I'm holding out for a hero [Auri] [D]

[Katrien Lowenthal]

Pale blue eyes darted around to either side of her as she went, her hands gripping the handles of two milk jugs that were empty. She had already made a handful of trips to and from the Oasis today - but now the sun was high overhead, and the beams of heat made beads of sweat trail down the sides of her face as she went. She couldn't wait until she was able to start training for something besides a lowly Tenderfoot - she hated doing these jobs that required her to do manual labor for most of the day until her limbs ached and her head pounded.

A sigh passed her lips as she watched the Oasis come into view, its palms swaying the heated desert a nice change from the chill she had felt when she had wandered off along close to the northern border. She had seen it snowing over there but, the only evidence it was winter at all over here was the nights that were frigid and enough to keep her in her traincar and covered by blankets all of the night. She didn't quite like the fact that the heat didn't carry on through the time she slept - but it was only bad if she was woken in the night - which wasn't too often.

She sighed as she let the jugs drop from her hands as she got to the waters edge, muttering and holding back a loud whine as one of them tumbled away. She pulled her fingers through her stray locks of hair that framed her face, tugging on the strands in frustration before turning to fetch said plastic runaway. She let her eyes dart around her, her fingertips brushing over the large-leafed plants that sat on the ground, not thinking much of where her feet were going she felt her sandaled feet slip between two rocks snuggly; only reacting a bit too late.

She fell forward suddenly, a small yelp coming from her lips as she brought her arms up to protect her face and attempt to catch herself. She landing roughly, scraping her elbows as she cried out. Asides from the fact she had been distracted, she hadn't heard - but felt - the pop in her right ankle as she whimpered and twisted around to eye her foot that was still caught in place. She sighed shakily, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she bit her lip, tenderly trying to move her ankle from it's place; though quickly deciding not too.

Awkwardly she shifted, propping her hands on the ground and shuffling with them and her other good foot, backwards until her ass was in the air and she had a better footing to put most of her weight on her left side. Slowly she moved her hands to grab one of the rocks, and since her fall had already displaced the rock some, with a bit of effort she rocked it to the side to free her foot. She slowly picked her foot up, glancing around to see the jug peeking out from under a bush nearby. Suddenly all her anger seethed from her, her eyes narrowing into slits as she glared at the water container she was supposed to fill.

The side of her mouth twitched in annoyance as she hopped awkwardly to stoop and grab the jug before making her way slowly to the waters edge. Ungracefully flopping on her rump she pulled her shoe loose from her foot, grimacing in pain as she looked to the joint, which was red and starting to swell. "It's just my luck," she said in an annoyed tone as she pulled her other shoe off and dipped her feet into the water, the cool liquid only feeling good for a moment on her injured side. "Don't think that they can get me to hobble all the way back there. They better send somebody soon though," she said as she leaned back and rested on her elbows, looking up to the sky before slowly lowering down to the warm rock.

Closing her eyes she felt herself dozing, trying to focus her thoughts on something other than her throbbing ankle. Pouting lightly she slung her arm over her eyes and waited.

[Aurelio Quezada]

There was a potential bright side to this.

This Katrien girl had disappeared on a simple water run to the Oasis. A trip that she’d have to be pretty thick to get lost during. She was a tenderfoot and she’s been here a while, which meant those with seniority would have made sure she knew the route thoroughly, mostly through plenty of practice. Aurelio couldn’t be the only person they did that to.

So it wasn’t a stretch to say she was being prevented from coming back. Put in a sentence, it sounded too good to be true. But the fact remained that, quite possibly, Aurelio was being sent to save some girl from something less than friendly. Something that would have to be fought off somehow, somehow being he had not a clue what. Easy enough to brush aside; he hadn’t seen the opponent yet, so he couldn’t exactly form a plan yet, now could he?

It didn’t seem like them, so he assumed his superiors just thought he would come back for reinforcements if he found her surrounded by rogues or viruses or whatever. Neither a scrawny, unarmed boy nor a small cat made much of a threat, and then there was the little detail that they couldn’t fight simultaneously. Aurelio’s mind, however, was more focused on how he’d escaped from the hold of angry, violent adults before, or the sharp claws and teeth of his cat form, or how difficult said cat could be to catch or hold onto.

It was sneaky to boot, which was why he was a cat as he slipped into the underbrush that grew around the water. Perhaps he should feel guilty, but the fact that he didn’t see or hear anything was rather disappointing. Unless she’d already been dragged off, and he’d have to track them.

They’d made sure he knew, it was a blonde girl around his age he was supposed to be looking for. As his gaze settled on an individual who fit that description, he froze. She was sprawled by the water, completely still. The possibility of a trap never crossed his mind as he slipped into the open and hurried towards her. Sure, there was no smell of blood…and also her feet were dipped in the water in decidedly relaxed way….and she wasn’t cowering enough for that arm to be over her face out of terror…more of a sun-blocking technique…her water containers weren't stolen...

¿En serio?

It was nearly a silent trip to stand behind her head and shift, for the added effect of standing over her disapprovingly. “Okay, lady, are you seriously this tired just from chores?”

[Katrien Lowenthal]

She didn't know how long she had been laying there, though it felt like forever, but she wasn't too worried about anything like rogues or whatnot in the heart of the Fallen like she probably should have. She sighed, shifting in her spot and causing the water around her calves to slosh about gently before settling once more. She supposed she could try to shift and make it back to camp in her smaller form, but there wasn't many trees to jump back and forth from - she had also heard that shifting while injured hurt immensely.

Not really paying attention to her surroundings, she only noticed that she suddenly didn't have the warm sun kissing her skin and the light shuffle of someone standing over her. She moved her arm from its spot directly over her eyes, pushing back her hair a bit as her forearm now lay on her head. She let her eyes focus on his face, younger like she was it seemed; so they sent out another Tenderfoot to find her? Though slightly irritated they hadn't been more worried - she recalled the thoughts she just had earlier about still being pretty much in the heart of the Fallen territory.

Her brows knit together as her lips pulled to the side in a way that told of her combination of annoyance of him both blocking her sun and interrupting her nap. It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see the Fallen cared for her whereabouts, but her inclination to tell her rescuer off the bat that she was hurt went out the window with his irritated tone. Oh, so he just assumed things, did he?

"Hardly as tired as you seem to be coming to get me," she quipped back in an annoyed way, her position of still being on the ground made his upside down appearance slightly off to her. Plus it was straining to tilt her eyes back that far. She then decided to fix this problem as she moved to push herself up into a sitting position, turning so her non-injured leg folded up on the rock they were currently on. She tilted her head back to look back up at him, taking in his tanned skin, darker hair and general lanky-ness. Her lips pulled to the opposite side in thought, thinking the other might be cute if he didn't seem so displeased with the task of coming to get her. Who wouldn't want to rescue a "damsel in distress"? Though at that thought she mentally kicked herself - who was she to need rescuing? Not like anyone cared enough, right?

"Besides," she started as she reached to grab the first water jug that sat next to her and unscrew the lid to dip in the water, "who wouldn't want to take a break after going back and forth all morning to get water? I suppose I just lost track of time," she said as she looked to him out of the corner of her eye. Maybe she would try to go back without being noticed that she had an injury and sneak into the medical wing. Though then there was the problem of the tanned boy, maybe she could piss him off enough to leave her alone? He looked pretty stubborn. Though hell, she was quite a bit bull-headed herself.

[Aurelio Quezada]

Honestly, Aurelio had been expecting the kind of reactions that were easy to deal with. Shamed silence, attempted explanations, that sort of thing. Oh, maybe Katrien would stick up for herself, but in the end it wouldn’t work, and she’d return to the Express quietly enough. Not because she was a girl, but because it was pretty obvious she was in the wrong.

The moment she uncovered her face, Auri knew this wasn’t going to be the case.

The Fallen girl was annoyed, as expected, but there was no half-hidden guilt to her, in voice or expression. She was annoyed because he was criticizing her, and ruining her relaxation, but that was the only reason why. Apparently Katrien saw her actions as completely justified, as dismissive as she was.

He decided she must be one of those people who had lived in ‘normal,’ safe places, with adults who only took care of them and were never a threat. She didn’t understand it was important to make sure someone knew where you were and how long you were going to be there. She didn’t understand that not showing up on time could mean the worst. “Yes, and losing track of time made everybody worried about you. They didn’t know you were missing just because you decided on a nap. For all they knew you’d run into somebody raiding our water and gotten hurt, okay?”

It occurred to him that he may have to walk with her the entire way back. He couldn’t just hurry back and tell them he’d told her to come around. She might flop down again as soon as he was out of sight. Even if he didn't get reprimanded in that situation, it would reflect badly on his ability to follow simple instructions.

After a moment, he decided that yes, that would be worse than having to deal with this girl's prescence.

He waited silently while she got her water, though not calmly. With arms crossed and back turned to the girl, Aurelio kept his gaze darting around the underbrush. It was less from paranoia than it was something to keep himself occupied, which was why he turned around the moment the distinct sounds of a jug being filled ended the second time. “Come on then, I better make sure you don’t ‘lose track of time’ again.” The scrawny boy took a few steps, then turned to make sure she was coming.Maybe she would be angry enough that she would refuse to talk to him. That would be fantastic.

[Katrien Lowenthal]

She watched him, a half-hearted attempt at rapt-attention was last as he seemed just as annoyed coming to get her as she was that someone was here. Granted, she should be grateful considering she could've been stuck out here most of the day. It was the inner battle of admitting she was hurt and asking for the help and seeming like a girl who couldn't take care of herself ... vs trying to get him to go off ahead of her and take at least double the time getting back to base.

She sighed a bit heavy then as he finished his explanation of why, she in fact, was worried about. She laughed coldly in her head, why would anyone care about her? The only reason she was in this Ring was probably because she was a kid .. no .. it was because Bhavya was an anthro that belonged to this Ring; how she missed the old man.

She was hoping her lethargic ways of filling up the jugs would get him irritated enough (as it seemed he was already impatient about the whole thing) to send him walking ahead. But no, she wasn't that lucky since he spoke up again, encouraging her to get going before he would start to move himself. Moving to grab her shoes, she shoved them into one another and shoved them in the sash that was tied around her waist, knowing she probably wouldn't be able to fit one of them on her injured ankle.

She shifted, spinning around to be on her knees before she grabbed either jug and moved them to her right hand, her right ankle being the side hurt she hoped the weight would help balance her out so she was less likely to fall. She breathed slowly before she pushed herself up, putting most of her weight on her left side; it looked like she was just leaning to counter-act the jugs both being in her right hand. She tried not to pause to long before she attempted to start forward, attempted to limp quickly off of her right foot she lost her balance and as she stumbled, she grabbed the boys arm.

She then suddenly felt him shove her off of him, or maybe just push (she liked to exaggerate) , and she dropped to her left knee quickly, jarring her body but preventing herself from falling over. Her ankle throbbed from the quick decent to the ground, no more than a hiss escaping her clenched teeth as she closed her eyes. "Sorry" she muttered as she went to go push herself back up again, tears pricking at her eyes though they didn't fall; she wouldn't let them. She would be stronger than a spoiled brat who grew up in a rich household. No, she didn't want to ever be associated with those people that were supposed to be her parents ever again. "Must've lost my balance with the sand," she said, though the excuse was haphazard as she moved to push herself up again, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to try and walk normally, even though her ankle was screaming no; her limp only slight. "Lets just get going before they worry more," she said as she looked ahead, away from the other, and towards the tracks in the far distance (even though you couldn't actually see them yet.

OOC | I hope the slight PP was okay - xD You weren't on to ask but we sorta talked about it before. So tell me if I need to change anything!

[Aurelio Quezada]

The politest thing, most likely, would have been to offer to carry a jug for the girl, if not both. Too bad Aurelio wasn’t much for etiquette, especially towards people who ticked him off. She’d already been slacking, so it was time to make up for it. Yeah.

Besides, you never could tell when those sorts of offers would set a girl off. There was the type that never considered the possibility that the guy was just extending the same courtesies he extended to everyone. No, the only possible reason this fellow could be offering help was because she was a girl, and she was weak and helpless and shouldn’t do anything for herself at all lest she hurt herself and damage her physical appearance which was all she was good for and this girl was going to reiterate the above points for you in as many ways possible and not stop for several minutes. That was perhaps the last thing Aurelio wanted to fill the trip back to the Express with.

Maybe it was most annoying because he knew he didn’t think that way. Adelma had sort of made it impossible for him to do so, and she hadn’t even said a word about it. It was a much better way to prove your point.

He had plenty of time to growl about this in his head, as long as she took to fetch her water. It had him bouncing on his heels before the end, wondering why on earth this girl couldn’t do anything efficiently. Still he waited until she was standing before turning and booking it for home. He wasn’t expecting her to care much about if he abandoned her. But maybe she did, because he suddenly felt her hand around his arm.

The limb wrenched out of Katrien’s grip. It had been involuntary, but once he actually thought about it, Aurelio wasn’t any happier about the contact. Katalea was the only one who could really get away with touching him, because there was no force on earth that could stop that macaw lady from hugging people. Anyone else would had him squirming out of reach in a torrent of angry Spanish. Katrien only got a short dose of his more colorful Nicaraguan, cut off once he realized she’d fallen. For a moment he was planning an apology to be delivered as he helped her back up. The next, he’d decided that she must be terribly clumsy to have lost her balance over that, and she could practice by getting herself up. At least she hadn’t spilled the water.

A grunt was all Katrien got in answer. The lanky boy became the small, leafed cat, which trotted off with only an occasional glance to make sure she was following.

[Katrien Lowenthal]

She was only momentarily embarrassed, and then even a little ticked off that he hadn't even apologized for the sudden movement that caused her to fall. Granted, she had been the one to initiate contact but still, wouldn't it be bad manners to not apologize? She even apologized for semi-falling into him and he didn't even give a response to that!

She breathed heavily through her nose and shifted one of the jugs into her left hand, her shoulder aching slightly as she relieved some of the weight. she continued forward, trying to keep her pace normal as she followed the now cat-form boy as he trotted off. She wished she could shift right now, the added benefit of two more legs to balance on would be nice, even if she was a hell of a lot smaller.

They were about three-fourths of the way back, the camp easily in sight as they went; though she finally found herself lagging. Her breath was heavier from the effort she had going from keeping up the slightly rushed pace, beginning to finally slow down as she dragged her feet in the sand. Looking down to her ankle, it had swollen up and was nice and red. She groaned under her breath, her body telling her to just stop and have someone carry her the rest of the way, her brain was not having it, she was being stubborn as hell.

She saw the heat waves in the air, her head having began to pound a few minutes back as she went. She was almost there, it was fine, as long as she didn't try to run or something.

She ended up putting too much pressure on her bad ankle, as she had been in mid thought, and pitched forward with a small cry. Her hand going down to grab at the swollen joint, whimpering as she moved to push herself up. She had to get up before that other noticed she was hurt ... and with that she reached out for one of the jugs that had landed a little forward and off to her right.

[Aurelio Quezada]

There were tiny lizard tracks intersecting his path. Not that it was any great disappointment, not being able to follow them; lizard hunting was becoming less and less satisfactory. Once it was a good way to hone reflexes; now it was just a light snack that was more trouble than it was worth. Aurelio was watching for rabbits or birds or whatever else lived in deserts and was big enough to actually be worth something when he came home.

It was just a vastly different hunting ground than what he’d grown up with. In the forests he knew how to use the cover of underbrush and move quietly. He knew what smell was what and which were most likely to pay off. At least his coat blended in here….to some degree. It still didn’t help much with the more open world of the desert. Hiding behind rocks was just so different. Wandering off to the better hunting grounds too so much time, and everyone was on him not to do that anymore. It was hard enough just to convince people he was only going out onto the desert. The whole thing was very frustrating, much like the thunk of heavy objects hitting sand just a moment ago wait a second….

Sure enough, that Katrien girl was on the ground. Aurie didn’t need a human face to express his incredulity. “Again?! What are you even tripping on? It’s sand!” Cat became human as he strode over to her and snatched the jugs away. “You know what? Just….just let me carry them.” In a torrent of mumbling he turned his back to her and marched off. Only a few steps and he knew he needed to ask her. A few more steps, and it was harder to ignore. A few more, and he couldn’t quite rationalize ignoring it. Still, the aggravation with himself was apparent as he swung back around. “Is there something wrong with you?...I mean are you okay?”

[Katrien Lowenthal]

She was starting to push herself up when she heard him announcing her mess-up aloud, a once-again human boy striding over to her as he unceremoniously tugged them out of her hands; herself still sitting on the ground. She held her tongue, hell she was practically biting it from not yelling at him about how she was in pain. But no, she was a lady, and she was different from that spoiled princess everyone made her out to be. At least, at least she tried anyway. Her large elephant man that had been her caretaker had even gave her a chance, gave her small things to prove herself. She just wanted to get out of this sun where she was less cranky and likely to hurt herself even more.

She bit back tears and moved to her knees, shakily pushing herself up to a half-cocked standing position she had began to dust herself off of the desert sand. 'Is there something wrong with you?...I mean are you okay?' She paused glancing up to him with narrowed blues, ocean hues turning to ice as she grit her teeth.

"NO. I'm NOT okay. I had to walk back and forth nearly eight times today, and of course on my last trip for water I twist my ankle. And then, to top it all off, they send an insensitive JERK to come get me!" She had made her way up to him, limping only slightly, trying not to show how much it hurt in her stance, though the hurt laced through her words. "I tried to be nice and ignore your blatant distaste for coming to get me, but clearly your just not going to let it go. I'm sorry I couldn't be more of assistance and not hurt myself. I'm sorry that you had to waste time out of your day. and I'm SORRY that you ever had to meet me!" she said, having taken her finger and poking him in the chest with every emphasized word, her words being to jumble a bit at the end as she sniffed back tears.

She stood there for only a moment afterwards, having turned her head away before she turned and began limping towards camp. "Boys are such jerks..," she muttered under her breath.

[Aurelio Quezada]

She’d been pretty meek this whole time, despite his obvious attitude. She’d been so fragile of body and spirit, Aurelio had expected she would stay that way. So it was all the more surprising when she exploded, not because he kept piling on her, but because he’d finally made an attempt to be civil. Showing concern should have been the last thing to earn him about a hundred pounds of murderous fury, bearing down on him at a stumbling charge.

At first he could only stand there, mouth slightly agape, his brain grappling with this sudden capability for rage. Or maybe the shock was because of how she was twisting it around, as if everything were his fault. Or maybe it she was that wasn’t doing much twisting at all, and suddenly he was confronted with all the things he’d thought he wouldn’t have to answer for. Aurelio didn’t know what was going on. Worse, his first moment of clarity was after she jabbed in the chest, which made him kind of want to twist her arm clean off.

But he reined it in. By the time his thoughts were clear and nonviolent – mostly nonviolent – she was hobbling away. Time to stop gaping like a dead fish. No way was she getting the last word in this. “And girls….” No, it all but physically pained him to say something like that. It was disrespectful of the dead. “No…you are ridiculous. I can’t even give you the excuse of your gender.” She didn’t have to know that wasn’t an original comeback of his own making.

It took hardly any effort to catch up to her. “I didn’t exactly know you’d hurt yourself! If it was so bad then maybe you should have brought it up! People can’t read minds, you know. So don’t get all whiny when they can’t magically sense your problems.”

He wanted to leave. She made him want to shout more, but there were only so many ways to put the words. There was no hope now for civil interaction; in all likelihood, she’d try to argue her side again. She’d try to invoke pity again, get all wet in the eyes over her woes. It was disgusting and he’d rather just leave her to sulk her way through the desert. That is, if that didn’t run the risk of something else happening to her, and the blame falling on him. Abandoning an injured ringmate was not an option, even if the classification ‘injury’ was questionable. Maybe he could chalk it up to the fact that she was a little incompetent. At any rate, if he wanted to prove he was responsible, he was stuck.

[Katrien Lowenthal]

She expected him to come back with something, though in the back of her mind she kind of hoped for stunned silence over the fact that someone else had to get the last word in. She had actually made it pretty far considering, before she first heard him begin to speak. Her jaw set and she gripped her arms a bit tighter as her spoke, pausing before using a gender card.

Her lips pulled into a smile, not one of happiness but one of annoyed anger, as she let her eyes close while she continued her slow gait. As he caught up with her she continued forward, her eyes slitting open against the white sand to at least watch her feet, her jaw clenching even more as she tried to form the words to properly throw at him. Hell if she was in better physical condition she might've even tackled him herself and beat him. Granted this only brought the image of her using her fists to beat against his chest like a child or open palm his face so hard she hurt her own hand; either would result in her slowly resorting to childish antics like pinching and shoving. Hey, she was never actually taught how to fight.

She turned her head only slightly to look at him, her eyes hard as twin ice blades as her teeth bit hard down on her lower lip. She sighed then, irritated beyond belief with him as she felt like if she were in her shift form, her fur would be standing on end. "I would have brought it up if I would've had the chance between you being absolutely ridiculously rude! I practically fall over or do, in fact, fall and.. granted it's not like I planned too, and you're annoyed by me. I hate being a burden on anyone so ...," she paused, stopping her last confession as she turned her head away as she huffed, trying to hide her embarrassment of possibly letting something more close to knowing her slip through.

"Forget it, it's over with and we're halfway back anyway," she said shortly as she began to chew on her lower lip. What was with this boy? Boy .. right .. she didn't even know her "rescuers" name. Hardly the time to ask for it now, either. In the back of her mind a calm voice spoke, one of the elephant mans teachings slipping through to her as she did her best to not show how bad the pain was, lancing up through her leg. 'Be respectful and grateful of any and all help that others offer to you .. we are in a place where groups mean survival and any and all help could be few and far between not belonging to any.' Multiple times she had scoffed at him, Bhavya, but he has slowly and patiently molded her into a quite less-annoyed and spoiled princess. She had always complained, but eventually succumbed to doing them.

She had always blamed herself for his disappearance and since then, had been more opted to do as she was told, for the most part, and sometimes even offered to take certain chores on. Maybe .. he would come back if she was good? Maybe this was a lesson? So what would he have her do in this situation ... she silently groaned at the thought of being nice. Especially since they were off to such a wonderful start.

[Aurelio Quezada]

There was never any chance he would have made anything of her voice faltering. At that moment, though, he barely heard anything she said. He didn't want to, because she was right. She was right, and he was running out of ways to deny it. He’d jumped to conclusions when he found her lying on the bank, and therefore was harsh to her in a moment of injury. He was supposed to protect and help ringmates when they were weak - which he had done, just with extreme unpleasantness. He'd shamed her and made it hard to willingly admit she needed help.

The Nicaraguan was silent, though not to yield to her suggestion. It burnt him up not to challenge her, but so did making himself sound worse by talking without thinking. He just needed to get on a better track, instead of funneling his frustration with himself at her.

‘I just hate being a burden.’ His first reaction was to scoff. That was the whole point of rings: join up with others cause you aren’t perfect and people survive by helping each other and a life alone would be crap anyway. But no, this chica was going to refuse help and need no one and even he couldn’t pretend that didn’t sound familiar. So no one-upping her on that.

True, she probably had to fall back on others more than he did – at least by Aurie’s figuring, the same figuring that so often failed to properly estimate his own abilities. He knew at least that he wasn’t infallible, and in the moments that he noticed, he was loath to let anyone else notice as well. Not with these people; they hadn’t earned it.

Sometimes it was the similarities that made it hardest. They were bossy like Viviana. They laughed loudly, like Chava. They made stupid jokes, like Natica. They made spectacular mistakes because they couldn’t just stop and think for one moment, like Chiceron. And he couldn’t let that soften his temper, especially not when the excuses were linked to memories of the outside. It was further inhibiting to the impossible process of rebuilding. Blood, genes, shared memories, whatever it was, there was nothing to cover the thousand little annoyances of the ring members. It was all magnified, only to morph into frustration at his inability to connect.

It all looped round into the same thought, one that had grown harder and harder to tuck away as days in the Fallen sailed by. He was digging himself further in a hole with almost everyone he’d met; if he tried being civil and open now, everyone would just laugh about how uncharacteristic it was. Which meant he needed to stop building that reputation upon meeting new people. In this case, little blonde chica.

Not that there wasn’t any damage yet, but it was salvageable. He thought for a few moments, nose scrunched in displeasure. “Hey. Is your shift big? I sh…maybe it would be better if I could just carry you.” The intent was a kind tone; the result was more like resignation, at best.

[Katrien Lowenthal]

The silence made her mind a whirlwind of thoughts and she practically fond her irritation rising again; mostly with herself with being so ... weak? She scrunched her nose as she shifted, pain shooting up her leg as she let a hiss of pain release from between her teeth, pulling her right leg up to bend at the knee and lift her foot off the ground.

Going around in circles in her head wouldn't help her, that was for sure; but the young blonde was frustrated, hurt in more ways than one, and just wanted to go home to lay on her cot. She closed her eyes and bit the side of her lip hard before her brain told her he had finally spoken, and actually kind of sounded genuinely nice.

She opened one eye, her face a slightly pained expression from maybe the pain in her leg or squinting at the harsh sun (or maybe just both), to look at him. Was her shift big? Was a friggin thimble big? She had opened her mouth to speak but found herself just closing her mouth as she shook her head, "Nn-nn," she murmured as she looked down to the sand.

"If you would-," she paused as he nodded and she gave a soft smile before it slipped away again. She just sighed then as she shifted; and sitting in her place, no more than a hands width, was a small sugar glider. Her tail curled around herself as she lifted her back right leg slightly to relieve pressure on it, her eyes closing against the sand as she felt his hands cup around her and lift her up. She sighed as her ears folded back against her skull, maybe he wasn't so bad.


ooc; sorry it's so short! <.<; also, hope the slight pp is alright <3 if not just lemme know! ^^

[Aurelio Quezada]

He turned to find her tight-faced and keeping the weight off one foot. It made him feel worse about being so rude, which in turn made him terse as he nodded to reassure her.

He kneeled down, setting the jugs on the ground absently. Whatever she was, it was small. Very small. He’d crunched larger things between his teeth, dazed them with a swat of his paw. And she was hurt already. Gingerly he held his hand out for her to crawl onto and then stood, free hand cupped lightly over her to prevent a fall. All the while, it kept occurring to him how light she was, or how thin those little bones would be.

It was possible to carry two jugs in one hand, but it was still a ways back to the train, and he didn’t want to risk dropping water because his arm had gone dead. Even if she could have fit comfortably, there was no way he was sticking a girl in his pants pocket. Shoulders would probably be too narrow and uncomfortable. Eventually, he lifted her and gently prompted her to sit on top of his head. A few moments later, he felt the tiny body curl up and settle in. In that moment he decided against jogging home, and instead walked slowly, keeping his back straight and his eyes forward. She said nothing, and he gladly did the same.

-----

As they neared the Fallen camp, Aurelio stopped to carefully remove his comrade from his scalp and carry her in his hand. Holding two jugs in the other hand did indeed prove to be awkward, but not nearly as much as it would have been to arrive wearing a tiny, cutesy animal as a hat.

END THREAD~~