Dancing In Pandora | Miles Quaritch x OC

Chapter 7

Viktoria didn't know what she was thinking, she just felt her body move and leap down the tree. She had launched herself towards the black beast, rolling the beast and her away from the almost dead Colonel. While rolling away a few feet away, the beast and the woman landed apart from each other. And when the beast opened it's mouth to roar at her, Viktoria panicked, Viktor screamed and the marines were trying to get a visual to shoot the black beast. Colonel Quaritch managed to realize what the hell just happened, and threw a stick at the beast, making it whip around and snap at him instead. Taking advantage of the distraction, Viktoria ran away, making sounds in her throat to attract the beast's attention. It worked as the flash of movement attracted the beast, the sounds in her throat taunting it, and so the beast chased her. In her Avatar, she could run faster, distracting the beast enough to allow her twin and the marines to escape. And as if through some sort of telepathy, Viktor nodded and gathered the marines, hefting all four into his sides, securing two marines in each arm, he looked to Colonel Quaritch motioning for him to climb onto his back. Quaritch made to climb, but the thought of leaving Viktoria alone and being chased by the beast, it gnawed at him, and so instead of climbing onto Viktor's back, he fixed his gun onto his back and dashed towards the direction Viktoria and the beast came out of. Viktor was aghast, but still made a run to the opposite direction towards the base. And despite the loud thumping in his heart that even the marines could hear, he ran to save them, and only prayed for Quaritch to save his sister.

Viktoria ran as fast as she could, before finally finding a strong tree, climbing up as swiftly as possible, the beast hot on her tail, and just as the beast was about to bite into her flesh, bullets were directed towards it. Although useless, the beast flinched from the loud noise, directing its angered roar towards the shooter. And there was the small human form of Colonel Miles Quaritch, brave was he indeed, but wise enough to know that the gun was useless against the beast's hide. And so he threw the gun aside, and took out his knife. Viktoria had managed to climb high up into the tree before she finally noticed the beast wasn't climbing after her, and finally registering the fact that she had heard gunshots. She whipped her head towards the source, and she almost panicked at the size of the Colonel. The beast was big compared to her Avatar, but compared to Colonel Quaritch? He looked too tiny. And if it was any other time, she would have laughed until she couldn't breathe. But right now the beast, was prowling around Quaritch. It's black hide disappearing into the darkness, making it a struggle for the human to locate the beast, but when he realized that the beast's footsteps glowed, he knew how to locate it. Viktoria couldn't breathe, the beasts was familiar, it was something Viktor told her about previously. A beast with black hide that was basically bulletproof, the biggest and most dangerous predator of the forest. A fucking Thanator... And so Viktoria felt clammy at the recognition. But she had no time for the fear to settle in simply because she saw the Thanator's muscle tense, as if getting ready to attack. And attack it did.

The Thanator lounged towards Quaritch, and just as the beast was about to bite the human whole, the Avatar dropped down onto its back. Her arms and legs wrapped around its neck, making the Thanator confused and flail in pain, swiping its paws mightily. Quaritch wasted no time before he himself lounged forward and drove his knife into the Thanator's heart with all of his might, but as he plunged the knife, the beast managed to swipe its claws at his head before collapsing. Dead. Quaritch had flown afar from the impact of the beast, he felt as if his entire being was in a constant state of pain, the right side of his head felt wet and was burning in pain.

Viktoria had cried when the Thanator finally stopped struggling, pushing herself away from the massive beast, she looked for Quaritch. She let out a panicked gasp as she saw him far away, bleeding and limp against the tree. She dashed towards him, finding that the beast had managed to swipe at the right side of his head, she inspected him while she put her hand to put pressure on the bleeding. When she noticed a few minor broken bones, she decided to carry him like one would carry a baby. She looked about, it was dark despite the glow from nature. She didn't know where to run, she was disoriented, she didn't know where the base was located. She couldn't stay still either. She saw something float, well somethings, she didn't know what they were, except that they looked like the wood sprites Roman explained to her from an old movie. She saw them floating towards a certain direction, she realized the glow was brighter in that direction, and despite her fear that it might be nature's trap, her fear for something else coming was far greater. And so cradling the injured Colonel securely in her arms, she followed the wood sprite look alike. She saw that her steps glowed brightly, and what seemed to be grass was swaying back and forth around each of her steps. When she finally travelled a great distance, she was led to giant tree. It looked like a willow tree, but it was humongous. It glowed brightly and was like a city light compared to the darkness. She saw roots coming from the tree, stretching out over the the other roots of the other trees, like veins. But right now she wasn't to be distracted. She ran towards the tree, and found a spot hidden within the grove, she climbed into the grove, it was spacious and if she were to lay down, she would still have some space to stretch. She looked to the opening to realize that the green and blue extensions of the tree had thickly covered the grove, it was as if nature was hiding them. She prayed her thanks to the divine intervention. When she looked to the unconscious Colonel, she saw that he was still bleeding, she was panicking again. No, no, don't die, please don't die.

And just as she was a step away from a panic attack, she saw a small plant grow at the speed of light, towards her. She couldn't believe it, there wasn't even a plant there earlier. Now she saw it sprout out of no where and grow into a full blown plant. This planet is magical, but borderline freaky. And what the hell is that ringing in my ear, it's like someone is whispering. And whisper it did. It was as if someone was hypnotizing her, telling her that the plant could save Quaritch and stop the bleeding. As if in a trance, she plucked the flower from the plant, and crushed it over Quaritch's wounds. Juices from the flower flowed down onto his injuries, seeping into the wound. And to her utter astonishment, the bleeding stopped immediately, and the open wound started scabbing. She hugged him closer to her, crying.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

The thank you was for Quaritch, and for the divine intervention. If not for Quaritch, she'd be dead. And if not for the magical nature of this planet, she would've lost Quaritch. He would've died. She sobbed again. She only knew the Colonel for a few days now, there wasn't much interaction between them. But looking at her unconscious savior, she felt a smile slip past in relief at the feeling if his steady heartbeat under her giant hand. She had tears falling down her face, she couldn't stop it, she was terrified of whatever the hell had happened. Everything just happened too quickly. She prayed that Viktor managed to escape with the rest of the marines. She was terrified. And because of her fear, she couldn't sleep. She had to guard Quaritch, as well as make sure no other creature was going to attack them. And so she laid him down, finding a large leaf conveniently just laying on the grass inside the grove, the leaf was warm and soft, it was big and covered Quaritch's form. She sat right next to him sharing the heat from her leg with him, she stood awake and alert. Sleep was far away and would not invade her. She waited for him to wake up.

*****

1474 words

I was able to finish updating! Another chapter will come up soon! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think, and maybe leave a vote if commenting isn't your thing. This chapter is actually important to the future development of her feelings, it'll be one of the core reasons she would fall in love with Quaritch.

Thank you for reading!

Here's something I randomly drew, just practice: