In The Jungle Two, One Pink One Blue

[Strix]

He heard a voice, but it seemed distant. Eventually, he stirred himself awake. His chest still heaved with effort, not fully recovered from the lung fulls of water he had taken in. He was aching everywhere but at the very least he wasn’t bleeding out. As far as he could tell anyways. The sun was drying him slowly and as he turned he saw a silhouette against the sunlight. As his eyes adjusted Halea came into focus. He was so shaken from his fall he began to ramble in Sy Bisti “Hi there, glad you could join me down here. You look pissed. You said look for a cliff. Hey, I technically managed to find two. And survived both!” As he raised his voice he clutched his chest, even the small action of raising his voice hurt at this point.

He glanced at his other side and spotted his travel pack washed up at his side. Damp and sandy, but at the very least not lost. His good pair of clothes would be ruined though. “Ah, I’ve got something for pain in my pack.” He mumbled, trying his best to lay on his side to reach the pack. Eventually one of his mangled arms reached the pack and pulled it closer to him. On his way to Induomodo he had met a rather friendly fellow in a cantina. He said he was a doctor, even though he looked more like a smuggler. He had given Strix some pain medication for a pretty low fee all thins considered. He grabbed it out of his bags and ate a piece of it raw. He handed the rest over to Hale. In huttese he said “For the pain.” What he didn’t know, was that the ‘pain medication’ was actually spice.

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea grit her teeth as the man rambled on in Bisti, it seemed like he was pretty shaken from the fact that he'd been a brick falling down a hill only a little while ago. He looked just as beat up as her, and his clothes were essentially strips of cloth. Looked like a Krayt dragon had used him as a chewtoy for a week. He muttered something else before reaching for his pack, eventually pulling something out of it and ate a piece before handing it to her with assurance that it was 'for the pain'. She looked at it and immediately identified it for what it was. Spice. Was he totally crazy? Sure, everything hurt, but spice was just as much a hallucinogen as a pain reliever. Plus, who the hell knew what it did to a person when it was raw.

"Are you kriffin' crazy? This is spice! It's a damn narcotic, you idiot. If you don't spit that out, you're gonna have one hell of a trip, and I ain't carryin' your ass out of this jungle while you're screaming about a giant kouhun chasin' us."

 

[Strix]

Strix was taken aback at how angry Halea was, especially considering he was trying to help. He was so shaken that he was having trouble following what she was saying. He had already swallowed the pain reliever by the time she had finished talking. When she finally stopped he responded “My— *ugh*, my huttese is failing me. I’m not entirely sure what a narcotic is. The man did say it was a spice that relieves pain however.” He paused, getting an odd feeling in his mouth as the last bits of spice dissolved in his mouth. Well, his face didn’t hurt anymore. It didn’t feel like anything anymore. He put his hand to his face to see if it was still there. As far as he could tell, it was. He was having trouble focusing his vision so he looked down to see if he was still losing blood, the most probable cause for this feeling, but it was fine.

Turning to Hale he said “Don’t be silly, Halea. There’s no such thing as a Giant Kouhun. I mean, shure there’s some bigger than others. Some, big, some small. Some teensy weensy little crawly-dos. You know, Ima nature scientist! Sometimes, I can hear the pulse of planets! You should try it sometime. You don’t gotta carry me nowhere, look!” He stood up triumphantly with no problem, unknowingly irritating all his injuries further. “I’m as fit as a fit person! Let me check on my little guys!” He grabbed his canteen, opening it and putting his face to the hole in the top. He giggled as he watched them crawl closer to his face. Turning to Halea he shoved the canteen in her face “Look, I gots two! One for me and two for you!”

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea recoiled from the kouhuns as he waved them in her face and grit her teeth. Alright, enough was enough. She grabbed the lid of the canteen and grabbed the canteen itself, tightening the lid over the vessel, or attempting to, before slapping the man across the face with a curse.

"Keetar freg! Snap out if it! We are kriffin' in the jungle, and will die unless you get your damned head straight! Hear me?!"

 

[Strix]

Strix shrugged off the slap, not feeling any pain in his current state. He smiled at her awkwardly and walked confidently into the forest with no regard for whether Halea was following him or not. The jungle was suddenly looking very pretty to him, as he constantly stopped to look at the various plants and small creatures they encountered along the way. He found a small furry creature that he found cute and decided he’d like to keep it. So to keep it safe he put it in his canteen, along with the kouhuns. He continued on, as the sun set he watched the sky change colors more vibrantly than he had ever seen. Maybe it was a different sun than yesterday’s. When night fell, he never broke stride. He continued as all the other creatures began to settle in for the night, and the night shift of nature began.

He stopped to look at the stars, hypnotized by their beauty then said aloud “Halea, I can hear you in the bushes. Stop trying to sneak up on me ya silly. Remember? I’m an expert hunter, I know when I’m being followed.” And, with that, a large, scaly predator with beady eyes and long teeth and a massive underbite leapt from the bush, it’s scales glistening in the moonlight.

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea shook her head as the man wandered off into the jungle for no reason whatsoever. Kriffing idiot. Now she had to go and find him before he got killed by some predator. This was a great way to get lost. Damned ridiculous circumstances, these were. She followed his trail, keeping watch nearby for anything dangerous before there was a faint voice and sudden loud commotion up ahead. The woman raced forward, skidding to a stop upon seeing the beast before her. Well, that was interesting. Part of her considered leaving him for bait and taking the beast in for a nice credit prize at the outpost, and part of her wanted to go in and help. She struggled with the options as the man was likely being mauled, keeping a hand on her hatchet but not quite drawing it. Idea. Do both. Sounded like a good plan. She smiled, pulling her hatchet, and spoke.

"'Ello, beastie..."

 

[Strix]

Even in his drugged up state, Strix’s most primal survival instincts kicked in, almost completely sobering him up. Realizing the situation he was in and how little time he had before he’d be this beast’s dinner, he acted quickly. He had only seconds. He drew his vibrosword, trying to hold it steady, and the beast pounced. So, emboldened by his spice filled veins and will to survive he simply leaped into the air. Not a second later the beast’s claws were digging into the earth where Strix was just a moment ago. Strix landed on top of its back, desperately grabbing at the large scales hoping to find a handhold. Before he could fall off he managed to wedge his vibrosword inbetween two of the scales, momentarily anchoring him in place and drawing first blood. He was now dangling off the side of the beast as it began to coil and jump to try and get him off.

Unsure of whether Halea was still in the area he called out “Run, Halea! I’ve got this! Stay safe!” He continued to struggle against the monster until it finally flung him free from its body, sending him tumbling across the jungle floor. The beast took this moment to sniff its wound, meanwhile Strix used the respite to get a solid footing and settle into his preferred stance, now more prepared for a second attack.

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea briefly watched as the man seemingly came out of his stupor and started fighting back against the beast, pulling his sword and managing to cause some kind of damage, however minimal, before being flung off. Scales were tough. Most predators only had them on the top, limited protection during turf wars. Bottom had to stay decently open for mobility. And this bad boy had a hell of an ability to move. Pretty nice claws, too. She grimaced and ran into the beast, ramming into it with a shoulder to hopefully set it off balance before assuming a low crouch, ignoring her employer's yells for her to stay back. She ducked under a swipe from a claw before slashing at that same leg with her hatchet, hopefully cutting into some tough skin, as the edge was quite sharp considering the weapon choice. She hopped to the side, avoiding a loud crunch from the beast's mouth and then spun her hatchet around, the dull end facing the beast, then smacked it across the snout with the heavy metal before jumping backwards to avoid a fast slash. Close call. She spun her hatchet back to the business end and snarled right back at the creature, a smile slowly appearing on her face. By this time, Strix must have been recovered from his incident. Halea couldn't fight a killing machine on her own for long, sooner or later it would get lucky.

"Little help'd be mighty nice!"

The Zeltron twisted her hatchet in her hands, keeping her eyes on the creature as it slightly hung back, likely readying for another attack. She'd taken it by surprise once, it probably wasn't happening again.

 

[Strix]

Now with his feet firmly planted he watched for a brief moment watching Halea handle herself for the time being against the predator. Then she called for his aid, snapping him out of his small trance. Running low and fast he came up behind the creature, using his vibrosword to slice the beast’s tail off in one clean motion. A guttural roar came from within the beast as it whirled around to face Strix, opening its gaping maw in an effort to swallow him whole. Using the opportunity, he rolled backwards away from the snapping jaws and took out one of the kouhuna from his canteen, throwing it into the beast’s open mouth. The kouhuns effect wasn’t instant, so he still held the monster back occasionally slashing at its face. Suddenly, the east began to shiver and jerk, shaking its head and stomping the ground in a fit. He had never taken a beast down this way. He didn’t like it. The beast was as good as dead, so he found where his sword had briefly pierced the skin and drove it through with force, going past the skin into the organs. With a thud and a few convulsions, the beast was dead.

Turning to Hale, he said “Well that was a bit too close for my liking. I’ve gotta say, I’m not a fan of this jungle. Also, not to self that pain medication has some serious side effects like...” Then it hit him. The pain of his injuries from the waterfall all game rushing back as the spice and adrenaline of the fight drained from his system he was hit with a wall of pain. Nearly paralyzed by it, he fell to the ground like a stiff board, seeing spots with the blinding pain he was enduring. He managed to force out “I only pay— ugh, eh, a-alive.” Before blacking our right there on the jungle floor.

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea winced as the blue man fell over, finally feeling his wounds once the spice wore off, and saying that he only paid to be alive before passing out. Kriff. She was meant to carry him through the damn jungle? You had to be joking. It could wait, though. She pulled out her tomahawk and lopped off the beast's paw, looking at the nasty appendage before putting it into a pouch, stroking the creature down its body before nodding and standing up, grabbing her employer and lifting him up in a fireman's carry. Fat lard. Weighed a ton.

She trudged through the jungle, retracing their steps back to the settlement. Slowly. Exhaustion was going to set in sooner or later. Bad news. This wasn't friendly territory.

 

[Strix]

When he awoke, he was still extremely sore and confused. He was staring at the ground and had an arm between his legs. He realized he was being carried and immediately felt shameful. This whole trip had been a disaster and he was looking more and more foolish as time went on. “Thanks for carrying me, it I’ll walk the rest of the way, if you don’t mind that is. I’m sure you’d love to carry me all the way back.” He slowly began to walk off the pain. He’d need time to heal and he wasn’t doing anything to stop the pain. At least now the pain was consistent and manageable by his standards. He probably had a cracked rib or two and his knee was very injured, not to mention the plethora of untreated cuts that would no doubt get infected.

Trying to distract himself from the pain, and despite the rest of his brain trying to convince him to save at least a little face in the situation he said “Well this has been one of my worse expeditions. Heh, kinda sounds like ‘I swear this never happens’ kind of thing. Oh well. Sorry for kicking the tree. And falling down the rapids. And hallucinating. I did kill the beast though. Or at least, I think that was me? My memory still fuzzy there. Did you know what that was before I ate it? Must be some serious meds I guess. Also, nether quick question: are Zeltron, like, reproductive organs compatible with other species? I’m um, asking for a friend. He’s blue.”

 

[Halea Hendarsin]

Halea kept walking a few more steps before she heard a voice, realizing who it was, and was asked to set him down. She did so, leaning over and more or less tossing him as he recovered from his little nap. She grunted and sat down briefly before following as the blue man continued his fairly one-sided conversation. He gave a fairly poor apology followed by a question about what he took, which she muttered a response to what it exactly was. "Spice. It's a drug. Affects the brain, makes you loopy. Completely out of it."

Then he went on to ask if Zeltrons could reproduce with other species. She narrowed her eyes slightly before shaking her head. The answer was yes, but she replied with a strong "No". Lunatic.