Alright, I've got writer's block for Unforgotten, so here's an update to Soft Heart. Sorry for making everyone wait.
Kaylin waited, hand on Tyke's shoulder, rubbing it affectionately, until Julian was out of sight. She counted in her head to just one minute before squeezing Tyke's shoulder and going back into her hut and grabbing a basket from under a cabinet.
"Where you going?" Tyke asked. Kaylin smiled and rubbed the head of the observant boy.
"If I'm going to be receiving patients soon, I need ingredients for medicine," she said, Tyke looked skeptical, "I won't go far, just stay here and take care of Algae for me, please?" Tyke pouted but nodded. Kaylin bent down to hug the boy, standing slowly and grabbed one of her sleds and headed out. She looked over her shoulder and saw Tyke standing in the doorway, holding the white mouse in his hand and waving.
She smiled and waved back.
She took the well-travelled path behind her house into the jungle. It felt good to be outside, listening to the calls of animals and the buzz of insects. She should probably have left sooner, but she wanted to make sure Julian wasn't there to force her to stay home. He wouldn't have been able to gather the plants she needed by himself, being new to the planet. There were very specific herbs she needed, and enough look-alikes that he could mistakenly pluck the wrong one and get terrible rashes from some, or worse.
Sighing, Kaylin went off the path to her usual haunts; bushes, trees and rotting logs that grew the specific plants and fungi that she needed. It didn't take her long to find what she wanted, but bush by bush, she got farther and farther away. She kept herself conscious of this fact, reminding her that someone was home waiting for her return for once. She had to be responsible and return before it was dark. It was strange suddenly, having to take care of a child, and she found herself hoping that she would do a good job of it, and felt her eyes sting a little.
Once all of her ingredients were gathered, she dusted off her hands and looked at her handiwork; the basket she had was not only full, but heaping, and the sled that she had carried bundles of medicinal roots too large to simply be carried. She'd have to be careful hauling it back so that it didn't constantly tip. It was getting late; she couldn't afford the time to continuously pick-up and pile the bundles if they fell off. Nodding to herself, she smiled and grabbed the handles of both the sled and the basket and felt the weight of both. She moved only about a foot before she thought about Tyke again, and looked over her shoulder. She knew of a bush not too far away that bore very sweet, candy-like berries that she had dubbed Neo-juju. They would be a good treat for the young boy.
She looked at the position of the sun in the sky. It was low, but was not yet touching the horizon. Deciding she had enough time, Kaylin took only her basket and headed further. The bush was easy to find, the berries being bright purple among the dark green leaves. She began to pick the ripe ones, the ones that had shed the shriveled husk of its parent flower from their ends, and began to carefully pile them in the basket.
She had about half a handful placed in the basket when she heard popping. It was a terribly familiar noise and she startled up, looking ahead at where the sound was coming from. It was close. She felt her heart race, then ran forward, dropping the basket and spilling its contents onto the jungle floor. Plants tried to grab at her clothes but she broke through them, tearing the cloth in places. Faster and faster she ran. The land began to incline, and she used her hands to climb up. Once she was on the crest, she could see the edge of the jungle, where it opened suddenly to a lush field, cut sharply short by a tall cliff leading towards the deep blue ocean.
Kaylin's dark eyes searched frantically, looking for the firefight. She knew that around here was the territory of the Cazadores and the Eagles, and knew that the former gang was probably far too small to stand a chance against the Eagles.
She flinched, distracted from her fears by a bright blue light that streaked from the other side of the clearing, where the edge of the jungle wove back into view. It happened again, accompanied by a roar she had never heard from any of the animals on this planet, but recognized nonetheless. Using the plants, she carefully slid down the hill. The popping stopped. She was at the bottom of the hill, and there had been no sound for about a minute. She hid partially behind a tree, looking towards the tree line opposite of her.
Another minute passed, then another, and another. Kaylin's brown eyes searched frantically for any sign of movement. Suddenly, a large shape burst out of the jungle and into the clearing. Kaylin sucked in her breath, dark eyes wide. The hulking creature was staggering. Even from where she was she could hear it struggle for breath. It moved as if it was drunk, swaying, then stepping to the side, continuing a path towards the trees where Kaylin was hiding. It was only ten feet away before it collapsed on its knees. With heaving shoulders, the creature knelt like that, fists clenched, its strange sword dropped several feet back, its head bowed, abstract web-crested silver mask covering its face.
Kaylin watched silently, and with horrific recognition. The creature's head slowly moved up, as if it saw her. It paused for a moment, the grey eyes of the mask steady on her as she stepped out from behind the tree. It then looked to the side, lifting its left arm. A panel opened on a device on its gauntlet. Red light glowed against its sparse metal armor, and crème and black skin. Its dark claw tapped against the panel, beeping four times before the limb dropped heavily to its side. It began to click and rattle, shoulders shaking, and Kaylin couldn't help but feel it was laughing.
The gauntlet began beeping.
Slowly, the noises the creature made petered off and the alien fell forward onto the grass and didn't move. Kaylin didn't hesitate to run to it. Its body was hot to the touch, just like she remembered. She shifted and tried to move it, careful about rolling it over onto its back to try to get a better look at it and see what injuries it had. She finally managed to roll its shoulder and gently set it to the ground. Where its chest and belly were now exposed Kaylin could see, stuck in its skin with barbs, were several thin metal darts. It had been tranquilized. There was only a moment of confusion before a chilling horror went through her body as she realized what was going on. It was being captured. Kaylin turned to the jungle across the field to see if anyone was coming to retrieve the alien, but was distracted as the beeping of its gauntlet increased in speed. She bent to the creature's left arm, turning it over to look at the device, watching as symbols made up of dashes changed and shifted in their panels, and then one panel went blank.
She was smart enough to realize that it was a bomb.
Horrified, Kaylin grabbed at the device, she searched for any sort of buttons for a release mechanism but everything she pressed beeped and did nothing. Finally she began to try to pull it off; putting her nails between every line and crevice she could find to try to pry it from his arm. By some miracle, and with much gnashing of teeth, the device came loose from the gauntlet, and she immediately ran as fast as she could to the cliff. The beeping steadily got faster. The pain in her abdomen told her she had possibly re-opened her wound, but she barely felt it. Stopping unsteadily at the cliff-side Kaylin hurled the device over the edge. Down it went, beeping slowly getting quieter. She heard a splash, and breathed a sigh of relief.
The very earth shook as a huge spray of water shot up not seconds later, reaching higher than the edge of the cliff and dousing Kaylin in the saltwater of the ocean. Blue bolts of electricity climbed up the stones and jolted out into the air. Kaylin breathed heavily, looking over the edge where the sea was foaming and rushing to fill in a hole, seeing that a good deal of the cliff had been carved out from the bottom, making what she was standing on suspended in the air by several stories.
Shakily, she carefully stepped back to where the ground was solid, swallowed, and then ran back to the alien. There was no way whoever was hunting him hadn't heard the explosion, she had to move quickly. The sudden rush of adrenaline erased all pain from her body as she grabbed and began pulling and pushing the alien towards the trees. It was difficult, very difficult, the alien was very heavy, and she looked over her shoulder often, feeling like a soldier was already breathing down her neck. Once she pushed the alien through the threshold of the jungle, she began to dump as much leaves and dirt as she could onto him, pulling entire branches down from trees to conceal him, trying as hard as possible to be quiet.
It was not a very good attempt to hide him, having a sudden huge pile of debris, some of which was still living, just within sight of the clearing but it was the best she could do before she heard shouting from the other trees. Gasping, she hid behind a tree. Seeing her would no doubt raise suspicion, and the pile was very indiscreet.
Her breath burned in her lungs as she panted for air, pressing a hand to her side where the wound throbbed but was not wet, then sucked in her breath and held it as she heard the voices near. Perhaps it was the fear that made it sound like the soldiers were right behind her, and she tightly closed her eyes, pressing her back to the hard bark, trying to be as thin as possible against the giant tree.
"A trail here!"
Kaylin's heart froze.
"Follow me, guns ready!"
She heard feet through the grass and clenched her fists tightly, feeling her dirty nails dig into her palms.
"Heading for the cliff."
"Careful, the area's unstable."
The voices dropped to an indiscernible murmur. Kaylin did not yet dare breathe a sigh of relief.
For what felt like hours, the voices hummed, muttered and mumbled.
"Bogey lost. Committed suicide off the cliff while being pursued. Confirmed detonation of weapon," one voice finally reported, "request to prepare resources for next encounter" a pause, "no, I'm certain. Let the inmates keep fighting, they're sure to attract another one. These things come to war like moths to a flame."
Kaylin stayed still and silent, breathing only through her nose, biting her lip as she strained to listen to the sounds of the receding soldiers. Eventually, after not hearing anything for a moment she turned and peeked past the edge of the gigantic tree. She saw at least four receding figures going back into the trees, wearing the Colonial Marine uniforms.
She stayed frozen until they were completely out of sight, and then counted in her head to five minutes. She then rushed around the other side of the tree to the pile, collapsed to her knees and brushed everything away, revealing the still unconscious alien. With a heavy sigh, she dropped her hands into her lap, staring at the slow movement of the creature's chest, wondering what she was going to do now.