Private Iris and Kai's Excellent Adventure

[Arlo Renard]

Kai awoke lying face-first in the dirt. The smell of smoke and burning engine fuel filled his nostrils. He slowly peeled himself up off the ground and looked around.

Behind him was the smoldering wreck of an escape pod. Kai and Iris had been aboard a transport, hitching a ride home, when there was a problem with the engines. He remembered ushering them into an escape pod and launching blindly into space, only to be picked up by a planet’s gravity. He and Iris had braced for impact, creating a shield around themselves with the Force, and then…

Well, they were lucky the planet had a breathable atmosphere.

<Iris?>

His worried telepathic call was aimed at his companion, whose body he didn’t see among the wreck. He sincerely hoped she wasn’t injured. Kai was sore from the impact, but he thankfully didn’t seem to have any broken bones. They needed to figure out where they were, or at the very least set up a distress signal so help could find them.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

<Iris?>

The voice woke her up. And immediately she wished it hadn't. Pain surged through her as she rolled to her back. Her arm, specifically. She didn't need to see it to realize it was broken. Looking at it just showed how worse off she actually was. The white of bone jutting out was a sight she didn't want to see at all.

"Oww.." It was the only response she could give as she clambered out of the wreckage. Smoke, fire. What happened?

"Kai..?"

 

[Arlo Renard]

<Iris!>

Kai rushed to her side, staggering a bit. He sensed her pain before he saw what was wrong: a broken arm, the fractured bone poking out through her skin.

<Hang on, I’ll go see if there’s a medkit in there.> Off he went, rushing into the wrecked pod. He covered his mouth with his arm in an effort to keep the smoke from his lungs, but it made his eyes water so much he could barely see. No medkit.

He returned to Iris, coughing and wiping his eyes. <No medkit, and I can’t make bacta anymore. Do you think you can heal it, or do you want me to try?> Kai’s experience with Force healing was quite limited—which is to say he couldn’t recall ever having tried it. But there’s a first time for everything.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"Ka- Hey..! Don't just.. Fire..?" She could only watch as Kai ran into the flames. He ran. Into a fire. By the time he was back she was seated again, practically glaring at him as she held her broken arm to her chest. Trying to keep it still. Level. <Don't run into a fire! You idi- Oh I'm in shock.> She half laughed. At least things weren't as foggy.

"Okay. No bacta. I can heal, probably. Bone?" She stared at her bone, blinking.

"Okay. You gotta.. You gotta set that. See the uh-" She nodded to her hand, which was already starting to turn purple. "Compressing blood flow. Um. Ah.. Okay. Take my hand and uh.. Pull. Pull it, then try to set it. It's not bleeding right now, but if it does uh.." She looked around for a moment, half in a daze but more determined not to loose another part of her.

Or her life.

"Lightsaber. Lightsaber! If I start to bleed a bunch, you gotta use the blade to stop it. Okay?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

The slightly dazed way in which she looked at her jutting arm bone made Kai’s heart race with worry. He’d seen people go into shock before, but not while he was this helpless to do anything about it. Moreover, it was happening to Iris.

He listened intently to her instructions, taking hold of her purpling hand and tugging on it. His touch was too gentle; the bone wouldn’t set. <I don’t want to hurt you, Iris,> he said warily, before giving her arm a hard yank.

The bone fumbled back into place, coaxed there by his free hand. Blood welled up, spilling through his fingers. Slippery hands gripped the hilt of his lightsaber, igniting it… and he hesitated.

He didn’t trust his body anymore. The muscles had no memory. What if he screwed up, wound up cutting her arm off by accident?

<I don’t want to hurt you,> he repeated, before carefully brushing the burning blade against her wound. The stench of burning flesh filled his nostrils. He gagged, dropping the lightsaber and turning his face away from her as he retched.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"It's gonna hurt, no matter what happens now. Just uh, ah. I'll keep what's left of my hand, at least?" All four fingers that were there on the disruptor scarred hand. She forced a smile for Kai, mostly to calm him down. She could do that, right? Yeah. Shock was handy some times. So long as she didn't y'know, start to seize.

"You got this. Just, if I scream and pass out, that's fine. No bleeding, still breathing, all's good." Last little peptalk she could give. In truth, she'd done this a couple of times. The medic camps on Tython alone had their fair share of wounds. This? Bah. It was yellow at best. Not red. If it wasn't for her hand turning purple she'd of marked it as green.

Then she screamed and passed out as the bone was pushed back where it was supposed to be.

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

After emptying out the contents of his stomach, Kai turned his attention back to Iris. She was out cold.

The smoke from the burning pod was being blown in their direction by the wind. Hastily Kai scooped Iris up and carried her away from the wreckage, stopping only when he found he could no longer keep his feet moving under him.

He stumbled, careful not to fall on top of her prone form, and slid down into a seated position on the forest floor with his back supported by the trunk of a tree. They were somewhere in the woods, and it was beginning to get dark. The aches and pains in his body were catching up to him; he felt a desperate need to rest. But if there were predators around…

Forcing his eyes to stay open, he looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms. What were they going to do? How were they going to get home? How would they survive?

He pushed all these thoughts out of his mind. Right now he needed to focus on Iris, make sure she came out of this okay. The Force responded to him easily now—one of the few benefits afforded his body swap—and he enveloped her in it, deepening her sleep into a hibernation trance. It was the best he could do as far as Force healing went. Let her rest as long as she needed to; in the meantime, Kai would keep watch.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

Sleep was surprisingly restful for Iris. She awoke some time later, more in a daze still than anything else. There was.. Fire. Pain. Crash? Kai. She shot upright, her oddly colored eyes blinking rapidly as she looked for him. Didn't take long, given he was still holding her. She blinked again, staring at him. Had he been.. How long had they been sitting like this? She frowned, reaching a hand, nope. Not that one. She winced as she remembered her broken arm syndrome and pretty quickly put that hand back in her lap.

The other though, that she pressed to his chest, trying to search through his body with the Force. Find the colors of hurt so she could fix them.

"You okay?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Iris’ voice made him stir. He’d let his eyes fall closed for only a few moments, it seemed, then suddenly she was awake and talking to him.

<Tired,> was all he said in response. In addition to the aches and bruises, he was stiff from sitting in one place.

His embrace around Iris went slack, not wanting to constrict her movements. But he felt the warmth of her body leeching away as he did, replaced by cold. The night was chilly.

<What should we do now?>

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

He wasn't the only one who was cold. Now mildly aware that she was warmer against him Iris turned her gaze to the forest around them. "I'm not sure..? Where are we? .. It's cold. Fire?" Yeah, survival class. Or whatever the Jedi called it. No Jedi didn't know how to survive in the wild, right? .. Or was that just because of Valery Noble being her master?

She didn't think on it long, instead focusing her efforts on healing him as best she could. Using the Force to have his body knit itself back together. Still weird that she had to heal him.

"Okay. We make a fire to get warm, then focus on figuring out where we are and go from there. Could be locals that can help us contact the temple."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

<Fire,> he echoed in agreement. Though he tried to resist the urge to hug her close for warmth, he ultimately lost the battle, wrapping his arms around Iris and holding her tightly. He was shivering from the cold and the shock of all that had happened.

Her healing helped him considerably, easing many of the aches he felt. Though his skeleton remained intact, he’d damaged a few muscles, tearing and bruising them in the crash. His shivering even stopped as the flow of energy throughout his body warmed him up.

<Thanks.> He released Iris gently, then got to his feet. Though still tired, he felt rejuvenated. <I’ll make a fire. You rest.> Her arm was still broken, after all.

Kindling was plentiful here in the forest. While he gathered up dry twigs and brush, he continued to communicate with Iris via telepathy. <I don’t know where we are. The ship had an engine malfunction while we were in hyperspace, so we could’ve wound up anywhere from the Outer Rim to the Core.>

He paused long enough to search the Force, not liking what he saw. <I don’t think there are any locals on this planet. Apart from plants and animals, anyway…>

What were the odds they wound up on a liveable but uncolonized world?... Not bad, actually. There were billions of planets in the galaxy, and a lot of them turned out to be hospitable for most life forms. That didn't mean sentient life had evolved on all of them yet, nor did it mean every single one was colonized.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

She was too focused on healing him to give second thought to the fact she was wrapped up in his arms. At least until she was finished, anyway. She blinked after a second, watching as he got up. Now it was her turn to realize how cold she felt without him there. Iris frowned at the thought, but pushed it back as he mentioned there didn't seem to be sentient life.

He could just.. Tell that?

She blinked in surprise, but nodded. And frowned.

"That's.. Really bad, isn't it?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Sensing her surprise, he felt compelled to explain how he knew. <I spent a lot of time in the wilderness. I guess I learned from an early age how to tell the difference between sentients and non-sentients.> He had to learn it in order to survive. Sentients were more dangerous to him than any beast back then.

<If we were on a planet I’d been to before, I’d recognize it immediately. But this place is foreign to me. I don’t understand its language.>

He brought back the kindling, setting it on the ground, then looked up at Iris.

<It’s not good. Especially since we don’t have a homing beacon or anything we could use to signal a passing ship.> He paused, trying to find something more optimistic to say. <I bet Master Noble will come looking for you. You have a Force bond with her, right? She can use it to trace your location.>

Igniting his lightsaber, he turned it down to the lowest intensity setting and used the heat to ignite the kindling, starting a fire.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"She can use it to do what?"

Iris blinked, more surprised at the use a bond had than anything else. But.. Given the rest of their issues this was probably for the best. Without any other way to contact people, Valery was going to be their only hope. She settled in beside the fire once it was started, hand on her broken arm as she set about trying to quicken the healing process through the Force.

Last thing she wanted was to be in the way here.

"Water, food, shelter. We need to get those together first, then. Seems like we might be here for a while. I.. Don't know how to ask Valery for help through the bond or anything. So until she gets worried and searches, yeah." She let out a puff of air, glancing up to the sky above through the leaves of the trees.

"I guess it's like a uh.. Wilderness retreat? Vacation."

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai actually grinned at her surprise, finding it funny. <There’s a whole lot of potential to be unlocked when it comes to Force bonds. People tend to forget that they aren’t really alone in the universe. Even across billions of light years, you can still feel someone you’re bound to. Especially strong emotions.>

There was a bond between him and Iris as well, forged over their years of friendship. It was the strongest tie he had to anyone in the galaxy.

<She’d know if you had died, which means they’ll continue the search without giving up, at least.> Which was a comforting thought.

Iris was right. They needed to focus on survival for the time being. With the fire going strong, he got up to start doing something else—then paused when she compared it to a wilderness retreat or a vacation.

<I dunno if I’d call it that. But if it makes you feel better…> It sort of made him feel better to think of it as a vacation, too. <Okay good, okay fine. Should I try to scavenge supplies from the pod? There might be food or something still intact.>

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"Maybe. It might be better to wait until we have water. Put out the fires if they're still burning by.. Whenever. Ships burn a long tim- Oh wait." She hadn't thought about it before. Fire burned things. Lots of things. Like wood. Like a forest. Iris blinked slowly as she stood up, warily looking to where they'd crashed. "Do you think the fire would spread this way?"

That was an easier question to think about. She didn't want to think about being lost. About whether Valery could feel her or not. About how they were going to get off world. No, it'd be easier to focus on the here and now.

"Maybe we should check on it now?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai glanced in the direction of the pod. <I don’t know.>

They needed to check it out either way. <You don’t have to go if you’re not up to it yet,> he said, thinking of her broken arm. She probably wouldn't listen to him, but y'know.

He headed for the pod. It was still burning, although it had landed far enough away from the trees that a forest fire seemed unlikely. Moreover, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, scattering smoke and ashes down the slope and away from the woods.

But if all it would take to burn the whole place down was for the wind to change direction, he didn’t like those odds. Reaching out with the Force, he applied a form of Tutaminis to snuff out the flames, then approached the wreck, searching it for emergency supplies.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

She went with him. On a world of no sentient life, of them being alone. Hurt, even, she went with him. Her arm was broken, but what else might've happened to him? How hurt could he have been? Iris still wasn't sure, and not being sure in a scenario like this was as dangerous as it could get. So while she watched and mostly let him handle the pod, she was watching him. Making sure she hadn't missed some life threatening injury.

He was only human, now.

"Did you find anything? Think we can salvage it enough to make a beacon?"

Arlo Renard

 

[Arlo Renard]

Kai returned carrying a few items, among them a medkit and a fireproof duffel bag filled with rations and other supplies, but shook his head.

<The electronics are fried. I got this stuff, though.> He held up the medkit and bag. <Want me to bandage up your arm?>

If she said no, he’d try to do it anyway. Last thing he needed was for her wound to get infected.

Iris Arani​

 

[Iris Arani]

"Yeah, uh. .. yeah."

Great. They really were stranded. Iris frowned, staring down at her broken arm. Bandaging it was important. She'd done what she could to knit the flesh back together, but her skin was still raw. "How are you feeling? Anything else hurt?"

Arlo Renard