Under her tree, Lana whispered "wither" and dust fell from her hand.
"What did you do to her?" Blaine asked, clearly amused.
"Oh, nothing. Just touched her with a plant that doesn't like to be touched…" she chuckled.
"Is she going to be okay? She can sure scream pretty loud."
"She'll be fine. Maybe we can use that scream to attract beasts while hunting to get even more crystals." She chuckled.
"I just finished cooking and prepared you a plate in case you were hungry. After we eat, I need to go get some party equipment for the outing."
Blaine smiled, "I'll walk with you. You can protect me for the skank."
Lana chuckled. By afternoon, each of her friends had a bedroll. She bought a double for herself. She also purchased 3 2-man tents, an insulated bag for carrying meat and the meat to bring with them on the trip. Almin offered to carry it since he only wanted to bring some spare clothes and the bag had a pocket big enough for that purpose.
Before they knew it, they were all standing in a room with a glowing circle on the floor and were briefed on the planet they were going to. It was a level-2 planet so the teams should be able to handle the beasts they came across as the highest level of beast would be a level-2. There was a shelter to rest in. They were to kill as many beasts in the week as they could. They would get points based on the level and number of each.
They were to go through in teams and there were 10 different places in the shelter they could appear in. They were given a bag with some supplies such as military rations, medical kit and such.
----------------------------
A few hours later, Lana and her team had just finished killing a level 1 beast. They were all bored but the school understood not all students had combat experience. While there were three outings planned, only two were required. The third was for those who were more combat ready to gain more experience. If they did well enough, there could even be a fourth.
Lana was examining the map the trees provided. They had purchased the book of beasts at the shelter which included maps. It was actually quite extensive and she was shocked such a thing was permitted to first years. It seemed like a cheat to learn so much about the habitats, combat style and weaknesses of the bests.
Suddenly she heard a voice.
"LANA!!!" She heard her name being called. The trees guided her to where the sound was coming from. She arrived to find it was Blaine calling her and he was squatting on the ground. He looked to be in excruciating pain and refused to let his team members near him.
Lana looked between Chekof, Karlen, Rene, and Star. Star thought every man on the planet wanted to take her to their bed. She made it quite evident she was willing as well and had her eyes set on Blaine. Blaine didn't want her on their team but she was rejected by all the other teams as well and they were forced to accept her.
Lana looked closely at Blaine's pleading eyes.
Star rolled her eyes, "we have our own healer, what do you need her for. I'm more than willing to help you as well. She's not even on our team!"
A lightbulb finally clicked in Lana's head as she trees showed her exactly what happened to Blaine. Her face went white.
"Are you telling me you want me to see that part of your body? Naked?" Lana joined Blaine in his feeling of embarrassment.
"I can't trust them."
"Can't Chekof or …"
"Hey, don't point at us!" Karlen said with more emphasis than was needed.
Lana sighed, "okay, I can understand why you don't want her but Rene? She's a healer."
"She'd still be exposing me…."
Lana glanced at Star and it all clicked into place. "I got you." She turned back to the others, "I'm going to put up walls but they are not solid. I need a wall of people with their backs to the walls I build to make sure his privacy is… maintained."
Instantly, all the men both in her group and Blaine's lined up and faced the girls. Kattie stood with them with clear disdain for Star. They heard "vine wall, vinewall, vinewall, vinewall." Dobin put up an earth wall on the outside on three sides to help as well. The teams would need to be on the lookout for dangers. Having to watch Star so closely could put them in danger.
Inside the little room she just made, she looked at her patient with sympathy. "We need to get those pants off and anything you are wearing underneath. I'll give you something for the pain first but I can't kill the pain completely. Those things are as fine as hair. I need to know when I touch one so I can yank it out."
Blaine just nodded. He was holding himself up as his legs wanted to give out. He'd been squatting for a bit, ever since the attack.
"Lean back against the wall."
The sentries outside could hear the belt buckle come undone. They heard the whimpering as Lana was careful in how she removed his clothing. In truth, she was hoping to remove the pants in such a way she'd be able to pull out most of the barbs as well.
"Owwww," they heard her exclaim as she pricked a finger.
"Do you have a spare set of clothes in your bag?" she asked.
He nodded, in too much pain to speak.
They could hear shoe laces and she took off his boots to remove everything below the belt. These were too damaged and would need to be replaced.
Once Lana had his clothes off, she realized she could see where the barbs had entered his skin because there were red spots where swelling had begun. She stared directly into his eyes as she started pulling them out with one hand and growing a plant while the other hand administered a small bit of pain medication, just enough to take the edge off.
She started with the ones that would be impacted if he sat down since the beast was at a 45-degree-angle to him, so he could rest his legs. She finally got the barbs off his upper legs and inner thighs. Next was the part in between. She gave him more for the pain then remembered she had the snow globe in her bag.
"I forgot I had this. Want me to use it so they won't hear you suffering?"
Blaine nodded.
Instantly those outside couldn't hear anything. Inside the area, Lana grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him forward. She kissed him slowly at first, but it soon turned passionate for them both. Lana quickly removed the easy ones. She administered a bit more medicine then removed three more. There was one left and it was in the most sensitive area. She administered a lot more while keeping him distracted with their kiss then she pulled. He had no reaction as she tossed the last one to the side.
The kiss continued and before she could move her hand, she noticed something else going on down there. She quickly removed her hand and he put it back. They were on a portal planet and he was acting like this! She felt Kyle replace Blaine and knew there was a problem.
Kyle broke the kiss and whispered in her ear. Shivers went through her body as his breath touched her neck. "Please."
"We are on a portal planet. These walls won't hold…"
"Please?" He pleaded.
How can I resist him! She thought. She wrapped her hand around something specific, "this is the best I can do."
His lips returned to hers and stayed there until she was done. He had a dopey look on his face as he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. She looked down and realized removing some of the barbs had drawn blood, which was now mixed with something else. It took three bottles of water from her bag to clean him all up. She had napkins in her bag and used them to dry him.
It took effort to get him to move to a dry area to get dressed and he fought putting clothes on preferring to stay naked. Lana sighed. She had been so focused on removing the barbs, she gave him too much pain medication. After a great deal of effort, she finally got him dressed with a fresh uniform from his bag off his back.
She withered a wall and tried to step out but there were arms around her. She forgot to put everything away so she leaned him against a wall, or tried to, would best describe it, and picked up everything as best she could.
"Dobin?" she quickly turned off the silence stone and called her brother.
He came over and assessed the situation, "what happened?"
"I gave him too much pain medication. Now he won't let me go and keeps saying these…things…."
Dobin started laughing. The others came around the wall to the opening and started laughing as well. While Rene smiled, Star was furious and stopped her foot. She was tired of taking the back seat to Lana, an orphan, no less!
"Stop laughing and help me clean up all this stuff!"
Dobin heard her and cleaned up the rest of the stuff while still chuckling. Lana waited for everyone to get done laughing while Blaine hung all over her telling her thank you's and I love you's and you saved my life!
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