Aureole watches as the pack of the creatures charges the human and the larger beast whom appeared to be allies. “Aureole!” Emalia shouts from atop the tree, her voice hinting her fear. Aureole begins to move through the brush, trying ever so hard to get to a vantage point, easier now that the rest of the pack was on the two bellow. Soaked red hair drapes over his face, his keen eye now a blood lusted window to a mind that was formulating a tactical plan of action.
A slender, black barrel of a pistol that has been in quit a lot of altercations, peers out of a thick bush before raining bullets upon the shiny ebony demons. Aureole had only gotten lucky with the one he stabbed to death and he knew it.. keeping them at a distance was an absolute must. To his horror, he sees a black sheen to his left, his reflexes were absolutely polished and still not fast enough to keep the creatures claws from slashing his side deep. Aureole lashes an arm out and catches the creatures leg, ripping the claws from his body while, with an adrenaline rush, whipping the creature to his left.. slamming it hard into a rock. The black devil is stunned a moment and hasn’t the time to dodge as the barrel of an aggravated gunman’s pistol is pressed to its head, Bang! He hears something behind him. In a fluent motion he grabs the creature’s heavy dead body and swings it behind him, using it as a melee weapon to clash into the other demon going after him… to which he delivers a second execution. Aureole’s pale hand grips the wound in his side hard in order to place pressure on it. His teeth grit as he leans against a tree, he watches the other human being kill a few along with the larger beast. He sees yet another dam creature rushing towards him, but he already knows he is out of ammo and will have no time to reload. He smiles and slightly laughs to himself… then hysterically laughs out loud as the creature draws near.. fast in real life but to his violet eye.. in slow motion. He raises his pistol, “Bang.” He mutters as the creature pounces. Suddenly, a rather large rock hits it from the side, aureole snaps out of his trance like state one can enter in their final moments.. his eyes shoot left to see Emalia! On the Ground! The creature shakes its head a moment and turns its evil yellow eyes upon the girl who was only trying to save Aureole for a second time. The red hair man flies forward… pure fear fueling his attempt to strangle the beats but its strength was incredible for its size.. the two roll a moment.. Aureole picking a palm sized stone from the dirt and repeatedly clashing it into the creatures head. The ebony demon must have had some intelligence as, instead of creating a new wound, it began to slash the wound on Aureole’s side. The pale being grits his teeth as anger now fuels every strike to the creatures head until he breaks through its skull and continues to pumble it.. blood flying everywhere.. matching the wet hair that draped over his shoulders.

Distracted by the pack of predators he didn't notice three coming up behind him only to be picked off and he didn't notice the human climbing up the twisted thick roots of a tree to get a better vantage point to shot the little beasts. He would have been pleased if he had known since that meant the human wasn't in his way and more importantly, wouldn't be torn apart by the wretched creatures. Though he would never admit it out loud he appreciated the fact the human helping him instead of being a hindrance.

Ignoring the gun shots behind him, he focused on the remaining pack members, claws ripping into their scaled bodies. It was very unusual for a pack to be so large. It was certainly larger than any pack he had encountered before but that only meant he needed to work extra hard to drive them off and reaffirm his place as apex predator, needed to make them remember who was superior. He didn't know what went on in their small heads though past experience had taught him that they were not very smart and were driven more by instinct then intelligence therefore could be driven off now that most the pack was dead. Or so he hoped.

He raised himself up on his hindquarters and let out a deep thunderous roar giving them a good look at his sharp teeth and curved claws. The reaming predators stopped and backed up, their baleful yellow eyes widening. The sudden movement caused his injured wing to shift sending white hot lances of pain though his shoulder. Hissing in pain he drops back down to all four hoping the stupid things didn't realize how hurt he was. If they got it into their tiny brains they would do a lot of damage by attacking his injured wing and weaken him.....he pushed that thought to the side. He couldn't show any weakness now.

The last few hesitated, sleek scaled bodies constantly moving, leaping, bending, twining in and around each other as if they couldn't make up their minds whether to attack or not. Growling he stepped over a headless corpse, head lifted high. A faint smirk tugged at the edges of his lips as the few remaining members of the pack stilled then darted off into the jungle, vanishing into the shadows.

"They won't return." voice tinged with pain he turns to see the fleshing he had been forced to partner with crouching over a corpse near the base of a tree, a knife sunk deeply into the slender long neck. Blood dripped down the ruination that was his left arm. "Your wound. How bad human?” Due to his unfamiliarity with huamn anatomy he's only mildly concerned about the puddle of crimson mixing with the oily greed blood of the dead creature.

I watched as the creatures were steadily attacking the larger beast, but there was nothing stopping him from defending with everything he had. I was a little surprised when I noticed how well he was defending himself even with the injuries that he sustained from the high fall out of the monstrously tall trees. I clenched my wound hard to keep the blood from rushing out of my arm uncontrollably. Although this did help, I knew that I needed to patch it up since it wasn't just some measly scratch. I also didn't want to have some unknown infection from this other worldly planet that i knew absolutely nothing about. While I was trying to figure a way to use my weapon with such an injury, I saw another human. A man with hair that deeply resembled that of the blood trickling from my veins. I stared for a moment not noticing the women at all. I snapped out of the deep stare and look back to the fight taking place over to my right. i knew that I couldn't use my gun until this was patched up because I would eventually bleed too much and pass out or worse. The much larger beast stood tall for a moment leading me to cringe a little from the loudness of the sound. It was a deep tone that echoed through the trees and sending vibrations through the very ground that was under us. I was astounded and thought that maybe it had enough of such conflict that it had to end it here and now. This excited me to great lengths to see that the predators began to shuffle in almost confusion and turmoil. They didn't know how to react in such a situation so that fled back to where they came from, almost faster than they left. The beast turned to me and asked about my wound. I looked down to my arm and sighed, "It'll be fine once I find something to wrap it up with." I replied. "Maybe we should be more worried about the man over there. I think he may be in worse shape than me at the moment." I looked back over to the animal with an eyebrow raised to state one last thing. "I do have a name, its Brandon." i stopped and stood up fully and sort of stretched my legs from crouching the whole time after killing the smaller, more fierce animal.

Aureole finally stops obliterating the corps. A violet eye looks up to a terrified Emalia, standing alone in the rain. He rushes to her and holds her tightly, “It’s ok Emalia.” He says, “Let’s just get back to our crash site and find a way off of this planet.” He feels her nod and begins to turn in order to walk away. “Wait,” Her sweet, shaken voice coos, “I have to tell them something.” He feels her warmth disappear as she runs through the rain. His eyes shoot open as he spins around atop the vegetation below him. “Emalia!” He shouts, fueled by fear as he did not know the two beings, and did not know what they would do to her. He sprints through the thick vegetation until he finds the small clearing the two beings stood in. He loads a new clip into his faithful black pistol.. armor piercing rounds as he gently grabs Emalia and holds her close to him. The barrel of the pistol pointing straight towards the human and the mechanical animal. “We helped you and we will now be leaving.” He hisses as he begins to slowly backup, the gun never leaving its two targets.

At the mention of there being another human he jerked his head up, a low growl stirring in his chest as his eyes come to rest on the haggard looking organics. How many human were there? He huffed in irritation then hissed at them, lips pulling back to reveal sharp teeth. He huffed again when the male flesh bag pointed a weapon at him and declared they were going to leave. As if he was going to prevent the fleshbags from leaving. The sooner the better far as he was concerned. "Then leave flesh bags." he hissed out, uncaring if they were injured or not. Far as he was concerned they had done nothing to assist him and had hidden away like cowards.

He owed them nothing.

He turned and walked up to a thick vine winding its way around one of the smaller trees, its small but sharp thorns glistening with rain. His long dextrous tongue easily bypassed the short prickly thorns on the main vine and plucked the large soft leaves. He returned to Brandon and deposited the soft leaves at his feet so he could use them as a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding so he wouldn't attract more predators.

"Very well....Brandon..." the words felt thick and heavy on his tongue. Foreign. "We need to find shelter for the night. The storm is only going to get worse." he needed to find a down fall or hollow in a tree that could be lined with leaves so it would remain dry. He wasn't going to be able to climb a tree to get to the sheltering canopy with the broken wing dragging him down and risk bumping the injured limb against branches further damaging it.

I paid no heed to the other human once the gun was raised to the two of us. I turned slightly before stopping and gripping my arm tighter for more pressure. The wound was extremely deep and would take a while to heal, but this was nothing I was concerned about. The only thing that I was worried about is how I would properly wield my weapon if more predators came to attack. I could finally move my arm but it hurt bad, like nothing I had ever felt. Like nothing I thought that I would ever feel. I turned my head back to the to humans that seemed to be together, making eye contact with both before turning completely around towards them. "There is no time for your harsh treatment of others. In case you haven't noticed, there is a massive storm brewing and whatever ship you may have came in, is surely to be washed away." I began to walk the other way after the animal that was with me. He helped me patch my arm and for some reason, it felt so much better. Maybe it was the water that was on the leaves. Whatever it was, it soothed my wound greatly to where I can relax a little. I nodded to the animal as he told me more of the outcome of the storm. I looked around to find some suitable shelter for us. Big enough and spacious enough to fit us both. There was no way for either of us to get up into the trees fast enough to out run the rain especially considering my small stature compared to the huge tree as well as the animal's injuries that were prohibiting it from doing anything similar to climbing. I held my arm up around chest level so that it wouldn't swell up or anything. While doing so, i moved along the trees and threw the lost vines to find a hollow in the trees or something. Just passing around 3 trees, I noticed a massive chain or roots and leaves that we can stay under. I ran back quickly to tell him. As I approached him, I call to him. "Hey" I started without stating his name since I didn't know if it even had one. "I found somewhere wee can stay. It should suit us well. Follow me." I stated while giving a signaling gesture for him to follow me to the spot I found. I walked quickly so that I could get there as fast as possible without the animal losing sight of me.

Asterias Belt, Zelta Zone.......

Preparing to Jump. . . . . . coordinates processed . . . . . . Jump initiating . . . . .

ERROR

ERROR

ERROR

Emergency Tear initiated!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


High above the lush green planet in space, a sudden tear opened up in low orbit. A relatively small and compact white ship suddenly shot out of the tear in space, rocketing towards the planet. Inside, the pilot scrambled to find the source of the flight problem. The cockpit instruments had gone from a calm blue to a deep red, some indicators flashing. The pilot cursed as she frantically attempted to regain control of her craft. The ship continued to descend lower in lower in orbit as the planet's gravity began to pull on the small spacecraft. Soon the ship began to enter the planet's atmosphere, flames began flicking across the cockpit window as the air around the ship began to heat up due to the friction. Thankfully the heat shields held as the ship began to become engulfed in reentry flames. The pilot cursed aloud as she began to pull up on the controls.

"For **** sake! I just had this damn thing refitted and of course with my ****ing luck, the Slipspace Navigation Computer had to go all ****ing nuts on me! God dammit!" She began to pull up hard, leveling out the spacecraft over a massive storm. While the ship had some glider capabilities it could not do it forever, even at the speeds it was going. A loud bang could be heard even from the ground below as the ship broke the sound barrier. Her speed and flight angle left her no choice but to head into the storm and hopefully find a suitable landing spot. As she plunged through the clouds, the ship shook violently as the turbulence of the winds buffeted the ship. The entire craft suddenly became engulfed in steam as the extremely hot surface of the ship came in contact with the rain. She could barley see through the steam, and foggy air as the craft now came as low as canopy level, skimming the branches of the lower trees. Warnings blared in the cockpit about her altitude, but she barley took notice, now fully focused on flying the damaged ship. Finally she saw a small break in the trees near one massive, skyscraper sized tree. The landing gear lowered and the ship violently shook as it impacted the ground. Various bits of dirt and grass flew up as the nose landing gear's suspension collapsed from the impact. Eventually it came to slow halt, just feet away from the wall of thick forest. The seemingly elite pilot sighed in relief, swiveled her chair towards the rear of the ship and got up.

Her name is Malyan Remarko, a smuggler who had just been in the process of transporting illegal military grade weaponry to a hidden bandit base. According the ships atmospheric sensors, the air was breathable, so she dawned her gear and lowered the rear loading ramp of the ship. She wore a single eye piece headset that provided a HUD linked up to a vest she wore. On her right shoulder was a small white block with a single glowing orange lens. It swiveled in whatever direction she was looking. It doubled both as a thermal camera and as a motion detector. grabbed a 12.7mm Recoilless Rifle and walked out of the ship. A quick patrol around the area and a glance at the motion detector indicated that it was clear in a 40 meter radius. She sighed then climbed up on top of the ship to begin to see if she could at least get her pulse engines back online.

Aureole grits his teeth and Emalia's arm as he turns around and begins to walk into the jungle once more. "This is why I don't put my life on the line for others Emalia." He says, "Because you always run into ungrateful little ****ing!" He yells that last remark loud enough so the two he just met could hear it over the rain. He smirks and shakes his head as he continues toward where their crashed ship was when suddenly, an orange glowing ball appears in the sky and begins to plummet toward the planet, "That's another ship!" Emalia yells. Aureole shakes his head, "No I think it is a meteor." He replies to her statement. She shrugs, "I don't know Aureole." her voice chimes, "It looked like a ship to me." An irritated expression falls over the pale red heads expression as he rubs each side of his head, "Why does it even matter?" He asks. Emalia's smile turns playfully sinister, "Where there is a ship, there are supplies!" She exclaims. Aureole stops and considers this, "Your right, but will you be able to find our ship?" He asks the short brown haired girl. She smiles and nods. "Lets go!" She shouts, grabbing her friends wrist and taking off in the approximate direction of the supposed ship. Aureole shook his head, once again he was doing something stupid just to make some girl her hardly knew smile.
The two make their way through the dense jungle, the thick brush and the goopy muck covering the minority of the ground until finally Emalia gets tired and they decide to rest a moment. she walks over to a downed tree the width of a bus and the length of a sky scraper. she plops down upon it and sighs. Aureole sits next to her and puts his arm over her shoulders, "Whats wrong?" He asks. "Nothing, its just.. what if we never make it home Aureole?" Her eyes begin to loose their lustful happiness as she speaks her concerns to the only one around that would listen. He shakes his head, red hair not moving due to how impossibly soaked it was, "We will make it home, now come on lets get to that ship before anyone else does." He orders as he stands from the tree until her small hand grips his wrist, HE LOOKS DOWN AT HER, "What is it Em?" He asks. Her frown deepens, "Aureole...I hear you when you sleep.. I want to know now what happened to you in your past that made you this way." She explains, Aureole can tell by the serious tone of her voice that she isn't going to take no for an answer this time so he sits next to her with a sigh.. his mind replaying the tragic events while he explains them to her.

Aureole, stands beside his best friend Darious as the two look over their community from atop a large sand dune in the distance. They were the head of the biggest gang in La Roche de Sable known as, Les Serpents du Desert, and they were ambitious friends. Darious, despite the temperature always wore a heavy black trench coat that concealed multiple weapons. Darious places a hand upon Aureole's shoulder as he comrade looks at him with two beautiful purple eyes, "Well Aureole, we did it.. there is no question that this town is ours." He says, his voice cold and sinister as always. Aureole smiles, "Indeed, im going to retreat home now friend.. I miss my Isabella." The two shake hands and Aureole leaves for his small house in town. As he passes through the door he is greeted by a beautiful black haired woman, "Hello my love." She says, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him, "Why good day my lovely Isabella." He playfully says as he returns the kiss and carries her into the main room. He would happily spend the rest of the day the same way he spent them all, every moment with the love of his life. The two sat in a quit living room together, just simply chatting about the days events and ****ing about the heat when suddenly... everything went to hell. Bullet after bullet breaks the glass of their windows as the projectiles fly into the room. Aureole wastes no time in practically tackling Isabella to the ground, holding her so tight as bullets whiz above them... absolutely tearing up their home. After a while they hear the wheezy engine of a small starship fly away. aureole looks at her and begins to tear up, "Are you okay?" He asks. She nods, "Im ok Aureole." She assures her partner as they shakily stand up. Aureole didn't need anyone to do any snooping around to know who the shooters were, their only rival gang known as the Desert Rats. His fists begin to shake as the full realization of how close he came to loosing all that mattered in life, he knew what had to be done.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" The heavy accent of the Desert Rats leader echo's through the empty room the next day. Aureole sits across from him, "Yes, it is with some reluctance that I admit.. I am sure." And with that he is handed a suit case full of currency. As he stands up to leave, the gang leader stops him with a powerful question, "Might I ask why you are selling out your brothers?" Aureole is forced to stop by this simple question. Tears well up in the back of his eyes as he remembers all the time spent with Darious... since they were kids they had each others backs. A sigh escapes his lips, "I just.. I found something new in life that I realized I wanted to protect and my life style will only get her killed." He pauses and turns around, a tear falling from his left eye, "Just, for **** sake man make sure they don't suffer and I will lead them to where we agreed upon." With that statement he exits the room.

"Aureole.. your worrying me whats going on?" Isabella asks. Aureole shakes his head as he could never tell her the truth, "Nothing baby, just take this brief case to the red abandoned house to blocks away and tomorrow night.. when I leave to help Darious get the money from the upcoming deal.. you go their and wait for me.. ok?" He asks.. sadly and rather reluctantly.. she nods. Aureole walks over ot her and kisses her forehead. "I love you." He whispers. "I love you so much Aureole." She replies as her hands run through his long.. soft red hair.

The next night, Aureole looks in the mirror as he puts on an expensive suit. “Aureole.” A woman’s voice calls behind him as he adjusts a bow tie around his neck. Her voice is lovely and full.. mature. “Yes?” Aureole says as he turns around, placing two purple eyes upon her..so beautiful with raven black hair and lovely skin. She approaches him slowly and fixes his collar. “You look great tonight.. I imagine Darious will as well.” She tells him. He smiles, kisses her on the cheek and begins to turn to leave before her grip on his collar tightens. “Aureole… what are you going to do?” She asks, fear lacing her voice. “I’m going to make a future for us Isabella… that has always been my mission.. always.” And with this phrase, he exits the room. Isabella sits on the bed, her heart is racing and tears begin to collect at the bottom of her eyes for she knew exactly what that meant.

“My best friend, my brother in arms.. the man I trust.” A voice calls to Aureole from the ally way next to the pub where they agreed to meet. He dawns a black trench coat, black pants and a black fedora. Aureole smiles, “Darious.” He replies as he approaches the man. Darious places a black gloved hand upon Aureole’s shoulder, “You look dashing in that tux Aureole, cloths as nice as ours are so rare to find on this god for saken planet are they not?” He says. Aureole nods in reply, “Yes they are.” He places a pale hand upon the shoulder of his friend. Darious stares into his eyes, “You seem off aureole.. what we are doing tonight is extremely important and dangerous.. can I trust you?” He asks voice cold and deadly as always. Aureole simply smiles, “You have always been able to trust and count on me Darious. Since the beginning of this endeavor we have stood shoulder to shoulder and it will always remain this way.” Aureole begins to walk up the ally way. Darious stares at him as he does so. “You had better be telling me the truth.” He thinks as he to follows his friend, both disappearing into the shadows to go meet the members of their gang that would be helping them with the drug hand off.

Multiple men begin to exit their town, all dressed in expensive suits and tuxedo’s as they make their way to a large sand clearing outside their community. “This deal will bring great progress to our gang.” One man says to the other. There are 10 total, one of them.. is an ambitious ginger haired man by the name of Aureole. Beside him, is the gangs leader.. Darious. There group was feared by the hole town including a smaller gang known as the desert rats, they were Les Serpents Du Desert. As they stand in the clearing, Aureole begins to look around, “Is everything ok Aureole? Surely you are not upset.. this is a day that will go down in history for if we pull this deal off.. we will have the funding to do anything.” Darious says, his hands buried into the pockets of his black trench coat. The men stand there in silence, and suddenly.. just as evening begins to arrive.. the rain begins to fall for the first time in one hundred years. They stand there, frozen in shock as the water gently slides off their black clothing and the sky turns to a dark twilight blue. Aureole pulls a small silver compass from the back pocket of his pants. When he clicks it open, instead of arrows pointing into infinity, he finds a picture of his beloved fiancé. He stares at it as he knows that the time for his plan to act is now. “Im sorry.” Aureole says, soaked from rain and sorrow for his future sins. Darious holds a grim expression as he gently cocks his automatic sub machine gun, “Why are you apologizing.. aureole.” He asks, his voice heavily bathed in sinister. Aureole need not give him an answer as suddenly two small star ships land. The windows of these star ships are smash outward, sending glass fragments into the wet sand below. Aureole takes off in a sprint towards town as bullets fly into the men he had led on. Darious returns fire as he watches the one man he truly called friend, disappear "Aureole!!" He shouts, his voice emitting sorrowful pain for the first time.
Aureole does not stop running, despite the fact that the gunfire has stopped, despite the multiple explosions he hears he must keep going. He bursts through the doors of his house, his Fiance stands up in a hurry. “Aureole!” She cries terrified. “It’s ok Isabella, but we have to go now! Right now!” He yells in reply as he rushes to the closet and begins to toss out two suit cases into plain view of his beloved. “Your bleeding!” She yells. Auroele glances downward with two purple eyes at the bullet wound in his side, “No matter.” He says, “It is a small price to pay for doing what had to be done in order for you and I to have a life.” Rain drops fall from the ends of his hair, his clothing and the tip of his nose as he walks to her and hugs her.
"Why you go to the house I talked about now, I will pack our stuff and meet you there." He orders as she complies and exits the house.
After roughly 15 minuets he walks through his front door only to be knocked out from the side.

Two purple eyes open, blurred and confused. When his vision returns he realizes he is tied to a wooden chair in the center of an abandoned warehouse. Ivory light from the moon spills onto him from a large window behind his chair above the main door that soon opens. Aureole's heart races as foot steps click and clack nearer and nearer towards his position. "Aureole." The horrifyingly familiar voice sounds over the silence. Lightening cracks and Aureole can see many men of his gang with guns standing in the darkness before him. "My friend, the man I trust, my betrayer." The voice then moves in front of him, revealing a very alive Darious. "That was some plan Aureole, I kept one of the shooters alive and he told me everything, I think the only part of your plan that went wrong was me being alive and ordering your capture." Two black gloved hands lash forward, gripping Aureole's shoulders tight, "I survived." Darious growls, "But you wont." He threatens as he pulls a long slender knife from a sheathe on his leg. He grips the back of Aureole's head hard and places the edge of the knife above the defenseless mans eye and roughly drags it down. Aureole screams in pain as he feels the blade slice through the soft tissue of his eyes and drag down until it slides off his chin. Blood streams down past his shoulder until dripping to the floor below him. Darious grabs his friend chin hard, "Any words to say, aureole? Any wise ass words of wisdom for your old pal?" He sarcastically asks. Aureole simply asks him one question, "Where is Isabella?" Darious howls with laughter, "She took the money you gave her and ran! You pathetic piece of ****! Your whole plan was for nothing at all!" A hard punch is sent into the side of aureole's face, and another, and another. Finally, Darious pulls out a white pistol and aims at Aureole's head, "Good bye." He says. Bang! Aureole's eye shoots open to see Darious's upper arm gush blood. Some one had come in from behind and began opening fire. Auroele whips his body to the left in order to dodge the return fire from the gang members in the dark. The door was all the way open allowing the bright moon light to give away their positions. Aureole can hardly see who is shooting in his slumped state but he sees her... Isabella, as she dives into cover. Aureole crawls like a worm to Darious's knife, Darious had retreated into the darkness so there was no resistance to aureole as he grabs the knife behind his back and cut the rope bounding his hands. he free his legs and rolls into cover, slowly making his way to where he saw Isabella dive toward.
"Why did you come here?!" He shouts to her, the only reply is a kiss followed by her sweet voice, "I love you, you would have done the same fro me!" She hands Aureole her pistol as she was using a Sub Machine Gun. It is a raven black pistol that caught the light perfectly in its ebony shine. The two rain bullets upon the gang members flawlessly as their talent for killing exceeded their opponents every time. In a few minuets the gun fire stops... Isabella helps Aureole from his position, which was against a crate so he could effectively shoot, and the two begin to leave. Suddenly, a man dressed in all black tackles Aureole. Darious begins to beat his former friend hard befor Isabella pulls him off. Darious throws a punch toward her face that she duck and returns with a fair kick to his stomach. He stumbles backward a moments into Aureole's arms. He holds Darious in place as Isabella swings wildly at his head. Aureole was shocked.. Darious was always a flawless fighter. His thoughts are interrupted when he is launched over the mans shoulders and stomped repeatedly. Isabella tried to help but is stopped when Darious flies forward, knocking her back, he picks up the knife.. "No!" Aurole screams in pure fear as he runs faster than he ever has before.. to late.. he watches in horror as Isabella's throat is slashed. He tackles Darious hard as the two slam into the ground. Angered punch after angered punch fly into Darious's face. Aureole does not stop the blows, even when blood begins to fly in all directions and Darious is no longer recognizable. Finally he stops and rushes over to Isabella whom is lifeless on the ground. He just keeps gently shaking her.. calling her name, "Please! We have to go! Wake up!" He would continuously yells over the roar of the rain outside. "Isabella don't go... please.. I need you so bad baby please don't no no no no no." There is no response.. she bled out to fast. all he can do is bury his face in her black hair and cry until he collapses.. unable to kill himself as he could not shake the conviction that she wouldn't want that.

Aureole finishes his tragic story with tears in his eyes.. accepting Emalia's hug. "Im really sorry Aureole." She says. He shakes his head, "Don't be, it was all one hundred percent my fault, and I want to hear no more of the subject." He orders as the two continue to their destination.

He ignored the departing humans, not that he had any intention of stopping or helping them. He turned slightly to watch the human clumsily wrap the large fleshy leaves around his arm before craning his head slightly to gaze at his wounded wing. The wounds were deep, leaving bone and muscle exposed. It would take a while for the deep open wound caused by the small predator’s teeth to heal but the badly broken bone would take longer provided it heal properly. He didn't look forward to the unpleasantness of having to re-break the limb if it healed crooked. Maybe if he kept it tightly tucked against his flank and moved it as little as possible it would heal correctly.

Once he tended to it then he could relax somewhat.

He returned to the thick vines where he had first gotten the leaves, plucked a large number of them and pulled free a narrow vine so he could bind the injured wing into the folded position. A life of harsh experiences had taught him such injuries needed to be tended to right away. Not left to fester.

Supplies gathered he turned back towards the human, perking up slightly at the mention of shelter. Unable to speak with a mouth full of bitter leaves he made a faint sound of approval. He trailed behind Brandon, easily making his way through the dense foliage. Once he reaches the thick entwined roots he doesn't hesitate to step into the makeshift shelter, huffing softly at the thick stench of rotten wood and mold but it was at least dry. With a grunt he laid down, tucking his long limbs against his body before dropping the leaves and vine to the ground. He began to untangle the thin vines, concentrating on his task. It would be no easy task bind the wing even with the extra phalanx in the toes of his fore paws coupled with the doubled jointed ‘thumb’ allowed him to easily manipulate items. His kind could even create complex baskets made of woven vines and leaves for carrying things.

It would be a lot easier if he had help but he was too proud to even consider asking his organic partner for assistance.

“You are not like the other humans who came here a long time ago. You have little fear and have a strong heart.”


------------

Somewhere at Hell's Gate

"Major....a small craft was picked up by the long range instruments. It appears to be a small mercenary craft. “the grunt approached hand, data pad in one had. The sensitive equipment was temperamental at best and with the storm interfering with the sensitive equipment it often picked up nothing. One of the egg heads had sworn it had picked up not one but two small craft but energy signal had been so weak and degraded it was passed off as a glitch.

"Has there been any contact with the ship’s crew?" Grant didn't turn away from the large reinforced window, watching the rain streak down it.

"Not yet. They are trying to get a signal out to the ship. They will have to boost it but it still will be pretty degraded and the crew might not even be alive."

Dead crew meant the ship would be ripe for scavenging. Live crew meant mercenaries that could help or hinder. Either way it would provide much needed supplies.

I slowed my run, or jog as some might want to have called it, to a calm walk. There was too much greenery for some one of my size to get through. The animal seemed to get through it easily as he followed close behind. I stepped over massive roots that seemed to be the size of a regular palm tree back on Earth. The moss was slightly turning purple, possibly going through some chemical change or something. It was spongy and wet from the rain and the more I stepped through, the more water poured into my shoes. This was extremely uncomfortable to me and I wanted to get out of those soaked shoes before I got some unsightly foot fungus. Old leaves crumbled under my feet as well as, nice, wet, green leaves fell from the tree tops above. Once we made it to the clearing that was going to be greatly used as a shelter. There was a horrible stench upon approaching the shelter that obviously we would have to deal with. I didn't like it anymore than the next guy but it was better than being out in the rain. It stunk of rotten wood mold. But this mold had a slightly different smell to it. Sort of a old cheesy smell maybe. Either way it wasn't pleasant. I had to set my rifle down for a moment before I tightened the leaves wrapped around my wound. Once that was finished I looked up to the giant animal as he was talking to me. "You are not like the other humans who came here a long time ago. You have little fear and have a strong heart." He said in a small accent since English wasn't his native language. I smiled, "Not everyone in there species is the same. There is always a difference in an individual." I replied without looking away from him. "By the way" I started. "You never told me your name." I looked away so that he couldn't see the immense curiosity that could be seen by looking me directly in the eye.

The thick stench of rotting rood, leaves and noxious fungi was tolerable and preferable to being out in the cold rain. That and the reek would mask their scent from potential scavengers.

"My name?" He pauses, titling his head a bit so he could gaze at the human. There would be no way possible for the fleshling to even pronounce his name since his organic voice box was incapable of reaching the proper pitches and tones. "My name is not translatable into your language. You may call me what you want." He shifted slightly in thick cushioning bed of dry leaves trying to get more comfortable, wincing when the movement caused the injured limb to shift. He stilled, waiting for the sharp throb to die down. The sound of rain pattering down onto the rainforest floor was oddly soothing and gave him something to concentrate on other than the pain, sensitive ears picking up even the faint rustle of damp leaves caused by mufti-legged insect mindlessly making its way through the leaf litter. The rainforest was never truly silent or still, there was always a sound, always something moving. Always alive.

But if the flesh bags had gotten their way it would have been a barren and toxic waste land of populated only by scavengers and corpses.

Once the pain sufficiently dulled he went back to the task of tending to the potentially crippling wound. "The humans that came here before you were all them same." he hissed out. "They cared for nothing and caused a nothing but sorrow and death. They were proud of their ability to kill anything that moved. Or was trying to protect its family from being slaughtered." he twisted his upper body trying to get at the wing but the angle was too awkward. Ever the stubborn one he tried another angle only to stop when the injured limb was jostled. He stiffed and pulled in a shallow hissing intake.

Finally the creep up to the large crash site area and to Aureole’s shock, Emalia was correct in assuming that it was a ship. He stares at in as if it were a beacon from the heavens, a beacon full of possible supplies. Out here, supplies meant the difference between life and certain death. He feels Emalia begin to make a move towards the ship, he grabs her arm before saying, “Stop, we don’t know if the crew is alive or not.” He explains as he pulls his trusty black pistol and aims towards the ship, extremely sharpened reflexes ready, “Come out with your hands up, if you are unable to walk then shout something… you will not survive if you attempt a violent action of any sort!” The wind gently blows past him, rain finally ceasing as if waiting for the poor unfortunate soul to make a move upon the red head murder machine. He begins to take a few steps forward, a slender pale figure, still shirtless due to his bandages with tight black pants and stares at the ship through one gleaming purple eye.. the other dead and white. “I repeat!” He exclaims after a moment of silence, “If you lived through the crash, come out with your hands up, if you are unable to move shout something and make no mistake.. if you cross me I will be the last man standing!” He puts extreme emphasis on that word, will, as he continues to approach the wrecked ship.

"That will be hard to do considering I have no idea who you are or really what you are like. I only just met you." Brandon said in a slightly sarcastic tone. He thought for a moment about the name that he should call him but hadn't even had a clue. "I'll figure a name eventually." He said lowly and under his breath. As the rain slowly died down and then ceased, Brandon stood and made his way to the entrance of the little shelter that they had. "Ah-" He said loudly before covering his mouth. He was coming upon a sneeze but realized that if he was to make a sneeze then it could attract unwanted visitors. The untimely sneeze finally went by without successfully coming out and Brandon uncovered his mouth. Through the stench of rotting wood and other natural smells, Brandon noticed a rather fowl stench nearby that could have made him lose anything that he has eaten. Poking his head out from the entrance of the shelter, he looked around. Scanning the area for what could be emitting such a horrible smell. Nothing was in sight and the only way to find the source was to follow the smell. That wasn't going to happen since he could barely stand smelling it at this range.

While standing at the trees entrance, Brandon heard the creature say something. he was talking about the humans that had previously came to this planet. They sounded like monsters and nothing less of a killer. "I know how you feel. Mankind destroyed my home planet as well. Once they used all of its resources, they just moved on to the next planet. Now its a barren wasteland." His head was held down and his eyes were closed upon saying this. Once he decided to move back into the shelter and away from the incoming smell, he had a small realization. "What are we going to eat? I mean what is edible on this planet?" He asked the fairly large creature. He hadn't made eye contact with the creature but could tell that it wasn't looking at him. A slight growl came from the humans stomach before he heard the something walking around near the shelter in the tree. "Shh" he said before slowly grabbing his weapon. He had no idea what it could be but he was fearing the worst. Maybe it was the predators coming back for more, trying to get back and finish what they started. If that was the case then there was no way that Brandon could survive another fight. He barely made it out of this one. Nonetheless he still had to see what was going on...

He opened his mouth to say something only to snap it shut, lips curling once he picked up the vile stench of something rotten mixed with something unidentifiable. It was almost musky but with the reek of rotting wood and fungus it was hard to tell. Grimacing he closed his nostrils and opened his mouth the breath so the reek was less bothersome. Still it was vile. There were only a few things that could produce such a stench, most were harmless though annoying, only one was dangerous even to him. With the thick wet smell of fungus, the dry rot of wood and leaf litter mixing in with the vile stench he couldn't be certain what was the cause of it . Not that he was eager to find out. Not with his injuries.

"So they were not content with destroying their own world, they wanted to desotry mine as well." he bristled. These fleshlings where like a plague of insects, devouring everything in their path.

He tilted his head in a bird like manner when when asked what they were going to eat. He knew what he was going to eat but ....what did fleshlings eat? They lack claws or fangs and were weak soft things. Maybe they ate plants. He silently studied his organic companion, those small weak jaws would be ill suited for anything other then eating plants and there was no shortage of those. "There are plenty of fruit bearing trees. And small non toxic insects." As well as the eggs of birds and other things. While not very filling he had stooped to eating such things before when he was too injured to hunt. The ability to adapt is what made his species so successful.

The creature that was the cause of the stench made its way through the underbrush, tough coat of bristles covered in bits of dead leaves and mud, its small red eyes focused more on the ground the anything while its helpless offspring grunted and rooted around in the thick leaf litter. Its tall shoulders covered in glistening sharp thick spines that gave it its name. The sow was to interested in the countless nuts and half rotted fruit hidden among the leaf litter to even notice the presence of the human and the predator.

Razorback. He lurched to his feet, eyes focused on the ill tempered animal, paying close attention to its two foot long gleaming hooked tusks. Rapidly he recalled everything he knew abut the boar like animals, thick tough hide, extremely aggressive, nasty tempers, tasted horrible but the piglets............a thin line of drool dripped from his jaw. Only if he could get one away from the aggressive sow with out getting gored.

Raorbacks were the one creature he had a great deal of respect for and had no reserves about dashing up a tree if confronted with one of the nasty tempered brutes. Even with his powerful jaws it was a chore to crush their thick skulls and their thick, bristle covered hide was hard to grab onto.

The previously mentioned smell was a little too bothersome for Brandon, even as a human. Humans may not have the best and most sensitive smelling but the fact that he could smell it like a blood hound could, was troubling and only meant that the stench was close. Brandon kept making different attempts at making the smell go away. Everything he did, fanning the air, covering his nose with his hand or clothes, even putting a leaf in front of his face to use like a filter for good air, they were all failed attempts at such a task. He looked up to the rather large animal that was now his ally while it talked. Still talking about the humans and our destruction of various ecosystems. This was nothing new to Brandon so he didn't really pay any mind to it. While still looking at the beast, he saw it tilt its head in confusion once Brandon asked what were they going to eat. Obviously it didn't know what he was going to eat but of course Brandon still HAD to eat something. Especially now of all times. he needed to keep his energy up so that he can survive in such harsh conditions on a foreign, unknown planet. "There are plenty of fruit bearing trees. And small non toxic insects." the beast said. Brandon laughed once he heard the second part of the sentence. "Sorry" brandon started, "But humans can't eat bugs. I nice piece of cooked meat would do greatly or some fruit could suffice I guess. I'll have to go find some later." He said to the beast to let him know of his next plans.

The stench from earlier grew more and more as it got closer. It was an animal obviously but what kind of animal. Was it friendly? Brandon couldn't tell the least of this until he finally saw what it looked like. This was rather surprising to him since so far, most of the animals seen on this planet closely resembled an animal from Earth just almost like mutated. Once it came into Brandon's site, his eyes grew wide enough to catch the whole jungle in his field of vision. This looked like a wild bore, just twenty times more dangerous than any bore found on Earth. His gun in hand and staring down the creature, Brandon briefly looks away to see what his ally was doing at the moment. He was also staring at the bore but then he started to drool. This was troubling and scared Brandon a little as thoughts went through his head. Brandon thought that they would end up starting a fight with it because the beasts animal instinct would kick in. Brandon wondered if the beast was thinking of eating the bore because that would be some kind of dinner to be fighting. Brandon slowly looked back over to the bore only to raise his gun and put his finger on the trigger. He was ready for the animal to attack of get too close cause either way he would have to protect himself. As he examined the bore, he saw that it had a thick hide that would be hard to penetrate with his weapon. it would take multiple rounds just to break through and to make it worse, Brandon's gun isn't holding armor piercing rounds. Another thing to take into consideration is that fact that the bore has to enormous tusks that could rip almost anything to shreds. Especially something as fragile as the human skin. This could be trouble. Brandon is thinking of ways to solve such a situation but is even more hoping that the allied beast doesn't anything stupid and attack the bore.

He titled his head and watched in amusement as the human did everything he could to make the vile stench go away, from waving his hand to covering his mouth and nose. He supposed the human could have held his breath until the worst of the stink had passed but fleshings needed air and they lacked the ability to simply turn off their olfactory senses.

He turned his attenuation back to the large formidable beast rooting around outside their megar shelter. Despite the gnawing hunger he wasn't foolish enough or desperate enough to attack a well armored full grown Razorback. The sow would have his insides on the outside in a heartbeat. Like any big predator he had to eat but it wasn't worth serious injury to grab one of the piglets. He slowly looked the hulking beast over for any sign of debilitating injury that woudl put the odds in his favor, cursing softly when he saw none. The humans tiny pathetic weapon would only enrage the beast. "Not worth it." he growled out, agitated. He backed up a bit, careful not to so much as rustle the leaves, hoping the smell of rotting wood and fungus would cover their scent and the stupid aggressive sow would continue on its merry away with out noticing them. Any other time and he would have gladly snatched one of the juicy little morsels.

There were plenty of other things that could be easily caught like small mammals and fish that didn't require him to risk life and limb but such small fare was hardly filling and would require him to expand a lot of energy to get enough food to survive. He needed to keep his energy levels up so his wounds could heal properly.

He drop down onto his haunches, keeping a close eye on the sow while craning his long neck around to lick at the injured wing, cleaning the dried blood off. "Best wait till it leaves then we will find food that is more agreeable." Once the Razorback moved on they could leave and head towards more open ground. Fruit would be easily found, with the rainy season the trees would be producing it in abundance and the rains may have driven some burrowing animals from their homes making them easy prey.

The sow seemed oblivious to the pair hiding in the hollow and was more interested in rooting up small insects, rotting fruit and fungus for its young then anything. After all what was foolish enough to attack it?

Sitting near the corner not taking my eyes off of the wild animal that was passing by, I waited anxiously for it to leave. I was obviously unfit to fight something with such protection on it. There was no way that even both the predator and myself would have a chance at taking it since I am too small and he is way to injured to even be able to move properly. The growling in my stomach grew and my gut felt as if it was caving in due to hunger. There was nothing around to snack on since I found a place that was damn near rotted away. The atmosphere all around grew to be very uncomfortable and the air was moving with mid to high speeds. It seemed to me that the storm may have been picking up. That would be the least of our problems if the bore like creature stayed over here. "Not worth it" he said as I was ready to defend against the creature. I knew better to not have taken his advice since he was native to this place and had a vast knowledge of it. I began to slowly lower my weapon and release my tension from on the trigger. I didn't want to accidentally fire at the creature and doom us both, well at least myself for sure. As time went by, I was only able to think about food since I felt as if I was going to die from starvation. Not only that, the storm here was unforgivable. As I thought and thought about what to eat, I quickly came to the realization that the only thing for me to eat was fruit since it was the least likely to be poisonous. But then I thought, "How would I know if the fruit isn't poisonous?" This was going through my mind continuously for around 12 1/2 minutes. Before I quickly noticed that the bore like creature was almost out of sight from the entrance of the hollow in the tree. The smell was still easily distinguished and seemed to be even closer. This began to get annoying.

Sitting near the corner, tail curled around his long legs patiently waiting for the sow and its young to move on. He was in no condition to fight the animal and didn't want to risk further injuries that could leave him unable to hunt at all or worse, crippled. A permanently downed flier was a dead one. The human was too small, too weak to be of much help so he was going to have to do most the work of savaging food.

He wasn't concerned about anything being toxic to the human since his superior senses allow me to detect what toxins are present in the fruit if any. One did not grow up a harsh environment such as the jungle and did not learn what could be eaten and could not be. His vast knowledge included what plants had medical uses and were every fruit and nut tree grew and which ones where ripe and when though he rarely ate it. He was far more interested in the prey animals the fallen fruit attracted like large slow burrowing animals that were easy pickings.

A faint rumbling growl drew his attention away from the entrance. The sound appeared to be emanating from his human companion. What the Pit was that? Did all humans make such strange sounds? Curious he craned his long neck, large nostrils flaring as he tried to figure out where the sounds were originating from. He ignored the strong stench emanating from somewhere outside, considering it of no threat.

As Brandon began to forget about the animal and the young moving by he began to think back to his days before all of this happened. The stench that was so horrible before began to fade away to Brandon because he was getting to used to it. He began to slowly lower his weapon and tilted his head back as if his neck was tired and he was tired. His eyes closed, his mind cleared and memories filed through his head. The images of his work, his home, and even some of the few that he could call his friends. Like his friend Rick who had been working as a miner even before Brandon. He was considered a veteran while Brandon was still a rookie. As that memory faded into a dusted, grey cloud, another memory decided to show itself. It was of the time Brandon came across an old abandoned boxing ring along with a training room. This was his favorite release and it worked well for him. He was the one that was able to relieve stress by working out or doing something physical, hence his large, built structure. This memory was his favorite since he was feeling relaxed while there despite the intense training he did while there. That was the first time that he was ever in a boxing studio. Although he seemed as if he was home.

As the boxing memory faded away, he noticed the stench once again and woke back up abruptly and seemed to be rather frightened by it. He noticed that he had fallen asleep for around 3-4 minutes. his stomach growled once more and he held his stomach in an attempt to make it stop. Although, that would never work, it was still worth a try. Hopefully he could eat something soon. Something that wasn't poisoned and tasted good. His worries started to trail from the food being poisoned and more to the fact that he didn't know what anything would taste like. He was hoping that nothing would taste like metal or acid, or something of the sort. He wasn't even concerned about the importance of eating something that wasn't poisoned, he was so hungry that he didn't even care anymore, he just wanted something to eat. And he had no idea what time it was since this random planet wasn't the same as Earth concerning the time. He didn't even know if they had a night time or not. That he would need to find out soon...

"We need to move now, while the weather is clear." he lurched to his feet, swaying slightly more from the pain lancing through the injured wing then anything. It was rare he ever fractured a limb given how sturdy the reinforced bones were and even then it was rarely more then a simple crack. Pushing the sharp pain down he pulled in a shallow intake and began to walk toward the entrance. He needed to find food in order to heal properly. That and the other flesh bags might still be in the general area and he didn't want to wait around to see if they returned.

He pushed past the thick curtain of vines, high set nostrils flaring as he pulled in a deep breath scenting the hot humid air for any trace of human. Satisfied that there was none he stepped out, large paws squishing the abundant water laden purple and yellow fungi. The ground was saturated with moisture, small still pools of water were every where. The faint sound of rustling leave caught his attention, sharp eyes picking up the flash of scales as the thick long serpent made its way through the underbrush. Long tail flicking back and forth he pounced on the snake, crushing it into the damp ground. The serpent's long muscular body lashed about wildly, bight yellow and green scales gleaming in the sun light. With a growl he lowered his head promptly bit its head off before grabbing the bloody stump and slowly working the scaled body down his throat. He didn't even bother to chew on the slithering body, just swallowed it down like a large raptor.