Menagerie's Falling Star

Part One: The Frostjumper And The Tigress

35 minutes after the Drop

Frost groaned in pain, as he returned to consciousness. The first thing he noticed is the throbbing pain in his knee. Remembering earlier, he reached for his knee and covered it. He softly spoke to himself. "Please tell me that I have some fucking Biofoam...."

He reached for a pack under his chest plate, and revealed a strange canister. Now he then reached for another, pulling out a pair of tweezers. As he started to operate on his knee, a female voice muttered.

"If the bullet is still in there, I could attempt to pull it out."

Shooting his eyes open and jumping, he sees a young woman wearing a cape staring down at him. He waved nervously, before reaching for the knife holder strapped to his chest plate. To his horrid surprise, it's empty. Frost smiled nervously, as he noticed his helmet lying next to her foot. To his fortune, it's perfectly intact with no indication of damage at all. Smiling nervously, he asked.

"Well, fuck. Not gonna kill me, are ya?"

"So far, the reason I see why is the fact you're a human." The woman replied, as she crossed her arms while looking down at him.

'Racist, much? She's not human, I'm guessing. No doubt I'm on a different planet.' Frost thought to himself, before eyeing the ears, amber eyes, and stripes she has. He then groaned and repeated his thoughts aloud, "Well, I can tell you aren't- so this planet racist or something?"

"If you would call it that." The woman replied, inspecting Frost's armor more before he turned his head back to his gunshot wound.

"Well, thanks for the offer, lady- but I don't need no claws or probes or anything shoved into my leg." He sarcastically chuckled while digging the tweezers into the wound, biting his tongue not to scream.

The woman cringed as Frost pulled the bullet out with the now entirely bloody tweezers, revealing how deep it had gone.

"They told me that I shouldn't have thigh holstered that thing... Did I listen? Pfft- no." He mumbled to himself, before throwing the bullet and putting away the tweezers.

Frost then unhooked a pipe on the canister he pulled out, before aiming the pipe at his wound and pulled the trigger. Instantly, foam was unleashed onto his leg and patched up the wound temporarily.

'Well, that'll hold for a while.' The Helljumper thought to himself, before directing his attention to the cat woman watching him. "Well, thanks for the help. The door system was probably jammed." He nodded to the pod, before a dawning realization came to him:

The woman used her hands to pry open the titanium pod.

Now, hold on. "Wait a fuckin' minute-" Frost looked at the woman in shock, making her smirk at his reaction.

"Is there a problem?" She smugly asked.

"I- bare hands- Spartans- ARE YOU- WHA-" Frost shot his head between the pod and the woman, making her stifle a laugh.

Recollecting himself, shaking his head, Frost lifted himself up slowly. "Impressive- but I won't ask for the moment. I can tell you know more about here than I do, and I don't think I'll be making contact with my squad anytime soon." He mumbled as he received static from the communications channel, once he pressed the side of his helmet to check in.

Looking around, Frost gazed at the forest below before asking, "Got any place I can stay?"

The woman responded, raising an eyebrow, "You could stay with me... but what's in it for me?"

'Of course she'll ask that. Time to think up something.' Frost thought.

"A charming Helljumper as a friend-?" He asked, giving a two finger salute, before the woman rolled her eyes. He then suggested, "Okay- an ally?"

She raised an eyebrow at his proposal and thought, for a moment, before saying, "Alright... but since you're in Menagerie-"

She was then cut off as Frost interrupted by asking her, "I ain't ever heard of that- that's the name of the planet or the city?" He dusted his armor off, causing the woman to growl.

"Rude. But that's the name of this island. The planet is Remnant. Are you- are you from space...?" She trailed off, as she inspected his face.

Frost raised an eyebrow, before responding with, "Uh- yeah-? Sure- I'm definitely somewhere I don't know, I thought you would have at least heard of the UNSC if I was-" Frost caught himself, as a big question loomed in his mind. He then jumped up and looked around. "-What about the Covenant!?"

"The- what...?" The woman looked at him with a confused face, before he sighed and calmed down.

'So the Covenant don't own this place, at all.' Frost thought, before stating. "Nevermind... continue, please? Sorry for the interruption, anyways."

"None taken. But, as I was saying- humans aren't well welcomed in Menagerie. So, I believe that you with us- should be a little secret." The woman placed a fist on her hip.

"Us?" Frost raised an eyebrow, before looking at the moon and whistled.

"I am the- actually... not important." The woman sighed as she gazed up at the moon with him.

That definitely doesn't sound suspicious at all. Ain't gonna pry any further, then. "Well- I guess having to stay with the person that saved my ass isn't so bad..." Frost said, as he scratched his neck before wincing and then looked at his hand. "By the way, the name's Frost."

"... Sienna. Sienna Khan. And be grateful for that. My apprentice may not appreciate you, so you'll have to stay hidden whenever others are around, got it?" Sienna turned to him, and frowned as Frost wiped the blood off his hand on her cape and pulled his hand back, giving off a nervous smile on his face.

"A few rules, first..." She groaned as she wiped the blood off the cape. "First off, don't go outside of the place we'll be in..."

'So it's gonna be like that, then?' Frost thought, as Sienna gave him the rules of the place. Obviously, not getting caught as the most important.

'This will be fun for me...'