Lotor

How long he was sleeping for he didn't know. It had been odd talking to this girl who was his enemy like they were just friendly civilians meeting for lunch or something. Her hand had been warm and soothing and that was something that he had not expected at all. Humans were a strange species, more like Alteans then he had thought and yet so vastly different.

Lotor slowly opened his eyes and glanced around him. In the time that they had last spoke she'd pulled some larger leaves over him to keep him warm, started a small fire, and was now sleeping inside the pod. Night had fallen and he was feeling better. In the dark he felt safe to drop part of the illusion, leaving the eyes and height, as it would be hard to replicate that again, and laid there letting the medicine of the plants heal him. He was, annoyed, not only with himself for being stupid enough to not bring some first aid, but with the robots for attacking him so savagely. He needed to be able to move, and this injury wasn't helping.

Slowly he sat up and ripped a sleeve of the shirt off, tore it into strips, and wrapped it around his leg where the blast had hit. The bruising felt better, but the burn would take longer. He was going to have to reapply the paste later in the morning. Hunger ate at his stomach. He longed for some food but knew that if he moved around too much she would wake up and see him, so he held his head down and kept quiet, letting the night air and the sounds lull him back to sleep.

It wasn't too long before the light of day was cresting over the horizon and Lotor felt the rays hit him in the face. He got up quickly, noting her sleeping form, and slipped off to gather his thoughts. They were going to need some food, and from what he knew there was some edible plants in the area. Scavenging, he carefully selected the ones he thought were the most likely to be edible and brought them back to the crash site.

By the time she woke up Lotor had already laid out the food he'd found and shifted back to Prince Bokar's form before she could see him. He was looking at the food he'd collected trying to figure out what they were exactly, or rather, if he could eat them.

Pidge rubbed her eyes, "What's all this?"

"Food," he said bluntly and then waved his hand over them. "But I'm not sure if we can eat any of it."

"Uh, what do you mean by, eat any of it?" She tossled her hair and he tilted his head, it was, in a word, rather a cute motion to make. He found it amusing, almost, endearing. A smirk slipped on his lips before he forced it away and said simply.

"You know," he motioned with his hands, "eat. Devour, consume, ingest, feast upon," he watched as she lowered her lids and brow in a 'are you seriously thinking I'm that stupid' way and he lowered his head. "My apology. I did not mean to make you think that I meant to imply in any way that you were being…"

"Stupid," she intoned dryly and he nodded sheepishly.

"Yes," he started and then tilted his head. "Are all humans as dry as you are?"

"What?" she blinked, and he stared at her confusion then realized what he had said and quickly backtracked as she asked cautiously, "How do you know I'm human?"

"Well, it's simple enough. There are rumors about Voltron, the legendary defender of the universe, running around. It's clear to me that you, most definitely, are not Altean, but are clearly in their making. There was talk of the Galra Empire capturing prisoners from a space craft off in a farther sector of the systems. And, judging by the fact that you're not from around here, I'm going to surmise that you are one of the same species that was brought in from that sector." He let slip a confident smile as he closed his eyes and heard Pidge snort.

"Wow, that's…actually impressive, for someone who's dressed as a prisoner." Her brow narrowed as she scanned the food.

"What are you doing?"

"Seeing if they're edible," Pidge explained and then smirked at him. "You did say you wanted to know if they're able to be 'consume, ingest, and feast upon'. Am I right?"

"Well yes," he admitted. "I did. At least you figured that much out. And what do you mean by dressed like a prisoner? I am one, or rather…was one," Lotor told her and she nodded as she let her computer run its computations.

"Well, then, who are you? I asked you yesterday but you seemed so out if it that you never gave me a proper name to call you by. So, who are you?"

Lotor set his hands on his knees and gave her a bow from his waist, "I am Prince Bokar, of Mezora. Son of King Alazan, who was an ally to King Alfor back in the day."

Pidge looked up confused, "Wait a minute. How can that be?"

"How can what be?" he lifted his body up and crossed his arms. "You don't believe I'm a Prince?"

"No, I do, your attitude is a dead giveaway," Pidge pointed out, making Lotor 'tch', and she ignored it as she went on, "but how can your father be an ally to King Alfor? It's been Ten thousand years since…" she paused, not wanting to say more or give out any info about Allura that could get back to Prince Lotor or his men.

"Since his death you mean," Lotor said softly and she nodded. He rubbed his head with the palm of his hand and sighed, "I'll explain in more detail after we eat, but for the most part the people of Mezora are long lived. We keep records of history that most have forgotten."

"You're surprisingly affable for a being that lives for a long time," Pidge commented as she finished her scan and Lotor let out a snort crossing his arms.

"I'm a baby compared to most of my other brethren." He glanced down at the mixture of plants, fruits and nuts that he'd gathered. "So? What can we eat?"

"Um…well it says that these two are okay," she pulled out a melon looking type fruit and a plantain type bunch of fruit, then rooted through the rest, "and this fungus here," she pulled out three of the same type of mushrooms, "and this grass and these…I guess you can call them sugar cane, or bamboo…plants. And these acorn like seeds here."

Pidge pulled out the remaining plants then pushed the rest to the side. Lotor pointed, "So what's wrong with the rest?"

"Nothing, unless you want to either swell up like a beach ball from a rash, feel nausea for several days, or be put to sleep for a week." She explained and he scooted farther from the remaining items.

"I'll pass."

Pidge carefully sat for a moment or two clicking around on the computer in her gauntlet. "Hummm."

"Hummm?" Lotor looked at her in a board way. "Are we going to eat or just look at the wild life? And what exactly is a beach ball anyway?"

"It's a type of toy we have where I'm from. You toss it around when you play at a beach." Pidge explained without looking up and frowned, "And yes, unless you want to eat it raw, but apparently the canes have a really sour taste when they're not boiled, so I'm trying to look up some info how to cook them properly so we don't get sick." Murmuring softly to herself, "It's bad enough I can't get in contact with the others as it is, I don't need to pass out on top of my pod not working."

"What was that?" he scowled and Pidge pushed up her glasses.

"Look, I wasn't planning on having to rescue someone, and since you're from this planet shouldn't you already know how to cook this?"

"I…well…I…" Lotor wracked his brain to think fast. He'd never had to cook Mezora food since most of the meals he'd had while there were already made. He cleared his throat, "I don't know how." He turned his head and snorted, "A prince doesn't cook food for himself. That's more the grounds for cook to do, or a commoner."

Pidge just rolled her eyes, "Fine, I'll try cooking it over a fire. We'll see how that goes." She glanced at his leg, "I assume you can move?"

"Well enough I suppose, yes." Lotor shrugged as she got up and dusted off her armor, then fixed her glasses.

"Good, you can help me gather fire wood and sticks to use to cook them."

Again he snorted, "A prince doesn't gather wood…"

"Then a prince doesn't eat," Pidge rounded on him and narrowed her gaze. Lotor stared back challenging her, ready to come back with something witty, but at the moment he was tired and hungry and didn't much feel like it.

Raising his palms to the air he sighed. "Fine. I'll help you look for fire wood, but don't expect me to cook it as well."

He got up with her help, playing up the injury more than it really hurt at the moment as she added. "Oh wouldn't dream of it. I don't feel like eating charbroiled fruit."

Again he scoffed and followed her slowly down into the forest below. Once they were out of sight of the pod he stretched slightly, and watched her like a hawk. The Green paladin was certainly no fool, he would have to take his time with this one, but he knew the charade couldn't last forever. As they walked Lotor made markings in his head where they had gone and which path they'd taken. Each step was slightly painful as the burn was still sore, but he'd soon deal with that, and it was going to be satisfying wrecking those damn robots after this was all done in practice.

Pidge had been scanning around, he noticed and barely came to a halt when she stopped. Lotor put a hand on his hip and sighed, "Now what?"

"Hold on, I'm picking up a reading," she was saying when they both heard a low growl. Freezing in place he looked over her shoulder at her computer monitor and saw that it had picked up a heat signature not too far off. It was large, and clearly feline in shape and movement. The thing crawled down off some rocks and seemed to be making its way towards them.

"I've never seen anything like this before, it's like a saber-toothed tiger," Pidge was muttering when Lotor grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her into the nearest bushes. "Hey!" Then dove in after, covering her mouth with his hand to keep her quiet. She was about to protest, he could feel her breath and her lips getting ready to move against his palm (it actually tickled a little), when she went silent.

"Shhh," he commanded, staying as quiet as he could and let her mouth go. Pidge nodded and both carefully peered out of the long leaved plant that they were hiding in. Down the very path that they had been walking lumbered a large tiger like beast with spines on the back. Its fangs dripped and its dark blue eyes seemed to scan the area. Clearly it was in defensive mode and it was sniffing the air as it crouched and paused on the path.

Lotor held his breath, watching. If worse came to worse he'd force Pidge to fire upon it and then they'd run back to the ship. He wasn't sure if he would leave her behind, or not, but as the moments ticked by he found himself unable to do that to the young woman with him. He was a leader first and foremost, and his goal was to get information from her, having her dead would do him no good.

His voice was low to the side of her helmet, "If that beast comes this way, fire once then run, I'll be right behind you."

"No," Pidge stated flatly and Lotor shot her a dark look. She glanced back, "I'm a Paladin; my job is to protect others. You're unarmed, I'm not. I have a better shot of avoiding attack, you don't."

"What do you…" he started to whisper in a hissing voice when she motioned to her back and he could see rocket boosters for flight. Rolling his eyes slightly he muttered, "Oh."

"Yeah, so again, if that creature comes this way, you run, I'll follow you, okay?"

"As you command, Paladin." He said softly and they watched as the cat creature pawed the ground, sniffed it again, and then, after stalling for several seconds, started to move once more down the path in a slow gallop.

Both breathed out, not realizing that they were holding it in so deeply. Lotor shook his head, "Well that was exciting."

"Yeah, but what was it. I've never seen that type of cat before." Pidge admitted standing up.

"Nor I," Lotor frowned. It was true that there were several wild beast in the area, but most stayed far from the city. He found it odd that the creature had wandered out so far from the boarder that they had established. Furrowing his brow he thought of the distance between the specially created boarder energy gates that had been designed and the city itself. There should have been no reason that the beast could have gotten into the area without some help, or the gate dropping. It was like a wall, tall and wide, and while vehicles, Galra officers, and the civilians of the city could get though…Normally animals like the feline that they had just seen couldn't.

Pidge had already stood up and was dusting herself off, "We should move from here before it comes back. Lotor nodded and followed her actions.

"A fine suggestion, but which way to go?"

"Well we don't want to head in the same direction as it, soooo…" she peered at her computer, then pointed in the opposite direction that the beast had loped away in. "That way. We can circle around back to the ship once we get enough wood to cook."

"Fair enough." He agreed, still off in his own world making calculations on how far the beast would travel before it got noticed. The gates were around five hundred and fifty meters away from the city, if the feline was traveling as slow as it was, it would have taken it several hours to get to where they were at the moment, possible a day or two. If they were waiting for his signal as he supposed, then they probably would catch the cat before it got to close to the city.

As he was stepping out he paused when Pidge was staring at him.

"What? What's wrong?"

"You're ears," she pointed at his head, "They're…um…pointed."

Fiznark, he cursed and covered them and turned away. What do I say now? Damn, this wasn't supposed to happen like this…

He could feel her eyes narrow on him, clearly curious about what was going on. Cautious, and he knew he was going to have to watch what he said next.

"I…I don't want you to look at them. They…They're hideous," in some ways this was true. To a number of members of his race they were part of the identifying cause of his weakness, his Altean blood. His height was another issue as was his hair, but he'd learned long ago that his looks were actually a plus for him, allowing others to get close without feeling threatened and he was able to charm them.

"They're not that bad," he could feel her rolling her eyes at him as he turned to face her, still covering the ears, willing them to change back. He'd lost concentration and worried if it would happen again.

"They…They're not?" an act, although it surprised him that she was being sarcastic about it. Pidge waved it off as if it was nothing and shook her head.

"No, they're just pointed. Although, does this make you part Altean? Or does all your race have pointed ears?"

Lotor slowly lowered his hands. Well this was going to be easier then he planned. He wanted to smirk but kept a slightly glum disposition, "I…my mother was Altean, sadly she passed when I was young…" it was so easy to tell the truth and weave it into this fabrication. "I…I've always been embarrassed by them. Thankfully my people never really noticed them all that much, well until the Galra came. They saw them as part of a weakness and decided that it would mean I would have skills to disguise myself and slip away. Ha, as if I could, my mother never had time to teach me any of that. "Again truth blurred into fiction as he talked, and it found it fairly easy to tell her such idle facts about his past, as long as they were mixed in with the fabricated Bokar's story.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to…" Pidge started and he waved his hand as if to imply it was okay. She smiled. "Look if it helps, they're not bad. Heck you should even wear them as a badge of honor."

"Ah, really?" he snorted and crossed his arms. "And why is that?"

"Well, um, apparently there's not too many Alteans left." She told him and Lotor glanced down at her. "At least as far as I understand."

"I haven't met any myself," he lied and shrugged. "I suppose that could be true."

Pidge looked away, as if not wanting to say anymore. "Yeah, well, it's just something to think about. Don't go thinking that it's a bad thing to be Altean."

"They were a rich society," Lotor softly said and Pidge gave a little nod to that. "I suppose I should be glad that they are part of my heritage. But…I would think you would be less worried about my past and more worried about the wood."

"Actually I'm worried about both. You can shapeshift, so how do I know that you won't just wander off on me." Pidge crossed her arms and Lotor suddenly burst out laughing. She wrinkled her nose, "What's so funny?"

"What exactly am I going to shift into if I can hardly shift myself? I can only do ears. Maybe I should turn them into wings and fly off."

Again she rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Come on we need to find some wood and eat. I'm sure you're getting hungry too."

Lotor wiped his eyes as they started walking down the path. "Oh thank you for that Pidge Gunderson, that was truly a…"

The sound came softly, as if from the undergrowth. Almost a purring sound and both stopped dead in their tracks.

"Did you say something?" they spoke in stereo, and Pidge responded first.

"No, did you?"

Lotor shook his head and the sound came again, only this time is was more of a meow. Glancing at one another the duo bent over slowly and pushed back the leaves of a larger bush on the side of the path. Peering out at them was a small cub like creature that looked like a miniature version of the cat that had passed them a few moments before. The cub looked up at them with young and inquisitive eyes. Another meow came from its mouth, and it growled some as it stood and stretched.

Carefully and slowly they closed the bush leaves and Lotor took a deep breath, "I believe, Pidge, we have a bit of a problem."