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Stranded [Closed] - Printable Version

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RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 07-11-2017

The siblings exchanged glances again as Captain Strafford called back out to them from inside the cave. Sai took a step forward, but Teagan held her hand out, suddenly looking very serious.

“I’m gonna go in first,” she suggested. “He’s obviously freaked out.”

Sai only blinked back at her, frowning all the while. Micah only yawned. Jowls pulling back to reveal huge and sharp teeth. While sitting, the giant lynx’s head met Sai’s shoulders. The cat shook his head to dust snow off of his ears.

“Look at the two of you,” Teagan continued, gesturing between the men. “I’d shoot you on sight.” She was grinning again now, her words trailing as she moved towards the mouth of the cave. The boys let her be, it wasn’t like she couldn’t handle herself against one, stranded human. Even if he did have a gun.

“I’m coming in,” Teagan warned Sanders, again, lifting her hands spreading her fingers near either side of her head. “Don’t shoot me,” she instructed, as she neared a corner that she assumed would reveal the pilot when she rounded it. Her eyes swept the semi-darkness for her would be charge, until she spotted him huddled behind a rocky protrusion. The light from the small fire cast shadows across the shale and across Teagan.

“There’s three of us including myself,” she explained, keeping her voice low, and calm and even. “We were sent to find you.” Experimentally, she lowered her hands a little bit. “Not gonna hurt you.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 07-13-2017

Her entrance into his alcove in the cave changed the air flow and caused the flames to flicker feebly in the meager fire he’d made. Shadows danced over the woman’s features and the light from the fire illuminated her silver hair. She had the right posture, that of being non-threatening, and she spoke quite casually. That put Sanders somewhat at ease. He was tired, injured, freezing, but still paranoid, still a little bit committed to his oaths.

“Sent.” He said warily and limped forward from his corner. His weapon was trained on the woman showing her hands to him. “By who?”

He approached closer still, limping miserably with each step. Once he was close enough to get a good look at her, his immediate observation was that she was quite attractive with striking features. “You’re not in CAF uniform. They would have sent their own.”

He poked at her with the barrel of his weapon indicating her clothing. “Why should I trust you? What if this is a trap?” Standing on his injured leg was withering his resolve. He wanted to trust this woman. Wearer or whatever her name was. “Listen, I’m just a pilot. I don’t know anything useful. I was just running a supply mission, no recon, no intel, no payload, no personnel. Just boring ole’ supplies. If you keep me alive I might be worth a trade. The CAF trades sometimes. I can tell you who to get in contact with.”

He let go of the gun with one hand, showing her his palm and then slowly lowered the rifle. "I'd just like to go home. Peacefully. Look -" he reached that free hand into his breast pocket and pulled out a photograph. A blonde woman posing in a wide rim hat and a bathing suit on a lake beach. "I'm getting married soon. To this girl." He held the photograph out for her inspection. "Maeve. I just want to go home to her. Okay?"

He set his rifle down on the ground showing he meant no harm.

This was strictly not CAF protocol. But Sanders didn't give a fuck anymore about protocols.

RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 07-14-2017

“The CAF didn’t send us,” Teagan explained when Sanders made not of her casual dress. She didn’t flinch when he tapped the rifle against her sternum, but she dropped her hands to her sides, bored with holding the in the arm. It wasn’t that she didn’t think that he would shoot her, she just wasn’t worried about it. He probably wouldn’t shoot to kill, and she could handle a gun shot wound.

Brows lifted as he went through a short monologue. Just a pilot, didn’t know anything. What kind of ridiculous conventions did they teach these dudes, she wondered. She pursed her lips before she frowned and let him continue to talk himself out.

“Oh, damn,” Teagan said before she whistled appreciatively. She took the picture without asking and brought it closer so she could see the pretty blonde in the picture. “What a babe,” she continued, thrusting the image back in his direction when he rose from setting the rifle on the ground. “Now, we really gotta get you back, because you have got to marry this girl.”

“You should really sit down.” she advised, dropping her gaze pointedly to his obviously injured leg. Teagan pushed back the fluffy hood of her parka and pulled off the beanie she wore underneath to ruffle her silver hair. The items had been cozy outside, but were becoming stifling inside the cave.

“Also, this is like, totally not a trap,” she reassured, rounding back to address his earlier concerns. “My brothers and I are members of the Veridian Royal guard. We work with Queen Julianna Maxillion, so she is the one that sent us. I don’t know if the CAF sent people to but...” Teagan trailed off and shrugged. “I guess you have some powerful friends Mr. Just-A-Pilot. I’m gonna go get the other two now. We have food and supplies. We will have to get your strength back up before we can start to move.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 07-17-2017

An involuntary smile spread across Sanders’ face as Teagan complimented his undeniably beautiful fiance. “Exactly why I have to get home!” He agreed before he reclaimed his picture of Maeve and tucked it back into his uniform.

Sanders was already taken with the friendly and easy-going nature of his rescuer.

Rescuer?

How quickly he was ready to just give up and be saved. He took a few hobbling steps back towards the fire and carefully lowered himself back to the ground. The action looked almost like he failed at his turn of limbo. He leaned back and let himself sort of fall onto his hand and then carefully eased to the ground careful not to jostle his leg anymore than it needed to be.

His head jerked curiously towards her. “Queen?” He frowned and squinted one eye as he tried to recall who this Queen Julianna Maxillion was. Sanders wasn’t an expert on world politics and came up with a blank. He recognized the name but couldn’t exactly place it. A little embarrassed by his lack of knowledge, he just let that slide, he could always try to pick up hints rather than admit his ignorance.

What he did know was that the CAF and the Veridian Isles were always sort of tense with one another. Not outright enemies. Not outright allies. Just a tense agreement to co-exist until someone crossed a line with the other. The CAF always seemed to be tempting the Isles to toe that line as an excuse to lash out and take them over. That was all Sanders knew about the relationship.

So, of course, it was odd to hear that the Queen of the Veridian Isles had sent a crew expressly to rescue him.

“Maybe you have made a mistake?” He offered this so gently and politely in a voice one might use with a waiter to correct an error they made without offending them. “There’s just no way that she could have known I was here. And why would she -” he shook his head, “-it just doesn’t make any sense. And there is nothing I can offer to the Queen. Well, um, actually, am I going to be taken as a prisoner of war?”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 07-24-2017

“I don’t really know the details of the whole thing.” Teagan shrugged her shoulders, pursing her lips in an obviously clueless expression. “But I know we didn’t make a mistake. Our orders were very specific: come here, rescue you, go home. Easy peasy.”

Turning her back on him briefly, she positioned her thumb and forefinger into her mouth and whistled loudly for the two still waiting outside. She’d almost forgotten about them. When that was done, she moved into the cave and closer to Sanders. She rounded the minimal fire and plopped down right next to him as if they were long time friends. “Also, I just said the queen sent us, I didn’t say she knew you personally.” Teagan tilted her head as if she’d made some amazing point that contradicted the pilot. “So if the CAF is over here,” she held up one hand to represent the organization in question. “And the VI is over here, I guess there’s someone in the middle that has to be associated with both.”

Teagan and her brothers knew that the queen was hiding out in the United States under the guise of one Drusilla Haven. Sanders however, didn’t seem to, and Teagan had already found a fun game in discovering how many hints she could drop without him catching on.

She laughed. “No, you’re not a prisoner.” By this time Sai and Micah, still in his lynx form, had appeared inside the cave. “This is literally a rescue I promise.”

“This our guy?” Sai asked gruffly, dropping the heavy pack he’d been carrying and rubbing each of his shoulders in turn.

“Yup!” Teagan wiggled her fingers in Sanders’ direction as if presenting her brother’s with some prize she had won. “I present on Captain Sanders Strafford, CAF Air Force.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 07-30-2017

Sanders’ baby blues focused on one hand and then the other hand that Teagan held up to represent each of the political actors. His eyes tracked back and forth between the two as he tried to work out just what she was getting at. Who was in the middle and knew both?

Maybe Owen? Darcy?

“Ohhhh…” he said out loud as things started clicking into place in his mind. At least, how he felt they clicked. “Okay so I have a friend in Central Command. The Lieutenant Colonel, who is the godson of the Lieutenant General Darcy Weatherfare….” His face lit up as even more things clicked together. The previously misheard last name that she had called to him now sounded like Weatherfare in his mind. “And you are a Weatherfare. So Owen must have asked Darcy to help and of course the CAF wouldn't send anybody. So Darcy probably contacted whoever he knows in the monarchy and bam.” He shook his head as if impressed with the influence that Darcy had. “Pays to know people in high places, I guess...So do you - whoa...”

Sanders’ nervous and almost delusional chattering trailed off as a huge man and an oversized wild looking cat entered their part of the cave. His eyes tracked up and down the impressive size of the man who spoke before returning back to the cat at his side. This was getting weirder. Darcy convinced the Queen of the Veridian Isles to send a rescue convoy comprised of a friendly woman, a giant man, and a cat.

“Do you - uh -” he attempted to relocate the question he wanted to ask before. “-all like know Darcy? Are you all related?”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 08-01-2017

Sai looked wholly unimpressed by the soldier that Teagan was trying to present to him. “Good,” came his gruff reply as he knelt and began unzipping pockets and rifling through the supplies he had been carrying. Micah, who apparently had no interest in making introductions or being social. Flopped down in front of the fire with a cat like huff. His tail flickered lazily, but his ears were rounded back and trained on the conversation.

“You’ll have to forgive my brothers,” the woman said. She had heard Sanders’ rambling, but she she’d lost interest in playing the who wants to save me game with him. Especially since he was kind of wrong. Teagan leaned forward to poke at his meager fire with a stick she’d found near the spot she’d chosen. “They are just absolutely no fun,” she concluded with a sharp jab to the fire.

As if offended, Sai hurled a crinkling plastic bag in her direction. She dropped the smoldering stick and just barely caught the package before it his her square in the face. She turned it around in her hands until she could properly see what it was. “Oh, sweet. Jerky,” she said before tearing open the package. She pulled out a few mismatched cuts of dried beef, before angling the package in Sanders’ direction. Teagan shook the bag and let the remaining pieces rattle in a way that was meant to be enticing. “Hope you like teriyaki.”

As if still punishing her for her earlier remark, two water bottles were also lobbed from Sairus and right at her face. She allowed the jerky to drop near Sanders and caught on bottle in each hand, in an impressive show of speed and coordination. “Would you stop,” she demanded of her brother, but he only smirked.

With a huff she pushed one water in Sanders’ direction and kept one for herself. She retrieved the jerky and moved into the small space between them. She pressed up against him, without asking for permission. Sharing her warmth. “I think Darcy is our, uh, cousin?” She looked to Sai for confirmation and he nodded. “Yeah, cousin, but, like, we probably have thousands of those. That one just happens to be famous.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 08-18-2017

Sanders was quiet through Teagan’s apology for her brothers' lack of festive attitude. He remained so as snacks and drinks were divvied out by the grumpy one who saw fit to throw things at his sister. Sanders’ countenance brightened at the offering of jerky.

“Oh yeah.” He agreed enthusiastically for the flavor and pulled the package closer to him so he could dive into some dried meat. His eyes had hungrily watched the bottles of water as they arced through the air towards them. When Teagan pushed one at him, he snatched it up and cracked off the top. He drank with desperation with his head titled back.

After he had drained half the bottle, Sanders put it on the cave floor next to him with a loud satisfied sigh of appreciation. He wiped the back of his lips and popped jerky into his mouth. Teagan was making herself comfortable against him, and he couldn’t say that he minded in the least.

“I don’t know…” he sang before he tore off another bite of the meat, “...that brother seems like a real party animal.” He gestured at Micah still in lynx form and snickered at his own joke. He nudged the woman next to him with his elbow to see if she got his joke. “Do you get it?”

His brow pulled together while he chewed thoughtfully for a moment, “Wait, did you say thousands of cousins? Do you mean that literally? Shit.” His fingers fiddled in the packaging for more jerky while he spoke. Crinkling plastic accompanied his voice in the cave. “I mean I have a pretty big extended family and the town where I grew up isn’t so big. So I would always ask my mom if such and such girl was a in anyway related to us. Sure enough, there were times when she’d be ‘yup, that’s your second cousin.’”

Sanders laughed loudly and the sound of it boomed as it bounced off the walls. “Needless to say I didn’t date much in high school.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 10-09-2017

Teagan was snickering with Sanders before he’d even nudged her in the ribs. Sai and Micah, unsurprisingly, were not nearly as amused by his attempt at humor. “I don’t think it’s really thousands,” she corrected, munching on her own helping of jerky, which she admittedly did not need, and was intentionally brought for Sanders, but she liked the camaraderie of sharing with him. “It’s just a lot and the family is so spread out, that there are a bunch I don’t know.” She waved her hand to dismiss the whole topic on her end, not having much more to say about it.

Unabashed laughter joined his, the noise of it filling up the space of the cave. Micah huffed, tail flickering and Sai shot them a dirty look. “Good thing this isn’t a steal mission,” he grumbled at the two of them, gravely voice barely heard over their storytelling.

“I don’t know if I believe that,” Teagan sang, lifting her brows at him. “I bet you were a real playboy. Just cruising through all the ladies you weren’t related to.” She laughed again. “But it looks like you finally decided to settle down with that pretty blonde you showed me. Not surprised at all, she’s a real stunner.”

Picking up her stick Teagan, started poking at the fire again. “How did you meet her?” Naturally curious, she was partially being nosy, but also trying to comfort Sanders through the whole being crash-landed-trapped-in-a-cave-during-a-blizzard predicament.

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 12-01-2017

Sanders laughed loudly again, eyes sparkling at the suggestion that he could be a playboy. It wasn’t untrue. “Well sure, when I got my wings,” he wiggled the patch on his chest signifying his coveted status as a pilot, “the ladies couldn’t resist.”

He winked at her before leaning back and slipping his arm casually around her shoulders with a sigh. “Yup. Something about a man that can fly giant hunks of metal through the sky just drives the women crazy.” His free hand maneuvered through space in front of them acting out the maneuvers of a plane.

His eyes roll upwards towards the ceiling as he considered how to answer how he had met his fiance. “Friend of a friend of a friend.” His index finger bounced as he considered his sources. He counted Dru as Owen’s friend and then Maeve as Dru’s friend. He waved his hand. “Something like that. I got invited to a gathering at a bar. Maeve was there. We hit it off and we’ve been together since.”

He smiled around the room. “What about you all? Got any significant others you wanna brag about?” He laughed again, now feeling in good spirits among new friends who had fed and watered him.

RE: Stranded [Closed] - megs - 02-22-2018

Teagan laughed. Loud and nasally, clearly mocking as she tilted her head back. She snorted her continued amusement as she tore off a chunk of jerky with her teeth. “Well, I’m single and Sai is single.” She looked to Sanders and raised her brows. “I like to use the work excuse. Being a royal guard keeps a girl busy. Sai on the other hand is boooring.” She drew out the vowels of the word so long that Sai turned to frown deeply at her. Teagan chortled again.

“But I think it’s just not about meeting anyone right, yet, you know?” Teagan turned thoughtful as she chewed at the same mouthful of tough jerky. “Being a royal guard certainly doesn't make it easy. Unless you’re Micah I guess.” She gestured towards the lynx that was still sprawled out on the floor. “He’s been with the same woman for like fifty years.”

Teagan shrugged, finally washing down the dried meat with a swig of water. She opened her mouth to say something more, but Sai shushed her with a wave of his hand. He’d turned his attention towards the mouth of the cave and was listening intently. “Shut up,” he said, and Teagan made a silent and incredulous face. Said stood and moved towards the mouth of the cave.

Silver brows pinned in the middle of her forehead, as she listened as well, following Sai’s retreat. She leaned closer to Sanders, “helicopters,” she explained in a whisper. “And a cargo plane. Can’t tell who they belong to, obviously, but we can’t be too careful. We don’t know who is looking for you.”

RE: Stranded [Closed] - saronym - 05-20-2018

Sanders’ head bobbed along as Teagan described her brothers. “He does seem a bit on the dull side.” He agreed playfully as she passed over Sairus. His eyebrows rose in appreciation for Micah’s lengthy relationship. “Good for you.” He toasted the other man by raising his jerky.

“You’ll find someone.” Sanders said encouragingly to Teagan.

Their conversation was interrupted by Sairus who moved off towards the entrance to the cave, clearly hearing something which Teagan described to him. He frowned, concerned by the information.

“Even if they are friendlies, they can’t see me with you all. They would try to take you for questioning.” His frown deepened as he thought of conversations he’d overheard Owen and Darcy having about the relationship between the CAF and the Isles. “I don’t think the CAF would take kindly to Veridian interference in their warzone, even if it is to, supposedly, help a downed pilot.”

He fell quiet, staring thoughtfully at the mouth of the cave.

“Hey do you have a map of the region? I might be able to pinpoint one of our forward operating bases.” His eyes twinkled; he had lied about not knowing anything earlier. “But who knows if they’d still be there…” He trailed off.