Chapter 2- Danger Close

Fang mentally readied herself, walking bravely towards the shack and pushed open the heavy metal door. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the darker room. As she stared in front of her, just making out the silhouette on the ground, golden eyes locked with hers once more, slicing through the darkness-as threatening as the terrifying beasts that roamed Pulse itself.

Neither spoke in that moment; all consumed with the strength and danger found in each pair of eyes.

Fang closed the door behind her; locking it, eyes never leaving the others'. The sound of the door closing broke the silence in the small room. The bound stranger recognized the young girl even through blurred eyes. She could make out the blue sari wrap, black top and arm wraps, and wild black and sun-bleached tipped hair.

Severe pain raked through her body once more, forcing a wet cough out of her sore throat. She clenched her teeth and gasped, squeezing her eyes shut and tilting her head back until it passed. Fang felt her lips part; eyes darting. Such pain this stranger was in, yet she did not scream. She took an instinctive step forward, but not knowing if she should try to help, or just watch. The sound of a barefoot on a dirty cement floor was nearly silent, but not to the prisoner-it echoed though her sensitive ears. Her eyes snapped open, locking onto the standing girl in front of her in partial fear. Fear and warning.

A cornered animal.

Fang took another step, and another, and another. She was only a couple steps away from the stranger now, able to get a good look at the ragged girl who apparently, took down Nail-yet couldn't be older than Fang herself. Another gut-wrenching slash of pain; clenching and writhing as it hit her, and toned, shaking muscles stayed flexed from the agony. They locked eyes once again; Fang knelt down to the captive's eye-level. Her eyes saying more than words could. Sharp, yet soft; fire in the center, with gentle concern radiating the outside.

She got up and walked out the door. Closing it behind her.

A couple minutes later she was back, holding a bowl, with a white towel draped lazily over her shoulder. The bound girl eyed her cautiously. Fang ran her free hand through her hair then scratched the back of her head.

"Umm, I'm just gonna… uh, clean you up a bit, okay?" She said quietly, walking near and kneeling down again. She slowly dipped the towel in the warm water. The prisoner met her eyes again, there was a ferocity that had ceased. Fang looked for an affirmative; the girl looked away to the window. Silent acceptance. Ready for the oncoming pain.

Fang started with her shoulders. The towel scraped over her wounds like sandpaper. Cries and grunts of anguish flooded the jail as warm water met gashes and punctures in her flesh. Her body shook, ready to collapse at any moment. Fang could barely keep it together herself, knowing she was causing this much pain to a girl who looked the same age as herself. Even if she hurt the hunters. It was-well, horrifying. I mean, I've knocked a few heads around when the brats would pick on Vanille… She shook her head. What exactly am I thinking? These need to be cleaned, she'll die from blood poisoning if they aren't. She justified to herself.Fang flicked her eyes upward-and seeing that the prisoner was looking at her-seized the moment. "Do you have a na-"

"Save it," A raspy, dried voice spat at her. Fang glared. The woman sighed. Seconds passed. "Tell me yours first." She spoke defeated. Fang looked back up in partial surprise, nodded and lowered her eyes back to the wounds.

"It's Fang," She dabbed the towel back in the water and rung it out before placing it on a particularly mean looking gash.

"Why… are yo-grrrggg! …You …doing this for- hnnng! ...Me?" The words now came out in-between gasps of pain.

The warrior wasn't at all caught off-guard by the question, but she herself wasn't entirely sure why she wanted to be the one to help the 'enemy'.

"I have no bloody idea." She said flatly. Honestly.

She wasn't sure, but thought she heard a single chuckle come out of the strangers' mouth. Finishing up with her shoulders and torso, she started on the left leg, hesitating before gently untucking the tourniquet from itself and unwrapping it from around the limb. The woman's eyes squeezed shut, tears of frustration from the constant agony shed and drifted down her face. Fang saw this and slowed even more. In that much pain already? This won't be good. As she unwrapped the untreated, ever-bleeding wound, her heart sank: starting below the kneecap, in a downward motion-obviously Nail's work-was at least a 3-inch deep gash, splitting the calf muscle from the shin bone like he was gutting and skinning a fresh kill. She licked her dry lips, not hiding the look of utter disgust as she tried to rip away her eyes as water sprung to them.

Out of pity for this attacker.

Finally she brought her eyes up to the girl, who didn't return her gaze, for she was focusing with all her will on the moonlight in the window-which by now was shining dimly on her face, lacing teary eyes with blue hues.

The night was long and strenuous as hours passed, or were they minutes? The prisoner was alone now. Her companion had left to go to bed a few hours ago. Or was it minutes? I don't know. She let her head lean up against the cold bar. At least the pain isn't as bad. I'll have to thank her, if we meet again.

Fresh bandages covered her body, but some had already began bleeding through from the extensive damage. And even though no more words were exchanged between her and her medic, she felt the room bear an intense loneliness without the dark-haired woman there.

"You still haven't told me your name." Words echoed in the cement jail.

The accented voice was sudden-and familiar.

"Fang," She didn't mean for her words to sound so surprised. The prisoner shot her gaze to the door, which had opened silently, and found the owner of the voice standing halfway inside the room. She then slipped inside, and closed it gently behind her. "Thought you were sleeping?" She said curiously. Along with a strange sense of comfort with the other warrior there. A strange feeling of… relief?

Fang shrugged. "I can't," She stepped to her side and plopped on the ground with her back up against the cold wall, facing the prisoner with long legs thrown out in front of her. "You still haven't told me your name." She repeated.

"That's stopping you from sleeping." She spoke in more of a flat statement than a question, while raising a carefully groomed eyebrow.

"Mmhmm," Fang nodded, then leaned forward and rested her arms on bent knees. The flickering candles lit her beautiful face and expectant eyes with a delicate red-orange dance. The prisoner tilted her head to the side, shifting her weight from right to left and folding her right leg almost under herself. Fang saw the fidgeting as the woman sizing her up, deciding if she was truly trustworthy.

"It's Atheris."

"Athris, hmm?" Fang repeated. "So… where do you come from?" Fang went straight to the point, she was excited to know things.

"Hmm? What do you mean 'where do I come from?' I don't understand." A frown dawned on her features. "I'm from here."

"Umm…" She leaned back up against the wall, trying to choose her words carefully. "What village are you from?"

"Well I'm in the Archylte Steppe… most of the time, if thats what you mean," She stayed vague, looking at her medic through a sideways glance. "But, I live everywhere." She narrowed her eyes.

Fang's eyebrows knitted. "You live everywhere?" She was confused and intrigued, but in the moment she was going to speak, something caught her trained eyes-Fang stopped her continuation of words. Her vision shot straight to the woman's belt-it was moving! She quickly pushed herself up to her toes, and snatched the large, red knife in her own belt, and flicked her eyes between the woman and the 'belt' in question.

Athris was getting completely drained of energy, she had forgotten to keep still. Damn.

"W-what is that?" Fang demanded. "What are you?" She locked her eyes on the girl in front of her, but now pointed her knife at her too. "You try to escape I swea-"

"Fang!" Atheris barked. "Look," Her voice shook. "I don't know what you expect me to do, but I'm tied up! I'm not going anywhere, I'm not trying to escape and I'm sure as hell not answering any more of your pointless, unnecessary questions!" The tensing of her sore muscles made sharp, horriblepain consume her weak body like a wild electric current. "Hrrggg!" She pulled up her legs and threw her head back by reflex, gritting her teeth and moaning weakly in agony. "I… am just… like you."

Fang dropped her eyes for a moment and gathered herself, she took a few steps forward before leaning down on her bare knees. The concrete was cold. She grabbed the towel, which was still in the slightly warm water, rung it out and held it gently on Athris' clammy forehead, all while eyeing the furry, twitchy limb suspiciously. She placed her knife back in its holster, concluding that the prisoner was in no shape to attack her… For now.

The warm towel felt good against her cold skin. It gave her mind something to concentrate on, other than the throbbing ache of agony.

As the pain was subsiding, Athris found her breathing returning to normal, instead of that labored, tense gasping that invaded her lungs. Strangely she also noticed a warm presence on her cheek, she opened her eyes slowly, and found Fang's hand carefully brushing wet and bloodied hair from her face. It was strange, but comforting. "Thank… you." The words fell like soft snowflakes from her bloody lips. Fang let herself fall back on her butt and brought her legs up. She leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, intensely meeting eyes with the girl some inches in front of her.

"You're welcome."

Fang stayed with her for a while longer, cleaning her wounds and changing bandages as they bled. Making soft, small talk here and there. It had gotten very late now, a cold breeze intruded the room. The young warrior pulled in her legs so she sat indian-style, as her sari didn't offer much protection to the limbs from the cold. Atheris tried her hardest not to shiver, but failed miserably. Fang stood. "I'll be right back." She smirked. "Don't go anywhere." Atheris scoffed. The girl slipped out the door with a stealthiness that any hunter would die for, she ran silently over to the orphanage and worked her way up the side of the tall building. Grabbing on to pipes on the wall, and vines and branches from a neighboring tree. Finally she found the same window on the 3rd floor that she snuck out of, and opened it as quiet as she could. Sccrreeechhhh! Fang froze, all the fine hairs on her body stood at attention and she listened intently for any noise that could possibly be someone awake-namely Lady Alda. Shit! Stupid window! As soon as it was apparent that nobody heard the horrendous noise, a sigh of relief escaped her cold lips. She continued to open the window-or try to at least, it didn't budge. You have got to be kidding me, I can't believe this! She pushed harder, the branch that bore her weight started to bend. Grunting, she braced all her weight onto the window and-THOOMP! Fell inside. Little Vanille was standing at the window, eyes wide as saucers and delicate fingers on the locking mechanism. Which had obviously been locked previously.

Fang's feet were over her head while she came to a halt on her bare shoulder. Giggles burst from the red-head until it reached a crescendo of not breathing.

"Hahahaha, Fang! Hahaha! That was the-hahaha-funniest thing I-ahahaha-have seen all day! Heehee!"

"Why the hell was that locked?" She untangled herself from, well, herself. "Shhh! Vanille! You're gonna wake the Wicked Witch!" She harshly whispered even though she had raised her voice just a second earlier.

"Lady Alda came in and locked it," Vanille sobered up and waved her arms. "I had to lay on a bunch of pillows to make it look like you were under me!" She burst into giggles again.

Fang tried to look serious, but try as she might to hold her ground, she found giggles working their way up her throat, until they turned into throaty laughs. Vanille was wiping tears in her emerald eyes. Fang was enjoying herself, that is, until the rug-burn made itself apparent on her right shoulder. "Oooww…" She half wined and laughed as she poked it.

Trying to stop laughing, Vanille giggled at Fang again before wiping her eyes again. "What are you doing? Don't mess with it, you're just gonna make it hurt more." She walked over to the nightstand and pulled out a white bottle. "Come over here, let me look at it." She patted the bed and sat on it.

"I don't need a doctor, Vanille, I need a blanket." She said while instinctively sitting next to her anyways.

"Are you cold?" She spread some lotion on the burn. Fang flinched.

"No I'm not cold," She folded her arms across her chest.

"Then why are you sneaking into our room and stealing a blanket that we both use? Hmm?" She finished putting lotion on the offending shoulder and put the bottle back into the nightstand.

"Look… I-I'll tell you later." She quietly responded, knowing that, on top of sneaking out, nobody was to see prisoners after dark. Doctor Vanille stopped immediately, she placed a small hand under Fang's chin and guided the girl's eyes towards her own.

"Fang… " Her hand popped onto her hip. "What did you do?"

"Wha-I didn't do anything!" Fang threw out her arms over-exaggeratedly.

"I wanna know! Is it about that girl?" Her hands balled into fists. "Faaang!" Fang smiled at her companion while she tugged at her blue sari.

"Shhh," The eldest sighed, defeated. "…Fine, I'll tell." Vanille smiled brightly. "But not until I get back," she stood, "I'm gonna need that blanket."

Athris felt her body regenerating-slowly, but surely. Even through the continually colder temperature. If only I could fin-

"Hey," Fang slipped into the jail again, looking behind her as she gently closed the heavy metal door. As gently as you can close a metal door, anyway. "Brought ya' something," She spoke as if the woman couldn't see the hunter green blanket in her arms. It looked as if it was made from a type of fleece. Atheris nodded once. The warrior girl placed the cotton fabric on her, and body heat immediately began warming it. "I better get some rest," Fang scratched her head, not entirely wanting to leave-but needing too, nonetheless. Atheris looked at her though tired eyes as the warrior turned to take her leave.

"Goodnight, then." The captive sounded sincere.

Fang paused and turned-a smile tugged at full lips. "Goodnight."

Thanks for hanging in there with me, I love you all! :D