In Love with a Pirate

A new friend and an old one

As soon as Claire was out of sight of Delbert and the Captain, she all but collapsed against the trunk of a tree. It took a lot of strength to fake off her injury for as long as she did, and it was taking a toll. She could feel the blood drip down her abdomen again as it soaked through the moss, and she lifted her shirt to look at it.

Upon inspection, she noted that the wound was still slowly oozing blood, and her skin was coated in an unsteadying amount of the sticky red substance...It wasn't looking good. Claire was shaken out of her daze when she heard a frantic morph fly around her seeping wound.

"Hey Morphy, I'm okay, I just have to get this cleaned up." Claire comforted Morph when they came across a small brook. She removed the moss and then her shirt. "Ah, this is perfect. Once I can actually see the darn thing, I can start to remove the splinters."

She let out a sigh of relief as she bent down on her knees and plunged her red hands into the cool trickling brook. Claire watched with slight concern as the blood slowly dissipated from her hands into the water, leaving behind a trail of scarlet-stained liquid. She started to clean her wound entirely unaware that she was being watched by a figure hidden in the brush.

She cupped her hands and brought the water up to her torso to rinse her cut. The searing pain was intense as the water washed over the laceration, and all she could do was grit her teeth and try to swallow her cries of agony. She repeated this until the surrounding area was no longer dyed red.

After she finished cleaning it, she reached into her leather pouch to find the first aid items that she needed. She had started to carry a small array of medical supplies on her person after the black hole incident, and this moment made her grateful that she did. After a bit of rummaging, she pulled out a set of medical tweezers and a bottle of blood-stop powder. Claire took a deep breath and readied herself to dig into her throbbing side when she heard a branch snap to the side of her.

*snap*

Claire cocked her gun as she turned towards the sound ready to shoot whatever lay ahead. She was taken by surprise as a blur knocked off her feet.

"GRAAH!"

"AAAH!" She screamed.

She was flat on her back when she looked up to see a pair of big green eyes staring into hers.

"Oh, this is fantastic! A carbon-based life form come to rescue me at last!..." A rusty robot cheered.

He picked Claire up off the ground and embraced her in an almost suffocating hug.

"I just wanna hug ya, and squeeze ya, and hold ya close to me!"

Claire groaned from her side being squeezed.

"Please let go..." She wheezed.

"Oh! Sorry! Sorry...sorry. I've been marooned for..uh..so long...I mean, heh heh solitude's fun..don't get me wrong..for heaven's sake after a hundred years..." The robot's eyes got a crazy look in them as he stretched out his neck and yelled. 

"YA GO A LITTLE NUTS! HAHAhaha!...I am umm..." The robot placed his fingers to his forehead and struggled to think of something. "...my name is...uggg...." He put his hands on his head as he grew annoyed at his lack of capability to think.

Morph turned into a small version of the strange bot and made a cuckoo bird come out of his head.

*Cuckoo* *Cuckoo*

Claire grinned and tapped Morph on the head, which turned him back into himself.

The robot suddenly lit up in excitement.

"B.E.N! Of course! I'm B.E.N! BioElectronic Navigator. And you are?" He asked, then held his hand out to her.

"Claire."