A Gentle Touch [UNDER REVISION]

The Human Village

After her frail but scornful words, Haley couldn't tell what had happened to Koba, nor any of the others, and could only feel her body be carried away against her will, her burns screaming against the resulting breeze. Powerful and apish hands hoisted her from the ground and laid her down in the hut with the healers, a groan pushing free from her lips when her raw scabs scratched against hay and dirt. Yet, as moments passed within a daze, Haley dreaded the fact that her pain was already subsiding, somehow knowing the fact wasn't a good thing.

Nevertheless, the outline of her wounds thundered torturously enough on their own, only hindered by the sweet solace of icy wet cloths being draped on them, dipped in honey and egg whites to help. But still, against her will, Haley flinched with discomfort as the cool material wrapped around the entirety of her side, inevitably covering her right eye and ear and finally extinguishing the smoke that was clouding up from her singed hair. In the process, she felt her body heat get shattered where her clothes had previously been, now cut free with sharp, jagged rocks around the wounds. Despite the agony still jabbing to the marrow of her bones, her frame an agonizing combination of stiff and numb, Haley sighed shakily with relief as stabbing cold replaced her stabbing nerves – that is, only those nerves that survived the fire. Slowly but surely, she was left to feel a few more of them wither away.

Frantic, feminine hoots and gibbers tore through Haley's weakened alertness and she didn't need to see their signing to know the subject of their conversing; by the trembling of her limbs, Haley knew there wasn't anything more they could do.

It felt like hours passed of Haley watching the blurred, furred silhouettes through the corner of her eye, her neck locked in place by its own charred surface, before she finally noticed Lake was no longer in the room. Lake was an old friend of Blue Eyes and Ash before she began learning with the females about care and healing, so of course Haley was confused by her lack of presence. Though, her confusion barely lasted a second before the ape's reason for leaving dawned in her stomach like a nauseating punch in the gut, the sound of unsettled apes growing louder outside and weighing heavily with trepidation. However, no matter how much she attempted to force her body to move, trying to hide away in the shadows, her muscles wouldn't let her hurt herself more. And so, before long, Caesar's horrified face and wide green eyes peered into focus, Luca and Maurice's large shapes framing his disheveled figure.

Haley barely had time to avoid his gaze before it burned with a sudden and chilling rage and he moved away. "Where Koba?" She heard him growl to the others while her eye flickered to the other two, attempting to give them her best look of reassurance. By the looks they gave in return, hers wasn't very good. Both of them seemed in a state of panic, Luca shuffling around discretely, contemplating if he should interrupted the females to move closer.

"Don't know." Tinker signed in a rush in between her attempts to keep Haley's coverings moist, "Said he left to find you."

Not seeing him between then others, Haley felt an urge to commit an insolence and interrupt Caesar's conversation to ask them where Rocket was, but when she heard Caesar grunt furiously and stomp off, she knew Rocket must have left to find Koba as soon as he heard the news. He's always had a shorter fuse than his leader. Instead, something else tore pass her lips. Honestly, Haley had no idea what compelled her - maybe it was the hint of insanity that flickered in Caesar's normally kind eyes, or maybe it was something worse: the need to defend her mate. Or rather, a 'fear' to defend him. "I provoked him." Haley breathed, careful not to move the right side of her face too much, even though Tinker hooted frustratedly anyways. She didn't care how mad Tinker was at her for talking, however, because her confession did what it had intended: Caesar stopped and turned back to her. His face was scrunched and he was glaring at her, but not in anger - rather, it was clear he didn't believe her. She tried again, "It was an accide-"