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So far, the expedition was a disaster.
Dan Heng couldn’t definitively say that this was the worst one he had ever been on, nor the quickest expedition to turn sour – that spot firmly went to Amphoreus, where he saw Stelle die in front of him just as they touched ground on the planet, if a crash could even be called that.
Having said that, it was definitely close to the top of the list: neither Dan Heng, nor Stelle expected to stumble upon a pack of dinosaurs first thing upon their planetary descent. A pack that was now chasing them through the thick jungle, which covered most of the planet surface.
“Hey! Uh, can’t you ask them to stop or something?” He didn’t even bat an eye as Stelle asked that question. Dan Heng had accompanied her for so long that it’s a rare occurrence for his wife to say something ridiculous enough to actually surprise him.
“And why exactly do you think I can do that?” He quipped back, starting to sound slightly out of breath. At this point, they were running for at least half an hour, only slowing down to fight off the beasts that managed to get too close. The pair was already covered with scrapes and lacerations all over their bodies. They needed to find an escape from this situation, and fast.
“Well, you’re a dragon! Doesn’t that make them, like, your distant cousins or something?” Stelle said as if it was the most natural thing to think in this situation. Her own voice not in much better shape than Dan Heng’s. “Dragons, dinosaurs, what’s the big difference?”
The Vidyadhara merely huffed in exasperation, his eyes scanning the surroundings to map out a possible escape route. ‘Just a bit more.’ He thought, jumping over a fallen log. He could feel a river nearby. A source of water could become their lifeline in this situation. ‘Almost there! With that, I can take Stelle to safety!’
“Look out!” Dan Heng suddenly felt a pair of hands pushing him to the side. In his hurry to get to a water source, his tunnel vision caused him to not notice a beast suddenly appearing in his peripheral vision. It came from the side, swinging its monstrous tail at Dan Heng. ‘No. That wasn’t right.’
Because now that he was pushed aside, the one on the direct collision path with the bestial strike was Stelle.
Before he could even scream, a dull, loud noise rang out, and his wife disappeared from his line of sight. Not even a second later, Dan Heng heard a loud crack as Stelle’s body was flung into a tree, causing it to break in two, and then she fell to the ground, still in one piece, but unmoving.
Time itself had seemed to stop in this moment as the Vidyadhara’s focus narrowed into one singular point: Stelle. Dan Heng’s thoughts ground to a halt, leaving his mind eerily quiet. This moment lasted only for a brief second, but for him it felt like an eternity.
And then he roared.
If anyone could see what was happening right now, they would say that the air around Dan Heng boiled. In actuality, it was the combination of him dropping his disguise, maintained by cloudhymn magic, and the water suddenly filling the space around him. Teal horns were now visible on his head, while a long tail now coiled around his feet. What could usually be described as the High Elder’s majestic form, now exuded the aura of unrestrained fury, twisting his beautiful features in a feral snarl.
In a blink, the beast that was closest to Dan Heng, the one that attacked Stelle, disappeared from the scene entirely, turned into mincemeat by a raging stream of water. The other dinosaurs surrounding them took a collective step back, their bestial instincts screaming at them to run away.
For they have just angered an apex predator.
All it took was a couple of seconds before raging currents of water swept away the surrounding beasts, breaking bones and uprooting nearby trees in the process. It took another second for Dan Heng to finally come to his senses, returning his focus to Stelle, still sprawled on the ground near him. The panicked Vidyadhara controlled the water currents once again, carefully lifting Stelle using cloudhymn magic and placing her in his arms as he carefully carried her, gliding over the water surface to a nearby cave.
Entering the cave, Dan Heng looked around, searching for a large enough clearing. Finding it, he approaches, carefully laying Stelle down on the ground, making sure not to move her around too much in case her bones were broken, which they probably were, considering that she shattered a tree trunk on impact.
Dan Heng was no healer, and right now he really wished he would practice healing cloudhymn with Bailu more. Nevertheless, his current knowledge, inadequate as it may be, had to suffice. The only beacon they had set up on this planet was left on their landing site, and it was too far away to carry Stelle there in her current condition. Leaving her here was out of the question and all communications were out of range. The guard of the Astral Express carefully hovered his hand over Stelle, channeling the cloudhymn to assess her injuries as best as he could.
What he was seeing so far was bad. Surface wounds, like bruises, cuts or lacerations were one thing, most of them weren’t large enough to be life-threatening, even if it made Dan Heng feel like a complete failure every time he looked at them. Stelle’s internal wounds, on the other hand, were worse. The impact resulted in multiple cracked ribs, a broken arm, and her shoulder was in such a bad condition, he wasn’t sure how her right arm was still even attached.
And it was all his fault.
The Vidyadhara quickly shook his head, chasing the thoughts away. Now was not the time to wallow in misery. While the Stellaron started slowly healing his wife’s injuries, Dan Heng would need to make sure she stayed fed, hydrated, and as safe as he could make sure of in a cave on a hostile planet. He settled beside Stelle and got to work unpacking the field medical kit, preparing to dress her wounds.
He carefully went over the wounds, stitching up the large laceration on Stelle’s left arm and bandaging it up before moving on to the smaller cuts to bandage them up as well. Once he managed to finally stop the bleeding, Dan Heng put a splint on her broken left arm and set up a field IV. He had no idea how long the healing was going to take, but it was safe to assume that they were going to be here for a while. He just hoped that Stelle would wake up soon. In the meantime, he stood guard near her. If need be, he will hold the ground until his last breath.
***
It has already been 2 days and Stelle still didn’t wake up.
Her condition has been showing improvements ever so slightly: mostly her surface wounds, which had all closed up except for the largest laceration – that one was still in the process of closing up. Stelle’s bones, however, only barely started growing back together – it was possible that the extent of her injuries was pushing even the Stellaron to its limits.
Dan Heng was growing weary. Not of waiting, he spent much more time than that while searching for Stelle back on Amphoreus. What gnawed on him was different than that. It was guilt. Dan Heng wasn’t stupid, he understood in his head that he had an unhealthy tendency to blame himself for things that either weren’t directly his fault, or simply were outside of his control altogether. It’s just that this particular habit of his was rather difficult to break.
This time, however, was different. Stelle’s current injuries were a direct result of a completely avoidable mistake that he made. He was the one who tunnel visioned and missed an attack, and Stelle was the one who got badly hurt as a result of that mistake. Dan Heng could almost feel his previous incarnation laugh at him. Even if he made peace with Dan Feng on Amphoreus, the parallels between them still stick out like a sore thumb: No matter what he does, his actions end up hurting those he holds dear. Even if he understood on some level, that these thoughts weren’t helping him right now, there wasn’t much he could do about it.
After all, he has nothing but time right now.
***
On the fourth day, Dan Heng felt like he was at the end of his rope. He wanted to scream and rage. He wanted to go out and tear apart more of the beasts lurking nearby, if only to drown his emotions in senseless violence. But most of all, he simply wanted Stelle to wake up.
And she finally did.
Before the Vidyadhara could ponder his actions any further, his eyes caught a glimpse of movement where there were none for the past four days. It took barely a second for him to scramble to his feet, and in another second Dan Heng was already by Stelle’s side as her eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Dan Heng…” She managed to say weakly, her throat parched. Dan Heng leaned closer to her, not even breathing, as he was gazing at her with worry. “You moron…” With that, he felt her fist bump weakly but deliberately into his chest. “You have to watch where you’re going next time…” Failing to keep up a pout, she broke into smile. “Sorry for worrying you…”
Dan Heng started crying before he could realize it. He took Stelle’s hand in his, and kept it close to his heart. “Yeah…” Words refused to form in his head. “I’m… I’m so glad you’re awake.” Unable to say anything else, he lowered his head close to hers as their foreheads touched, his tears quietly falling on Stelle’s face.
In response, she lifted her arm and cupped his cheek gently, swiping away some of his tears with her finger. “Hey… It’s not like stuff like this is never going to happen, you know?” She whispered. “We’re both alive, aren’t we?”
The Vidyadhara opened his teal eyes as he stared back in Stelle’s gold ones. “That we are. But this… you were hurt so badly because of m-” He never managed to finish the sentence as his wife pulled him down by the collar, shutting him up with a kiss. Dan Heng couldn’t help but reciprocate it, responding tenderly to Stelle’s fiery passion. The kiss lasted for several seconds before they separated.
“Don’t speak like that, Dan Heng.” Stelle’s gaze was unusually sharp, accepting no compromise. “We both know the risks of the Trailblaze, and we both chose this life. We make mistakes and we won’t always get out unscathed.”
Of course, Dan Heng was fully aware of that. Even now that Stelle was awake, her injuries were still far from being fully healed. Her bones were properly aligned and somewhat grown back together, but the healing process wasn’t yet finished. Ideally, they would need at least another day for her to rest a bit more, before he could assist her back to the beacon so that they could finally evacuate.
“I know.” The Vidyadhara growled in response, the animalistic sound suspiciously close to a choked sob. “That doesn’t make it any easier.” He mirrored Stelle’s earlier action by cupping her cheek. “Every time I see you get hurt, I’m afraid that I’m going to lose you again.” It was a raw admission of vulnerability, something that Dan Heng wasn’t prone to doing. When it came to Stelle, however, he was no longer able to keep his feelings in check.
“You won’t.” She simply said. “I’m tough. And besides…” Golden eyes glinted with tender affection. “You’re with me. So I know I’ll be safe.” There were no lies, nor shallow reassurings in her words, only devotion and absolute trust.
At that point, words became unnecessary, and the pair stayed like that for some time.
***
It was decided that they would go back to the anchor the next day, at least to give Stelle one more day of rest before they set out. She slept soundly for the most of it, exhaustion from her injuries making itself known once again. It would appear, however, that there would be no need to risk by returning to the beacon by themselves, as Dan Heng’s ears picked on the distinct sound of footsteps at the entrance of the cave.
At first, he tried reaching for the Cloud-Piercer, but abandoned that action as soon as he figured out whom those footsteps belonged to. Soon after he settled down, three figures emerged from the darkness of the cave, and Dan Heng could finally see the faces of Welt, March and Sunday. As soon as their eyes landed on the pair sitting near the fire, they immediately hurried to their side.
“Guys!” March, of course, was the first one to approach, diving in to hug Dan Heng. “We were so worried when we lost contact with you! And you didn’t report through the beacon, so we decided to look for you! Oh gosh, how is Stelle!? Is she hurt?” The nonstop barrage of questions and exclamations almost made the Vidyadhara’s head swim as he tried to regain his composure in the face of a worried friend.
As soon as he managed to pry open the girl’s vice grip away from his body, the other two crewmembers approached them. “What’s the situation? We saw… traces outside while we were searching.” Asked Welt, his gaze moving between Dan Heng and Stelle’s sleeping form, who was already starting to stir awake due to the commotion.
“Stelle, how are you feeling?” The Vidyadhara immediately was back at her side, accompanied by March. “Do you feel like you can get up?” He asked.
“I’m fine, really.” Stelle tried waving it off, but winced due to discomfort in her still healing bones. “Oh.” She mouthed, realizing that the cave appeared to be significantly more crowded than it was yesterday. “Guys, you’re here!” The girl beamed at them, her radiant smile somewhat soothing their worries.
What happened next could only be described as a chaotic mess of crying, laughing, worrying and moving around as the crew was briefed on what happened to the pair and plans were made on how to get them back to the Express.
“Let’s go home!”
***
One retrieval operation, debrief and a bunch of tears and heartfelt hugs later, Stelle was finally brought back to the Astral Express alongside Dan Heng, who refused to leave her side even for a second. Once the gray-haired girl was admitted to the med bay and examined for any possible complications in her healing process, and a clear refusal of staying there, she was allowed to rest in her own room under Dan Heng’s strict supervision. Not that it wasn’t exactly what Stelle herself wanted, of course.
As night fell on board of the Express, or, at least what counted as night, lights were dimmed and the pair settled into their shared bed. Dan Heng didn’t allow himself to embrace Stelle despite how much he wanted to, not when Stelle was still recovering. He felt as if she would shatter in his arms at the slightest touch.
His attempts, however, proved futile as his wife, having had enough of his overprotective attitude, slammed herself into his body, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.
“What am I going to do with you?” Dan Heng asked softly, carefully embracing Stelle in return. “At this rate you’re going to be a very bad patient who refuses to follow doctor’s orders.” His reprimand lacked any real bite to it, leaving only amused resignation in its place.
“Then you’ll have to take good care of me to nurse me back to health, Master Dan Heng.” She purred at him, her voice muffled by close proximity to his chest as she hugged him tighter.
“Don’t call me that.” He growled, the tips of his ears unmistakably red with embarrassment. “Please sleep.” The only response he got was soft snorting as Stelle was, evidently, fast asleep. It wasn’t long before Dan Heng as well slid into a dreamless sleep.
They were both still here, and that was enough.