Kita'thalla Ch. 10

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Bowoodstock
Bowoodstock
1,739 Followers

Eric frantically scanned the ground, looking for the glint of metal that might be his sidearm. Nothing! Realizing his opponent was coming after him again, he drew his knife, wearily taking a stance as he tried to ignore the stabbing pain each time he inhaled. The ketral paused for a moment, evaluating the weapon before throwing his head back and laughing, yelling something in ketrali before lunging. Eric thrust forward, attempting to block the swipe aimed at his left side with his free hand as he jammed the knife into the side of the charging alien. Even as he felt the blade penetrate, searing pain blazed across the left side of his face as the weight of the clawed strike proved too much to block. His left leg went numb as the alien kicked it out from under him, smashing him to the ground with its shoulder.

Lying on the ground completely stunned, Eric dimly heard the alien laughing before he found himself in the air again, suspended by his neck from one massive fist before he was slammed back into a tree, stars dancing across his vision. Hanging limp, he was unable to move or speak as the ketral leered at him, flexing his other clawed fist.

"Weak...human." The alien taunted him in broken English, its foul breath washing over Eric's face as it casually removed the knife from its stomach, the wound gushing blood for a moment before beginning to heal up. "Brave...yes...but weak. Stupid." He tossed the knife aside and drew a single claw in a circle over Eric's chest. "Now, you die. Watch as eat heart. Best when fresh..." the alien laughed cruelly, drawing his open fist back, claws fully extended for the final fatal strike. Time seemed to slow as Eric could do nothing but stare back at the savage face. No...this couldn't be it, could it? He still had to save Kita. There was no way in hell he'd let her be taken by this monster. Move Eric. He tried move his arm, lift his hand and pry the claws around his neck away, but his arms hung limp at his sides, somehow useless as the alien prepared to finish him. The Ketral laughed at his weak struggling as he plunged his claws forward and...

Eric's vision exploded into a sea of red. Eric slumped to the ground against the tree, utterly confused as he felt the alien keel over, nearly falling on top of him. As his vision cleared, he saw that the alien's head was missing. What in the...? Eric stared at the body before realizing his ears were ringing with the echo of a very loud noise. Slowly turning his gaze away from the corpse, he finally caught sight of Kita lying prone some 20 feet away, his pistol clenched tight in her shaking hands. Her gaze locked with his, and he gave a weak grin before a wave of pain washed over him, his adrenaline rush finally dying down and unable to block out his injuries. Dimly he registered his name being yelled before his eyes rolled back and he blacked out.

+++++

For the twentieth time since returning to the cave, Kita checked again to see that Eric was still breathing. Yes, he was still alive. He'd moved a few times, but hadn't given any indication of coming to. Tearing her gaze from his limp body, she once again searched the medical supplies scattered around his backpack for anything else she could do for him. Some of the things in there had been very obvious in their purpose, and she'd used them to the best of her abilities, but the drugs and the surgical tools...she only had a basic knowledge of ketral physiology, so attempting to do anything of that nature on a human was way out of her reach. Thankfully, with the exception of his face, he didn't seem to have any other severe injuries, but...without the regeneration ability she possessed, she had no idea how he'd handle that even. And what if there was something she'd missed?

Realizing she was panicking again, she took a moment to calm herself down, watching the rising and falling of his chest for a moment before yet again berating herself, her mind a jumble of thoughts. She had been so stupid. After running into Turvan in the forest, she'd completely pushed Eric out of her mind. It was her fight, she had to deal with it her way, and leave him out of it. Eric had been mentioned once or twice, but still, it had never occurred to her what would happen to him if she'd lost. Never mind what would happen if he'd gotten involved on his own accord. Which he had, and then he'd nearly gotten himself killed and it was her fault and she'd never be able to tell him how she felt if he died and...

He'd saved her. In more ways than one.

Most of the fight was an incoherent blur, right up to the point where Eric had found them. Even then, she could only remember parts of it. She'd heard the gunshot, stopping Turvan from.... Eric had fired again, but then she'd heard him yell, meaning he'd clearly missed. Somehow, his weapon had appeared on the ground near her. She didn't remember how it had wound up in her hands. The next thing she knew, Eric was in trouble, pinned to the tree, and she'd seen Turvan's ugly face sighted along the barrel of the pistol, and without thinking she'd pulled the trigger. And then she saw Eric's face, completely covered in blood and gore, smiling at her for a moment before passing out. She might have been yelling at that point, she wasn't sure. Thankfully, the damage Turvan had inflicted on her was more painful than it was debilitating, and with her regeneration taking care of most of it she'd been able to carry Eric back.

At first she was beside herself. He was covered in blood, and wasn't moving at all. Midway through tearing apart his medical kit, she'd calmed down enough to realize that much of the gore was from Turvan's skull, and she finally started thinking clearly enough to do something worthwhile. She'd run faster than she could ever remember to the river, almost forgetting to retrieve the canteen from the fight scene on her way there. Returning, she'd managed to clean off most of the blood, and was finally able to see the true extent of his injuries, which were worse than she'd hoped but better than she'd feared. She'd done the best that she could without the help of his advanced knowledge, cleaning out the wounds and stopping most of the bleeding but...the end results weren't going to be pretty.

"Oww..."

She jumped, startled by the groan before she realized he was coming to. Sure enough, he opened his eyes, if only slightly, his eyes flicking around before finally focusing on her.

"...you okay?" he mumbled, still looking at her.

She was only able to nod, overwhelmed with mixed emotions.

"S'good." he replied, swallowing to clear his mouth. His eyes flicked downward for a moment before returning to her face. "Why are you naked?"

Kita couldn't help but start laughing, even as tears started pouring down her face. Of all the things for him to bring up in a situation like this. But it meant that he was alert, and that was a good sign. He watched her for a moment, letting her get herself under control before he spoke again.

"How bad is it?"

That put a damper on things. Kita looked down at the ground, unable to meet his gaze. She'd been dreading that question. "I..." she finally spoke, her voice uneasy. "I tried to do what I could. He got you pretty badly."

"Is that why the left side of my face hurts like hell?" he asked, wincing as spoke. He vaguely remembered the fight, it seemed like an eternity ago.

She nodded.

"In my survival kit, there's a mirror." he told her, indicating his pack with a slight move of his head. "I need to see."

Kita found the mirror after a few seconds of searching, handing it to Eric when he reached out, the first real movement since waking up. Eric held it up in his right hand, pulling back the gauze pad she'd affixed to cover the wound with his left and surveyed the damage.

Four parallel gashes ran diagonally down the side of his face towards his chin. Two of them had mangled his left ear. All things considered, he was actually lucky. A little lower and the lowest claw would have sliced open his jugular, and he was incredibly lucky none of them had taken his left eye or punctured his oral cavity either. Kita had cleaned off most of the blood, and had used the elastic adhesive strips from his med pack to close the lacerations. Clearly the work of an amateur, he'd have nasty scarring, but she seemed to have done a well enough job that he wasn't going to risk taking them off to reapply them. There was also the risk of nerve damage, and he didn't want to mess around with that in the field and possibly make it worse. They could be regrown with treatment anyways, so there wasn't really much else he could do here.

Placing the mirror down at his side and replacing the gauze, he looked back at her. "Not a bad job. It'll heal eventually so..." he shrugged, but then winced again as he felt a spike of pain in his side. Oh, that's right, he'd done something to his ribs. He allowed Kita to help him into a sitting position, cringing as the motion jarred not only his side, but also his left leg. He rolled his eyes as he recalled the kick that had decked him. Being careful not to make any sudden movements that would worsen anything, he slowly rolled up the left leg of his pants, exposing a very large bruise covering most of his calf. Eric stared at it for a moment before looking back at Kita. "I need to figure out how bad this is. Can you hand me my scanners?"

It only took him a few more minutes to asses the damage. The leg was actually the least serious of his worries. The muscle was badly bruised, but it would heal on its own. As he'd suspected, 2 of his ribs were cracked, but thankfully there were no bone fragments that could cause damage to his lungs. Also, based on the throbbing headache, he guessed that he had a minor concussion. Throughout the self-exam, Kita had sat quietly, handing him anything he'd needed. Finally, after tossing back a dose of painkillers, he turned back to her, a storm of questions on his mind.

"Kita...before we talk any more, is there anything you need, while we have all this stuff..." he turned and finally noticed the disaster area around his med kit. "...out." he glanced back at Kita,who was now wearing a very sheepish look.

"I...think I'm okay." she replied, hastily attempting to restore some order to the scattered medical supplies. Eric had to stifle a laugh as she scrambled to clean up the mess, in part because it hurt too much to laugh with his busted ribs. "Worry about that later..." he finally said as she almost dropped something in a glass bottle. "Just...oh I don't know where to begin." he said, shaking his head. An awkward silence hung in the air

"I'm sorry." she finally said.

Eric sighed, looking out into the forest before turning back to her. "Don't worry. From the looks of it you were in trouble when I arrived. If I hadn't missed, he never would have gotten me, so I don't think it's really anybody's fault."

Kita shook her head. "I had a chance to kill him. But...I failed, and now you're hurt because of it." she said, looking at the ground completely ashamed, a far cry from her normal self. "You never should have had to get involved."

"If I didn't, things would be way worse than they are now for the both of us." he replied. "Just...who was that? I can't understand your language, but it was obvious that you two knew each other."

Kita was silent for a moment before looking back up at him. "Turvan. Turvan Kentalla Bakkal Ral Ketrali."

"What did he want with you? Other than the obvious I mean."

Kita shook her head. "The obvious is all he wanted. He was...or rather, he thought himself a potential mate."

"Is that really all?" Eric asked. "There's something you're not telling me."

Kita closed her eyes. "As you put it, I don't know where to begin. He's only part of a much larger picture."

"I see. I'm assuming the way he was taunting you means that there's more history between you two than just him being a potential suitor. Or him being one of your subordinates."

Kita was taken aback. "How, did you know he was...?"

Eric smiled grimly. "Back in your transport you pretty much told me you'd been sitting in that empty seat in the cockpit. It clearly didn't serve any function in piloting the craft, and it wasn't in the back with the rest of the soldiers. I didn't think of it at the time, but doesn't that position generally belong to a commanding officer?"

Kita opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. If he'd figured that out then...

"And on top of that..." Eric continued. "Our conversation on the war as a whole. I think I was the one who said it, that I was just a medic so I wouldn't know much of how things were going on my side, and you agreed. You then told me that you had a very clear view on how the big picture was going on your side. You also speak my language almost perfectly."

Kita simply nodded.

"Finally..." Eric finished. "Turvan was saying something to you over and over again. Chaska, I think it was? I've heard that name before." He stared at her for a few moments, his look unreadable. "Just who are you?"

Kita didn't say anything at first. She sat back against the wall opposite him, her nakedness completely forgotten by both of them as she thought about what she was going to say. Finally she met his gaze.

"I still don't really know where to begin, but I suppose this is as good a point as any to start. It will make the whole story easier to understand. You remember when I told you my name? It is a reflection of who I am and what I have been through, as I said. So it is part of the story. Chas'kaa however...is not part of my name. It's actually my rank."

Eric's eyes went wide. Kita gave a halfhearted laugh upon seeing this. "I see you've made the connection. Yes, that one." She took a deep breath before looking at him dead in the eye.

"I am Chas'kaa Kita'thalla Oretho Carotho Shas'elo a ko Ketrali. Translated, I am the rogue warrior Kita'tha, once of the Oreth cadre, Spine of the Caro, First daughter of former Prime Matriarch Shas'el, once of the Ko Cadre Union, the former Prime Union of Ketra. My rank is Commander of the 6th Ketrali Legion and leader of the Night Claws."

Bowoodstock
Bowoodstock
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52 Comments
AnonymousAnonymous3 months ago

At RANDOMDUDE9999, your tampon needs to be changed.

NICHOLXNICHOLX3 months ago

Great combat scene, voted five. Excellent.

AnonymousAnonymousover 1 year ago

Both are good characters and a medic not being proficient with a pistol or much of a fighter is understandable. Love it. 5 stars.

RANDOMDUDE9999RANDOMDUDE9999almost 2 years ago

I Always Laugh At Some Of The Anonymous Comment's. You Can Tell Who Has Served And Who Hasn't. Just Because A Medic Is Labeled A Combat Medic Doesn't Mean There Super Bad Ass And Going To Be Getting High Kills Or Be The Best. There Medics With Minimal Training To Protect Themselves. He Missed Of Course Because Of 2 Thing's. 1) He Didn't Want To Hit Kita. 2) He's A Medic With Medical Training To Save Lives Or Sustain Them Until They Can Be Sent To A Medical Facility. I Served For 6 Years Before A Few Wounds Ended My Career. But Still People Saying The Medic Should Die. Newsflash You Assholes He's A Fucking Medic. If He Was A Marine Or A Specialist Than Yes You Can Spout Your Bullshit. But He's A Fucking Medic You Go Serve Your Country As A Medic And See If Y'all Can Still Talk Your Bullshit After Being In A Combat Zone As A Medic. Also Some Of You Anonymous Fuckers Should Just Shut The Fuck Up. Not All Of You But The Ones That Like To Talk Shit Because Your Opinion Is Irrelevant Just Like You Are. If Your Too Much Of A Coward To Have A Name Then You Shouldn't Be Talking Your Shit. Like Said SOME NOT ALL. THANK YOU!!

Crusader235Crusader235about 2 years ago

Remember, Anon's are cowards, therefore their opinions don't mean Shit. Loving this series, Five Stars worth. Semper Fi.

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