The Adventures of a Healer and a Viking: Pirates, Part II

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"I'll be fine," she put on a brave face even though she didn't think she could take dying again any time soon. Well, the dying and coming back. She stuffed another bottle in her pack, then shouldered the straps.

"If you get in trouble, don't be a martyr. Call for help and I'll come." She wasn't trying to insult him. She just knew even he had limits.

Steps took her toward the tree line and she stopped just before shade met sand. "If you follow me, don't forget to put on some clothes." A smirk painted her lips as she gave him a slow look up and down his form.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

”Like you mind.” Val said simply, looking back towards the escape pod as Taheera stepped into the jungle.

Getting the mass of metal further onto the beach wouldn’t be easy, even for him. The thing had to weigh at least a ton. They usually made them light, just for landing purposes but...well ‘light’ for starships was still quite heavy for normal people. He frowned slightly, and then wandered over to go and retrieve the rope.

The one upside to this was that the sand was soft, almost crystalline in fact. That meant sliding the pod over it would be fairly easy.

He retrieved the rope in no time at all, tying it in several hooks around the mouth of the pod, places usually used to fish the thing out of the ocean by rescue craft. He then wound the rope around a mass of trees, creating a very simple, and very rudimentary pulley system to make it somewhat easier. Then he took a breath.

His hands flexed around the rope, tying it in such a way that it wouldn’t burn his skin.

Then he heaved.

It was a slow, very slow, process but inch by inch he managed to drag the pod across the sands. The trail he left was quite the ditch, but the sand easily flowed back into place each time he displaced it. The task all in all took about thirty minutes, and ended with a very sweaty, and very tired Val sitting on the beach besides an Escape Pod half hidden in the jungle.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

The sounds of the ocean were left far behind her and replaced with the chirping of tropical birds and other island species. Maybe some predators, too. She traipsed uphill, a sheen of moisture growing on her brow. This place was very humid and she was thankful for her homemade tank top.

She was approaching a very tall rock structure and before long, the dense foliage opened up to a small area of overgrown grasses and tropical flowers. Beyond that, she heard the steady roar of a waterfall.

"Finally," she breathed, wiping away more sweat. Crossing the field, she found a small river that she could wade in with a tall, skinny waterfall thundering in from above one side. After filling the bottles, she slipped off the pack and eased deeper into the waterfall, disappearing beneath its roar.

She was finally starting to feel like a human being again. Well, near-human. The water was cool and refreshing. And because of the falls, she didn't hear the snapping of twigs just to the right of the riverbank.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

It wasn’t Val.

Though he had complied with her request to follow and put on clothes. A part of him had been tempted to follow after her naked, but he’d ultimately decided that he wasn’t willing to risk the prickle bushes or insects that were very likely crawling around the floor of the Jungle, and thus decided to go the safe route.

Tracking Taheera through the jungle was surprisingly easy.

She had left enough clues behind in her wake that following the footsteps was a simple thing for someone like him. In the past he had tracked Snow Nexu’s through the deepest Valley’s one Green Little Jedi wasn’t much compared to that.

Eventually the ocean faded behind him, and the path grew thicker with jungle vines and branches.

He moved quickly, wanting to catch up as soon as possible just in case.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Clothes dripped with fresh water as she began easing back to shore. That icy, warning in the force caused her to freeze in ankle deep water and finally look more closely at her surroundings.

Large, predatory yellow-eyes met her own. On the bank by her pack was a very large tusk-cat. The muscles in its haunches twitched and before she could blink, it leaped forward.

Hands came up and she stumbled. The force flowed through in a way she'd never felt before and as the cat was mid-leap, it's snarling jawed fave was met with a wall of river water. She teetered to the side, falling on rocks and mud from the stream as the cat yowled.

A grunt left her lips as the wall of water rained down on them both. One surprised and confused wet feline. And one very surprised and confused wet mirialan.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Val heard the snarling yowl from the cat, it echoed through the jungle and caused a roar of flapping wings and cawing birds to rush from the canopies. The Viking himself let out a curse, and then broke his stride.

He was still tired from pulling the Escape Pod, but somehow he managed to rush into a sprint.

His muscles burned, thighs screaming at him and his calfs protesting with every movement, but he had no idea what was going on up ahead save for something bad. He rushed forward, cutting through branches, vines, and taller bushed until finally he burst out onto the bank of where Taheera was standing.

He landed on hard rocks, his eyes immediately jumping to where he assumed the yelp had come from.

Fire and ice landed first on the saber-cat, and then on the Green humanoid standing in the water.

For half a second, the three just looked at one another, and then the cat jumped. It let out a large, roaring snarl, and pounced towards its nearest pray; Taheera. Val cursed, and then jumped to intercept the cat before it could swipe its claws. The two clashed together with a loud thud of bones, tumbling together into the water.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Val!" She yelped, as surprised to see his ferocity and speed as much as the cat's tenacity. She pushed to a stand, feet splashing in the river as she followed after their tumbling roll. She could feel the cat's disgruntlement of being pushed into the deeper water and getting wet in general. She could feel pain.

The water swirled around her feet in a turbulent wave but it wasn't from the two wrestling giants - one with slightly more fur than the other. It was coming from her, coming from the force, and coming from an element that seemed to open up with the transfer into this new body. Eyes closed. The cat wouldn't release its claws from Val unless....

She didn't know if he would hear her but she had to try.

"HOLD YOUR BREATH, VAL!" With a lunge forward and a push of her hands, the water boiled up into a force-made wave and went to dump and sweep over manbun and the cat. The cat would let go, when it realized it would drown if it didn't. Hopefully Val wouldn't drown too.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

His lungs burned.

Water flooded over him, and he tried to hold himself as best as he could. The saber-cat went flowing away rather quickly, his eyes popping open just in time to see it half-roar within the waves. His lips turned to a scowl, blood flowing from three deep claw marks that had been carved into his back. The torrential wave suddenly passed, the cat having been tossed several dozen yards away from where suddenly found himself floating. It stood, looked at the two humanoids, and then booked it into the jungle.

Val took in a deep breath.

Oxygen flooded into his lungs, his chest rising and falling, his eyes closing as he tried to regain a measure of composure. His head was spinning, his eyes watering, his shoulder stabbing with pain and the rest of his muscles screaming at him for the exertion that he'd forced upon them.

"Kark." He breathed. "That thing would've been delicious."

It was hard to tell if he was serious, though his heavy weight fell back into the water as he tried to rest his body.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Face scrunched up. She thought the tusk-cat was a beautiful creature even though it had tried eating her. Would've been a shame to see it gone. They were trespassing in its home, after all. Footsteps splashed over to his side. Arm circled gently around his waist.

"Here, take my shoulder."

She was suddenly angry.

"What you did was stupid. Come on, let's get to the bank and sit down so I can have a look at you." It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, she was just scared of losing him like everything else she lost. She was beginning to get too attached to him and THAT was scary. She began leading him, sloshing through the water to a large rock in the sun on the other bank. Waterfall still thundered behind them.

Her flight suit was half covered in mud. There were a few minor cuts and gashes on her leg, where she'd fallen in the river from the cat's first attack.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"I'm fine." He told her.

Blood was running down his shoulder, but in truth he really didn't seem like it bothered him all that much.

"I fought a Nexu once." He pointed out. "Barehanded."

The fight had gone much worse than the one with the saber-cat. "That thing is like a kitten comparatively."

Nexu were fierce predators. Unlike the saber-cat they had rows and rows of teeth, their claws were sharper, and their spiny tails could quite literally stab you if you didn't hold it down. The creatures were apex predators, capable of killing things twice their size without much issue.

"Besides, you look more hurt than me." He told her as his eyes cast over her slightly brushed and cut form.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

She snorted, maneuvering him to the rock. "Sit down. And what, did you want to win the stupid of the year award?" Water dripped free from wet hair as her head shook. "Fighting a nexu bare-handed. How are you still alive? And don't say it's because of your size. I've seen men your size. You're faster, stronger, and apparently you live longer."

Of course, she didn't know how old he actually was. She meant that he fought a nexu and won whereas a normal man would not have.

"And don't worry about me," she spoke as blood dripped down her shin. "I'll be fine." Maybe a lie but the healer in her refused to look at her own wounds first. Standing in front of him, she began inspecting the wounds on his shoulder.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Val gave her a small smile. "No. It was winter, and we were hungry."

That would have been enough explanation for anyone else from his world. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He and Aerith had suffered through some tough years, when the crops hadn't come in and trade had been scarce. They had had to take extreme measures, and at that point...because of who he was they had both gotten a little tense. Eventually they'd had a fight, and in a rush of emotion Val had headed into the tundras to get food for the both of them.

That trip had ended with the Nexu.

"I'm hard to kill." He said with a smile. "One of my better qualities."

He watched her for a few seconds as she tried to look at his wounds. It was clear that she was worried, but the scratches he'd received from the saber-cat weren't at all deep, he could tell that simply from how much they hurt. The ones on her legs though...He frowned and then slowly settled a hand on her hip, another quickly joined on her other side and before she could object Val scooped her up and placed her into his lap, his hands gently pinning her in place. "No arguing."

Val said as one hand stayed on her hip, and the other moved down so he could better look at the wounds on her legs.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Hey-ey!" She yelped as he took over. Her legs sprawled out to one side as she sat quarter-turned into his chest. A green hand lifted and lightly whacked manbun. "You can't always use your size to your advantage. That's cheating. You-."

She bit back a wince as his fingers traveled over her knee and met the edge of the gash on that shin of hers.

"Should remember who the patient is."

Eyes closed briefly as she bent the knee of her injured leg. But she quickly snapped them open and before he could argue or say another word, she sent a bit of healing energy into his shoulder. Just enough to make sure there wouldn't be an infection. He would probably feel a tingling warmth, similar to what he felt on the ship, before, but not as strong.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

His breath hitched as she healed him, that odd pulse if energy rushing through him once more as the wounds on his back sealed shut. He bit back a curse, the feeling still being entirely too unfamiliar and strange to him. There was something...unnatural about how it felt, he couldn't ever think about getting used to it, especially the odd after sensation.

"I." He began, fingers gently sliding along her leg to check the wounds. "Have not forgotten."

She would need some bandages, unless she could heal herself. "But even Doctors needs to be looked after."

"Now stop objecting to me." He told her. "Or else."

Val was pretty sure there was a medical kit back in the escape pod, and if she would stay still long enough he could at least patch her up well enough to stop the bleeding, which was really the most important part.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Had she, Taheera Sollo, just made this man's breath hitch??? Normally, she would've felt satisfaction. But this time, she also felt his hesitancy and uncomfortableness. It made her frown. She'd done what needed to be done. Better than an infection later.

They were both stubborn in their own ways.

But she was starting to feel lightheaded. Must be the blood loss, she thought dully. And all she'd just done with the force. She snorted at his comment. "Or else, what, big guy?"

Hand fumbled to find purchase on his bicep as she tried to slip free to a stand. Not so successful. The jungle spun a bit and her limbs felt like wet noodles. She plopped back on his lap.

I'll be find," she insisted, weakly. All lies. Had she just said 'find???' She was starting to sound like a drunk ewok.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"No." He said quietly. "You won't."

At least not if she didn't get that wound looked at.

"How about you sit down and let me take care of you?" It was a relatively simple request really, especially considering that she could hardly speak at this point, or rather she was having difficulty with her words. He frowned slightly and pinned her down in his lap, using one hand on her hip to make her stay in place.

"You've lost quite a bit of blood." He told her. "I can patch you up."

Val was no doctor, but he had basic medical training. "I'll even kiss it better for you."

He offered her a smirk.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

She huffed.

"I bet you would," she squirmed a second more but found herself rooted in place. Plus, the surrounding jungle was swaying a bit. Probably not a good sign. "Fine. Finefinefinefine. But we'll talk about this later."

Myrtle-ellipses drooped closed then snapped open. Her green face was looking a little lighter green. "There should be some bacta patches in my bag, over there." Bag was back by the edge of the river, a couple yards away from them. "There might be some more bandages in the pod." Blood continued to pool down her shin, staining the rock they perched on.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Val wasn't exactly perfect when it came to medical care, but he knew enough to hold them over. Gently he placed Taheera on the rock where he had been sitting, then he quickly rushed over to her bag.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity, mostly taken up by Val digging through the bag and trying to find the right thing. The first priority was finding a way to stop the bleeding. Bacta patches were great for healing wounds after the fact, but didn't do much good if they couldn't stick to the wound due to profuse amounts of blood. Eventually he found was he was looking for, trotting back over to Taheera with half a bag of stuff in hand.

"Okay." He told her. "Hold still."

Part of him wished he had some sort of medical training that was more than just the basics.

"This will probably hurt." He had a small cauterizer, a machine used to close wounds in emergency cases like these. The thing would do its job well, but it would hurt. To stop her from completely passing out he slowly swabbed away the blood and then applied a local anesthetic, making sure to get good coverage over her wound before giving her one last look for an okay.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Droopy eyes followed Val as he left her side. She perched precariously on the rock, thankful for its size. But he was back just as quickly and nothing else seemed to jump out at them from the foliage. That cat definitely wouldn't be coming back any time soon.

Elbows propped herself up on the rock. She winced as he cleaned the wound but didn't make a sound. She could handle pain and always could.

Myrtle-ellipses latched onto his dueling orbs of ice and fire. Fingertips pressed into the rough-rock surface and her wet-haired head gave an affirmative nod. She would be able to patch the rest of the healing job up, when she recovered and had more energy to use the force. There would still be a small scar but it wouldn't be horrible.

The second scar she had on this body.

"Do it," she whispered, gritting her teeth.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Val moved as quickly, and as effectively as he could.

Though he wasn't a doctor, he did have steady hands. It was a gift that had come from years of wood carving, something he'd learned from a young age. He moved quickly, holding her leg with one hand and using the cauterizer with the other. Val worked quickly, glancing up at Taheera's face every so often to make sure she was okay. The red hot metal slowly pinched her skin together, stopping the bleeding and allowing the wound to seal quickly and effectively.

"Alright." He said quietly as he put the machine aside.

His hands immediately darted towards one of the bacta patches. He pulled off the back of it and looked up to her.

"This should give you some relief." Gently, Val pressed the patch onto the newly sealed wound, knowing that she would feel a rush of cold, and then a tingling sensation along the wound as the bacta went to work. "See? Not so bad."

The viking gave her a warm smile.