The atmosphere between the two still hadn't sorted out by dawn the next day.
Zhang Han was displeased because Vaien tried to shift the lines of their deal. And Vaien was displeased because he didn't know why Zhang Han would have to reject him so curtly. His delicate man-pride was wounded.
As such, Vaien ate a quick meal and left.
Zhang Han was fine with that.
He wanted to put his mind anywhere but on the man he grudgingly shared a roof with. After all, their relationship and interactions had been such a delicate thing from the start. He'd gotten used to an air of domesticity surrounded by slowly roasting meals and casual nights of steaminess, but conflict was bound to strike when he refused to go along with every one of Vaien's whims.
Anyway, back to work on all his contraptions.
Besides the laser bow, he'd now completed two light wrist guards made of Yiritanium metal. Hm. To test them ought he should wear them for the day and see if they chafe against his skin at all. He picked those up and latched them onto his wrists. There was also the scanner, then this other things he was going to work on…
He was hunched over on the ground, his bangs hanging over his eyes. Cluttered parts and wires lied everywhere. The sun slowly rose up as the day was passing.
…
At some point along the afternoon, there were a few crunches over the gravel-like rock.
Zhang Han did not bother to turn his head up at first.
But these footsteps were...odd. Vaien's steps were quiet, like a hunter going up on prey, one would scarcely hear them until he was a few paces away.
These were louder.
Zhang Han looked up from the pile of wires he'd been untangling. Then his stomach churned.
There was an unfamiliar woman standing only a few feet away.
"Who the heck are you? !" she asked in a standoffish tone.
Her hair was only slightly longer than Vaien's and it, too, was red. Although the shade was not nearly as bright colored and flame-like as his. The thing that made her look the most alike to Vaien, however, were her eyes, thin and tapered with dark slits like a reptile's, a shining golden hue.
"I…" Zhang Han stammered. "I am…"
"Spit it out, how do you know my brother?!"
So she's Vaien's sister! Zhang Han had suspected something like that.
They look too alike to be unrelated.
Zhang Han swallowed. He took a deep breath and switched into 'diplomat' mode. All he needed to do was answer in a way that would not enrage her. He thought back to her coarse tone and Vaien's somewhat blunt and shameless attitude.
Zhang Han confidently replied, "Vaien and I are sex partners."
There was a moment of quiet as she widened her eyes as thought stunned. Then she gripped her stomach and started laughing.
"Oh, ahahaha! Hilarious…I knew he was gonna be so desperate after leaving our tribe...!"
A number of shell earrings she wore clinked as her head bobbed, and her clothing was covered with feathers and dyed brightly blue, contrasting against her reddish hair. She was even more flamboyant than Vaien.
At least he didn't get into any trouble with her. With any luck, perhaps he'd be able to speak to her as with Vaien?
But the next moment proved Zhang Han's thoughts terribly wrong.
He blinked and suddenly saw her enlarged features right in front of his. Her pupils were cold and calculating, the ones that Vaien would show when hunting…
Zhang Han felt an iron grip latch onto his neck, and in the next moment he was slammed into the rock ledge wall. He coughed out bile and shouted in pain. The wind was knocked out of him, so he couldn't breathe.
It hurts.
It hurts so much...his ribs...some were probably broken.
Her red lips closed in to the side of Zhang Han's face as she hissed, "Huh, my brother doesn't ever stick with one sex partner, and he doesn't like sleeping with weaklings. So aren't you just a little liar? ...your hair and eye color are sure strange. Are you from a different tribe? You better confess what you're doing here before I blow your pretty little head to bits."
Zhang Han coughed, his chest ached with pain.
He couldn't say shit with her fingers gripped onto his throat!
The pressure his back felt on the hard stone behind him increased slightly. He felt like he was going to be squeezed to death. If only he had his gun...or....the surroundings went fuzzy and warped and his ears started ringing.
...wait, his gun was in his belt!
Zhang Han could barely function, but in the throws of this death struggle he managed to edge his hand down and pull it out. He immediately pulled the trigger at her, not caring where he aimed.
She swayed to the side in a blur and jumped a meter back.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "What was that? Why did it feel dangerous?"
Zhang Han's body fell onto the ground, his elbows scrapped the rock as he caught himself. He bit the inside of his lip to prevent himself from groaning in pain, and tasted metallic blood.
The gun was still in his palm, but pressed flat against the ground. And even if he could use it, there was little chance it would catch Vaien's sister off guard again.
There was a voice that vaguely battered his ears.
Is he going to be killed…?
"What the fuck are you doing, Kalla!" Vaien shouted from the ground below. "Get away from him!"
Vaien saw her pinning Zhang Han against the rocks, the spots of blood, and how dim his eyes had become. He felt panic well up in his chest, indescribable panic, and livid, incurable rage. His leg muscles flexed without thinking as he sprinted up the cliff path towards his sister.
Vaien's sister, Kalla, had a flash of confusion on her face.
She muttered, "Um...opps...I didn't know. Bro, don't be mad-"
Her sentence went unfinished as Vaien had already made it up the cliff and lunged at her with punishing speed. His leg flew out with a gust of wind and hit her square in the stomach.
Kalla made a grunting whimper as she was shot into the cliff a few meters off from where Zhang Han was like a cannon. Rock debris flew everywhere as her body implanted into the wall, and only here arms and legs were visible, hanging out of the crater and wiggling slightly.
A few of the iridescent blue feathers on her tunic floated haphazardly in the air.
Zhang Han coughed again, but although he tried to stand the best he could do was sit up against the rock face. His brows were furrowed tightly as cold sweat dripped down his collar.
Vaien was by his side in the next moment.
"Zhang Han!" he said. "You're not dead, are you?!"
Kalla rolled out of the crater in the rocks with a huff...surprisingly uninjured, but as soon as she'd done so Vaien threw a pig-sized frog that he'd been carrying under his arm at her with vehemence.
"Hey!" she caught it with complaint, a few pieces of rock falling off her hair. "Seriously, I didn't know you two were actually fuck buddies. Ugh…" she lifted her chin and sniffed the air, then continued, "gods, you smell just like this dark-haired man. You have his smell all over you…"
"Fuck off!" Vaien snapped at her. He turned his attention back towards Zhang Han, putting a hand on his shoulder to help prop him up.
Zhang Han weakly heaved in a few breaths, trying to focus his eyesight, but was unable to form any words for the time being. The weather was indescribably hot and humid as always, too. It made it to get a satisfying lung-full of air.
He happened to notice that Vaien's expression was different from what he'd ever seen before. It was downtrodden and depressed, almost humiliated, as though he'd failed at something.
Vaien's other hand reached out but he seemed uncertain what parts on Zhang Han were uninjured and okay to touch.
"I-It's okay…you'll be fine..." he spoke to Zhang Han in a tone rushed with worry. "You'll be fine…right?"
Zhang Han gave him a slight glare despite his pain. He really wanted to retort 'Do you think I'm gonna bite the dust from just this?!'
Vaien was totally thinking that.
Zhang Han sucked in a breath then rolled his eyes. Of course he'll be fine. It's just a couple broken ribs...sheesh...they'll heal in a few months. He was just getting over the shock of it.
Idiot.