"...Heh."
The sound left her before she could stop it.
A strange weight kneaded behind her eyes.
Sharp lines carved themselves beneath Rain's boots, a pattern she clearly could not decipher.
tckk..kkk—tchkk!
In but a breath, a heavy haze surged upward.
Rain sprang back at once and her gaze pulled back.
What had been loose grains a second ago darkened, screaming as air brushed against it. Jagged shapes forced themselves upward from the ground in crooked bursts, half-formed blades of blackened grit and, angled toward her legs.
Again.
Shattering under the sweep of her scabbard.
Crk—tshhh!
Jagged shards burst outward and skipped across the clearing, glowing faintly at their centers.
Sienna stepped in right after.
Rain's boots carved hard into the sand while the glowing grains snapped and hissed at her.
One shard clipped the scabbard, the glowing crown cracking like glass.
Tchk!
More and more, until it burst into a haze of shimmering static that lunged at Rain.
The sand grain dragged across itself in bands, jittering in specks of black, brown and warped colors. Rain's silhouette broke apart, the edges blurring to the point she looked like something else.
Again, the edge of Sienna's vision narrowed.
The sound around her dulled till it turned everything white.
Once more, everything stretched far away, like it had been shoved behind glass.
"..."
A voice cut through, faint.
One more time.
"...?"
The white light swallowing the dark suddenly spat everything back out. The world lurched backward in one violent motion, as though Terra itself had been ripped out from under her.
Warm steam clung to the cramped room, curling along the walls and mirror. Sienna stood still beside the shower, damp strands stuck to her skin with every breath she took—all while staring at Ikade's back.
"Why isn't this thing working..."
Ikade tapped the bracelet again before lifting it slightly, her ears twitching in irritation.
"What're your doing?"
"Uah—!"
The feline jolted so hard she flung the bracelet somewhere behind her, bounced to her feet and immediately ate the floor the next second.
Ikade turned and looked up at her, nervousness written all over her face with her nose embarrassingly red.
"...nothing?"
Sienna said nothing at first. She simply walked over to where her once charging bracelet had landed, picked it up and slipped it onto her wrist.
"I put a lock on it you know?"
She then pressed the small indent along its side, an opaque lock screen materialized above it.
"Excuse me, then. It's not like I've used it anytime soon."
"Cough... well? What'd you do that left you all sweaty like that? Mhmm? There was a whole mess outside for the past hour or two but I couldn't check." Ikade stood up, the bar of light moved down her for every inch she stood up.
"You didn't go and do something you weren't supposed to, did you?"
"And if I was? It's not like you could stop me."
Sienna walked over to the closet and pulled out an outfit, changing in but a few seconds—a loose button up long sleeve and a washed denim skirt.
"But I can do...This!"
Suddenly, Ikade was behind her, then, she blew lightly against her ear.
"—!"
Sienna's shoulders jumped at the kneading on her shoulders.
"Since you wanna act all mysterious, I'll just help myself."
Ikade leaned in while she spoke, her face pressing close against Sienna's back. Her chin brushed against her shoulders, her hands settling into the muscle near her neck.
Her lips grazed the fabric once.
Twice.
A faint warmth crept into her ears, hot enough to make the faint lines beneath her eyes deepen even more.
"Oh? What's this?" Her voice softened, teasing. "You're actually embarrassed."
"Can you stop...breathing on my ear like that..."
Her fingers worked lower, gliding from Sienna's shoulders to her upper arms, then farther down—past the elbow, down to the wrist and finally to her hands.
Sienna tilted her head aside, her dark hair spilling forward and obscuring her sight. Her eyes followed every place those smaller hands touched, feeling Ikade's fingers carefully traced over the ugliness along her skin.
Slowly, gently, molding the ache into something warmer.
The dark brown protrusions caught the light in dull glints, like sunlight from a window.
"..."
Strands of white hair danced forward, forming little patterns over the hand kneading hers.
fwumph—!
The room tilted.
Sienna stumbled back a step, then another, before the backs of her knees hit the bed and the two of them dropped onto it.
Above them, the skylight cut the ceiling open and the clouds took over.
Her gaze lowered and she was already outside, walking. Her steps left shallow depressions on the ground.
The dry wind brushed against her skirt, it carried the scent of something she could not describe alongside a sharp under layer.
Step...step...
Beside her, Ikade kept meandering through whatever was on her mind and every now and then Sienna answered. In between, a few people greeted her.
Vehicles lined the stretch ahead of them, the make believe streets of the caravan stayed busy.
Ahead of them, the pitiful medical truck stood where she'd last seen it, its cargo painted a bright red that was too bright and a single faded yellow stripe cut across the cabin, slicing through both passenger side doors.
Its black awning stretched out over the side, throwing a patch of shade across a folding table, two chairs and an older couple seated beneath it.
Ikade's ears perked at once.
"Oh! Hello again!"
Her voice carried across the short distance, bright enough to pull both Sienna's eyes and the couple's toward her.
"Well now, look who came back."
Ikade smile and got closer, guiding herself and Sienna closer. "You wouldn't mind if we bother you a little, right?"
The woman had a sun hat propped on her lap. Beside her, the man was leaned back in his chair with his own hat covering his eyes, the two of them were of her kin.
"A little bothering is about all we have left."
"Alright then! Is this your tr—" She paused, one ear flicking. "...well, obviously it is. You're sitting under it. Uhh...never mind."
The older woman laughed first while Ikade looked away for a second, coughed into her fist and quickly recovered before pulling her phone the next second later.
Sienna took a few steps closer to the truck, moving out of the way and settling against its body while she watched Ikade turn the desert green.
"Right. Starting over. Hello, honored doctors resting beneath their very obvious truck. Can I ask you two a few questions?"
Ikade lifted her hand like it was a microphone, pointing it at them with complete seriousness.
Again, The woman raised a hand up to cover her mouth while the man beside her let out a low breath.
"Honored doctors, huh?" The woman said. "Though honored might be a stretch nowadays."
Ikade's tail flicked behind her.
"Perfect. First question. why don't we introduce ourselves for your future fans?"
"Marisol. And this is my husband, Lewis."
"So..." Ikade tilted her head slightly. "Were you two always doctors?"
Sienna watched the older woman throw a glance at the man.
It was small, barely even a flicker, but there was something inside she was acquainted with. Like she'd brushed shoulders against before.
"No." Lewis answered. "...not always. I was doing a residency in Manhattes while volunteering nearby, we met because she was doing an internship as a veterinarian."
Manhattes...that's where we first met.
Ikade blinked.
"A veterinarian?"
Marisol smiled, her greying purple swaying with the wind, letting out a quiet laugh.
"Yes. A perfect pairing, isn't it? But It wasn't quite that simple. Back then, we were both just...too busy, we also butted heads more often than not. Though I'd say that was part of what brought us together in the end."
Ikade grinned and lifted her hand mic toward the man.
"So how'd that turn into this?"
Lewis leaned back in the chair, his eyes diving somewhere farther than the caravan.
"For a while, it didn't." Marisol said. "Life kept moving, and it wasn't a good time for the city yet we kept finding each other again."
"Eventually." Lewis added. "we stopped pretending we didn't feel a thing."
"We moved in together a few months later..." Marisol interjected. "We stayed in Manhattes for a couple of years after that, then moved to Fiesta. We thought that was where we were supposed to be."
The wind stirred beneath the awning, dragging a little warmth past them. Sienna stayed quiet against the truck, listening to the the sounds of the caravan singing around them.
"Supposed to be?"
Ikade's hand faltered, Lewis picked up next.
"There were people there who needed help. A lot of them...most could not offered it...nor ask for help. The unlucky. The forsaken. The ones the rich swore they'd get around to helping eventually."
"By the time we moved to Fiesta, we really thought we'd found where we were meant to be." Marisol went on. "A city was still a city, sure, but some districts there..." She exhaled softly. "Some people were living like beast."
"At first, I thought we'd do our work, help where we could...and maybe make the place a little kinder before moving on." Marisol's face casted down. "We thought we had time. I though we had time."
"And we paid the price for our assumption."
"But then the unrest in Fiesta started four years ago." Lewis' voice came low, flat. "What was supposed to be shouting in the streets turned into..."
Even the noise of the caravan felt farther away, Sienna could almost see the madness around them, her own fingers twitching at her side.
Marisol's fingers curled tighter around the brim of the hat in her lap.
Narrowed eyes, Sienna did the same.
"After that...We just started going farther and farther out, helping wherever people would let us in. At first, we told ourselves it would only be for a little while. Just until things calmed down."
"And by the time we noticed." Lewis said, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "we were already living like this."
Ikade asked, lowering her phone just a little, her ears twitching once while the wind tugged at her hair.
"So...do you regret it?"
"..."
"No."
Marisol shook her head once.
"No. Not when there are still people out there who need help."
Sienna stayed against the truck and watched in silence, her arms folded loosely while the breeze tugged at the ends of her feathered tufts.
Then, just like that, Ikade returned to her herself.
Ikade straightened, lifted her hand-mic again and cleared her throat with all the seriousness she could possibly muster.
"If some random person watching this way later somehow ends up seeing it, what would you want them to remember about you two?"
"That we tried." Marisol said softly. "Don't concede your dreams....and keep pushing."
Sienna and the two watched Ikade fumble for the right words.
Then—
"Alright!" She declared. "That wraps up today's very first, incredibly professional, historic interview for..."
Her whole face lit up.
"Surviving Terra!"
"No—wait, wait..."
Ikade straightened herself before lifting the phone higher into the air, quickly turning it around to pull herself into the frame.
"Surviving Terra with Doctor Marisol and Doctor Lewis! First ever interview edition!"
"First ever, huh?" Lewis muttered, his eyes casting down with a small smile on his face.
"Mmhm." Ikade nodded, completely serious. "So if this gets famous later, just remember I was here first."
She gave them both a cheerful little bow before backing away, nearly bumping into someone in the process.
Ikade looked at her and pointed somewhere deeper into the caravan.
Sienna finally pushed herself off the truck and stepped away. She had barely taken more than two steps before Marisol's voice stopped her.
"You're a very quiet girl."
Ahead of them, Ikade had already wandered farther in, chatting with another little group, her hands tucked behind her back while her tail flicked from side to side.
At that, Sienna turned her head slightly.
Beside her, Lewis had lifted his hat just enough to look at her.
"...Am I?"
"The loud ones are easier." Marisol started. "They tell you everything even without saying it."
"You don't have to look so cornered, dear. We're old, not blind."
Sienna's gaze shifted from their blurry persons to Ikade.
"...You make it sound worse than it is."