an unexpected arrival [open]

[Nicolette Carmichael]

She could tell that he didn't fully understand, but she didn't mind, it was the thought that counts. He continued to eat and look at her, and she wasn't sure what to do anymore. But then he asked a question, "And what is it you do?"
That she could easily explain. "I'm what we call a guardsman. I protect the people, keep the peace. Sometimes I have to arrest people if they have broken the laws. But things are a little different now that we are on the ground. Still same job though." She explained. "This uniform?" She pointed to herself. "This means I'm a guardsman, if you see someone in this uniform you know what they are." She was proud to be a guardsman, and it had been her dream since she was a little girl. It wasn't exactly how she had expected it to be, but that was what was so thrilling about it. You never really knew what you were going to do next. This was a great example, she woke up this morning not knowing she was going to encounter a curious grounder, nevertheless eating plants with him!

He then edged towards her, smiling, and she stared at him, but leaned back slightly. "Are you nervous? Of my here?" 
She glanced at him a moment, what made him say that? Was she acting nervous? She couldn't tell! She cocked her head to the side lightly. "Not as much as I'm usually like when around strangers. Why?" She said. She just continued to look at him, a slight nervousness creeping into her stomach. Had she been wrong? Was he actually here to kill her? Oh no, what had she done?

[Deleted]

And again, he listened. While it could be information gathering, this was all for his own personal enlightenment. He had been an autodidact: A self learner. To help develop his personal epistemology. There had been things that had come to him naturally, and others had been taught to him. Like not bothering with things that were beyond your control: This was known. "A warrior of peace." he nodded in understanding. For two difference races almost to have multiple skirmishes, his personal belief seemed to want to think on the contrary and not believe her. But one person could not be judged among the many.

In his own language he thought to himself. Jinok is a cunt, and if all people were like him - that would be a lie to say. It was foul mouthed to say, but Kinos would try to replace that with an equanimous mood  
 
He looked. What could be mentally dubbed as 'those eyes' was a mixture of being curious, empathetic... but with something else there. "I have . . never . quite seen somebody like you." this was spoken as a matter of fact but had the slightest emphasis on the word 'never', and a certain side smile came to mind. He popped another pod into his mouth. Crunch. Grin. "This is.. a dangerous goddess" he was talking about her, but since the word beauty had been lost to him or he did not remember, the closest one he could come to after a few moments of thinking was goddess. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

"Warrior of Peace." He called her job. And she smiled brightly. That was an interesting and amazing way of thinking about being a guard. She would have to file that away for later. She loved to find new ways to describe things. And grounders had an interesting perspective on all the things that her people did or were. She liked it also because it was so simple. Warrior of Peace. It was much nicer to say than guardsman. But she was no warrior. Yes she could fight, and she could fight well. But did that make her a warrior? She didn't think so. She was shy, and warriors were brave. 

She continued to look at him and listen to his voice, saying he had never seen anyone like her. She wasn't surprised. She looked so different than him, her pale skin compared to his tanned, and her hair even was just pulled up and twisted into a bun, some hair always escaped, hanging down the side of her face. And when he called her a goddess, well she laughed, not because it was funny, but because he had never in her life been called that before. She absentmindedly touched her scar, one of her flaws. That definitely didn't make her a goddess. Not that she hated her scar. Sometimes she was self conscious about it. "No. I'm not. You should see some of the other girls at camp." She shook her head in slight embarrassment. She had never found herself beautiful. No one had called her beautiful before. Not even her parents. But they had been too busy shouting at each other to notice her. No boy had ever come up to her and told her she was pretty either. She just wasn't. 

[Deleted]

"What is funny?" he spoke, confused. What was the irony of the situation? And as she seemed to waste away the compliment, Kinos only gave a knowing smile in return. "Very well."

With the silence, the sound of wind moving through the trees and the sun brightly cheering on the forest wildlife, a small summmer breeze rushed past the two of them. Kinos looked up, out into the wilderness. "I am hot." he spoke almost bluntly, and brought a hand up to the middle of his chest, unclipping something: and shrugging off his outer layers of furs and with it his two bolas attached to his shoulders. What was left was a loosely fitting shirt t-shirt that showed his chiseled upper chest and arms: The life of a grounder. It was a dark beige, with a loose drawstring. It was pretty crudely made, but this was what most of the grounders wore. 

Just like his kin, although not a warrior, he bared many small scars across his skin, pale marks and scars. A few burn marks that ran across his tough calloused fingers and palm, scratches... these little disfigurements that meant nothing to him... except for the ones on his shoulders. On his right shoulder, perfectly aligned were four very distinct vertical cuts. They were perfectly separated, and looked virtually indistinguishable from one another. If the woman inquired, Kinos would tell her. They were marks that had shown that Kinos had killed four people. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

As the man dismissed her comment about herself not being a goddess he just smiled at her, and she glanced away feeling embarrassed. How was it that she always seemed to get into embarrassing situations whenever she was engaging with men? She didn't understand herself sometimes. But she couldn't help it. When it came to men she knew nothing. Which was surprising considering her best had been a guy. But then again he had been dead 5 years now. She couldn't believe it. 5 years had gone by so very fast. And she still missed him like crazy. This was not the time to think about him however. 

A breeze had started to pick up, a warm one at that. It was nice. She had never felt a breeze before coming to earth and she closed her eyes lightly, taking in the feel of wind on her face. 
"I am hot." The man announced. She opened her eyes again to find him unbuttoning his outer layers of clothes and taking them off. Underneath he wore just a beige shirt, that revealed his muscular build. And she could also see scars. They were perfect. They were vertical lines and aligned on his right shoulder. She glanced at them quickly before looking away. It was rude to stare. But she was curious. These must have been put there for a reason. How else would they be so perfect? She really wanted to ask him, but she didn't know if she should. She hated it when people asked her about her scars. Of course sometimes she forgot they were there. Especially the ones on her back that were hardly ever shown. She had never told anyone the truth. Nobody. She always lied. Sometimes it would be the same lie, sometimes she would change it around. But she couldn't bring herself to tell anyone. It had been horrific to her, and she had just wanted to forget. It wasn't possible. You can't hide from things like that ever. Because the attacker was on the ground with her. 

She awkwardly moved, she needed to stretch her leg out. When she moved her right leg, her prosthetic one, it made a loud click sound. Please, she hoped, please don't be broken. She shouldn't have sat down on the ground, crossing her legs always gave her leg problems. But she tried to ignore it. "How?" She finally dared to ask the question that was burning her mind. She pointed lightly at the scars. "How did you get those? Why?" 

[Deleted]

Her leg made a click it was a weird sound. Because it was almost loud and hollow- not human. His eyes furrowed momentarily as a question was created. He would not ask that for now. 

As she asked about his scars, Kinos looked at her with 'those eyes' as if to say again, 'are you sure you want to know?' then he lifted himself up, leaving his bag and furs where they were as he went and sat over to her left side so that she could see the marks herself. They would be much closer now. Better for his own flirtatious and curious stares so that he could almost examine her. 

Kinos looked at them himself. Then he looked at her, taking a few moments to explain, his eyes wandered as he tried to find the words. "In our. .. world. It is seen great honor to be a skillful warrior." he spoke. He had killed many more than just four people, but to many Poison was seen as a lesser form of combat: That you couldn't directly finish somebody off. These four were grudgingly taken with blood and sweat. He didn't feel bad for explaining a crucial part of their 'ciratu', their culture to her. 

He pointed to the first mark, and then the second, third, and final fourth as he spoke about each of them.

"This, I killed a reaper, and again. This third one, I killed a man who claimed Jus drein jus daun. This means 'Blood. Must. Have. Blood.' I lay with his wife without my knowing. This I killed a Ice clan member for being where he shouldn't." as he spoke in his own language he spoke slowly so that she might pick up the enunciation. This was one of the Tiriku's key words: Of course he knew the perfect translation in english. "Greater warriors have more marks." he spoke. This was a matter of fact.    

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

When she asked her question about his scars he gave her a certain look, almost asking her 'do you really want to know?' Of course she did. He obviously hadn't been attacked. So what else could it be?
And with that he got up and sat down right beside her, on her left. She turned her head to look at him. Up close she could see every single feature of his face, and could see the scars even better. They really were perfectly straight. She looked between him and the scars as he pointed at each one of them and told her. 
They have scars for each kill they do. She was intrigued. But also a little afraid. I suppose they were warriors, survivors most of all. Of course it would be a great honour to show off how many people you had killed. 
She suddenly had the urge to touch them, lightly, but held herself back. That would just be weird, she scolded herself. 

Glancing at the scars, she thought about her own life. She had killed a few reapers, but there hasn't been much excitement since she came down to the ground. BUT she had killed one man. It was self defence. Either him or her. She hated to think about it, sometimes in her dreams he would be there. She was definitely not a killer. She coped.... But only just. She supposed that if you grew up learning to be a warrior all of that wouldn't have much of an affect on you, you would easily wear those scars as a badge of honour. 
"Wow. Incredible." Was all she said. 
She thought she had stared enough and looked away, facing forwards again. Her body was tingling with a nervous sort of energy, as the scars reminded her of bad memories. The scars on her back started to feel almost itchy, and she raised her arm, reaching behind her back, trying to scratch away the memory. 

[Deleted]

He didn't think much of it in her response. "It is our way." he spoke softly. How much time had he spent here? He took a pod from her lap, and popped it into his mouth. While she saw it as a luxury; this was a food meant to create and conserve energy. It was a life source to Kinos. That's what the Tiriku knew it as.

How much longer could he spend here talking to this Sky Person? He thought to himself. This was interesting, but he still had things to do. Stuff to prepare. "Well . . then." He looked to his left and right, cleared his throat as he finished with his sweet and moved around to her front.

He offered out his hand for her to take, standing above her. If she had a problem with moving, and also had to pick up her weapon - something of which Kinos would never touch. It was their beliefs which kept them alive sometimes. Would she get up using him? If she did, when she would get up she should find that the distance between the two of them would be no more than a few inches from face to face: Right next to Kinos's face. To his eyes and the all knowing smile on his face. The confident: The unruly and audacious. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

The awkwardness had set in, and she heard him get up. Guess it was his time to leave. She glanced up to see him standing in front of her, holding his hand out to her. Should she let him? She probably should, if her leg had clicked... Well that never meant anything good. She grabbed her gun, slinging the strap over and shoulder and grabbed his hand. She bent her knees, to help with the momentum of standing up. But again the click in her leg came, but this time there also seemed to be a pop sound. A belt buckle had come undone. That she was certain of, as she felt in at her hip. She definitely couldn't stand up now. She wasn't sure what the other noise was, and she didn't particularly want to find out, but she had to. "Shit." She muttered under her breath as she let go of his hand. She knew if she wanted to buckle up her belt she would have to do it alone, in private. It was the strap that sat right against her hip, near the stump of her former leg. It was completely covered by her pants. It was very hard to get to while actually wearing said pants. 

She looked up at the man with a shrug. "I have to fix my leg, you can go. I'll be ok." She told him. "If you need to go that is." She didn't want him to see her leg, another flaw. She certainly didn't need him to see her fix it. Nobody had to see that. The only time people saw her leg was when it was off, which she did when she slept, or when she had to get a mechanic to look at it and fix it. Sometimes people got glances of it if her pant legs lifted up, and they could see part of the metal infrastructure. So she really didn't need a stranger seeing it. No matter how curious he was. 

[Deleted]

Maybe it was a simple flirtatious mood he was in that made him want to do that, but she took his hand and stood herself up that noise came again, and it made Kinos's face slightly winced at it. She sat herself back down again, looking defeated at the world. "Fix your leg..?" he repeated her words again, confused.

The solution was simple. "Perhaps you will let me carry you?" he spoke sincerely, both of his hands coming down to his hips as he spoke to her, looking down at her. For someone of her stature she would be an absolute cinch to pick up. It would be of no ordeal to slap the woman over his shoulders and carry her like a paperweight to her camp. It depended on her pride obviously. Regardless, the situation seemed that on either yes or no, the man would be ready to sling her, or piggyback her over his shoulders like a sack of plants.  

He could leave his stuff here in the meantime, it wasn't like anybody was looking for a fur coat. He could carry her back to her camp... and without even being hostile, perhaps learn more about them?

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

She awkwardly looked away from him, and at his question. How does she explain that she had to fix her leg? "Uh. I have a fake leg." She pointed stupidly at her leg. That was the only way she was going to describe it. She doubted that the grounders had any solution for having a busted leg, and then chopping it off. She doubted they even chopped off legs! Though obviously she had no idea. But she wasn't about to ask him that. 
He offered to carry her and she frowned lightly. Would she let him carry her to camp? What would the other arkers think about that? She would have to abandon her post as guard. She wasn't allowed to do that. She glanced down at her watch. She had an hour left. But what good would she be if her leg was busted. Again. For the hundredth time. The ark had done well to fix up a prosthetic leg. They hadn't had much experience with it. So it was a trial and error business. It took them almost 6 months before they got one fixed that didn't break all the time. This was still the same one. But ever since falling from the sky it has been anything but good. 

"I should probably stay here." She told him. What was she supposed to do?! She had no clue. It was a polite offer, but what did that entail? A grounder coming to camp. What would they think when they see her in the arms of a grounder. Would they attack him? She didn't want him to get hurt. That would just be cruel. 

[Deleted]

A fake leg? He was no healer, but this was something that made him extremely curious. If that sort of information could be negotiated and shown to his people? That sort of knowhow could... change things. When such things happened, they were essentially rendered the disabled of the communities: given the most basic of jobs, unless they were great warriors and could still fight well. But even then they were limited. Ones who had lost limbs were generally cast back, not exiled, but given other means for them to be useful while removing them from their current positions. If anything, they were almost useless.

Yet here they were, this woman performing her job. Well. Kind of performing it, as a guard she wasn't doing a very good job. If he had been distracting her so a group of grounders could take this way to her camp and slaughter her people- it would've fallen on her head. "Very well, Nic . . of the Sky People." 

Unless she kicked and screamed and made lots of noise, small complaints would be ignored, Kinos would lean forward, over her - looked at her and smiled, before taking both of his arms underneath her armpits and pulling her up to her feet, his right arm coming behind her closer to her back as he would turn his own body, and he would swivel himself around to be facing the same direction as her, placing her own arms over his neck- lifting her up and into the piggyback position. All very close for comfort and intimate. Grudgingly, that was.  
IF this was allowed to have happened, and she hadn't blown her shit at him, he would look back at her over his shoulder, smile and would utter a single phrase. "Where?" 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

He had ignored her small suggestion and she gave a small glare as he picked her up, maneuvering her until she was piggybacked. "Ugh. Are you serious!" She protested lightly. But she hadn't a clue as to how she was going to get back to camp anyhow. But she could have fixed the belt and be somewhat ok, until the next guard came, they could have helped. Now she didn't have a choice as to what was happening. Deep down she appreciated it, but at the same time she was annoyed that he had ignored her comment. She's had this problem before and she always found a solution. "I said I was fine!" She protested with a sigh. "Just leave me here."
Nic had a feeling that he wasn't going to leave her, so there almost no point in any protests. What could she do? She wasn't as strong as him, she definitely couldn't fight out of the grip he had on her. Great, she thought sarcastically. He asked her where and she just shrugged. "Camp. That way." She pointed in the direction of the camp, forward for now. Soon they would reach the fence and have to walk around it to the front gate. She was nervous about it though, what were the others going to think? A million different possibilities played out in her mind as the man walked. With every step her nerves picked up, growing until it had reached its peak, and her hands were sweaty, as she clung onto his neck. Her heart was beating inside her chest, which he most likely would feel against his back. She felt completely hopeless and useless. She didn't like being useless. She had always wanted to help her people in anyway possible. And when she got shot, well, her whole world had come crashing down. Not only did she lose a leg, she had thought she would lose her job too. For months she had to learn how to walk with her prosthetic. But the guard had been grateful for her efforts as a guardsman, so once she was able to walk again they offered for her to keep her position. For months that had been the only thing on her mind, apart from the pain.

It was odd to her, being on this grounder's back, being carried to her camp. Never in a million years had she thought that would ever happen. But then again she hadn't thought she would converse like this with a grounder either. A lot can happen in a day, surprises came her way all the time. That was life. Life was just a surprise waiting to happen. She couldn't help herself. Things could have ended differently. She could have shot and killed him. He could have killed her. She could have been ambushed, kidnapped. An infinite number of things could have happened. But this. This is what had happened. She was piggybacking on the back of a grounder! 

[Deleted]

The way back was a quiet one. He had no room to pick up his own equipment and so literally just kicked it to one side next to a tree and began to walk. The summer breeze was just entertaining, and his eyes just semi-wandered to see the world around him. It was a freeing thought. With both of his hands around her legs, he could feel the... difference. 'So this is what she means.' it went unannounced. 

And so they began walking. After some time in silence, Kinos began humming to himself, he could tell that she was feeling nervous.. of course he couldn't hear her heartbeat, it was the shallow breathlessness she gave off, the tightness in her legs and arms as he walked: the fact that she would rather cling like a second skin than allow him to take any fall. His humming slowly started coming out into the form of words, and before you knew it he was singing some folk tale in his own language.

"- noto jaieme... 

ja akre.. .. 

Yu gonplei ste odon."

He finished. 

He knew she wouldn't be able to understand, and yet he sang anyway. His voice was not that of a singing one, but nonetheless it seemed to work with his tonation: Darker, gruff, the way his throat seemed to coax out the syllables. 

By the time he had finished singing in his large loud voice and taking directions by the form of pointing from Nic, the two of them had come out to a fence. He didn't want to admit it, but by the time he had finished singing, and also carrying the Sky Woman on his back, he was quite out of breath. Not that he was going to admit it, but she was also heavy. It wasn't that he was strong enough, but hoisting onto something for a fair amount of time would eventually become heavy.

As he walked, he watched the area around him. He was sure he had been seen already, if not by someone with a gun. Now it was a matter of finding their entrance so he could let her down. Or get someone to take her from him. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Nicolette Carmichael]

While he was walking, and she had her head in the clouds, she could hear him singing something. It sounded like a folk song, in his own language. It sent a shiver down her spine. It was almost menacing, as it was the only sound she could hear in this forest. She continued to hold onto him, still images of all the situations that could occur flashing through her mind. Why did she have such an active imagination? She could spend days dreaming. Of course she mostly dreamed up situations when, 1. She was in an awkward position. 2. She was trying to sleep. 3. She had spare time and nothing to do. 4. She was bored. Of course she made sure not to dream when she was on the job, or at least try not to put all her effort into dreaming. She was just thinking about her death (weirdly) when she could see the fence. 

To her the fence meant safety, but also meant a boundary, that was her space and that was it. It was her small prison so to speak. She didn't hate it there, but she had thought coming to the ground they would have more freedom. Yet, they were still restricted. "Front gate is that way." She pointed to the right. It wouldn't take long before they got there. And right now, her nerves were screaming at her to jump off his back and run for it, no matter how painful it would be, or how horribly she would fail and fall flat on her face, probably injuring herself more. Which she didn't need. She was an idiot for basically trusting this guy. For listening to him, assuming the best in him. She always did that. These were grounders for heaven's sake. She scolded herself, she was a useless human being. Nobody liked her, and nobody cared. Maybe that's why she was a guard, because of those reasons. Nobody liked guards. But they were important so there was that. Then again everybody loved Bellamy, he was a guard, or at least used to be. Maybe she should just give up her position as a guard if her leg was going to keep screwing up. Yes.... No. She didn't want to. But maybe she had to? 

She shook her head from the thoughts and was brought back to reality as they finally made it to the gate.