Stand In The Light

Kashayel flopped to the damp floor with a sigh. She'd lost the light she'd been following, and now her feet hurt from trying to find it again. She was used to being on her feet until her legs near gave out under her, but that was because of the fear of overseers and punishment. She hadn't seen another soul in these tunnels for the past few hours. Maybe this section of the mine had been gutted of it's resources? Left to collapse into itself once it outlived it's purpose? That might make it safe enough for her to hide here when need be.

However, the current need wasn't that. A plaintive growl from Kash's stomach told her as much. No mine functioned without food for the workers. She just had to figure out where that food came from, and try not to get caught. She sighed, lifted her head and looked around. She may have lost the blinking light she'd been following, but she could make out a steady, but dim light off to one side. Well, she'd followed the blinking light without any real plan...

She levered herself onto her aching legs, and made her way towards the new light. It was much easier to find, being a good deal closer than the other one. She found herself standing at the bottom of a long, long mineshaft, above which dim light shone. Some motivation restored, Kash reached up and attached herself to the stone that made up the sides of the shaft, and began to crawl her way up. It was a small space, tighter than the pod she'd been sent away in, but she could fit. Soon enough, she brushed something away from the shaft's opening, letting her back into the main... Chamber...

Well, shut her mouth.

Instead of the strange, lumpy grey roof she'd seen overhead, she found herself staring into a vision both familiar and new.
"{So I guess skies look different on other planets?}" She muttered under her breath. She pulled herself fully out of the shaft, suddenly unable to bear the cramped space. She slipped a bit, and didn't bother struggling to her feet. Too busy looking up. What hung above her looked similar to what she'd seen, what she'd burned into her memories as a child, before the raid started. The tiny lights hung in different spots... Oh, she knew there was a name for those, what had mother called them? Stars? Whatever their name, hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of them dotted the dark expanse overhead. Their positions were different from the sky of her home planet, but the sight was no lesser for it.

She stared in wonder for a long moment. Then she tore her eyes from what was overhead to what sat on the ground around her. She knelt on a carpet of... She seemed to remember it being called grass. Tiny leaves grew up out of the ground, so close together and so many that the ground below wasn't visible at all, leading up to tall, twisted trees. It was slippery too, wet from the water that had fallen hours before. Kash ran a hand over it and held it up to examine it. It glistened slightly, and droplets formed quickly. A rustle made Kash jump, but it seemed to be nothing more than the air moving, which she felt against her skin a moment later. Did it move for a reason? And why was it so cold? This movement brought with it more scents than Kash could ever remember smelling in her whole life.

Kash slowly drew herself up, barely feeling tired any more. Her breath was fast, as she gazed around at... At a surface. Maybe not her own but a surface. She'd not seen the sky since she'd been enslaved. When she'd crashed, fate really had handed her own freedom to her, just like that. Just like that. She shuffled over to one of the trees, peering up at it's branches. She quickly checked over her shoulders. Then threw her arms around it's great trunk with a quiet, girlish squeal.

However, her exultation was somewhat short-lived. She had to duck down into the cover of the very short trees (bushes?) as she noticed two bright beams of light trailing leisurely through the forest. As the lights turned away, Kash could clearly see, by the dim light the stars provided, two humanoids. She could remember working with some such creatures. The poor things had empathy strong enough to near kill them in the pits. However, she noticed these two didn't seem aware of Kashayel. Perhaps they were a different kind of humanoid? They wore matching blue clothes, but far too well made and clean for them to be slave uniforms. They felt... Vigilant, but mostly relaxed. It seemed the initial search for her had turned up nothing, and they were becoming complacent about finding anything. One, however, seemed a little bit shaken up, though Kash couldn't really be sure why.
"I swear, man, I saw two glowing eyes clear as day. The guys checking the hole oughta be on the lookout for a mountain lion." One spoke, but Kashayel couldn't understand the language he spoke. She didn't even vaguely recognise it. It wasn't a language she'd heard before, not even in passing. Kash stayed put in her hiding place, trying to stay dead still. However, as she crouched, rooted to the spot, her aching legs began to protest again. She momentarily lost her balance with a rustle. One of the humanoids whipped his head in her direction at the sound. The other sighed.
"It'll just be a raccoon, relax."
"I'm not relaxin', I saw a goddamn mountain lion in there! What if it's left the mine?"

Kash still couldn't understand them. But she understood the one who turned slowly approaching her hiding place. She couldn't run. He'd see it, and then it would get out to the whole colony she was here. She might outrun him, but she couldn't run forever like that. In panic and despair, she curled into a ball. She threw her arms over her head, completely hiding her face and most of her crest. She tried to breath as lightly as possible.
"{Please.}" She whispered, quiet so that only she and any gods listening could hear. "{Please think I'm a rock. I'm a rock. I'm a rock.}"

In a surprising turn of events, it seemed some higher power heard her. The underbrush's rustling announced the humanoid returning to his friend. Kash finally released some of the air she'd been holding.
"Well?" The humanoid who'd hung back said. That sounded a bit like a question.
"Nah, nothing, not even your raccoon." Said the other. An answer? The two humanoids continued talking as they finally, blissfully moved away. Kash waited until she couldn't hear them any more before she plucked up the nerve to sit back up, looking out the top of the bushes.

She slowly extracted herself and moved down to the path that the two humanoids had taken. And indeed, a path it was, trampled flat and hard by many, many feet. If she wanted to avoid getting found, clearly this wasn't the place to be. She hurriedly moved across, until she was picking her way through plants once more. On the other side, she found herself face to face with a rather steep decline. She took one moment, to turn and look back at the tree she had embraced. Then she took a deep breath, screwed her courage to the sticking place. And started picking her way along the side of the hill, and down it.

What she needed was food and water. What she wanted was a clear view of the starry sky, which she still couldn't stop herself stealing looks at every chance she got. She figured she could find somewhere that afforded her access to a bit of both. And that water... Did that happen often? Maybe just finding a nice open space wouldn't really be enough...

[OOC: I'm sorry, I am what is commonly known as deeply awkward and anxious, especially after a thread dying in a weird place and waiting probably longer than is necessary to see if it'll revive. Long enough to feel weird starting another one. Please excuse me.]

[OOC 2: Kash isn't really using the term humanoids here, as she's never come across a human. I'm using humanoids because the word she would be using does basically translate to that, referring to different alien races that look similar in that specific way.]