Usually put these notes at the end but I have to say sorry for taking so long and thank you very much to all who are still here. I just hope this chapter is as good quality as the previous ones.
His head hurt. He could feel the warm rays of sun on his bare skin, yet he felt cold. It was dark, and he was having trouble making sense of anything, from thoughts to what he was feeling.
He regrettably shaked his head to try and clear it, causing only more pain at the sudden jolt of movement. He decided it best to take his time, so he slowly lifted his head up and surveyed the area around him.
He was outside on the ground, leaning up against a high concrete wall, a lively forest in front of him. It reminded him of simply relaxing out in the woods with Shi'ae. He was content then, and thinking about it made him happy.
With his senses becoming clearer, he was able to distinguish two sperate pains on his head. One was a headache, the other was a throbbing bruise on his forehead. He reached up to touch it, but recoiled in surprise and pain at how sensitive and sore it was to the touch.
He tentatively stood up on his two feet, hands against the cool wall behind him to balance himself. He straightened himself up after a few moments, stretched, and began to walk around to get a better grasp of where he was.
His memory was foggy. He could piece together some pieces of information but it was like looking through a fogged up window on a cold morning; he just couldn't see the full picture clearly.
He must've been at a part of a base the was not frequented much, as vines were growing high up the concrete walls and the shrubbery around Oliver was dense. He didn't recognise this side of the base at all, so was unsure where to go from there.
He spun around in a motion quicker than what was good for his health however when he heard movement behind him. Leaves were rustling and the occansional twig would be broken, as whatever was there grew nearer.
He readied himself for almost anything, but was not given much time before a figure stepped out into the clearing. It was tall, white armoured elite.
"You're awake?", it half questioned half stated, all in a glad voice.
The voice belonged to Shi'ae, and he recognized it after a few seconds, feeling slightly dumb for still standing there in a fighting stance.
He smiled, overjoyed to see his friend once again alive and well. She took off her helmet, revealing her light gray face, doing a sangheili smile, which Oliver thought was sweet.
"I'm glad to see you again.", he started.
"As am I to see you. You almost had me worried, you were unconscious for many hours. How are you feeling?"
"I'm quite a bit stiff and sore, but I could be worse, I guess. Was I knocked out?", he questioned.
"I'm really, really sorry about that Oliver, but I'm afraid it was the only way to get you out. I didn't hit you too hard, did I?", Shi'ae asked him, almost looking ashamed of hitting him, although Oliver was still finding it difficult to read more complex sangheili emotions.
"Shi'ae, you saved my life for like, the third or fourth time, don't be sorry. What's troubling me is how I can ever repay you..."
She cheerfully told him, "There is no need to repay me for anything. I did what I did because we are friends, and I know you would do the same for me."
He nodded sheepishly in comfirmation, realising how much trust Shi'ae had in him. It was somewhat overwhelming, but it did feel good knowing Shi'ae believed in him.
Her tone took a sharp turn, when she sadly informed him that many of his fellow soldiers had been killed. He knew the soldiers at his entrance were all but gone, yet it worried him knowing that many other soldiers in other areas had also been taken by the reaper. His thoughts turned to his friend Isaac, hoping he had somehow made it out alive.
He sighed, took himself out of thought and asked Shi'ae another question.
"Well, where do we go from here?".
"I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure Oliver. The UNSC have retreated far back south, at least a day or two hike away. That would probably be the best course of action, to get you back. I can bring you there if you would like."
"Yeah, it probably would be. I appreciate the offer of you tagging along for company, but where would you go once I'm there?"
"I did something similar when I was recovering in the forest, I should be easily able to do it again", she reassured him.
He wasn't completely satisfied as he figured there were only so many times she could temporarily disappear before she would be questioned even with her high rank.
He did however believe Shi'ae was competent enough to avoid trouble, so decided it would be alright to have some company, but there was still slight worry in the back of his mind.
Why was he worrying so much over her? He did care for her general well -being, but he was fearing the worst and something not that probable. He usually wouldn't worry about much, so he didn't know why this was different. The situation they were in was diffrent though, he guessed.
After realising he had been standing there for a few seconds without saying anything, he smiled and said, "Ok, let's go then".
They started their long journey cheerfully, talking and exchanging stories like old friends seeing each other for the first time in years, even if they weren't.
Oliver didn't know exactly how far away they were, but it appeared to be early morning so they had plenty of daylight to burn. He was telling Shi'ae a story of the first time he went into an ice-cream parlour when he was younger, of course after explaining what ice-cream was.
"At the time I was quite young, so I got excited easily, and with all the new sweet things in front of me, I was giddy. I was running all over the place wanting to try everything, at which at the time could have only been a nightmare for my parents. Looking back at it thought, it was quite funny.", Oliver finished.
"Certainly sounded like quite the handful, although definitely entertaining. I will definety have to try 'ice cream' one day", was Shi'ae's cheerful response.
"That would certainly be interesting", Oliver laughed, thinking of the prospect of Shi'ae awkwardly trying to eat ice cream from a cone.
"It's easy for you to laugh, but I genuinely want to learn about human culture. It intrigues me", said Shi'ae, lighearted in tone but truth in her response.
"You should've been a scientist or something. Not sayin' you're a bad soldier, far from it, but you have a big interest for those sort of things."
She paused for a second in thought, Oliver almost bumping into her at the abrupt stop, but turned to face her to see what she had to say.
"Hmmm... I have considered the idea, but only in recent times. I was lucky to be given an option at a profession at all, so having limited choice did not bother me at the time."
"I guess so, but it would be nice to work at something you like doing. My dad used to always say that if you have a job you like, you'll never work a day in your life. He said a lot of things like that actually", Oliver told her, reminiscing on the things his father said to him regularly before he left home.
His father wasn't a genius, but he was a hard-working man with experience in a lot of things, so he took his words to heart a lot of the time. Thinking of his family only made him miss them, so he tried to forget the subject to spare him the pain.
Shi'ae unintentionally annoyed him when she questioned him about what his family was like. He reminded himself that she was only being curious and it wasn't her fault, and answered her question.
"Yeah, they're good people. Had a fairly large family cause my grandparents lived with us, but growing up I had a lot of support. If you don't mind, how was yours?".
"I had a large family aswell by human standards, with lots of brothers and sisters. I have lots of fond memories growing up with them, from sparring to evening meals. I do miss them now thinking about it," she said remembering times from years ago with a smile on her face.
Oliver, despite his worries and stress, did find her odd smile contagious, and was smiling along with her soon.
She looked at him smiling curiously. She asked him why he was smiling. He told her, "I think it's cause you have nice smile that seems to be spreading to me."
"Thank you, Oliver", she responded, proud of her own smile.
Oliver couldn't help but laugh when she starting showing off a big goofy grin, which to her was just showing pride.
Time was passing slowly on the long trek. If Oliver were to have a guess, he would say it had been nearly four or five hours since they started the journey. He was starting to have doubts if they would make it, as the UNSC had vehicles, and they didn't. He couldn't know how far they had gone, or if they were still going.
The sun was starting to dip into the horizon, but with all the gear Oliver was wearing, he was still sweating and beginning to tire. Shi'ae showed much less signs of wear, and was happily walking up hill, occasionally stopping momentarily to look at something that caught her eye, such as a type of flower or insect.
Shi'ae eventually noticed his slowing pace. She commented, "We can stop to rest of you like."
Oliver initially insisted he could carry on, and was persistent until he couldn't fool himself anymore, and admitted he needed a break. He didn't want to been seen as weak, even though he knew Shi'ae wouldn't care, he would not let himself be weak, but his legs could no longer carry him.
Shi'ae paused when she could no longer hear footsteps trudging along behind her. Turning around she saw Oliver knelt over, catching a break.
"I see a stream just up ahead that we can rest beside, potentially even get some fish.", Shi'ae suggested.
"Yeah...alright.", was Oliver's weary response.
They trudged along in relative silence save for the natural sounds of the planet. They had not seen any trace of UNSC forces, and Oliver was beginning to get worried that they were too far away or they were going the complete wrong direction and Shi'ae was leading him astray.
He trusted Shi'ae though, so he was sure they would see signs of something UNSC that was recent. For now though, he just wanted to sit down and rest his aching legs.
They reached the clear stream, Shi'ae assisting Oliver to sit down, propped up against a tree. After a few seconds he had closed his eyes, a few more and Shi'ae was confident he was asleep.
She thought he looked peaceful sleeping, and so was quiet when moving in an effort not to wake him. She felt sorry for him as he had gone through what she believed was a lot in the last couple of days physically and emotionally for him.
She could take physical pain, but emotions on the level of humans were something new to her. Expressing emotions, especially negative ones other than anger wasn't ever something sangheili did as often. Speaking with Oliver had allowed her to understand them more, and how they can effect a person so much.
She sympathized with him as she knew he was going through bad times. She would try to make him feel better, but she felt she wouldn't be able to like another human, as she didn't know what words to say and things to do, so she found it quite confusing.
To make things worst, she had no clue how he would react emotionally over the next few days, the thought worrying her.
Looking back over to him, seeing him weak and tired, she decided to focus on the moment and try and catch some fish to give them both some much needed strength.
She was successful in catching some fish even thought it was quite shallow water, having caught a total of three moderate sized fish.
She didn't mind eating it raw all that much, but humans seemed to always cook their food from her experience, so she might as well cook all three.
Throwing something together in under ten minutes with some twigs, rocks and bark, she realised she didn't have anything to light the fire with. Looking over at Oliver, more specifically his equipment, she concluded he'd likely had a lighter on his person as that seemed like gear the UNSC would carry.
Creeping over to his sleeping figure not wanting to disturb him from his sleep that he desperately needed. He seemed to be only carrying a medical bag without any other supplies such as food contained within it, so she knelt down in front of him to check his pockets.
She reached her hand into one of his shirt pockets, on the left side of his chest. She had to delicately open the button sealing it and keeping any contents securely in place. After some fiddling around, she managed to open it, and some further investigation she found no lighter in the pocket, so she would have to continue her search.
Going over each side checking his trouser pockets to find them empty, she noticed something strapped onto his left shoulder. Leaning across his body to check what it was.
Oliver started to stir at the same time. He opened his eyes to see Shi'ae in an awkward position very close to him, reaching for something on his shoulder pad. He might have been suspicious of anyone snooping around his stuff while he slept but he had nothing noteworthy in his possesion so he wasn't too bothered.
After a second he calmy said, "Sup", which startled Shi'ae a bit.
"Uhh.. Hi. Sorry to disturb you, I was just looking for a lighter. You wouldn't happen to have would you?"
At this point their faces were just inches apart. Oliver found it different but not in a bad way. He could see the details in her face extremely clearly. The way her mandibles moved when she talked, the slight imperfections in her tough skin, and her eyes which differed in shape and colour to his own. It was all so alien which was probably why he found it fascinating. He thought that there really wasn't anything like this.
Realising he might have been staring, he looked down at his pockets to get the lighter. He took it out of the pack on his waist and handed it to Shi'ae whilst saying, "There you go."
After a momentary pause, she accepted the lighter with a polite, "Thank you".
Oliver simply nodded in response as Shi'ae skipped over to a pile of firewood, with three fish on the dry grassy land next to it, already gutted. She seemed to have initial trouble igniting it and then keeping the fire going, and Oliver was about to offer assitance till she eventually was able to keep a flame alive.
Shi'ae sat down in front of the fire, embracing the warmth, holding the fish over the flames with sticks pierced through their bodies. Oliver sat down beside her and offered to hold one of the fish and cook it himself.
They sat without exchanging words, either too tired to hold extensive intelligent conversation, or simply content with sitting in front of the fire, appreciating the current moment.
They did eventually get around to eating, Shi'ae not being to picky, eating near all of it apart from the head, while Oliver scraped off undesirable pieces with his knife. Oliver was quite hungry, and found the fish extremely tasty, even with nothing on it. He appreciated the new found fresh breath of energy he received, and was completely stuffed after nearly eating most of it.
He sat there, hand on his stomach leaning on a tree, gazing out into the darkening woods. Shi'ae was to his left, finishing up the majority of a second fish.
The big meal was having its effect on him, and he found himself unitentionally closing his eyes, and he eventually dozed off.
Just want to give a special small mention to treysonsutton for helping me out giving me ideas and inspiration. Of course always a huge thank you for the usuals who know who you are.