|K E I T H|
I have been trekking through these woods for 3 vargas (hours) straight and still nothing but trees and rock pillars in sight!
With an aching head, a dull pain on my side, an unresponsive lion, feet tired from walking and no one here with me, I can just feel my teeth grinding in anger and annoyance.
"Stupid wormhole! Stupid Empire! Stupid Zarkon! Stupid Lion! Stupid Lance!" I kept mumbling. Blaming the ones I've mentioned for my current situation. "I told him to get out of the way! But noooo, he said he was surrounded! He could've just quiznacking flew up or down to avoid it!" I muttered louder. "Then...maybe then! We wouldn't have been too close to a random wormhole and wouldn't be stranded in a planet right now!" I kicked and screamed at an unlucky stray rock that was on my path.
I watched it flew and land with a splashing sound as it disappeared into a river I now stumbled upon. I was thirsty by the sight and thought of water. But I didn't trust it because it wasn't like the crystal clear blue water on earth. Rather it looked like wine, it was a deep dark scarlet color. Or it could be blood which would be sickening to even think of drinking.
"Stupid planet and it's stupid red water!" I screamed with my hands up in the air. The headache doubling in pain as I did so. I groaned and held onto it. Feeling the dried blood in with my hair. "Stupid headache," I muttered again.
I was already really tired with no clue of where I am and no signs of where Shiro and Lance could be. I sighed putting my bayard away and sat down by the river. This is when I finally realized getting angry and blaming others, though I still blame them, won't help my current predicament. I need to calm down and think this throughly.
"Patience yields focus." I breathed out.
Reminding myself of Shiro's mantra. It sounded stupid and ridiculous sometimes but it has also helped me get through things.
I had my eyes closed. Taking in deep breaths and exhaling them. Once I felt calm I am able tot hink clear.
Okay, I first decided to try talking or communicating with anyone I can reach through the coms in my helmet. If that fails I can go back to Red and try to see if she'll finally respond. If that fails too then I'll need to look for stuff that'll help me get through the night. The sky above was darker than before we arrived on this planet.
"Hello, this is Keith, Paladin of the Red Lion. Hello, can anyone hear me?" I had put my helmet back on.
I waited for a few ticks, listening to silence and then static. After every dobash I'd repeat my words. I've been doing it for three times already and my hope was slowly being crushed. When the fourth time came the static sounded higher than the first few.
"Hello? Lance? Shiro?" I asked hopeful.
"Ke–Kei–Keith?!" I finally heard a voice. Although it wasn't very clear due to the other noises I was just relieved to hear someone's voice. And I never thought I would be so glad to ever hear Lance's annoying voice.
"Lance! Lance! Can you hear me?" I stood up. My legs were ready to run once I would have an idea of Lance's location. "Where are you?" I asked.
"Ke–Keith!" his line went clear. I can now hear him without the deafening static. "Keith! Where are you? Are you with Red? Did you two landed on the planet too? Is it like Earth but like the plants are purple with some skyscraper like rocks reaching up the sky?" he began asking questions when I asked him first.
"Yeah, I'm on the same planet. I left Red where we crashed. I'm kind of near a river right now, but it's like red instead of blue." I explained. "Where are you? Is Shiro with you?" I added, curioused and concerned.
"No, he's not here with me. Looks like we all got separated. I'm gonna come to you now." Lance said.
"Wait, now? Are you like flying in your Lion or just walking?" I still stood by the river.
"Blue isn't responding to me. I've been trying to contact you and Shiro or the others." he answered.
"Have you been by your Lion for three vargas straight?" I raised an eyebrow even though he can't see it.
"Um...no? That doesn't matter, look we now have contact with each other so we need to like. I don't know stick together stranded on this planet?"
"Why are you the one who should come to me? I think I'm a better navigator, you'll just get lost, Lance." I said crossing my arms, doubting Lance will find me anytime soon.
"Excuse me?! I think I can manage well! And I won't get lost! Me and the forest are like buddies, mi amigos." a scream followed and I had an idea he tripped on something or got slapped by a branched.
"Either you tripped or got hit by something..." I began with a bored look. I heard noises from Lance's side, probably scurrying to get up or getting revenge on the branch.
"It was a tiger. I scared it off, yeah, couldn't handle the Lance McClain." he said. I rolled my eyes and stopped the urged to slap a hand onto my face.
"Oh my quiznack! Just hurry up already and get your butt here now." I groaned. "Also this isn't Earth, Lance. There are no tigers here!" I added, flailing my hands around even though he couldn't see it.
"Oh shut up Keith! It's not like you've been walking and haven't encountered a single living being on this planet." Lance said.
"For your information I indeed haven't encountered a single one after walking for three vargas straight on this deserted planet." I deadpanned.
"Okay! Wait! What...what is a varga again?"
"Just get here already."
"Alright, hold your horses Mullet. It's not like I'm just gonna step into the rive–"
And just like that I heard a loud splash and girlish shriek. The sight before me was now Lance himself. Falling face first onto the red water and clumsily scrambling up to his feet. Oh the irony.
"Oh! Oh! Bleghh!" he stuck his tongue all while spitting around nonstop, he took off his helmet. His hair was now soaking wet. I had put my hands to my hips as I waited and watched. "I think I got some into my mouth! It could be poisonous! If it wasn't red it would've been fine!" he continued to complain and spat while he walked through the shallow river to reach to my side.
"Are you done?" I asked not once bothering to show concern or sympathy.
"How can you be so calm when I could probably be dying of poison!" Lance made it to my side of dry land. He dramatically fell to the ground and began to make choking or dying noises.
"You're not. It's just water just in a different color." I said turning my back to him. "Also your helmet can do a scan to see if it is poisonous." I began to walk away from him and the river, having no idea of where to go now that Lance is here.
"Hey! Keith! Where are you going?" Lance immediately got back onto his feet to catch up with me. "I just got here, can't you at least let me rest? I traveled through the forest for you. I tripped on a tree root for you. And I even fell into a poisonous river for you!" Lance got in front to block my path and pushed his hands up into the air, one hand held his soaked helmet. I simply stepped to the side and proceeded to walk.
"It wasn't poisonous. And stop whining, we still need to find Shiro." I said.
He groaned from behind me but silently complied as he followed. I could tell he was pouting even though I couldn't see it.
"How are we even going to find him? For all we know he could've crashed on the other side of this planet!" Lance said.
"I'll try contacting him again through our coms." I said looking at him, he was shaking his helmet around in a not so gently way. Doing so as to remove any unwanted water that it got from his fall at the river.
"Yeah, yeah you do that while I dry my helmet. My coms could be now damaged unless this Althean tech is waterproof." he said continuing to jerk it.
I walked further away with my back turned to him again.
"Hello? Shiro? Are you there? It's Keith, I have Lance here with me. If you can hear me please contact us back." I said while I stare through the visor.
I waited for a response. Silence filled along with the noises Lance was making. I sighed as nothing came and returned to Lance's side.
"Nothing," I told him a frown. "It's already getting dark. We need to find a place to set up camp." I said looking at the darkened sky, it would seem evening was fast approaching. A few more dobashes and it'll be a black sky filled with distant stars. It won't be safe to continue venturing through this unknown forest in the dark and it will be hard to see with no source of light.
"Should we like camp near one of the lions? Wouldn't that be safer in case something jumps out of the bushes and attacks us. Maybe Blue or Red would come in for our rescue." Lance suggested.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." I agreed.
"Of course it is, it's actually a great idea because I'm the one who thought of it!"
"Let's just get going before we can't see anymore." I rolled my eyes and began to walk the direction back to Red.
"Whoa! Where are you going?" I looked at Lance to see him put a hand on his hip while the other held his now drying helmet.
"Um, to Red? Didn't you just suggested we camp there?" I asked my face contorting into confusion.
"I meant we should go to Blue." Lance said. I was about to argue but, "She's closer, you said it yourself a while ago that you've been walking for three vargas. There is no way I'm walking that long, in the dark, in an unknown planet!" he said making a very good point. "We're going to Blue. I still remember where I walked through so we are going this way. It's not that far, come on." he pointed to the direction past the river from where he came from.
"Fine," I huffed.
I just wanted to check on Red. But he's right she's a long distance away from where we were at this moment. I don't think I will be able to navigate well through the woods with it almost being nighttime.
We began to walk back to the river. Lance on the lead while I followed him from behind. I could walk beside him but I don't think he'd appreciate that as we still have this rival thing going on. I'm not entirely sure why and how it even started. So we travelled in silence, there were no cricket sounds nor any leaves rustling. Just the sound of our feet taking careful steps on the ground.
"Quiznack it's already dark." Lance cursed.
"Don't our suits have any flashlights installed?" I asked.
I have no idea if we do have flashlights. We haven't exactly been on a mission where it became a necessity. And even if we did have one in our paladin suits, I have no clue of how to summon it to our aid right now.
"Right, uh...how do we use it?" Lance asked. "Should we like think of it to just come out like with our shields and jetpacks? Or there might be some Althean trigger word for it." he asked and began uttering Althean words.
I have no absolute idea what each one meant, he probably said an Althean cursed word without noticing. Most were from ones I've heard from Allura and Coran, especially Coran.
"I don't think we're gonna get anywhere with you repeating 'quiznack' for the fifth time." I began to walk away.
"Hey, atleast I'm trying!" he argued as he ran to my side.
"We can figure it out on the way. We're almost at the river I can hear the sound of the stream." I said and looked up to the darkened sky. "Why couldn't there be any moon for light." I silently complained.
Soon we were now at the river. We both first stared at it for a few ticks before I decided to cross it first. Stepping into the cold streaming water. It wasn't that dangerously deep as I anticipated, it only reached above my knees. If it wasn't so wide I could've tried to jump over it but it was like the width of two and a half cemented roads put together.
Lance and I said nothing as we continued to walk through the body of water. It was now completely dark and the only amount of light we had were those little light blue things on our paladin suits that are constantly glowing. Therefore I could barely see a thing precisely, making it quite a challenge to be careful as I walked through the bloody water. I took a step and wasn't expecting to loose my footing. Something slippery was beneath what I stepped on which made me slip as expected. I braced myself to fall on my back and get submerged into the water, but instead I felt two strong arms holding onto me. My eyes shut close. A huge part of me refused to open my eyes and look at him in the eyes. Still that idiotic part of me slowly made my eyes open to look at Lance looking back at me.