'll let you know if I see any fruit- though we might want to be careful with those just in case they are poisonous."

Lance makes a noise of confirmation, "How is your leg?"

"Same. How are your eyes?"
"Still can't see."

"Do they still hurt?"

"It's numb."

They hobble around in silence for a few more minutes, stopping when Lance hears a noise. Not sure what he is talking about, Keith strains to hear it. A crack of a branch and he knows Lance isn't joking.

While it could just be some small forest animal the two couldn't really take that chance right now. So they scrambled to a tree and pressed themselves to it. Keith is pulling out his bayard, feeling a sense of comfort since he still has it.

"Keith?" Lance wants to know what is happening, his hand trailing up and placing itself on Keith's back like an anchor. "What do you see?" his mouth is almost pressed to Keith's ear, his voice so quiet that Keith shivers.

"Nothing yet." seconds slowly pass, their ragged breaths being the only thing to fill the silence. Looking out, Keith frowned, "It must have passed."

Lance lets out a little puff of air, "Okay," his hold on the back of Keith's armor slipped a little, almost catching Keith's hand. They pull away in surprise. Lance is stammering, "Didn't- couldn't see-" he insists.

The heat was intense and Keith was positive it wasn't because of the sun, "It's fine. Let's just get going."
"Yeah. Yeah, sure." Lance nods quickly, lowering himself a little for Keith to put his arm over his shoulder. Getting back into the pace they had the two of them didn't talk for a while. Lance was feeling paranoid, bringing up every odd noise and then apologizing after every single one.

Keith tried to tell him that it was fine, but it was drying up his patience, "Lance- stop freaking out."

"I'm not," Lance pouts in a way that Keith refuses to find adorable.

"Yes, you are."

"Shut up," Lance looks around but doesn't say anything. Keith knows he wants to, however, and sighs.

"Did you hear something again?"
"...Maybe-" this time Lance stops, his frown deepening. "That," he looks in one direction. Being someone who is fully relying on sound right now, Keith gives him the benefit of the doubt and listens.

It doesn't take long for him to hear the sound of heavy thumping. It was soft, but quickly growing in volume. "What is that-?" it was rapidly increasing, and Keith's tensed. It was coming right for them!

"Lance, move!" throwing themselves to the side, they both barely managed to avoid a large object barrel through. Rolling, Keith cringed at the pain shooting up his leg.

"What? What is it?!" Lance yelled in a panic, tugging them both to their feet. Not even sure himself, Keith turned to see a large creature lift itself from the foliage.

It loomed in height, it's skin a light grey. Turning to them, he could see clear spikes running along its spin- it's glowing orange eyes narrowed at them. It seemed to be clothed in light armor, a strange symbol painted on its chest.

"I think we just stumbled upon the locals," Keith says to Lance.

"Well is it friendly-?" Lance screamed when Keith had to tackle him out of the way again, "Not friendly!"

"Definitely not." Keith tugged and Lance's arm, pulling him back to pull out his bayard. This thing seemed to charge at them like a rhino would, its head tough enough to completely tear down any tree is flung itself into. "Stay back." he tells Lance, who was already pulling out his gun.

"What- no-"
"What do you think you can do with that if you can't see?" Keith demands in frustration, this situation to tense to really argue, "Just stay back and let me handle this!"

Flinching, Lance grit his teeth, feeling a sting to Keith's word. Reluctantly pulling back, Lance listened to the sound of Keith fighting off this beast. Grunts and yells were most of what he could hear, and the occasional yelp of pain from Keith having to put his full weight on his leg.

At one point, the creature made a loud noise that echoed within the woods- like a call. A warning call.

"What is going on?" Lance begins to panic.

"We gotta go- Lance!"

"Keith?" large hands were lifting him up and he screamed, "KEITH!"

"Lance!" the thing had called for backup, leading two others to their location. The blue paladin was pulling wildly against the grip, yelling. Using a burst of adrenaline to push him, Keith ran forward, slamming the side of his blade into the hip of the alien.

It roared, dropping Lance and kicking Keith in the chest. Not quite sure what was up and what was down, Lance gasped for air, struggling to find something to hold on to.

With shaky knees, he rose and shot to his right. "Keith? Where are you?!" Unable to catch his breath, he bumped into a tree. Stumbling, he tripped and hit the ground. The sound of running feet and grinding teeth had him screaming in fright. Scrambling forward on his knees, he reached out to feel the ground- only to come up with open air. He was falling forward, tumbling down a hill. He grunted, rolling for who knows how long before stopping- bruised and dizzy.

"K-Ke-ith?" he groaned out. He had to find him. He needed to find him.

Barely to get to his feet, something smacked him in the head, and he was out cold.