The Katissa Chronicles Part 3: With a Vengeance (Openish?)

"Bench, bench, bench.." Katy honed in on a bench near the dormitories and sat down heavily, setting her rifle down and leaning back against the wall of the building. After the Ursa ambush, Katy had spent hours playing Hide and Seek with the trio of large beasties, making sure to never get close enough to need to fight, but also staying close enough that they wouldn't give up the chase.

She had led them through the woods for hours, until finally she began confusing them by firing her gun, the boom from the rifle echoing enough to play with the Ursa's senses. Once she had gotten them thoroughly confused she had doubled back, beginning the long trek back to the school in the dark. Katy could see very well in the dark; it was one of the reasons she had settled on the weapon she did.

Still, her flight through the woods had been less than graceful, and at several points she had gotten a foot caught in a slightly elevated tree root, and once she had misjudged a steep drop and gone tumbling down, getting banged up in the process. The original plan had been to lead the Ursa off, lose them, and then spend the night safely in a large tree somewhere, but she had twisted her ankle and was unable to climb any trees that would have worked, so she had hobbled all the way back to the school.

With a sigh, Katy unzipped her hoodie and pulled it off, beginning the process of checking her arms and legs for cuts and bruises, then slowly probing her ribs and bones to check for any sort of fractures or breaks. A quick glance down at her t-shirt showed no serious bleeding, which was a relief. Finally, as if she'd been avoiding it, she checked her head for any serious cuts or lumps, and then used her fingers to push her hair aside to check her fox ears for any cuts. Cuts on those wouldn't be fatal, but trying to keep them matted down under her hair and hood would be painful.

"Gotta go check on Melissa," she muttered to herself, resting her head back against the wall and closing her eyes. "Maybe as soon as the sun comes up."

"I told you, I don't want to hear anymore of your insane stories! There are no aliens, there are no giant monsters under you bed, and your 'friend' is certainly not being mauled by an army of Ursa! You don't even attend my class! I doubt you even know what an ursa is!" The sound of a rather annoyed sounding professor could be heard throughout the area, despite the hour.

"But I'm telling the truth! She's been gone for hours!" Melissa said, in an tone close to begging, "I should have left, but I did! You have to organize a search party!"

"Yes, yes, fine, I'll 'organize' a 'search party'," the professor said, extremely sarcastically, "Now sop bothering me! I have papers to grade, which you didn't hand in, I might add!" He said, storming off.

Melissa slumped down on a nearby bench, not noticing the nearby girl checking herself, covering her face in her hands, close to giving up after trying to pursuade someone for hours.

Katy let her head loll to the side, blinking before smiling tiredly. "Melissa? Well, that saves me a trip in the morning." Under different circumstances, Katy would have immediately rushed to pull her hoodie back on, but she was far too sore. Well, perhaps it was dark enough that nobody would notice her ears.

"No need for a search party. I made it back. It just took a while. I was gonna come check to make sure you got back, but I needed to sit down. Walking hurts right now." It was surprising how comfortable benches could be, when placed properly against a building. After all that running, she could practically fall asleep right here.

Melissa, hearing the voice nearby, turned to look at Katy, though she merely stared for a few moments, unsure if what she was seeing was real and not just an illusion conjured by her mind in the dark. After a few seconds of staring, she was satisfied that she wasn't hallucinating, and immediately latched into her tightly.

"I'm so sorry it's all my fault I never should have suggested going into the forest or staying so late or going without anyone watching I'm so sorry I was so worked since you never came back I thought you got hurt because of me don't hate me!" Melissa blurted out in a hard to understand, hyper way.

Katy let out a surprised grunt, awkwardly patting the other girl on the head. "It's fine, don't worry," she said soothingly. "I told you I'd make it back, right? It just took a little longer than I thought it would. I just had to not get caught until it got dark enough."

Katy gingerly lifted up her leg slightly, attempting to wiggle her foot. "I twisted my ankle, though," she said. "I was gonna come check up on you," she said suddenly. "I was just gonna wait until morning. I thought maybe you were asleep."

"You twisted your ankle? And you've been running all night?!" Melissa said a little urgently, "Shouldn't you go get that checked out? And get some sleep?"

Katy laughed, leaning back against the wall. "Not running all night. Limping for most of it. I ditched the Ursas soon after it got dark, then I just had to limp back here. if I woulda been more careful I coulda gotten back here way quicker."

Katy reached up and scratched at her hair. "I think I need to get a shower before I do anything else. I probably smell terrible. But I'm glad my plan worked. I woulda felt awful if I got back and you hadn't made it."

"You would've felt bad? If you hadn't made it back I would've felt even worse, running away like a coward and leaving a friend behind to be chased by three ursa!" Melissa said, surprised at the girl. If it had been down to Melissa to outrun the Grimm she would have had no problems whatsoever. At least until Soothing Mayhem's thruster ran out of dust and needed to be reloaded - she hadn't brought any spare canisters.

"You can come shower at my dorm! With me being the only girl in the room I've set up 'methods' of keeping out perverts so it's really relaxing!" Melissa offered, hoping to redeem her cowardice somewhat.

Blinking, Katy offered a small shrug and a grin. "That would be nice. I don't really want to try walking around looking for a public shower in the middle of the night." Katy reached over and grabbed her hoodie, tucking it securely under an arm, and then used her other to grab her rifle-walking-stick and pushed herself up to her feet, wobbling only very slightly.

"Maaybe next time we decide to go for a walk in the forest we'll be a little more careful, so this doesn't happen again?"

Melissa nodded her head vigorously in approval, "Yup! Next time we definitely need to be more careful! Staying that late probably wasn't the best idea... If we had seen them coming I bet we could've taken on three Ursa, no problem!" She sai enthusiastically.

She stood up as well, moving to steady Katy, allowing the girl to use her as a crutch for her sprained ankle, and leading her towards the SDJL dorm for yuri.