Ral'fen was in a pretty miserable state. He was in a lot of pain, and both his hands were useless after that oversized mound of muscle managed to sneak up on him and shatter the bones in both hands. He'd wasted far too much time trying to kill the welp, and that nasty trick she'd played on him at the end in her gambit to survive had cost him everything.

Ral'fen looked up at his current jailer. It was the guard he'd knocked out when he'd made his bid for the girl's life. Lack'nul was his name. Right now, he was looking at the prisoner like he'd prefer returning the favor to standing guard. Maybe Ral'fen could use that to his advantage.

After looking around like he was confused, Ral'fen turned to his guard. "Hey, I gotta relieve myself. Could you give me a hand?" To emphasize why he'd need assistance, the assassin held up his two broken hands.

Lack'nul's smile definitely had a cruel edge to it as he shook his head. "Too bad. I guess you'll just have to mess yourself."

Ral'fen shrugged. "If you say so. I just figured you wouldn't want to be stuck in a room that smelled like shit. But if you don't mind..."

Lack'nul started to look like he was questioning his previous decision. Ral'fen had to hide a smile when the guard's voice told him all he needed to hear despite the suspicious look in his eye. "What kind of help do you need?"

Ral'fen looked down at his pants. "Well, I can't get these off in my current state. So all you gotta do is untie them, and I'll take care of the rest. Then, once I'm done, you'll just have to haul the bucket out of here."

The guard hemmed and hawed like he hadn't made up his mind, but Ral'fen knew he'd already wone. "Besides, what can I do to you with two broken hands while also having my arms tied up?"

Eventually, the guard shook his head, his disgust clearly evident. "Fine, but don't try anything stupid, or you won't live to regret it! Now stand up and raise your arms!"

Ral'fen clumsily got to his feet and raised his arms like he'd been instructed. Then, when the guard moved in, he brought both arms down, pinning the two of them close. Before the guard's confusion could fade, he bit Lack'nul's neck as hard as he could.

Of course, the guard quickly overpowered Ral'fen, picking him up and throwing him bodily across the room. When he hit the ground, and his hands slammed into the dirt floor, a new searing pain nearly made the assassin blackout. But, by force of will, he kept himself awake so he could sneer at his jailer. "Keep getting outwitted by me, and you'll be out of a job! Of course, if you were any good at your job to begin with, neither of us would be here now!"

Lack'nul roared and charged the assassin, slamming him against the wall. Ral'fen just kept up the taunting tone of voice. "Oh, come on. What are you going to do? We all know the only reason you're here at all is because the old man in charge of this outpost's guards has a soft spot for you from your time together at the gate, but somehow you're even more incompetent than he is!"

Lack'nul's eyes were filled with murderous rage. With any luck, Ral'fen's stay in this prison was nearly at an end. As the guard drew his claws back, an icy voice shouted a command. "Drop the cur right now!"

Reason came back into the guard's eyes, and his expression clearly stated that he realized he'd messed up...again. He dropped the assassin and stepped back, standing as straight as he could while looking forward. "Ah, sorry, Lady S'haar! I don't know what I was thinking!"

S'haar limped into the room. Clearly, her leg had been injured. As she looked at the guard, her expression eased just a little. "You thought what we all do, that his pathetic excuse for an assassin deserves death. But he's not getting off that quickly or easily."

She looked over at the guard's bleeding neck. "Go get yourself treated. We'll take it from here."

The guard looked confused. "We...?"

That was when the hunter chief of the outpost walked in. He had an abundance of knives and other tools. "I visited Tel'ron and Fae'en to see if they had any tools that might aid us with our 'questioning.' Turns out they were more than happy to help, and I got a few good ones here I can't wait to try out!"

Despite the hunter's exuberance and showmanship, Ral'fen was utterly focused on S'haar. She was glaring at him quietly, and he could feel the rage and malice she exuded from every inch of her body. This wasn't the same anger the guard had displayed earlier. This was colder and crueler than anything he'd encountered before. Still, maybe he could use that to his advantage.

Ral'fen Smirked and looked at S'haar's injured leg. "What's the matter? Negotiations with the villagers didn't go so well?"

Lon'thul crouched down next to the assassin and smirked. "Oh, negotiations went great! It was the mated pair of wolgen that complicated things. S'haar went toe to toe with one by herself for several minutes while the rest of us took care of the other. She might have taken a hit or two, but she's still standing, and they're both dead."

S'haar looked down at Ral'fen for a moment before speaking to Lon'thul as she reached for a knife. "Get him on his feet."

Ral'fen smirked as he was pulled hastily upward. "Aren't you going to ask any questions before we get started? I thought that was the whole purpose of keeping me alive this long?"

S'haar finished inspecting the knife, then looked Ral'fen in the eyes. "Anything we get out of you right now will only be lies and taunts. So for tonight, I figured we'd just skip the questions and just give you a glimpse into the foreseeable future. If you're very fortunate, we might start asking you questions as early as tomorrow..."

Ral'fen winced back as the hunter started tapping the blade of some sort of woodworking tool against the assassin's chest plate. Ral'fen imagined the look the hunter directed his way was probably the last thing many animals saw before the end...

-

Jack was easing into bed when S'haar came into the room. After Jack's umpteenth "near-death" experience earlier and S'haar's activities with the would-be assassin, neither was in the mood for anything other than a bit of closeness to the other. Once Jack was adequately covered so his leg wouldn't get cold and cramped during the night, S'haar crawled in and pulled him close. The two of them sat like that for several minutes, neither saying a word but still communicating volumes.

Eventually, S'haar relaxed her hold, and Jack eased a little bit of blood flow back into limbs that were getting dangerously close to falling asleep. As she watched him stretch and move, S'haar smiled. "I know I said it earlier, but thanks for what you did back there. With everything going on lately, we haven't had much time alone, and it started to feel like a distance was beginning to grow between us. It means a lot that you reached out to close the distance a little."

Jack smiled wanly as he flexed his wrist. "Well, I had a bit of sense knocked into me today, first one way, then another. I've been so caught up with what might happen in the future that I've neglected what's happening in the present."

Jack sighed. "When this all began, my goal was to repair the ship and leave, but my desires shifted over time. For a while now, my brain and heart have been pulling in different directions, One pushing to return where I came from, the other wanting to embrace what I've found here. It's just taken me some time, and an argument or two, to reunite the two and let go of one of those goals."

S'haar looked at him quizzically, hiding a small smile behind mock seriousness. "So, what did you decide?"

Jack leaned into S'haar, who welcomed him back with a hug as he continued. "As if there was any doubt, I'm staying here. This is my home, these" Jack waved out toward the outpost, "are my people, and you, Em'brel, and Angela are my family. There's nothing up there that means even a fraction as much as what I have down here."

The smaller man felt himself being squeezed tight enough he knew he'd have trouble breathing if it lasted too long, but as he expected, S'haar eased her grip after a moment. "So then, if this camp isn't about escaping this planet anymore, what is it?"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "I don't think it's been about that for a while now. Like I said, it took my brain a little time to catch up with where my heart's been leading it. I'd like to make the facade real. Turn this into a proper permanent village of its own."

Jack could feel S'haar's confident grin even without looking as she spoke. "I think that might be possible..."

A few more moments passed in comfortable silence before S'haar spoke again. This time her voice held just a hint of mischief. "So you were still thinking of leaving the planet, huh? And what were you going to do with me? Leave me behind? Or were you going to bring the big scary barbarian female to the stars to show off to all your human friends?"

Jack knew that despite the jovial nature of S'haar's voice, his following words must be chosen carefully. "Well, as much as I'd like to show off my big scary girlfriend, I'd be too worried you'd fall for some other cute human out there. Instead, I was thinking about having Anglea freeze you and keep you in storage so I could thaw you out and have fun whenever it struck my fancy!"

The pillow that flew into Jack's face let him know that although he'd pushed a button or two, S'haar was still playing along in good fun. "Oh, you were going to imprison me, were you? Maybe it's time I remind you that I'm the alpha predator in this relationship!"

Jack grinned as the energy of the night seemed to be shifting in a new direction. "Oh, we both know that I might fall behind at first, but you'll be begging for mercy in the end!"

S'haar flashed a toothy smile as she pounced. "Bold words, now prove them!"

-

Grim was following his new mom around like usual. Right now, she was picking up lots of small eating surfaces and moving them into one spot. She let Grim lick the last bits of food the other pack members had neglected before she submerged them in the bad-smelling water and pulled them out with less attractive scents on them. That was ok though. Grim was starting to learn the scents would return with more scraps to be cleaned later. He'd just have to be patient.

Once he was done licking the surfaces, he knew his mom would be submerging the surfaces for a while, so he went to check on the other new pack member still in the room, the one who was hurt.

Grim could smell the fear/pain on the small pack member. He remembered experiencing that same fear/pain not long ago himself when his first mom had pushed him away and stopped feeding him.

It hadn't happened quickly. At first, life had been good. Mom and dad would leave, and Grim would play with his brother and sister until they returned. Then mom would feed them, and they'd sleep. That had been life for forever. But then mom started running out of food before Grim was full, and the play fights with his brother and sister had become real fights for who got to eat their fill. Grim lost these fights by a little at first, but over time his brother and sister grew bigger than Grim, and he lost them quicker and harder. Soon he started sneaking around to get his food while they slept until his mom had started pushing him away too.

It was just a little after that time that his new pack had found Grim. At first, Grim had been sure he was going to die like his brother and sister had. After all, they were so much bigger and stronger than Grim, but they'd died. What could Grim do? But instead, his new pack fed Grim and took him with them. They even gave Grim his new name.

But now, this new pack member had the same pain/fear Grim had gone through. Maybe her mom had abandoned her too, and Grim's new pack adopted her the way they had him. Perhaps she was still scared and lonely and didn't realize this pack meant safety.

Well, Grim was going to do his best to show her the same care his new mom showed him. He came over to the hurt/scared one and nudge her with his nose to say "Hi."

The female flashed her teeth at Grim. At first, Grim had thought showing teeth was a threat like it was from his brother and sister, but eventually, he realized teeth often meant food or scritches in his new pack. There were many new things to get used to, but food and scritches made it fun to learn.

After accepting Grim's greeting with her teeth, the new pack member began following through with the promise of scritches, and Grim settled in, resting his head in her lap as she groomed him.

More than anything, this was Grim's job. When he came to pack members and let them scritch him, he could feel their fear/anger decrease, so Grim spent as much time as possible going from one pack member to the next, getting scritches in the process.

His mom and the new pack member sang at each other as Grim performed his duty. Eventually, the fear/pain decreased, and the new packmate calmed down. Grim was just about to fall asleep when he noticed his mom finished her task and started heading for the moving wall that led outside.

Grim hopped up to follow his mom but immediately felt a spike in the new pack member's fear/pain. She sang at his mom, who sang back. Grim wasn't sure what the songs meant, they were so much more complex than the rumblings of his old family, but the fear/pain was clearly growing.

Finally, wanting to add his own voice to the song, Grim offered a whimper to his mom before looking at the other female. Trying to explain the fear/pain to his mom so she could fix it for the new pack member like she did with Grim.

There was more singing, but it was softer this time. Finally, both his mom and the new packmate started walking in a different direction, and Grim followed.

They passed one moving wall that smelled like the pack matron and the small squishy male. The matron was scary but offered safety to the pack. She radiated a confident danger like Grim's old mom and dad had, but she only punished grim with a flick to the nose when he did something he shouldn't, like play too rough or bite.

The squishy male was fun. He invented all sorts of cleaver hunting games, like chasing the stick or find the hidden treat. He also smelled of pain/fear sometimes, but not as strong as the new pack member. Maybe this was a pack of healing.

They walked through a different moving wall, but this one led to a smaller den than the first room. The new packmate climbed up onto a soft raised nest, and Grim's mom made another nest on the ground by the door. Once she was settled in her nest, Grim cuddled up next to his mom, so they could share heat.

They stayed that way for a while, with his mom and the new packmate singing back and forth. Eventually, the new packmate must have overcome her fear because she left her nest and sat down next to grim, placing him between his two packmates. She reached over and held onto grim, and after a while, her breathing eased, and she fell asleep.

In her sleep, she squeezed Grim tight from time to time. Once during the night, her fear/pain spiked, and she cried out in her sleep. Grim licked her face until she woke up. She was startled at first, but as was his duty, Grim laid his head in her lap, and the new packmate scratched it. Soon, her fear/pain started to fade again, and after a while, she was able to go back to sleep. His duty complete once again, Grim fell back to sleep as well.