The ship was quiet in these parts, as it often was when the two humans went about their respective business. Grenelant was grateful for it. The less he had to listen to them squabble during one day, the better. He headed down the hallway for the sanitaries and felt around for nearby humidity, once again unpleasantly reminded of how inorganic this place was. His membranous wings flickered in troubled annoyance at the thought of spending such a long time aboard, so far from the marshes and rivers of his home planet. Nostalgia, in turn, dawned in his heart when his thoughts brought him back to his home and family. Grenelant missed swimming in the underwater tunnels which seamlessly connected with those on the surface, missed the comforting thrum of water beneath his wings, missed the soft flutter of fish drifting close to his skin, missed the fresh humidity of algous upholstery that was so much more comfortable than the dry chairs on this ship.

He promptly berated himself for allowing his mind to meander down such a wistful lane. Here in space, he was less of an opiel than he was Ophena's ambassador, and it really would not do for him to behave like a child. The Court had known this would be Grenelant's first interstellar mission yet they'd still trusted him to see it through, and so he would. He had to. He hadn't worked so hard all his life only to fail on his first real chance to prove his worth to the most powerful people on Ophena. Homesickness wouldn't get the best of him after a mere three weeks of travelling in a spaceship when they still had at least five months to go- and Grenelant tried not to grow to disheartened at the reminder that this was only in the best case scenario.

The opiel let out a discreet sigh as he checked on the water reserves again, a nervous habit he'd aquired five days after they'd lost the ship's external humidity collectors. Lack of sleep wasn't the only reason his skin was abnormally dry; he'd soon noticed the reserves and sanitaries hadn't been meant to take into account the needs of his species on their own, and so he'd had to make do with less frequent immersions, in more shallow depths than he would've liked. It had been enough, for a while, but now Grenelant was starting to feel the effects of neglecting an important part of his biology. He didn't want to give the earthlings reason to think he'd ever rely on them after the last fiasco he'd been forced to take part of, but he couldn't push it back any longer. Pride be damned. He needed their help.

"Captain Trust."

She spun around in her seat and her head tilted back to face him. "Leonida. We're just the three of us here! There's no need to remain so formal, Grenelant, I keep telling you."

Arkady was sitting in front of a panel on the far left of the control room, where he'd stopped rummaging for a few seconds to watch the tall amphibian step up to their captain. Now he was rolling his eyes as he checked the wires, and Grenelant heard him mutter to himself: "Here we go again."

Leonida shot him a look. "What?"

The man didn't look up from what he was doing and mumbled: "Nothing."

"Spit it out, Arkady."

He finally glanced at her. "Sir, no offense, but getting annoyed because Grenelant can't call you anything other than Captain yet won't change anything. It took me two weeks to stop calling you that and I still slip up."

"He's never called me Leonida and he's been here for three!"

And I was injured on the second by your fault, wryly thought Grenelant, but he kept quiet.

Arkady shrugged. "In my division our superior was on a total power trip, and we both know how the army goes in general. You can't expect me to drop the habit of calling superiors by their title. Not everyone's like you."

She crossed her arms. "You two are just the most stuck-up people in the universe."

Grenelant took advantage of the lull in their conversation to say: "You'll have to forgive me, Captain. Hierarchy is very deeply ingrained in the ways of my people."

"I think I'm beginning to get that," Leonida said with a little smile that was bordering on wry and teasing. "All right, Grenelant, what did you want with me?"

"There's an issue concerning our water backup supply."

"I don't know what you're going on about, I check the levels every day and there's enough for three weeks just like there's meant to be," said Arkady with a frown. "Why would you even check those? That's my job."

The subtext was clear: why was Grenelant lowering himself to the menial task of checking parameters within the ship when he was the ambassador, only here to sit around and symbolize the cooperation between two planets? Not to mention that this was an insult to Arkady's abilities as the ship's technician.

Grenelant faced him. "You've had enough water for your consumption, but not for mine."

"What do you mean?" asked Leonida. Her tone of voice was concerned.

"We lost the water processors on the outside of the ship and the regenerative system isn't nearly enough on its own to replace all our daily water consumption. My species requires frequent submersion in water and I can't reasonably deplete the reserves without putting us all in potential danger, which means I've had to restrain myself from following through with that habit. Unfortunately, I don't think I can hold this less than ideal rythm for much longer."

"Grenelant, why didn't you say anything before?" exclaimed Leonida, suddenly straightening in her seat. "How often do you usually need to do that?"

"Two times per day."

"And how many times have you been doing it?"

"Once every two days, and even then, it seems to be quite unreasonable of me to use so much water. I've been keeping the levels relatively steady but this won't do in the long run. I'm aware they aren't supposed to dip beneath 90% outside of an emergency situation and continuing like this will lead to violation of protocol if we don't find a solution to my problem."

"Are you all right?" Leonida was frowning now, her gaze calculating as it looked him over. "I thought your hair looked a little dry. Is it dehydration?"

She didn't sound worried, but rather like she was watching out for a flaw she'd need to fix. Grenelant preferred the captain's analytical concern over useless fretting, it made him feel less like he was doomed to be in their debt once they'd figure out a way to provide him with the water he needed.

"I'll be fine as long as this doesn't last. What do you suggest?"

Leonida glanced over at her second. "Arkady? Any ideas?"

Arkady had disappeared behind the panel again and he grumbled: "I'm not the smart one here."

"Well," she said thoughtfully, like she hadn't actually expected him to say anything worthwhile, "I guess we'll have to see if there's another planet we could land on to get water earlier. I would've made sure the reserves were bigger if I'd known." She turned around to step up to one of the screens and asked: "Why'd you keep quiet about this?"

"I didn't realize it could get this dire. Obviously your people didn't take into account what would happen if the collectors stopped working."

"Probably not," bluntly agreed Leonida as her finger swiped across the luminescent surface. It figured. Grenelant didn't know why he was still surprised by her brutal honesty. "Okay, let me just reprogram our route and we'll be on our way to get more water."

They eventually docked on a small deserted dwarf planet amidst the nearest icy belt they could deviate towards and disembarked in heated suits, except for Leonida. Her standard outfit seemed to serve many, many purposes and Grenelant was quietly admirative of its versatility, watching in fascination as the brightly colored plates of Leonida's body shifted from red to a reflection of her surroundings. The air wasn't toxic, which he was grateful for as it didn't warrant wearing a suffocating helmet.

The pure water was concentrated deep below the first outer layer of the planet which meant they couldn't just land and take it; they'd need to get close to it and bring back full containers. Leonida showed Grenelant how to use the crafts meant for exploration and collection in a hostile environment: flying vehicles that glided close to the ground, small enough to fit through natural tunnels and big enough to bring back consequent amounts of food or water or whatever samples they'd see fit to pick up. Grenelant trailed at the back on the first half of the first day of their descent because it took him some time to get the hang of the commands that weren't made for his long, webbed hands, but eventually he managed to catch up with them and remained at their level. Their progress was stopped very soon when it became clear that even the considerably downsized vehicles wouldn't allow them to go very far; the tunnels hadn't remained wide enough. There was a short moment of deliberation and eventually Leonida told them they'd go on foot.

"What?!" Arkady's exclamation crackled through the radio. "How're we supposed to bring back the water on foot?"

"The containers have wheels, we'll drag them along."

"Cap- Leonida, sir, they'll be way too heavy once we fill them!"

"Right." There was hesitation on Leonida's end. "Sorry, Arkady. I forgot you don't have our strength."

"Wow, thanks," quietly mumbled the man. He probably hadn't intended to be audible but Grenelant heard it well enough, and he had no doubt it was the same for Leonida. She didn't react.

"Grenelant, just to be sure, I assume you're strong enough to carry yours alone. Right?"

"Yes."

"Would two containers be enough water for you until we reach the next checkpoint on our trajectory?

"Yes, but I have another proposition since we're going on foot."

"Shoot," said Leonida.

Grenelant addressed their technician. "Dragunin, would you be able to modify the water purification machine so it could recycle greater volumes of water in the same time as it currently is?"

"I'm pretty sure I can pull that off, yeah," answered the man.

"Then I'd advise you to only take one tank, Captain Trust. The water purification machine should be able to recycle enough water for me to use it once a day and I'll get by like this until we get more water through safer means. There's no need to burden ourselves with superfluous weight if we can do this the easy way."

"Oh, good!" enthusiastically said Leonida. "Should be a breeze then! It'll go fast if we're three to carry a single container. Happy, Arkady?"

"Never been happier," grumbled Arkady.

"It's settled then! All right, everyone, let's go."

Leonida moved fast. Grenelant had already noticed when they'd been walking through crowds that her strides were always long and quick and determined; however, he'd yet to see her moving on this kind of bumpy, treacherous terrain, and he was reluctantly admirative of how easy she made it seem. Where Arkady kept slipping and stumbling, where Grenelant's webbed feet had to be carefully positioned, Leonida never once hesitated. She was the one doing most of the pulling for the container. It was like she could see the path laid out before her while both Grenelant and Arkady were left to struggle in her wake, rocks crumbling beneath their steps. The opiel kept one hand warily pressed up against the wall in case he lost his footing, and the human seemed to want to prove he didn't need such support by keeping his own in his pockets. His arms ended up shooting more often than not to catch himself and in the end Arkady kept his hands out as well.

They made good progress on the first day. They rarely paused because Leonida was so intent on getting the water as soon as possible so they could get back on their regularly scheduled route. Grenelant appreciated that this woman who was to guide them to Ophena's lost colony was someone who knew exactly what she wanted and would follow through with it no matter what unexpected events occurred; determination was a primordial quality in a leader. She was overly confident and got them in more trouble than Grenelant would've desired, but one thing was for certain, and it was that Leonida Trust knew very well how to lead. He wondered if she guided large troups with that same efficient will and certainty. It was likely. Captain wasn't just a title for her, she had the aura of a commander.

As for Arkady... Grenelant glanced over at the human. He may have been from the same planet as the captain, but he had neither the stamina nor the steady demeanor of his superior. Grenelant knew Arkady was more of a human than Leonida, he'd studied them for some time after all; the records did say that humans were more fragile and less resiliant than opiels but Grenelant hadn't thought it meant they tired out so fast. Arkady was slower now. They hadn't had much opportunity to sleep the night before, as this planet was unknown territory and Leonida didn't want them to linger too long in the same spot in case there was a danger roaming around that they weren't yet aware of. These tunnels didn't seem to be an entirely natural geological structure. Leonida had listened when Grenelant had pointed this out, and so they'd kept moving.

So far there had been few pauses to eat and sleep during which Leonida had always been the one to keep watch. The night had lasted two hours at best. Grenelant didn't require any longer time asleep but he could tell that Arkady did. This was the second day they were trekking through the dark tunnels- the third since they'd left the ship- and in the harsh light of their suits which made their surroundings pale and nearly blinding, Grenelant saw the dark bags that had appeared under the man's eyes. Another thing he'd noticed was the way Arkady didn't ask for pauses. The human was obviously relieved when Leonida told them they could stop, but he never asked. Grenelant himself wasn't feeling well. The tunnels humidity, while cold, did help a bit; however he'd gone too long without taking a dip in a body of water while already dehydrated from the start. His wings were clumped together in a very uncomfortable way and his skin felt clammy. He hadn't yet reached the point of dizziness but he knew it wouldn't be far now.

Arkady tripped. The human had been tripping more often, and he hastily caught himself on the tank. "Fuck!"

"Watch your step, Arkady," rang out Leonida's tranquil voice the way it had every time.

"I know!" annoyedly spat the man, and he ragingly pushed himself up to straighten but tripped again immediately after. Grenelant was fast enough to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" he inquired.

Arkady pulled his arm away with a snarl. "Let go!"

The opiel let go and Arkady scrambled back to his feet with a powerful glare. Puzzled by this display of hostility, Grenelant steadily said: "I was just trying to help."

"I don't need your help," seethed the human.

Leonida had turned around to see what the fuss was about and she said: "No need to be so grumpy, Arkady, we're almost there."

"I'm grumpy because I'm goddamn tired. Fuck, aren't you?"

She shrugged and turned around. "Nope. Battery's still good."

"And I bet frogman's just fine, too," resentfully muttered Arkady.

Grenelant immediately took offense to the term. He'd seen what frogs looked like and although he couldn't deny there was a resemblance, he really didn't like being compared to those little heaps of slimy skin and protruding eyes. He coldly retorted: "Yes, and I'd certainly feel even better if you stopped your ceaseless whining."

Leonida muffled her laugh behind her hand and Arkady shot the opiel a murderous look.

"I'm not whining, I'm tired! What, I can't even say that without getting judged?"

Grenelant ignored him. Arkady opened his mouth to keep complaining but then seemed to think better of it. His shoulders slumped, he shook his head, and he resumed pushing the container.

Arkady's stumbles increased in frequency over the next hours and when he outright tripped over and fell on his rear, Grenelant decided to speak up. "Captain Trust, I think we should take a break."

She turned around, watching Arkady awkwardly pick himself up, and said: "Do you need one? We're almost there. Half a day at most."

That glare again. Grenelant didn't like how resentful Arkady's blue eyes were and he especially didn't like the disdainful way the human turned his head away from him, as if Grenelant had done him a personal offense by asking for a short rest.

"I'm good to go, sir," Arkady answered.

"Okay," she answered with a nod. "Grenelant?"

"We should stop."

"I don't need a pause," growled Arkady.

Grenelant looked down at the human and steadily said: "I do."

Arkady's features slackened a little when he realized he'd been acting quite like everything revolved around him, and then he frowned and looked away. It looked like embarrassment. Grenelant supposed it was some sort of consolation that while egocentric and prone to complaints, the human wasn't completely devoid of a sense of self-awareness.

Leonida let go of the tank. "Then you two sit down for a bit, I'll go check the perimeter. Don't fight again, your arguing gets loud and that's really the last thing we need here."

"Understood," said Grenelant, and he bent his knees to sit. Arkady waited for Leonida to disappear before going to lean against the wall and sliding down to the ground. There was a short while of silence, then Arkady let out a weary sigh and let his head tip back against the wall.

Grenelant looked around the place and he noticed something dark sticking against the wall a few feet away from the human, so he slowly pushed himself back to his feet and came closer. He was tired, but that wouldn't stop him from investigating this place. He felt Arkady's gaze on him but didn't pay attention to the human, instead kneeling down in front of the dark spot which turned out to be long strands of black hair. Curious. Grenelant reached for his bag and took out a vial, always eager to take samples back to the ship to study, and Arkady shifted to take a closer look at what he was doing.

"What's that?"

"Fur," said Grenelant. He wasn't one to hold a grudge against another person, even if said person was incredibly rude at best. "Either from the creature that made these tunnels, either from one that took residency in this place."

Arkady didn't say anything. Grenelant glanced at him and saw that he really didn't seem reassured by the news.

Grenelant put away the vial in his pack and added: "I did tell you both that these tunnels weren't the result of natural causes."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time," tensely said Arkady.

He looked wary as he crossed his arms on his knees and hunched over. Grenelant didn't exactly blame the human for being scared, he wasn't confident himself either. It had been jarring enough to meet other civilizations than those of Ophena; now they were stuck on a planet they'd thought deserted until Grenelant had observed it likely wasn't, and they had no clue what the life forms inhabiting it looked like. It could be dangerous if the creature living here turned out to be a predator. Grenelant stood up, and that was when the first wave of dizziness washed over him. He wavered and steadied himself against the wall.

"Woah," came Arkady's voice from a distance. "What's with you?"

"I'm just- Lack of water. I've told you about this too."

"You did, yeah... You should probably sit down."

"Yes." Grenelant didn't even step away from the wall, just let himself drop to the ground right there. He couldn't tell if he'd voluntarily sat down or if his legs had given up on him. The latter option was unlikely, he was an opiel after all. Legs were the strongest part of them.

"Do you not have any water left?" ventured Arkady after a beat.

"I do, but it's drinking water, and not nearly enough for what I need at the moment."

Arkady fell silent again and laid his head back against the wall. There wasn't much else to say. Grenelant closed his eyes and waited for the spell to pass, and when he opened them again he saw that Arkady had done the same. Grenelant took advantage of the fact that Arkady wasn't looking to gauge the state the human was in. Grenelant was no expert on these creatures in particular but he knew enough to observe that the fact that Arkady had paled, coupled with the fine tremors in his hands as they rested against his knees, meant that he was just as exhausted as Grenelant felt. Arkady may have denied needing this halt but it was obvious this was beneficial for the both of them. Grenelant wondered if a human different from Arkady and Leonida would have been able to keep up in the same conditions. After all, Arkady was the unique soldier who'd been chosen to accompany an army captain on a mission through space; that had to mean his abilities were above average and that he was far from weak in human standards.

Leonida returned a few seconds later and the sound of her voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "All right, guys, I didn't see or hear anything weird. How are you holding up, Grenelant?"

He looked up at her and admitted: "This isn't the best I've ever felt in my life. I may be reaching a limit soon."

Leonida stopped in front of him. "And what does that entail?"

"It starts with dizziness. That phase lasts a while, and eventually issues with thermoregulation come into play, as well as loss of strength."

"Life-threatening?"

"It can be, yes. But it takes time to reach that point and I've only just started getting dizzy. There's no need to worry. At worst, I'll survive until the next stop the way I have up until now."

Leonida stared at him, her lips pressed together in a thin line. "Your health wouldn't be good."

"No," acknowledged Grenelant. "It would be much better if we could bring water back to the ship."

"Have you had this happen to you before?"

"Once or twice, yes. But never beyond the dizzy phase."

"So then we'd better hurry before you get worse."

Grenelant glanced in Arkady's direction. His head was now fully resting against his arms and his breathing had a calmer rythm. Leonida turned to follow his gaze and they both stared at the human.

"We might want to give him a chance to sleep," said Grenelant. "Doesn't your species require at least seven per day to function optimally? He hasn't even had half of that in two."

Leonida nodded with a musing air. "I tend to forget what it's like to be human. He complains a lot so I thought as long as he was vocal, he was probably fine, but I might've been pushing him a little too hard."

Grenelant looked up at her. "I've been meaning to ask, if it's not indelicate..."

"Shoot," she cordially said as she sat down next to him.

"You come from Earth and you look similar to Dragunin, but what are you exactly?"

"I was human once, if that's what you were wondering, just like this guy. Now I'm more of a machine than what I used to be." She flashed him a smile. "It comes in handy."

Grenelant nodded. Though he was tired and rest was preferable, fascination pushed him to continue the conversation. "Is this common where you come from?"

"No." Her smile turned pensive. "Definitely not. A lot of people told me I was crazy for wanting this."

"Why?"

"Modifying the body you've had for all your life is kind of... an extreme decision. And my transformation was a first. They hadn't had successful attempts before me so people thought it would fail and that I'd die or become irreversibly crippled, stuff like that."

"...I can't imagine what it must have felt like to go through such a thing."

Grenelant's species had a single morphological change during their lifetime and it was in their early stages of life, just like babies and adults in humans. Once the second form was aquired, it was for a lifetime, and to change one's own appearance was practically unheard of on Ophena. Grenelant had in fact been very surprised to learn that humans often chose to change their sex, and in doing so, shift the nature of the secondary sexual characteristics aquired during their puberty. Nothing so extreme had ever been done on his home planet.

"I chose this. I don't regret it," stated Leonida. Then she smiled at him again. "You might want to take this time to rest too, Grenelant. You do look pretty pooped."

"Pooped?" Grenelant frowned, hoping this wasn't an insult the captain had come up with out of the blue. No matter the planet, insults often came down to talk about excrements.

She laughed. "It means tired, don't get your panties in a twist." A second to realize, and she added: "That one means 'don't get worked up over it'."

"I see, thank you for explaining. I think I'll do as you said."

"Good." She got back up in one fluid motion, and as usual said: "I'll keep watch."

Vibrations were what startled Grenelant back to consciousness : vibrations travelling from the packed earth at his back to the core of his body, his lung and his eardrums. He saw movement on his right. It was Leonida rushing up to them, her features pulled tight, and when she saw that he was already awake she ran to Arkady to shake her second-in-command awake.

"Get up! Get up, we have to go!"

Arkady blinked awake with a groan and he squinted at her in confusion. "Wha-?"

She grabbed him by the collar and hefted him up as if he weighed nothing at all. "No time to explain, gotta run!"

He was about to answer when a horrid screech suddenly echoed through the tunnels. Arkady's eyes widened with fear and Grenelant picked himself off the ground as hastily as the human stumbled after their leader. A rumbling sound travelled through the air around them and dirt started pattering to the ground. They stilled when the earth over their heads started cracking and crumbling.

"Get back!" yelled Leonida.

She pulled Arkady back in the direction they'd just come from so brutally that the human was thrown to the ground in an undignified pile of limbs, and Grenelant reflexively leapt back just as part of the tunnel collapsed in the spot they'd occupied just a second ago.

"Shit!" swore Leonida as she picked her second off the floor. "Run!"

"What about that thing we heard-" started Arkady, but she cut him off with a roar.

"Run!"

They ran. They ran back towards the spot they'd been resting in but didn't have the time to reach it before the screech resounded again, this time unmistakably close.

"It's above us!" yelled Grenelant.

Leonida looked up sharply and then grabbed the both of them to shove them up against the wall.

Arkady yelled, "What-"

Thunder exploded when the ceiling caved in, silt and rubble tumbling everywhere around them, and horror truly dawned on Grenelant when he saw the shadow of something huge slithering down from the dark network of tunnels showing in the split layers of earth. Grenelant didn't see it for long because then Leonida was grabbing him by the collar and forcing him to duck down with Arkady. There were several impacts above him and it took Grenelant a moment to realize that it was the sound of rock hitting metal- of rock hitting Leonida. Just as he understood that she was shielding them with her body, a final slab toppled down on the group of three and their captain took the brunt of it. He had the time to see the tight expression on her face before her light shorted out. Then there was silence, save for the light sounds of dirt sifting and pebbles bouncing on the ground. Arkady and Grenelant were unharmed, still caught in the protective brace of Leonida's arms.

"Oh, fuck," Arkady was the first to say. "Shit, what was that?"

"Captain, are you all right?" Grenelant quickly asked when Leonida didn't move.

"Just- Give me a moment. Give me a minute." She sounded fine, but the fact that she was staying so still was worrying.

"What's wrong?"

"Just recalibrating some stuff, routine, don't worry about it. Took a nasty blow."

"You took a few of them," Grenelant said. He couldn't believe she was still standing, much less that she was able to talk, yet there she was. Just what kind of human was she?

Arkady shifted next to him and his light moved with him, brushing over Leonida's front, and then he asked: "Are you hurt or are you just stuck?"

She let out a little laugh. "I might be just stuck. I'd advise you two not to move until I can."

"How long will that be?"

"About ten minutes, I think."

Arkady audibly swallowed. "Can't we try to dig out?"

"And that, Arkady, would be the best way to get all the dirt to collapse on you," teasingly answered their captain.

Gren could make out the change in pace of the man's breathing and he carefully turned to look at him. "Are you all right, Dragunin?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm uh, I'm fine," hastily said Arkady. He swallowed again and ran a hand through his short hair. "Just not a fan of small spaces, you know."

Grenelant didn't know, but he chose not to say that. Arkady seemed to be very uneasy and the opiel didn't want to risk saying anything upsetting in this situation.

"Just a few minutes," said Leonida. "Keep it together."

Arkady clenched his fist and lowered his arm back in his lap, nodding. "Yessir."

"How are you both doing after all that running around?"

"The adrenaline sure woke me up," said Arkady.

"I hope we find the water soon," answered Grenelant. "It'll be safer for us once I've recovered."

"Do you have to stay in there for an hour or something for it to work?" inquired Leonida.

"I see you've taken great pains to learn about my species," annoyedly said Grenelant.

She smiled, embarrassed, and admitted: "I'm not really the studious kind."

"Between thirty minutes and forty-five," said Arkady. The other two looked at him in surprise and he defensively said: "What? I got briefed on this operation too. I have good memory."

"That's correct," said Grenelant, and he looked up the Leonida. "Will you be able to remember that, Captain?"

"My, my, are you giving me sass, Grenelant?" she said with a wide grin. "Here I thought you were doomed to eternal formality. Oh, and sass means you're being mouthy."

"I would never," gravely said Grenelant.

Next to him, Arkady shifted and grumbled: "Shit, that was one nasty earthquake."

"I'm almost done recalibrating, we should be able to check out the aftermath soon."

"I think I saw what caused it," quietly said Grenelant. Leonida's brown gaze grew sharper and Arkady's head snapped in his direction.

"You saw something?!"

"Just a shadow. There's definitely something living down here."

"Great," muttered Arkady.

"We'll have to be careful," said Leonida. Something clicked, and then she let out a sigh. "All right, finally."

Her arms slowly moved and she pushed herself away from the wall a small fraction, and dirt fell on Grenelant's face. He wiped it away from his eyes and mouth and watched as she flexed her fingers, then shifted her left arm to hold it over their heads so that it would still hold up most of the packed dirt above them while her right arm reached behind her. She felt around each side of her shoulders and then said: "Okay."

The frame of her body tensed and she started pushing outwards. It took Grenelant a moment to realize that she was moving the huge slab of rock out of the way even thought it was easily twice her size and likely incredibly heavy. He didn't think he'd ever cease being surprised by her strength. More dirt sifted through and pattered on the ground beneath Arkady and Grenelant.

"What do we do?" asked Arkady.

"Don't move yet." Her voice didn't even sound that strained. "Actually, Arkady, I want you to take position beneath me, don't want you getting squashed if there's another rock behind it. Grenelant, get ready to help me if we have to catch something heavy."

"Yes, Captain." He straightened a bit and yet another clump of dirt hit the middle of his face, which he annoyedly brushed away.

"Okay," she grunted again, and she braced against the slab until it finally started sliding a bit faster. Soil was sloughing off and Leonida warned them both: "Hold your breath, just in case."

Once she was sure they'd complied, Leonida gave the slab a final shove to the side, burying it in one of the walls of dirt that encased them. Fortunately, the slab had been the last big thing to fall so nothing came tumbling down on top of their heads but the brittle dirt and pebbles that poured in their space. Leonida reacted fast and grabbed Arkady by the collar.

"Sorry about this, try not to bump your head or anything."

"What, wh-"

Leonida was already throwing Arkady outside like a sack of supplies. Grenelant felt the hefty thump of the man's body hitting the surface and a loud: "Ow, what the fuck Leonida?!"

"Quit whining!" she yelled back, and before Grenelant had the time to react she was hefting him up as well.

"Wait, I can jump!" he hastily told her before she could eject him like she had the human.

She opened her mouth to answer but Grenelant decided to show her before they lost more time in this space that was quickly filling up, and he wrapped his long arm around her waist before bunching up his muscles and jumping in one powerful thrust. The soil that had reached up to his knees grabbed at his legs, but the opiel had anticipated it and jumped with enough force that getting out of the hole was no problem at all. He landed smoothly on the surface and let go of the captain, who looked positively elated.

"That was awesome!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"You couldn't have told us you could do that before she threw my ass outside?" bitterly asked Arkady, who seemed to be nursing a sore butt.

"Maybe he couldn't carry two people at once, Arkady, have you though of that?"

"Actually, I can," Grenelant corrected Leonida. "You didn't leave me time to tell you. If I'd known your plan was to throw Arkady out than I would've suggested carrying you both out of here from the start."

"Whatever, the important thing is that we're all out of that death trap safe and sound," stated Leonida with sparkling brown eyes. "You think you could do that again, but like, for fun?"

"For fun?" echoed Grenelant.

"Right, you probably don't know what that means," she mischieviously answered. "That's fine, we'll talk about this again when we get out of here. Hey, Arkady, you figure you could check the damage on my back? I'm pretty sturdy but I want to make sure it's nothing too bad."

"Yessir." Leonida turned around to show him her back and Arkady quickly scrambled to his feet so he could come closer to examine her. After a few seconds of smoothing his hand over the plates of her suit and checking her neck and shoulders, he declared: "Looks like you're pretty okay, Captain. I mean Leonida. I don't know what the hell it takes to get through your exoskeleton but it's definitely not a whole goddamn tunnel collapsing on top of you."

Grenelant went to lean against the wall of the tunnel, feeling dizzy again.

"My head?"

Arkady moved up and eventually said: "Yeah, you definitely took a nasty blow there. Not too bad, though. It cracked but I can repair that no problem, I can do that right now if you want."

Leonida spun around on herself. "No, let's get the tank and find that water for Grenelant first. I want him to get back in good health ASAP."

"Cap- Leonida, it'll only take a few minutes," insisted Arkady.

"And whatever that thing was can find us in less. Look at him," said Leonida, gesturing to Grenelant who was trying his best to stay standing upright. "I'm pretty sure we'd be better off not going a round two while he's like that.You'll repair me while Grenelant takes a break, and after that we'll book it."

Arkady turned to Grenelant. "Can you even walk?"

"Just give me a moment, please. It'll pass."

Leonida didn't give him a moment, promptly grabbing him as she walked by and tugging on his arm so that she was supporting him despite her shorter stature. "Let's move, Arkady."

Grenelant found his shit in one of the darker places, a few feet deep inside a cave. Arkady only half-listened to the boring stuff he was spouting about the number of petals the plant he was holding had, what kind of soil it needed to grow and its addictive properties. Leonida listened intently. Arkady kept twitching at every abnormal sound he heard. He felt like there were shadows within the darkness that surrounded them but he couldn't see them, and he could just feel that this place was bad news. He didn't even know why Leonida thought it was a good idea for him to be here, it wasn't like he had her super efficient memory and he still had the ship to fix after their encounter with a meteor shower during their latest trip. He needed to get out of here, out of this black, stinky cave and into a somewhat sunnier exterior.

"Fuck this," he suddenly said out loud and started leaving.

"Where do you think you're going?" Leonida asked him sternly. She wasn't often stern. Obviously she found this plant stuff super important to know.

"Going some place where I won't feel like I'm going vampire," he retorted as he continued walking.

"You're staying right here."

The order wasn't said in a loud voice but its finality rang like a bell and Arkady had no choice but to stop in his tracks. He sighed and turned around to face the two others. "Well can I at least stand next to the entrance? I swear, I feel like I'm going to choke in here."

Leo shrugged. "I don't care what you do, just listen."

"Okay, okay, I will," grumbled Arkady as he shuffled off. They were out of his view moments later but he could still hear their voices, and he leaned up against the wall, staring out at the greenery. It wasn't much brighter there but at least the surroundings looked alive. Grenelant continued droning on in the background and Arkady did try his hardest to concentrate on what he was saying, but it was really fucking boring. He ended up gazing up at the branches and searching for hidden birds, absent-mindedly wondering if they were anything like those on his and Leonida's home planet.

A long, weaselly dirty face suddenly appeared in front of him and he stumbled back in surprise, barely stifling a scream. The thing let out a series of clicks and hisses, its frame tensed in menace and agitated by weird tics. It was wearing a loincloth as dirty as its face and Arkady noticed its eyes were sunken and red-rimmed, constantly shifting around like it was watching out for anything that would jump it.

Arkady didn't want to alert it to the others' presence by calling for help so he decided to try and appease it, hoping his two teamates had heard the commotion. "Look man, I have no idea-"

The beast jolted like Arkady had assaulted it by simply speaking and it suddenly pushed him against the wall of what he instantly realized was probably a burrow rather than a cave. The hissing became louder and Arkady was assaulted by the disgusting odour of its mouth which he could now see was covered in sores and blisters, and then he felt a horrible stinging sensation in his chest and thigh. He opened his mouth to shout but the beast landed a heavy blow to his head and he hit the ground hard, stunned.

"Arkady!"

He blinked, head ringing, and saw Leonida tackle the beast to the ground. Grenelant crouched next to him to help him up and Arkady snarled through his confusion as soon as he felt hands on him. "Get off me!"

Grenelant retrieved his webbed hands looking genuinely confused, and Arkady resisted the urge to yell at him. What was so difficult to understand about not needing help? It wasn't the first time Arkady refused to be held up and he thought he'd made it pretty obvious that he hated when people thought he needed their pity. Leonida grunted on the side and Arkady looked over there as sharp, needling pain suffused the spots on his body where he'd been stung.

"Shit," he said, and he jumped back to his feet to help her. His fingers quickly found his gun and he drew it out, aiming it steadily at the beast's head. "Stop moving or I'll shoot!"

"Just shoot it!" yelled Leonida as she narrowly avoided wickedly sharp claws. They hadn't looked like that when the beast had first approached Arkady. He didn't need to be told twice and his bullet instantly found its mark. The beast slumped, blood splattering beneath its skull. Arkady lowered his gun.

"Darn," muttered Grenelant. He didn't sound happy that they'd killed the stupid thing.

Leonida was standing up in an instant and she marched up to Arkady. "Where did he get you?"

"What?" said Arkady in confusion as he put away his gun.

"Where did he get you? Did he sting you?"

Arkady nodded and started gesturing to his thigh as he let go of his holster. "Yeah, he got me-"

Leonida moved in a blur and Arkady found himself pantsless in a second. He felt his face heat up and yelled: "What the f-"

"Shut up," ordered Leonida as her fingers pressed into red divots where the beast's claws had stung him. "Did it get you elsewhere?"

"What, are you gonna strip me naked if I say yes?"

She narrowed her eyes at him as she kept that same pressure into the sting wounds. "Arkady."

"No, okay!" lied Arkady. Had he been stung anywhere other than the chest, maybe he wouldn't have minded. It wasn't the case. "What's gonna happen anyway? I don't feel weird, it just hurts."

Leonida pressed her lips together and nodded, then pulled his pants back up and took a step back. "We'll probably be fine if we start going back to the ship right now, that way we'll have the pod at our disposal if something goes wrong."

Grenelant had moved towards the beast and was kneeling next to it, pressing precise spots on its paws. He shook his head and muttered: "Shame."

"It was going to kill us," Leo stated. "You can't guilt-trip me. Now get up and let's go."

"Fine," grumbled the opiel, but he didn't follow them immediately. Arkady didn't care what he was up to, he was kind of spooked that Leo had been so quick to check the sting wounds and that she thought there was a possibility for something to go wrong. Even if his thigh already hurt less, he wanted to get back to the ship like she'd said they should. Just to be safe.

"What was up with that thing, anyway?" asked Arkady as he made his way across the forest with her.

"It was under the influence of that plant Gren picked up. We were probably in its home and I wouldn't be surprised if it got aggressive over defending its stash. He said that stuff's very addictive."

"Well shit. I thought its behavior was kinda familiar."

Leo smiled at him. "Bad experiences?"

"Yeah," answered Arkady. He didn't say anything else. The pain was fading completely now, both in his thigh and his chest.

Grenelant joined up with them soon after and Arkady distractedly listened as he struck up the conversation with Leonida once more. His skin felt kind of numb where he'd been stung but he didn't feel weird otherwise. Hopefully the beast hadn't stung him deep enough for his venom... or poison... or whatever it was to have an effect, however it worked. Arkady was a soldier and a technician, not a biologist. He knew how to fight and defend, he knew how to fix delicate technology, but he didn't have much knowledge that wouldn't serve him in either of those ways.

It was several minutes later that he started feeling hot. Everything was louder, he felt jumpy, his heart was beating in his ears. He was all sweaty. Arkady blinked the salt out of his eyes and looked up at the sky, but there was no sky, only high branches arching over his head. He felt closed in. He didn't like it.

"Arkady?"

He looked back down and saw Leo staring at him. Grenelant too, shortly after.

Arkady said: "I hate this place."

Leonida looked half-amused, half-impatient. "I can tell. If you walk faster we'll be out sooner."

Arkady nodded and they all resumed their progress.

Grenelant and Leonida started talking about plants again.

Arkady stopped feeling hot and started feeling cold instead, but only for a short moment. The heat returned full force seconds later in a scorching wave that burned his heart and he felt it skip a beat, and the world spun around him, and he had to catch himself against a nearby tree. The bark hurt his fingers. He blinked wildly and looked up at the sky again, but it was still obscured by the dark canopy of leaves. He couldn't see the sky and the forest was going to crush him. Arkady looked back ahead and noticed the others were going out of focus.

"Uh, Leo... I think something's..."

His voice wasn't as loud as it normally was. He  thought he saw them turn around but he wasn't sure. Arkady's stomach hurt, his chest was caught in a vice, his heart skipped another beat and then sped up to compensate. The shapes hadn't turned around. Maybe they hadn't noticed he'd stopped, maybe he'd been too quiet to get their attention.

"Something's..."

One of them looked over their shoulder. He knew it was Leo because of the blonde hair, but the rest of her features were completely blurry now. He felt out of breath, his heart was going too fast and it hurt.

"Leo," he said.

The wild thing in his chest tripped and Arkady felt his legs give out beneath him. He heard a shout ahead of him. His hand felt like it was ripping up where it dragged across the bark in his fall and his body hit the ground with a dull thud that resounded through his head in a disorienting echo. The twigs were spikes against his skin, even the cool dirt pressed up against his face felt like gravel.

"Arkady!" Hands gripped his clothes and rolled him over, and as he laid with his back against the ground he realized he really couldn't breathe very well. Leonida was above him, her brown eyes the only feature he could focus on. They looked worried but mostly determined, and she turned away from him to talk to the tall shape by her side. "He's going into cardiac arrest, you said the poison wouldn't act this fast!"

"He might've gotten stung elsewhere."

Leonida's gaze returned to his face. "Arkady, you moron, where else did you get stung?"

Arkady realized what she was asking of him and shook his head. He felt faint, he couldn't stop gasping. His heart was giving up on him. For some reason he was more scared of what she was going to do than of dying- and he knew he was dying. He could feel it.

"Fine, be that way," she sharply said.

Arkady's eyes widened when he felt his clothes be ripped apart and he desperately tried to stop her, choking out: "No!" His hand shot up to curl around her wrist, but his grip was weak and he couldn't hold his arm up longer than a few seconds before it ended up falling back to the ground. It was too late, anyway. He knew she'd seen it from the surprised look on her face when she lifted the flaps of his half-torn shirt.

She stopped pulling on his clothes. Her brown gaze flew up to his face and she studied him closely, calmly ordering: "Grenelant, turn around."

Out of the corner of his eye, Arkady saw the tall shape shift.

Leonida then offered Arkady an understanding smile as she lowered her hand to his chest, and he jerked beneath her touch. He hated this. He hated that touch, he hated the sympathy in her eyes, hated that she suddenly knew what was only supposed to be his.

"It's okay, Arkady. I'm the only one who saw."

"It's not... okay," he whispered through gritted teeth.

"It will be," she said with certainty. Her face was so honest that Arkady wanted to claw it off.

"Shut up, shut your damn mouth!"

Leonida pressed her lips together and Arkady saw her other hand appear above his head. It hovered over his face and came closer and closer until the cool fingers gently brushed against his forehead, softly enough that it didn't hurt.

"Then if you want it to be, it can all be a bad dream."

Arkady wanted to answer, but his voice didn't come when he opened his mouth. His agitation had worked his throbbing heart into an uncontrollable frenzy and it was tumbling in its erratic race against his ribcage. His throat was empty, and his chest was a frantic hollow, and his heart hiccuped again and again beneath Leonida's solid palm. Then all of a sudden, Arkady's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he didn't want anything anymore.

Something rested against his face, heavy and uncomfortable. Someone spoke next to him but Arkady was falling back into a black void.

A single thought drifted through his mind. He noticed that he was very tired. He didn't want to ever move again.

Arkady floated back to consciousness. There was beeping. It was loud in his ears. He floated away once more.

Someone was speaking again but Arkady couldn't understand any of it. He was annoyed. He wanted to sleep. The person shut up and so he fell asleep.

Arkady opened his eyes in his room. He was very confused when his brain told him this wasn't where he was supposed to be, and it took him a moment to remember why his brain was telling him that. Hadn't he been in the forest?

"Hey, sleepyhead."

Arkady looked over to the side in surprise and saw that Leonida was sitting next to his bed. He frowned and croaked: "... Leo?"

"That's me," she happily said.

Arkady pushed himself up. "What the fuck happened? Why are you here?"

Leonida's expression suddenly turned serious. "You got attacked in the forest where we accompanied Grenelant. Remember? You almost died."

Arkady's brow creased even deeper in concentration. He remembered killing the beast. Leonida checking on him. The forest tightening its hold around his chest, falling to the ground, being unable to move. Arkady slowly nodded. "It's a bit hazy after I fell."

"Do you often lie to your superiors, Arkady?"

Arkady sharply looked up to his captain. She'd said it calmly, she was almost always calm. In the months he'd spent together with her carefree personality and her informal ways, it had been easy to forget that she could pull rank on him. He quickly sat upright and straightened his spine.

"No, Captain."

"You lied to me."

"Yes, Captain. I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"It's one thing to be dishonest with me. It's completely idiotic doing what you did when your life was in danger, and if we weren't so far from home you'd already be going back as we speak for not telling me you'd been stung in the chest too. I don't waste my time on soldiers with a death wish."

"Yes, Captain."

"Do you have a death wish?"

"No, Captain."

She continued staring at him and he kept the same rigid posture. Leonida then said: "You know what I am, Arkady. You know me inside out and you've never had a problem with that. What made you think I'd have a problem with you?"

Arkady felt a rush of dread when more of his memories returned to him and he was struck with the abrupt reminder that Leonida... had seen. He was rocked by a surge of anxious nausea but refused to look away from her intense brown eyes. "It wasn't you in particular. I didn't want anyone to know."

"Some people must have known."

A distant memory flashed in Arkady's mind but he distracted himself from it and asked: "Does Grenelant know?"

Leonida smiled brightly and petted Arkady's thigh. "Why would he know about a bad dream?" Then she reached out and pushed him back down, and he couldn't go against her strength. He was unable to resist the way his tired muscles relaxed against the mattress. "Now close your eyes and count to ten. You can only open them again once you've reached that number."

Arkady frowned at her. "Wh-"

"An order, Arkady," she chidingly said, all traces of her earlier stern demeanor entirely gone. "It's an order."

But as light-hearted as she suddenly sounded, Arkady had been reminded of his position beneath hers and he immediately complied. While he counted to ten he heard her stand up, walk up to the door, and leave. In the last seconds he spent counting up to the last number, all that surrounded him was darkness and silence. And then Arkady opened his eyes in an empty room. His gaze landed on the empty chair and then drifted up to the closed door, and it was like Leonida had never been here at all; like he'd just had one very long nightmare.