Lavender & Ice

3. Close Encounters

The next morning the male attendant at the medical tent entrance nodded his head in greeting at him, looking bored and sleepy. He nodded in return and walked past him, down the hall to Ashima's room.

He pressed his lips together when he saw she was still laying there asleep. He started to leave but then stopped before walking to stand beside her bed, looking down at her.

"I guess I should actually check on you."

He took in her features. Her skin was a whitish tan color, with hints of red, especially on her cheeks and nose. She had fur above her eyes and very long fur on the top of her head.

"How odd." He commented. He also noticed how truly small she was as he took in her neck and arms, that lay above the blanket.

"Are you a youngling?" He wondered, but sighed when he got no reply. He looked down and noted how her wrists and hands looked so pale and fragile compared to females of his world.

He reached out to touch her dainty fingers but immediately grimaced as he did so. He wrapped her entire hand inside of his large one and groaned. Her hands were freezing cold.

He reached over and noted the other hand was the same, his hands touching her bare arms as well. He immediately tucked her arms under the blanket that the rest of her was under, pulling it up to cover her neck, before stomping to the door and yelling out for an attendant. He returned to her bedside just as the woman from yesterday walked into the room.

"She is cold." He said flatly.

 The woman cocked her head slightly, confused.

"Come." He commanded, motioning for the woman to join him beside Ashima. "Feel her face, her neck. Her hands and arms were like ice, so I put them under the blanket."

"She is this cold? In here?" The attendant pulled the blanket back and felt Ashima's hands, before lifting her shirt slightly to feel her stomach.

"She is not of our species, did you not think to check if these temperatures were too cold for her?" He berated, annoyed.

She replaced the shirt and blanket and let out a groan before rushing out of the room, returning a few minutes later with more blankets. He helped the woman cover Ashima, making sure her arms and neck were underneath, with only her head exposed.

~~~~

That evening, He plopped down his maps onto his desk and groaned as he looked up at the skylight in his tent, rubbing the back of his neck. Dusk was quickly approaching.

He put on his jacket and shoes, making his way to his eldest brother dwelling.

"Greetings, Kietnan." His brother welcomed him into his tent.

"Greetings, Kahal."

"Come, sit." He brought Kietnan to his dining table where two jars of purple liquid were sat along with dried vegetables and freshly prepared meat.

"I trust your studies for the trials are going well?"

"As well as can be done with no specific details yet given. And you?"

"The time and effort I've put into studying maps and past trial records is probably only surpassed by you, little brother."

"I doubt that." Kietnan protested.

"Fret not, Kietnan. We will both do well, I have every confidence."

"I am not worried." Kietnan said dryly.

"No, I did not think so. You are quite knowledgeable and capable. Yet I know you will still spend countless hours studying anyway."

Kietnan didn't try to argue, his brother was right.

"So I hear you found something in the lake yesterday."

"Ah." He leaned back in his chair, finished with his meal. "Yes. Most troublesome."

"What's it like?"

"Apparently it is a she." He noted, pouring himself a mug of water. "Pale cream skin, fur on its head. And small."

"Interesting. Anything more?"

"She was obviously not made to survive in such temperatures as these. She has yet to awaken."

"Ah." Kahal replied. "Well. Perhaps she will soon and we can figure out where she is from and how she arrived here of all places."

"Yes, perhaps. Speaking of which, I am due at the medical tent. They required me to sign as the responsible party since I brought her there, and have instructed me to come by each morning and evening."

"Ah, I see. Well, do let me know if she awakens."

Kietnan nodded before leaving his brother's dwelling to make his way to the medical tent. This time a woman attendant greeted him with a slight wave as he entered. He assumed they all knew why he was here, he was the man who found the alien, after all. He wondered if even the start of the trials would not hinder the amount of talk this female was creating.

"Any better?" He asked the alien lying on the bed as he entered. She made no sound or movement so he had to assume she was still unconscious. He walked to her bedside and growled when he saw her face.

Her brows were furrowed, her lips trembled as her teeth clattered together, and forehead was covered in sweat. Her body was shivering, he realized.

Cold again. He thought, frustrated.

He reached and touched her cheek with the back of his hand and his eyes pressed together in confusion. She wasn't cold, she was hot. Very hot.

Again, he called for an attendant from the doorway. This time a male entered the room a few moments later.

"She's burning up."

"Was she not cold this morning?" The attendant asked in confusion as he approached the bed.

When the attendant saw the state Ashima was in, he immediately tore two of the three blankets from her. "Call for another attendant." He instructed Kietnan, who did as told. 

~~~~

The next morning, Kietnan groaned as he read over a report from a previous round of trials. "This is getting monotonous." He stood and stretched, pacing the room to get his blood flowing. He had already read through the records of previous trials many times over these past months, and memorized every detail of every map of this area. Yet all he could do to prepare was to go over them again.

As he stretched he glanced over to the small, alien woman on the bed across the room. Despite having no real attachment to the alien, being labeled as responsible for her pulled at his sense of duty. Twice now the medical attendants had been unaware of her physical state of distress. Despite the assurance that they would watch her more closely from now on, he no longer trusted them with her care. So after waking at daylight, he'd gathered papers to study and had a table and chair brought into her room so he could keep an eye on her.

He looked up to the skylight in the room to see it was approaching midday. "I'll return in a few hours." He spoke to her as he gathered up his papers. "I'll return these to my tent, have my midday meal, and spend a couple hours exploring the area before returning here to check up on you."

Papers in hand, he looked at her motionless form again. "I must familiarize myself with the terrain as much as possible before the trials begin in two days." And with that, he walked out, shutting the door behind him and wondering why he was speaking to the unconscious alien.