Filled with little hope, but all the more determination Vera started on her long way.
She had the entire wide plains of Geshtachius Prime open to her - a kind of freedom she had never experienced, but had always longed for. Now it was a curse: Vera had no idea where to turn to. Still, the first part of her journey was the obvious one: She had to get down from this heightened spot. At one point not far from the crashed shuttle she was able to climb down and reach the valley without further injuring herself. Her palms looked under the sunlight like she had bathed them in a bucket of blood, but the blood began to dry up, showing that her wounds were nasty looking, but otherwise harmless scratches. Besides they were a lot smaller than Vera had guessed and already hurt a lot less than right after the crash.
Her head on the other side was an entirely different matter. The dent on the back of her head gave her a really unpleasant pulse, and Vera felt dizzy again after just a few steps. She sat down on a rock and pulled out one of the water bottles from her backpack. A few sips from the bottle did make her feel better, but she was worried. Maybe she was in worse condition than she was ready to admit, and maybe it would have been better had she stayed with Tammy and the shuttle. But who else would look for help then? Vera had no choice.
Using a small piece of cloth she had also found in her backpack and some water from the drinking bottle Vera washed away the blood from her hands. It felt like burning when she touched the scratches, but afterwards it looked so much better. Those scratches were tiny, compared to the pain she had to endure in the shuttle. Vera was a little miffed about herself behaving like a little child. A mercenary, even a trainee mercenary, should have been able to endure more. She put the water back and continued on her way.
Over and over again she had to take a small break when she felt her sense of balance and orientation fading and her becoming dizzy again. It didn't last for long, and she managed to cope with it by sitting still and closing her eyes. But she didn't make much progress with that. After arriving inside the valley she headed for the small forests. Behind those she had made out parts of a mountainside and made it her destination. Out here she wouldn't find any settlements or something similar, but on a mountain the chances were bigger to be found if she could send some sort of signal. At least she would be able to picture a way she would be taken. It was better than nothing.
The sun already leaned towards the horizon when she finally arrived at one of the small forests she had seen from her elevated point. It was shadowy and cool here, and she had exhausted herself so much that she planned to take a longer rest now. Arriving at the edge of the forest she had the strong urge to just drop and stay down to rest. But she went on a little further, deeper into the woods to find a safer spot surrounded by trees. It was a really nice, idyllic spot she had found there. Under other circumstances she might had even enjoyed being there.
She put her backpack down and rubbed her aching shoulders that had gotten worn out from the long marsh. Still she was glad to have picked it up after all. Like many times before she took another drink, this time from her juice bottle, and she felt really thirsty after this long way. The plain with the crashed shuttle was not out of sight yet, but it was quite distant. She felt like drained out thinking what distance she had already walked without seeing any end to it. And soon it would be dark around here...
Once more Vera dug into her backpack and decided that it was time to eat something. It could only be helpful, even when it only decreased the weight. She pulled out a sandwich from the pastry bag and sniffed it. Her mother had thought of everything and had packed her a number of sandwiches with her favourite toppings. But as soon as she had taken two bites, she felt sick - her stomach acted up, she felt dizzy and nauseous. She lowered the sandwich, having lost her appetite in a moment's notice.
The bushes in front of her rustled. But before Vera even found the time to be scared, a dog appeared from them.
It was not a big dog, but it wasn't very small either. Its fur had the colour of chocolate, leaving only some white spots on its muzzle and belly. The ears were hanging down sloppily like autumn leaves, but its eyes looked at her watchfully, and its nose sniffed at her direction in happy expectation. Vera could clearly see that it scented not only her but also the sandwich in her hand. But she didn't mind that. She liked dogs very much, and out here this dog was the most pretty sight for sore eyes and the most welcome company she could have ever imagined.
"Hey!" she exclamed happily. "Where do you come from?" Invitingly she presented her sandwich to the dog. "You want to eat something?"
Somehow the dog actually seemed to understand her, and it came closer with its tail waggling in delight. She reached out with her hand, stroking its scraggy fur when it was close enough for that. But its attention was completely focused on the sandwich, and as she held it up after a few moments it swallowed it awhole. Meanwhile it lay down to her feet and had her stroke it, its tail continuously waggling.
Was this a dream? Vera started to suspect that all this could not be happening for real - that maybe she had fallen asleep or was still rendered unconscious aboard the shuttle, and that the dog wasn't really there. But she looked down on her hands and the very real injuries on them, and she was still enduring headaches and dizzyness, and the fur of the dog felt very real, too. But why would he be so sociable, being out in the wild like this? Wild animals would have reacted to her in a different way. It appeared like this dog was accustomed to be with humans.
Carefully Vera looked for a collar or any other indication, but she found nothing. "Where are you from?" she asked thoughtfully. "Don't you have an owner?"
The dog didn't react to these questions. Of course it didn't, like Vera realized shortly after - even if those animals possessed a certain kind of intelligence she did expect a little too much of it now. But if it wasn't alone out here... Gently she tickled it behind its ears, and it raised its muzzle up to her face, looking back at her. "Now, where's your owner?" she then asked without expecting an answer. She hoped that at least the sound of her voice would convince it. "Shall we go looking?"
The dog did react to that. Its long moist tongue went through her face that was carelessly placed close enough to his mouth. She backed off in disgust, wiping her face with a sleeve. Well, the dog seemed to like her. It stared at her expectingly, not leaving her out of its sight as she stood up and picked up the backpack. A short moment later she was ready to depart, the dog by her side giving her more hope again that she'd be successful.
"Let's go!" she proclaimed. "You lead."
Again the dog reacted accordingly, taking a few steps ahead while Vera followed it. Its four legs made it considerably faster of course, but every time she fell back too far and was afraid to loose sight of him, it stopped on purpose and looked back at her. When she had caught up with it again, it took the next few steps ahead. Vera figured more and more that this behavior did not fit a wild animal. It was more like the dog had been around humans for a long time and had gotten used to them not being able to keep its pace.
They left the forest behind and took a path leading more upwards. They had not reached the mountainside yet that Vera had discovered from afar, even the first mountains were still far away. But they soon reached a spot higher than the crash site of the shuttle. Vera was able to look down into the valley and make out the shuttle as a little grey distant spot. As she didn't see any smoke or any other indication that something bad had happened there, she calmed down a little. The dog stood right next to her, nudged her hand with its nose as if it wanted to comfort her. Or as if it wanted her to go on. Or possibly both.
She looked down on it and smiled. "Yes, I know" she said with a sigh. "We still have a long wa... aah... aaaachoo!" The all of a sudden sneeze broke out of her like an explosion. Her head seemed to burst, that's how bad her headache was in this moment. She held on to her head with both hands, not sure whether she should better hold her head or her nose. But while doing so, the next sneeze came along. She was certain that her head was about to burst like a balloon when it would come out.
The dog stood beside her and looked at her. Still it waggled its tail happily, but when she sneezed it took a cautious step back, as if it expected a bigger explosion, too. Vera began to slowly recover, but she felt that her eyes became watery. And as for her nose... She paused when the thought crossed her mind. "Is that you?" she asked towards the dog.
The third sneeze followed, and she felt her breath going heavier than before. The allergy!
Her mother had been right all along, although Vera had had her doubts
about it until this very moment. She had always believed that her
parents only used the allergy as an excuse for not having to buy an
expensive dog. Vera had been tested on various allergies by the doctors
in coock City, but were those tests really reliable? Or wasn't it fact
that grown-ups always were in cahoots with each other, and her parents
simply had told her a different result?
All those thoughts were for naught now, cause her parents had been right with everything. Now she was standing there, with this wonderful dog that seemed to understand her and panted at her helpfully. But one sneeze after the other was building up inside her, every breath she took came out with a rattling sound, her nose running continuously. All that did only happen since she was with the dog. But it couldn't be right! It just wasn't fair! The dog was the only help she would find in this desolate region, and she couldn't go near it.
I have to go through this now, she thought by herself, grimly determined. Without company, without any hint as to where she should go, she didn't stand a chance. And she had to get help, for Tammy's sake. If it meant that she had to endure this allergy, then so be it. There were mercenaries in this universe having endured much worse. If she couldn't even handle this... then she could spend the rest of her days on the farm all the same.
Again she sneezed, and the dog backed off. Then, with a loud bark, it turned around and ran away. "Stop!" Vera called for him, in between sneezes. "Wait!" But the dog didn't listen. It just kept running. Not long after it was out of sight, having disappeared among the trees. Vera, breathing heavily and not in the condition to follow it, just could watch helplessly. "Please wait..."
Sorrowful she looked in the direction the dog had gone. Maybe it was for the best after all. Maybe the dog had understood that it was the cause of her sneezes and therefor had left her. The path it had taken lead further up into the mountains, and Vera decided to at least keep going in that direction. After all she had seen she asserted that the dog had dealt a lot with humans and would stick with them whenever possible. If it was looking for human company, it would find it - at least it had better chances than her.
She went on. Her breath
still rattled, and she had to sneeze from time to time. But it got
better, now that the dog was no longer with her. It made her sad. If there only was a way,
she thought. In history class she had once learned that all of mankind
had lived on one single planet, but had left it almost a thousand years
ago. So if the humans had achieved to spread all over the galaxy, to
settle on worlds like Aquatica or the Centralius planets and to invent
the Comm, then why couldn't they invent something to cure allergies to
dogs? It seriously couldn't be that difficult!
With a heavy heart she scratched the dog from her wishlist in her mind and continued walking towards the mountains.
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