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Anna ~ Don't let anyone dull your sparkle ~ & Maven's Queen
message 201:
by
Anna
(new)
Nov 10, 2019 01:34PM
Jarin just nodded. "It shouldn't be that big of a deal. We just moved here, according to the story I told the blacksmith, and it's a small town." He seemed a bit more relaxed at how the conversation wasn't an angry one-not yet, anyway.
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"Good. He shouldn't place too much pressure on you then." Dasha breathed a sigh, glancing ahead at the buildings they had passed only minutes before. She couldn't help but think how starkly different this was from the future. Somewhere a horse whinnied faintly, bringing her back to the moment. ". . . We should probably get out of this sun. Can't afford for either one of us to get heat stroke."
"Yeah. It shouldn't be too bad." Jarin rubbed his forehead, smearing a bit of dust across his sweat. "Where should we go, then? Wasn't...wasn't there a river around here where you got the fish? We could go swimming." He suggested.
Dasha's first instinct was to shoot down the idea, but she caught herself- and not wanting to be overly argumental - considered it a moment. It wasn't a horrible idea, and she figured she should at least try and make an effort to be somewhat agreeable. ". . . It's about a five minute walk from the shack we are at." She supplied. "I guess we could walk there." She agreed.
"It would keep us cool." Jarin offered, glad she seemed to agree. He gave her a genuine smile. "Wanna lead the way, then, since you've been there already?" He gestured around with his hands. Jarin never was good with direction, but he knew that he wasn't just going to let her know that, either. There was no point in trying to further embarrass himself.
Dasha shrugged, "sure." She answered in reply to his suggestion of her leading the way. She started off in the proper direction, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead with the hem of her sleeve. The river had a good cover of trees and she would be glad for the shade when they reached it.
Jarin walked beside her as they headed in the direction of the river. Once they were under some tree cover, the difference was drastic. It was still hot, of course, but without the piercing sun on top of them, it was a lot better. Jarin pulled his boots and socks off, setting them to the side."This bracelet thing better be waterproof, because you can't stop me from going swimming." He chuckled, pulling off his shirt and throwing it to the side. "And for your sake, I'll keep my lower half clothed." He smirked, stepping down into the current and letting out a sigh of relief.
Once under the shade of the trees Dasha found a well covered spot to sit in. She flopped down, more drained from the heat than she cared to admit to herself. ". . . It has withstood a near nuclear explosion before, I don't think a little water is going to hurt it." She merely rolled her eyes at his last statement, too tired to think of a smart remark or anything. Her eyes stopped on the makeshift bandages around his middle for a second, before she laid back, staring up at the thick canopy of leaves above as she tried to push aside the pang of guilt that suddenly sprung upon her. "Just try not to stay in there too long, it could increase chance of infection and I dont have much disinfectant left."
Jarin turned towards her, eyebrow raised. "Don't you want to cool down too?" He asked, pausing. The water was lapping at his midcalves by now. "I'll be fine. Now come on. You're just going to sit there? Swimming's fun!" And with that, he waded out further and slipped underneath the surface, letting himself ride down with the current a little bit further before popping back up and shaking the water from his hair.
"It would be too much of a bother and risk to remove everything on me that really should not touch water." Dasha answered in reply. The thick communication cuff hidden under her shirt sleeve was supppsedly waterproof, but it was old technology and she wasn't going to chance it, although it seemed pretty much useless right now she still held on to the hope that it might help them out of this situation . Aside from that she had a few other items and gadgets hidden on her person that she could not bring herself to leave sitting around outside of her direct contact for even a second. "Besides it's probably a good idea for someone to stay alert and keep watch- everything may be going fine so far, but I dont trust this time or the people here any farther than I could throw them."
"Alright, then. You're the only one missing out," Jarin said with a shrug. "And it is very kind of you to protect me. Not everyone usually wants to do that with a big oaf like me." He laughed a bit, almost carefree. Then he slipped back into the current and swam for a bit more, popping out every so often. Eventually he climbed back out into the bank, droplets of water shining on his bare muscular chest. Jarin stretched his arms, then went and flopped himself down on the grass nearby his things. The sun was hot enough where it would end up drying him quickly.
Dasha was about to state that she was merely protecting her own image and investment but the words were lost as he dissapeared under the water again before she could voice them. While he swam Dasha shifted between scanning the area, once again trying to get her communication cuff to work with no avail, and watching to make sure Jarin resurfaced. She was in the middle of trying to get the cuff to work again when the prince emerged from the water. She glanced up long enough to watch him plop down on the grass and then looked to the curved screen again. Just as the prior time she had tried it today, the loading screen stared back at her, the white circle spinning around and around tirelessly. In a few minutes it would give up and pop up with the same familiar error message that she had been receiving since the arrival here. She breathed a frustrated sigh and let her arm drop heavily back down to her side. It wasn't like she had really expected it to work, but it was still a disappointment. She wasn't used to feeling so helpless, it wasn't something she wanted to become familiar with.
Jarin glanced over at Dasha. She always seemed to be pressing buttons and tapping that strange cuff on her arm, to no avail. He stared up at the trees forming the little amount of shade there was, and finally sat back up. "So if that doesn't end up working, what will you do?" Jarin asked. "Since it doesn't seem to be doing anything at all, no matter how much you tap and press the buttons?" He watched her curiously.
"It's going to work." Dasha replied without hesitation. At this point that was what she had to believe. "It's just a matter of finding a strong enough signal in this dreadful time. We are much further in the past than those in my line of work tend to go . . . I guess to cut down maintenance cost this time and place is not serviced as heavily. One little shift in the wind could change the signal availability for a few minutes and that's all I need. It's going to be a matter of timing." She still didn't know why they ended up here of all times. It didn't make any sense. When time mechanisms malfunctioned they almost always sent to occupant to the last functioning location that was visited with it. Why would anyone have come here?
"If you say so," Jarin said, almost unbelieving her. He didn't really trust her at all, and it would be a lot nicer to just stay here and eventually fit in if that was possible. But she couldn't, so that was that. Jarin closed his eyes, letting himself drift off while she worked on that cuff.
Just as she had suspected the spinning white circle gave way to the all familiar error message. Dasha breathed a silent sigh, giving up for now and leaning back against the large tree she sat under, looking up to the sparse smattering of leaves blocking the sun which gave way to the gray blue sky above. She was beginning to get a headache, its origin unknown to her. It could be due to the heat, or stress, or lack of sleep, or even just from dealing with the prince. It was unlikely that it was truly the third option, but she wasn't ruling it out. What would she do if all of her resources and plans failed? No one would look for her here, heck no one would probably look for her to begin with anyway. For now she tried to push that aside, she was still believing that she would indeed get this sorted out. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to pretend that she was anywhere but here.
Just as she had suspected the spinning white circle gave way to the all familiar error message. Dasha breathed a silent sigh, giving up for now and leaning back against the large tree she sat under, looking up to the sparse smattering of leaves blocking the sun which gave way to the gray blue sky above. She was beginning to get a headache, its origin unknown to her. It could be due to the heat, or stress, or lack of sleep, or even just from dealing with the prince. It was unlikely that it was truly the third option, but she wasn't ruling it out. What would she do if all of her resources and plans failed? No one would look for her here, heck no one would probably look for her to begin with anyway. For now she tried to push that aside, she was still believing that she would indeed get this sorted out. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to pretend that she was anywhere but here.
Jarin opened an eye again, staring at her for a few minutes. "Why so glum? I thought I got this blacksmith job to make that piece so you can go home. Just have to wait a little bit instead of fiddling with that band."
Dasha opened her eyes once more and looked over to Jarin "Look, I'm not trying to questioning your abilities or anything, but that could very well take weeks or even months . . . The time mechanisms tend to be very finicky. It wont work unless it is exactly right." She pulled up a long blade of grass, idly twirling it between her fingers. "Something tells me a lot of trial and error is going to be at hand . . . for once I hope I'm wrong."
((I AM SO SORRY I THOUGHT I WAS WAITING FOR YOU!! I'm so sorry to keep you waiting--does this one still interest you now that I forgot to reply for two months?))
((It's alright, it happens. I've done the same thing before. I would love to continue with this one.))
Jarin's face tightened a bit as his muscles clenched. He didn't know why he wanted to please her so much, because she was the one who had captured him and almost turned him in. Most likely, she was still going to do that after even if she said she wasn't going to. Why trust her?"I mean, so much trial and error, we'd better just forget it all together. It's not like I couldn't just stay here anyway. Oh, by the way, I've already got a job that's not going to do anything at all since that's the whole reason I got it," he glared at her, standing up, and started stalking off towards the river's edge.
And just like that the mood shifted. Dasha resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead settled for clinching her teeth for a few seconds. This prince was so sensative one wrong word and cue the dramatics. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she needed to stay civil if she wanted a better chance of returning home. "I'm not saying it's useless," she said evenly, making no move to rise from her position under the tree. "I'm just saying it's probably not going to be as easy as you think. Statistically you should expect at least a couple failed attempts, this isn't a place of fiction where everything will just magically work out first try- this is reality."
Jarin grabbed a few stones from the riverbank's edge, making sure they were smooth and flat before sending them spinning into the current, skipping neatly across the river. As they sunk to the bottom, Jarin muttered, "I know it's not going to be that easy. I already know that there will be hundreds of failed attempts. And I most certainly know that this isn't just a place of fiction." He threw a rock harder, and the force caused it to sink immediately. "You're just being a jerk about it and assuming I don't have a brain to figure that out on my own. I know that things most likely won't work, or at least not until after several tries. That's all."
Dasha watched him from where she sat. Upon hearing his words she once again reminded herself that she needed to keep things as civil as possible- this meant doing something rare for her: staying quiet and not responding at all. . . even if it was difficult for her to hold her tounge. It was best to not add any fuel to the flame. Not even the prince would be able to manifest complaints or rants if there was no context to build them from.
Jarin continued throwing the rocks, listening to them plop into the river satisfactorily. He didn't really know why he got so angry all the time, but Dasha was just that sort of person. She could get him on edge so quickly. Really, his temper was just sort of something that he always got out of control. When he was little, his parents always told him how bad his temper was. Eventually, he sat down, wiping his muddy hands on his pants. His back was starting to bother him, and his attitude was pathetic. He couldn't go talk to Dasha because whenever he did, it seemed to take a turn for the worse. Even when he actually put effort into speaking kindly.
Dasha leaned back against the trunk of the tree, continuing to just watch for now. Her mind drifted elsewhere- back to her time and all the negative publicity that was sure to come from this. Would she be able to salvage her reputation in her profession? Although she didn't outright notice it, the longer she sat, the more drowsy she began to feel. It had to be from the heat, even in the shade it was draining her energy . . . Of course it probably didn't help any that she had gotten little sleep and the sound of the running water really didn't help matters.
Jarin tossed a handful of sand into the river, still annoyed and thinking over everything he had lost. Maybe it was his dumb fault to ever decide against becoming a king in the future. He just sorta wished that he had been born a regular person. He wouldn't be hunted, wouldn't have to listen to pathetic royal rules, and could just live a simple life. It would be so much better.
At some point Dasha's eyes must have closed and jumbled visions of her time in the future appeared and ran together incoherently as early stages of dreams usually do. No sooner than sleep enveloped her she was jostled out of it by a distinct buzzing and vibration at her wrist. Groggily she opened her eyes just slightly and raised the cuff she wore to see the notification there. Incoming chat request. It took a moment for the fact to register but when it did she sat bolt upright. She hadn't had a strong enough signal to send out one herself, but If it allowed her to accept it, this could very well be their way out of this dreaded time.
Jarin was too busy and preoccupied with his thoughts to hear Dasha moving or talking behind him. He just sat there, throwing whatever his hands could reach from where he was and threw it into the river.
Dasha took a quick glance over to where the Prince sat, still tossing various items into the river, just to check in on him. She looked back to the still buzzing communication cuff and took a deep breath before sliding her finger across the curved screen to accept it. She held her breath as the small hologram that projected from the surface of the cuff flickered and wavered until finally the pixels settled to form a familiar face. "Oh thank goodness, Monica I need your help." "Dasha?" The woman in the small holograph responded, "where are you? The signal I'm getting from you is acting all scrambled."
"I don't know how long this connection is going to hold so I'm going to get right to it; one of the time mechanisms failed and sent me to the wrong year. Something is wrong with the doorway here and I can not leave. From what I estimate its somewhere around the mid 1870s and under the 270th region. I need your help to get home."
Jarin threw a clump of dry grass into the river, followed by a large stick. Eventually he stood, annoyed with himself, and wandered back towards Dasha despite being angry with her. As he made his way over, the talking between the bounty hunter and holograph became clearer to his ears and he frowned."Dasha? You got it to work?" He asked, pausing a few feet away.
((I apologize in advance for this super long post, but I wanted to get this little scene done in one go instead of dragging it out.)) Dasha glanced over to Jarin momentarily and held up one finger to indicate that she would explain in a moment after this was sorted. "Wait, what was that?" The woman in the holograph questioned, the picture glitching momentarily before rearranging. "Do you have a charge with you?" When Dasha hesitated just a split second too long the woman had her answer. " . . . Oh my gosh, you do. That is hilarious." The woman at the other end began to laugh, "This is even better than I imagined."
"Alright, okay, I admit it, I screwed up. We can laugh all about it once I get back, but right now I really need you to focus and help me." Dasha stated in a dead serious matter.
"Oh Dasha, I'm afraid I can't do that." The woman stated as her laughter dwindled away into silence.
"What?" Dasha questioned immediately, "Of course you can, just contact the maintenance technician and- "
The woman in the holograph cut her statement off "I know I can, but I'm not going to." She supplied, her expression blank and unreadable.
"Alright." Dasha sighed "So you want money. How much? Name your price and it is yours. I'll give you anything, just help me out here." She supplied, a twinge of obvious desperation mixed into her words.
"Oh, darling, you are not getting this at all are you? . . . Your little misfortune here was no accident. That was completely of my own doing. That mission was fake, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist such an offer. With you out of the picture that leaves me as the best in the business." Dasha's expression went from slight despiration, to confusion, to betrayal, and finally settled into a stony and silent fury. "I was calling to see how my little plan worked out and to warn you of the repercussions I would personally inflict should you of found some way to return, but you have really sealed your own coffin for me by taking that charge with you. Everyone here is going to be informed that you have gone rogue and are on the run with a charge. There is going to be a bounty on your head so large that it is going to make all the other bounties out there look like pocket change."
"You are not going to get away with this! When I return I will set the record straight and everyone within the seven galaxies will know what you have done." She stated, her words sounding almost venomous.
"Right, well I suppose you can certainly try. But you and I both know you are on a tighter time schedule than most would be." Dasha's free hand clenched into a fist at her side, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm. The blonde holigraphic woman smirked and tossed her long hair over her shoulder. ". . . Well as much as I would love to continue this little chat I do have more important buisness to attend to . . . Oh, and Dasha, you might want to loose this communication cuff."
The holograph flickered one last time before disappearing completely. Dasha sat in brooding silence, still working on completely processing all that had just happened. She had completely forgotten about the prince's presence. After a few moments though, even that silence was interrupted as the communication cuff she wore began to suddenly spark, sending an electric current strong enough to make her gasp in pain and blur her vision up her arm. She scrambled to get it off, unable to prevent the string of curses that fell from her lips in the process. Once it was off she stood there - holding her now bare, blistered, and red wrist and stared down at the now useless curve of metal laying on the ground. Now she truly had no form for any communication out side of this time. The fact hit her like a ton of bricks and she felt as if she had forgotten how to breathe.
((That's fine! It's great!!))Jarin stood silently for once and listened to the entire scene unfold before him. If he understood what was going on, it meant...it meant they were trapped here. He wondered faintly why he thought it was a trap; after all, he didn't want to go back as bad as Dasha had wanted. But now that they were on their own here in the past, Jarin's heart felt like it had hit the bottom of his soul, empty and void.
He shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to say to Dasha. He kicked his boot in the dust, sending up little clouds, and frowned, glancing away from her and back towards the rundown town. He actually did feel bad for her, but if he said that, he was sure he would just end up saying the wrong thing.
Jarin raised his own wrist slightly, staring at his own metal band, now dead and connected to nothing. Dasha's band that had bound him closely to her had been destroyed, and he could leave. He could get as far away from Dasha as he wanted now. There was nothing holding him back. Yet he felt like he couldn't do that to her. Sure, he was stupid and not the greatest help, and he wasn't pleasant to talk to, but he still felt strange about leaving her in the past. Besides, he probably needed help living in this time period.
The sound of the prince's boot dragging against the ground reminded her of his presence. She took a few more seconds to gather herself- forcing a few deep breaths to be breathed in and out. She then forced herself to adopt a blank, unreadable expression and demeanor. She picked up the fried piece of technology and shoved it in her pocket before turning and facing the prince. "I suppose this means you are released from the bargain we struck." She spoke, her voice shockingly and void of any sort of emotion even given what had just happened. "I can not even offer you a safe return to your time anymore."
Jarin coughed slightly. "Um...got any way to get this off?" He asked, showing her the band around his wrist. He had already tried in the past and it had done nothing but cut into his skin. He added, "So what are you going to do? Both of us...from the future...we don't fit in here. Unless we stick together and try to work something out. If you want, I mean." Why did she care if he stayed? The idea was laughable. Even Jarin wondered why he was trying to figure out a way to stay with the one who had threatened his life.
"Unfortunately the only way to get it off short of cutting off your hand is typing a certain code into mine and since its fried . . ." Dasha let the statement trail off as there was no good way to finish that sentence but did offer a somewhat apologetic look. She took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "As much as I hate to admit it, you are right." She admitted. "We don't fit here, and that is only going to become more apparent as time passes . . . which means it would be best to continue on with trying to find a way back. At this point about our only option for obtaining a narrow chance at getting out of this time, or even just surviving, is to stick together. Neither of us have all the skills necessary to figure and work something out, but together we have a better chance at least . . ."
"I'm not cutting my hand off, that's for sure," Jarin said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "And besides, we're both going to stick out like sore thumbs. We can at least try. I've read a few books about this time period, so that's about all that I've got. Not much, I know. Hopefully we can pull it off long enough and stay safe." He shrugged, looking at her for an answer.
Dasha nodded, "That is about the only thing we can do." she agreed. She was silent a long moment, unsure of what to do from here. It didn't feel right to sit and do practically nothing when she knew both of their lives were on the line. . . and she certainly needed to do something rather than sit and obsess over what had just happened. " . . . I'm going to go and start gathering twigs and whatever else dry wood I can find for a fire tonight. It may be extremely hot now, but when that sun goes down, it's going to be freezing." She didn't wait for permission before walking off to start her search.
Jarin hesitated, then followed after her, stuffing his hands into his pockets as they walked. "I'm assuming we're not going to just be sitting out here at night, or that might appear unnatural, if you know what I mean." He bent over, grabbing a stick from the ground. It was thin, but that could be useful for kindling. "Especially now that we're having to stay here, we need to find a real place to live at for now."
"Yes" Dasha agreed with a sigh as she gathered more small broken branches. Without an axe or anything of the sort to their names this would have to do. "Again, you are unfortunately right. We may be able to get away with a few days without raising suspicion, but no more than that . . . we do not have money or items to trade so that will present an issue." She was silent a minute as she thought about what to do, but drew a blank. ". . . I will figure something out." She said finally. "Tonight we will stay where we were last night again . . . it'll have to do."
((I'll reply in a few hours hopefully.))
Jarin felt like gsthering the branches would take an awfully long time, but at least it was a start. They had to go somewhere with this gathering. He thought for a few minutes, then stopped and stared at Dasha."Isn't there wood in that old building? You dragged me across a whole bunch of that stuff and ripped up my back. We didn't use it all up, and it would work a lot better than just this stuff." He examined the sticks he had gathered and frowned a bit. "This is going to take all day and it's going to be used up too quickly."
"Yes, we can use some of that." Dasha confirmed as she picked up a few more slightly larger than average twigs. "but that stuff isn't the easiest thing in the world to get going. The fire is going to have to be going pretty good beforehand before it will even have a chance to catch . . . We just need enough of this to establish a good flame."
"Yeah, but it would help, anyway, once we get the main part of the fire going," Jarin concluded, reaching down and adding more sticks to his stash. "We need a lot of dry anything."
"That's for sure." Dasha agreed, not planning on commenting any further on the subject. She continued on gathering twigs and sticks in silence, her mind drifting back to what had just happened. Never would she have dreamed that Monica of all people would do this to her. That was the one person in her life who she had thought she could depend upon. Clearly not. The thought threatened to send her blood boiling again and she reminded herself that now was not the time to dwell on it. A little while later Dasha had managed to gather a pretty good bundle. "Alright." She said after picking up one final stick. "I think we should have enough."
Jarin also had a large collection of sticks and twigs, most of them sticking painfully into his arms and chest. "So where are we planning on going? Just back to that house or out here away from town?" he asked, glancing over the top of the poky sticks. He was really curious as to what had happened earlier, but it was taking all of his willpower to stay silent. He wasn't sure he was interested in kindling that fire. One was plenty good enough!
"Back to the building would be best." Dasha answered, rearranging her pile of sticks in her arms. "We could stay out here, but then we would also have a greater chance of having to deal with the wildlife . . . It's better to minimize that chance." She had enough to worry about without adding hungry carnivorous animals to the list.
"Most animals are scared of people," Jarin objected, but turned and started heading towards the half dilapidated building. But still, Dasha had a valid point. It was better to be safe than sorry, especially when they seemed to be heading into more danger than needed. This was not the future.
