Prelude

[Sreeya]

Korista watched with mild wonder as he got to work with his knife. She broke off a piece of the exoskeleton that had a sharp edge, using it to scrape some of the ‘meat’ off the scorpion. As he asked if she had rope or paracord, she had to grimace, “I was in bed when this all happened. I’m lucky I’m wearing any clothes at all,” With that, she glanced down, noting that she at least had shoelaces. She quickly unraveled them, grabbing a ‘plate’ she got off the skeleton to place it above her chest. She had to poke holes into the plates to have one on her chest and one on her back to protect her torso. The entire thing looked ridiculous, but she knew it would offer her body some protection.

After all the carving and tying together was done, she began to notice that the sun was less glaring than earlier. She stepped was able to actually look up at the sky, noting the abstraction of purples, reds and blues in a way she had never seen before. For a moment, Korista could only stare in awe, “Wow…have you ever seen anything like that before?” She surmised this had to be a ‘sunset’, which was when the sun disappeared over the horizon, “Usually this means it’ll get very cold out here.”

Korista hoisted some of the meat up, “We need to find some things to make a fire so we can cook this and keep warm,” She looked all around, not spotting any immediate cover, “Let me know if you see any cacti. If we can salvage some fruits, we might be able to get some water from it.”

 

[Phoenix]

Jack got to work as well, some ragtag looking plates covering his front and back as well. He looked over at Korista and half-smiled, seeing she looked no less ridiculous. He caught her looking up at the sky above, the beauty of swirling colors was astounding. It was so much more beautiful and amazing than anything he'd seen in pictures or movies.

Yeah, I think it is, he said, taking a moment to pause and look up at the sky above. Wow... it's even better than I thought, he said quietly. It was a moment not to worry about the terrors they were caught in the middle of, but it wasn't to last. He heard her mention the cold coming soon and turned to look at her once more, nodding. Yeah... we should get moving then. Don't want to stay here in case there are more of those, he said nodding to the scorpion.

He headed toward another rock outcrop in the distance, hoofing it to make it there just as the last of the sun vanished. Several small shrubs and bushes lined the base of the rocks and he began pulling at the branches, tearing off parts. Want to start piling some of these branches and I'll... see if I can get a flame started? he muttered, seriously unsure of his ability to actually get a flame started.

He took off another part of his shoelace and a strung it between two sticks, using a rock to push down on the top of one of the branches, shoving it into a larger piece of wood covered in shavings. I think this is going to take a while, he confessed, beginning a process that took the better part of an hour, tearing at the skin on his hands before he finally got the start of a flame. By that point, it was frigid, with a cold that seemed to cut to the bone.