Biding Time

[Sarath Crescent]

"Lord Sarath!" Lefina's voice seemed to break as it joined the cries that went up round the room. The wolfess slid from her bed and rushed across the ward towards the room Tallulah and Frezul had taken him. She pushed past the other two who had helped carry him and came to an abrupt stop just behind Tallulah. "No...Tallulah, what's wrong with him?! If only I..."

She looked down at her injured hand and shut her eyes tight before looking back up at Sarath. He was totally out cold, his head rolled to one side and his jaw hanging open slightly. The scratches in his neck and lower muzzle were deep, definitely caused by a set of claws and from the way they were laided out, definitely self inflicted.

What was strange was the gentle, almost un-noticeable red glow that surrounded the edge of each gash. Lefina blinked, edging slightly closer and pausing. "That...can't be..."

[Celes Islay]

Cell pulled a face that was would have made her look like she was trying to eat a raw over salted egg whilst having her toe claws pulled out. Had she been able to she would likely have spouted off a string of obsenities that would have made even the rudest person blush. This was just her luck. How was she supposed to get past octopus features and rock head?

The feline paused for a moment to consider her options. She couldn't rightly drop into the room and surprise them, she had nothing to surprise them with anyway. Besides then they'd know she was an escaped prisoner...perhaps she could fool them otherwise.

She scooted back in the air duct, moving back to the previous air vent that hung over the corridor outside the room. She peered through the grill, the corridor was empty from what she could see. Slowly she pulled the grill back and moved it to the side before poking her head through the hole so she could get a better look at the corridor, there was nobody there.

Jumping at the chance she threw herself over the edge and dropped into the corridor, landing with a quiet grace that only a feline could manage. She looked over at the door to the store room, she hoped this worked. She didn't recognise the two in the room which meant that they might not recognise her as an escaped prisoner...at least she hoped so if only for a little while. Not only that but she knew the ship had taken on extra crew members from other ships so there were a few new faces around...she hoped this would be enough to convince them that she was on their side.

She laced her fingers, settling her nerves as she crossed over to the door. She remembered the code from when she had been brought here before, Cell had a picture perfect memory. Raising her hand she tapped the code into the door lock and pressed the open button...she just hoped she wasn't throwing herself to the wolves.

[Tallulah Sonne]

Frezul seemed way ahead of Lefina, inspecting the wound quickly but with seemingly unmatched preciseness. The hooded figure glanced, or at least turned, his veiled face to Tallulah who slowly nodded.

"I think... Lefina is right. There was something... she and I were involved with earlier this daybreak. Our lordship must have mistakenly exposed himself to it when we were attacked."

Frezul only continued to stand in silence without moving. Tallulah moved close to where she assumed his ear was and what next she had to say came in a deathly whisper.

"...It was a foreign power. A mystical one found here. It grants many things in this world. But that's as much knowledge as the whole of the creatures on Earth know themselves."

Tugging a gloved hand under his chin, Frezul nodded here and there, froze, and then nodded again. He pointed towards the nearby cabinet and made a sign. Tallulah set to work immediately, ripping open the doors and digging through bottle after bottle until she found what he'd asked for. In the meantime, Frezul quickly set to cleaning out the raw wounds. He only stopped once and that was to give an earnest gesture to Lefina.

_____

As the door opened, the two creatures --for that was the most accurate way to describe such strangely distorted looking beings-- quickly looked over their shoulders. They both froze as she entered. The octocular alien briefly and swiftly dropped whatever it was holding behind itself and slid it with humorous obviousness back into a half open box lain on the floor.

"Hey... @#$. What you do here?"

A mix of common and its own tongue mixed towards the end of the octisnak's question. A few of its tenacles' heads were facing in the direction of its rocky partner. Words could barely be heard between the two.

"Stupid fur. Always make best."

"What we do? Sarath. Punish."

[Sarath Crescent]

Sarath was still out cold but the curious glow around his wounds was now slowly starting to fade like a sun sinking below a horizon. As it did the far extremeties of Sarath's body began to twitch lightly, his fingers, the tip of his tail. Nothing that could be conceived as a fit but certainly movement.

Lefina yipped slightly in a very canine manner as he did so, covering her mouth a moment later with both hands. As she lowered them she gave a small nod and spoke. "It is the same colour..." she went quiet again and moved to the side of the bed, clasping one of Sarath's hands in her own.

[Celes Islay]

Cell couldn't help but grin slightly, the reaction had been even better than she had expected. Taking a step into the room she looked at the two occupants of the room and pulled an overly curious face as she slipped herself into a role playing frame of mind.

"What do we have here eh?" she said with a slighlty patronising tone to her voice, "Thought you could rummage through the good without getting caught did you? You know Cell should report this...she could get few privilages for turning in a couple of thieves."

She stepped forwards again, stopping next to the table. The fact that both of them were larger than her didn't seem to bother her in the slightest as she continued. She leaned against the table and turned to the side slightly.

"But if Cell did that she'd miss out on the treasure herself. How about a deal? Cell keeps her mouth shut and we all get a piece of the treasure?" Cell looked down at her paw, flexing her claws slightly before looking up with a devious expression on her face.

[Tallulah Sonne]

Tallulah returned with the bottle as Frezul finished his cleansing. Pulling a drawer, he plucked out a syringe and swiped on a clean end. The tigress handed him the jar he had requested and he tucked the tip in, filling the syringe with its dark, almost violet fluid. He handed the bottle back before injecting the chemicals into the vein he had prepared prior.

"Don't worry. It'll drive off the pain. And, hopefully, dilute whatever magical energies that he's succumbed to."

Frezul just nodded as he disposed of the needle and handed off the syringe to Tallulah who set off to sterilize it. In the meantime, the hooded one set to stitching the deepest of Sarath's wounds. Tallulah returned soon after to help dress the rest of them.

_______

The two looked at each other first, mutterings of an uncommon tongue flowing between them. Then, the octisnak finally turned back towards Celes, its tentacles grinning.

"Good."

They continued as they were, although a fleeting glance fell on the feline here and there. For the most part, however, it seemed like they were relatively caught up in their own little worlds as they scavenged through the cellar.

[Sarath Crescent]

Sarath relaxed, his body letting out a short sigh as he fell unconcious again. The glow around his wounds was now virtually gone, only the deepest part of the cuts now sparkling. Lefina watched from the foot of the bed, her hands clasped together lightly as she watched Tallulah and Frezul go to work.

For a moment she waited stood and waited before the look of horror on her face slowly change to determination. She turned round, glancing back over her shoulder. "Tallulah, inform me at once as soon as his Lordship awakens. I have to find out more about that power source...if it poses any long term threat to his Lordship's health then we have to know."

Turning on the spot Lefina quickly left the room, striding across the medical bay and out the opposite door. "With Roxanna bed bound I have to work this out...I have to..."

[Celes Islay]

Cell grinned to herself, she couldn't believe her sharade had actually worked! Stepping forwards she gave both of her new 'freidns' a sly look and then dived into the box of treasures in front of her. She knew hwere her stuff was, unless someone had moved it, but she didn't want to arrouse their suspicions. So for a moment she simply rummaged through the random junk in front of her, examining an odd item here and there before tossing it to the side.

There were certainly some odd items amongst the prisoners possessions. She couldn't even begin to imagine what half of them were but she couldn't afford to waste time examining every last one of them. Slowly she shifted her way to the side, turning to face a wall of storage lockers. She raised her paw, sliding it along the array of lockers with a pondering look on her face. She did this a few times before she rested her paw on one inparticular and opened it.

Inside were a number of items, a set of matching bracelets, a bulky hip bag containing a small laptop, a backpack with a number of itemsand last, but certainly not least, a thick circular metal disk. Cell smiled like a cat who had gotten the cream, it was all there.

She picked up the disk and the bracelets, glanced over her shoulder and then dropped them all. Grumbling to herself she picked up the bracelets, stepping back onto the disk with her right foot as she did. There was a faint metalic click as the disk clipped into place in a circular hole in the base of Cell's shoe. She quickly snapped both bracelets closed round her wrists, holding them up to examine them.

At this time the inside of Cell's glasses came alive, reems of data streaming past her eyes. A large red targetting retical popped up, the message 'synchro complete' blinking a few times before the message faded and the retical shrunk to the bottom corner of her glasses.

She swung round, grinning at her two room ocupants as she hoisted both of her newly found bags onto her shoulder. "Pleasure doing business with you, later." Cell gave them both a short fake salute and moved towards the door.

[Tallulah Sonne]

Tallulah nodded towards Lefina before returning her attention to Sarath. A few minutes of careful wrapping later and she had completed her task. While Frezul made for another quick check over, Tallulah glanced up from her work and wiped her brow. She gazed at the hooded figure beside her.

"I'm going to check on the others now. I should return shortly."

One nodding response later and she was heading out of the room. Her eyes traced around the pained and frightened faces of those injured, searching for Tarisa, as she walked along slowly, steadily... A wince of pain and Tallulah almost met the floor. Hands from above slowly steadied her and she looked up.

"Take care of yourself. How many moments will I have to spend whispering before you understand that?"

The cougar holding her drew no smile, no surprise, no worry at all in his face save in his green eyes. And even then, only someone who had known him long enough would come to notice it. If they could even see his eyes behind his messy mane. He didn't even bother to ask as he slipped an arm under her knees and another around her back, lifting her up off of the floor.

"Andrue, please! Leave me as I was! I have yet to complete my work!"

But the rugged feline simply ignored her pleas, taking a few strides over to a sick bed before dropping her down onto it gingerly. She stared at him hard but knew better than to resist. A few onlookers chuckled at the scene. Andrue knelt and inspected her right calf. It had become swollen and red from neglect and blood had continued its course down the open wound. The cougar gripped it tightly but with reasonable awareness.

"Not like this. Tarisa. I'll find her after this."

[Sarath Crescent]

Lefina hurried on down the corridors, her mind going over and over the data she had collected before. None of it made sense, this new energy was completely different to anything she had seen before....except...what if...?

Lefina never had a chance to finish her sentence as she turned a corner and ran smack straight into someone coming the other way at a run. The wolfess landed with a thud, crying out as her injured body hit the ground. She rolled onto her side, looking up with a furious expression at who she had just collided with.

"What where you're going to great oaf or so help me I'll..." Lefina gave a short 'huff', she couldn't let herself get angry, not right now. "Right! Whatever you're doing has just been revoked! Get to the medical bay and help out, you just became a temporary nurse! Lord Sarath is injured, now hop to it!"

She pulled herself from the ground and dusted herself off. Now at a firm walk she headed off down the corridor.