The Phoenix Colony

Raylene finished her business and started back towards the cave. A rustling in the leaves behind her made her stop. She turned slowly, coming face to face with a wounded ceader. It's arm was missing and it had a huge gash across most of its face. The creature was bleeding profusely, but was extremely angry. It growled at her, baring its teeth. She backed away from the snarling creature. Don't run, it shows you are weak, she thought. Her heart was racing as the creature tried to advance on her, but its blood loss made it weak.

 

Smith finished his fruit satifying his hunger for the morning, though he wished their was some meat around. The fawn hadn't lasted long. He wished he had went back for the doe. He walked to the entrence of the cave for some fresh morning air, now that his mouth was free again he could take a deep breath in through his lips. He nodded to the two gaurds on duty and looked off into the woods. He could hear the noises of animals, not the normal chirping of birds but like the woods were densely packed, leaves rustled, he heard a few animals call out. It was much to noisey.

 

The ceader swooned forward, swiping his remaining arm at Raylene. She was able to dodge out of the way, considering it was damn near death. Just as it was trying to advance again, Raylene tripped over a log and landed on her rear-end. The giant creature lunged forward in its last attempt to eat her, dying mid lunge and it landed on her legs. She struggled to pull herself out from under the beast, but it's weight proved too much to move.

"Someone! Help me please!" She hollered, hoping the night guards would hear her plea.

 

Chrys is woken out of her fitful sleep by a plea for help...Ray?!Ray!... She does a quick stretch and yawn and runs out of the cave, "You two can't hear that?!" She yells at the guards, but they look at her like she's crazy.

She cups her hands to her mouth, "Ray! Ray! Where are you?!"

 

Smith heard the shout and ran towards the voice breaking into view of Ray in only a moment. She was on the ground with a dead beast on her legs. He wondered how she had managed to kill it. Oh, well. He walked over bent and hauled it off her legs. "Um, Good job." He said still trying to figure out how she had managed to take it down. Maybeb she was tougher than he'd thought. He was still being carefull not to trigger his face plate again.

 

Chrys saw Chad run past her and followed him, the scent ofblood strengthening, ...I hope she's okay...

Relief played on Chry's face as she saw Chad helping Ray lift a dead ceader from her leg, "Oh, okay, that's why I smelled blood." She sighed helping Chad.

 

Raylene stood up, drenched in the ceaders blood. "I didn't kill it. It sorta died on top of me. It's been attacked, see it's missing an arm and it's face is all messed up. At least we won't have to hunt today. All I know is that I need to wash these clothes. I'll be attracking predators with this stench."

 

Chrys helped to lift the ceader, "I think we all need to clean of our clothing, we have stringer scents than we used to. And some of us have a distinct scent that calls....um, we need to be cleaned, how bout that?" Chrys was sick of her animal nose, there wer some scents she wished she'd never understood.

 

Then smith realized that he still had dried blood down his side from the day before, plus the blood Chrys had on her as he carried her. Smith looked down at the beast. This was his first time encountering one. Ray who are you going to bring with you to watch out while you wash? He asked in his head, talking to her that way had become a sort of habbit now. He was going to have to wash his clothes, and the rest of him to for that matter, he didn't think anyone had bathed since the crash.

 

"I guess we should butcher this thing first, since we'll just get messy again. That Cevin guy knows how to butcher these. Let's grab him to help. Then we'll go for a dip in the stream." She chose to ignore the comment from Chad. She hadn't even tried to turn him off, now that he could speak again. She liked having him there to comfort her.

 

Smith hoped she hadn't tuned him out already but he nodded in agreement her awnser to Chrys had awnsered his question anyways, though he'd insist that someone else go with them to watch out too. The last time it had been three of us and we had still gotten in deep over our heads. He winced as he thought about his side. So far all of his wounds had come from Chrys or the crash, the planet seemed to think she was enough trouble, he thought and laughed, or it just didn't have any creatures that ate rock around.

 

Fox wakes up and stretches. She walks out of the cave and nods at the guards. She decided to walk into the forest to look for more pinegrapes, so that they would have more cups. While walking, she comes upon Kat, Chad, and Raylene.

Fox, lets out a laugh. "Wow, can you three ever be together without getting into trouble?" asks Fox.

 

"Actually, I was the only one in trouble. I came out by myself and this thing died in my lap! Chrys and Chad helped me out. We need Cevin to butcher it. This will definately give us enough meat for the pow-wow tonight. And we all need to go bathe in the stream." She was still irritated about Fox's comments the night before, but decided not to say anything.

 

"Ok, I'll help you guys drag it back. Also, that bath sounds like a really good idea. Every could probably use one at this point." says Fox, "Oh and Raylene, I hope you aren't still mad at me. I was just joking, I wasn't trying to p*** you off."

 

Smith walked over and grabbed a hold of the monster and looked over for the rest to help, he might be able to drag it but help would certainly be better. "And in better news I got my voice back." He said in a subduded tone worried that he might reactivate the face sheald thing. Then a good idea hit him, he could send Fox with Chrys and Ray, and if those two didn't kill each other then everything should be fine.

 

Raylene looked at Fox, "I'm not mad, just irritated. All we did was go to the stream. How does that make us 'lovebirds'? We're just friends..." she glanced back at Chad, "I think." He comforted her in a way no one else had. She couldn't explain how she felt.

 

Fox grabs the other side of the ceader. "Its good that your able to talk again." says Fox. The morning breeze pushes her hair back, and gives the air a slight chill.

 

Smith felt strangly happy about the think part, though he couldn't be sure why. He almost thought about congradulating Fox on the appology but decided against it, she was getting better at talking to people that was sure. "Well lets get this beast back to camp then." He said and began dragging it back towards the cave, which wasn't to far away.

 

Raylene grabbed one of the legs and tugged with the other 3 to get the ceader to camp. "Don't you think the animals are kind of restless? Listen to them. I've never heard them like this before. Something's changing." She glanced at Chad for reassurance.

 

The monster was hunting during the day now, and closer to camp. He'd be nurvous too if he wasn't a rock. He caught Ray's glance, and thought that maybe he should acompany them to the river, he could keep an eye on the woods for them. They had numbers and intelict it was just a matter of time before the monster fell, he thought. He still hadn't encountered the beast but he hoped they found a way to stop it before it got to the 'bait'.

 

The 4 of them manage to drag the ceader to the camp. Raylene goes inside and wakes Cevin and asks if he can butcher it. She grabs Fox's knife and a few sharp pieces of metal. They head out and start their task. In no time, The 5 of them have the skin hanging on a tree and meat cut away from the carcass. Raylene and Chad drag it away to the carcass pile down the hill and head back to the cave. On the way, Raylene takes Chad's hand in hers, neither one say a word. They are just content to be together.

Once they reach the cave, they all gather extra clothing and head to the stream to clean up. Raylene decides to keep the her clothes on and just clean off what she can. There's far too many people around to strip and properly clean them, much to Chad's disappointment, she's sure!

 

While in the stream, Fox strips down to her underwear and relaxes in the cool water. "Chad, you should go and keep a look out while we bathe. You can take your bath when we get done." says Fox, "Oh, and no peeking rock man."

 

Smith was rather insulted at the sugestion that he'd spy on them though he had to admit it would be tempting, but he smiled over at Ray and sat down on the shore of the river looking out into the forest. He watched the busy woods carefully. Ray, He thought, please keep an eye on the other shore, never know what's going to pop up on this planet. He thougt and checked that the rifle was ready.

 

Ray turned and watched the other bank. She scanned the trees, seeing nothing and dunked her head in the water, washing away the dirt and blood. She sat back up and continued to scrub her clothing. She finally decided to take it off, since she wouldn't want to sit in wet clothes while they dried. She got out of the water and grabbed a blanket that they brought with them and wrapped it around her body and took a seat next to Chad, facing the opposite direction to watch the other bank.

 

Smith heard Ray get out of the water and saw her out of the corner of his eye sit next to him. He glanced over at her, hair shining in the early morning sun, watching the other bank protectively. Beautiful he thought and then quickly looked away thinking how stupid he must sound to her if his own mind thought he was. He put a hand out onto hers, her smooth skin reminding him that he hadn't lost all feelings yet, he was still human in manyways.