Chapter Text
Groaning, Keith slowly came to --- dangling upside down from his pilot’s chair? He only realizes this problem once he tries to raise his hand to his head and his arm gets stuck on the harness holding him up.
“Wha--? Unnghh, my head.”
He struggles for a few minutes, although it seemed much longer. Finally freeing himself from the harness, he dropped down onto what was now the ceiling of his cockpit. Keith gave himself a few seconds to take stock of his injuries - nothing too bad - just some minor scrapes and cuts from the impact, and his neck is sore. Probably whiplash , he thinks to himself, but it’s nothing that he can’t handle. Thankfully, it seems like the armor was able to take the brunt of the damage. The only noticeable damage is a hairline fracture in the visor of his helmet; I hope this planet has a breathable atmosphere.
Only then, does he realize that he can no longer feel his Lion, can no longer feel that comforting presence at the back of his mind. There are no alarms going off; no sounds at all. Red is completely offline at the moment. It’s no surprise, what with the damage they had attained during the fight against Zarkon, and the subsequent crash through the corrupt wormhole. It’s disconcerting, no longer being able to feel her in the back of his mind, but he can’t let himself linger on that thought for too long.
Once he’s able to fight his way through the mess that has become his cockpit, (everything has been thrown around in their rough landing) he’s able to make it to the hatch in Red’s mouth. Prying that open, he’s met with blistering heat, and a bright sun beating down on him. Keith allows himself a second of ‘ thank god the air is breathable’ before he pulls himself all the way of out Red’s mouth.
It’s beautiful - almost, but not quite like Earth. Climbing atop his lion, Keith is able to see into the distance. There appears to be a forest about two miles away, but around where he landed - crashed - is barren. It reminds him of the desert in a way; the sand is a different color, and the sky is almost blue.
With this thought, he sighs, it shouldn’t be too hard to survive on this planet for too long, so long as he doesn’t run into any enemies, Galra or otherwise. He was able to survive on his own before - he should be able to do it again. Resigning himself to his fate, Keith ducks back down inside his lion to find that emergency kit that Coran had packed for all of them. Finding that, he swings the pack onto his shoulder and begins to make his way outside of his lion again, when, suddenly, he hears it - a far-off sounding, low rumble.
He throws himself up and out onto his lion’s head, climbing as high as he can get. Looking around--
THERE! Streaking across the sky is something big, something blu--BLUE! He’s able to make out the vague shape of the Blue Lion before it plummets to the ground miles away. When it finally connects with the ground, Keith can feel the violent shudder, and resounding boom from all the way over here.
Grabbing his medpack, Keith set off towards the wreckage. It’ll most likely take him hours to reach, but with his Lion down, he’s unable to manually override the locks to get to his speeder, therefore he has no other choice but to make the trek on foot.
With a backwards glance towards Red, Keith sets off.
It’s a few hours later, and the sun is starting to dip below the horizon. With the sun already making its descent for the night, the temperatures are starting to even out a little bit. It was unbearable walking through that miniature desert with no shade, and his paladin armor. He had been loathe to remove it incase there had been any inhabitants - there weren’t, thankfully, but Keith was still not going to take that chance. It would be just my luck, he thinks, for me to remove my armor to cool down, and then get shot by some unknown alien.
The sun was setting quick - quicker than it would on Earth, and as the sun fully set beyond the horizon, the temperatures plummeted. All that sweat is now freezing against the back of his neck.
He came across a small outcropping of rocks, and allowed himself a small respite. Sitting down, Keith swung the medpack off his shoulder and started to root through it. Inside he found some freeze-dried rations of food goo, some water packs, an insulation blanket, and basic first-aid supplies.
Keith tore into a block of the freeze-dried food goo; it’s no surprise that the goo is as disgusting - if not more - than the “fresh” goo back on the castle-ship. As he chewed, he took a look around again. It’s too much like Earth; it’s throwing him off. The sand around him is almost, but not quite the right color. Cocking his head to the side, it’s almost pink , he thinks to himself. And the sky - it’s more of a teal than the true blue he’s used to.
It’s all beautiful in it’s own way, he supposed.
After finishing off the goo and two of the water packs he pulled himself to his feet; cracking his back as he went. He doesn’t really have the time for sightseeing and introspection.
It’s maybe another hour or two later, that it seems the sun is starting to rise. The days and nights are significantly shorter, even by Earth standards, he thought as he made it to the top of a sand dune. Perched atop that sand dune, he can see almost horizon to horizon. The forest is rising up directly in front of him - the difference in landscapes is jarring. Desert one second, forest the next.
Maybe a mile, two at the most, and slightly to his left - he can see the devastation from the Blue Lion’s crash. There’s a clear line of wreckage through the trees.
If he runs, he should be able to make it there in a few minutes.
Those few minutes is all it took for the sun to come up, bright and hot in the sky; there’s already a marked difference in the temperatures. Keith is huffing as he runs, drenched in sweat. Again .
He clears the last few hundred feet, vaulting over downed trees when he makes it to the Blue Lion.
Slowing down again, Keith finally got a chance to get a good look at the wreckage. No wonder it seemed so much lower in the ground, he thought to himself.
The Blue Lion is ass up in a small lake; the front - the cockpit - is completely submerged in the water.