Enemy Mine

[Ayda Elisantra]

How cruel it were in those lost forgotten ancient days on Dagobah...
The once smooth open shaft that they were in were one for those condemned to loose their last spark of hope. It were purposely designed for what ever light from Dagobah's skies to shine down on the condemned to let them despair that there was absolutely no way up...it were truly a dead end with a window to the unreachable heavens...

Only now, freedom had descended from that very same heaven in the form of foliage.
Where life once came to a dead end down below to those whom were condemned, their last hope dashed as they looked up the long shaft to the sky above. Only prayers ascended up that smooth shaft...nothing else.
But tens if thousands of years later..the heavens descended down that very shaft...foliage. It stretched from above in the form of vines, ivy, and roots. The shaft were no longer a dead end, but a kind of ladder..a stairway to the heavens..to freedom.

The berries were sustainable and plenty of them is various varieties. And as rare as it happened, the skie seemed to pen up that morning to let dagobah's star light down below..an invitation for the two to come to surface.

No, she hadn't turned into a blueberry... or a raspberry...nor any other color of the sweet berries she and Skye had consumed. The open sky above beckoned them to come, with it's rays of sunlight reaching down to them. Ayda were not hesitating to climb, yet she remained there looking over to Skye. There was a few moments of serenity..peaceful existence there between them. She looked up following the ray beams of sunlight reigning down on them.

It had happened just as Skye came forth about her ill treatment of her..of another living soul.
Yes..
Yes, of course it were the mask. That had been it's design, much like this damnation of a hopeless maze was to those whom fought to make it to this end. But that end existed tens of thousands of years ago. Now... now it were truly a means to freedom.

but what was this?
For a moment, she didn't quite get the meaning of the blossoms. But as Skye spoke, they became much more than the flowering reproductive portions of the plants. Yes, they were the brightest parts of the plant...beautiful if one were to simply admire them for their color, smell and unique texture that dissimilarized them from the rest of the plant. It were in every sense a plant's invite to procure life everlasting.
was this a means of symbolizing they were friends? Ayda were uncertain. But certain that the Skye unmasked was sincere. If only Skye could know herself in this manner as she did.
Ayda looked up to the minute opening above them. The distance up gave them the perspective that it were a tiny opening. But it were in reality just as wide as the ground they were stepping on...it were that high. And way up there, this moment of serenity could well not exist at all. Ayda could once more be confronted with the weakness of Skye's alter self...the spirit bound behind the mask.

"Thank you.." came forth from her lips...kind of involuntarily.
Then..
"Yes...they are beautiful...and they do count just like words.." She understood. Understood what the token of flowers finally meant. And a small smile graced her lips.

It weren't apparent in Ayda's features, as she eyed what had a moment ago laid abandoned against the near wall...the mask.
It were in Sky'e possession once more, and her peripheral traced honed in on it despite her gaze still locked on Skye's orbs. Her peripheral followed the mask as Skye's hand clipped it on the side of her garb. It were to ascend with them and not be left in the underground where it truly belonged.

"Sigh..." She removed her gaze from Skye's. "It's a long way up.." She tucked her flowers to the back of her belt.

"Yes...I'm ready to climb..." Ayda answered, not knowing once they would emerge up to the surface if she would be in the company of Skye or the mask. Currently, she could feel Skye's spirit in a wanting state...but not the longing for the mask. It were a bit obscure this feeling and she dared not encroach further. Ayda knew not to press herself...her spiritual prowess on another soul. She thought to guide them in the after-light..not during their trial and tribulations of life experienced. But why then were she herself in mortal form? It were a question she never could answer herself but would have to experience. She too had her trials and tribulations, for her spirit were in a mortal temple.

The lower vines were strong, but not as thick as they were the higher they went. Ayda pulled on them, tauting them like ropes. It would be for them like scaling a wall with ropes for awhile, before the vines would thicken and take to become more like strong thick stems...sure footholds. And as higher and higher they would climb..like almost ascending a ladder.

Ayda watched Skye take hold of the vines and pull herself up before doing same. She were just a waist lower to the side of Skye and occasionally took to looking up at the same time Skye took looking down. What would await them on top? This was after all Dagobah.

What sunlight had been granted them soon gave out to cloud cover and the shaft became an errie greenish blue again. But they were only 1/4 way up and already it seemed they had climbed near a hundred meters...
"Yes..." she replied as she climbed.

"... it was nice while it lasted..." It weren't just the small tease of sunlight gone now, that she meant...

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye glanced back down from time to time, only to have her eyes lock with Ayda's for a few seconds before she would look up again, trying to find the next handhold.

"You doing OK?", she asked the girl, who wasn't far behind her. When she got her response that Ayda was indeed still doing fine, she continued moving upwards. The climb itself was hard enough already, but Skye had found out by now that some certain vines were not strong like the others. Some were a bit weaker, but not so weak that they gave way completely.

They had been climbing for a bit now, and Skye found herself becoming bored. Not tired, not afraid of fallin or anything.
Bored.

And unfortunately, as she looked up, she found out they still had a long way to go. So, with a sigh, she continued moving.

"So...", she hesitantly begun," how did you get involved with all of this?"

Figuring that Ayda might be a little hesitant to answer that question out of the blue, Skye quickly changed her approach.

"Actually. I'll tell you my story first, okay? Information for... information, I guess"

It was her awkward way of trying to get Ayda to trust her a bit more, if she didn't already.

"I-uh... I guess I wanted to prove myself in a way. To the squadron I was with, at least. The word of this battle got passed around and I soon found myself feeling obligated to help- so that's what I did. I buddied myself up with some guys and.. and I went along with them", she took a moment to take a deep breath as the memories of the crash came back to her. "Most of them didn't really see any action. We got shot out of the air before we had even done a single thing", her voice had a hint of sadness by now.

"And then, we lost a few more before we-", she was interrupted because the vine she had grasped with her highest arm suddenly came loose.

"Chit!", Skye yelled in surprise as she struggled to regain her balance. She was still holding on with one hand right now, and still had one of her feet standing on a vine- the other was dangling in the air.

"Okay", Skye said through gritted teeth as she used all her strength to keep herself from falling. But just before she had almost regained her balance, she lost it.

Even though she was still holding on to the vine, it would have come loose thanks to Skye's falling weight for sure- if it hadn't been for Ayda.

Just before it was too late, Skye felt a gentle hand push against her back. It wasn't a very strong push, as Ayda herself too needed to hold onto the walls, but it was just enough to keep Skye from going into a downwards spiral. With this subtle yet life-saving help Skye managed to grasp the vines again so that she once more held onto them firmly.

She panted out of fear a few times before she looked slightly below her to see Ayda's face. "T-thanks", she managed to get out of her mouth. "Thank you, Ayda"

Even after everything- her smile, the fact she accepted the flowers and so much more, Skye had always still had that feeling that Ayda hated her. But this, this was the first time she actually started to really doubt that. Maybe what the woman showed was how she really felt towards her. Maybe she didn't hate her.

Maybe. They should have a talk sometime once they're up.

Now, it was Skye's time to repay Ayda's heroic action by offering her a hand to lift her over the patch of rotten vines because of which Skye had almost fallen.

"Here, take my hand", she said softly as she streched her arm towards Ayda. Ayda then took a firm hold of Skye's hand as she did the same, and Skye then lifted Ayda slightly upwards, past the small section of those threaterous vines- after having made sure she was holding stable vines herself.

"No problem", Skye smiled as she let go of Ayda's hand again before looking up. They had made quite some progress, and it wouldn't be much longer before they'd reach the top, alongside anything that would be waiting there.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

She had laid there on top of what now was a hill...the only tall hill as far as she could tell. And that was because she could make out some of the tops of the trees through the ones that now surrounded the opening of the shaft they had scaled not an hour before.

Skye wasn't around, but she could hear her walking about through the trees and growth on top of their hill. And she confirmed it...shouting to Ayda that they were atop a hill of sort. Ayda just lay there on the carpet of ivy and brush looking up at the misty atmosphere above them. Hours earlier, for what had probably been a rarity on Dagobah, the sky had parted to let the sun shine down what looked now a well from where she was. Ayda sat up, brushing leaves and thatch from hair and person. She was a mess once more. The climb had definitely taken much of her strength and energy. All she wanted..all her body ached for was for some sleep...rest. The footsteps and trashing that had been going around the perimeter of the hilltop, got nearer and she flopped back on the ivy when Skye popped back into view out of the thick brush.

Ayda's muscles ached and she asked for maybe another good hour of rest. But it seemed that they had little of daylight left again. They weren't sure as to when they had awakened down in the pit below. then the climb taking hours..followed by some already good two hour rest. One for Skye before she took the initiative to scout about. But by the fading light fall...maybe they had an hour..two at most before night fall.

Hunger at this time was not an issue, as the berries that had revived them were literally about underfoot. And Ayda had some of them on her back. She had inadvertently just collapsed where she stood once she was hoisted the last few steps up by Skye.

"I know....yes, I know...but I can't go fighting the swamp right now...just can't Skye. I'm too spent..." Ayda replied to the elder girl's plight for them to start moving and finding some bearing as to where they popped up from.

Literally, the caverns and labyrynth were below them. There was even a posibility that this hill was definitely not natural at all and had once never even been a hill but a structure. Through the tens of thousands of years passing, the jungle..the swamp of Dagobah had claimed it as its own. There were certainly layers and layers of decayed plant matter underfoot.
Skye, nor Ayda could recall as to where below they had stood or had entered that chamber. As they ascended, they didn't go up a straight line, but made provisions to climb almost like a spiral staircase...loosing their bearing as to what direction they had down below. If they knew that, they could pretty much know as a mynock flies as to their entrance point to the ancient ruins they had first entered. Now, it could be anywhere 360 degree anywhere.

"Skye...pleassse..." Ayda pleaded, but it did no good. Skye had reached down and taken her hand to heft her back on her feet.
No, she wasn't being mean she told Ayda. She was being practical. They had to find a way off Dagobah and laying atop this so called hill wasn't going to accomplish that.

"I know..." Ayda nodded, starting to bend over, stretch and try to get her muscles to stop complaining.
"I know...." She had never felt her temple complain so much as here on Dagobah.

"Yes, yes...I'm coming..I'm coming...." She took to following Skye off their hilltop. The roots, brush and foliage was as thick as the trek they went through just 3 days prior...maybe 4 days, it more felt like.
"Oh wait...
STOP!" Ayda suddenly shouted, getting Skye to look back toward her and around. Did she hear anything?
"No... nothing like that, no.
Skye there's no berries down along here. I think we should at least go ba-" She stopped mid-sentence when Skye hefted what was a makeshift bag..and of course a bit stained with the berries it held inside.

"Oh...
Sigh... hehe....well, at least someone's thinking today..." She laughed. yes, Skye was ahead of her this day...both physically and mentally.

Ayda was then coaxed to come on and keep close. They would have to find a suitable campground again. The idea of finally being on the surface had lifted their spirits up. But they were still on Dagobah. And Dagobah proved a few days ago to want to devour them both.
Yes, they'd best find some shelter lest they spend the night fighting off something or other that could be hungry. And it seemed there were always hungry beasts about on Dagobah...

...and yet the mask clung on Skye's belt

...almost unnoticed anymore...

...as if abating its time.

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye laughed softly as she shot Ayda a warm smile before turning back again.

"Come on, we need to find a safe place to spend the night. Stick close to me", she said, putting a little bit of extra emphasis on the last part. Secretly Skye was hoping they would find a structure they could seal, so that she didn't have to take guard duty. She didn't show it, but she was growing extremely tired as well.

As they walked down the hill, Skye was eager to engage in a conversation with Ayda, but refrained from doing so. The girl, actually, the girls, had to spare their breath.

As Skye and Ayda walked downwards further, a small structure made out of stone caught her eye. At first look it was perfect. Small enough to quickly check entirely, sturdy enough to sleep in and they could probably rig some kind of sound trap or maybe they could barricade the entrance! It was perfect.

But then a feeling of nearby danger overpowered her as Skye realised that this structure would not be perfect for them alone. It would also be the perfect structure for others, so it was most likely... occupied.

Skye held her hand out in front of Ayda before she gently tugged her along by her arm. She stopped when they were both sitting behind a bush of some sort, overlooking the structure.

"That," she whispered, "is almost like a normal house. Kind of. We aren't going to find a better place to stay than here. We... We should set up camp in here. After I scouted it out."

They needed a place to stay. And while they could always go sleep under some trees, they needed a place where they could stay multiple nights. They needed a safe place to return to, because if they just kept wandering from place to place they'd eventually run out of luck...

Ayda protested against Skye saying she would scout it out alone, but Skye insisted. "I'm the only one who can actually...", Her voice trailed off. "I don't want anything to happen to you, okay?", she then blurted out before covering her own mouth.

"Uh..what I mean is. I can defend myself. You can't. I still need you, for medical things. Nothing else", she then quickly rambled while staring at the ground.

Her eyes only locked with Ayda's for a second while Skye ordered Ayda to stay put. Ayda didn't want to stay put. But she knew better than to disobey Skye right now. She still had the mask on her after all.


As Skye stepped into the structure, the first thing she did was smell. And it smelled- like nothing. Just, the same stench the rest of Dagobah had. That was a good sign, indicating there might not be anything in here yet.

But there was.

All Ayda could hear from her position were the screams and growls of Skye and the small predator which had taken refuse in the structure. The fight inside continued on for a bit, and just as Ayda wanted to go inside to check, Skye called.

"It's safe now", she yelled. "You can come"

Skye sat down near the narrow entrance after she had dumped the body of the small creature outside, waiting for Ayda to arrive.

As Ayda slowly pushed herself through the narrow entrance, a smile smile crept up on Skye's face as she saw Ayda's fear-filled eyes.

"Anything wrong?", Skye asked. "Don't blame me, I had to do it. The creature in here had the drop on me. It was the only way."

It really had been the only way.
Skye wasn't lying.
Now she would await Ayda's reacting while Skye observed her...

..from behind the mask.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

She rushed over upon Skye summoning her. What had the commotion been about? Ayda thought her hurt again. Which at that moment before entering the structure she recalled seeing a cut on Skye which had for the most part, not really closed. Being run down as she were, she had plainly forgotten about it up until she heard Skye's voice in a struggle with whatever she were wrestling with. Then soon after, she were called from where Skye had insisted she remain, and now rushed over.

The small telltale of what it was that Skye had struggled with lay partially hidden in the bushes, with just its tail and a hind paw of visible. No doubt it were dead.
Ayda didn't bother to to peer first, in but merely slipped through the narrow opening. For a moment, all she could make out of Skye were her dark silhouette in the near dark room.

Then...

Then her eyes made out the outline of the mask. It instantly nearly stilled her breath, if not her heart.
Ayda fell silent, but moved further inside anyway. She didn't reply...didn't know if she should reply. The mask was urging a game, she felt..it was teasing...someone...playing like it were an entity of its own. Perhaps it were, she thought. Such things were said to be possible..right?

What could be wrong? What couldn't be wrong, she thought.

"I, uhm....sigh..." She wasn't certain as to what the mask would make Skye do. Maybe she should have spoken out before, despite her core urging her not too. It weren't her place to guide the souls in life, but after...or so her core believed. There were many voices always trying to misguide her..and one so in particular whom every so often seemed all too intruding. But she were able to quiet those voices..even the most intrusive one.

"I just realized in my rush here..." she began, as her eyes widened in the darkness to take in more light.

"The berries.... they...
They contain much antioxidants...and have a high fructose level...sugars...pure and concentrated sugars, I noticed ...as you may have noticed too by their sweetness...like honey..
And...
And like honey...it can serve under some circumstances as antibiotic...topical rather. Like pure honey, it impedes infection...bacteria cannot thrive in pure sugars..." She approached Skye her hand slightly trembling as she reached up to her face...the mask.

"I...I noticed your face had a cut...maybe way back from the Zernecks, as it was a scratch. You tried hiding it from me...so I complied. But out in the daylight before, I had noticed it red ...just plainly slipped my mind really, coming down that hill...." her had trembling, touched the edge of the mask.

"I can tend to it...
I can stay the infection....please." her other hand seemed to come up now too, heading for the mask.

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye fiercly grabbed Ayda hands and held them tightly.
"Do you want to die, woman?", she spit out in response. "I will gut you if you even try to lay your filthy fingers on this mask."
Once again, she was disgusted by her own words, so much so that her own conciousness tried her best to fence the mask off. She knew she couldn't do it on her own though, she needed the girl. Focus. Focus on Ayda. Don't give in.
Please.
Do it for... her. Accept it. Think about her. You can't...you can not hurt her. No.

She didn't know how she did it, but that didn't matter anyway. She did it. Something. She regained access to a certain part of her feelings, her... senses. She pushed with all her spiritual mind, channeling all of her energy towards the cut on her face. It didn't do much at first, but eventually Skye could feel her face warming up. A tingeling sensation so to say.
Then it became worse, and worse and worse and worse until it started to sting significantly.

Skye was twitching with her head by now, trying to get herself to stop. But she didn't. She continued on, and eventually she had herself groaning and grabbing towards her own head.

"Make it stop!", the mask commanded Skye in her head. "It burns! Stop this", it yelled inside her own head.

Then she violently jerked towards Ayda. "You. Make it stop!", she ordered as she grasped Ayda by the wrist. She wasn't thinking straight anymore, for the mask had taken control of her, but the pain was controlling the mask in its turn.
"You will take the mask off, slightly. Only enough for you to access the wound and then you will place it back immediately. Do you understand?! IF you do as much as think about pulling it off, you are dead! Understood?"
The rage of the mask made Skye twitch in place. She then calmed down, allowing Ayda to take the mask off slightly, while also giving her the perfect opportunity to pull the mask off her face entirely.

And Skye could see it. Even now through her pained and distanced eyes, she could see Ayda's eyes, she could see her plan. She just hoped she could do it quick enough, because she couldn't keep the wound hurting for much longer. And if Ayda wouldn't have saved her before then, Skye feared the mask would retaliate in a horrible way.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

She had never felt such struggle between inanimate shell and of the living temple. It were one thing to understand one's own conflict and struggle. it were as they were created..to balance out reason and irrationality..good and bad..conscious and indifference. It was what shaped the course of the soul..determined its journey to either bliss or everlasting light.
But this struggle between Skye's temple spirit and that of the mask was so unnatural that it frightened Ayda much like the creatures that consumed souls.
Was the mask no different?

Ayda didn't know. How could she? She had been on her own...learning, discovering her role..her purpose. But it weren't like there wasn't an influential conflict that pitted her to surrender herself to it either. Only she didn't know what it was. Little did she know it were her own mother's spirit trying to get into her temple...much like the mask wanted to posses Skye. But she had no master..not teacher. Ayda had figured..or did her best to figure/decipher whom she was and what purpose she had in this mortal life. And it were her own conscious that staved the other voices..the voice which seeked to enter her dreams, her mind, her temple.
But Ayda had fought it all her life. So much so that it were easily put aside..ignored despite it's never ending attempts to do otherwise. And why would such a voice..such an evil spirit stop? it had eternity of darkness to content with. It would never give up as never was eternity.

So here now Ayda stood there before Skye... and her form of demon. And Ayda started to understand as to the plight of Skye. But what could she do?
She had convinced herself..believed that she had no right to influence whom it were that the temple should adhere to. Yes, she wished them all to have everlasting light. She seen it...felt it even...had even guided the spirits worthy of it to it...and yet, she herself were able to turn away from it to return to her temple.

YES, she had a choice then. Could make a choice...a compassionate choice.
Skye's hand had a firm grip on her own hand, but it weren't painfully digging into her wrist.
It were....
It were holding it, shaking it for her to do something more. It begged Ayda to make a choice.
NO...Skye behind the shadow of the mask were begging her. But Skye were is so much pain...pain somehow-
Amplified?

"Gasp"... The pain was more than it was. it had Skye's spirit behind it, urging for Ayda to make the choice, as Skye had made a choice behind the overpowering will of the mask. Skye was there!
SHE WAS THERE!
Skye deep within the turmoil had made her choice despite the mask's hold on her will.

But the mask sensed it. And as it called upon the power cells to fuel it fully, Skye were fighting it behind the mask with all that she could in the form of pain. It were all the mask knew and somehow it could not fight against Skye's induction pain, for it were designed to give pain.

One would think that a mask could easily be flicked off one's features or person. Sure, if it were just a mask. But it wasn't. it were more. It had part of Skye infused to it..the many years of Skye/mask dependency had bonded both as it were designed to become one entity....much like the demon spirit that desired the same of Ayda.

And this she understood. No, it weren't a choice between Skye's conscious. It were a struggle between what the mask had become, what it had taken from Skye and what more of her it desired.

The choice was made.
Ayda thrust her hand between mask and Skye. She back handed flung it aside in the dark corner of the shelter.
One would swear it screamed as it were torn away...only to fall silent and still, in the darkness behind her.

Only it were not the mask which screamed.

Ayda fell to her knees...Skye's blade had been thrust in her abdomen.
Her hands fell from Skye's features, slowly trailing down the woman's torso, until Ayda's knees hit the floor. Her grip were now holding on to Skye...only it were holding on to the woman's skirt.

 

[Skye Achlys]

A wave of relief overcame Skye as the mask was torn off her face. As her own conciousness filled her whole being again, she almost collapsed like she did before, but now, for some reason, she was able to stay on her feet, although she almost fell nonetheless.

Skye, filled with joy, tried to focus her gaze on Ayda, to reward her for her help. But, Skye couldn't find her at first, and it was only then that her senses came back to her. There had been a scream, a horrible one at that. She..she felt something clinging onto her skirt as well, and then..

Then she felt her hand, and what it was holding.

And lastly, as she looked down, she heard the cries, and the sobbing.

Her face, relieved and joyful a second ago, now expressed fear and confusion. After being shocked for a few seconds, Skye quickly kneeled down as she took a hold of Ayda to prevent her from falling.

"Oh no, no no no no", she started as the whole seriousness of the situation started to come through to her. She did this. This was her doing. Ayda, the beautiful girl who had, despite everything, still tried to help her all the time, was now crying and in pain because of her.

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey", she whispered.. loudly. "It's, it's okay. Look at me, hey. Just... you... You gotta tell me what to do okay? I, I have done this before but..but, I don't know.. all the steps...the order... I need your help, Ayda", she said with a shaky voice.

"I need you."

It was at this point that Skye's eyes started to tear up, which was something truly special. Skye almost never cried- and definitely not because of some doctor aiding the other side.

"I got you, okay?", she said as she tightened her grip on Ayda. "I won't let you go. I won't leave you. I won't..", she was just muttering words by now as thoughts raced through her mind. It was too much.

She couldn't think straight, the stress, the shock, but most importantly the thought that she did this, this all caused her to forget. She couldn't remember what to do.

She just couldn't.

"Ayda. Please", she weakly spoke as a single tear ran down her cheek. "I'm so sorry. Just tell me what to do."

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

The overwhelming shock of realizing what Skye had done made Ayda collapse her eyes shut, despite the darkness of the room.

She had felt-
No.
No, that wasn't it. Ayda had not felt it at all really. There had been no pain, as the blade's surgical steel edge effortlessly parted her flesh, when it entered her.
She had although heard the blade zip through her temple. Heard it even before her temple registered it as pain. And what a horrid noise it made, that which of living flesh parting.
And of the pain?
It were hardly felt at all. Not even the following seconds. As thus it were not of the pain for which Ayda had screamed...no, not of the pain at all.
It were of the realization of Skye's hand plunging the blade into her.

The rest followed a moment later.
The pain.
But by then it did little good. Her voice had already fallen silent, as she slipped down onto her knees.

Ayda's eyes had closed despite the darkness. it were involuntary. Like in a dream Skye's voice were calling out for her to stay...for her to not leave. And Ayda too didn't want to leave, but what had transpired may well be beyond her will. That is, if at that moment she wished to live.
But the voices outside her realm urged her to live...all of them.

It were a moment of weakness...a moment of her most vulnerable state upon which a voice from an old dream emerged in tune with that of Skye's. Ayda had long placed herself far and apart from that voice a long time ago...perhaps even a lifetime ago. But there it were in the darkness next to Skye.
And Ayda's lips were still, for she passed on and hid from the voice in her dream.

To Skye, Ayda had seemed to pass out...loose consciousness. So quickly?
Yes, so quickly as she were hurt beyond what the blade incurred and she retreated away from that heartfelt pain and into the only other realm she could without leaving her temple. She couldn't leave. Not after this she couldn't. if she did..she may possibly never return to it. So she went deeper in. Deeper into her temple she reclused. Deep into her real of dreams.

But what followed, which had not been able to follow in for years were that voice she had shut out long ago.

"N...no, go away..." Her voice called out in the darkness, against the intrusive words... 'let me help you'...
Only the intruder's voice were not of her assailant... not of Skye, but of her mother.

Time passing in the realm of one's dream cannot be said to keep in time with that of reality. Perhaps it had been moments which had passed since she were placed gently upon the soft earth by Skye...perhaps hours ago?...days even?
It didn't matter in dreams for dreams were outside the realm of the living.

"...don't want you here.." Ayda's words in a feverish state begged out loud. Again, the few audible words by which escaped from her dream, were occasionally picked up by Skye.

And perhaps Skye, whom only could hear Ayda's one way dialogue would possibly construe those words were meant for her. Only they weren't.
It were Ayda resisting her mother's spirit which had seeked her living daughter's temple at its weakest, and were intent on claiming it for herself. But what battle raged within Ayda, Skye could not begin to guess.

"You can't have me!...
You can never have me!..." Her eyes suddenly went wide open.

"Gasp!..." Ayda was surprised in so many ways to see Skye kneeling by her side. A cold damp rag were wiping away her fevered sweat.
She remembered the blade and was about to feel for her wound before Skye's hand stopped it. She could not feel the pain, even after a moment following her awakening.

The remnant of Dagobah's day creeped into the shelter, illuminating the interior enough for her eyes to see. Ayda's eyes looked about her surroundings, before they met Skye's. It were not the same night..not the masked Skye.
Were it the day after, her mind raced...or days?
She felt her hand still in Skye's. The fever had passed.

All that she could sense at this moment were ..the sweet smell of the berries. She were still lost for words as she raised her head to look at her abdomen. It were stained. The makeshift bandage was stained...with berries.

 

[Skye Achlys]

The sound of Ayda regaining her conciousness after what had been a day or two had filled Skye's heart with relief. She quickly kneeled down next to the girl, to welcome her back and help her if she needed anything.

While the girl was out, Skye had taken it upon herself to take care of the girl and even more. She had gathered enough food and water for a whole week, and she had made some primitive defenses around the building she now considered 'home'.

Skye held Ayda's hand as she started into the girl's eyes.

"Hey", she softly spoke as she wiped the girl's forehead with a cold rag. As Ayda's confused and perhaps frightened eyes met Skye's, she gave her a smile.

"It's okay, Ayda. It's okay. You're okay."

She wanted to add, 'I'll take care of you', but then the thought of Ayda talking to her in her feverish dreams made her reconsider. Perhaps the girl didn't need to hear that from her right now.

It was only then that Skye realised she had been unconsciously caressing Ayda's hand, after which she quickly let go of it.

"I-I'm sorry about that", she stammered as she quickly looked away, trying to find something to hide the fact her cheeks were slowly turning red again.

"You should drink, as you've lost quite some sweat", she then said, grateful she found an excuse to avert Ayda's attention from Skye's red face.

"Here you go", she said as she handed Ayda a small flask filled with water. "Drink it. Go on", she encouraged the girl. After Ayda had eagerly emptied the flask, Skye put it away again.

She was still riddled with grief and regret about what she did, but she understood that if she even wanted to imagine that Ayda would ever consider her so much as 'okay', she would need to help her as much as she could. And that was also the only thing she wanted right now. To help Ayda, and to be with her.

"How are you feeling?", Skye asked sweetly, still looking at Ayda with a shy expression and a reddish face.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

How was she feeling?....

For the most part, Ayda didn't know for certain. Not much pain, if any...just a slight tingling sensation at her abdomen. She hadn't spoken much at all since she awakened out of her stasis. Ayda looked down to her wound, lifting the makeshift field dressing.
It were stained, but not with blood. It were apparent that Skye had used the high yielding fructose berries as an antibiotic, which staved off any infection. At least surface infection, as it could do little with what the woman's blade edge must have contained. But whatever internal infections had been a result of it..it were over with.
And one other thing...

Ayda sat up and checked closer under the bandages, before completely removing them altogether. for a moment Skye opposed it, telling her to not touch or expose her wound. but she too fell silent and watched as Ayda wiped away the remnants of the berry from her clean skin. There were no marks on her aside from the stain of the berries.
"I...I don't understand... " Ayda went to feel where she remembered the wound to be...or at least remembered where she had felt it before colapsing.

"...I felt the blade-" She then went to feel about her abdomen..her sides.
Her questioning eyes looked up into Skye's. And there on Skye's features were the cut that one of the Zerneks had given her. It were no longer infected as she remembered before, for Skye also had some telltale berry stains on it. But it were not as fully healed as the wound Skye had supposedly given her.

In Ayda's mind, she couldn't figure as to how she healed like that, and Skye didn't ....at least not completely yet, if it were the berries.
Unbeknownst to Ayda, she had a natural accelerated healing ability. Only she had never gotten injured as such. And the small cuts and abrasions she had received both from Dagobah and Skye before (like getting a backhanded briuse) had healed even before they climbed out of the pit. Only neither she or Skye had been aware of it, since they were in the darkness depts of the labyrinth. Now as the daylight filtered through the makeshift doorway little evidence of any abrasions existed.

"How long?...." She then asked, less tense now at having Skye so close to her anymore. This mask-less Skye were not the one that hurt her. But what of the wound she had felt...the blood...the pain? Had she dreamth it?
Ayda didn't think so, as it were a real experienced memory. Besides, she had just removed the bandages that most likely Skye had field dressed.
It were apparent that Skye herself had no explanation, as she too were as surprised as Ayda. Although Ayda could feel a sense of relief emanating from Skye.

Was Skye feeling remorse?...were it a deep hurt that she were feeling from Skye?...guilt?
Ayda could see it in her eyes...could now feel it, as she looked deeper into her orbs.
It were a deep spiritual pain that Skye was feeling. And Ayda recognized it, as it were the same emotional pain she felt when Skye first drove the blade into her..before she even felt the pain registering. All that, the physical and emotional pain were a deep rooted memory now to Ayda. A learned one. One which would not be easily forgotten...if ever.

Ayda had to look away for a moment to recess those memories aside. it were the only means of her to let it go...forgive Skye. And she were one to easily forgive to one whom had remorse for their actions. Ayda were not an avenging angel on any level. But she were in human form. As thus, memories existed like those of mortals...and they lingered as such...festering.
She had to look away to halt the memories.

"...how long have you tended to me?"

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye looked at the girl, the girl she had stabbed. Almost murdered by her own hands. She had been lucky. No, they both had been lucky. Ayda had been lucky she survived, and Skye had been lucky because if Ayda hadn't, she would've been destroyed with guilt.

Well, she still might become that soon. She was already riddled with guilt now, and the way Ayda behaved could either easy it, or make it worse, perhaps even too horrible to live with.
Who knew.

As Skye took a peek at the wound, or more accurately, the place where the wound had been, she was left confused as to what had happened. Had it been the berries? Or had it been something else?

Now that she saw Ayda's smooth skin, she became more mindful of her own. She herself had sustained multiple bruised and cuts by now, but as she looked at Ayda, whether it be her stomach, her arms or her face, her skin was smooth, it appeared unscathed even.
There had to be more to this girl than she led on. Which was something that unfortunately made Skye even more drawn to Ayda, and her mysterious acts.
Her appearing in dreams, wounds that disappear, the strange... wish for a bond between the two... there was something strange about this girl.
And it drew Skye to her.

As Skye opened her mouth, she noticed Ayda averting her eyes so she didn't have to look at the dark haired woman. The sight alone shattered Skye's heart even further as her guilt seized even more parts of her mind.
"A few days. I haven't exactly counted the days. But I think it has been three days since...", she stopped there, as her voice had become shaky and a lump had formed in her throat.

"I-", she attempted, but her own thoughts, perhaps even her anxiety by now, mixed with Ayda's acts of trying to look away from Skye, made her stop after the first word.

She held her hand in front of her mouth as she stood up, one tear already running down her cheek. Without saying anything else, she turned around and walked into another room of the structure, where she then sat down against a wall.

Ayda was safe it appeared. That was at least something. She knew that whatever relation they had, perhaps Ayda had even dared to call them 'a sort of friends' a while back, whatever they had, it was gone now. She was sure of that.

And now, as she sat there, the very first time arrived that she genuinely cried, at least more than a few lost tears. Whether it was because of the situation she was in, because of what she had done to Ayda or because she feared whatever relation they had was now broken, she couldn't even tell herself.
Perhaps it was a mix off all three.

It had been much easier tending to Ayda when she was unconscious. She only had to do some basic task then.
Now, now the girl was back, it was much much harder.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

What was that?!
Ayda suddenly found herself at a crossroad... her first experience with a darkness thought.

For a moment, she sat there, still holding what should have been some remnant of a wound. But it weren't there. Still, the memory lingered. And it were this memory by which her body had taken to hard wire that resulted in an involuntary reaction that shocked even Ayda. She had for a small fraction of that moment, wished Skye the emotional pain of guilt.

Skye left for another part of the shelter hurt, and Ayda's initial reaction were in the lines of; 'good, now know how it feels'.

"Gasp!..." She realized too late her thoughts meaning and intent. But it were not what she trully wanted. How could such thoughts even form?! But they had and for a fraction of a second, it had felt good. But now?
remorse.

As a result, she remained there sitting on the stone floor trying to figure out how she had come to even think like that for a moment. She had watched her team members perish one at a time, even horribly and she had not such a demeaning thought pitted against those who had taken life. She had only wept for the dying, being taken too early. Too early to enable their soul's redemption.

Ayda had been so certain that she'd rather die herself than to hurt another, even in self defense. And she still felt it. The very idea of hurting another soul had been and was still beyond her reasoning. But just a moment ago, had she not reveled in the pain that Skye felt, of what she had done?

"No...no no.... " Ayda couldn't place what she had felt into words. There were no words in her vocabulary as to have wished Skye to suffer, not even guilt. Not on her behalf.
"Sk-..." She attempted to call out, but Skye's form had already disappeared into what could possibly be another chamber. her eyes now could make the distinction in the two walls that appeared optically to be one, they were so similar in the dim light without shadows...

Ayda's initial attempt at getting up to follow Skye only tripped her up and let her discover that the wound for the most part were healed, but it were still recovering...the new muscle tissues and skin were tender...unexcersiced. Recovering from what would have been a fall, she made it to the other side of what was wall within the small structure. it were darker where Skye had taken refuge. Ayda stood there a second before coming closer to Skye's sitting fetal position. Her acclimated orbs picked up on the fact that Skye made to recover what would have exposed her as a weakness. Tears of remorse and feelings.

Ayda didn't linger long once her eyes took hold of Skye. Rather she approached her and plopped herself down sitting next to Skye. She too retracted her knees towards her in a similar sitting fetal position. Ayda too felt remorse for the fleeting moment she experienced the satisfaction of seeing Skye in pain. And she too were sorry and lost for words...only Skye didn't know as to Ayda's reason as to why she chose to sit next to her.

Moments passed....neither of them speaking, both seemingly spending the time in silence, looking forward into the empty darkness.
It were without say that words didn't exist either for the bond that somehow had kept them together through their ordeal. For one, it could perhaps be said to be a hate/love relationship...the other...just kindred spiritual love. or that what had been at first. now?
Now it were beyond the realm of Ayda's comprehension. She had never experienced such ordeals and waves of emotional highs and lows. The mere fact that she had wanted Skye a few minutes before to know the emotional pain of rejection, for that were what Ayda felt from Skye to painfully feel. And for a brief moment Ayda felt a deserving satisfaction in feeling Skye's pain...and the despair which followed within the woman's core.

It were Ayda's first dark thought ever...and it frightened her. It would forever stain her soul.
But it were not the fear of stain, which really caused Ayda to go after Skye. It were that she didn't really wish for the woman to suffer...not by her hand, nor by anyone's. Still, that dark thought did occur and she were deeply troubled and sorry for it. No words could erase what she had thought that dark moment.
She just felt now to be close to Skye, sitting there in the darkness next to her. Maybe they just needed to do that...just sit there awhile.
It did feel better....

 

[RoVlo]

As Skye heard Ayda move in the other room, she slightly tilted her head towards the opening, tears still running down her cheeks. She didn't expect Ayda to come to her, she found it to be more likely the woman went further away, perhaps even outside.

When Ayda did in fact walk through the opening and into the room Skye had fled to, Skye quickly looked away, staring in front of her as she forced herself to stop what could only be described as crying.

As Ayda sat down next to her, Skye couldn't understand why. Had she come here to watch her filled with guilt? Had she come to talk?

It appeared the latter wasn't true, as Ayda sat down next to her while staying quiet. This almost fueled Skye's fear that Ayda had come to either see Skye in pain or perhaps even increase it, if it weren't for the... almost relaxing feeling Ayda gave off.

Somehow, for some reason, the mere fact Ayda had stood up and walked here to sit so close to Skye calmed her a bit. Her breathing returned to a somewhat more stable rhythm as Ayda's presence calmed her down a bit.

They both just sat there, staring forward, sunk in their own thoughts, although their thoughts lied with the other, for sure.

After a good few silent and tense minutes, Skye dared to look aside slightly. The mere sight of Ayda's face, fiddled with an emotion Skye couldn't understand, filled her mind with doubts again. Was it wise to speak? Right now, without words, it was almost peaceful here. The only thing she knew for sure was that Skye felt better sitting close to Ayda.

But she couldn't stay like this forever. She had to do something- even if she didn't want to.

She took a deep breath before she spoke without looking at Ayda.

"I...I'm sorry. I really am", she said, trying her best to speak through the tears.
"B-But", she had to pause a moment. "But that wasn't me. I didn't...I didn't want to. I'll take the blame, b..but please know...," her voice was heavily shaking by now," I didn't.. I didn't want to...."

After she spoke these words, she did that which she had never done before: she cried in some else's presence. Always having seen it as a sign of weakness, Skye had made sure her entire life to never show anyone her tears. Never.

And yet here they were, she was crying, with someone else sitting next to her. But by now she didn't care anymore. So full of regret, Skye let her body lean down along the wall untill her head accidentally found Ayda's shoulder. The girl had positioned herself even closer to her than she had thought. In any normal situation Skye would've pulled her head back immediately, but she couldn't be bothered now.

Now she just lied there with her head on the girls shoulder, sobbing. The girl would soon force Skye's head off of her anyway, so why should she bother doing it herself .. Ayda already hated her anyway.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

She coward her head down onto her knees...hiding her shame for a moment for Skye had been truly sorry for what had taken place a few days ago...right here in this very structure.
It could be construed with Ayda sitting in a upright fetal position with her head buried in her knees that she weren't hearing it. ..that she didn't want to hear Skye's apology. But it was far from what she were doing.

Ayda was feeling unworthy of Skye's apology for the very reason that she herself for but a fleeting moment had wallowed in the emotional pain that she felt by Skye's remorse.

"No, no....stop it!.." She finally uttered as she couldn't take it anymore. She had to confess...divulge the truth. Two wrongs didn't make a right. And for her to keep silent and secret about her reveling for that moment in the pain Skye were feeling were just too much to bear.
"Please....stop saying that. " Ayda then took in a deep breath.

"I know it was the mask. I know it...I know it..."

But for a moment it didn't matter. I saw the look in your eyes...your pain. I know you were broken by what the mask made you do. I saw that... I knew that when I looked into your eyes, Skye.
"...only that before I knew what was happening, I...." She swallowed hard. It were something she herself didn't understand as how her thoughts went off like that. It were like she had a mask of her own that made her do it too.

"I got satisfaction in seeing you with such remorse. I ...I was happy you experienced such pain..."

Skye, I'm sorry. I don't know how I could have felt something like that...really!
I never felt anything so dark and satisfying as what I felt that moment. It...it felt overwhelming....it...felt as satisfying as anything ...maybe even more.

"I don't want to ever feel that way...ever...never again!." She welled up in tears and once more retrieved within her cocoon..her fetal position. Her head buried under her arms..huddled next to Skye...weeping.
her soul were hurt..her spirit stained from that moment of darkness satisfaction. So was the power of the dark-side which wanted so much to consume her light. And it had bitten her...marked her in a manner that she could never be free of the mark...the stain.

So darkness ebbs at light, chipping away it's first shard...weakening it's foundation to overtake what is pure and bend it to its darkness will. It were Ayda's first bout with temptation and she had easily succumbed to it, unwittingly through her own suffering. As thus, even angels under torment could be made to fall.

"But I felt it. It came over me like the sweel of the sea...and I weren't prepared...it went to drown me until I rose up to let it wash over me. Only it took something...leaving behind something else in it's wake...
...something so dreadfully cold...

..alien..."
Ayda was certainly distraught over it and she trembled...for she felt the cold of darkness who's only purpose was to extinguish light. Cold it felt, as she sat there. It were the coldness of dark fear which worked now to regress her warmth. She felt so alone...so cold in the darkness abyss which wanted to swallow her.

 

[Skye Achlys]

As Skye listened to Ayda's words, she received something she hadn't expected. She had expected a slap in the face, or perhaps just harsh words if she had been lucky, but instead, she received ... apologies from Ayda. It appeared the girl had remorse for having felt in a certain way towards her.

After listening to everything she had to say, she noticed Ayda's pain and even felt pain herself as she saw Ayda in the state she was in. It was clear once more to Skye that she did not want Ayda unhappy, at all.

"Hey, hey shhhh", she whispered as she wiped away the last tears from her own face. "It's okay, it's okay", she mumbled as she took a hold of one of Ayda's hand with her own. "Ayda, stop it, please", the older girl tried as she couldn't stand the sight of the other weeping. Unconsciously she started to softly caress Ayda's hand in an attempt to get her to comfort her or to stop her from crying at least.

Not seeing much change at first, for the woman was weeping partly for things Skye didn't understand, she tried again.
"Ayda, please listen to me. No, actually, look at me, Ayda. Hey", she said, but after not seeing Ayda move after a few seconds, she placed her free hand on Ayda's cheek and gently forced the youger girl to look at her. "I said look at me, dummy", she softly whispered as she stared into the other girl's wet eyes.

She offered Ayda a small smile before she began talking. "Ayda, listen. You're putting yourself down for no reason at all. Do you think there's anyone in this universe that has never done or felt something bad? No, that's impossible, or at least for people like you and me. Living through good and bad emotions is part of life, Ayda. Without darkness there can't be any light, and vice versa."

She took a deep breath as she wiped a few stray tears away from Ayda's face with her hand which had been resting on the girl's cheek.

"There's no one in the entire universe who has never done something which you consider to be evil. And you've only felt some way for a brief second, and now look at you! You're showing regret as if you've just killed. For me, that is something that shows you're just as... pure as you were before. But you fear you've been tainted, I can feel that", she then said as she studied Ayda's eyes.

"I can tell you that's not true. Life, or the Force, throws many obstacles in our way to keep us from continuing along our path. Only those strong enough can keep those obstacles at bay. You could've let your feeling consume you entirely, yet you merely let it out for a second or two, before surpressing it again. Ayda, you've not been tainted, no, you've merely shown yourself, shown me, how strong you are."

To give her words that little bit of extra impact, she gave the girl the sweetest smile she could possibly give at this moment, under these circumstances.

"Ayda," she said before she took another deep breath," you are.. you're perfect. And a few dark thoughts here and there won't change that."

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

Perfect?... She were far from being perfect.

But why and how could Skye say that and still call her dumb? Did this somehow have another meaning besides how it were said? ...for it were not spoken as verbatim.

Ayda did just that, take to Skye's nudging to look over to her. Oh how confusing it were sometimes to decipher what other meanings lay behind some words or phrases. She literally used to take things at face value..verbatim. But she had gotten used to some homonyms and such through the years...her own learned experiences. But the manner at which Skye were speaking and physically making contact with her, 'dummy' were not what she were really meaning. She weren't being scolded, yet...still corrected.

Ayda remained silent and yet attuned to Skye's words and mannerism, following her words, facial expressions, tone, body contact and most of all, Skye's spirit aura..the radiance of her soul to determine what her core were relaying to her.
Ayda then got it. Skye were supportive...concerned...caring for her feelings.
Ayda relaxed a bit, uncoiling from her fetal position, but still sitting there in the dim, but somewhat uncomfortable chilly room.
She hadn't hear it raining outside, but despite that; the humidity which seemed to have been drowning them a little over a week ago, now seemed to chill her to the bone. Ayda shivered involuntarily a moment before she nodded.

"I think I understand what you're meaning..." She said finally. It were to not just to Skye's plight in trying to relieve the fear of darkness that she had felt had penetrated her core, but to what Ayda understood as sarcasm.Skye was herself again...and not at all her mask's servant. She eyes the dim room a moment, finding no sign of mask in this part of the chamber. It were just them two.

"It's just-
...just that it's something which has been overshadowing me since I can remember.." It were somehow easy to tell her that. Too easy.
"..since I were created...born, I guess." Ayda definitely didn't know, nor remember...not her birth at least, not that far back.
She just knew only the purity of a soul untainted at an early age. It were the part of trying to be as told, 'a good girl'. She couldn't remember where or whom had told her that. She just knew and did as told, for it were also one which were of light. A warm light which she had no reason to question.
As thus, when she were brought to what she later knew as the orphanage on Rhinnal, she did her best to be a good girl.

That somehow had an everlasting effect on her, despite the darkness which soon followed her in both days and nights. But somehow those words...her promise to be a good girl staved off that darkness and eventually distanced it from her as her light remained as bright as the day she made that promise.
And this in a way made her peculiar to many and all other children, including the majority of the caretakers. Ayda through the years as she slowly discovered whom she were by her own means and reasoning, remained in so many ways innocent and apart from others.
One could compare her to a fresh canvas, where she herself were the artist, choosing the palette of brights to construct her existence.

Ayda developed a natural instinct in staying aglow... to remain with her given luminescence which all children are naturally born with. And it were this innocence and glow by which someone lost to her memory before she became ward of Rhinnal at the age of two were the words, 'be a good girl' that stayed her the course.
Ayda's spirit remained wholesome and were not shaped by any given person or guardian, despite she were institutionalized in orphanages all her childhood life.

"It is a darkness...a part of something, or maybe a someone, that-
...that don't want for me to stay in the light. " She started to explain, digging deeper into repressed feelings she had also distanced as a child to ward off the pitch of darkness that had wanted to devour her. Only that she were able to keep it at bay, then distance herself from it in both time and thought.

"That has been waiting for me in the shadows. I felt I were distanced from it. Only just before, it jumped out of nowhere and...and it felt ..."
She took a deep breath...
"...satisfying." She exhaled slowly, cautious of keeping herself safely distanced from whatever it were that had crept up on her.

Seemed Skye gave her room to vent, to speak her fear. And Ayda somehow for the first time ever, had let someone in...Skye.
Ayda was certainly an abnormality. No doubt she may be a force sensitive individual. One, who without any guidance, managed to not only tap, but shape her own connection to the force by her own reasoning and will. It were in her mind whom she thought she were and it had connected, been made possible...been made real.

"Sigh... that moment was my darkest...ever." She looked over to Skye's orbs...."It's not who I wish to be." She were certain of that.
"The moment I realized the part of me that basked in the darkness of your pain, it felt sharper than the blade you-" Ayda caught her words for a moment.
But it were not her intent on bringing what the mask had made Skye do. Still, she never hid the truth. It were either speak no more or rightly speak it..the truth that is. "...thrust into me."

​Her hand then found that of Skye's. The very same one which had been softly caressing her own before Skye somehow retrieved it...maybe while she gave an ear to Ayda.
"I didn't mean it the way it came out..." She then realized she herself could be misconstrued.

"I mean it that I don't wish you or anyone harm."

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye's face slightly tensed up as Ayda mentioned the whole stabbing ordeal. Luckily, it appeared the girl had somewhat forgiven her by now, so she didn't feel as bad as she had before. Although she still hated her for doing so nonetheless.

Skye briefly looked at Ayda's hand as it took her own before she looked at Ayda's pretty eyes again.
"Ayda... whatever it was that you felt, or think you felt, you've overcome it. You're stronger than you think", she said softly before she lightly squeezed her hand.

"Just because you felt a dark thought once doesn't mean you're going to be evil. You're like... from what I've seen.. the most innocent person in the galaxy!"

Then Skye actually quickly recalled some things Ayda had said and done. The girl really was so very sweet and innocent, she was surprised the girl even dared to set foot on this planet. It didn't really suit her in Skye's eyes.

"As long as you stay true to who you are, I am sure you can withstand whatever it is you fear is drawing you to the darkness. Keep a clear mind, Ayda. Focus on what you love. Don't dwell on a few dark emotions. Forget and forgive."

"So. I'm just saying I don't want to hear you say that you're sorry or something like that again. It's not your fault. You're still perfect. I still lov-", she caught herself in the middle of her wording, surprised by her own words. After a second or two, she resumed, using more carefully chosen wordings.
"I still appreciate you being with me"

"So don't ever think badly about yourself for this again, okay?" She paused a bit for dramatic effect.

"Dummy", she said as she shot Ayda a playful wink, remembering the puzzled look on Ayda's face the first time she had called her 'dummy'.

She took a deep breath as she looked at Ayda, whose face was still slightly wet from the tears. It was then that she realised she needed to lift their spirits up again. The coming days, weeks even, were going to be difficult. The chances were they wouldn't even make it out alive. But they were going to try, and it would be difficult. They needed to be happy, both of them, if they were wishing to mentally endure this reality.

So in short. If they didn't want to lose hope and go insane. Skye had to cheer the little redhead up again.

Skye took both Ayda's hands as she moved slightly closer to her, if that was even still possible.
"Look," she said," I can't bear seeing you like this. Hurt, afraid... I just can't. I don't want to see you like this. You deserve so much better... so, please stop."

At first it would seem a bit strange, just flat out asking her to stop being sad, but Skye planned on helping the girl a little.

Skye suddenly pulled her into a hug, but while she did that, she did something... special. Whether her actions were forged by her own emotions, Ayda's emotions, or perhaps the thought that Ayda could be the very last person she'd ever embrace, she didn't know. All she knew is what she would do as she pulled Ayda into a hug.

As she pulled the girl closer to her, she quickly planted a brief... kiss, is what you could call it, on Ayda's cheek before she pulled the girl into a full hug.

"I don't want you to be sad", she whispered as she held the girl tightly.

Hopefully the girl would cheer up on her own, but, if that wasn't the case, Skye could always fall back to more... drastic ways. In fact, it would be good to test this out right now.

Yes, it would be good to test it. So she did. Locked in the embrace, Skye ran her fingers up and down near Ayda's side. She did it only briefly, but if Ayda was... ticklish, she react, and then Skye would know.

 

[Ayda Elisantra]

She were cold as it were and the hug felt nice, welcoming... and much like the time not a few days ago in the bottom of the shaft.

Ayda had passed out from exhaustion as well as Skye had apparently, for the woman had fallen asleep on top of her.
Still, it provided a means of warmth in what seemed like the cold of the night. Odd though for Dagobah supposedly was at it's perihelion, it's closest elliptical point of orbit around it's star. And just before entering that labyrinth, it had been unmercifully hot and muggy.

But ever since they had climbed out of that dead man's trap, seemed like they had been plummeted by some rainy days...much colder than normal for Dagobah's supposedly Summer season really. At first light of day during their emergence from the pit, they were just happy to share some daylight and the chill in the air was of no consequence. But what was it now?...days past? And still the heat of what should of been Summer sweat was absent.
Ayda had felt the chill. And why not, as she had after all been comatose for what?..days? And she was a bit empty. That feeling she got when she needed some calories. Her body were on reserves right now and the berries were fine, but they were mostly sugar based and did not sustain her for long.

So it were without say that aside from the kiss which she understood to be an expression of affection and caring, what followed made her jump. She had never felt such physical contact, not in the manner of getting tickled. She yelped and squirmed, trying to connect with Skye's hands to block her from tickling her.
"Eek... stop it...Hehe.." Yes, it made her laugh, getting all tickled like that. It weren't neither bad, nor..
Wait, it was kinda fun, like a children's game.
But still, it was definitely unexpected-
"Eeek...no no, please stop.
Stop...pant pant...
I'm cold as it is..." She then said, successfully haltering Skye further attempts at triggering her by holding on to her hands.

Yes, that was unexpected, and...and not at all bad really. Not even her more tender regenerated skin could do nothing but trigger her to squirm and laugh.
But as it stood, Ayda did not only start to feel the pangs of hunger as her senses returned, but quite feeling the chill in the air, even in the stone structure. They were after all, sitting on a dirt floor...or was it a stone floor with a few thousand years of dust on it? Whatever it was, it was cold, and she were feeling it. A moment ago in a depressed state, she could of been sitting on an ice slab it it wouldn't have mattered.

She slowly let go of Skye's hands.
"You think maybe we can start a fire by the front entrance way?" She then asked looking up at the ceiling. It were hart to make out fine details, even with her acclimated night vision of sort, but the chamber they were in clearly had a solid ceiling. Starting a fire deep inside where they were would surely trap smoke and...and...well, she knew enough to have smoke ventilate outside.

Ayda was off the subject of evil incarnate creeping up on her. What Skye did, worked, jarring those depressing thoughts out of her mind. Tickling often works like that, not to mention elevating one's heart beat by the production of Adrenalin.
But a quickened heart rate did little to take the bite out of the cool night air approaching. Maybe tomorrow the Summer heat would finally break through, she figured. Just tonight maybe it would be wonderful if they could get a fire going.
Then again, maybe Skye did have a fire during the past few nights. Ayda wouldn't know that , as she had just recently awakened in the front room of the structure just moments prior...

"You think we can....you know...get a fire going?" Her orbs were pleading like her words...

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye looked at Ayda with a wide smile on her face.

"I just found a great new way to manipulate you", she grinned playfully. "Better do as I say, rebel scum", she added in a joking tone as she stood up.

Ayda was right, it had become cold again. Oddly enough it had been like this for the last couple of days, something which didn't make sense in the hot summer of Dagobah.

"It is quite cold, isn't it? I has been like this for the past few days while you were out cold, so I do have something prepared... Follow me."

As Skye took a hold of Ayda's hand again, she started walking back towards the room Ayda had been lying in. She hadn't taken Ayda's hand because she was afraid she would run of or become lost, she merely... liked holding hands with the younger girl, and Skye figured that the fact she was leading the way was a perfect excuse to hold Ayda's hand.

She led the girl through the room the redhead had been lying in towards a dark hole in the wall and roof. It wasn't a hole leading to the outside, but a hole leading to an extra chamber on top of the others.

"Come on, up here", Skye said as she pulled herself up into the upper room with easy, as she had come to know where to place her feet and hands.
As she laid down on the floor, she looked down and streched her arm towards Ayda

"Take my hand", she said. And after seeing Ayda debate whether to do it or not, she insisted. "Just take it, Ayda. Come on."

Now the girl took Skye's hand, after which the older girl pulled her up into the upper room as well.

Inside a corner there was a big pile of wood Skye had gathered during her occasional trips into the woods. "Now you might wonder why I brought this all up here. And it's actually quite simple. Look there", she said as she pointed towards a small side chamber, barely big enough to stand in, and barely high enough to crouch.

"The roof has collapsed there... it's like a natural chimney! The smoke goes outside, and some warmth comes inside.. but the main reason it's here is because we're safe up here. Or relatively safe from creatures, as most won't be able to get up here. A fire outside would be accessible to others, so that would be dangerous...here.. here you could fall asleep next to a warm fire... safely."

Skye then carried a few logs from the pile and threw them into the chimney.

"Look. I found this", she said as she showed a small cubical device. With a click it spit out fire, lighting the dry wood within seconds.

"Come", she motioned Ayda to sit with her near the fire.

As the girl sat down near Skye, the older woman subconsciously moved to sit a bit closer to the younger girl.

They were silent for a while, until Skye spoke again.

"I'm really glad you're back", she said.

"Even though it's been a few days.. those days felt like forever. Just... waiting. I didn't even know for sure you were ever going to wake up again. I was just sitting there, next to you, wondering whether you would magically wake up then and there, after a month, or perhaps never."

She sighed as she stared into the fire, her expression turning sad.

"I found some sort of supply drop. For others, no doubt. Their bodies were torn apart, scattered around the box. Attacked by wild beasts before they could open it. So I did. I opened it and took the things inside, so that we might live... but as I saw the torn body parts lying there...my mind always went back to you. Had I closed and hidden the entrance? Had I kept you warm? Were you safe? Were you ever going to wake up...?"

"I hate myself for what I did. And it almost became too much for me..."

She sighed before turning her gaze towards Ayda.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm glad you're came back as quickly as you did. And that I'm so...so sorry for what I've done...."

And with that she turned her head again, so she was staring at the fire. Even though the fire gave her warmth, she felt cold. Cold, because she didn't know for sure how Ayda would react. If the younger girl stayed with her earlier words and insisted she'd forgive Skye, then she could believe it. Then she could be warm.