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Scarlet - Chapter 11
🕑 Added 2019-07-14 16:00:25 +0000 UTC
After her success at spear-fishing and seeing the fish flop around at the tip of her spear, Keera had been in shock for a moment, the reality that she had just killed another living being, with her own hand, seeing it suffer and feeling its mind dim and fade, it had been something she had not been prepared for. But the soft laughter coming over from the spot Scarlet had watched from, it brought reality crashing in and caused her to bolt into the forest.
As she ran, her mind went back to the decision that had sent her on that path, the idea to use her position as a glorified receptionist, ostensibly a guard against hostile psions infiltrating a medium-security research facility, for personal gain. She hadn’t meant to hurt anyone, only to give her partner and herself the life they deserved. Selling some of the information had been relatively easy, there was always a market for classified information and as the one to guard against psionic intrusion, she had been able to use her powers to gently take the information right out of the minds of the researchers. For a year, they had been able to live the life, enjoying life as they deserved, but that life had come to an abrupt end when a group of black-clad commandos had broken down their door one morning, draggin her from their bed and out of her life. There had been a trial and she had been sentenced to four years in a prison secured to hold psions. She had been returned to the holding facility she had been in, only to feel a prick in her neck and black out. Her awakening, hours earlier, had been slightly jarring, alone and a mental voice had told her where to go, to meet the Doctor.
After being shocked out of her mind by the revelations laid out by him, she had tried to flirt with the nurse, hoping to get some more information, only to spectacularly flame out, being told that she, the nurse, was not associating with mayflies and to come back once she had survived the first month. The fact that it had happened right in earshot of two of the other newcomers had not helped, especially when one of them started to describe how the Doctor had killed a fifth newcomer, just for talking back, telling her that the Doctor might take umbrage at her, flirting with his nurse, so she might want to write out her last will.
It was at that time, that Keera had realised that the whole planet was the prison she was incarcerated in and the myriad of jokes regarding prison-rape came floating back, some told, others heard. It was not a nice idea to be incarcerated with who knew how many men for each woman, causing her to form the idea to hitch her wagon to the other woman, she looked quite a bit younger but she could feel the concealed power in her. Once the other had come back from her trip with the Doctor, she had approached her, despite seeing the vigilance and distrust with which the other viewed the world. The other, Scarlet, had accepted and some time later, the two of them had set out into the wild. It had been only then that Keera had realised how truly out of her depth she was, the Doctor had simply guided her, secure and confident in his power, but Scarlet was different. She seemed to be a predator, ready to pounce at any point, only keeping her around for her own, twisted amusement. Maybe getting used as sextoy by the two guys would have been a better plan, who knew how long Scarlet would find her amusing and what would happen if she no longer entertained her.
Finally, she stopped her flight, confused where she was, confused and frightened. Stretching her mental senses, she was unable to detect anything but it was no surprise, she remembered the mental cloaking Scarlet had used and, once again, wondered just what Scarlet had done to be sent to Verdun.
Scarlet, on the other hand, had moved back to camp, wondering just where Keera had run off to, it seemed so incredibly stupid to run into the unknown. On her way back, she had noticed a few leaves that she recognised from the edibles-folder she had read, they belonged to a root-vegetable reminiscent of sweet potatoes, so she had taken some time to dig up a few, thinking about the best way to make dinner. The lack of cookware was annoying, but it should be easy to use flat stones to hold their food while it cooked.
She made the track between river and camp once more, looking for suitable stones in the shallow water, now quite convinced that there was no dangerous predators in that spot, not with the fat fishes idling again, where just a short time before, one of their brethren had been taken as food. Keera was still not back at camp when she returned and a soft voice at the back of her head drove her to go, look for the other. Scarlet had told her she would teach her how to survive and it would feel wrong to leave her to her own devices, even if she might deserve it.
Grumbling, she walked back to the river and started to follow the tracks Keera had made, it was quite easy, she seemed to have gone back to her bull-in-a-chinashop approach to making her way through the forest. Even without Cyca’s nose, Scarlet was able to follow the tracks to a small, empty clearing. There, the underbrush and grass was disturbed and trampled down but she was unable to find the tracks that left the clearing, but her mental connection and domination over Cyca allowed her to find the quite obvious scent-track that she had left behind. It wasn’t as if there were many humans to leave their scent all over the place.
With Cyca in the lead, she followed the tracks some more, wondering just why they were going in circles. The forest was not dense enough to fully block out the sun, offering a simple, if crude, way to keep track of directions but Keera’s tracks were meandering around, without even a hint at her goal. After a few minutes, Scarlet was able to lock onto the other using her mental scanning, the other’s agitation standing out like a beacon.
Catching up took a few more minutes, thanks to the fact that she was able to cut through the forest, cutting out the circles Keera had walked.
“If you want to leave, you should take your things with you.” Scarlet spoke up from Keera’s side, causing the other to jump in surprise, mentally clamp down on her crystal and squeak again. Only, this time, the surprise got the better of Keera and she felt nature break forth, causing her to feel humiliated on top of the confusing mishmash of emotions that was gripping her. Anger, insecurity, humiliation, fear but also relief that she was no longer alone in the forest, all those emotions bubbled up and caused tears to well up in her eyes. Keera was simply at the end of her rope and knowing that she had just soiled herself like a child in front of the hateful pixie was just the rotten cherry on the shit-sundae she was being fed.
Scarlet, on the other hand, was simply stunned, her innocuous question causing the other to burst into tears was not what she had expected and when her mental connection to Cyca brought an acridic scent to the forefront of her mind, making her realise what had happened. For a short moment, Scarlet considered getting rid of Keera, either by simply leaving her to her fate in the forest, maybe even taking her crystal and gear, or by taking direct action.
But as fast as the idea sprung to her mind, she dismissed it, she had her own honour, her own set of values, and she had never compromised them, even when she had been living in the slums as a teenager. One of those values was that she kept her word. And she had told Keera that she would teach her how to survive, even if that task seemed far harder than she had originally thought, if she wasn’t even able to take care of her own, biological needs. She had never wanted children, never even considered having any, but she felt as if she had just been handed a child.
Swallowing her annoyance, Scarlet walked up and took Keera’s hand, trying to soothe her like she would try to soothe a child, making baby-noises and speaking assurances in a soft voice. Thinking for a moment, Scarlet decided to lead Keera back to the river, cleaning her and her clothes the first step. Once that was done, she could try to establish what the first step of training should be for her.
