Searching the Remnants

The Saiyan woman was just about to tear into the sand rat she'd cooked up when the sounds of distant shouting and a plethora of small explosions erupted through the evening glow of sunlight and silence that typically blanketed the destroyed city that Celeh had taken up temporary residence. She growled under her breath that not only was someone causing a ruckus, but if her newfound senses were correct it was multiple someones. She set the rat aside with her sliced cactus fruit.

She rushed out of the building she'd been staying in. A couple of steps hit the dirt before she kicked off and took to the skies. Her energy burst forth from her feet and propelled her through the air just a few feet above the buildings as she zoomed in the direction she'd heard the shouting and explosions. Her hair was blown about from the force of the wind caused by her speed.

She came to a halt as soon as she saw the battlefield. She let out a frustrated click of her tongue as she descended with arms crossed. "Tch. I had hoped that this would be a minor skirmish, but I can see that I was too late to prevent unfortunate tragedy." The woman looked to the only person left standing. Her tail was curled around her waist like a belt. The armor she wore was a much older model than those of current Saiyan soldiers, and it was a lighter variant than the standard style, as well, if Indra had any knowledge on the subject.

"Were you being hunted or did you bump into this group of scavengers by accident?" Her gaze narrowed on the other Saiyan as she finally touched down several feet to the side of the battlefield he'd just devastated.

She let her arms fall to her side. Celeh breathed a small sigh as she stepped forward to get within reasonable speaking distance so she didn't have to half shout to get her words across. She turned from the man who still stood in order to approach the foes he had just defeated. Celeh knelt down beside one of them to check and see if there were any signs of life. "I haven't encountered any since arriving here several days ago, but that doesn't mean other scavengers don't still come to this city in search of supplies." The woman checked each body in kind to confirm they were all gone. She shook her head and gave a heavy sigh, then stood upright.

She turned to face the other Saiyan, "I'm Celeh. I was a soldier once upon a time. Now, I'm not so sure. I woke up from a cryo-sleep in the depths of a laboratory under the city. I'm still unsure how long it's been. I've just been surviving off of whatever I could find in the crumbling ruins of the buildings here. That, and the occasional wild beastie or edible cacti."

Her arms crossed in front of her chest once more. "If you came here for training, should I assume that you have a place to stay elsewhere? Or is part of your training going to be surviving in a place with no resources?"

Her gaze shifted back to the Tuffles that Indra had bested. Something nagged in the back of her mind, but she couldn't piece together what it was just yet. To distract herself from his words, she asked idly, "Is it cold here to you?" That was a silly and bizarre question. Even though night was approaching, the place had been baking all day in the harsh sunlight. The buildings held heat very well, which left the place almost as hot as it had been mid-day.

She listened intently to his story. As carefully as he watched her for any minor twitches or discernable shifts in demeanor, she watched him in turn with all the focus of battle hardened survivor searching for signs of weaknesses in an equally grizzled foe. The tension in the air that vanished when the battle ended had returned with a vengeance as the pair stared one another down.

Celeh's teeth gritted and fists clenched as she heard his tale. Deep down she wanted to deny it. She did not want to believe that her people would be divided so, but the cracks had begun to show even before she went under. The lower class Saiyans were the first to be shipped to the front line. The war had gone on so long in her time that many were disillusioned with the prospect of continuing. Why else would she feel the way she had? She wanted to stop the fighting, too. She couldn't remember why. Maybe this was the reason? It made sense in her mind. From what Indra had said, the fighting didn't end, though. It went on too long, and the faction splintered because the lower class grew increasingly discontent with being thrown into a grinder.

If he was right, she would find the answers for herself. It would be unwise to take the word of a single stranger as fact regarding the fate of an entire race. However, an ache in her heart made her uncertain. That nagging thought in the back of her mind resurfaced with a twin. Two urges in different directions trying to remind her of something important. The thoughts never fully realized in her mind. Her memory remained clouded.

If he saw any variance in her expression, it was due to this inner turmoil as her memories failed to surface and it showed on her face in the form of annoyance and frustration. She accepted the bottle of water when he offered it. "I've got a camp set up inside a half-standing bar a couple of blocks down from here. There's a freshly roasted sand rat and some diced cactus fruit I can share with you. it isn't much, but it'll stave off hunger until the morning. There's enough of a roof and walls to keep the elements at bay for the most part, too."

She made this offer while walking over to the Tuffles laid out on the ground. Celeh knelt down once more and sifted through their belongings herself. She searched for any form of identification, preferably in the form of an ID badge, card, or dog tags. She managed to find them on each of the Tuffles and plucked the tags from them. The Saiyan woman stuffed the tags into a cloth bag she had tied at her hip. Even though the thought of collecting their identification had occurred to her and drove her to gather them, Celeh couldn't remember why this might be important. Why did she care about these Tuffles she never knew?

"I'll give them a proper burial. I'll need the names on their tags to mark the grave. If they've got any other supplies you need, take them. You did the work, so you can keep the valuables. Thanks for the water, though." She started to walk off down the road after that. "You're welcomed to come to my campsite for the night if you wish, whether for the meal I offered earlier or not. We can talk more there. I'm going ahead because I'd prefer to have shelter before night falls proper." The whole time she spoke, Celeh carried a pensive gaze and a furrowed brow. Something weighed on her mind as though it was distracting her from the conundrum that Indra had presented her moments ago.

Something was bothering Indra. There was an intensity in his gaze that told her the man hadn't let his guard down even after combat with the Tuffles had ended. His story made her think that his life had been marred by conflict with his own kind. Maybe her presence, as a stranger and a Saiyan, was making him ill-at-ease. She did her best not to bring it up or draw attention to it for now, then. Instead she kept that in the back of her mind for the time being. She wasn't interested in an unnecessary fight, and it wouldn't be much sport if she did battle with him after he'd already fended off one attacking force today, anyway.

"Cozy? Not the word I'd use. But, everything has felt cold to me since I woke up. Er... almost everything. She said idly as the pair made their way inside the bar she'd taken refuge in the last couple of days. She went to dividing up the roasted rodent and the cactus fruit so that he could have an equal share. "Here you go. Like I said, it's no grand feast. But similar things have sustained me the last few days. There are a couple of bottles of old spirits tucked behind the counter over there if you're interested in that. I found them when I was foraging in the basement of this place. Hydration has been scarce, so I didn't drink it out of concern that it would leave me wanting for water."

Celeh sat down at the campfire she'd used to roast the rat in the first place. "I need to regain some of my memories. I remember vague things. Smaller details are lost. I was in that cryo-sleep for too long. I think it damaged me in ways I can't explain. I've felt cold ever since I got out of the pod, but... I could see heat roiling off the roads when I explored the ruins here these past few days. The last thing I remember before waking up and stumbling out of the pod was being attacked by a tuffle squad, feeling a searing pain in my head, and then blacking out. Maybe the head injury caused memory loss? Or maybe the healing wasn't effective because of the long-frost doing damage on its own.
I can't say for sure." She rambled on a bit there, but figured the extra information might put him at ease more. Celeh picked up her portion of the meat and took a hardy bite.

"Why would they look for someone who is, as far as they know, dead for over two decades? In any case, if you're out here to train, perhaps we can spar tomorrow morning. If you plan to stick around that long, I mean. I can't promise I'd be an ideal sparring partner, though. I've felt 'off' ever since I woke up from that damned pod. Even my Ki feels abnormal to me. What do you say, then, Indra?"

"It's difficult to be haunted by something that you can't remember. Even so, the things I do remember make it difficult to forget. So I can't say you are wrong about that entirely." She responded in between bites of cactus fruit and drinks from the water bottle he'd offered her earlier. She let her tail relax so that it rested mostly on her lap as she ate. "You must have been young when things split between our people. It must be difficult fighting a war on two fronts with diminished strength. I can't imagine the Tuffles have given up on pushing us out. With our forces divided they must have seen ample opportunity to capitalize and topple us." She spoke as if what he'd told her so far was fact, and simply made an observation based on the information he'd given her. Celeh didn't fully believe him, but she also found a lot of truth in what he'd said, too. Or, at least, a lot of it was believable.

"So you've tussled with the elite? The fact that you're alive already speaks highly of your ability as a fighter. I don't remember if I've ever faced an elite in battle or not. Other lower class soldiers like myself, sure. Our training included plenty of sparring." She mused idly again, although it did tweak something in her memories to try and recall her training before becoming a fully fledged soldier.

Celeh finished the last of her meal after a few more minutes. She hadn't lost her appetite in spite of being frozen for decades, at least. The woman scooted a little closer to the fire. How she felt comfortable that close to the fire when they were in the middle of a desert city was anyone's guess.

"Aside from sparring, what does your usual training regiment look like?" There was an air of curiosity to her question this time: An earnest interest to know about what Indra had done to make himself stronger. When her gaze lifted from the fire over to see her companion, Celeh realized that he really was more tired than he thought. The man was already slumbering. She would ask him tomorrow what his past training was like. For now, she used a bucket of sand and a thick rug to snuff out the fire quietly. She laid on the opposite side of the fire from Indra and curled up to sleep.

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In spite of the events of the prior day, morning came just as it always did. The sun crested the horizon and rose into the sky minute by minute. The light alone was enough to rouse Celeh from her sleep. With a groan of dissatisfaction at the sleeping conditions she had, she pushed off the ground to sit upright and look around.

Celeh awoke to the pleasant sight and aroma of slabs of meat cooked over a newly lit campfire. She yawned as she sat upright fully. The Saiyan woman glanced over to Indra with a curious smirk, "You got up early to go hunting breakfast and it it big, it would seem. I was not fortunate enough to encounter any of the lizards roaming around, but I didn't leave the city to hunt, either." She got to her feet after that and gave a big, full body stretch with her arms overhead. Celeh groaned from the stretch.

"Good that you did. I was concerned that sparring on an empty stomach might end up being the doom of us both. With this, though, I expect we'll be fine." She took a piece of the meat in one hand and bit a hunk off of it without hesitation. The meal last night had given her some sustenance, but Saiyan appetites were known for being vast. Celeh's was no different.

"Thank you for hunting and cooking it. I'm surprised the smells from it roasting didn't wake me sooner. That meal last night was a meager one, and I'd been running on less since the day before." She admitted this, but the truth of the matter was that she had been so focused on her goal of rekindling her memories that she had simply neglected hunting for most of the prior day and a half.

"If we're going to train, we should probably head to a different part of the city. Whichever is furthest from the nearest Tuffle settlement. If those scavengers you dusted yesterday have friends, we don't want to be around when they come looking for their comrades." After speaking her peace, Celeh simply enjoyed bite after bite of the roasted meat. It was a hardy and filling change from the miniscule, sinewy rodent and hunks of mostly flavorless cactus fruit she'd eaten last night.