Blood
Athena
I wake in my bed, Wynnona absent, a large bandage wrapped around my torso, shoulder, and head. I start to sit up, groaning at the dull pain and stiffness that cling to my body. I hear Star yipping fiercely as Keya's loving, worried face comes into my view.
"Lay back down, Oriana cut you up pretty good." She tells me softly, pushing me back into the bed. I allow her to push me back as I study her.
"What happened?" I ask in a gravel like voice. She hands me a glass of tea that I drink, wetting down the sandpaper that had crawled into my throat.
"Brett broke down the door of the room when we heard shouting. We saw Wyatt and Giovanni get tossed out of the ship. Then the ship started to crash. Brett went to help Jake land this thing. The hanger closed and we hit something. You hit your head hard. In your disorientation Oriana charged at you, getting several hits on you with her sword before I shot her. She's in the brig now." She informs me as she unwraps my head, checking it. "You'll likely scar in some places." She wraps my head again with a new set of bandages. The sliding door opens again to reveal a very tired Roe. He looks completely healed from his tussle with the robotic dogs.
"Auntie Keya?" He asks softly, rubbing at his eyes that have small bags under them. Keya turns her attention to the boy as his eyes land on me. "Athena." He cries out happily, rushing into my opened arms. "I was so scared you wouldn't wake up." He cries into my bandaged chest. I cuddle him close, kissing the top of his head. I'll admit, watching Wynnona interact with the young boy and spending time with him myself, I have grown attached to him. I'd go as far as to say I view him as my own, loving him the same. "You were asleep for two days."
"It is alright Rowen." I tell him. "I am alright. You look like you need some rest however." I lay down on my side, cringing slightly at the slashes on my body. Roe crawls under the blankets, cuddling close to me. He makes sure to not lay on Wynnona's side of our bed. Two days she's been stuck with no way to get to us. What if she's hurt? What if she died?
I glance down at the red rose still around my neck, the gift from Roe. The sides of each petal are slightly wilted, but it is in perfect shape other than that. I bless the small boy in my arms, kissing his forehead before allowing darkness to overtake me again, my dreams filled with Wynnona.
Wynnona
The next couple hours are spent with Giovanni and I jogging through the parts of the maze I'm able to see from the top of trees and avoiding different things trying to kill us.
"Okay," Giovanni breaths, hunching over and breathing hard, "we gotta stop for the night." I study the area around us, agreeing with him. My stomach clenched with hunger as I breathed hard, my throat begging for water. I look down at the purple rose on my necklace, noticing the light has faded ever so slightly and the edges of the petals were dark, wrinkled. Worry set in me.
"You're right." I agree, walking down a dead end to set up a small camp. We don't start a fire, instead eating the small amount of food in our bags cold. I take small, slow sips of my water bottle, making sure to leave lots. After eating we huddle together, using our bags as a pillow to sleep and share heat. I drift off quickly, falling into a dreamless sleep. I wake the next morning to growling. When I open my eyes there is a small dragon standing on my chest.
"Wyatt, don't move." Giovanni says carefully. His bag is on and he's ready to go. I don't move a single muscle, going as far as to hold my breath. I don't look at the baby dragon, keeping my eyes to the dark blue sky. I mentally curse myself for putting on the light weight, short, capris in my bag in exchange for my heavier, thicker skinny jeans. They allowed me to cool off faster and run better. Now I realize how little protection they give my legs.
The dragon gets off me, allowing me to slowly clamber to my feet. I put on my bag, keeping my eyes on the dragon. Everything is fine until I turn to start to leave with Giovanni when a searing pain races up my leg. I look down to see the little devil has scratched its fearsome claws into my left calf, drawing blood. I fall back, the pain unlike anything I've felt before. Giovanni attempts to pull me up and away from the dragon moments too late. I feel teeth sink into my hip as I cry out from the white-hot pain. I can feel a venom start to race in my veins. The veins around the bite have started to turn an eerie black with a slight hue of disgusting green.
I use my good leg to kick the creature away, my body refusing to stand when I try. Giovanni gets my arm around his neck, running off the direction I navigate from the baby dragon. I manage to lead us through the maze for a couple minutes that feel like hours. We got to a quiet corner at a fork in the road, the last turn I remember seeing when I climbed to the top of the maze before we rested yesterday. I can feel my consciousness slipping from me, my head spinning. I am gasping for breath, my throat dry as I gulp in all the air I can. I can feel the venom from the dragon bite coursing through my system, slowly moving through my body.
"Shit, this looks really bad." Giovanni says as he studies the bite, pulling out his small first aid kit. "We have to get you to Jake fast. He may be able to identify the poison and stop it." I can feel tears welling in my eyes.
"Mother fucker." I growl out in a soft voice, punching the ground with my fist. "This wasn't supposed to happen." I sigh in defeat. We have no idea how fast this venom will spread. We have no idea how much farther the ship is. We have no idea if our supplies will last. And now, we have no idea how long we have until my time is up.
"I know exactly what you're thinking, and I am telling you as a friend and brother to can it." Giovanni tells me in a sharp, parent like tone. I hiss as he pulls one of the baby dragon's teeth from my abdomen that was stuck. "You are not dying out here. You have been in worse situations and gotten out better than this, so stop being a pessimist."
"You sound like Jake." I tell him with a pained, toothy grin. He glares at me as he pulls another two teeth out, starting to clean and bandage the bite then the scratch.
"I may have heard the same speech several times from him." He finishes up, handing me my water bottle and some food. "Us Allen's are rather stubborn and reckless." I smile warmly at his all too true words. "Now eat a bit and drink a bit, I'm going to climb up and check out where to go next." I nod along as I munch on the rations. I wait for him to come back down from the tree after I finish, collecting the teeth of the dragon. They will definitely make good souvenirs if I survive. Giovanni lands on the ground beside me with a loud thud. "We gotta go." He whispers to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. Just as we start heading down the left side of the fork in the road we stopped at, a loud roar resonates overhead.
"I'm not asking questions, just go." I push Giovanni as we start to run, following every one of his directions as fast as I can. We spend the rest of the day repeating the same steps, travel, climb to the top of the maze to look around, travel again. The day was long, boring, painful, and hot.
Athena
I wake to a still sleeping Star and Roe. Slowly, I climb out of the bed, hissing slightly at the dull sting in my torso. I find a very oversized sweater, pulling it on only to revel in the smell that hits me. Wynnona. It is strange, but her scent calms me and makes me feel better. She smells of motor grease, the woods I used to wonder in as a child, and something I can't name. I read a book that said that if you like your partner's scent it is a good indication you are compatible. My heart constricts with so many emotions.
I decide to go for a walk, to wander around the ship to get myself moving. I walk the entire ship, letting my feet lead me. I end up leaving the hanger, going outside of the ship. The twins are hard at work fixing up the ship making sure we will be able to take off the moment Giovanni and Wynnona make it back to us. I wandered around them, climbing up the ship to sit on top of it beside Jake, who I did not know was up there. He turns to look at me as I sit beside him, allowing my legs to dangle over the edge of the ship.
"You're worried." I say softly as I look over the maze before us. He sighs, offering me a corner of the blanket wrapped around him as the wind picks up. I wrap it around my shoulders, noticing the high-quality whisky bottle in his hand. It is a quarter empty. "And maybe drunk."
"I don't think I can become drunk; I just enjoy the taste and burn of it." Jake says, offering me the bottle haphazardly, expecting me not to take it. To his surprise, and my own, I take the whisky bottle, pop the top off, and take a long sip of the whisky. It tastes a little like caramel, but mostly alcohol that burns my throat as it goes down. I hand it back to him, looking at my sandaled feet.
"You're not the only worried one." I tell him softly. He smiles warmly at me, wrapping his arm around my slim shoulders and pulling me closer to him, allowing me to rest my tired head on his shoulder. I do so as I wrap the blanket further around myself. We engage in conversation as we pass the bottle back and forth. He informs me that just before I had come out here, he had heard a loud roar from within the maze. Our conversation changes from there, growing in a different direction.
"If you were to have children, how many would you have and what would you name them?" He asks as he lays back, staring up at the sky.
"Two or three. If I have a girl, I'd name her Atlas. If I had a boy, I'd name him Everest. But I also will love them no matter what." I answer, rubbing my stomach in circles unconsciously. "You'd make a good father." I tell him, smiling. He's about to answer me when we hear the same roar much closer and see a tall dragon over the maze. The ground shakes violently as the creature takes a step.
We both rush off the ship, struggling to keep our balance as we go. The twins are holding each other, attempting to keep the other stable. I rush as fast as I can to the only entrance to the middle of the maze. All I see is black when I look down the path. Then there is a small tint of red that I know all too well.
"Wynnona." I breath, my heart skyrocketing when I see her. But the moment I get a good look at her, my heart plummets to my stomach, my stomach falling to the ground. "Wynnona!" I cry out.