"Back to the land of the living I, see?" I commented as her eyes began to slowly peel open. They began drooping as she looked on the verge of passing out again, but I was quick to lean over and pat her cheek firmly "Can't have you going unconscious on me, can I? Open up those eyes."

She weakly raised her right arm to swat away my palm but stopped when her eyes zeroed in on the cuffs strapped on her wrist. A groan left her lips "Stars, I thought that was a nightmare," She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

I shook my head mockingly "No this is your life now, and unfortunately it's mine too, not to point any fingers but this-" I raised up our wrists "Is no fault of mine."

She shrugged "You could've made yourself useful and freed us with the keys," She grumbled.

This caught my attention "Wait are they still on you?" I asked, wondering why I hadn't thought of searching her for them when she was asleep.

"My back right pocket, I would pull them out for you but..." We glanced down at her sling together. I sunk to my knees and reached behind her.

"Lean a bit forward for me," I told her, making her huff and bend over, putting her chin on my left shoulder. I used my upper arms to hold her up whilst my lower ones patted her pockets down. "I don't feel anything."

She pulled away and put her head on my other shoulder "Try the other one."

I stuffed my fist into her left one "Nothing," I breathed disappointed.

I pulled away and she leaned back onto the wooden poll I'd perched her up on. There was a moment of silence until she realized I was staring at her "What? The keys aren't on me, you already know what that means," She stated, digging out the dirt from beneath her fingertips.

My eyes widened "Don't tell me they're-

"With our our ride at the bottom of that canyon? Alright, I won't tell you."

I closed my eyes and fell onto my bum, putting my head in my hands "This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?' I sighed.

"It seems I'm stuck with you for however long it takes to get us off this," She narrowed her eyes as she took in her surroundings. "Where are we?"

I rubbed the sides of my head to try to relieve myself from a painful incoming headache "Somewhere in the worst galaxy ever," I reminded her, shivering at the thought of being in the milky way.

"No, I mean where are we right now."

I took in the sad excuse for a camp from the torn tarps that were flying in the wind to the scattered supplies. It had definitely belonged to someone...once but it had probably seen much better days. Everything useful was gone but there were a few things lying around that told me whoever did once live here had left in a rush.

"The only evidence of life for miles," I picked up the can of food that I was eating earlier "And here I was thinking we'd been unlucky enough to land on an abandoned planet."

She raised an eyebrow "What's wrong with an abandoned planet?"

"Its people left for a reason."

Her eyes ran over my clothes that had now darkened with sweat, I'd ripped off the lower half of my shirt to expose my midriff for more air circulation and the girls' eyes seemed to notice that as they lingered on where I had my upper and lower belly pierced with silver balls. "You look tired," She noted.

"You try drag your dead weight across a couple of miles and get back to me."

She shrugged not looking sorry in the slightest, "I don't like blood."

"Well considering you're an intergalactic criminal you might want to get used to it," I narrowed my eyes, "Or is this going to be a," I made a turning gesture with my fingers, "Recurring thing."

"Depends," She sighed, "How much blood are you planning on shedding?"

"Anddd," I looked down at the food I was eating, "That's the end of this conversation."

"Where did you get that?" She frowned eyeing the can of whatever it was.

I nodded my head at the row of them beside her, all of them unopened. "There are a bunch of them, whoever lived here didn't seem to want them that bad I guess."

She used her uninjured hand to pick one of the cans up before looking at it strangely, muttering the label to herself. Her eyes suddenly widened, and she started looking around the camp more closely. "You don't like the brand?" I asked, judging the horror in her eyes.

"No, it's not that I just..." She looked back down at the can, "I'm not a fan."

"You're clearly not hungry then."

She swallowed, putting the can down, "I guess not."

"I'm shocked, it's been a couple of hours since I last ate, and you didn't even touch your food back in the cafeteria."

Her jaw dropped "It's been hours?"

I shrugged "Feels that way, I don't really remember how time works in this galaxy," I put the can down and got to my feet. "I'd appreciate if you stay conscious for a bit though, if it makes you feel better, I cleaned my hands," I showed her all my palms "No more scary blood."

She glanced down at her arm before flinching "Don't remind me," She grumbled trying to flex out her fingers but only wincing in the process "You could've at least tried cleaning my wound up a bit when you were tidying yourself up."

I tilted my head "Now why would I do that?"

Hearing my irritated tone, she was slightly taken back "Are you still mad about the whole helping you out of prison thing," Before continued she caught sight of my blank stare and nodded, "Yeah well you're going to have to get over that sooner rather than later," she pointed out.

I narrowed my eyes at her "You didn't 'help me' do anything, you do realize what you've done right? I'm a fugitive now," I pointed to the both of us "We both are, that's an extension of my sentence."

"If we get caught," She shot back, "And I don't know about you, but that's not exactly in my plans."

I laughed dryly "Oh no, when we find a way out of here, we're both going back. I can't just let you go free," I looked her up and down "I don't know who you are."

I don't know what you've done, was the echo behind my words.

"No need to go all noble on me," She chuckled, "We met in a prison, and I don't know about you," She looked me up and down, "But I haven't done anything wrong."

I chuckled, "Haven't heard that one before."

She frowned, "No really! It was the wrong place wrong time kinda thing, honest" She swore.

"And I walked into the facility looking for a place to stay."

"You only don't believe me because you don't know me," She told me, "Look, I'm Astra," She extended her arm out to me.

I stared at her hand making her roll her eyes. "Oh c'mon at least you have four fully functioning arms, shake my one," She wiggled her eyebrows at me, extending her arm out more. "If this is about not knowing why I went to jail in the first place I can assure you it was a simple sentence, nothing too long and surely not that serious. I mean look at me- Do I look like a killer?" She giggled.

I took her hand in mine "Do I?'

Even under the blazing eye of the sun that hung above us, the temperature between us dropped significantly as she stared in my eyes, searching for signs of me joking. In the awkward silence she managed to mutter "It would be much harder to move around with me if I were dead," She pointed out.

"I've had a lot of practice," I reminded her, before slowly beginning to shake her hand "You can call me Sol."

"See, now we're not strangers anymore," She grinned, letting go of my hand "So Sol, what's the plan? Is there anything in this camp that could help us break these off or at least pick the lock."

I shook my head "The cuffs are designed to withstand a lot in terms of strength but if you're up for picking it," I put my arms out, "Be my guest."

"See with that optimism, we're bound to be stuck here forever," She warned but I was no longer listening. "I for one, have no intent on dying on here with nothing left to find my bones as they will be buried in this sea of sa-

"Astra, shut up."

My eyes stayed focused on what was behind her, watching as the tip of what looked like a tail sunk into the sand a bit of a distance away from us completely disappearing from sight. I reached up and rubbed my eyes, not really believing what I was seeing, I had been walking in the heat for quite a while without rest.

I glanced at the can of food, my eyes narrowing at its unfamiliar contents. Maybe I should've heated these up.

"Is it my eyes or is the sand beneath us...bubbling?" Astra asked, breaking my train of thought. My gaze shifted to the ground beneath us that indeed bounced and jumped as if there were a fire lit beneath it.

It took the split second needed for my eyes to blink for us to suddenly be in the air. A large pale pink head burst from the earth, taking both Astra and I with it. We would've been separated if not for the handcuffs that joined our arms together.

Its skin was rough, smooth for the most part but wrinkly around certain rings around its body. Its width was almost double my height and its length? Seemingly endless. It had carried us to a very significant height before beginning to slow down, causing us to nearly slip off until its large body began to lean forward, making us lose balance anyway.

I put my hands in front of me to brace for the landing as I fell through the thin material of the tarp above the camp and hit the ground, lucky for me, a wooden table was present to break my fall.

Rolling off of the splintered wood I crawled slowly to a groaning Astra who had gotten a much cushier landing as the cloth of the tarp had caught her and tore only enough to sink her slowly to the ground. "You, okay?" I asked breathlessly, shaking her shoulder to check if she was awake.

"Sure," She coughed "I landed on my good arm." Seeing the circular shadow that suddenly cast over her face I dived for her, tackling her body and rolling away as the creature dove into the sand beside us once more, missing our bodies by a pinch.

Shoving Astra's body off me I crouched into a protective stance over her, seeing as she was hurt, and I doubted she could be useful in a fight. Watching its body burrow into the ground, spitting sand everywhere I assessed it for any weak points "It's like a...worm," Astra commented.

Making me snap my head back to look at her bewildered that she recognized such a beast "A what!?"

I was startled by the sound of feet hitting the ground, making me look back seeing that a clothed figure had jumped off the animal and landed right in front of me. A rider perhaps, though I wondered how it was comfortable to control such a thing with the suit they wore that covered them from head to toe.

They tilted their head at me, seemingly looking at me from head to toe and before I could act, they took a step back to the beast and grabbed the saddle strapped to it that was about to sink in with it and in a flash they were gone too.

I got to my feet, ducking under the animals' large tail before grabbing a larger piece of the broken table I had crashed into and using its sharp edge to pierce the skin of the creature before it could completely disappear into the sand.

Its body thrashed and sunk into the ground faster and for a second there was quiet until the orange sand began to stain with a dark red color that granted me no feeling of peace. "Astra can you run?" I asked as adrenaline pumped in my veins, my eyes darting all over the sand in search of the threat.

She shook her head frantically "Not faster than that," She told me honestly "I usually rely on my abilities to keep me alive."

"Well tell your legs they have a new job."

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