She didn’t remember much of the trip back, aside from the girl dragging her over to a large creature hooked up to a sled of sorts. Blankets were piled on her, and although they kept the wind off her, she had lost too much heat for them to be of any use keeping her warm. The sled set off, and soon they were going into a cave. The creature was unhooked from the sled, and the girl tried to help her up. Despite her strong arms, Cobra crumpled to the floor with numb limbs. With some slight pity, the girl half-dragged her over to a door and opened it, revealing a warm, circular and rather large cave.

Fire flickered from multiple orb-like lamps hanging around the edges of the circular room. An intricate beige, brown, red and black rug was placed in the center of the room, while rather simple and crude drawings of ships on brown paper were pasted to the walls, making the room almost seem larger. There were a few chairs in the middle of the room, and some small table scattered around the edges.

Cobra got a glance of some dark, menacing hallways as she was placed in one of the chairs. Letting her head fall back, she saw one of the most magnificent pieces of art she had ever seen.

The ceiling was painted a dark blue, with small glittering crystals scattered on it. It was a map of the stars, and a gorgeous one at that.

Mesmerized by the realism of the starmap, she didn’t notice the girl entering the room again, bringing a bowl of warm water.

“Drink. It will help you.”

The warm water did help her, even if it did make her lips bleed as she drank it. The girl removed the frozen blankets wrapped around her, and replaced them with warm ones.

“Who are you?” The girl asked, sitting down in one of the chairs nearby.

“Merely a stranger who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some Kzirin didn’t like having me around, so they stole my ship and sent me here, obviously to die.” Casting her eyes downward as she talked, she did her best to keep her eyes a stable color. She didn’t need more questions asked.

~*~