Know Your Enemy

[cherry1]

Raven tried to keep up to pace. She’d volunteered to help with bringing the supplies from Mount Weather to the camp as part of a small group. Fully aware that she probably wouldn’t be any actual help with her leg, but grateful for the excuse to get out of that camp. They’d brought most of the big important stuff back so only a few of them were making the trek now. Raven desperately needed to keep herself busy and feel like she was helping. Anything to keep her mind occupied and off more upsetting things. Like her leg and the fact that it was getting worse. Like the nightmares Mount Weather forced her to suffer through almost every night. At least during the day time she could keep those monsters at bay.

“I’ll catch up,” she yelled to the others as they made their way ahead of her. As soon as they were out of site, Raven finally took a moment to rest on a boulder in the forest nearby. Making sure to keep an eye on the path that they’d been following, not straying too far. Setting her gun down beside her, she took a deep breath. Ignoring the dull pain in her back, and just savouring the moment outside in the forest, surrounded by the sounds and the smells, that she’d never get used to. And definitely never tire of. It was the snapping of a branch that forced Raven out of her moment of reprieve. Instantly picking up the gun she ducked behind the boulder as her eyes canvased the area. She kept her fingers on the trigger ready to fire should the situation call for it.

Tag: @king

[Deleted]

Emerging from the foilage was a shirtless, heavily sweating, was Kinos. Dirty, glistening in the sunlight and although the wind and Around his right arm was a heavily bandaged hand and forearm. His skin, olive tanned and feral. 

If anything, this was probably the most feral he could get. He had a large backpack on his shoulder... or rather, lack of. It was logs. Two straps holding them together as he wandered to his destination... only it was heavy stuff. 

He cocked his head at her, eyebrows furrowing. He continued his journey - taking her flank and not directly passing her, but doing a sort of curve around her, ignoring her. He wasn't about to get involved with more of them. 

She may have seen this man before: He had been around their camp a handful of times. But not often: The biggest crowd he had garnered was helping back their resident cripple, Nicolette. But otherwise, most of his interactions with the Arkers was limited. He only collected supplies and had things he needed to do during the days. 

His thoughts returned to the events of Mount Weather... and prior to that, the killing of the one called Finn. Something they had been denied. Personally, it did not affect Kinos as much... and he had expected Nyko to want to join in among the grieved... but he wouldn't have even had the chance to.

Kinos was grieving in his own sort of way. He stopped walking. His curiosity was beckoning him. He grit his teeth, closed his eyes and sighed. He turned to face her. "Are you lost, Skaikru?"

His English had improved somewhat sicne the Arkers had come to earth... from listening and to conversing with them. He had been quiet: Wise and thoughtful. He was learning. 

---

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

Her entire body stiffened when she saw him. It was a grounder and by the looks of him he might be well versed in combat which was further confirmed when he spoke English, instead of their own language. This guy could be a ruthless warrior for all she knew, and Raven didn’t want to take any chances. She might be crippled and a bit broken. But she could damn hold her own. The only reason she hadn't already taken a shot was because he hadn’t physically threatened her. Yet. And also thoughts of the fragile truce they apparently had, affected her actions. She didn’t want to be the reason it broke. Not after what…or rather who, they had to sacrifice to get them here. “So you speak English then,” she stated. Didn’t only their warriors speak it? It made her all the more wary of him.

“Don’t step any closer,” she warned, her gun still trained on him and her fingers on the trigger. “Or I swear to god I’ll shoot.” Her eyes glanced down at her brace for a second as she quickly tried to assess ways out, should the situation deteriorate. Running didn’t seem like an option. Taking a step back, she tried to stay calm. Her heavy breathing being the only thing to give away her tense nature. “And I’m not lost,” Raven finally said referencing his earlier question. She didn’t want him to think she was alone out here. “So, if anything happens to me, people know where I am.” She added, making sure he understood what the meaning behind her answer. Basically if Raven went missing, there would be hell to pay.

[Deleted]

He shrugged his shoulders in response. Did it matter if he could speak English or not? So there was nothing to be done here. Nothing to be learned, nothing to bother with. He took no step further. "Like Nicolette?" he mumbled to himself, tracking her eyes as she looked down at her own brace. Just how many crippled people did these Arkers have? 

"People know you are sitting on that rock?" He made a face at her. A face of non-believing. He wasn't even hiding his unenthusiastic fake smile at seeing her. "You aren't worth the trouble, child." the way he spoke it would inform her that he wasn't a proper speaker of the English language, from the over accentuation of some parts - whiny in others. He was still learning. Every day though, he got a little better. Even sometimes he found himself mumbling in English. 

He really didn't care. He turned to leave without hesitation.  As he turned, something gave a great 'snap' and one side of his strap broke, creating a collapse of the wood to one side and almost tripping Kinos.. if he hadn't had gripped onto a tree. He gave an infuriated grunt.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

“Child?” She asked disbelief in her voice...and a little insulted. The grounder was…mocking her? Since when did grounders even know how to mock. They were usually all stoic and ready to kill at any moment. She never entertained the thought that they even had a sense of humour. It was strange. Raven began lowering her gun when she heard a snap, so loud it cause birds to fly out of the trees around them. It startled her so much that if her hand hadn’t been off the trigger she might have accidentally shot a stray bullet. Finally noticing the logs of wood on the grounders back, she took a step back, gun in hand. At least they had been on his back, before falling to the ground. If it had been anyone else, Raven might have offered to help. But it was a grounder. And worse, it was a grounder she’d never even seen before. That, could still cause problems.

“What’s your rank?” Raven asked. “Are you even a warrior?” He looked fit enough to be one. But his general demeanour seemed to prove otherwise. There warriors were more of the kill first, ask questions later type. He could still be hostile. Though it was beginning to seem like that wasn’t the case. Given the fact he hadn’t tried to kill her yet. “What were you carrying the wood for?” She pointed her gun at the logs as she asked. The question was more out of curiosity than anything else. To make Raven feel like she was in control of the situation. If she played her cards right then nobody needed to get hurt, and they could both leave this place alive and well.

[Deleted]

Rank? He scoffed at her and actually grinned momentarily before receding back into his grounder persona. "Not Commander." he responded sarcastically. Speaking with truth, nobody necessarily had a hierarchy. The clan was a unit... some slightly more important than others: Warriors for protection, Healers for healing, farmers for eating. Everything was cohesive. Concurrent. Diverse yet unified.

He did not entertain her question. He did a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Nothing truly- good at quite a few things, but not excellent in one thing. He continued to try and fix his current situation. First was to fix the strap that had broken. Would just re-tying it with a new knot work? Probably not. He would need roots... or something. Something flexible and firm.

New tree branches? Kinos thought to himself. "Fire, food, building." he responded simply, before turning to her. "I question you," he crossed his arms. "Do they give... all............cripples - those?" his head nodded to her weapon.  He had to think about the word- thinking hard about his choice. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

Not commander. Huh. He was sarcastic this grounder. Witty even. It caught her off guard. But she went with it. Making sure to stay in control of the situation. But there didn’t seem to be any excessive hostility between them. As he continued, explaining why he needed the wood she noticed his speech pattern. It was good, but not fluent. Not like how she’d noticed their warriors speak. It was more like that healer. Nyko. Maybe he was a healer then? Or at least something other than a warrior. Perhaps he even knew Nyko.

She took a step back, ready to make an exit and hopefully catch up with the others before he spoke again. She looked at her gun as he motioned towards it. Referring to her as…crippled? The word stopped her dead in her tracks. “What did you just say?” She tried to keep her anger at the term from reaching her face, unsuccessfully. “Cripple?” And here she was thinking there she wouldn’t need to be hostile towards the grounder. Perhaps he didn’t mean anything by it, maybe he was just curious. But she didn’t care. She hated that word, reminding her of the state of her leg, and how it was only getting worse. It made her feel broken and incompetent. “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent shot.” She raised her gun again, pointing it straight at him. “Would you like me to demonstrate?” she asked rhetorically. She knew it was a reckless threat to make. But the nerve. It was infuriating.

[Deleted]

"Cripple." he repeated as if she did not understand him. Then he saw the gun trained on him. 

Those things made him antsy. The very grounded.. ahem. Grounder began to lean from one foot to the other. He was very well aware of what they could do: A lesson taught to him over time. He knew of the mountain men: But had never encountered "Guhns" until the Skaikru arrived. You could see Kinos waiting to belt it... but it was more of a laviscious anger and curiosity that kept him there, restrained by both the wood, his curiosity and feral instincts telling him to rip her throat out.

"You aren't worth the trouble." he repeated monotonously: but hinted in a more aggressive way. 

He was an interesting human. His arms folded and his jaw clenched. He did not speak. He was a little too clever in order to say something that would get him needlessly killed. He took a breath, turned and continued to work on the straps that would allow him to leave. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

Cripple. There it was, that word again. It was almost like he was saying it just to agitate her. Which it most definitely did. Her fingertips hovered over the trigger. She really wasn’t going to take a shot, but if he repeated himself again…she wasn’t sure what she’d do. He took a more aggressive stance, which was understandable since she had a gun aimed at his forehead. She could sense the situation was beginning to deteriorate and took a deep breath. Trying to calm her anger. She didn’t want any ‘accidents’ happening here.

He turned and carried on working on the straps for the wood he was carrying for whatever reason. It was a bold move, turning his back while she aimed a gun at him. It was almost admirable if it wasn’t stupid. She sighed pointing the gun down instead of at him. “How about we just go our separate ways.” Before one of them killed the other. “Nothing needs to…” she paused. Her concentration no longer on the grounder but on a distant snap of a branch. It was a heavy sound, meaning…there was something out there. “Did you hear that?” she asked instinctively. Ducking she held up her gun again, aiming it around their perimeter rather than at the grounder this time. Raven hadn’t had much experience with them but she’d heard about the dangerous animals roaming the woods. And quite frankly today was not the day she’d become prey for the panther, gorilla, bear, or whatever creature was out there.

[Deleted]

He would continue to work, the sooner he could leave would be the better. He had things to do. His senses, however, were far sharper than hers and by the time she could even ask he own question in reciprocation his guard was already up, knife in a reverse grip: his chosen weapon. Not much, but he was not a warrior... and had no such use for such a long, heavy weapon. 

It was silent: All until something took Kinos from the side, tackling him, his knife flying from his hand and his arms collapsed around whatever it was that had took him. It was a wolf: and in that moment there was a certain amount of clarity and a bloodcurdling scream.

On one hand, you could see the fangs of the wolf buried into Kinos's shoulder: But the scream was not from pain. The scream was Kinos's way of releasing anger, pain and all hell upon the beast, left hand instinctively gouging at the eye of the beast: it would instinctively draw it's head back to where Kinos would headbutt the creature on the snout. He was in pain: But so was the wolf. In that moment, one wolf appeared from the same side the bigger had came from, and another from the opposite side that Kinos had entered from. 

They were, however, going for Kinos as well. Something he could not prevent an attack from. It was up to her: Kinos was busy going berserk, flailing his arms while blood spattered over the ground freely: It was a very... very open wound. Kinos's screams continued as he fought the beast on top of him with an incontestable rage.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

Before she could even fully get her guard up, all hell broke loose. She instinctively stayed low on the ground, unable to make a sound out of shock at the scene that laid out before her. It was a wolf and then another and then another, and they all went for the grounder. She’d never seen one in real life before, let alone three of them up close. Only recognising the beasts from the books they used to have on the ark. His screams were eventually what brought her out of her shocked state. Raven supposed she could leave, run in the opposite direction leaving the grounder at the mercy of the wolves. It wasn’t like she owed him anything, or even really liked him. But the thought left her mind as soon as it entered. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t just leave him to die. Finally standing up she pointed the gun in her hand at the beasts. This was no time to be paralysed in fear otherwise they would both die. But first, she had to save the grounder. Who’d have thought she’d be doing that today.

Raven pulled the trigger aiming the gun at the head of the wolf closest to the grounder with its jaw attempting to gnaw at his shoulder, instantly killing it. Turning the gun to the other one attacking him, she wounded it in the leg forcing it to limp away, while the last wolf ran in front of it, quickly fleeing the bullet Raven had ready for it. There was a moment of silence in the woods as she gladly took in a deep breath to steady her heart rate. It was still beating a mile a minute after witnessing what could have been her certain death. Finally reacting to the grounder, Raven ran towards him, kneeling down on the ground. Not so much thinking about him as a grounder but as a wounded human being.

“You’re shoulder got the worst of it,” she immediately said when she reached him, taking a quick examination of his torso. “Here,” ripping a piece of fabric from the bottom of here shirt she pressed it to the open wound, trying to slow down the bleeding. But how much help could she really be? This type of thing wasn’t exactly in her job description as a mechanic. “We have to get out of here, there’s no way those wolves just came out of nowhere. There’s something…someone out there.” It was too close to camp for the animals to attack so freely and ruthlessly. The grounder probably knew more about that than she did. What if it was other grounders who organised the attack? Or perhaps even…Reapers? They still hadn’t caught them all. Maybe she was just paranoid but it was better to be safe than sorry. “Can you walk? We have doctors in camp that can help with this.” A hell of a lot better than she ever could.

[Deleted]

It took a few shots and for some moments Kinos was wondering why it hadn't gone black and the Grounder hadn't shot him. The beast fell on top of him, on his shoulder causing another immediate round of groaning. The main fight was over. Now it was the absolute nausea that came from the blood-loss aside from the pain. With a deep breath and some effort, he pushed the beast off him and slid out. 

The woman had used her weapon: It was bound to cause some commotion in the case of other grounders and the Arkers. It wouldn't be long before both parties would start arriving... guns blazing. That however was not on Kinos's mind, it was a sharp yell and pull back as the woman placed a fabric on his shoulder. 

He was able to lay back, twist his body and free his legs, turning over onto his front and the opposite arm where he could pull himself up off the floor: He tried.

Pulling himself from the floor with his free hand, he didn't get very high, going onto his knees before falling down. "Guhhhh" there was a guttural growl that emanated from Kinos, far different to what Raven might've heard before... and looked entirely grounder-esque. He was shirtless: no shirt, and the skin around the shoulder looked almost gored: the skin pulled apart in different places as the wolf had been shaking it's head and Kinos had been summoning rage to fight against it.

The blood was free flowing. "I.... I am-" he hurked as he pulled himself up - leaning ever more into the tree. This was not a good situation if there were more things out there. 

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[cherry1]

The grounder was not looking good and at this rate he would only get worse. God why did she always get herself into these situations. There was no way he’d make it back to camp, and if she left him then he’d either get infected and die, or just die from the massive loss of blood. Raven had killed enough grounders for a life time, she didn’t need more blood on her hands. “Here, you can lean on me,” she said sighing, lightly pulling him towards her. He wasn’t exactly in any state to resist or protest. “There’s a river over there I think, past those trees,” she said pointing ahead of them. Raven wasn’t completely sure, this wasn’t exactly her territory after all, but it was their best shot. “We have to clean your wounds if you want to survive.”

Then hopefully she’d be able to get him some real help. Slowly she tied the fabric around the worst wound on his shoulder where one of the wolves had tried to take a bite out of him...when she heard footsteps. It was accompanied by the faint sound of…chanting? If she didn’t know any better, she’d say it sounded like they were hunting. But there were no animals around as far as she could tell. So what, or perhaps who exactly was the prey? It was far enough away that Raven couldn’t see anyone but that wouldn’t be the case for long. “Come on, quickly we have to hide.” She whispered hurriedly, pulling the grounder with her into a small ditch behind the tree he was leaning on. It was covered above by a rock and moss, which she hoped would be enough to shield them from view. It had to work if she wanted to survive. If they were grounders approaching, then Raven was as good as dead. She needed to keep her new grounder buddy close just in case she needed to use his life as leverage for her own. If it was reapers...then she just prayed they stayed hidden long enough to have a real shot at escape.