#bet you Heron is the one coming to extract them lol

[the-iron-orchid]

Sleep prompt 41 if you have the desire ;)

[Sleepy Prompts]

41. “Sleep. I’ll keep you safe.”

The flowers produced by the Garden are no fragile hothouse blooms. They may appear delicate - the humans in particular lacking great stature, a tough hide, or an armored exoskeleton - but they must possess strength, determination and resourcefulness beyond most of their species.

These qualities are frequently put to the test.

The place where they have holed up isn't much - some kind of alcove coming off of an abandoned maintenance tunnel - but it is defensible, and just the place to wait it out until extraction.

This damned artifact had better be worth it, Jinana thinks.

Tsedi's breathing is a touch labored; his resources are low. Between the two of them, he's been healed enough not to bleed out (or give away their location with a trail of scarlet human blood), but he took some serious hits in the last skirmish.

Jinana looks him over with a practiced eye. At least one rib is probably still cracked - not enough to be a danger, plenty enough to hurt like hell. But more than that, he's just plain exhausted. Hir own energy reserves are not faring all that much better; physically, however, s/he bears nothing more than a few scuffs and bruises.

S/he thumbs a nearly-invisible pocket of hir suit, producing a feather-light reflective emergency blanket, spreading the crinkling film over him - blood loss will make thermoregulation more difficult.

He starts to mutter some protest, wincing as he attempts to rise.

"Stay where you are. You can't hide how bad you're hurting, not from me." Jinana touches a fingertip to the energy center just above and between his brows, rationing out a precious bit of hir own power in an attempt to relax him.

"Rest now, Tse'. I'll take watch."

"But you aren't -" he begins, only to be shushed.

"I'm no Knight, no. But I still know a dozen ways to put any sapient race out of commission with my bare hands." S/he smiles. "Sleep. I'll keep you safe. I'll keep us both safe until extraction."