The Galactic Bride
Chapter 18: The Mari Girl

The night held no awkwardness for them as they were too tired. But having both slept soundly and stuffed with bear, they were feeling better. When when the horn had blown with no knew deaths in the morning, things were looking up. That was, until the horn was followed by a referee's voice. There was a dread that started to come from the sound of it.

"Contestants, you have all done well so far. So much so that the Minister has issued a temporary truce. Be at the landing site this afternoon to receive a free meal. You are not allowed to bring your weapons you've collected. When the horn sounds again, you are not allowed to attack anyone either. See you there! Oh, by the way, this isn't optional. Failure to attend will mean an automatic expulsion from the island. Thank you!"

Aki looked at General Anura. "Expulsion? She means they'll kill us, right?"

"That would be my guess."

"Well that's just perfect." Aki through up his arms. "So basically we're walking unarmed into the jungle but still are allowed to kill each other until that horn blows again."

The General tilted her head and thought about it. "I thought she meant we couldn't attack until the horn blows again?"

They stared at each other again. There was some confusion at this point, but in the end, the General thought it sounded more Contest-like to allow them to kill each other up until a certain point, like Aki suggested. Regardless, the two of them were hours away from the landing site, which meant they didn't have time to even talk about it, they needed to start moving now.

"Would it be easier to climb down the mountain by the cliff, then go the landing site by traveling the beach?"

"Yes, but it would also leave us open to attack." The General told him. And it might clue in our competitors on where we are. So far we've been lucky that no one has found us."

She might say that, but two of them almost did find them. And for their discovery Aki and the General had thrown them over a cliff. "I guess that's a dumb idea anyway, we can't climb back up without someone on top already."

So they had little choice by the head down the mountain. Since they had ran before, and barely reached the cave somewhere in the afternoon, they would have to run again. Both of them took some water with them, and hunk of bear for lunch, then started their jog.

Going downhill would be both easier and more dangerous. The danger factors was it being easier to trip up on things. And indeed, Aki had caught General Anura by the arm a few times when she nearly fell face first from having her foot caught on a vine, and vice-versa. But since they were going down hill, they didn't have to run at full speed which didn't drain them too much of energy.

"What kind of meal will they have?" Aki asked her when he felt like she could answer.

There were some areas of the jungle that was more dense than others and both of them needed to save their breath for those parts. But some patches were decent, and both of them would recover and start small chit-chat to pass the time.

"I don't know. They don't usually have truces unless the contest is going pretty well." The General told him. "Someone on this island is entertaining enough that the viewers are treated to a truce just to see how we'll deal with that situation."

"Do you think it's us?" Aki asked her, not out of vanity, but as an actual question. "I mean, weren't you well-known enough before this thing started?"

"Could be. We've done pretty well. But usually the more popular ones are flamboyant. That's not me at all. It's probably one of the Tyrian. They tend to to have loud personalities, and I wouldn't doubt it if they are the other group that are racking up kills."

They returned to silence for a while as the jungle got more dense in the next area. Aki thought about it the notion that viewers voted on popularity of the contestants. That meant this wasn't just something on that people either casually watched or not, it was popular. In a way he could see why, as the winner determined the fate of a political party, but in another way he couldn't stand the fact that people were actually watching this and enjoying it. They were murdering people, and people had picked out favorites.

"We have to stop." General Anura said after a moment. They were still in dense jungle.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just need to pee."

Aki couldn't recall her ever saying something like that before, let alone ever seeing her take a tiolet break, but he supposed that there was a first time for everything. She told him to stay were he was, then she wandered off behind some cover to do her business. He tried not to listen to her go, but at the same time he expected it.

All of a sudden his black flashed hot, then screamed in pain. Blood drained from a sudden slash. Spinning around, he only saw another swing of a bamboo made hand claw coming for his face. He barely avoided the three pronged weapon. Rolling out of the way, he got a good look at his attacker. It wasn't a Wahconese girl or a Tyrian. It was someone he had completely forgot was on the island, a Mari.

She swung again, the bamboo claw threatening to slash his chest this time. It was clear that she had made this weapon after she left her camp site, hoping that it didn't count as a rule break. Her reach was dangerous, and it all Aki could do to keep avoiding them, all the while trying to ignored the pain in her back.

Jumping back to avoid another slash, the back of Aki's foot tripped over a rock and he fell on his butt. Lucky for him he landed next to what he'd normally consider fire wood. Still it was better than nothing, so he picked it up, and mainly used it to block the next blow. On his feet again, she swatted away her claw attempts two more times before his piece of wood got caught within her claw, and both weapons went flying into the jungle.

They stared at each other for a moment, unsure what to do next. Then the Mari girl remembered she had ram-horns on her head, and charged. It was back to dodging again. If he allowed her to hit him with that hard skull of hers, even if the horns weren't sharp, he's be done for. She attempted to get him twice, the second time she nearly rammed her head into a tree.

"Hey we're supposed to be on a truce." Aki breathed in. His back was killing him.

"Not yet we aren't." The Mari girl shook her head. "If you stay still, I'll end it as quickly as possible."

He was sure she meant that as an act of kindness. A quick death of being crushed to death by her charge, or a slow one from bleed out. But he didn't feel like give up so quick.

"The cuts aren't that deep."

"They aren't shallow either." She told him. "Please, I don't want to hurt you anymore. Just give up. There's no shame in losing this way."

"I don't want to hurt you either." Aki shook his head at her. "You're the one who attacked me, remember."

"Just shut up!" She lowered her head and charged again.

Aki was readying himself to get out of her way when suddenly General Anura came out of the bushes and tackled the Mari girl on her side. It looked pretty brutal, almost like American football. The Mari was running at full speed and was completely blind-sided and swiped off her feet. She rolled like a rag doll on the floor from that. Nevertheless, she was on her feet again, looking pretty banged up from that.

The General was now holding a heavy rock, and Aki was in a fighting stance. The tables had turned, it was two on one now, and the Mari's eyes widened with fear. Something about that face made Aki not charge at her like he wanted too. The fear on her face reminded him that she was just as scared as he was, that she was a person forced into all of this.

"If you stop attacking, then we will." The General had said, to his surprise. It was like she knew what he was thinking.

"You'd bash me with that rock once I let my guard down." The Mari girl spoke quickly. "She'll hold me down, and you'll hit me with it."

The General dropped the rock and held up her hands. "It's up to you."

She looked uneasy, then stood up from her fighting position, looking nervous. Aki stood up as well, then groaned. His back really was hurting. She must have gotten him good. The General seemed to think the fight was over, as she was behind him at once inspecting the slash marks.

"The good news is that it's just a flesh wound. The bad news is we're in a jungle and you're bleeding pretty bad. We need to put something over the wound." She was saying behind him. "Hey you, got any ideas?"

"How should I-" But Aki realized she wasn't talking to him. She was addressing the Mari still present.

She looked as startled at the acknowledgement as he did, but she tentatively came closer and looked at his back. "There are some big leaves around here somewhere. It'll wrap about her back just fine, it's just wrapping them tight that will be the problem."

"You know the vegetation in this area then? Have you been living nearby?"

"I'm not telling you where my camp is!" The Mari quickly said, revealing she had in fact been living in the area.

"Do you have any healing ointment?" The General ignored her outburst. "If you run and get it, we'll stay here so your site will remain a secret."

"I don't have any!" This time both of them believed her. There wasn't a fear in her voice but a regret.

So they had to make due with what they had. The General and the Mari girl found huge banana leaf looking leaves and pressed them against his back, then found thin vines to sew her into them. The pressure felt good, but it certainly wasn't as good of a bandage. It might be stopping the bleeding somewhat, but now all the way.

The General was looking worried. "I don't know what we're going to do. The wound isn't that serious, but if you keep bleeding like that, it might be impossible to make it back to camp before I can attend to it properly."

So that's how he was going to go then. He'd more than likely bleed to death on the journey back to the shelter. But that was taking a defeatist attitude. He wouldn't die from a flash wound. Somehow he thought he could make it back to camp. The bleeding had stopped significantly since it had been bound.

"I'm not out just yet. Let's get this dinner over with so we can go back to camp."

"Fine." The General smirked then turned to the Mari girl. "Hey, do want to travel the rest of the way with us? No one will attack three people at once. There's only five left, even if the other two are teamed up it would be a disadvantage."

She still looked suspicious, but nodded her head regardless. "Okay."

They started moving again, all three of them at a job. It was not as easy as it was before. Aki's back was making it difficult. But he made a point not to complain about it. The Mari girl looked guilty and scared enough as it was. The way she was acting Aki got a good impression on what she had been doing most of the time. She had been hiding. She wouldn't say so, but he had seen in the eyes of a killer, and her eyes didn't have that deadness that lurked there. If she had killed, he'd be surprised.

"What's your name, and have you been up to during all of this?" Aki tried to spark conversation, mostly to keep his mind off the pain in his back.

"I'm Lew from House Vondrol." The Mari girl answered in short breaths. "No one would team up with me, not even my fellow Mari. So I've been playing alone. I haven't seen very many people so mostly I-" but she stopped, obviously hating herself for giving too much away.

"So you haven't killed anyone." The General finished the thought lingering in the air.

"That's none of your business."

"Seems you found a good spot. You're well feed and must have water. And you're in a place where no one has traveled."

"Don't go looking for my camp!" Lew spoke in a frantic voice.

"I won't. But it's comes down to just us, we'll have to meet again. They won't allow you to hide the whole contest, you know."

"That's why I think they're making us go to this Special Event." Aki interrupted. "Most of the time we're all separated. We only kill if we run into each other. We know there are five left, but it's a faceless number. They want us to see who's left, so we can gauge our opponents then start actively search for people."

"Do you think so?" Lew asked.

"If the rest see her…" The General was speaking mainly to herself than to Lew. "…well they'll think she's easy pickings."

"No way!" Lew shouted. "I'm not a weakling!"

But the Mari girl's voice sounded like a little girl, not like someone who was a threat. But Aki knew better. His back was proof of that. If anyone thought she was innocent they had another thing coming. She could have killed him back there and would have if he was alone. It might have been her first murder, but there would have been a death… and still might be. In the end, Aki could very well die due to Lew's actions.

"You're right. You're not a weakling. So let everyone at the table know you took both of us on before we convinced you to back down." Aki told her.

The General turned to him, wondering why he was advising her to put up a brave front. But her eyes went to the smiling Lew and the General smirked again. She knew full well that he had a thing for innocent girls. Both Hana and Lani were similar in that way. Hana a bit more spunky but when it came down to it, she was the same type. With that smile, Aki himself realized that Lew had drew him in. She might have killed him, but he didn't want her to die.

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