Kennedy & the Yautja

Chapter 3 - Kindness

When Kennedy was awoken by noise downstairs, finding a tall humanoid thing bleeding out on the couch was the last thing she expected to find. In her fear, she had dropped her weapon to look less threatening. The thing had twin deadly blades embedded in its arm guard and wasn't exactly friendly. Warning growls had successfully kept her away.

There was very little light to observe it, not without a flashlight anyways.

Sweeping the beam of her flashlight over its body after it passed out, she found its skin to be scarlet with stripes of black coursing through the red. He was like a being of fire and rock, kin to some fire god from forgotten lore. The skin beneath her cautious touch was thick and warm. Much of it was soft, despite its appearance. A hot-to-the-touch netting was latticed over his body. Part of it was torn over its exposed belly. Dreadlock-like black tendrils hung from its sloped head, with various metal rings decorating them.

What really caught her attention was the fluorescent green blood that splattered the gray armor and dripped freely from the vicious, jagged rips through its chest. It was a hell of a wound.

Kennedy recognized them as claw marks, possibly from one of the tigers that roamed the area. Their ancestors probably had broken free of their enclosures at the zoo decades ago. The tigers seemed to call the local wilderness their home. She had seen one when entering the city. Remembering the almost encounter sent a shiver through her body.

She wondered if this thing was what made the tiger roar. At least she had a potential suspect for what had alerted the damn Zeke. A huff left her at the thought.

A closer inspection revealed the thing to be most likely a male due to the lack of visible breasts. Its shape—his shape—was that of a muscled athlete of old with a tapered waist and slender hips. Scars of various shapes and sizes marred his beautiful red and black skin.

Whatever he was, he was definitely not someone to be fucked with.

Her eyes focused back on the large, ragged wound that seemed to be the source of his unconscious state. With that kind of wound, no one could survive, especially someone who was roughly seven feet tall and as big as him!

Kennedy retrieved the medical kit from upstairs and quickly returned. She dragged a rickety wooden chair to the edge of the couch, the legs groaning over the dusty wood, where she could better see the full extent of his wound. Every loud noise she made was a potential alert for Zekes. Only when she brought it to a stop was she able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Whatever this guy was, he didn't deserve to bleed out. There had been so much death in her life, and she didn't want this weighing on her heart either. He had tried to attack her, but she cautiously assumed it was because of his injuries. The strange guy was a stranger, a deadly one, but that old hospitality drilled into her as a kid guided her.

She'd be pissed, too, if she was bleeding out and at a stranger's mercy. The world was a terrifying place where every day was a fight for survival. Kennedy tried to help others when she could.

While she worked to clean the glowing blood from his body, she was met with his soft groans. A few times, Kennedy stopped to watch, her body once again on alert for any more attacks from him.

Losing a hand wasn't on the agenda.

Soon she had cleared away the strange blood to reveal the torn, jagged flesh of his wound. The black striping had been torn through by the tiger, and that beautiful scarlet color was marred. Her touch was delicate as she cleaned and dressed his wound. A flashlight propped on the table next to her aided the delicate stitching of his skin.

When his belly was bandaged up, she moved on to wiping away the blood on his clawed hands. His hands were huge compared to hers and covered by leathery fingerless gloves. On each knuckle of the gloves were sharp, bone-white spikes. Kennedy was especially intrigued by his sharp black talons. Unlike human nails, they blended with the black flesh that covered his fingers. They were sharp and smooth beneath her touch.