[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel peered down at the drawing, but made no remark. She was a decent artist, he observed, but since art wasn't something he specialized in critiquing, he kept silent. He wrinkled his nose, and looked back up at her, his helmet jerking awkwardly from the speed in which he moved his head. "I don't like keeping secrets," he said with an honest shrug. "But sometimes they're necessary...Just not in this case." A smile played across his lips and he leaned back, careful not to stretch his legs too far. It was getting dark, he observed, taking his eyes off Belle. The sun was sinking below the mountains near the other side of the valley below, and very soon there would be nothing but the moon and a few smattering of stars to keep them company. He reverted his gaze back to the female, sniffing distastefully at her remark. "Uneasy around you? I can't imagine why. Your not dangerous, you know."

He smiled behind his helmet. "Even if you think you are; you're not." Mereel observed her quietly,  before speaking again. "I don't know who Poppi is and to be honest, I don't really care. I'm not lying. I only do that when I'm in front of certain di'kutla commanding officers...Not Kal'buir of course, but the other ones; the ones who think they know what's best for us." He shrugged, as if it was the simplest concept in the world. "They lie to me all the time; keeping things from me and my brothers, inadvertently 'forgetting' to tell us specific and important details that could possibly save lives...Why shouldn't I return the favor?" He lifted his hand, indicating the setting sun.

"I don't like when people lie to me, so I don't do it to them. S'why I do unto you as you would do unto me; I'll know when your lying, or at least, be able to guess pretty accurately. So tell me no lies, and I will return the courtesy. Now, it's getting pretty late. You can sleep in the tent, if you like. I'll keep watch." He lowered his helmet, his smile quite evident in his voice. "Unless your going to stubbornly refuse and tell me you don't need or want to sleep in there, and you'll freeze your tails off out here, thank you very much--because your a big girl who doesn't listen to others, even when they're only thinking about your well being. Either way suits me fine, but you won't be able to get down off the mountain if your a popsicle."

[8, 61]

[Juniperstar45]

She snickered, "Well now! We finally have something in common." Belle began to add more details to her drawing. Her scratching went on for awhile, then she looked up abruptly, "Never say that!" Her voice was acidic with fear. "I'm probably the worst thing on this planet..." She murmured inaudibly. Picking at the log she was sitting at, Belle glared, "You don't know my past Mereel." The snow started to come down harder, the flakes glistening red in the dying sun. She sighed and looked back at him, "You know half the time I don't know what you’re talking about." Her tone was mater-of-fact. After a few moments of staring at her bluish grey paws, she shifted her weight and replied, "Fine, no lies it is." Her eyes flickered with resentment but she held her stubborn posture. "I think I will stay up a little while longer, I couldn't bare to leave such beautiful weather." It sounded like she half meant it, but the other half was sarcastic. "A popsicle?" She said scathingly, "Hardly." She jumped off the log in an easy bound and began to walk in a tight circle around the fire. Her eyes lingered on the flames as the turned into quiet embers that shot up into the sky and disappeared in the wind. The wind wasn't extremely terrible, just enough to whip you off your feet every now and then. She staggered uneasily when that would happen but she regained control. "Do you like stories?" She asked turning to stare at him.

.:14:.

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel barked out a laugh. “Trust me, ad’ika. You are a long ways from being the worst thing on the planet. I could name about a hundred other things that are far, far worse than you.” He smiled behind his helmet, his blue eyes crinkling merrily. He tilted his head, and regarded her for a few quiet moments. “Another thing we have in common. I know nothing of your past, and you know nothing of mine, though I can imagine you have questions and assumptions about it; most of them would probably be wrong, though.” He paused thoughtfully, before continuing on. “I don’t want to presume, but from what I’ve gathered and observed here, you are far from being any kind of threat...And you aren’t a bad person. Certainly not the worst. Trust me when I say that, ad’ika. I think that I have met the worst thing on this planet, and she and I weren’t too happy to see one another.” He sighed, and then eyed her critically, though she could not see. He chuckled softly, and shook his head.

“That makes two of you, then. My friend, Etain, often asks what I’m talking about. She can’t quite grasp my concept of logic. It’s not a big deal; most people find me confusing, so don’t feel too bad.”

He shrugged in a ‘what can you do?’ kind of way. He sighed and watched her circle the fire. Stupid, stubborn female pride. It always got people killed...Or worse. And i twas usually the women, ot the men watching out for them. Standing up without warning, Mereel walked over to the tent and pulled out what looked like a very fluffy blanket and what looked like an overly large cape. He walked back and practically threw the blanket all the way over her, covering her from head to tail. “For fierfek’s sake, ad’ika, just get covered up and sit down. Your really going to be a popsicle if you keep it up.” He reached up and fastened the large cape onto and around his shoulders, chest, upper arms, and his armor, before pulling it around him to keep himself warm. Mereel reached behind him as he sat down and threw another log onto the fire. “Now...what was that I heard about stories? I do happen to like them, yes...Er, why?” he asked, suddenly peering at her curiously from beneath his helmet. “Are you going to tell me one?”

[9, 62]

((Gonna start translating...XD. Ad'ika means 'little one.' Fierfek is like a curse word used when someone is upset, just in another language...))

[Juniperstar45]

Belle snorted, "Sure I'm not the worst thing. Okay fine, have it your way!" She began to stare at the clearing around her, mind whirling away faster then light sped. A mock smile spread across her face, "Well that would be my own opinion correct? Thankfully none of us have crazy supernatural powers..." That was a lie. She quickly revised the statement, "That have something to do with mind reading I mean." She giggled to hide her anxious questions that were bubbling towards her lips. Why would he bring something like that up? Then he struck a nerve, "No...no threat? Well I guess so, here. But seriously," Belle's eyes narrowed and her lips curled over her glistening teeth. "I am not a bad person." She repeated with acid in her tone. This was when she started drawing some lines. There were times when she'd let this man's comments slide by but where had her authority gone? Am I suddenly turning into a hermit -more like a social butterfly rather! She groaned loudly and turned back to him, just now realizing that she had turned a way. "Since when am I..." Her thought trailed off when she couldn't recall her witty comment. "Well you know that..." She bit her lip. Words were jumbling around in her head but they made no since! All this gibberish was fooling with her head. Head turning, she watched Mereel closely. What was he doing...? Before she could object, a large fluffy object collided with her, making her crouch under the weight. "Uff!" She grumbled from under the blanket. Squirming around in the vast cover of fur, she finally found an opening and poked her head outside. Flipping her body erect -and failing to flip the entire thing off of her- she pouted slightly, "What's with you and popsicles?!" Tempting enough she snuggled under the blanket and rested her head against her paws. "Fine, again, you'll get your way! Oh, stories...right.” She looked up at him and sighed, “I dunno, you might not like this kind. Really it doesn’t have a happy ending…”

.:15:.

((Yay translations! xD))

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel raised an eyebrow. "Yes, thankfully none of us have supernatural powers," he repeated, the smile and irony heard quite clearly in his deep voice.  Belle was, to say the least, one of the oddest females he’d ever met. She seemed to go off on tangents that he couldn’t quite follow, but still minutely understood. That was what worried him; that he understood some of her logic. Mereel laughed as he pulled the cloak tighter around his frame, suddenly wanting to go to sleep and just forget he was here. He glanced up at the night sky, glaring at the moon and the stars for twinkling so happily up in outer space. If they could feel the cold, they wouldn’t be dancing about all happy, now would they? Curse inanimate objects and their inability to feel.

Mereel was suddenly startled out of his angry musings by Belle’s voice. “I like popsicles...” he said, as if it was obvious. “But I rarely like Lucain popsicles. If I have to thaw you out with a hair dryer when you wake up in the morning, I will be severely displeased...Mostly because I don’t have a hair dryer...” he finished thoughtfully, rubbing the chin of his helmet in contemplation. He grinned beneath his helmet. “You give up too easily...Anyway, on to the story. As for the happy ending...well, real life is rarely happy, right? So why isn’t the same true for some stories? The same old ‘they lived happily ever after’ can sometimes get quite boring. Don’t you think, ad’ika?” He grinned, and prodded her slightly. “I’d still like to hear it.”

[10, 63]

[Juniperstar45]

Belle began to grumble incoherently while she watched him with narrowed eyes. He suddenly seemed very pensive, and she was quiet sure of that, even when Mereel had a helmet on. The silence was almost brooding to her, all this talking...It was making her head spin. This day had gone terribly wrong! Her head dropped a little in depression, a sigh passing through the quiet clearing. Her ears pricked and she quietly rose her head to stare around at the darkness. Ears swiveling, she wrenched her eyes away from the trees and snow drifts to stare back at Mereel. "So, when would an exception of a good Lucain popsicle be?" Her tone was a little too tense to be teasing. It felt as if there was something out there, watching her, waiting... She laughed lightly and smiled, "I better hope you don't have a hair dryer! Unless you're one of those kinds of guys who like to style their hair in the morning..." Belle snickered for a moment longer then stopped when he mention the story again. She felt like kicking herself. Why to go Belle! You just managed to give this random guy a hint about... She wouldn't let herself think the words. She sidestepped his request, "Why do you call me ad'ika?" Although her muse may have been an attempt to avoid her tale that would probably make small children laugh now-a-days, her tone was genuinely curious.

.:16:.

((Ah! I've got small-post-itus! xD))

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel watched Belle quietly from where he sat, ignoring the beeping in his visor and the different readings he was getting from her and the area surrounding him. He glanced at his HUD (Head-Up Display) and blinked as it registered something nearby. Perhaps it was dangerous, perhaps not. Mereel didn't know what it was. But the warning was gone as soon as it had come, and Mereel was left to wonder if it'd been a false alarm or just a glitch in the system. His shoulders tensed, and he put his guard up, keeping an eye on their surroundings, just in case. He turned his gaze back to Belle, regarding her quietly. He chuckled behind his helmet, his shoulder shaking slightly. "Hm. Perhaps when it's someone I don't like, I suppose. Then I'd be pretty happy to see them frozen in a pile of snow." He shrugged one armored shoulder.

Mereel laughed again at her mention of a blow dryer. "While I do like to style my hair, I don't think I need a hair dryer to do it." He grinned, and it was evident in his voice. "You don't need man-made contraptions to perfect this kind of handsome. It' s all natural." Shifting slightly, he pulled the cloak about himself and reached forward to prod the fire with his boot, brining it back to life as the darkness closed in around them and swallowed them whole. He regarded her quietly after that, and for a few moments, he said nothing.  "You should smile more often. It really suits you, ad'ika," he said at last, drawing his leg back to rest beneath the cloak. Tilting his head, he chuckled deeply. "Ad'ika? Well...It's an affectionate term. It loosely means 'little one,' in my native language. It suits you...Unless you'd like me to use a different name for you? there are plenty of terms in the Mandalorian language that might suit you."

He paused for a few moments of silence, and then began rattling off odd sounding words. "Names that might suit you...Ciryc...Ka'ra...Ca'tra..." He stopped his voice growing quiet. "I believe the best name to suit you would be...Naakla..." He smiled and reached up to unclasp his helmet. He pulled it from his head, wincing as the bitter cold soaked into his skin. He hadn't realized it was this cold outside, and it'd gotten even colder since night had fallen. "Yes...I like that one," he mused, eyes crinkling as he smiled down at her; it was obvious he smiled a lot. "It means...'Peace.'"

[11, 64]

((No worries. I love RPing Mereel...Hm. Does Belle have  alifemat,e by any chance? (Shot'd) Translations: ca'tra -night sky (Kah-Trah), ciryc -cold (Seer-Eesh), ka'ra -stars (Kay-rah), naakla -peace (Nahk-lah) ))

[Juniperstar45]

Belle noted the tension on Mereel in the air for a moment and wondered what was up. Maybe it was the soft wind that blew the trees just perfectly; it almost looked like someone was coming. The same thing that had alerted her. Looking up at the dark sky she puzzled over the many stars. Cocking her head to the side she whispered, "I've got no idea how people see patterns in those little tiny dots up there!" Suddenly a long blaze of light shot across the sky, she watched it fall to the Earth, not speaking or making a wish. Wishes are stupid; you could never actually count on them! Especially when you need them to come true... "That's good I guess. I'm not on your hit list anyway." She remained in her sitting up position, her head tilted slightly in the direction of Mereel. She sized him up for a moment with critical eyes, "Well, since I've only seen you like what, once, I wouldn't really know...I don't have a very good memory." She snickered at her little joke. Deep down inside, she knew exactly what he looked like, and that mentally scared her. Belle watched the fire and his prodding, it would seem that if she were to try that -and had a suit on and stuff- she'd probably kick it dead. She looked back up at Mereel and blushed a little hiding her face and stubbornly shaking her head, "Never thought I'd get such a reaction from you Mereel. Then again, I miss-think a lot of things..." She flipped her head up in defiance until he explained her new nickname, then her cold stance was quickly lost. A tiny smile was playing on her face as she heard his gibberish names. Her face became suddenly weary when he took off his helmet. Yup, just how I remember. "I like it too..." She mused softly. She began to remember a little tune Glace was playing errantly; it was a song that he called Stars and Peace. It was short and hypnotic like a music box, yet dreamy like a love song. Belle sighed and listened to the song play in her head.

.:17:.

((You know, I was just thinking that! Nope, Belle is single, and she's sort of lonely if you ask me. She hasn't really gotten to meet anyone because -maybe this is just me- of her long/difficult personality. I'll have to summarize it probably...I've just got one question, what language is Mereel speaking? Or is it actually Mandalorian?))

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel shrugged. “Maybe they see something that we don’t,” he said at last, his blue eyes flicking up towards the stars. “Mostly, space is cold...And stars are just...Big balls of gas and fire. They burn out eventually. What your seeing is the light of a star that’s billions of miles away. The light takes a long time to reach earth, so it’s possible that the star your looking at has already burned out and all your getting is it's left over light. Odd, isn’t it?” He smiled and looked back down at her. “No, ad’ika. You aren’t on my hit list,” he said, flashing her a grin. He rubbed his cheek as the cold air hit it from the side.

“Brr...It really is cold out here,” he muttered, reaching back to pick up another log and throw it on the fire. “Well, now you’ve see me twice. What do you think now?” he asked curiously, winking in her direction. “And it’s not that hard to miss-think me,” he said, a note of humor in his voice. “I’m very miss-thinkable.” His smile brightened when she said she liked the name. “Good...” he said at last, before growing quiet. He heard Belle sigh, and saw a thoughtful, almost dreamy look on her face. “Something on your mind?” he asked.

[12, 65]

[Juniperstar45]

Belle cocked her head and looked at the stars again, squinting. Her head leaned forward in concentration until she spotted a distinctly bright formation, a constellation. She turned her head away in disgust and poked at the snow on the ground with her now pink paws. "How exactly do you know all of this?" It almost annoyed her, why did he know so much that she didn't? Turning her head to the side to stare questioningly at Mereel, she kept pawing anxiously at the snow, "Well that's a relief, now I can finally sleep!" She muttered, smirking at him. Lifting up her head to gaze at the moon she nodded in acknowledgement. She might be a jerk but proper manners were the key to being nicer. Smiling at her little made up motto; Belle turned her head back to gaze at Mereel. She watched him with mock scrutiny and foe pensiveness until she spoke, "Nice." She smiled at him for a moment then quickly hid away the moment of happiness. She returned to her faint memories of pup-hood while Glace's song played. Pictures flashed by, playing in the sun, dancing around the wild flowers, stalking the butterflies around in circles. Her mind snapped back to the future and stopped her reverie. She sighed and looked up at Mereel, "Yes and no..." She grinned at her indecisive answer and knew it would cause something of a thorn in his side so she continued, "I'm thinking about a song my friend plays, it was just sort of random I guess. It took me by...surprise." Her ending seemed off but she shrugged to enhance her nonchalance.

.:18:.

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel shrugged in an off-handed kind of way, feeling the wind bite into his exposed skin. He was going to turn blue in a moment; he could already tell. "I know because I've been up there. I've studied the stars and the planets and everything. It was a long time ago, but my memory isn't too shabby, so I remember." In truth, he and his fellow Null brothers had eidetic memory, meaning they had perfectly and completely clear total recall of anything and everything they'd ever heard, read or learned. Genetic engineering had it's perks...But it had it's downfall as well. He aged twice as fast as a normal human, and his life might very well be over by the time he turned thirty-five. He didn't like to think about it.

He glanced back down at her and caught her scrutinizing him, before he grinned charmingly. "Yes, I am nice. Thank you," he said, his eyes twinkling with mirth. "And I'm cold too. Shabla snowstorms..." He shivered slightly, before puling his cloak tighter around him. His suits internal heating system worked only for the parts of him it covered. This meant his head and face were exposed and quite cold. he pulled the cloak up around his head, settling down into it's warmth. "A song, eh?" he said at last, finally getting some feeling back in his numbing face. "Wouldn't mind hearing it...If you don't mind that is." He shrugged. "Sometimes music is best left in our heads....But sometimes it helps to share it."

[12, 65]

(( Shabla: a very impolite way to say "screwed up."  ...Yup, it's actually Mandalorian. XD Sorry for not answering before. I completely forgot.  Oh! I also sent you a PM.))

[Juniperstar45]

Belle glanced up at the man again and cocked her head, "You've been to the stars?" There was a hint of wistfulness in her normally devoid-of-emotion voice. She blinked in astonishment and gazed at the stars, her eyes sparkling along with the stars. Turning her head back to Mereel the first thing she blurted out was, "You don't seem very normal." She almost regretted her curiosity. Shaking her head slightly she pulled the blanket -with her sharp teeth glinting slightly while she did this- a tiny bit tighter around her body. Pausing she rolled over on her back and watched the stars longer then she would ever have any tolerance for. Belle began to protest until she understood the meaning to what he meant. Mereel wasn't cold...no. "But don't let it get to your head." She sniffed quietly. Belle rolled over again and shook out her snow encrusted pelt. Immediately she began regretting ever laying on her back. Placing her head low to the ground she lay there for a moment, listening. "Hmm, maybe. Let me see if I can find it...It's a music box." She explained, rummaging in her small bag that had appeared by her front paws. Mereel might have just noticed it because it was so tiny. The bag was normally safely secured on a thin black cord around her ankle. Belle placed the little twinkling moon charm in her right paw and held it steady while the sparkling continued. "I found it, some time ago actually. Now you may think I'm crazy already but this truly did happen. A cloud dropped it on my head! Then it scuttled off playing a different tune. I then took it over to my friend, Glace -he's a musical person- and he managed to put one of his favorite music box songs on here. Pretty neat, huh?" She sounded a tiny bit smug at her little adventure but she immediately pushed lightly on the top of the moon. An eruption of sparkles was lighting the moon, it glimmered and shinned beautifully, almost eerily. The song played for a moment then the moon clicked and the sparkles slowed, the song stopped as well.

.:19:.

((That's fine xD Oh and here is the song Belle is talking about -and plays from the moon-"Stars and Peace" named by Glace I thought it sounded really cool so I decided to bring it here! It's actually called Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts))

[MillietheWarrior]

"Yeah," Mereel said, his gaze drawn up to the stars again. "I've been there. It's a lot colder up there than it is down here, I can tell you that much. But mostly, it's just an inky blackness and vast, open space..." He glanced down at Belle, his eyes crinkling with his smile. "Well, maybe because I'm not normal. I'm a whole lot different than you could ever guess." True. She didn't know much about him or his origins. He hadn't even been born...He was manufactured...Hatched. He watched with wide, curious eyes as she produced the small charm, staring at it for a long moment as it played a very enchanting melody and sparkled in the dim light of the fire. He'd never seen anything quite like that. "A cloud dropped it on your head?" he asked, sounding amused. "What a rude cloud! But yes, it's very-"

He was cut off by the sound of a soft, chirping beep going off in his helmet. Immediately, he shifted and placed it back on his head, bringing up the readouts of what had set off the perimeter alarms on his HUD. "Shab..." he murmured. Something big, and probably dangerous had set it off, but it had disappeared from his view screen. He blinked, and his HUD suddenly displayed the last known location of the intruder. It was one kilometer away, to his left. He blinked again and his HUD went back to normal, the insistent, annoying beeping finally shutting off at his command. He reached down and flicked the safety off the blaster at his hip, pulling it from his holster. His DC-17 lay behind him, and he reached over to pick it up.
"Belle...I don't want to alarm you but..." A roar split the air, and Mereel threw off his cloak, jumping into action. "Now might be a good time to run..." His voice was steady and perfectly calm, as though a very large beast was not threatening their very lives.

He reached up and aimed his hand rifle at the large, burly shape that burst from the cover of the sparse vegetation. It charged straight at Mereel, leaping over Belle and unmindful of the fire. Mereel squeezed the trigger, and a bolt of blaster-fire sizzled in the animal's thick ruff as it ducked, throwing off Mereel's precise aim with a well placed paw swipe. Mereel was thrown backwards, landing in a large pile of snow as his DC-17 skidded off into the brush. His chest plate had nearly been split open by the beasts powerful claw, and he landed hard, his breath knocked completely out of him after his short journey through the air. Wheezing, he felt his armor, annoyed that it had been cracked and broken by such a simple creature. His vision and his head swam as he tried to sit up, before he realized the creature, now identified in his HUD as a Bruma, slowly circled the fire to get to Belle. Mereel began struggling to his feet, trying to regain his breath and aim his rifle. He fell to his knees, his eyes unfocused as he tried to get back to Belle...But he wasn’t fast enough...

[13, 66]

((And the fun begins...Poor Mereel's gonna be really mad once he sees just how abdly his armor was damaged...))

[Juniperstar45]

Belle smirked, "Ooh, eerie!" It sounded neat, just the thought of being so high in the sky made her a little sick. Heights weren’t her natural forte. She gazed back up at the stars, her mind wondering far away. Then her lips turned down on the edges, "Odd." Her short muse was clouded with growing anxiety. Something just wasn't right. Belle turned her ears a few times, listening. "Yes, and do you have a problem with that?" It alarmed her when a soft beeping came from Mereel's helmet. Oh great, he's on call or something. Her sigh was almost mournful; it had been one of the best nights in her life... Just then he muttered something in his foreign tongue. It didn't sound good, whatever it was. She sat up erect when he pulled his gun close to him. Grabbing her tiny pack and music charm she began backing away, her ears pricked for any sound or intrusion. A large figure loomed in the moonlight and she shuttered with fear when he began drawing his gun towards it. Flinching she ducked when the creature lurched itself at Mereel. "No!" The creature slashed through his armor with a metal groaning sound and she stayed frozen in place her eyes wide with horror. His life couldn't end so soon. I have to do something! She felt the anger boil under her skin, the rage filled her sight. Her teeth glittered as the monster inside of her rejoiced at this sudden opportunity to claim her normal self. The shadow's eyes glittered in the darkness; they seemed to glare at her in a wild manner. Her head held low she roared loudly letting the monster engulf. Consciously she knew nothing but the battle that lurked towards her. Subconsciously she saw Mereel, his attempt to rescue her. So, he did care. What a fool. A flash of orange fur was all that was left of Belle, her blazing speeds bewildering the creature. She slashed out in a violent way, her claws raking through the thick fur. She caught skin and raked hard against the shoulder of the creature. Laughing callously she lurched again, dodging the shadow's paw and biting down hard on its hind leg. It yelped in pain and growled with Belle a strange harmony. Slicing across Belle's face, the claws met her forehead and knocked her back a little bit. She stumbled back and roared again, her rage spilling over every sane instinct. Belle landed on the top of the creature and grabbed its thick scruff. She leapt off its back with the scruff in her mouth and the animal yowled loudly in pain. Shaking her head back and forth like any new puppy would with a chew toy, she flung the body on top of the fire. The animal squirmed in the dim flames but it was too late, it began running with tiny flames sprouting from its back. Belle gave chase to the creature, her mind still transfixed as a predator. After a small while she found the animal spread-eagle on the glacial floor. Her wits began to fade in, replacing her animalistic side. She recognized the animal as a Bruma, its soft light above its head was beginning to fade with its life. Belle sighed and continued to regain her composer. She trailed slowly into the clearing and found the fire was barely aglow. Placing a few snapped and revenged sticks into the pile she nodded and padded over to Mereel to look at him.

.:20:.

((Wow, long post! I didn't know if Mereel was concious or just laying on the ground so...Anywho, this kind of explains how crazy Belle can get about something...Yikes! xD))

[MillietheWarrior]

Mereel groaned, his voice muffled by his helmet. To Belle, it would've looked like he was simply sitting up, with absoloutely no audio accompaniment; every noise he made was mothered by his helmet. But the Bruma had gouged a considerable chunk out of his armor, and had left him bruised, winded, and none-too-happy. Mereel had thought, if only for a brief moment, that his life was over. It felt odd to know that he was going to die, and he was strangely accepting.

When he'd heard the second roar, he'd been certain the Bruma had a mate or something and that they would both come to finish him off. It wasn't a pleasant way to go, by any means. The sudden sound of two creatures battling startled Mereel out of his peaceul acceptance of death. Placing a hand over his abdomen, he raised himself up on one arm, sucking in a deep breath as pain lanced across his stomach and white dots exploded across his vision.

"Blaster proof, bomb proof, but apparently, not Bruma proof," he muttered, sucking in another breath. He glanced down to assess the damage to his armor. A large, gaping hole resided where his plastoid chest plate had once been. He cursed under his breath, and began to stumble to his feet. "Fierfek," he growled. "That kriffing hurts..." Then Belle was back at his side, and he wasn't quite sure how she'd gotten there. Everything was spinning. He was certain that wasn't normal. "Where's..." He breathed in slowly, falling down to one knee with his arm still clutching his abdomen. His legs wouldn't support him at the moment, and he didn't know why.

"Where's the Bruma? What happened?" He reached up with his free hand and fumbled with the clasp at his helmet, cursing himself for letting his composure slip. Even if he was injured, he shouldn't have been this out of sorts. But he realized his fear and anxiety over Belle's safety had him tripping over himself in an effort to make sure she was okay. Not to mention the pain lancing through his entire body. That might've been a contributing factor. With a shaking hand, he pulled his helmet off of his head, letting it fall to the ground with a clatter.

The cold air sent chills up and down his spine, blasting against his face as snow began to fall from the sky. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?" In the dark, without his helmet, he couldn't assess any damage she might have. He squinted, his blue eyes narrowing. "Why are you covered in blood? Where are you hurt? Did it bite you?" He had no idea that the blood was not her own, and that she had been the one to slay the creature and save both of their lives. "There's a med kit in my tent. Go get it. We'll get you bandaged up..."

[14, 67]