This Ain't No Cup of Tea

[Kay-Larr]

She continued to hobble towards the lake, noticing that now [member="Bat"] was walking beside her. Maybe he was growing more comfortable as she was obviously at a disadvantage. Or he just knew that she wasn't a threat.

A cannon that could level houses? That was a bit much. But well noted. As he asked his question, she thought about it for a moment. "I guess that my trump card is myself and my allies. I have many of them in a variety of places." Though none were around on Bakura at this time.

She could see the lake through the trees. It was so close, yet seemed so far. "Where is your ship?"

 

[Bat]

Bat cast a glance over to Kay, and then past her; reassurance that there was no one around them. He put his hand on the Jurkad and slowly pressed it over his shoulder, allowing it's strap to hold it in place there. He had no need for the weapon to be out at this point, and shooting Kay again should she run would endanger her chances of survival and his of payment.

His hidden eyes scanned her face as she answered his question, looking for any signs that something was in place, or that allies would jump out at any moment. It wasn't his best trained skill, nor even one he would call a skill so much as an instinct created from playing dark games with dark people. "Friends and allies are always a useful thing to have, especially when you're against odds you yourself cannot fight."

His gaze shifted back to his front, peering through the trees and onto the magnificent body of water that was the lake, for a moment he thought it was sparkling. He was in awe, and distracted readily by the sight, his mind gone away with the lake previously unseen. He idly spoke, his attention fixated on the sea of diamonds and sunlight. "Don't have one, hired a transport."
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She nodded when he spoke about the odds. As [member="Bat"] studied her face, she studied his. "More often than not, the odds are stacked against me. But I can manage on my own at times as well." Like now for instance. Sure she was sort of caught. But she was leading him as opposed to the other way around. To the casual observer, it might look as though he was her bodyguard, rather than her captor.

Kay watched as he seemed transfixed with the lake. "I hire transports as well...Have you...never seen a lake before?" She started forward again towards it, hobbling as she did, knowing that he would walk with her. "It is a bit cold, but that's what I'm counting on. If you want to run ahead and check it out, you can go ahead. It's not like I'm going to get anywhere quickly. And you just get there in just a couple of minutes."

Distractions were never a bad thing and it would give them something to talk about while she tended to her leg. All in good time though. She had to get to the lake first.

 

[Bat]

Bat gave another idle nod as he stared off at the lake, quite obviously fascinated by it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kay begin to move forward once more towards the body of water, and he continued his pacing once more, eyes still affixed forward with an occasional glance to the quarry.

We she spoke about moving ahead however, his mind began to ring with alarm. She had recognized his distraction, and was trying to use some sort of clever ploy to make him think that she would catch up. Rationally, it did make sense for her to try to escape, but also to try to fix her leg. He couldn't be sure, and he wasn't going to risk such a handsome sum of credits on guesswork and chance. "That's a nice try, Kay, but I'm keeping my eyes on you 'til I'm payed."

With one final look unto the water, his vision become wholly focused on the quarry, and his hand scratched nervously at his side at how close he had come to taking her up on the offer, how foolish an outcome that would have been.
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay just smirked a little and shrugged one of her shoulders as she walked. "That's fine. I guess that it goes to show how good of an escape artist that you think that I am. I don't even think that I could go as fast as a normal walk right now. You have far more confidence in myself than I do."

She continued on her way, the walk being slow and laboured. Right on cue at about five minutes, the shore of the lake could be seen. A pebbled beach expanded before them and the trees, sunlight and sky reflected in the water. Kay let out a sigh of relief and headed straight over to the water. She dropped her satchel and slipped off one boot, but then looked to [member="Bat"] with an almost embarrassed look. "Would you mind helping me with my stockings and other boot? I need to step into the water to numb my leg down. And here...." She threw the hiking stick out of reach. "...so you don't think that I mean to conk you on the head."

 

[Bat]

Bat gave a soft tap on the side of his head. "If you weren't good at getting away, you wouldn't have a bounty on you." It was a logical enough statement, if one could not apprehend a target themselves they sent for bounty hunters. On the opposite, if the individual or group was capable and willing to eliminate their own targets, then there was no need for a hunter.

More walking led them to the lake and; being as close as they were, Bat once again found himself in a temporary trance. It was snapped away rapidly this time, his mind reminding him that this was the time for work. He stood on the land; not quite touching the water though it was close, and watched as Kay moved ever closer to it as she slipped a boot off.

Then she had called for him to assist her, and his social skills went out the window. He gave a slight shrug, and inched down towards her, improving his speed after she removed the hiking stick from their presence. He knelt down, and awkwardly reached for the other boot, casting a vaguely nervous glance up at Kay as he attempted to remove it. "Why do you need to remove both boots for one leg?" He questioned, though the answer was clear in his mind that it would become soaked if she had left it on.
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay was glad for the help. She didn't want to have to sit down on her bottom and then scuttle over to the water, getting herself more wet than she wanted to be. She rested a hand on [member="Bat"] for support as he helped her with her boot and stockings. "Quite simple, really. There are no big rocks near the water for me to sit on, so I have to walk in and soak my leg. I need to get the swelling down, clean it out and then wrap it. Mud from the bottom will help it too. I know that you're not in a rush, but it would take longer if I didn't look after myself."

Oh yes, she had a plan of escape. There was no doubt about that. This unfortunate delay just opened up another opportunity and she was not about to pass it up. Whether he was distracted by the lake or not, it didn't matter. What mattered the most at the moment was tending to her wound. If she wasn't shot it would make things easier for the both of them. But Kay was quite good at adapting.

 

[Bat]

Bat just nodded as she gave her explanation, his mind somewhere else. He wondered if Husk had made it to town, and whether it would be wise to call him to their position, and then decided against it. Husk would take far too long to reach their current position, and it that might slow their travel down to the point of nightfall.

With a light grunt, he finished removing the boot from Kay and began work on the stocking, something that he recognized to be somewhat like a sock. "Suppose that makes sense, I'm not in a rush, but i'm not against being paid sooner either."

Another glance at the lake accompanied his finished removal of the stocking, followed by a rapid retreat of himself towards his overlooking spot. With another nervous scratch at his side, he listened intently to the noises around him, of the lake's resident animals moving about softly throughout the area. He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments; his mask hiding his momentary blindness, and took in all that was around him.
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Once she was free from her boots and stockings, she set off into the water. It was cold, but welcoming. Kay winced a bit as she walked, with the cold biting into her skin and causing herself to shake a bit. " [member="Bat"] if you could get a fire going to help me warm up and dry off, I'd appreciate it." She didn't quite expect that he would comply though, as he was growing more and more suspicious of her motives. But that was fine as it was only something that she just thought of now.

As Kay got deeper into the water, she held up the bottom of her skirt and proceeded to bite some of the stitching and rip off a large enough piece of fabric to wrap her leg with once it was dry. She made sure that her movements were always visible as she didn't want to risk getting shot again. She took in a deep breath and released it slowly as the cold water was now taking effect on her wound. Kay stood there for a while, using the water to help numb her leg enough and get the swelling down. Afterwards she reached down and gathered some mud from the floor of the lake, holding it in one hand as she turned and headed back towards the shore. Once she was where her boots were, she carefully sat down. The wound didn't look too bad, but it wasn't very pretty either. She covered it in the mud and then ever so carefully wrapped it up with the fabric. As she was doing so, she opened herself up to the Force and began to heal herself. It wasn't something that would happen quickly. She wasn't that good. First she had to start with the burned flesh and muscle and now was the perfect time to do it while it was all hidden under the mud and bandage.

 

[Bat]

Bat narrowed his eyes just slightly at the request for a fire, and shook his head slowly at the idea of it. It was as if she was trying to delay them as best she could. Paranoia slipped into his mind as he cast rapid glances at the surrounding area, expecting any moment to be assailed by a squad bent on the rescue of Kay. It certainly would not be such a difficult escape plan, especially since she knew that he felt secure. He needed to display that he was tense once more to discourage any would be attackers.

His hand reached up, removing the Jurkad once more from it's resting position and holding it in a position dictating a willingness to fire on the quarry should any sudden movements be made. Another look towards the treeline revealed nothing, but it harmed nothing to continue in this way for a short while longer.

Attention was placed once more on Kay as she patched up her leg, and began to work on it with mud and water. It didn't quite seem to be the most sanitary process in the world, but perhaps it was something that did help. Strolling down towards her position, Jurkad still in hand, he spoke.

"I can understand the need to patch up your wound, and I agree with it on the principle that it increases my profits if you survive. On the other hand, if shooting you wasn't enough indication that I don't quite put your comfort on the highest..." He struggled with the word for a moment. "Stepping stool, then this is a clearer sign."
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

She kept her eyes closed, pretending to wince a bit as she wrapped her leg, working on healing it in the meantime and using the Force to quicken the process.

Once she was finished that part at least, she opened her eyes and began putting on her stockings and boot. However it wasn't so easy as her feet and lower legs were wet.

Kay frowned a bit as [member="Bat"] had his weapon trained on her, though he was looking elsewhere. "Are you......expecting someone?" She carefully got to her feet and then grabbed her satchel, slinging it over her shoulder. "I'm not expecting anyone. Except for maybe your trump card. I'm supposed to be on vacation...Not heading off to be locked up in a cage to be tortured and tormented." Little bit of a guilt trip couldn't hurt.

She then looked up at him. "I'm ready go go. I just need my hiking stick. So unless you want to grab it, I'm going to go get it. I figured it was safer to tell you what I'm doing before you get an itchy trigger finger."

She was going to have to ease up a little if she was going to be able to escape.

 

[Bat]

Bat nodded a couple of times as she began to redress her feet. That was good, it meant that they could get moving again instead of having to wait out in the open where anyone could assail him. Kay spoke to him, asking if he was expecting someone and then giving a pre-emptive response that she was not expecting anyone. It seemed a little too quick on the draw, almost as if she was trying to ease his mind once more, to make him less responsive to the environment.

She stood and spoke of retrieving her hiking stick. He nervously scratched at his side as he spun about the perimeter with the Jurkad, checking once more for opportune hunters. He was being nervous, he realized with a start. Paranoid as well, he was worrying about a quarry who was out alone in the middle of the woods, and who had no friends here on Bakura.

He bit his tongue for his own foolishness, and slowly activated his comm, speaking softly into it.
"Husk. I have the quarry, heading back to town. Any sign of abnormal activity?"
"Negative." The steely sounding voice replied.
Bat nodded a couple of times and motioned for Kay to get moving once more. "Let's get going."
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay frowned a little as she started to hobble away from the lake. She kept her movements as slow as earlier, all the while thinking about what she was being referred to as. The quarry. How cold and objective. It was almost as bad as being called a civilian. She hated that word too. Yes she was a Senator and had higher status than some, but she wasn't a Senator of high regard, and she never flaunted her position on others. She was more humble than that.

Hmmmm. Kay wondered how well [member="Bat"] knew of the layout of the land. Did he know where the town was? Or the cabin? How good was his sense of direction on a strange planet? Only one way to find out. Instead of heading towards town, Kay began to lead him further away from it.

"I wish that you'd use my name, instead of talking about me like as if I was some item that you just stole to sell on the black market."

 

[Bat]

[member="Lady Kay"]
Bat followed Kay slowly, Jurkad still set tensely in his hands. They walked for a short while before suddenly Bat stopped and took a hard glance to his side. "Isn't town that way?" It was more of a question than an actual statement, he hadn't noticed before now, but he was most definitely lost.

He could probably have led them back from the cabin to town, but after having run for so long into the wilderness, and then taking a detour to a lake, it had thrown all sense of direction to the wind. Still, an urge in his gut told him that they were definitely not going the right way, unless of course he was wrong on that too. He shook his head and continued to follow Kay, answering her as they walked.

"When you do work like I do, it becomes easier to take a shot when you stop dealing with people, and instead deal with targets." His voice was a bit grim, as if though he didn't enjoy the reality that he dehumanized the beings he hunted.

 

[Kay-Larr]

When [member="Bat"] stopped to ask if town was a different way, Kay just shook her head a bit and trudged on. Good. Her plans were continuing to work. Most often somewhere along the line they backfire. But so far so good. She was thankful to have crash landed here a few years ago. It gave her the opportunity to get to know the place. Bakura was a good retreat for her. Until now that is.

As he spoke of dehumanizing the bounties he was after, Kay frowned. "I can understand doing that if the person you are after is a psycho murderer, but I'm not that way. I help people, save families. It just so happens that a criminal syndicate wants me brought to them for it so that they could torture me and maybe try to enslave me. I'm not sure....I give people hope and they don't want that. People without hope are easier to control."

After a while she stopped. They were at a bit of a clearing now. Twilight was starting to take hold. "I need a break, and it's getting dark. We should make camp for the night. I have food and drink for us. We just need a fire." Kay sat down on a boulder and brought her injured leg up to rest, rubbing it gently.

 

[Bat]

Bat nodded along with Kay's sentiment as he walked, thinking back to the times when he had only hunted criminals and deranged lunatics. Those had been better days, maybe not monetarily, but at least in a moral standpoint. He was one of those few mercenaries and bounty hunters who didn't really enjoy his job, so much as see the necessity of it. It brought in a fair amount of credits, and that let him keep Randy in a home.

Of course, he lied about where those funds came from. Randy was an upstanding type of person, raised on moral gold, and he would have objected to see his adopted son doing the things he did. He probably wasn't too far off from Kay in personality, in fact, they would probably have gotten along well.

Light was gradually dying around them, and suddenly Bat didn't love his chances of finding his way to town and escorting a prisoner who would inevitably try to escape. An idea clicked which satisfied both a moral and monetary goal. "You're not a bad person, Kay" He started, grumbling and shaking his head to give the impression of fighting with the idea, "I'll make you a deal, you pay me what your bounty is worth, and i'll let you go, only this once though."

He lowered the Jurkad, pointing it directly to the ground and in between his feet. He gave a sigh once more, acting as if though such a decision was truly weighing on his mind, and his hand nervously scratched at his side.
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay sighed. One of the problems with being a Senator was that everyone thought that they were made of money. But that all depended on the world that they represented. Commenor was doing much better economically now than when she started, but she never asked for a raise. She didn't quite feel deserving of it.

"If that was an option for me, I would've suggested it a while ago. But sadly I can't afford it, not even the cheaper of my bounties. Most of my money is tied into freeing slaves. I don't even have my own home. I just sleep in my office. That cabin you followed me to is owned by the Mayor of the next town over and he owed me a favour."

Normally she'd of been rescued by her friends by now, but there was none around. So she had just herself to depend on for her freedom.

[member="Bat"]

 

[Bat]

Bat grunted, it was a terrible situation going on here, one that was gradually becoming worse. He regretted the efforts he'd already taken, already considering the higher possibilities of escape by the qua- by Kay.

"You would have expected that with such dangerous work, you would pour more funds into your own protection. Even a house would have been better than having to stray from place to place, all in the name of doing moral work." He could never do it, he could never complete a task without some sort of reward at the end. It wasn't in his nature, and it wouldn't spring up out of no where anytime soon.

He began to gather several sticks around him into a pile, and then sent a bolt at them with the Jurkad. It should have, in theory started a decent fire, though in reality it simply tore through the sticks and left a mess. "Fancy that, too much to start the fire. Well, Kay, you won't believe this, but I come from a world of sand and heat and we don't have nearly as much need for survival fires there. I'm hoping your self-imposed poverty has taught you something."
[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

"If I stayed in one place, then it would give others an easier target. Plus they could destroy it just to punish me. It's the same reason that I don't have any family. They would just end up being targets too."

As [member="Bat"] made some bizarre attempt to make a fire, Kay just laughed a little to herself and shook her head. "Gather the twigs again, shape them into a type of pyramid." She dug into her satchel and pulled out her fire starter, holding it out for him. "Then use this to get it going."

While he worked she glanced up at the sky. "Have you got any family?" Once it was dark enough it would give her a better chance at escape. Of course if she presented him with another offer and he accepted it, then she wouldn't have to try to escape.

 

[Bat]

Bat grunted acknowledgement and began gathering more nearby twigs and sticks, shaping them together in a basic pyramid shape after multiple attempts. He would turn about; hefting the Jurkad in one hand with the support of it's strap taking most of the weight, and then take the fire starter. More attempts followed at setting a proper fire, before finally, after perhaps the fourth try, it began to spark and ignite. The flames lapped at the twigs, using the smaller pieces as decent kindling.

In a minute, the fire had started up fully and the warmth was disseminating outwards. Bat took a seat, nodding in response to the question. "I do. That's why i'm in this nasty game, because family. You wouldn't understand." His ears perked up at the slight crunch of leaves nearby, though an examination revealed it was nothing more than a bird.

Escape was suddenly becoming so much easier. It hurt.


[member="Lady Kay"]