We don't talk to the police, dear. [Ark/Jessan]

[nozomi]

He'd healed. Ark had healed, somehow, despite the fever and whatever it was had coursed in his veins. He'd asked to not have the only full fledged Healer attend to him, for it to be Jessan, because really, who else was there? She knew the basics, went through the whole first few years with the briefest of teachings on how to take care of wounds, and what plants could be used for this or that, probably how to take care of the basic things, but...

Either way, she humored him. Bastard. Deadglow. Almost died.

She stayed by him, as much as she could. Then, he got better. That particular day, Jessan arrived bearing a few glows and a basket that had a container of water, and some fish. Delicious fish. It was food, Arkady could not hunt, and Jessan did not wish to disclose how it was that she obtained aforementioned food. When she arrived at Arkady's lovely, darling, smooth walled cave, he'd been gone!

So, Jessan waited. Perched on one of those large stones (ledges? Hills of rocky things? She had no clue), Jessan waited for him to return from wherever he'd wandered to. She leaned on the side of the cave, eyes half-open and on the entry way, legs folded with the basket on her lap.

Jessan: The Creeper. Maybe she was closer to Machi then one would expect.

[tuathade]

Arkady was uncomfortably aware that he now owed Jessan his life twice over. Once when she'd opened the door to his cell and handed him a weapon (because a slow death over decades spent in a prison cell was still a death) and again when she'd watched over him these past few sevendays. It was a heavy debt, and all he had to offer in return was his loyalty. Lucky for him, Jessan didn't ask for much.

This morning, he'd woken up feeling more lucid than he had in a long time. Alert and full of energy, he'd took off for the outdoors. The Harper didn't quite dare risk hunting yet, not when the jungle was full of felines... But he could do other things, in the meantime. Crafting was not his specialty; he knew the basics, but slowly, through trial and error, he was working on making other things. Plant fibers could be woven, braided, or twisted together into cord. With that, he could make snare traps, or maybe help that one girl with her nets. Likewise, he was beginning to learn some very simple stone knapping... Nothing fancy or particularly pretty, but a few sharp edges and some points that could be useful. As long as he worked primarily with his hands, and didn't do much in the way of heavy lifting, his shoulder didn't bother him nearly as often anymore.

So it was with a light heart and a satisfied smile that he headed back into the cave, only to have that smile widen when he saw the glowlight from the entrance way. Only one person came to visit him at his cave these days. Jessan had come to see him.

"Hello, gorgeous," he lilted, dropping his small bundle and moving immediately to her side. She'd brought a basket. What was in the basket? Something lovely, most likely. Darling, fabulous Jessan. He curved an arm around her waist and kissed her briefly, sitting down on the ledge next to her with a happy little sigh. "It's wonderful to see you."

[nozomi]

Oh! There was an Arkady in the cave finally! Jessan perked up when he wandered inside, that thousand-watt smile on his face that she thought to be genuine. Jessan trusted the outlaw more then she cared to admit - something that even Machi picked up on and warned her about. Arkady liked his sharp things, used them to kill people such as that Lord Holder's daughter, and perhaps he'd even hit the same level of psychopath her brother was. Maybe she simply couldn't tell, as even trained MindHealers and Harpers could be fooled by an equally talented person. But he smiled at her, and said kind things, so Jessan smiled back, slow and as genuine as she knew how to, kissed him back.

"It's good to see you too, Arkady. Up and about, even." Jessan returned the leaning, her arm going behind him as if to drape over his shoulders. As one of them had previous possessed a gaping wound not even four sevendays beforehand, Jessan instead curved her arm to rub affectionately at the top of his head. "I'd started to think you were eaten by a wild feline out there, dear. How is your arm?"

She hooked her ankle around Arkady's, and edged closer. Jessan let her head tip down to rest on Arkady's shoulder, casual, slow, comfortable. She'd be lying if she were to say the sevendays with an ill, near-dead Arkady didn't affect her. It had been odd; Arkady in the depths of his fever did not smile or show his teeth in anything but pain, nor did he say pretty things, or look around for a weapon. After a few days, Jessan ceased to think of him as 'Arkady', former patient, current fellow outlaw, but rather as 'guy with an arrow through him'.

When his fever broke, he became Arkady once again.

And he was back, walking, talking, bringing little satchels of random things on the ground. She breathed easier. Stupid Arkady, being nice and making her worry.

"Speaking of you being somewhat more healthy - I brought water. And fish. I assumed you haven't been able to go out and get your own. But if that-" Her free hand flicked in the direction of the bundle he'd tossed aside. "Happens to be delicious food, I can eat the fish on my lonesome."

[tuathade]

So charming, Jessan was. So wonderful. He unwound like a contented feline under her gentle touch, the affectionate tangle of limbs. When she leaned her head on his shoulder, he leaned his cheek against her hair with a happy little sigh. Never going to get tired of this. Never, ever.

“I try not to get eaten,” he chuckled, amused. “And the arm’s… better. Not one hundred percent, but better. Enough that I can use it, as long as I don’t try to haul anything too heavy.” He’d been taking it slow, careful and patient. He wasn’t a Healer, but Arkady was well aware that stressing the wound too much too quickly could lead to permanent joint damage. Which would not be acceptable. In fact, it would mean he was pretty much fucked.

He perked up at the mention of food. “That?” He gestured to the bundle. “Nah, just materials… Bits and bobs for making traps, stone tools, that sort of thing. What we’ve got isn’t going to last forever, so I figure might as well start learning how to make stuff. I wouldn’t say no to food, though,” he added hopefully. Peckish would be an understatement. Try more like… ravenous.

Someday he was going to find a way to repay her. But for now, food and snuggles.

((Timeskippin’ to post-Hatching because Tua is a derp))

Mine… My legs itch.

Beoth’s jaws were firmly locked around the neck of a small wherry. It was getting harder and harder to find prey in the immediate vicinity of camp, which meant they had to go farther afield to find anything large enough to make a decent meal for the rapidly growing pink. Guinea pigs and little river fish might serve to satiate the purples and greys for now, but Arkady needed larger sources of meat. So out they went, into the deeper jungle. It was easier with two; Beoth might still be an infant, but he was easily the size of a large canine, and with the telepathic bond between them, they were slowly perfecting a method. One of them would flush out prey straight into the killing blow of the other’s blade – or claws and teeth. Now, with the scrawny wherry to show for their pains, they were returning to the safety of Arkady’s cave to butcher it with as little waste as possible.

It wasn’t enough for Arkady’s peace of mind, though. Beoth was putting on weight… but not fast enough. It was harder to see on his brightly painted flank, but on the other, duller side, he could still see the rippled indentations of the dragon’s ribcage. The pink was putting on muscle, but he was still a lean and ravenous creature. And worse than that, his hide was cracking in places. Especially around the joints. He could get a small amount of fish oil out of the fish from the river, but shards, what he would give for a good skin of the sweet-smelling oil the Warden’s dragonriders used…

The meat went to Beoth. But on top of that, Arkady had gathered up any nuts or oily-seeming plants he could find. “I know cooks use vegetable oil, so there’s gotta be a way to extract it… Just have to figure it out, that’s all. Then our problems would be solved.” Easier said than done, but trial and error might get him something. Crush it, boil it, strain it, see what came out and if it had any effect on Beoth’s hide.

[nozomi]

Jessan found very few joys with being in the cave still. Oh, yes, having a dragon meant that Jiruyno couldn't kill them all in their sleep, and the lack of sex didn't phase her overmuch. She still got to cuddle the crazy slasher and his pretty princess dragon.

But, to be frank? Machi receiving a dragon and leaving Jessan out on the side as if she were easily discarded remains pissed. her. off. He never wanted a life partner, he had been damaged in more ways then one, and then he bonded with some purple half-dead creature that wanted nothing to do with her. The Mindhealer wasn't stupid, and Rhinth's insults failed to fool her. It made her angry, it lessened her status in their little underground camp, it meant that she had been replaced.

Nothing about her behavior changed any; Jessan refused to let her ability to lie and fake die with her good fluffy feelings towards quite a few things, though Arkady saw more 'her' than most anyone else. She tried to stay with him more often then not when it came to the nights, but it meant affection for him and his dragon. That was good, wasn't it?

Right?

"Back already, Arkady?" Jessan peered into the almost-little cave to squint at the man and his... What? "Arkady, whatever are you doing?" He wouldn't kill her (yet. Maybe), and Jessan walked in, crouched next to him to continue looking at... well, whatever it was. "Are you attempting to cook?"